Prices for online images

[Kirik]

What would a good price be for a photo for someone to use on their web site? I was thinking around $7 per photo. This is for real estate, online galleries of houses. Would you charge a fee to take the photos as well, and for driving time etc? Thanks

[IndyJeff]

What would a good price be for a photo for someone to use on their web site? I was thinking around $7 per photo. This is for real estate, online galleries of houses. Would you charge a fee to take the photos as well, and for driving time etc? Thanks


Kirik one thing you have to take into account is how many images will they be using? If it is 2-3 and they will be up for a month or better I would say $7 is a losing cause, However if they will be using 50 + images and they will be up for a month it might not be a bad price. Figure tho that each week you may have to go out and shoot X number of houses and then edit the images. You will have gas and auto expense as well as your time and equipment costs to figure in.
Let's say they have 50 houses to get you started, ok that is $350. Not bad and can probably be done in a day, 2 days tops. Now each week you go and do say 3 houses as they gain listings. That is $21, not much for a couple hours work.

If I were bidding this job I would bid it as intial images (the first 50) at $15. However I would stipulate that this is for a 1 month run or any part of that month. Additional months would be billed at an additional $7 each image. Now when you get all initial images up, I would charge at least $30 per image and that would be for a one month run. Let's say they have 3 houses added each week. You go out on Saturday and shoot the images, $90 for that with a month display. Now each week you check to see if the house is still displayed. If it is, you bill them for each house that was new a month ago at $7 rate.

It would be a nightmare keeping track of the images unless you date them in the file name, i.e. IMG_2104_10_28 IMG_ 2105_10_29 etc. This way you can tell exactly when the image was licensed for use and keep a record of each weeks images added. The next month you check to see what is due to expire this week, and bill accordingly.

Might not be a bad gig and as a selling point you can always remind them that if you don't do it, one of their agents will be spending their time driving around taking pictures and how valuable is thier time? Besides you will get a good shot, will they? I would also leave a card at the house so the owner can contact you about purchasing a 5 x 7 of the shot if they so desire, probably won't but for a 3 cent card it would only take one purchase to pay for a bunch of cards.