Anyone selling Prints on Smugmug?

[Tee Why]

Hi,
I'm just wondering if there are any here that are using the Pro Account on Smugmug to sell their prints and what kind of volume and pricing to expect.
Right now I've a basic account and am wondering if the extra $110 for a pro account will pay for itself if I can sell the prints. I'm not a working pro photog but just wishing to make a few dollars selling prints that of shots that I take for my own pleasure. I'm just trying to find an easy way of going about this.

I thought about selling it directly through PayPal, but this seems to be a lot more hassel than just letting smugmug handle the process and getting the commission.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

[MazerRakhm]

I use a SmugMug pro account, and I know quite a few others here as well do.

A couple of good SmugMug threads:
Smugmug users: Are you happy with the service?

Post Your SmugMug Gallery!

What you really have to ask yourself before doing any site is if you are going to have enough $$$ in sales to justify it's expense. Or if you the expense vs hassle is worth it to you.

Smugmug is rather cheap and easy way with little to no hassle. For $150 a year you get unlimited photos plus a really large chunk of bandwidth to show them in. They take the orders process the CC’s and give the orders to the printer who ships the pictures by the consumers preferred method.

All you really have to do is take the pictures, post them to galleries.

(I’m skipping the pointing of consumers to your galleries to buy pictures which is an important part, but has nothing to do with the process of actual sales workflow.)

Smugmug also gives you detailed sales transactions which is really nice.

[Tee Why]

wait, it's $150 a year, not month, right?
It would actually be $108 for me to upgrade and I even got this years for free since I gave them enough referrals. If I can sell a few prints, this account may just pay for itself.

[MazerRakhm]

Ooops! Sorry, typo! It should be per year!

[Halliday]

I'm selling photos there

[Tee Why]

Yeah, broke down and got a pro account.
Here is a gallery of my stuff I'm willing to sell for prints.
Any opinions?
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1654705

[MazerRakhm]

You have some nice pics, I really like fisheye of the buildings.

[waussie]

Looking at the prices there you would have to sell a lots to recover the subscription.

[liza]

I've had mine since spring and have almost recouped the cost just selling 4x6 images to parents of high school students. The key is to take images that are meaningful to your customer base. Landscapes or pictures of flowers aren't going to sell, whereas pics of kids at graduation or at ball games will. People tend to buy people photos.

[Tee Why]

I would agree with you liza. I'd think folks are much more likely to buy nice pics of thier kids than landscape stuff. My goal is to be able to sell a few shots that I was taking for my own pleasure rather than going to events to make money by taking shots of kids/folks. Although I have done it from time to time in the past as a pro bono type of a thing. I'm not interested in doing that to make money b/c I think it would make photography from a pleasurable hobby into work. As opportunities come up, I may do that from time to time as well. I just did the same type of stuff for a museum event, so that may help pay for my smugmug account. I guess I'll see and adjust things as things roll along.

[liza]

When you start doing it for pay, it takes some of the enjoyment out of it. There are a lot of people on Smugmug who have really pretty pictures they took as a part of their hobby, but they aren't selling any of it. I would estimate that 90% of what I shoot these days is work related. I go to all the ball games, concerts, and other school or community events so I'll have things to upload. And you have to process and upload them quickly before people lose interest. It's somewhat akin to the deadlines I face during basketball season with my newspaper editor. You'll find that the general public has a very short attention span.

[Tee Why]

agreed, being a working photog is a very tough work and soon realized that it's definitely not for me. I'm just hoping at this point that I can sell enough to pay for a lens or a flash every once in awhile. I thought about doing stock photography and stuff like that to make some dough in photography, but decided not to b/c like I said before, it would turn my passionate hobby into work.

I did some stuff already for a museum and few events for music groups and performances and such. I really don't find those too pleasurable to shoot and decided not to do those any more just to do it now. If I do events and stuff, it'll be b/c it's of interest to me, and if I can make a few bucks to buy a flash or a reflector or something, then fine.

[dgelrod]

How is the print quality? Even if you have nice photos to view, if you aren't happy with the printed image it shouldn't be worth the effort, right?

Thanks,

Glen (probably looking for this type of website soon)

[Tee Why]

I heard that initially there was some problems with colors but I hear it's fixed. They use a professional printing company. I can't recall their name right now.

[Mike_M]

I setup a smugmug pro account last fall when I started taking high school football pictures (my son plays). I didn't want to deal with all the other parents asking for pictures so they view and buy them through smugmug. I post about 100 photos per game and sold about 250 photos during the season.

I thought the print quality was okay. I ordered a few myself to check them out. I don't think I would use smugmug for portraits, but not bad for my use.

I agree with what has already been said - if you have a connection with people for them wanting to see (and buy) your photos, then the cost will probably be worthwhile.

Has anyone tried another service?