MicrostockGroup

Hello,

I'd like to ask your opinion about photo galleries to use on your web pages....
I want to sell my photography on my webpage and I'm trying to find something meaningful.
I am currently trying FotoPlayer (http://www.fotoplayer.com/), it seems to be good, you can add a shopping cart... but somehow it is not too professional.
What do you use?
I know of services like photoshelter, but I have my own webhosting...i don't really need to pay for a service like that i guess.

Thanks!
Simone

Thanks Don!

But then again, this is a paid service that HOSTS your pictures. I have my own host... I was more thinking of a gallery in flash/php/whatever that i could put on my own webspace. Do you guys know something like that?

Thanks!
Simone

Coppermine is tricky to set up.  There are also a couple of Jalbum skins that support image downloads and shopping carts, but in the end I went with Zenfolio and got the pro account. 

hmmmm i actually do have coppermine for my private photo gallery. i have no problem with php and mysql and webdesign and so on. i have never tried the shopping cart option of coppermine - does it make sense?
most skins are terrible......i found "thirteen" is nice. i use it together with a lightbox plugin so that pictures pop up. http://www.canada.simsisworld.at/ (the content is extremely old though....and thus mostly not photographical........)

maybe i should stay with fotoplayer. (www.canada.simsisworld.at/flash) it has also a shopping cart, which in this particular webpage is not activated though. you can see a demo with shopping cart here: http://www.fotoplayer.com/v4/index.html What do you think, is that enough for professionally selling pictures on your own website? it is my first time, that is why i ask.

Simone

Are you needing a shopping cart for clients you shoot for or just for selling images in general? If you are dealing with actual clients like portrait clients don't offer them online shopping systems. A person will spend way more money during a personal sales presentation than they will sitting on their computer at home. Going offline can easily turn a $300 sale into a $800+ sale.

that's a really good idea, simsi. i've often seen hanging photographic prints without much info, only sales price. did you approach only one cafe, or will you contact more in the future?

i usede Gallery for awhile - it's a bit tricky at first but online support is excellet and it's free.  i never really did like the look, though [also didnt spend a lot of time searching thru all the possible themes]

i've since switched to smugmug pro - you can integrate it wityh your own domain eg http://pix-now.com, add google advertising, and links to your site.  it's quick to set up, easy to use, good support.

not sure any of these sites garner many sales unless you build the traffic yhourself.

i've also played around with redbubble and greeting card universal, but again, traffic is low, sales a trickle

steve

so if i use smugmug or the like i'll have more traffic?

hmm that sounds good, i have time, and i am also good at webdesign things, so it won't be that hard.
i may start with fotoplayer and move to drupal? which gallery extensions and shopping carts are there, anyone has experience with that here?

thanks!
simone

HM.... i set up trials at both SmugMug and PhotoShelter.
Which one do you use, what do you find better?
It seems a bit unflexible to me, can I integrate it into my website or can I only use the interface they have?

Thanks!
Simone

http://eyecatchlightphotography.smugmug.com/
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/eyecatchlight

yes you can integrate smugmug into your website, and even have it show up under your domain name -- eg http://pix-now.com

you can also add html and javascript to the pages, using their 'advanced customizer', so you can include goodle analytics or adsense


then it's easy to show images on your site that link back to your galleries, eg http://cascoly.com/trav/india/varanasi.asp

hm i found it, it is called self-fulfilled products, photoshelter and zenfolio have it.
how does it work, do they keep money from all this?
is it worth to pay the crazy fees of photoshelter??? zenfolio is a thousand times cheaper. actually i like smugmug best, but it has no self-fulfilment option.

I've been looking into this for a while and the only true stock-specific software I found is Lightbox http://www.lightboxphoto.com/. I'm currently evaluating them and Photoshelter.

A big difference is that you can buy the Lightbox software and host it somewhere or they host it for you. Photoshelter is rental only. The Lightbox software isn't cheap. You'd need to check if it's compatible with your host. Lightbox handles Royalty Free licensing and also has a Rights Managed configuration with a price calculator like Photoshelter.

Photoshelter is pretty slick and easy to configure but their site seems to have some issues with Google indexing. The SEO features are nice but if Google doesn't index them then they have little value.

Smugmug and most other sites are shopping carts and don't offer advanced licensing like RM. Not sure if you sell RM. And I've tried Gallery, Coppermine, and few other apps. I found that the photo applications like Gallery were really clunky and poorly designed and the generic cart software like Zencart were a pain to set up for photos.

So, I haven't found the do-everything app but Photoshelter and Lightbox are close.