Groupon/LivingSocial

[hannah_defran]

<p>I have been contacted by one of the above mentioned company with an offer to sell/advertise through their site. Since I am moving to another part of the country, this sounds like a good way to rebuild my client base, but I am weary of the unforeseen problems. Does anyone have any experience with them, as a seller? Thanks.</p>

[phule]

<p>In the "unforeseen problems" category...</p>

<p>http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/is-groupon-ruining-retailing/</p>

[hannah_defran]

<p>I just had a talk with them. Very nice guy and very honest. They want you to give subscribers at least a 50% discount and then their take is 50%. For us, that would sink our photography business, but it may be a good opportunity if you have assistants working for you and can handle the hundreds of clients you will have to satisfy within a year. If you're trying to expand your client base instead of starting again from scratch like we are, this is a good way to get a check up front. </p>

[daverhaas]

<p>It's definitely here to stay - I've seen one twin cities photographer doing a "daily deal" type coupon through the local fish wrap - and I'm not real sure how that worked out for them. </p>

<p>What I would imagine happens - or could happen - is that you have a price point of say $200.00 for a session fee - then you offer a 50% off coupon on that session fee - so $100.00 but then Groupon gets their 50% - so you're down to $50.00 for a session fee - so basically 75% off. Now for that session fee - I probably would not provide prints - beyond a single 8x10 nor would I provide a cd of images. - Both of which I include on the normal price. Call it bait and switch - but photography kind of lends itself to that - as opposed the example in the article - yoga classes or a framing business. </p>

<p>Also with groupon - I believe you control how many people have to buy in order to get or activate the offer. You may even be able to put an upper limit.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[kevin_delson]

<p>Groupon caters to the bargain hunter. Once you understand that you can begin to see how <strong>you </strong>can take advantage of it in your marketing efforts.</p>

<p>Offering people 50% off your retail pricing is ridiculous. This is not what shrewd business people do to improve their bottom line.</p>

<p>I used Groupon once. Keep in mind I shoot and license mostly editorial for the print industry with 30% of my work now going commercial.</p>

<p>I offered a 50% reduction for 30 days in ALL commercial projects.</p>

<p>Doesn't seem like I would get much commercial business does it?<br>

Well; I didn't.<br>

Once the people who signed up found out what (Commercial) means, they declined. Even if I did receive a offer to shoot commercially at 50% off, that figure did NOT include my day rate.</p>

<p>So what did I get?</p>

<p>A monster mailing list.<br>

Many of the names I kept for MY marketing efforts and many I <strong>sold</strong> to wedding photographers and portrait shooters.</p>

<p>Think outside the box.</p>

[theshootists]

<p>Hi Hannah,<br>

As Kevin rightly stated, Groupon buyers are looking to get something for "as cheap as possible" its not a way to make a lot of money, but it <strong>CAN</strong> be good for exposure as long as its carefully thought out... or it could backfire....<br>

A local photog here in the Atlanta area found this out the hard way...<br>

Here's <a href="http://www.groupon.com/atlanta/deals/dana-dawes-photography-atlanta">a link to her original offering on Groupon </a><br>

She unfortunately used other peoples photos to market herself, and the photographic community's response was swift and brutal. Read the comments<br>

<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/205632/groupon_pwned_by_photographer_using_stolen_images_for_promo.html">PCWorld</a><br>

<a href="http://www.petapixel.com/2010/09/15/photographer-offers-groupon-deal-using-stolen-photographs-chaos-ensures/">PetaPixel</a><br>

<a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100915/20380911034.shtml">TechDirt</a><br>

<a href="http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2010/09/16/groupon-offering-photog-causes-plagiarism-stir/">PlagirismToday</a></p>

<ul>

<li>The photog offered shoots at $65/1 hr session, and before it was over, sold 1275 sessions for a total of <strong>$82,875</strong>. </li>

<li>The Groupon offers MUST be fulfilled within one calendar year. That means that she would have had to shoot 3.49 sessions/day just to satisfy all of the paid customers.</li>

<li>Groupon takes 50% of the proceeds, which means that she would have actually received $41,477.50 in actual proceeds.</li>

<li>All shoots were on-location within a 1hr driving radius of downtown Atlanta, that means she would have to subtract her fuel costs from her $41k... </li>

<li>Since she would have to shoot 3.5 sessions a day EVERYDAY, she could very easily wind up driving from one end of Atlanta to another, <strong>several times a day</strong>...</li>

</ul>

<p>As you can see, the whole thing was totally unsustainable in the first place, even without her using other people's photos to represent her work.<br>

I go into this whole thing not to dump on this photog, but to illustrate how damaging it can be when such a thing is not properly thought out.</p>

[rayna_mcginnis]

<p>I keep reading bad things about Groupon. Does anyone have any experience with Livingsocial? </p>