Selling online

Hey there,
So here is the question to those of you do this for the mulla. I've been a reputation for paintball photography, and finally its getting tiresome doing email buying. I would like to install a plugin like PhotoCart that user can buy prints and all that jazz. its around 340$ (CAD) for myself. Sadly being a university student it hard to commit to that amount right away. So what are cheaper alternatives? or is it worth going with the cheaper alternatives?
This upcoming summer i will be doing 2 leagues and not counting other events. This way i can sell online alittle easier.
Anyways what is your guys thoughts?

Lots of threads on this...try the search button or the links at the bottom of this page under the similar posts section. Personally I'd say pony up $99/year and join Exposure Manager (link in signature). I make it back in the first few orders easy. TONS of threads demonstrating why so check them out, but remember one thing - you want quality prints ending up in the customers hands so don't sacrifice cheap for bad prints (you can self-fulfill by the way with ExpMan if you choose to).

We use Zenfolio and really like it too. I think it was $100 for the year.

I went with smugmug and recommend them - I narrowed my choices down to zenfolio or smugmug. Smugmug were more suited to what I want. They aren't perfect but they are damned good.

I went with Zenfolio. It seemed the easiest for me and the $100 a year isn't bad at all. I had it up and running within a hour or so.

Lets see, PhotoCart is too much?

My view would be Zenfolio, I use them and love them. If $100 upfront is too much you could try ShutterBug Store Front, it's $12.95 a month for the event package. Which this Store Front BS from ShutterBug is basically Exposure Manager re branded.

Zenfolio ($100 a year)

I personally would go with this option, mainly because Zen rocks and is easy to use. You could all in all drop the website you currently have and replace it with a Zen website or a SmugMug website. I right now am running a regular HTML website and a Zenfolio. When my DreamHost subscription comes back up for renewal I am going to drop it all together. It is a waste of money, my Zen receive more hits than my website. Once people figure out where your gallery is they will just forget about the main website.

Shutterbug Storefront ($12.95 a month)
Exposure Manager ($12.95 a month)
SimplePhoto ($10.00 a month)

Your best bet since you are in college with a good amount of bills would be a monthly option.

There is a free one somewhere, I am going to try and hunt it down. I will post it as soon as I find it.

Put my vote for Exposuremanager if you ever want to use any customer support they are the way to go. Plus using Mike's link you get a free trial and discount. Use the free trial you'll like it.

Another vote for Exposure Manager, use Mike's link to check it out. Everyrthing from their customer service to their print quality is the best you can find.

I know Smugmug and Zenfolio have shipping to Canada, however I think if you search around about it, it can take 2-3 weeks from when the client orders to when they receive.

Unless you want to self fulfill and just use it for ordering, which I'd imagine is possible. I would do some research on the shipping options for the sites people are listing.

Old post by ChrisRabior - Not to knock on everyone's smugmug discounts, but if you do a quick search for smugmug discounts, you can probably get your first year at 50% off. I used 'flickr' as my discount code, and it dropped me from $149 for a pro account to about 75. If it's still a valid offer, I'd go with that one in a heartbeat.


Links to most of the sites:
Online orders question

A lot of pros here use PrintRoom @ $99/year
Exposure Manager fee/features comparisons

Not my opinion:
NEVER again will I use MPIX!

I really like Instaproofs, No monthly or yearly fee. They do take 15% of the sale but unless you sell something there are no charges. This has worked well for me as I grow my business. I am reaching a point now where a yearly fee and less commission might save me some cash, but Instaproofs has been great so far and are constantly upgrading making their offering better.

Greg

I went with smugmug. They are great to deal with on a personal level. Their Customer Service rocks.

The only thing I wish they offered was personalized invoices or order confirmations.

g-money wrote in post #6976962
I really like Instaproofs, No monthly or yearly fee. They do take 15% of the sale but unless you sell something there are no charges. This has worked well for me as I grow my business. I am reaching a point now where a yearly fee and less commission might save me some cash, but Instaproofs has been great so far and are constantly upgrading making their offering better.

Greg

Greg. I cam upon your website and was just wondering who you use for web page template.

C