cheap downloads: it worked for itunes

Specifically relating to sports/event photography: We post online many photos of competitors, and sure we sell a handful to some parents, but my guess is 90% of the photos never are purchased and just sit server space until we decide to remove them.
Add to that, people do screen captures, right clicks, etc; to get a free pic that they can use on their FaceBook, cell phone, avatar on a board, etc.

Question: would it work to offer a 72dpi, small size image for digital download for say 99 cents, $1.49 or something else cheap enough that people will pay for the download rather than "stealing" it?

tomd wrote in post #10631782
Specifically relating to sports/event photography: We post online many photos of competitors, and sure we sell a handful to some parents, but my guess is 90% of the photos never are purchased and just sit server space until we decide to remove them.
Add to that, people do screen captures, right clicks, etc; to get a free pic that they can use on their FaceBook, cell phone, avatar on a board, etc.

Question: would it work to offer a 72dpi, small size image for digital download for say 99 cents, $1.49 or something else cheap enough that people will pay for the download rather than "stealing" it?

I'm sure people would pay it, realistically I think sports/event photos are the Only type that you wouldn't be seriously shooting yourself in the foot to do so.. On the other hand, if you're now selling the photos for .99 cents, what's going to stop the parents from paying you a buck and then going to walgreens for .50 cent prints, just because they are low res doesn't mean people won't do it to avoid paying more..

The resolution would be so low (and clearly stated on the site ) that a print would not be acceptable, for example 72 dpi.

tjames wrote in post #10632995
I'm sure people would pay it, realistically I think sports/event photos are the Only type that you wouldn't be seriously shooting yourself in the foot to do so.. On the other hand, if you're now selling the photos for .99 cents, what's going to stop the parents from paying you a buck and then going to walgreens for .50 cent prints..

What type of processing would be done?
Would you spend time culling before upload?
Shoot only jpg?

Depends upon where you host your photos now. I don't think you can do that on Smugmug.

Additional thoughts:
Are people not buying because they don't even go to the site (don't care about action shots) ?
If people only buy the 99 cent special instead of prints your screwed. You need the markup from the prints or digital image to pay for your time and business costs.

iTunes works because of the mass appeal & volume sales of an individual download. Event photographers seldom get that kind of response because one particular image won't appeal to that many folks. That doesn't mean you can't offer cheap downloads - it just means you're not likely to make big bucks from them.

Microstock is where you want to be if you're looking at high volume sales and mass appeal of your photos for little cash per sale, but event photography doesn't fit there.

You spend 2 hours at a ball game / event shooting the stuff, assume it's in your backyard, so no travel time. let's say 30 minutes afterwards for sorting and uploading to the event/image fulfillment site (your own or a contract one).

Each family from the team buys 2 photos, and there are 30 members on the team. Wow, 60 photos at $1 each - $60! Woohoo. That's a whopping $24/Hour not including expenses (Gas, hosting, equipment use, the water/coke you drank at the field, etc).

If you are willing to do pro event work for $24 an hour, and eat all expenses, I'd like to contract you out for some jobs!

steelsun wrote in post #10634043
You spend 2 hours at a ball game / event shooting the stuff, assume it's in your backyard, so no travel time. let's say 30 minutes afterwards for sorting and uploading to the event/image fulfillment site (your own or a contract one).

Each family from the team buys 2 photos, and there are 30 members on the team. Wow, 60 photos at $1 each - $60! Woohoo. That's a whopping $24/Hour not including expenses (Gas, hosting, equipment use, the water/coke you drank at the field, etc).

If you are willing to do pro event work for $24 an hour, and eat all expenses, I'd like to contract you out for some jobs!

I didn't mean to imply this would be a income source that will generate big bucks, rather an additional source of income from the people that don't buy the prints, but snag the pics off my web site via screen capture, etc.

No additional processing would need to be done, since it is already completed for the prints for sale. I was thinking of an additional option for people to easily get pics for their social media pages.

Smugmug has a personal download option. You set the price you want. Smugmug does the downsizing for you. Check out their help section. It should explain it better than me.

I have sold a few of the smaller images.

MT Stringer wrote in post #10634824
Smugmug has a personal download option. You set the price you want. Smugmug does the downsizing for you. Check out their help section. It should explain it better than me.

I have sold a few of the smaller images.

Thanks. Do you see a down side to offering the small size downloads?

You can already do this at istockphoto.com. In fact once you sign up for an account, they offer a free photo of the week each week.

But itunes has a much broader appeal than pictures of a child's event or a child playing sports, right? Is your time, talent, and business equipment worth 99 cents per exposure? Maybe if you can get parents to buy 50 photos of their kid from a ball game.

Sound like I might be the only one that agrees with you.

I've thought for a long time that this is a model that would work for kids sports. As you stated 90% of the images go dead. I've heard the same from many others.

Get the 72dpi thing out of your head. That only applies to printing parameters and really means nothing. It is actual X-Y resolution you need to think about.

I think facebook has something like 720px max side. I would offer something smaller and odd size such as 510 max side. Not quite good enough for a quality 4x6 but big enough for screen and email. They should also contain a tasteful watermark on a lower corner.

I personally don't think the would cause lost sales of prints.

How many people are seeing them? How many clicks does it take them to select and pay for a picture? I was reading an article just today on how surprisingly lazy people are about purchasing anything that takes to many clicks--especially if they have to register for every purchase