sell for you: Most money to you, best IQ, most sales, etc...

[Dan P.]

Can someone help? Looking to have other sites sell (some) pictures.

Just because the IQ is there, that does not necessarily guarantee a great return per picture sold. In fact, it may take away from the profit.
A print may be sold for $50.00, but what percentage is the photographer's cut?
A site may sell prints a lot cheaper than some other site, but they compensate on volume, thus with an overall better return.
Licensing your pictures to sites 1: is it possible to license to multiple ones simultaneously? For example: possibly one in the U.S. and one in the U.K.
Licensing your pictures to sites 2: Do you retain the ownership of the pictures after the set-term is complete?
Site security 1: did they make the web-site so that users cannot do a right-mouse-click, then copy/paste?
Site security 2: are photographer's watermarks allowed?
Site referrals of other photographers- probably my first reaction is to not deal with them, as the photographers may be biased to refer them. On the other hand, they may actually be a great site with regard to the above considerations...
Any other things to consider...
Thank You for Your Esteemed Help.....

[Mike R]

Some of your questions make me think that you're asking about some of the Stock or Microstock sites and other questions make me think you're asking about sites such as Exposure Manager, Zenfolio etc..

I don't use a stock agency but do use Exposure Manager. With these types of sites, YOU have to do the marketing to get people to it. In the case of EM, They charge $99 a year and take 10% of each sale, along with printing costs. Here's what they do for you:

They handle all credit cards, you have no additional fees, to the card companies or bank. You don't even have to accept cards through your bank.

Prints are mailed direct to your customers with your branding. The return address on the package is yours. Your customers don't know who you use.

You can have your domain mapped to their site so it looks like yours.
If you already have a site,then you have a link and customers don't even know that they are leaving your site.

You set the prices that you want to charge for each print and size along with the other products. You determine which products and print sizes you want to offer and which finish on the prints.

They all offer Right Click Disabled but this still doesn't stop someone who knows what they're doing from stealing a shot.

EM offers the option to have your watermark put across the print once it's uploaded. You don't have to put it on beforehand.

They will automatically resize your file for viewing only, if you choose to.

If you're not in their state (CA for Exposure Manager) There are no sales tax headaches.

Here's a discount link if you want to try them, You first get a free trail period. http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/mikerubinphoto

Remember, Marketing is YOUR responsibility to get people to your site.

[Dan P.]

Mike R... Thank You for your feedback.:)

You set the prices that you want to charge for each print and size along with the other products.

...out of all of your helpful comments, this is a big Plus.

For me, it's hard to make a choice, as this is all new territory. I think American Greetings PhotoWorks http://www.photoworks.com/ is also doing this (taken over from pictures.AOL). They are probably good, but not for the scientific-type pics that I want to market.

[PhotosGuy]

Links to most of the sites:
Online orders question (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=501332)

A lot of pros here use PrintRoom @ $99/year
See the link a few posts below.

Not my opinion:
NEVER again will I use MPIX! (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=586418)

[thebrewer]

+ 1 for exposure manager. I have used PrintRoom as well, just liked EM better.

Rich

[Dan P.]

I probably was not clear in the prior post, sorry. Just in case there was any confusion... I want to submit a subset of photos to a hosting site: for them to display, process orders, and send me checks.

I have a product to market.... to as wide a reach as possible (where is that cash icon?:mrgreen:)

Is it wise to use more than one? Perhaps one in England and some site here? Has anybody done this?

Maybe the answer is to submit photos to license / sell to All the sites at once. Yes/No?

[Dan P.]

Mike R, PhotosGuy and Brewer... Thank You for your valued input. Very appreciated.

So far: Two recommendations: EM and Printroom. It looks like these are both in CA... and I want to look into using these.

Are there any U.K. based sites that are great? People usually like to buy locally. It of course also saves them a lot in shipping.

