Low ballin' vs volume pricing

[Tandem]

Has the internet changed the way we do business and price our photos?

Take high school sports photography for example. I go to the games, take as many photos as I can, crop and clean them up, and post them on my smugmug website. Once I've done that my work is over - my customers choose what photos they want to buy and in what size and quantity and order them directly from smugmug. All I do is wait for the monthly check to come in.

The question that remains is how to place a price on the photos. If my price is high I sell a few photos and if my price is low I sell many photos. Now since it doesn't take any more work for me to sell 100 photos at it does 10 photos, why not sell 100 photos, and make everyone happy, including me? The ideal is to set the price to maximize profit not to see how high I can set the price per photo. As an example, say if I make $20 profit per photo I could sell 20 photos but if I make $5 profit per photo I can sell 100 photos. Which is better? I'd take the $500 dollar profit over a $400 profit any day.

Some people call that low ballin'. I call it volume pricing. I get lots of orders for 30 to 40 photos on up. The word-of-mouth advertising I get is amazing. From the athletes to the fans to the coaches to the parents and back and forth. I got over 900,000 picture views last month and it keeps going up.

I'd like to hear your thoughts pro and con. This is different from the wedding thread where there you set your price before the event and here after the event is over. Nobody is obligated to buy anything here unless they feel the product is worth the price.

[basroil]

generally, lowballing is when you take a cut in profit to gain market... considering you believe this will increase profit rather than decrease it, doesn't really fit the term lowballing. just make sure that the actual profit from editing 100 photos vs 20 is really higher than it would be other wise...

[strmrdr]

as long as you can earn more per hour spent its a killer deal for you if you ask me.
It really depends on how skilled you are at taking them because PP on 100 images can kill the added profit quickly but if you are good enough then its way kewl.

but you will get whining from someone that takes 20 min per picture PP cuz they cant shoot well that they cant make money at that price.

[ssim]

You seem to have a model that works for you. In that instance what does it matter what anyone might think of it as it is highly unlikely that you would change it if someone disagreed with it.

This whole debate of pros vs weekend warriors, dimishing returns, etc. has been beat to death lately.

[convergent]

Good discussion... I've been thinking about the same topic lately.

[Tandem]

You seem to have a model that works for you. In that instance what does it matter what anyone might think of it as it is highly unlikely that you would change it if someone disagreed with it.

This whole debate of pros vs weekend warriors, dimishing returns, etc. has been beat to death lately.
I disagree, I'm always willing to hear what people have to say. I can learn a great deal from honest and well thought out criticism. While it's true that I may not make a major change on a plan that seems to work, I can still modify it as I learn more about the business.

I know I need to slowly push prices up and I plan on a modest price increase on June 1st after the school year ends. Setting prices is a complex issue and there are no easy answers. I may even be hurting myself if I price my poster size prints so low that my customers buy them in place of smaller prints. I make more profit per dollar spent on smaller sizes compared to the larger sizes.

A note on marketing - for tournaments I set up a table with a couple of framed 16x20 prints. The size is large enough to attract attention and show off my work and still small enough to carry around with me. I have a sign that says, "Bill Eberhardt Photography" and "prints available at ColoradoSprings.smugmug.com." I have a list of my prices in front of the photos and a small easel with my business cards. This setup works great because I get a lot of out of town orders from it.

[ssim]

I'm not sure which part of my statements that you are disagreeing with.

Are you asking for opinions on your pricing, I took it more as a statement of this is what I do and it works for me.

[Tandem]

I was disagreeing with the "...what does it matter what anyone might think of it..." part. It matters to me what people think, especially in this forum where almost everyone is more experienced than I am. If anyone thinks there is a serious flaw in my logic or even a way to improve my plan, I'd like to hear it.