Equipment & Techniques > Beginner's Questions

Want to sell prints on-line.

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RMW:
Just starting to consider selling prints on-line. Went to Fine Art America, but they do the printing. I want to print the fotos myself.
What's an economical way to show fotos  and provide info on-line ? How do you go about choosing a local web designer or a website like Word Press ?
What are the range of costs and services that would be most appropriate for a beginner ? What are the pitfalls ?
Ideally I want to pay for an initial setup and then manage the site on my own.

Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Richard

MattBurt:
I use Zenfolio which hosts the site (template driven, pretty easy to make a nice looking site) and I can set up either products through their partners like MPix for stuff like bike race photos for competitors or "self fulfilled" products.
The race photos are nice to not print myself since the volume can be high. I never have to touch the photos as they ship directly to the buyer.
Fine art prints I can fulfill myself but use their ecommerce engine to get the sale. They take a cut but I find it has been worth it for me.

RoyH:
As Matt suggested I would also recommend you use one of the template driven sites that include an e Commerce engine. Another one to look at would be Photo Shelter, similar to Zenfolio and any internet search on those two will bring up other options as well.

I just went through this exercise last week myself and after research will most likely go with either Zenfolio or Photo Shelter when I'm ready to proceed.

Roy

MattBurt:
One thing I really liked about Zenfolio is the free 30 day trial. I started mine right before a bike race I was shooting and before the trial was over I had made enough to cover the first year's subscription so it was done with no money upfront.

AndyS:
If you go down the Wordpress route then You need to be prepared to get a bit more involved in your website and the world of Wordpress. There are several e-commerce plugins for Wordpress that would let you do what you want, but unless you pay a designer you're going to have to be happy developing a few technical skills.

Of course the advantage is that you end up with complete control of layouts etc. I've gone down this approach myself recently, and pleased with what i've ended up with. I have some background in html and programming though, so it's perhaps different circumstances.

Andrew.

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