Author Topic: good photo gallery to sell? (Read 24053 times)

eyeCatchLight · « **on:** April 06, 2010, 19:25 »

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

bendicks · « **Reply #1 on:** April 06, 2010, 19:38 »

I use Zenfolio for my site, seems to have everything that I need.

I use the Pro account since I need to allow digital content download and also the ability to setup different licensees, plus the ability to overlay my domain name over my zenfolio account.

Here is my site.....http://gallery.stockfoodpics.com/?Submit=Enter+Gallery%2FStore

And here is a link to Zenfolio.....http://www.zenfolio.com/

-Don

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #2 on:** April 06, 2010, 20:06 »

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

FD · « **Reply #3 on:** April 06, 2010, 20:57 »

Coppermine Photo Gallery
Coppermine is an Open Source multi-purpose fully-featured and integrated web picture gallery script written in PHP using GD or ImageMagick as image library with a MySQL back end. It is free but you need your own web hosting, and some web skills.

Gallery
Gallery is an Open Source web based photo album organizer. Gallery gives you an intuitive way to blend photo management seamlessly into your own website.

eppic · « **Reply #4 on:** April 06, 2010, 21:52 »

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.

FD · « **Reply #5 on:** April 06, 2010, 22:00 »

Quote from: eppic on April 06, 2010, 21:52

Coppermine is tricky to set up.

Yes definitely. It's not for the faint at heart. I find myself fiddling in the php code all the time to be able to do what I want. Most of their skins hurt the eyes. But the OP wanted to have an install on her own site, not a hoster. Apart from Zenfolio, there is also good old Smugmug that probably has higher exposure.

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #6 on:** April 06, 2010, 22:14 »

Quote from: FD-amateur on April 06, 2010, 22:00

Quote from: eppic on April 06, 2010, 21:52
Coppermine is tricky to set up.

Yes definitely. It's not for the faint at heart. I find myself fiddling in the php code all the time to be able to do what I want. Most of their skins hurt the eyes. But the OP wanted to have an install on her own site, not a hoster. Apart from Zenfolio, there is also good old Smugmug that probably has higher exposure.

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

FD · « **Reply #7 on:** April 06, 2010, 22:45 »

Quote from: simsi on April 06, 2010, 22:14

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?

Yes but most cart plugins are not maintained well and have issues. About half of the time of maintaining CMSses now goes to addressing vulnerabilities. Even my Joomla (well maintained) was hacked by a MySQL injection. If money is involved, I wouldn't trust any free plugins. An option is to link your photos to a secure site like Clustershot or Mostphotos. Or sell off a secure site like Smugmug and the like.

Randy McKown · « **Reply #8 on:** April 06, 2010, 23:19 »

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.

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #9 on:** April 06, 2010, 23:37 »

no, it is not portraiture. it is more of a landscape and that sort of stuff sale. for example now i hang pictures in a café with prices written and direct them to my website, where they can order them for example framed. i also want to put other pictures there and make them available for download sale.

ap · « **Reply #10 on:** April 07, 2010, 01:46 »

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?

Randy McKown · « **Reply #11 on:** April 07, 2010, 01:59 »

Quote from: simsi on April 06, 2010, 23:37

no, it is not portraiture. it is more of a landscape and that sort of stuff sale. for example now i hang pictures in a café with prices written and direct them to my website, where they can order them for example framed. i also want to put other pictures there and make them available for download sale.

I'd probably stick with a JAlbum with FotoPlayer then unless you want to invest a bit more and use something like picturespro .. they have been around forever and have a very stable cart with more pro options ... as far as online carts go it would probably be your best attempt at upselling canvas prints and specialty products because you can use product example images in the cart. FotoPlayer has a more trendy slideshow feel but it offers nothing when it comes down to upselling techniques.

cascoly · « **Reply #12 on:** April 07, 2010, 13:38 »

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

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #13 on:** April 07, 2010, 14:34 »

Quote from: ap on April 07, 2010, 01:46

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?

no...i'll approach several cafés.

