Someone asked what sells and what doesn't sell online. Here is what I know based on my experience.
Weddings:
Average will be $100 to $400 per wedding. A lot of this depends on the demographic (i.e. if you cater to the budget bride, your sales will be low), and the type of physical proofs (4x6 prints, proof book, proof cd).
Engagements:
Average will be $150-$500 per engagement. Again, it depends on the demographic. One reason for the lift is that besides your clients, their parents also will typically purchase prints.
Sports:
This is all over the place. If you just show up at an sports event, take shots, and put them online, your sales will be non-existant. If you are officially sanctioned, but it is a pre-season game, or typical league game, your sales will go up, but not by much. However, if you are sanctioned, and it is a playoff game (or the title game), then your sales will go way up. The key is the "emotional" investment of your audience.
Mountain biking and motorcross races, if they are the big events, can easily sell $5K to $30K+ in addition to your on premise sales.
Individual sports seem to sell better than team sports. Again, it's the emotional connection. When an individual that has trained for months and spent many thousands of dollars for a bike, crosses that finish line, it's a personal accomplishment, which is also shared by his/her family. This makes a strong emotional bond, which increases the likelyhood of a sale.
School Portraits:
For a private school in a high-end demographic, the average order is approximately $500, and the entire event can be anywhere from $20K to $30K.
Photographers that have had the best success where able to market to a large audience that had a strong emotional attachment to the event and images. Additionally, these photographers were using online proofing as an adjuct to their in-studio sales presentation.
Enjoy,
Sean
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Sean
You are being unrealistic about Motocross races. The maximum we haver ever grossed was $4000.00 on a good weekend with over 500 riders. The event was the Hangtown nationals where we have an exclusive and where we photograph the amatuers. We also only sell on site, it is extremely hard to justify me putting in over 8 hours loading all the images we shoot over two and a half days of racing to maybe make $500.00 extra dollars from posting online. I photographed an event several years ago where I posted everything online and had over 12000 hits yet I had only $125.00 in sales, the only thing I post online these days are my Supermoto images where most of the riders know me. I also put a lot back into the sport by sponsoring teams and individual riders. What we generally factor in for racing is the cost of the entry,tires,fuel and several other factors. Norm can attest to this also, this is why he does not shoot Motorcycle's anymore because for the most part they are cheap. The other problem we have run into is that everybody thinks they can shoot racing with there point and shoot. I ran into several people this past weekend at the Monterey Historics who informed me that they could get just as good of a shot with there phd cameras as I could with my Mark ll and 400mm 2.8 l lens. The bottom line is that we work as hard as we can to achieve what we want out of life yet there is always going to be that one person who can do a better job or shoot better pictures than you. What we as a group need to figure out is a better way to get across to the general public is that we are Pros and that is why we charge what we charge.
Someone asked what sells and what doesn't sell online. Here is what I know based on my experience.
...
Mountain biking and motorcross races, if they are the big events, can easily sell $5K to $30K+ in addition to your on premise sales.
...
I cover a lot of MX racing. (20 races per year?) I cover some big clubs; we regularly shoot 500-700 riders, and the biggest events are over 800 riders. I have never seen total sales for a motocross race exceed $5000 (onsite AND online sales combined). My best event (sales-wise, online) was not MX but a Hare Scrambles race, very late in the season; the gross online sales was less than $1500 - a far cry from your suggested $5K, let alone $30K.
One problem with MX racing is that these are everyday families, many of whom are hard-working blue-collar types, and whom spend every extra dollar on the bikes, gear, entry fees, camping for the weekend, food, and fuel. There are a number of very well-off families - you should see some of the motorhome and trailer rigs at these events! - but while it's unfair to classify the motocross community as "cheap", as a whole, they certainly do not have the kind of financial resources as the equestrian or figure skating or vintage auto racing communities. My loyal repeat customers very likely fall into a variety of income levels. And we really count on those repeat customers, as the large majority of MX participants/parents just don't buy photos at every race.
My business would fold if I charged the same kind of money as some of the equestrian event shooters, for example. I have to go with lower price points and rely on higher volume. Even so, our "hit rate" (number of sales generated compared to the number of competitors) hovers around 15% at most events. If I could find a way to double that while keeping prices constant, I'd be pretty happy.
Back to my point: While I cover some big motocross clubs, I can't fathom generating $5000 in online sales for a single event....but I'd love to. If you're not just flapping gums wen it comes to the figures, I'm interested in knowing how you've been able to accomplish this. Care to enlighten me? What is it - hit rate? Focused marketing? Special deals? Huge turnouts?
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Last edited by Terry Zorich; 08-22-2006 at 11:17 AM.
I agree that many of the motorcross events are attended by hard working families, that may or may not have already spent most of their disposable income on the bikes, equipment, etc.
What I was trying to point out is that the amount of sales will be proportionate to the emotional attachment of an event. That is the #1 concept to understand. Photography isn't a necessity, it is a luxury. Therefore, the first heat of the season is not going to do as well as the grand prix.
For the big grand prix events, such as Adelanto, the photog I know paid the promoter to be the sanctioned photographer for the event. This gave him access to list of entrants. He did direct and email campaigns to each entrant. Images where sold both on premise and online.
These stats I provided are based upon numbers mined from a database of over 1000 photographers selling their photos online. Your mileage will vary based on the type of events you place online, the demographic you serve, and the amount of marketing you perform.
Does that help or hurt?
Sean
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
(More on the MX discussion):
Riders catching air is the obvious one; more than 75% of my photos are shot with that in mind. Of course, the better/faster/older riders grow weary of "air" shots and seem to prefer corners/railing/roosting, and if I can get a good pan-action shot in that style, those images sell well. This shot works for me: http://www.eventphotonow.com/Samples/08.jpg
I have not yet offered magazine covers. I think I've reached the point with most of our MX clubs where the interested parents have lost interest in the products we've traditionally offered, because they "have enough of them". I have been trying to think of new products I can offer that will still generate a nice margin without too much additional work. The mag covers would probably work well for that.
I have also not done a direct mail; I'll think about that...
Thanks!
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Last edited by Terry Zorich; 08-29-2006 at 11:42 AM.
I understand the cynicism. This issue is a two edged sword for my business. One of my avenues of sales is fine art- some of which I sell at art shows. Of course I want people to buy on the spot during the event. I think I have concluded that posting images on the web is much like a brochure or business card. A good number of people after seeing my work in person proceed to ask for a card or my web site. In these cases they are generally giving me a polite brush off. There have even been a couple occassions where I got e-mails complaining that my images are too hard to steal with the download protection and watermarks. That said I still make sales from my web site. So perhaps a necessary evil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Norm_Cabana
Why am I cynical?
Robert J. Ringer was right, they really do want to take all your chips.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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