Sports Selling

[computerguru3190]

My sister plays sports in all kinds of teams and recently while taking pictures of her and her team, parents from that team have asked if I would take pictures of everyone and sell them.

I considered running proofs but thats not viable and I though about SmugMug or some kind of service like that. What would be more viable (and cheaper for me) to do, Run a SmugMug Pro site or have some type of proofing site, accept email orders and the have them printed from say Mpix.

I think it would be easier to have them done through SmugMug, but would I make as much money and will I have to fill out any small business forms or anything to accept the checks they send?

Thanks for your help.

[movol]

I have just started doing the same thing for my kids wrestling club. I just set up a smugmug site (it's free for 14 day)...and have let most of the parents know...even if they don't buy anything in the 14 day trial, 150 bucks, in my opinion is a small investment to try it for a year considering my kids are involved in year 'round sports.

However, my shots right now are action shots during the meets...if they start wanting team photo's, posed shots, etc etc..i might have to explore something like mpix to get the neat sports framing for those particular pictures, but still can't see ridding myself of smugmug.

[SoccerRef]

I do the same thing for my kid's clubs - Soccer and Wrestling. I have recently been asked to do Basketball, Baseball, and LaCrosse. I hear I may be soon hearing from the swimming coach as well.

I use Exposure Manager and I am thrilled with their service. You can start with a month to month subscription, which I believe is $12.95, then, if you enjoy it and are making money doing it, you can upgrade to an annual membership and save some cash. Annual membership is $99.95.

You set up your galleries, you choose which product you want to offer, you set your pricing (they have a utility that tells you what your profit will be as you are setting your pricing). You can simply upload photos, or you can get very involved in the process, it's up to you. EM will print them and ship them directly to your customers, or you can source the printing yourself and just use EM for the sales portion. (That is good because you get the advantage of your customer's being able to use a CC without you having to set up a vendor's license, etc.)

The first event I did, I had over $200 in sales within 48 hours. Profit to me ~$140. Their printing prices are reasonable, they take a 10% cut and they charge the customer for shipping (and the customer chooses the option they want... From slow to overnight).

It is SO easy to do, I did my site in one weekend. I set up a month to month account (the first 15 days are free, $12.95 per month after that), I purchased my web name www.AthletesPhotos.com from go daddy for $6.99 and redirected it to my EM account website. I purchased business cards for $12.00 to hand out at the events and voila, I was in business with less than $50 out of pocket expense (which I easily covered with my first 3 orders!)

Check them out. Look at my site to see the look of one of their generic templates, then use the following link to check them out.

http://www.exposuremanager.com/aff/paulperger (Using this link will give you $10 off of an annual account or your second month free if you choose to go month to month! And in the interest of full disclosure, I will receive a reference bonus as well.)

[bigjon0107]

hey, i do the same thing for my little sisters volleyball. www.backprint.com is the website i use. It is a free website, you can set your own prices on things and what you are selling. They do all the printing for you and mail you a check with your profits every 2 weeks. They take a 15% cut of price, not including shipping.

[Terry66]

I have been doing the team and individual posed shots for a few years...this year we did about 1500 kids.

I found that labs typically charge more for the digital borders, memory mates, etc, so I started doing my own. That way I just had to place an order for a regular 8X10. Seemed to go well and the parents enjoyed the products.

I ended up making a complete set of Photoshop templates for baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer and football and started selling them on my site. They are pretty slick in that you can change the background color as well as the player name/number, team name, and year. Feel free to check them out...

http://www.creativesportsimaging.com/csi/template.html

[PhotoAttorney]

I've heard great things about backprint.com from one of my clients and have met a rep from the company. I was impressed. I plan to use them for my future shoots.

Best,
Carolyn

[tomd]

OK, Another Dad here in the same boat, team parents wanting pics, etc.
QUESTION: what sort of file size must I shoot to produce quality pics that parents will pay $ for and not complain about the quality? If I shoot 8 megapixel, but crop it down, it there a resolution that I should aim for? Thanks

[movol]

I know one thing for sure...I will print the name of the kids on the team picture. I did this with my kids team last couple of years and if I do other teams this year, i'll do the same thing...Major selling point in my opinion...I'm 37 and still have most of my little league team pictures around and it would be great to remember the name of each kid.

the picture itself won't be a full 8x10 but i think it's a nice trade off.