Better way to sell my photography prints online

[jackhornik]

Hey guys,

I'm working on a website that will make it easy for photographers to sell high-quality prints to the public, and I wanted to get everyone's feedback.

Some background: I'm a web developer who is pretty heavily into photography. I have tried using some of the other art/photography marketplaces out there, but they are either too much hassle or too low quality (i.e. I want high-quality paper and NO, I do not want my photos on a t-shirt).

On our site, photographers simply upload high-res photos (you retain all copyrights, of course), and we display them for people to browse. When someone buys a print, we take care of the printing, shipping, and payment processing for you. We want to take the pain out of selling quality prints, and hopefully also get more exposure for photographers.

What do you think? Is this something that resonates with you as well?

Also, if you'd like more info or are interested in selling prints with us, please send me an email at:

Thanks,
Jack

[milosh]

I think that might be a good idea for photographers who wish to sell their photos as prints but don't want to do all the printing and matting themselves, but you would have to offer prints of high enough quality to satisfy everyone. Another problem might be achieving the output desired by photographers, because those that do it by themselves work on calibrated systems. I think I would be one of those wanting to do it myself.

[MattG]

Originally Posted by jackhornik

Hey guys,

I'm working on a website that will make it easy for photographers to sell high-quality prints to the public, and I wanted to get everyone's feedback.

Some background: I'm a web developer who is pretty heavily into photography. I have tried using some of the other art/photography marketplaces out there, but they are either too much hassle or too low quality (i.e. I want high-quality paper and NO, I do not want my photos on a t-shirt).

On our site, photographers simply upload high-res photos (you retain all copyrights, of course), and we display them for people to browse. When someone buys a print, we take care of the printing, shipping, and payment processing for you. We want to take the pain out of selling quality prints, and hopefully also get more exposure for photographers.

What do you think? Is this something that resonates with you as well?

Also, if you'd like more info or are interested in selling prints with us, please send me an email at:
jackhornik@gmail.com

Thanks,
Jack

I'll bite. Some questions for you:

1. Copyright versus Licence - what licence are you expecting for the photographs? Photographer to provide a limited licence (i.e. only allowing print) or a more general one allowing you to utilise the photo for further uses?
2. What marketing will be done to promote the site?
3. What commission are you seeking for this or are you looking at an alternative payment model other than a commission on sales?
4. Who sets the pricing for the print?
5. Who does the printing - your company or is it outsourced?
6. What countries will you be servicing?
7. Who audits the sales versus remissions to photographers, i.e. how does a photographer know how many prints are sold?

I know there are plenty of other questions out there, but these should be enough to determine whether some may be interested.

[ravncat]

Originally Posted by MattG

I know there are plenty of other questions out there, but these should be enough to determine whether some may be interested.

A few others questions about the printing -

What method of printing will you use?
What kinds of papers will you ofter?
What will the estimated longevity be?
What kind of color management policies will you use?

[Sloseph]

also will there be any vetting process for the photo's you display? or is it going to be a case of upload and there you go

[dlambert]

Originally Posted by jackhornik

I have tried using some of the other art/photography marketplaces out there, but they are either too much hassle or too low quality (i.e. I want high-quality paper and NO, I do not want my photos on a t-shirt).

I think it might be helpful to indicate (as specifically as you can) what advantages you propose vs. some of these sites. You're not going to knock flickr off the map, so you're really competing with sites like smugmug -- are you suggesting that you've got a better solution than them? Go through the more popular sites in this thread and make sure you've got an answer for how you're going to compete with them. I've got the distinct impression that market is fairly saturated already, so you're going to need a plan to motor past those players.

[Murtasma]

Honestly I really don't see a single person competing against mega sites that are very well known amongst photographers such as smugmug and redbubble. These sites have great prints, good prices, staff sitting behind them and most important these sites are making money and have money to spend on advertising.

I'm just not sure there is enough of a market out there to start competing against these people. From what you mentioned your site will do nothing better or different then what's already out there. I'd take a different approach personally and look for something else that photographers could use online that other companies haven't started do or where competition is light.

[OsmosisStudios]

My big issue is that I wouldnt be able to quality-control each print. That's a huge reason why I still take the time to do it myself.

[andyw]

What exactly will you be offering which would make me or anyone else use you over one of the more established companies out there?

Will it be a model ala Redbubble or one of the many other (better) sites/companies around.

I don't know what sites you have used previously which are "too much hassle" but in my experience it has been extremely easy and the quality of the sites use/have used has been excellent upto and including having prints made on top quality archival materials.

What exactly will be your USP for us snappers which will make us change from places we have been using for some time to a newbie??

[Jim Poor]

Judging by this being a first post and the fact that it was at 2AM with no followup, I'm thinking SPAM.