What to charge

[JodieO]

I was actually considering the idea of those sites that take a cut...even if it's a larger slice...because, for one thing, they are already set up and it requires much less work on my part. For a few jobs, here and there...I think that may be a good option.
Also, if you use Photocart, you are responsible for accepting payment. So if you want to take credit cards, you have to be set up to do that...which is another expense. You also have to consider shipping expenses (even though you can still charge for this).
A guy I know, said it cost him $1300 to get set up with Photocart...$300 for the program and $1000 worth of shipping materials.
Still, I think Photocart looks really good.

$1300 to set up with PhotoCart???? how????!! That's ridiculous.

I paid for PhotoCart which was maybe $300? Actually, I think it only cost me around $200 before the price raise.

Took me a couple hours to set up my entire pricing structure.

Shipping material (boxes), I get FREE through USPS. I try to be "green" so when I get plain white boxes through my lab, I reuse for the larger items (16x20 or larger).

I charge my customers $15 flat rate shipping and handling.

You can simply set up a PayPal merchant account and take all major credit cards through PhotoCart in that way. I have both that and Discover Merchant Services but I have a fairly high volume.

I also like to see the prints before they go to my customers so that I can inspect for quality.

 

[Big Mike]

$1300 to set up with PhotoCart???? how????!! That's ridiculous.

That's what I thought when I first heard it. As I mentioned, the program is about $300 and he also bought a lot of packaging...but a lot of that was prepaid postage, so there are no extra shipping costs at the time. He probably bought at least a year's supply, maybe more.
He does fairly high end weddings, so his packaging is probably upscale, fancy stuff.

You certainly don't have to do it that way. Just get set up and then charge and pay for shipping as you go.

 

[philaphotog]

Does anyone have experience with shutterfly.com's pro service?