selling pictures online...Help!!

[spako]

Hi there

I've had my website up for a few months now (http://www.spako.lu) and some of my visitors keep asking about getting prints of my shots. As I'm based in Luxembourg and some of the requests come from the US I have no idea how to proceed... I don't want to sell my pictures on Microstock sites, first because I think they are absolutely not right for that kind of market and secondly i think it would be kind of selling under price.
Now I would really appreciate if anyone could help me out here... are there good online sites where you can sell pictures for a decent price and printing and shipping are being taken care of, or should I just go to my local shop here, get the prints and sent them via mail to the interested person?

As I'm mostly doing my stuff, no real shootings, I don't want to make a huge business out of it. But if asked I would really like to have the opportunity to sell my stuff...

I'd love to get some feedback

Thx so much!

 

[tirediron]

E-mail them a digital copy?

 

[EricBrian]

What about smugmug?

 

[EricBrian]

If in the US, you can order prints from adoramapix.com and have them sent to the person. They have an option to remove the invoice from the packaging if it goes to a third party.

 

[spako]

E-mail them a digital copy?

Hmmm.. well I'm not sure I want to do that, because then this person could start using my stuff inmany ways I wouldn't even be aware of...

 

[sunlioness]

A friend of mine has a site http://www.posterburner.com/
that makes posters and sells them over the US.
Maybe you could contact him through the site and make a deal with him.

 

[Arch]

If i were you do it personally, without any third party. Get the clients details via email, accept the payment (up front and covering delivery costs), once payment is recieved, you send the print, preferably in a hard tube.
Only ever have your images sent directly to the client from printers once you can trust the printer to be working in the same colour space as you and that you know you are satisfied yourself with the output quality.

 

[Overread]

I would agree with Arch in that if you are going to use a 3rd party make sure you order some (some might let you specifically order sample copies) of your photos.
Not only would they look nice on your wall but it will show you what you clients are getting for their money - and also what you are getting for yours

 

[Dave127]

I use smugmug and am very happy with they're services. They process the credit card, print the photo, and ship it. You set the prices.

 

[onedayillknowbetter]

If i were you do it personally, without any third party. Get the clients details via email, accept the payment (up front and covering delivery costs), once payment is recieved, you send the print, preferably in a hard tube.
Only ever have your images sent directly to the client from printers once you can trust the printer to be working in the same colour space as you and that you know you are satisfied yourself with the output quality.

Word. That's what I was gonna say. There are photographers in my area who sell images from their website without E-commerce, and just charge an extra $2 for international orders, and tell them it will take longer.

 

[Alpha]

Contact a printer based in the US. Have them print something for you and ship it to you. If it's up to spec, use them and have them forward particular prints to customers in the US.

 

[photomoe]

sharefolder.com

 

[spako]

thank you for the many good ideas