MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Selling Stock Direct => Topic started by: gameover on January 04, 2025, 07:30
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I think we can, some suggestions and considerations on my blog:
https://luisafumi-digitalart.com/blog/2025/01/01/an-own-print-on-demand-website-yes-we-can/ (https://luisafumi-digitalart.com/blog/2025/01/01/an-own-print-on-demand-website-yes-we-can/)
(https://luisafumi-digitalart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sunday-sea-450x300.jpg)
Enjoy ;)
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I think it would be more effective to sell this on eBay. ;D
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I admire your tenacity with the stock site and POD in spite of taxes, governments and the rest of the blocks to simple, free enterprise.
Take orders, mark up to your liking, use Vistaprint, and have Vistaprint drop ship?
POD sites, if someone wants something, I upload, set prices and make some profit, based on the price I have set myself. I can leave it open for that image pricing or make a one of a kind product for the buyer. I actually like it better, leaving it up to them to make all the choices for size, materials and framing. FAA does the work, I get the money.
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I think it would be more effective to sell this on eBay. ;D
Unfortunately Ebay is no more was used to be two years ago. I made a lot of good bargain there.
But now they manage your money directly and not in a way I like (pointless delays, misunderstanding, useless bureaucracy and so on...)
I think that the microstock business is currently in its sunset phase and finding valid alternatives is the only way to stay afloat :(
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FAA does the work, I get the money.
The pocket change, dear Uncle Pete.
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I think we can
Yes, we can. Made my own POD website as well :D.
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I think we can
Yes, we can. Made my own POD website as well :D.
Congratulations! 8)
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I can understand the enjoyment from creating your own site, but in terms of the business case, one word comes to mind - Symbiostock. That is one for the older readers here...
Steve
PS - I'm a great believer in a two-pronged approach. You need to enable the "passing trade" of people just searching for a particular image and mine pops up on Google search and they buy it from Pictorem, say. Then you can have a more focused site with your favorite images that you promote on social media and Etsy is suiting me well there. After all, $1500 in profit in December is a fair measure of success.
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I can understand the enjoyment from creating your own site, but in terms of the business case, one word comes to mind - Symbiostock. That is one for the older readers here...
Steve
PS - I'm a great believer in a two-pronged approach. You need to enable the "passing trade" of people just searching for a particular image and mine pops up on Google search and they buy it from Pictorem, say. Then you can have a more focused site with your favorite images that you promote on social media and Etsy is suiting me well there. After all, $1500 in profit in December is a fair measure of success.
Yes, I know Simbiostock, I was there the last times, when Leo was not in charge anymore :)
My grounds are quite dissimilar. I know you as successful and I respect you, but I'm interested actually in a different approach.
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FAA does the work, I get the money.
The pocket change, dear Uncle Pete.
Good luck, in a positive way, with your self hosted projects. I wish you continued success.
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I have same idea in my mind. And also love building sites. Currently own 6 websites. I think it’s good idea, however success is not guaranteed
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Currently own 6 websites.
What do you use to make your websites? Wordpress? Wix? Squarespace?
6 websites are a lot to manage!
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FAA does the work, I get the money.
The pocket change, dear Uncle Pete.
Good luck, in a positive way, with your self hosted projects. I wish you continued success.
thank you ❤️
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Currently own 6 websites.
What do you use to make your websites? Wordpress? Wix? Squarespace?
6 websites are a lot to manage!
Well, I use different CMS, I don't use anything that requires subscriptions, like Wix or Squarespace.
Here are the links:
https://macroderie.com (https://macroderie.com) - Oldest site I have built for macro photographers
https://explorness.com (https://explorness.com) - And general photography website
https://happyfeelings.co.uk (https://happyfeelings.co.uk) - My Photo business, which sadly didn't had any client since last year. Thinking of closing it.
These are new sites:
https://myprochannel.com (https://myprochannel.com) - For my YouTube channel. Hopefully to kick off.
https://iskymedia.io (https://iskymedia.io) - Trying selling prints directly through my website. Not luck yet.
https://finaladventurer.com (https://finaladventurer.com) - My Blog.
