MicrostockGroup

I was wondering if anyone had success using PhotoShelter as their ecommerce site for direct sales?

I have an idea I believe I can market direct to buyers but it is unsuitable for micro, in fact most of the agencies reject these images. All I want is an ecommerce site to sell from.

Tell me your stories please.

I used PS for awhile back when they still were selling stock through their collection.  I've since moved to Zenfolio and bought the premium account which is far nicer and more intuitive than PS ever was.  Zenfolio offers digital downloads through four different licensing options now.

If you are interested in selling images Image Stream looks pretty good, take a look at www.imagespan.com.  I think they wind up less expensive than PSA, and for me I want to move as far away from PhotoShelter as possible as I was one of those that invesed much time and effort only an organization that was not really ready to move forward.

Scott

I use the personal archive to enable me to upload my files there, and then FTP directly to every other site (except IS f course). Works well for that, though I'm not sure about selling directly.

I had a thorough look at the site yesterday. Yes they sell individuals but only for a parking fee of 150$ per year. It's like Mostphotos then, primarily photo sharing and commenting, but you can set your own prices. I don't have the faintest idea if you can make up for that 150$ by sales. They are quite high on Alexa, but remember, they basically are about photo sharing. The only advantage over having your own site with Coppermine plus a cart is that you will turn up in their search engine. But like Mostphotos, that engine isn't driven by sales but by community ratings, which are crap.

I still don't know what to do. If somebody is interested and confident he can make up for the 150$, we should make a group like 'premium stockers' or something and crosslinks accounts.

Been there, done that. You need to attract traffic. It's better when a central entry point does that. As an individual you can't just do photos to achieve that. You need to have a meaningful blog for that. Ask Lee Torrens how much time he puts in his blog and his port...

Why not just email the shots then? If he has enough volume, he can set up his own domain and install Coppermine Gallery with a cart. That's cheaper than an 150$ SmugMug account and you don't need to pay Smugmug an extra 20% on sales.

Well no site will cover you legally. Those are editorial, right? You can set galleries private or password-protected an just give your customers the password. But I think for print Smugmug takes huge commissions on print. If your customers are in one place, you can as well make an arrangement with a local printer in a mall or so. If your audience is nationwide, Smugmug is a solution. Just have to read their fine print and commissions carefully.