Looking for help selling my photos.

[SenorNikonMan]

O.K., I have my own website and up until now I've been dealing directly with buyers but I've found that doing it all myself is very time consuming. I'm looking for a site that I can link to that will handle most, if not all, of the sales process for me. Preferably one that not only takes the orders, but also prints, ships and charges the buyer and then gives me a cut of the sales.

I have looked into Shutterfly a bit and I know that is what they do, but I'd like to know what any of you who have, or are currently, using them thinks of their service and products. Also, if any of you have, or are currently, using another site for this purpose and have an opinion either way on their service and products, I'd like to hear about it. That way I can make a more informed decision before I commit to any one company. Thanks!

[jorgemonkey]

I haven't used shutterfly before, but I currently use Exposure Manager for my stuff, especially my sports stuff. I pretty much upload images to the site, tell people where to go, and they spend their money on my stuff. You have an option of uploading hi res or lo res images, so you can set your images as either "print ready" or "not print ready".

With print ready they would automatically crop & resize the images for you when they're printed. For a "non print ready" file, you'd get an email saying which image & image size the customer ordered.

For order stuff, they handle everything and they send me a check once a month.

Here is a link to one of my cycling races. The other thing I like about them is you're able to customize the layout & colors pretty easy to match your site.

[mjs1973]

I have never used the, but I have heard good things about www.printroom.com. You can build a store front, and they will take the orders, print and ship the photos.

I think www.smugmug.com offers a similar service.

[brmill26]

Smugmug is a very well-respected service for exactly that purpose, if you're willing to pay a bit. I use a site called www.photrade.com that's free. They do print/merchandise fulfillment and they take a pretty small cut compared to most sites I've looked at. The cool thing about their site that no one else does, Photrade pays you a cut of their advertising revenue based on the number of views your photos receive. But if you'd like your photos to be ad-free, you can opt out of that and they don't put any ads on your pages. Pretty cool. You can check out my galleries to get a feel for the site: http://www.photrade.com/Bradleymiller

[SenorNikonMan]

I haven't used shutterfly before, but I currently use Exposure Manager for my stuff, especially my sports stuff. I pretty much upload images to the site, tell people where to go, and they spend their money on my stuff. You have an option of uploading hi res or lo res images, so you can set your images as either "print ready" or "not print ready".

With print ready they would automatically crop & resize the images for you when they're printed. For a "non print ready" file, you'd get an email saying which image & image size the customer ordered.

For order stuff, they handle everything and they send me a check once a month.

Here is a link to one of my cycling races. The other thing I like about them is you're able to customize the layout & colors pretty easy to match your site.

O.K., I've signed up with Exposure Manager and I'm in the process of setting up my galleries. Here is a link to my main gallery:

http://lucianoguerra.exposuremanager.com/g/

I have a couple of questions though. How were you able to get your header photo to come out that large? I uploaded my header photo to the site but it is not showing it as large as it actually is.

Also, I see that you are entitled to a $10.00 referral bonus for referring me but I don't know what information I need to make sure you get it. Do you know how this works?

Thanks!

[jorgemonkey]

I'll check on the referral thing, I can't remember exactly how it works.

What I did for my header was I created the image in photoshop to the exact size I wanted, hosted it in a hidden gallery, and in the HTML I liked to that image. When I get home today I can let you know more on how I did it.

Also I'll email you the link to the EM user group on Yahoo, its a great place for advice & some tech support on coding stuff.

[SenorNikonMan]

Thanks but I figured out the header photo problem. Apparently when I uploaded it, I had the resize photo option set to yes so it made it smaller than the original.

I have now changed my header photo to a panoramic scenic like yours. I would like to add my website name to the header the way you have your name on yours. I'll try to figure this one out by myself too, but if I don't, I might need your help. (I'm going to make you earn those $10.00.)

[SenorNikonMan]

Well I figured out one way to add text to my header. It may not be the best way, but it worked. I made the text part of the image, with a matching background color, and then I uploaded the image to EM. I even added the thin black line between the text and the photo. It measures 1 x 800 pixels.

Here is the link again:

http://lucianoguerra.exposuremanager.com/g/

[jorgemonkey]

I shouldn't show you anything! You're figuring out my tricks on your own

[jorgemonkey]

After looking at your site, I may have a couple questions for you, actually...

[JETA]

You did a great job on your site. I was going to recommend smugmug. I've sold thousands of prints on there and never had a problem. Their cs is stellar.

The thing I like about your site is you can offer portrait packages. That's probably my only gripe about smugmug. I can't set up packages.

[poker]

This is great information.

Which of these sites can make a password protected album so clients will have exclusive access to their photos to avoid just anyone from seeing the photos?

[jackyacky]

you can try to sell your images here http://www.dreamstime.com/resp274849-high-resolution , i'm quite happy with the earnings

[EventShooter]

EventPictures.com has worked great for me for the last 3 years. They handle pre and post sale customer emails and calls. Accept payment, print, ship, and pay me twice a month. I can set my own prices and password protect events. Comes with a full featured, basic but customizeable website. Super low wholesale so you you make more $$$.

[Grandpaw]

Smugmug is a very well-respected service for exactly that purpose, if you're willing to pay a bit. I use a site called www.photrade.com that's free. They do print/merchandise fulfillment and they take a pretty small cut compared to most sites I've looked at. The cool thing about their site that no one else does, Photrade pays you a cut of their advertising revenue based on the number of views your photos receive. But if you'd like your photos to be ad-free, you can opt out of that and they don't put any ads on your pages. Pretty cool. You can check out my galleries to get a feel for the site: http://www.photrade.com/Bradleymiller

Brad, I clicked on you link to see your sites and it gave me SITE NOT FOUND,and the link to phototrade.com has been discontinued, Jeff

[mjs1973]

Brad, I clicked on you link to see your sites and it gave me SITE NOT FOUND,and the link to phototrade.com has been discontinued, Jeff

This thread and that link are over a year old. It seems like I have been noticing a lot of these old threads popping back up. I think that's great when people add more useful info to them. But often times links don't work anymore or pics that were embedded from another site no longer show up. Still good to see people going back and checking out the older stuff.

[ken1953]

A company in Texas that I worked with used MyCapture. I was very pleased with the results he got for my pics. I did some sports events for him and others do weddings, parties, etc. The name of his company is www.leavethecamera.com . The address to his publishing site is: http://www.secondstreetmedia.com/MyCaptureHome.aspx
Just another option for you to consider.