Best website provider for selling my photos locally

LeicaFoReVer

LeicaFoReVer

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I am photographing horse shows in the nearby towns and selling photos.

I need a site where I can take orders and the people can make a payment...I dont need to have a printing option. I can print by myself and send by post.

I have a zenfolio account but having the photos to be printed in US and tobe sent is not logical and feasible for me.

If there is a Canadian site like smugmug or zenfolio that can be a good option too.

Thanks,
 
I have just tried clikpic. It is very nice with payment options but unfortunately it does not let you upload many files at the same time. I upload up to 900 images. If you subscribe for super pro then it lets you to access ftp. But it is 180 english pounds...too expensive...I am not selling that many photos to justify :)
 
I'd say a cost of £180 per year is extremely cheap for someone to provide you with an online shop which has the potential to make you a lot of money if your images are in demand.
That is the crux of it. If your images aren't marketable then you are wasting your time.
 
You could always just pay for a normal hosting account and then implement one of the free image gallery scripts which has either inbuilt paypal buy now buttons or plugins for paypal. Wordpress could do it with relevant plugins or I expect Gallery can do it. But it'll be a lot more work for you. You'll have to research if they have ftp upload of images built in. I doubt wordpress does. Gallery might. You have to check and sort it yourself including getting scripts uploaded and configured.
 
thanks tlitody. Yes 180 is not much for someone who sells photos regularly. I just started the business and I am not sure it will make money or not. Unfortunately local people here are not so eager to buy photos. So I dont want to give too much money at the same time I want to provide professional capabilities like online purchase.

Do I want too much? I would not classify it "waste of time" immediately...As I said I just started the business...Professional page may attract more client too.
 
well a free script like gallery (http://gallery.menalto.com/) will do it BUT you will need some ftp software installed on your local machine to upload it to your webhost. You can use the ftp software to upload images and then gallery can take the pics from the folder you upload to. I believe it has paypal gateway too. But it won't look as pretty as clikpic but I could be wrong. But then since you have the code you can design your own layout if you know how. All in all it will be more work. Personally I'd use clikpic as it works immediately and you are up and running quickly with little effort. You only have to pay for one year and if you sell little then you can downgrade it. Infact why not buy one the cheaper options and just upload a selection to start with and see how it works out. If you sell enough and you think its worthwhile, then you can upgrade to the pro package later.

And it is the world wide web. The images are purchaseable from all over the world and not just locally. But if your images only have local interest then maybe not.
 
Last edited:
tlitody said:
well a free script like gallery (http://gallery.menalto.com/) will do it BUT you will need some ftp software installed on your local machine to upload it to your webhost. You can use the ftp software to upload images and then gallery can take the pics from the folder you upload to. I believe it has paypal gateway too. But it won't look as pretty as clikpic but I could be wrong. But then since you have the code you can design your own layout if you know how. All in all it will be more work. Personally I'd use clikpic as it works immediately and you are up and running quickly with little effort. You only have to pay for one year and if you sell little then you can downgrade it. Infact why not buy one the cheaper options and just upload a selection to start with and see how it works out. If you sell enough and you think its worthwhile, then you can upgrade to the pro package later.

And it is the world wide web. The images are purchaseable from all over the world and not just locally. But if your images only have local interest then maybe not.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions. I will try that site.

I found another option. There is a site called fotomoto. It lets you to insert "buy this" button to every photo in your site and directs the clients to a paypal system. The trick is to find a website provider that lets you to insert java scripts. For example I can not do it for my zenfolio page.

Then there is another site for photo blogging, called typepad. It lets you to insert that script. I will try this combo for my purpose.

Another option I realize is just continue using zenfolio and upgrading it to premium. I did not know you dont have to use their printing companies. You can handle printing by yourself. It charges 5% of each purchase in that case.
 
beware that some sites which provide paypal interface also take a percentage of your sale. Clikpic doesn't. The tansaction is between you paypal and your client only so its the cheapest in that sense because you only pay paypal charges.
 
Tlitody is right, many of these sites have hidden fees or commissions that will eat away at whatever profits you hope to make - it's just a way for them to increase their revenue, acting like your "gallerist". I'm not too familiar with these pre-packed photo-specific e-commerce sites, but clikpic looks to be a good choice.

I don't know if I read it correctly, but did you say you're uploading 900 photos at a time for sale on your site? You may want to look at uploading less, editing more as one reason you might encounter a lack of sales is that people can get exhausted looking.

I'm with Tlitody on this though, £180 is extremely good if it has the features you want, and doesn't take commission. It also gives you a year to promote your work and your site so that you can see some sort of return off of it. If it fails, well at least you tried and $300 Canadian (don't know what the exchange is at right now) isn't the biggest loss in the grand scheme of things (compare it to your equipment costs).
 
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