How do you do your print order?? Timeline?

[prince]

I have heard of Hays, I think I passed it when I was returning from CO this summer, but never been there.

Do you think you need to do some rethinking over the packages? May be your package offers are not suitable for your clients. Of course you cannot satisfy all of them, but majority. You will need tons of patience to see over a course of time what works and what doesn't.

[shutterbug_wannabe]

Sarah, I give anyone who orders within 30 days a 20% off coupon to do so. I also give a free 8x10 and 8 free wallets. This costs me just 5 bucks and gets them in gear.

[private]

Shutterbug, I agree with you. My prints don't even cost me $5, but I do get money from them B4 the big order is made - well, so far it has not been a problem, BUT we shall see, I have 4 more shoots scheduled so far and lets hope they go as well as the other ones...

[sarahgirl777]

Originally Posted by prince

I have heard of Hays, I think I passed it when I was returning from CO this summer, but never been there.

Do you think you need to do some rethinking over the packages? May be your package offers are not suitable for your clients. Of course you cannot satisfy all of them, but majority. You will need tons of patience to see over a course of time what works and what doesn't.

I saw someone else who did a "make your own package" idea using credits. So like with your sitting fee you get 20 credits, then you price your prints by credits and they can pic what they want. Then you can sell additional credits.. I just came across it the other day, can't remember if it was someone on here or not, but I kind of liked that idea.

[prince]

Originally Posted by sarahgirl777

I saw someone else who did a "make your own package" idea using credits. So like with your sitting fee you get 20 credits, then you price your prints by credits and they can pic what they want. Then you can sell additional credits.. I just came across it the other day, can't remember if it was someone on here or not, but I kind of liked that idea.

Sorry didn't get any of it

[riphoto]

Rather than having the photos go offline at a certain date, you should raise the prices. Sorta like the 20% off within 30 days idea, but in reverse. (which saying 20% off the first 30 days might actually get people more excited than saying prices go up later =P)

Also, make sure you are watermarking the images. In the Smugmug forum there was a debate about watermarks, and one person noted that when they enabled them on their gallery they got a few emails from people asking why they could no longer print the photos from their own computer. Especially since you are shooting for free, they might have the misconception that they can print them for free..

[Daniel591992]

Just a note, this does not help. Photos URL's can be found by viewing the page source code, so don't rely on this along.

[yalborap]

Originally Posted by Daniel591992

Just a note, this does not help. Photos URL's can be found by viewing the page source code, so don't rely on this along.

After a certain point, you get to where they were never going to pay anyways. You don't stop the truly dedicated, you stop the lazy.

[steelese]

So, this is the big question in sales. How do you close the deal. There are a few ideas. The first one, and probably the most useful, is based on a psychological theory called commitment bias. I understand that you are doing the sitting for free, but as long as you are doing that you should just expect to give away the digital negatives for free. People will be willing to waist their time, but rarely their money. Once they have spent the money, they will be in it for the long haul.

So what does this do for you? Well, you need to start charging. There are lots of good strategies out there, but I do the this. Once someone makes an appointment with me they have to get me a $20 non-refundable booking fee by the next day. If they don't, they lose their time. Even if you want the sitting that same day, I require the $20. the $20 mark has a special place in most peoples minds. You may be willing to give up anything less than $20, but rarely will you give up $20 or more. You see how I have financially committed them to the appointment. For weddings the down payment is a lot more, but for a small one location shoot, $20 seems to work well.

Once, you arrive at the location, I require check or cash, or they pay ahead of time by Credit Card. Now, they have committed even further to the price. They just spent money to get nothing, and they are going to spend money on the prints. What you charge from here on out is your thing.

Now, when you are starting out you do the freebie stuff all the time. After a while you need to limit it to just family and friends. If your work is good the word of mouth will spread and you just need to come up with a sitting fee. I know, you don't feel good enough to do that yet, but just ask for the money, take it and run.

[mswebb]

Why not try a declining discount over time. Price accordingly so that you still make some bucks on the discounted price. It might be tricky explaining why the discount goes away over time but you could chalk it up to the administration and work required to archive digital photos and prepare them for print. With the photos recently taken and digitally processed, they are readily on-hand for printing, hence the discount.