Introduction: PrintedArt.com

[klausson]

Hi Everyone,

I am writing to introduce you all to PrintedArt, a new free online gallery and storefront for photographers. Our experienced team has the knowledge and experience to select the best photography, and to handle ordering through our website, production of the artwork, fulfillment and shipping, as well as marketing and promoting the online gallery - all at no cost to you. We offer high quality prints in modern, frameless display formats on sturdy, lightweight aluminum dibond finished with acrylic.

Participation in this program is free of charge for photographers. The photographer earns a share of the gross revenue from every sale of his/her images. Our team of seasoned professionals has experience in online web storefronts and commercial art sales, so we come to this venture with an appreciation for fine art photography and an understanding of the market potential for online purchasing.

In order to participate in this program, please create an account. Once your account is activated, you can upload your hi-res images for approval.

We look forward to reviewing your submissions, and hope you enjoy being a part of this exciting gallery!

[kirbinster]

Care to give us some more information. How are prices set, what portion of that do we get. What rights are we giving away by participating? Thanks

[klausson]

Hi kirbinster,

Prices are set by a formula where the base price depends on the edition size (default is 100 size with a price of $100), the material used for mounting and the size of the print. The latter is calculated by multiplying the square footage with the base price of the material and adding it to the base image price.

Photographers receive 30% of the gross revenue, which includes the cost of production and fulfillment.

A couple of typical price examples:

45 x 30 on aluminum dibond with acrylic finish, edition size 100: $560
75 x 50 on canvas, edition of 100: $620
30 x 20 on aluminum dibond (no acrylic): $225

No exclusive rights required, but we do need an edition size guarantee: If the same image is sold through other channels as well (most commonly your own website), we require accurate accounting for the edition numbers and instant notification so that we can make sure our certificates of authenticity contain the accurate edition number.

Klaus Sonnenleiter
PrintedArt.com | We Turn Photos Into Art

Originally Posted by kirbinster

Care to give us some more information. How are prices set, what portion of that do we get. What rights are we giving away by participating? Thanks

[Niresangwa]

I guess a question would be who are you marketing to, ultimately? are you just relying on folks to stumble upon your site, or are you actively seeking to provide consignments to commercial chains etc?

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

I guess a question would be who are you marketing to, ultimately? are you just relying on folks to stumble upon your site, or are you actively seeking to provide consignments to commercial chains etc?

That's the big question, isn't it? This sounds like another Red Bubble/Imagekind deal, where they will happily sell the photo for you and take the commission, but you have to do all the marketting. In the end, they're just an expensive print shop.

If you're going to go through the trouble of marketting your own photos, you might as well make more money. With my Zenfolio account, 75% of the sale of my art prints is profit. I can set my own prices, do my own negotiating, and even give coupons (I gave the last guy his own personal coupon code).

Now if this company does the marketting for you (which I highly doubt it does), then this might be an okay deal. But if you're serious about selling prints, then it's probably best to use Smug-mug or Zenfolio.

[klausson]

We are marketing to corporate buyers and also to individuals via the web store. The strategies of course are different in both cases. In the first case it is all direct sales and trade shows, whereas for the web store, we use Google ads, editorial placements and ad campaigns in art magazines.

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

I guess a question would be who are you marketing to, ultimately? are you just relying on folks to stumble upon your site, or are you actively seeking to provide consignments to commercial chains etc?

[klausson]

We are marketing to corporate buyers and also to individuals via the web store. The strategies of course are different in both cases. In the first case it is all direct sales and trade shows, whereas for the web store, we use Google ads, editorial placements and ad campaigns in art magazines.

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

I guess a question would be who are you marketing to, ultimately? are you just relying on folks to stumble upon your site, or are you actively seeking to provide consignments to commercial chains etc?

[klausson]

[QUOTE]With my Zenfolio account, 75% of the sale of my art prints is profit.[QUOTE]

The way I understand it, Zenfolio takes a commission and this might be the 25%. Then you still have to pay for the production of the artwork. If you are using the same materials we are using, you are looking at substantial cost per image, even if you get very good volume discounts from a printer who gets substantial business from you. The only case where you take 75% profit is when you sell a raw digital file, which is not the case we are talking about here I think.

On the marketing, as I pointed out in an earlier post this is precisely what we consider our role. We are creating custom collections for corporate customers and we also run a web shop that we are actively spending advertising dollars on. Currently, the majority is run through Google ads and some have actually run on this website according to my Adwords control panel ;-)

Zenfolio charges $100 or so per year to have an account, and a couple percent more for each transaction. Otherwise, they don't take a commission. When I say 75% percent, that's assuming that I'm charging 4x the actual printing costs (about $140 for a 20x30 print), and not taking the yearly fee into account.

That being said, if you are marketting to corporations and selling the art in packages, then your proposal is reasonable. I might do a little research and upload some photos if everything checks out.

Btw, props for doing aluminum prints...I've only seen it once, and thought it was pretty cool.

[bhursey]

Im just laying the facts out as I see them not trying to be mean. Im sorry but from what you said us getting a fixed amount of 30% is not really much motivation for us established photographers under normal use.

Also please research before quoting a 25% service free from a competitor. Because this figure is untrue.

Zenfolio | Features and Plans

Also for larger items we mark up accordingly. Mainly the customer is paying for our experience and and the photo not necessarily the price of the product if they did it their selves.

I get your point about large items and the 30% thats good in that case. The problem is in my experience you maybe 1 out of 4 weddings have some one order like a large item. Most of the money is made off of wallets 3x5 4x6 8x10 prints. But maybe this is just me.

For example i only have a relatively small markup and For credit card processing and order fulfillment Zenfolio only has a 12% service charge.. With digital its only 8% This was a non large item order mainly 4x6's and 5x7's I think they had an 8x10.

Here is an example sale from my actual zenfolio report...

Sales (by vendor) USD
Mpix Lab 105.00
Total Sales 105.00
Customer Paid 105.00
Less Taxes and Shipping
Sales Tax -
Shipping 3.50
Total Taxes and Shipping 3.50
Product Revenue? 101.50
Less Cost of Products?
Mpix Lab 8.41
Total Cost of Products 8.41
Gross Profit? 93.09
Less Zenfolio Service Fees 11.31
My Profit 81.78 USD


So if my math is right on this sale I kept ~78% of the sale... With your service I would of only kept 31.55$?!?!