About Putting "Purchasing Information" on Your Photo Site

[astrostu]

I originally started my photo website (see signature) a year or two ago really in an attempt to better-organize myself in terms of my astrophotos while the nature stuff was an after-thought.

Since then, it's expanded A LOT mainly because I've been doing astrophotography that I hadn't considered two years ago. Right now, I'm working on a re-organization of the navigation and breaking down single pages into multiple ones for better loading times and making it easier to find stuff.

Anyway, that's prologue. My "issue" is this: I've been contacted a couple of times by people who want to use my photos or to buy them. I had a huge back-and-forth e-mail conversation with a woman this May about what was for sale and what could be printed at what size.

So my question is: Is it tacky or overly-commercialistic to put purchasing information below each photo that states whether or not it's for sale, the highest resolution I have, the maximum print size, bit-depth, and any notes, along with a link to a "purchasing" page that basically states to e-mail me for specifics and prices?

I *think* that I'm over-analyzing this, but for some reason I see this as a potential turn-off to people, especially since the original goal of the site was more educational and for my own organization.

What do folks think about this?


Edit: Check out the Lunar Eclipse page for what I mean, as well as the site's "new" navigation: http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/me/photos/moon_eclipse.html . I'm also starting to add watermarks to the larger images which I was also avoiding, but I think it's somewhat necessary.

 

[Kipper]

Hi,

What you have just now seems a little harsh (and negative), my suggestion would be to take all that away and only have a link to your online "shop" there you can list the pictures you want to sell ( I am thinking thumbnails, details and costs) and don't mention the ones that are not for sale.

If that is too much hassle I think there are third parties that offer the sales side - the user just clicks on the link, and they handle payment, printing, sending etc - all you do is get a regular cheque/check off them for the picture that are sold.

Hope this helps,

Kipper.

I originally started my photo website (see signature) a year or two ago really in an attempt to better-organize myself in terms of my astrophotos while the nature stuff was an after-thought.

Since then, it's expanded A LOT mainly because I've been doing astrophotography that I hadn't considered two years ago. Right now, I'm working on a re-organization of the navigation and breaking down single pages into multiple ones for better loading times and making it easier to find stuff.

Anyway, that's prologue. My "issue" is this: I've been contacted a couple of times by people who want to use my photos or to buy them. I had a huge back-and-forth e-mail conversation with a woman this May about what was for sale and what could be printed at what size.

So my question is: Is it tacky or overly-commercialistic to put purchasing information below each photo that states whether or not it's for sale, the highest resolution I have, the maximum print size, bit-depth, and any notes, along with a link to a "purchasing" page that basically states to e-mail me for specifics and prices?

I *think* that I'm over-analyzing this, but for some reason I see this as a potential turn-off to people, especially since the original goal of the site was more educational and for my own organization.

What do folks think about this?


Edit: Check out the Lunar Eclipse page for what I mean, as well as the site's "new" navigation: http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/me/photos/moon_eclipse.html . I'm also starting to add watermarks to the larger images which I was also avoiding, but I think it's somewhat necessary.

 

[astrostu]

Thanks, Kipper. Anyone else have input?

 

[dvduval]

I would maybe suggest having a purchase page with more detail about what you are selling and the terms, especially if your goal is not to detract from presenting the image.

 

[Jeff Colburn]

There's nothing wrong with making money from your work.

Have a page with the photos you want to sell, the sizes you are offering and the price. Don't give too much info about each picture as most people don't care.

Go to my articles page here http://www.creativecauldron.com/articles.shtml and you'll find several articles about selling things on your website. Also, check out my blog here http://www.TheCreativesCorner.com to see information on software designed to help photographers sell pictures on their website.

Have Fun,
Jeff

 

[MikeR]

I use Exposuer Manager to handle my Sales,Printing,Shipping. The site is flexable and you can have different prices and producets for different galleries. For example, I charge more for the photos in my landscape gallery than the high school sports photos that are marketed for parents.
check it out if you wish
www.mikerubinphoto.com

 

[astrostu]

At the moment, I'm not interested in automated sales stuff (considering I've sold a total of 3 times).

I'm trying something like dvduval suggested where I'm effectively listing all the photos that are for sale along with relavent information on that "Purchasing" page, and I may just include a tiny link below each image on their main pages if they're for sale.

How does something like this look? http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/me/photos/purchasing.html Note that I haven't altered the text on the page to reflect the new format yet, nor have I changed other pages to reflect it.