Help: Selling Youth Football Photos on Site

This fall I will be an assistant coach on a youth football team. However during games, I will be shooting the kids from the field and then selling the images to the parents after the game. The idea is to keep a little for myself for my time etc. and then give the rest back to the program for equipment, recruiting etc. It is not really a big money making thing, more of a way to get the kids and parents some great images and give back to the kids and the program at the same time.

There is a high demand for great images from the field of their kids that the parents just cant get from the stands. I have shot NFL games before, so the skill / technical thing I have no problem with.

Here is my question. Do you guys have any suggestions on the best, most efficient way to:

Display the images after the game.
Track the parents orders on site with the images they want, how many, what size etc.
Take payment on site.

I have a Square account so I think I am good there, but if you have other suggestions, I am open. (Would rather not take checks.)

I have a MacBook Air and an iPad that could be used for display / ordering and also have both LR4 and Aperture 3. I figure there will be multiple parents looking to order and going through the images, so the most efficient way to track orders would be best.

Any ideas you guys have I would appreciate. I want to be as efficient as possible so I am getting ideas early. Practices do not start until August so I have a little time.

Why do you want to do it on site compared to handing out cards and letting them do it online? Sounds like a PITA to setup a laptop/payment/etc. after a baseball game that you just setup/ran/etc. Plus no time for editing unless you just use presets..

You definitely want to capitalize on the instant gratification of having that print on site. When I played hockey a few moons ago, my parents would say that if there was a photographer on site, I HAD to buy a pic or two (they would pay me back double). I think you'll find in this forum that everyone will agree that online orders days or weeks after the game are much less profitable.

I think you need to have 10 to 20 prints available on site, and offer prints of ANY image on site to try and capitalize on the moment. I think parents are more likely to pay for a print they can take home immediately rather than wait to have it sent to them. This requires a bit more overhead, but I would argue that you would see a net benefit from it. I would also say you should offer a 'discount' for ordering on site vs online ($10 day of, $15 online afterwards). Also, heavily heavily watermark your images on the internet to prevent the freeloaders as much as possible.

Beyond that, I can't help you with some of the details because I haven't actually operated anything like this before. Hopefully someone who has can chime in shortly.

So during games instead of being the assistant coach you are, you'll be playing photographer? Just wanted to get that straight.

I recently shot 5 games of a youth baseball team that one of my cousins plays for. He specifically asked me to come and get some pictures of him, but I figured if I was there I would go ahead and get pics of all the kids on their team.

After the first game, I put together a composite/collage of him that included a few images. I showed up the second game with the printed 11x14 and had 7 parents request the same for their kids. They all understood that it took some PP on my part to put it together. I collected their email addresses and provided them with proofs before purchasing the prints. Most of them have followed up asking for proofs of the individual shots that I got of their kid as well, which I've also provided. Many are following up with packages; purchasing individual prints in addition to the composite.

The only thing that I wish I was able to do instead would have been to provide them with a link to an individual gallery of images of their kid, rather than having to email them individual files. That said, I'm soon to be building a website for this reason

I do something similar, and I use my zenfolio account. I have a folders for each season, and folders for each game. I post process after each game, and then send a link out to the parents (that points to that game's folder). Zenfolio does the rest (managing orders, etc).

Thanks for the tips guys. I will consider your suggestions and see what might work best.

good_ken wrote in post #15988092
I do something similar, and I use my zenfolio account. I have a folders for each season, and folders for each game. I post process after each game, and then send a link out to the parents (that points to that game's folder). Zenfolio does the rest (managing orders, etc).

While I don't do what your doing yet, my daughter is only 4, but is starting sports and I will be doing the same thing he is doing. Hand the parents a card and have them go to the site. Or get email address for each parent that is interested, and send out a mass email stating that the soccer game on xx date is upload.

I know the onsite thing would be nice, but at the same time, parents want pics of there kids, I know I do, so I don't believe it would be a big hassle to get onto a website while I'm watching my even episode of NCIS or Longmire.

I took photos of my daughter's ballet performance and the lady in charge asked if I would be willing to sell my photos and put them online, I finally found the best hosting site for me that gives a free one month trial but I haven't seen many orders yet and so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I think the studio appreciates the pics but maybe a fair amount of parent already have a good camera. Good luck! If you need to put the pics online I'd be happy to message you the site I found.

Printing on-site is definitely the way to go for getting more sales, however, the set up cost is high and it would be very highly pressured at the end of the gave with many parents wanting to look at the images at the same time, place orders and take delivery.

In reality to achieve this you would need to regularly download your images to the booth so parents can look during breaks (between quarters and halves) or even during a break if their kid is not on the field.

This means that you need an assistant to man the booth etc.

As you are doing this primarily as a fundraiser for the team I'd suggest just using an online service and making the website well known.

Will you be throwing away potential sales, hell yeah, but doing it properly with onsite printing would be a logistical nightmare just for a single game.

First, let me say that I'm not trying to brag on amount, but just to add some values for comparison.

Based on the information that I provided in the earlier post, I've done $265 in sales from 4 parents and 1 grandparent. Three additional parents have confirmed that they want prints as well, but I'm still waiting to get order information from them.

drvnbysound wrote in post #16001585
First, let me say that I'm not trying to brag on amount, but just to add some values for comparison.

Based on the information that I provided in the earlier post, I've done $265 in sales from 4 parents and 1 grandparent. Three additional parents have confirmed that they want prints as well, but I'm still waiting to get order information from them.

I'm curious what the print looks like and how much you're selling it for?

The majority of the sales have been the 11x14, which is a composite/collage of 3 images and includes text that displays their name and number. I've been selling these for $40ea. I've been told by some that they've paid as much as $75 for similar in the past. It's literally nothing fancy other than an 11x14 background image (of the player), with 2 additional smaller pictures (of the player) that I added in with a stroke around each of them. Generally I tried to capture each player doing different things (e.g. fielding position, throwing, and batting). Since this was the first time that I've done this, I wasn't sure how the parents would react so I tried to price it at what I thought they would be willing to pay.

I assumed if I priced too high and no one purchased then what's the point? Basically, I said to myself, I want to get something out of the time that I've spent shooting these events. If I get nothing, then I've somewhat wasted my time (other than the practice I gained shooting the games).

I agree with your reasoning... You have to price it at what people are willing to spend.
Thanks for the response.

No problem.

BTW: The grandparent who purchased ordered (14) 4x6s and (2) 8x10s of her grandson. Along with the a la carte pricing I provided, I also had 3 packages listed none of which matched what she asked for. The a la carte pricing would have put the pricing at $90. She asked if there was a discount for what she was purchasing. I responded and told her that I would sell them for $75. She responded and told me that she thought it was a great deal and told me to place the order. These are images that I did minor adjustments to (WB and exposure) and cropping.

Note: I was shooting pictures of the pitcher of a particular game from behind home plate. This grandparent was sitting beside me and struck conversation with me. She asked if I was the same photographer who was at another field on a previous occasion. I explained that it wasn't me. She went on to tell me that he was providing 4x6s for $1 each and went on to pull a few out of her purse. Said photographer had watermarked the 4x6s in each lower corner and the prints were done at Walmart (according to the back printing).