[PhotosGuy]

The EM link has been updated, so I'm removing the one above. Info here:
http://help.exposuremanager.com/kb/

I noticed this:
As of January 1 2009, the minimum payment we will make to a photographer on their account is $100.
If a sales balance is not sufficient to warrant a minimum payment, the balance will be carried forward to subsequent monthly pay periods.

We do not wish to hold a photographer's commission balance for an undue amount of time, and we will offer the following options for payouts of less than the $100 minimum:

1. Once every quarter, we will pay out ALL commission checks, no matter what the balance. This will be on a set schedule:
The first weeks of April, July, October, January (of each year, commencing with with April 2009)
2. For a fee of $3.50, we will process a monthly payment check below the $100 minimum balance.

[Tigershark]

Last I checked on my account EM charges a Credit Card processing fee on top of the 10%. Please correct me if I am wrong

[Mike R]

Last I checked on my account EM charges a Credit Card processing fee on top of the 10%. Please correct me if I am wrong

This is straight from their web site:

http://www.exposuremanager.com/_images-base/Headline-Overview.gif

While photography is your love, we also know you have to make a living. So we’ve set up a pricing structure that’s the most competitive in the industry. And even though we’re here to help you sell, more, we’re also here to take less. It’s as simple as that.
Here’s how the “money works”:

Our commission is only 10% of the retail price and that includes credit card processing fees.
For self-fulfillment orders, we charge a $0.50 transaction fee, which will be included in the shipping and handling charged to your customer. Self-fulfillment orders are fulfilled by you so you set the shipping and handling amount that’s charged to the customer.
We send your check (your paycheck if you will) at the beginning of each month, as long as we owe you more than $100.00 (you can set a higher minimum). If we owe you less than $100.00 but more than $25.00, we'll send you a quarterly check. The examples below give you a more detailed example of how you make money with ExposureManager. These examples are fictitious, but you get the idea.


Here is the link:

http://www.exposuremanager.com/scripts/website.pl?rm=profit&page=index

[Tigershark]

Thanks Mike,

I don't use EM to print because their prices are kind of high so I always do the self fulfilment so that explains the additional charge thanks for the clarification

[amfoto1]

I probably was not clear in the prior post, sorry. Just in case there was any confusion... I want to submit a subset of photos to a hosting site: for them to display, process orders, and send me checks.

I have a product to market.... to as wide a reach as possible (where is that cash icon?:mrgreen:)

Is it wise to use more than one? Perhaps one in England and some site here? Has anybody done this?

Maybe the answer is to submit photos to license / sell to All the sites at once. Yes/No?

From reading his additional posts, I'm beginning to think Dan is talking about stock photography here (i.e., not Zenfolio, Exposure Manager or Printroom type stuff). Sorry, but I think we might be steering you in the wrong direction and need still more clarification from you, Dan.

[Dan P.]

Amfoto1.... Thank you for the clarification. I think a Stock Agency that is what I am looking for. For time reasons, I want to be very minimally involved, but for a subset of the photographs... would also like to have a (largish) commission on each and every sale.

I am looking for sites that are based both in the U.S. and also the U.K.

Thank You......

[jra]

You can check out Getty or Alamy. How many images do you have? The reason I ask is because stock photography is really a numbers and quality game. It takes a lot of good quality images to really make any decent money. If you don't already have a large collection, you'll want to concentrate on building it. You also mentioned that you wanted to be minimally involved. This is possible if you already have a nice large collection that's been key worded. If not, selling stock is a commitment and can take quite a bit of time getting photos uploaded and keyworded.

I've also found that the photos that sell on stock sites are often quite different from the photos a person would choose to hang on a wall....but not always.

[Dan P.]

Jra,

Yes... Stock Photo sounds exactly like what I am looking for. I realize that it's not as much $ as when you manage it yourself, but for a subset of the pictures I have, I think it's the best way to go.

I don't have that many, but because of their niche scientific uniqueness, I think I'll do alright by them.

Thanks Again.....

[jra]

If your photos fit into a small niche, you may be well served in marketing them yourself. Maybe contact organizations directly that may be interested. Just a thought :) Good luck either way!