Selling Prints from your website

[azkul]

I've programmed and maintain a photography community at thelensflare.com (http://www.thelensflare.com) - there are a few thousand members and around 40,000 images. Right now, it's set up to just be a community gallery... most of the members are amateurs and it's not geared towards selling prints.

However, because the site gets quite a few visitors (between 30-50,000 visitors a month), I've often wondered if it would be worth the effort to sell prints of the better pictures. I realize that there's a lot of work to be done such as setting up contracts with the better photographers, getting full sized image files, working out the order fulfillment side, etc.

For those of you who are selling prints from your websites, I'd like to know if you feel the effort is worth it. What % of your visitors end up buying a print? What's a typical print size that you sell? If you'd prefer to discuss this outside of this forum, I'm happy to chat with you as well.

Thanks,
Brian B.
The Lens Flare (http://www.thelensflare.com)

[vroom_skies]

I'd love to hear what people have to say on this as well.

[azkul]

To clarify what I'm asking I thought that I'd add a little more to explain the situation.

My site is currently like Flickr - it's a community gallery largely consisting of amateur photographers; however, there are a few images on my site that are very good... ones that I personally would buy and put on my wall. With that in mind, I know there are others that would also buy these prints. What I don't know is what the market is for this.

I currently have about 40,000 monthly visitors to the site looking at images. I've no idea how many of those are looking to purchase an image (either for a print or as stock).

So, I guess to focus the point of this thread... could somebody tell me approximately what their conversion rate is for selling prints on their website? Also, if you could tell me what the average print size is, I'd really appreciate it. The answers to these 2 questions will really help me determine if this could turn into a viable business based on my current traffic. And assuming the numbers work out, I'd love to continue discussions with any that are interested in pursuing this - I can get about 1/2 million eyeballs to your pictures in 2009.

Thanks,
Brian
http://www.thelensflare.com

[MJPhotos24]

Brian, it's a tough question in all honesty. I would say my visitor to purchaser rate is VERY low, maybe at most 5-10% and that's pushing it. However, what I sell is very dependent on the person visiting (event prints and editorial) so the clientele is not as wide as the type of photos you have on your site where anyone could/would want an image for display. Looking at many of my visitors they come from links and just random people checking out my work, not actual parents or editors.

Looking at your gallery, and the type of community it is, maybe a user sale base would be better. Not talking something like smug mug or exposure manager, talking about users get a page of there own where certain products are available and they do the leg work of releases and such if it has a person in it. Your end does the printing/framing/whatever. Maybe even limit it to 10 salable images per user or something like that so you know they're selling there best. Just a thought as it'd be very tough to choose images/graphics yourself to have available.

[tim]

How about starting off small - just have a simple email form for people to inquire if they want to purchase.

[camerageorge]

I agree, you purchaser / viewer rate will be low, but at the same time, that's a lot of traffic. And traffic means potential revenue. I suppose it's a case of what direction you and the other members want to see the site going in really.

[azkul]

I agree the purchaser to viewer rate will be low, but does anybody know around what percent I could base some numbers off of?

0.1%? 1%? 10%?

Also, when people buy your prints, do they tend to buy 8x12 or smaller or do they tend to buy large images like 20x30 or larger?

Thanks,
Brian
http://www.thelensflare.com