I have tried drop-shipping as well, but gave up: https://www.smartypet.co.uk (https://www.smartypet.co.uk)
It's all about trying stuff around. Wordpress is good for blogs, otherwise, I found it rubbish. Had a photography website, but due of Wordpress issues, I couldn't restore the site and had to build everything from beginning.
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I can understand the enjoyment from creating your own site, but in terms of the business case, one word comes to mind - Symbiostock. That is one for the older readers here...
Steve
PS - I'm a great believer in a two-pronged approach. You need to enable the "passing trade" of people just searching for a particular image and mine pops up on Google search and they buy it from Pictorem, say. Then you can have a more focused site with your favorite images that you promote on social media and Etsy is suiting me well there. After all, $1500 in profit in December is a fair measure of success.
Steve, may I ask you what service do you use to fulfill your Etsy orders? Do you use Pictorem for that? And if yes, do they support usage of your own branding (so the customer receives a package from "you" and not from Pictorem)?
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I use both Pictorem and Easy Canvas Prints depending on what is bought. And sometimes print and ship paper prints up to 13x19 myself. Pictorem does have a drop ship approach where they include my certificate and don't include any invoice or other details. I think you can modify this to make your own brand, but I haven't bothered so far. I'm only offering to send prints to the USA and Canada at present, so I don't have to bother with international shipping or getting them printed in other countries. I may do, but not yet.
Steve
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Thanks Steve! I am in the exact opposite position - I'm located in Germany and sell my prints in Europe, but I'd like to also try and sell on the US market as well :)
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Good luck! It is hard judging what is going to sell, to be honest!
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Good luck! It is hard judging what is going to sell, to be honest!
Thanks! Absolutely!
Also funny how different platforms tend to sell completely different images. I often sell photos through my website, which I never sold through POD sites. And the ones popular on PODs don't sell through my website :D
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Good luck! It is hard judging what is going to sell, to be honest!
Thanks! Absolutely!
Also funny how different platforms tend to sell completely different images. I often sell photos through my website, which I never sold through POD sites. And the ones popular on PODs don't sell through my website :D
How do you get traffic to your website , through social media?
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How do you get traffic to your website , through social media?
Through search engines. Also some through social media, but those are mostly other photographers and they don't buy prints.
I think we had a similar discussion already :)
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How do you get traffic to your website , through social media?
Through search engines. Also some through social media, but those are mostly other photographers and they don't buy prints.
I think we had a similar discussion already :)
Most likely, probably I forgot. Are you running ads ? I guess you had your website for a while if you have sales through search engines
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Most likely, probably I forgot. Are you running ads ? I guess you had your website for a while if you have sales through search engines
No ads (yet). Yes, the shop is online since 2023.
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Most likely, probably I forgot. Are you running ads ? I guess you had your website for a while if you have sales through search engines
No ads (yet). Yes, the shop is online since 2023.
Congrats, seems you done something good. What you running the shop on? Or if you can share a link.
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Congrats, seems you done something good. What you running the shop on? Or if you can share a link.
Thanks!
I use Woocommerce, because it's free. But the underlying platform doesn't matter. Important is to offer quality works, take care of your SEO and make it easy for customers to order - then the sales will come.
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Congrats, seems you done something good. What you running the shop on? Or if you can share a link.
Thanks!
I use Woocommerce, because it's free. But the underlying platform doesn't matter. Important is to offer quality works, take care of your SEO and make it easy for customers to order - then the sales will come.
I now focus on quality as well. Any feedback on my website?
https://iskymedia.io
I don't like Wordpress as it's slow, requires expensive server to run fast and sometimes has security issues. But still have 1 website on WP
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I now focus on quality as well. Any feedback on my website?
https://iskymedia.io
I don't like Wordpress as it's slow, requires expensive server to run fast and sometimes has security issues. But still have 1 website on WP
On the first glance:
- I think you show too many variations of the same subject. Upload only 1-3 best ones, otherwise you require the customer to make a choice from too many variations, which might be annoying and drive them away
- If you are selling prints, add that to your pages meta data or add it as a headline or so or use other SEO techniques - so Google can actually show your pages to people looking to buy prints. For example instead of "Aerials from Liverpool" use something like "Aerials from Liverpool on canvas and fine art paper" (depends on what products you offer).
