I'm confused, why aren't people buying?

Last weekend I shot a lacrosse tournament. 90+ degree heat, artificial turf fields that were 10 degrees warmer. I shot 15 games, 12 are posted on my site. One sale of three pics and that's it. I have had 20,000 hits (smugmug hits meaning pictures). According to google analytics I have had 6,045 visits, 23,000 pageviews, 3.8 pages per visit, 86% bounce rate, 32 seconds ave time on site. Obviously I am doing something wrong. I shot differently than I do at a professional game trying to get more shots of kids (stock photos) that parents would like. Still have a few galleries to post but this has been a huge undertaking for little (no) return. I have always done better shooting single games in the past. The tournament posted multiple links and obviously people have visited my site, what am I missing. A link to the galleries is below.

http://www.sportsactio​ndigital.com/CatawbaCl​assic

slimenta wrote in post #12635725
Last weekend I shot a lacrosse tournament. 90+ degree heat, artificial turf fields that were 10 degrees warmer. I shot 15 games, 12 are posted on my site. One sale of three pics and that's it. I have had 20,000 hits (smugmug hits meaning pictures). According to google analytics I have had 6,045 visits, 23,000 pageviews, 3.8 pages per visit, 86% bounce rate, 32 seconds ave time on site. Obviously I am doing something wrong. I shot differently than I do at a professional game trying to get more shots of kids (stock photos) that parents would like. Still have a few galleries to post but this has been a huge undertaking for little (no) return. I have always done better shooting single games in the past. The tournament posted multiple links and obviously people have visited my site, what am I missing. A link to the galleries is below.

http://www.sportsactio​ndigital.com/CatawbaCl​assic

I shoot at the HS level and post a lot of photos that I wouldn't buy but parents have been known to pass up a great shot of their kid and purchase one that really makes you wonder why.

You're not doing anything wrong. Some of it may have to do with the economy. Where I live, there are parents that are still out of work and while they want photos of their kid, they don't need them. It may also be that parents will settle for free over quality

I find that sales are best for Freshmen, " My little Johnny made the team!" then slow down until Little Johnny is a Senior. then it's "OMG my baby's going to graduate! I need to get photos this year"

For me to consider a team to be profitable, I need to make at least what a part time job would pay me for the same hours (factoring in time in front of a PC also)

Try to market to the team parents club if they have one. Enlargements to give the seniors as gifts, team posters, maybe a slideshow for their banquet.

T&I will always be more profitable that action.

try for more faces , otherwise nice shots . good luck

Thanks Mike, that's helpful. I think when I get all posted I will send e-mails to each club. You are correct that the one sale included a 16 x 20 Giclee print of a U-15 player.

How many other photogs were there?

Your pricing is certainly cheap enough.

slimenta wrote in post #12635914
Thanks Mike, that's helpful. I think when I get all posted I will send e-mails to each club. You are correct that the one sale included a 16 x 20 Giclee print of a U-15 player.

Best of luck, Keep in mind that at the HS level it pays to post photos that you would normally cut. But don't post 100's of shots. It might be the only shot of a particular player. The kid that doesn't get much play time and doesn't do much when he does.

Try to get the T&I business. It'll greatly help offset when sales are poor of action shots

It's been discussed a bit on here. Parents are often ok with a water marked photo taken from your website to share via email or facebook and don't need a print of their child in action. What I've seen from my own family members is they buy the team photo and the posed shot of their child and that's it. You also might do better to crop tighter as what is on your site is rather loosely composed or as-shot. Make it look its best if you want sales.

mobei wrote in post #12636032
Your pricing is certainly cheap enough.

That's what I thought! It has always been a good equation with volume. I was the only photog other than random parents.

slimenta wrote in post #12636116
I was the only photog other than random parents.

There is probably your answer to low/no sales. Parents are notrious for giving a cd to their teams players.
My suggestion would be to pick up a Sports Illustrated and take a look at what they are publishing. Crop the heck out of your shots so you get more face and less legs.
I did the HS sports shooting deal for about 7 years. 4x6 and 5x7's were the most often bought print size. I could probably count on both hands how many prints larger than 8x10 I sold in those 7 years. Cropping them down to show peak action with a face involved upped my sales.

3.8 page views per visit could mean that visitors were searching for a shot of an individual, didn't find it, got bored and left feeling that it was too much hassle wading through 100's of images.

Also I agree with others - the images that yu have posted in the gallery are a great size for Facebook and your watermark is really unobtrusive - so much so that I hardly noticed it. People could definately be using screen grabs to get a usable freebie.

It might take time for them to decide which ones to purchase; they take a quick look at them and then come back later to purchase.

slimenta wrote in post #12635725
I shot 15 games, 12 are posted on my site.

15 games, only separated into boys & girls, so I agree with the following...

Nightstalker wrote in post #12636950
3.8 page views per visit could mean that visitors were searching for a shot of an individual, didn't find it, got bored and left feeling that it was too much hassle wading through 100's of images.

Maybe categories like "This team vs. That team" would make it easier for people to search out one player?

If you aren't selling now, then I don't see where a BIG "sportsactiondigital.c​om" across the bodies would hurt your sales? Maybe two or three of them so it's really irritating?

rick_reno wrote in post #12638197
It might take time for them to decide which ones to purchase; they take a quick look at them and then come back later to purchase.

Good point. Someone here posted that their sales were either immediate, or at the end of the season. Some people have tried, "This gallery will expire in X-weeks", & sent out an e-mail reminder just before that date with good results.

Then there's this (edited): https://photography-on-the.net …hp?p=12260904&p​ostcount=3

"I found that the sales of people playing the game were pretty slim but the team and single photo concept were excellent. I did direct market to the parents via a web gallery but I also found that I could garner more sales by working directly with a team representative. We would set a deadline for the parents to order through the team, they would pay through the team and then I got one large order. I made it clear that after this original order went the price was going to be about 20% higher for those that wanted to do individual orders later. This was a motivational ploy to get them to order at the beginning."
&
"I would suggest that you put together some different packages. The last sporting groups that I did I had around 6 different combinations of the team and single player shots. One thing that I found that sell quite well are wallets. Granny likes to have these in her purse to show everyone at bingo. I had a set of two of these priced higher than a 4x6 and they sold great."

IndyJeff wrote in post #12636395
There is probably your answer to low/no sales. Parents are notrious for giving a cd to their teams players.
My suggestion would be to pick up a Sports Illustrated and take a look at what they are publishing. Crop the heck out of your shots so you get more face and less legs.
I did the HS sports shooting deal for about 7 years. 4x6 and 5x7's were the most often bought print size. I could probably count on both hands how many prints larger than 8x10 I sold in those 7 years. Cropping them down to show peak action with a face involved upped my sales.

Nice to see you here, Jeff!

if i spent "32 seconds" on a persons site, it usually means i don't like the work. although i think you have good work

parents whose children are playing in lacrosse tournaments are not usually unemployed or broke. club lacrosse is not cheap. i just think that many parents don't see that much value in sports photography, that if they really want a picture of their child, they will do it themselves, or they will ask somebody else to do it for them for free. parents of sports children are constantly having to shell out cash for their child's various activities. in general, i would say that sports photographs are not even on the radar for most parents, and kind of seem like surcharge or even a luxury tax of sorts on top of all the fees we are already paying, especially by the time our children are teenagers.