Hosting service that processes sales?

I was looking at this link:
https://www.stockphoto​secrets.com …os-and-prints-online.html

Saw a few I may be able to afford. Id like an easy "upload and forget" service to use, in contrast to doing the website myself, hosting the pictures myself, processing the credit card transaction myself, THEN having to submit my images to a print service to drop ship.

I dont do enough to justify a pro level service, but Id like a turn key service that I can get paid though.

Your advice is welcome!

Thanks,
Andrew

I use the $150 per year SmugMug service. It lets you have one price list for all of the photo galleries you want to sell from. You set the prices for each item you chose to offer. It works well and is not too difficult to get setup if you are ok with a template design. You can do a lot more to customize if you feel the need. They charge an the annual fee of $150 and 15% on what you sell plus the actual cost of the print. They have a number of labs you can chose from to make your prints.

I have sold a lot of prints and digital downloads on SmugMug and it has worked out well for me.

Thank you Mini, Ive had best pleasure with the quality of NPL, do that offer them by chance?
If not, who have you used, that they offer.. that you were very pleased with the quality of prints?

Also, do you have a link to one of your galleries or albums that have pictures for sale, which I
may see the layout and workflow that the customer would interface with?

Thanks for your informative post!

Andrew

The lab I have been using is called EZPrints. I believe they are in Atlanta. I have used them ever since I started with SmugMug, before most of the other labs became available. I have ordered samples from some of the other labs but have not changed labs. You would have to take a look at the SmugMug site to see the labs they work with. The list is not very long.

You can go to any of my galleries and click on the buy button below a photo.

HERE is one of my recent galleries for you to take a look at. Again, click on a photo to see it full browser screen and there will be a buy button in the lower right folder.

Thank you for your follow up Bob!

I have a quick question... It looks like you are hosting your own gallery, but it "ties in" with SmugMug??

I like the setup, I may be interested in "duplicating", if its something affordable.

Would you care to expand on how your gallery with your domain name works "along with" SM?

BTW, your pictures are great!

Thanks,
Andrew

Sir, could you tell me a little more about how your website integrated with smugmug? Everything looks awesome, Id like to have "similar" setup.

Thanks,
Andrew

If I understand your question SmugMug supports custom domain names. I purchased my domain via GoDaddy and brought it to SmugMug. It's not a difficult process to configure it. I think my domain name costs about $10 per year. I pay for it 5 years at a time.

The SM support people are very good. They will help you if you run into problems.

Thanks sir, after I posted that question to you... I further looked into the SM service, and indeed... found they "make your site with your domain", so its truly a "one stop shop".

At first, I saw your dedicated domain and what was a wonderful website, then you can check out at SM cart.

I thought.. it was your website on a separate service/server and then jumped to SM cart/checkout.

The "all in one" is actually a better solution, and welcomed.. Ive got 20+ years experience programming/Enternet and I can do it, but lemme tell ya, I dont want to... Ive done that stuff for so long Im burnt out. I just want to klick the shutter and upload, and SM looks to be my pick for host, sales and check out!

I doubt myself, I dont think any of my stuff will be purchase worthy just as stand alone art, but you never know! Id rather try and fail, than to never try at all.

Also would be a great way to do shots on site and upload to the SM site for the client to finalize prints on there own, I'd be hands off after the upload, which is also a welcome thing.

For the money and fee share they take, it really is worth it. They are not digging too deep into profits, but the service I would be getting would be well worth the $150 a year plus 15%!

For the rest of my clients that Ill include digital downloads as part of the package fee, I can continue to put them on my web host.

Thanks much friend,
Andrew

I tried a couple services before settling on SmugMug myself. So far I have been very happy with their service. For image processing, they use EZ Prints, Bay Photo, Loxley, or WHCC you can choose from. I love the fact that I can upload images and not worry about fulfillment and delivery of products. Their template system is a little awkward to get used to at first but after a while it's not that bad. Organizing images into galleries and collections is a breeze and you can password protect client galleries as needed.

Good luck with your site Andrew. I don't think you will be disappointed with SmugMug, maybe a bit frustrated for a short while as you begin to customize it, but in the end I think you will find the learning curve worthwhile.

One last thing.. Looks like Bay would be the way to go.. for quality. Do you have any specific picks that you like the best?

Thx,
Andrew

ShutterKlick wrote in post #18524198
One last thing.. Looks like Bay would be the way to go.. for quality. Do you have any specific picks that you like the best?

Thx,
Andrew

I have been using EZPrints since before some of the others wee available. I'm sure there are better but EZPrints has done well for me. No complaints from any sale of over 3,100 orders (mostly sports pics) and I believe they are the least expensive so you get to keep more $ from each sale.

Bob, thank you sir, you are an ambassador to the art!

Andrew