Yes, WP is slow. But you can use server side caching for all static pages. Also I don't know why you need an expensive server for WP, I guess you mean paying for some kind of integrated solution. But you can also use the cheapest hoster and install WP there yourself - that's what I do. And if you use caching, server performance won't be the limiting factor for page loads.
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I now focus on quality as well. Any feedback on my website?
https://iskymedia.io
I don't like Wordpress as it's slow, requires expensive server to run fast and sometimes has security issues. But still have 1 website on WP
On the first glance:
- I think you show too many variations of the same subject. Upload only 1-3 best ones, otherwise you require the customer to make a choice from too many variations, which might be annoying and drive them away
- If you are selling prints, add that to your pages meta data or add it as a headline or so or use other SEO techniques - so Google can actually show your pages to people looking to buy prints. For example instead of "Aerials from Liverpool" use something like "Aerials from Liverpool on canvas and fine art paper" (depends on what products you offer).
Yes, WP is slow. But you can use server side caching for all static pages. Also I don't know why you need an expensive server for WP, I guess you mean paying for some kind of integrated solution. But you can also use the cheapest hoster and install WP there yourself - that's what I do. And if you use caching, server performance won't be the limiting factor for page loads.
Thanks Mike. I will review this tonight and make some adjustments.
I’m thinking to offer not only canvas as a prints, but other sizes too. Some fort of POD but on my own site. Would you recommend for me to change anything else on the website ?
I had a photography website running on WP and probably some plugins issues, my website broke down completely and decided not to use it. But built my blog on WP.
That’s basically what I do as well, running my website on cheap and reliable hosting. 10 years on same hoating.
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Thanks Mike. I will review this tonight and make some adjustments.
I’m thinking to offer not only canvas as a prints, but other sizes too. Some fort of POD but on my own site. Would you recommend for me to change anything else on the website ?
I had a photography website running on WP and probably some plugins issues, my website broke down completely and decided not to use it. But built my blog on WP.
That’s basically what I do as well, running my website on cheap and reliable hosting. 10 years on same hoating.
You could try using an separate page for each photo - basically like the PODs do it. And offer different materials and sizes on each photo's page. This is what I do and it works for me.
Try to use as few WP plugins as possible. They are slowing down WP and they introduce additional security and maintenance problems. Most customizations can be done through a few lines of PHP code, of course if you are comfortable with a little coding. You could also try chatGPT or an AI of your choice for code suggestions.
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Thanks Mike. I will review this tonight and make some adjustments.
I’m thinking to offer not only canvas as a prints, but other sizes too. Some fort of POD but on my own site. Would you recommend for me to change anything else on the website ?
I had a photography website running on WP and probably some plugins issues, my website broke down completely and decided not to use it. But built my blog on WP.
That’s basically what I do as well, running my website on cheap and reliable hosting. 10 years on same hoating.
You could try using an separate page for each photo - basically like the PODs do it. And offer different materials and sizes on each photo's page. This is what I do and it works for me.
Try to use as few WP plugins as possible. They are slowing down WP and they introduce additional security and maintenance problems. Most customizations can be done through a few lines of PHP code, of course if you are comfortable with a little coding. You could also try chatGPT or an AI of your choice for code suggestions.
I don't think separate page for individual photo will work on my website. Is not running on WP.
I'm running few plugins now on my blog website. But still thinking that current CMS with prints is way much faster than WP.
Coding is not an issues, can edit something myself, but nothing major.
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I don't think separate page for individual photo will work on my website. Is not running on WP.
I'm running few plugins now on my blog website. But still thinking that current CMS with prints is way much faster than WP.
Coding is not an issues, can edit something myself, but nothing major.
WP is slow as it has a bloated code base. All that stuff needs to be loaded into memory for each request, plus any plugins you use. Server side caching should help in theory, as only some minimal WP code needs to be loaded in case of a cache hit. So it should make WP pretty fast in theory - I myself have no experience with caching as I went a step further and generated fully static product pages, which is even faster (and I don't have to care about cache busting and repopulating in case of changes).
Good luck with your shop, I hope you get some sales soon :)