Online print sales

[jonpaul]

Hi Will

Re: K Tools I beg to differ regarding speed, personaly i would have said it was server related, depends on the server provider and the type of server account she has paid for.

I host my copy on Fasthost and have noticed at certian times of the day it is faster than others with 99% of ISP providers. People have the same problem with any kind of php and database driven websites. the only real way of getting round the problem with this kind of software is to hire a deticated web server, which nine time out of ten is to expensive.

[BobSmith]

You might take a look at Lightbox Photo Gallery. The developers are based in Canada. It supports a variety of currency and tax setups. It can be used with any number of payment gateways including Paypal. I've set mine up using PayPal Pro. its a bit more work to setup (requires a security certificate) but in use it keeps the buyer on your site throughout the transaction. They never see PayPal. A shopping cart based on standard PayPal (where the buyer is transferred to PayPal to finalize the transaction) can be setup in seconds. Works well right out of the box but is easy to custom configure into all sorts of particular purposes or design themes. I'm using the Enterprise version for hosting private galleries for my commercial clients. It's PHP and MySQL based and uses AJAX for faster page redraws when someone is paging through multiple images.

Bob Smith

[pumpdog]

I recommend Exposuremanager.com. You can keep viewers from right clicking and saving, insert your own watermark, and set your own price. I've been using them for a little over a year and I have been very happy with them. Also, they have website forwarding. Meaning you have you own personal URL forwarded to their website.

Check out my website if you like.

http://pumphreyphotography.com

[DougAxford]

A quick update. I did get a reply back and apparently Paypal can be configured easily for the customer to pay in Cdn$ and that your studio name will appear on the statement, not Paypal. I have yet to try it out, but will get there soon.

I can't disagree with Will on this also. I'm not interested in posting even 5% of my work. It will be done on a 'only when requested' basis for select customers I've had enough negative experience from posting family portraits/events to know that orders stink - or simply don't even occur. I'd like to find something that does work for both customers and sales.

Doug

[Will_Mass]

Originally Posted by pumpdog

I recommend Exposuremanager.com. You can keep viewers from right clicking and saving, insert your own watermark, and set your own price.

Sadly, disabling the right click doesn't even slow down would be thieves, and watermarking is helpful in identifying your work, but that's about it.

I've seen some websites that report to the user, their IP address and location, when they enter the site. While it does smack of "Big Brother" to some degree, I wonder if something like that might at least make people think twice before stealing photos.

[JodieOtte]

I use PhotoCart. (Photography Shopping Cart | Photocart | Photographer Flash Websites - Pictures Pro)

I am thrilled with their product and customer service. The back end is simple to customize to meet your needs and design elements. My customers simply order from it like a shopping cart (I have this set up to receive credit cards through paypal but you can use other methods). I get a notice in my email to say that I have just received an order, I fulfill the order with my lab, and ship out (the customer pays shipping as an option when they are checking out).

There is a built-in watermarking capability (you can do this totally to your liking - you can watermark the heck out of it or set to reduce opacity on it to whatever you like...)

I don't feel my online sales have suffered. My simple portrait sessions average between $1,000 and 3,000, and I am very happy with that. It beats meeting with customers at my studio which takes away from my family time or my "ME" time, and I am very stingey with that... lol!


I aim to not make any less than $100/hour, so meeting with customers for in-person consults takes away from my profits.

[Mike Weeks]

I use a piece of Freeware that does a really good job from ULTIMATE Gallery software | oneFshop called Ultimate Free which has to be combined with Jalbum. They are just releasing an online montage ordering system which I think is fairly unique. Mark seems to keep on top of problems and is helpful in the forum. What have you got to lose, try it.

Mike

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