So many options!!!

JaimeGibb · Jul 22, 2008

Alright, so Ive been googling different professional photo printing websites for my future clients. SmugMug.com is great, but it seems as though they ship the stuff to you, then you have to ship the stuff out to the client, right? And then I found www.orderpicture.com which gives you an account where you can upload the pictures, set your own price, and your clients can go to the site and order what they want, and it gets shipped directly to them. Than, orderpicture.com gets 12% of your profits...that sounds good. What do you guys think? What do YOU usually do?

Big Mike · Jul 22, 2008

There are plenty of option...as you can see.

I've been hearing good things about Collages.net, Mpix.com and some others.

As for how you work it...there are a few options, which you are already learning about.
Some of them charge you a monthly or yearly fee, then you upload the images and your clients buy prints via that website. Some will send the images to you and some will send directly to the client. The fees and charges will vary.
One thing to consider is that if you have them sent directly, it's easy for you but you give up a bigger part of the profit...also, you don't actually see the prints, so you need to trust that the lab is doing a good job.
If you have the prints sent to you, you can be sure that they are good...but you have to package and ship them yourself.

What a lot of photographers are doing (I'll be doing it soon) is using their own website, rather than another site. You can get applications to display and sell prints, then the order come directly to you. This is more work because you then have to send in the print orders yourself and probably ship them yourself...but you only pay for the application once, then all the profit is yours, and you have full control. The application of choice is called Photocart.

Jeff Canes · Jul 22, 2008

this thread also talks about online printers

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129984

JaimeGibb · Jul 22, 2008

Wow, you guys are awesome, thanks so much!!!

Dave127 · Jul 22, 2008

Double check the Smugmug. I believe they ship direct to the customer too.

I'm with Mike if you are shipping lower volume, but if you are expecting a lot of smaller orders, than the sites that ship for you may be better.

JaimeGibb · Jul 22, 2008

Yea Im thinking that they will be smaller orders. Im not going to be doing weddings or anything. I think I may go with Smugmug, but I really dont want to pay that money upfront! Im a poor college student...

Lyncca · Jul 30, 2008

JaimeGibb said:
Alright, so Ive been googling different professional photo printing websites for my future clients. SmugMug.com is great, but it seems as though they ship the stuff to you, then you have to ship the stuff out to the client, right? And then I found www.orderpicture.com which gives you an account where you can upload the pictures, set your own price, and your clients can go to the site and order what they want, and it gets shipped directly to them. Than, orderpicture.com gets 12% of your profits...that sounds good. What do you guys think? What do YOU usually do?

I use smugmug and have the option to ship to myself or directly to the customer. Many times, I ship to myself and arrange delivery, just to check the quality of the prints and to make sure I didn't miss anything in PP, but when I have someone that isn't in the general area or if I am going to be traveling, I ship direct.

And by the way, Smugmug's print quality is beautiful. I haven't been unhappy with a single print yet.