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #14 on:** April 07, 2010, 14:34 »

Quote from: cascoly on April 07, 2010, 13:38

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.

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

Snufkin · « **Reply #15 on:** April 07, 2010, 14:52 »

If you have enough time, you might want to consider a fully fledged CMS like drupal.org.
There many modules and extensions for drupal, like galleries and shopping cart.
Pros: + highly customizable
+ if properly set up, very search engine friendly
+ free
+ large community behind it
Cons: - it takes a lot of time to learn it, and to set up the first (decent) website

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #16 on:** April 07, 2010, 14:59 »

Quote from: Tom on April 07, 2010, 14:52

If you have enough time, you might want to consider a fully fledged CMS like drupal.org.
There many modules and extensions for drupal, like galleries and shopping cart.
Pros: + highly customizable
+ if properly set up, very search engine friendly
+ free
+ large community behind it
Cons: - it takes a lot of time to learn it, and to set up the first (decent) website

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

Snufkin · « **Reply #17 on:** April 07, 2010, 15:17 »

Quote from: simsi on April 07, 2010, 14:59

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

I have just started to learn drupal, because it allows me to set up the site exactly the way I want.
I read that Gallery can be integrated into drupal, but since I don't need things like ratings or comments, I want to do it with other modules.
There is the "Views" module (http://drupal.org/project/views) which creates listings of content, for example images.
Apart from Views there lots of modules that help you do with images what you need to do:
http://drupal.org/search/apachesolr_search/image
http://drupal.org/project/modules?text=image

I don't know anything about fotoplayer.

Basically, you have to learn and configure each module separately, which takes time but the possibilities are endless.
As for the shopping cart, there is Ubercart:
http://drupal.org/project/modules?text=ubercart

but I am not going to implement it, I will link to other sites (I have no time to handle the sales).

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #18 on:** April 09, 2010, 12:27 »

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

cascoly · « **Reply #19 on:** April 10, 2010, 01:33 »

Quote from: simsi on April 07, 2010, 14:34

Quote from: cascoly on April 07, 2010, 13:38

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.

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

sorry, no - whatever they may say, these sites save time you'd spend on programming and design, but they only really end up showing your images among an incestuous group of other photographers, few of whom ever actually buy anything. if you want to sell from these sites you need to do the hard work yourself.

s

cascoly · « **Reply #20 on:** April 10, 2010, 01:39 »

Quote from: simsi on April 09, 2010, 12:27

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

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #21 on:** April 11, 2010, 07:58 »

hm....so i have looked through this for a while now......
i miss an important thing: what i want to do (among other things) is having my photos exposed in cafés and the like, and customers go to my website and order a framed print for example. this means that i print the picture and frame it by myself. but in smugmug and those others you can only use their labs as print services! And I don't know if you can add customized products?

What do you think of that?

eyeCatchLight · « **Reply #22 on:** April 11, 2010, 08:22 »

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.

cascoly · « **Reply #23 on:** April 11, 2010, 08:55 »

Quote from: simsi on April 11, 2010, 07:58

hm....so i have looked through this for a while now......
i miss an important thing: what i want to do (among other things) is having my photos exposed in cafés and the like, and customers go to my website and order a framed print for example. this means that i print the picture and frame it by myself. but in smugmug and those others you can only use their labs as print services! And I don't know if you can add customized products?

What do you think of that?

redbubble and fineartsamerica both offer framing services - main problem with this approach is your margins are small and there's a substantial upfront investment. but it'd be great for diversification if you can do it

steve

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #24 on:** April 11, 2010, 09:46 »

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.

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Author Topic: good photo gallery to sell? (Read 24053 times)

eyeCatchLight

bendicks

eyeCatchLight

FD

eppic

FD

eyeCatchLight

FD

Randy McKown

eyeCatchLight

ap

Randy McKown

cascoly

eyeCatchLight

eyeCatchLight

Snufkin

eyeCatchLight

Snufkin

eyeCatchLight

cascoly

cascoly

eyeCatchLight

eyeCatchLight

cascoly

PaulieWalnuts

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