First image sale

Just got my first image sale to parents today. I am so stoked. Been shooting for a few years but I started in the spring with Highschool soccer and some other events then up'd the effort in August as school started and I got a contract with my local highschool. My website has been live for about 3 months and I have not been hard selling it. Just making contacts and meeting parents and giving out a couple of images to the kids as they scored their first goal or touch down etc.
Well today I get my first Zenfolio email confirming an order and then not 2 hours later 2 more.
does this make me a pro

Cheers SteveP

Congratulations! It does feel good making that first sale. I've also noticed that orders seem to come in groups. It's almost like all the customers get together and pick a day to shop. Or maybe it's some unseen magical force!
If the photo fairy is reading this; You can visit me every day. I'll even leave cookies and milk!

w00t!!! Congratulations! I hope there are many more to come.

Congrats!

That's great! You'll have many more as word spreads. Other ways to boost income is to shoot the T&I for each team and sell season slideshows to the teams for their annual banquets. It also helps for those times when ther's a slump in individual action sales. Where in New England did you live?

Congrats...and yes I think that might make you a pro.

Most of my sales that parents buy comes from my face book page. I'll most a few of the good shots on there with my copy right and web address where they can be purchased. I'll then add a note to the album stating more can be found at my web site and give the address again. Then tag everyone I can in the images. Between that and handing out cards at the games seems to work really well in getting the word out where they can find them.

Congrats! Your hard work is paying off, keep it up!

Cheers Guys.

Quick note I had given out a few free images to some of the students just to get the thing rolling and I got in a spot of trouble with the AD indicating student athletes could not accept free gifts due to elligability. I thought it was a bit over the top but obviously do not want to get anyone in trouble so have had to stop the practice.

Does seem a bit over board, but on the plus side it sounds like he is placing a lot of value on your photography! Again the face book is the best for that sort of thing, as it not only helps pass the word around with the players, but their parents and other family members as well. But the kids will try and "steal" them, which I don't as my copy right and web page is in the middle of the image, so it's just more 'free' advertising.

dwarrenr wrote in post #10943094
Most of my sales that parents buy comes from my face book page.

Hmm that is interesting.

I have specifically NOT put photos on my FB site as I want to sell FB sized photos at a cheaper price.

Having said that my site is new and am just building up images before I notify all the parents.

Hence I am very interested to see how you get on.

bigrob wrote in post #10951619
Hmm that is interesting.

I have specifically NOT put photos on my FB site as I want to sell FB sized photos at a cheaper price.

Having said that my site is new and am just building up images before I notify all the parents.

Hence I am very interested to see how you get on.

Well it is driving leads to my pay site, so it is working. Am I losing other sales? Maybe, but I don't think so. And keep in mind I put up less then a handful of images on FB, and always put up several fan images with 4-10 people in it, and tag them as well. Even if I do lose a few 'FB image sales', I'd just call that advertising expense. My other alternative would be to buy advertising in the game magazine for each sport (cheapest is $50 per sport). So for me it seems to work rather well...but your millage may vary.

dwarrenr

I'm glad it working for you. Please don't think I was criticizing you - I wasn't.

Just interested.

No prob, I did not take it as if you were criticizing me, just sharing some of my reasoning. It's all good.

Ok great.

Maybe I'll setup an extra FB account just for photos rather than with real friends on it.

I do exactly same as Warren.
I have a face book site for Excel Sport Photography. I post my schedule on there and then I put a few images from each event as a teaser and so the kids can down load if they want. It is definately working as word gets around traffic at both my sirtes is increasing.