teppy1 wrote:
your going to have to go through a season or two to find out what works best for you and the area you are in. I am going into my second season now and am going to be making changes. I still have to be careful to not overprice myself I feel though, and at the same time not let myself get screwed over too. Its going to be a fine line. last year i used photobucket for proofing and they all loved the online proofing. i also gave printed proofs. My mistake was giving too much and assuming that when i selected the option to not allow downloading that no body could take my work. Wrong. I have my own site now and use adobe flash. its very secure. I've also learned how to block downloading without the flash player on my site. Next mistake, not charging any fees. I know Pfiltz does this, but also think that he charges them to take printed proofs out of his studio. Its got to be one way or another because people will go to wal mart and scan and print. I cannot and will not let this happen again. The wal mart scanner and printer would make ansel adams work suck. I'm not sure how i will go about it yet, but i will either go on and charge a session fee, or get money for them to take the printed proofs. I'm leaning more towards the session fee now because people here expect it. That way, i get paid for some of my time right away. I also need to come up with a way to get them to not wait right up until the last minute when they need those wallets to go out in the graduation announcements. They always can't wait to see the proofs, but then they just about all bombarded me at the last minute for orders, some that the shoot was taken three months earlier. It seems like once they feel secure knowing that they have the shots done and ready to order that they will sit on it....Show more →
Only 100% due before the session fee will work, plus correct marketing (using online tactics) to boost some after-sales. (I've learned that in order to sell big, you gotta show big, that does not always applies to online strategies)
Sometimes I try to go Todd Adamson way of presale a package that applies to further purchases. Selling online, what helps is 10-20% off their order if they buy in first two weeks. (So they don't sit on it)
jefferies1 wrote:
If you want to make sales Never show your photos from a online order site. You take the image from being something unique and special to just another photo that is worth less money.
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In my limited experience, you can't just shoot the images, throw them up on a website and expect people to buy them. I purchased a 40 in hdtv, yes it's smaller than I would like but it's what I could afford at the time. But I fully expected it to pay for itself within 3-4 viewings, and guess what? It did. I used to shoot and put them on a website and people had no motivation to pull the trigger. Don't get me wrong, sales is NOT my forte BUT viewing them on a larger scale than someone's personal computer has much more impact and will generate sales. You have to be active about sales and simply posting to a website is way too passive.
TNshooter wrote:
In my limited experience, you can't just shoot the images, throw them up on a website and expect people to buy them. I purchased a 40 in hdtv, yes it's smaller than I would like but it's what I could afford at the time. But I fully expected it to pay for itself within 3-4 viewings, and guess what? It did. I used to shoot and put them on a website and people had no motivation to pull the trigger. Don't get me wrong, sales is NOT for forte BUT viewing them on a larger scale than someone's personal computer has much more impact and will generate sales. You have to be active about sales and simply posting to a website is way too passive.
Our home is our studio and what we have done is turn our dining room into a sample room. We decided that having different sizes and types of prints (standard prints on different paper types, float wraps, gallery wraps, etc.) hanging in our dining room would allow us to not only have "art" on the walls there but also to show clients what they actually look like. We will eventually have different types of groupings as well. Our living room has our family portraits and we host our view and choose in our living room on our big screen. Again, it is an active process. Once the client sees the images in a large format they understand the impact these images will have in their home. One day I plan to have an actual off-site studio but in these tough economic times that is overhead I can't afford. And in spite of the fact that I enjoy working in a studio setting, most people around here are really into location shoots.
I am smaller scale, doing this part-time but this is what I am doing after 3-4 seasons of doing 1-3 seniors in one summer to now booking 2-3 a day.
1. Look around in your area, check your pricing in your area. Don't undercut the other people like crazy. The people who are doing this for $50 undervalue our whole market and put photography at a disadvantage. Look around you and figure out what other professionals are charging. Then ask yourself, should I be charging more, the same, or less then that?
2. After looking around you, look at your work. If you aren't ready to be charging what the others are charging, give them a reason to come to you. Is it your quick response to their inquiry? Your amazing printing? Your attention to details? All new businesses are expected to NOT make a profit for the first 1-3 years of doing business. So consider that for your work if you aren't ready to charge that much. You will grow as a photographer as you gain more experience. More experience means better pictures which means more reputation which means more sales which means PROFITS. Because you are in this to make money right while taking photos?
3. Your first clients are the most important ones. I lucked out and happened to be in highschool when I took my first senior photos. Heck I could of taken my own! But anyways, find some talkers, advertise effectively, and start spreading your business like wildfire. Remember, if you screw up on the first clients, they wont come back happy and they wont refer you to new people next year.
Finally, this is what I do and found after doing this for a couple of years works in my area and people understand well.
Sitting Fee - Online Proofs/Projector Viewing (client decision) - Packages (must order from the packages, will talk about this in a bit) - Choice of A La Carte after or moving things around in the package.
Last year I had a la carte and packages as an option. What I didn't do is limit anything. So people where buying a la carte items of 10 different poses and I was making only half of what I make now on the same order. So with an increase in interest this year, I made it packages only, limited the poses (too many choices confuses people and they get stressed), and made a la carte extra only. This has worked so far and I have raised my prices 30-50% since last year across the board. Sadly, I can only shoot for another couple of weeks until I have to go back to college but until then I will be shooting and shooting
Hope that helps. That is what I learned. I am sure I left some things out.
Chris
TNshooter wrote:
Our home is our studio and what we have done is turn our dining room into a sample room. We decided that having different sizes and types of prints (standard prints on different paper types, float wraps, gallery wraps, etc.) hanging in our dining room would allow us to not only have "art" on the walls there but also to show clients what they actually look like. We will eventually have different types of groupings as well. Our living room has our family portraits and we host our view and choose in our living room on our big screen. Again, it is an active process. Once the client sees the images in a large format they understand the impact these images will have in their home. One day I plan to have a actual off-site studio but in these tough economic times that is overhead I can't afford. And in spite of the fact that I enjoy working in a studio setting, most people around here are really into location shoots....Show more →
That makes good sense and I wish you all the best in your business!
