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Author Topic: Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.  (Read 6706 times)

Snook

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« on: August 31, 2009, 03:52:34 pm »

Hello all wise men from the forum...:+}
I am wanting to set up a website where poeple can buy my photo art and was wondering what is the best way to go about it.
I have been told by several people that is is a little tricky and difficult to do as there are credit cards and or Paypal involved.
Are there any sites where I could put up a website and have people buy through an already exisiting trustworthy site? Hope that makes sense.
Or i it better to try and set up my own site and deal with payments through it?
I would sure love some opinions or ideas about the subject. My wife also makes artisen type Scarfs and Bed throw stuff that maybe I could also sell on the site. Kind of like a mini Art website.

Appreicate and ideas or suggestions.
It would be nothing huge but a simple modern site to sell my photoart.
Thank you
Snook
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BlasR

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2009, 04:12:34 pm »

Eric,

you can do a website with adobe lightroom,

if you don't have lightroom, get dreamweaver.

I did my own with dreamweaver/flash, took me 15 days.

is not the best but I did it my self.  I believe if anyone can do it, so can I

You can open an acc. with paypal, people can pay you the way.


Good luck


BlasR
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markhout

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2009, 05:28:07 pm »

Quote from: BlasR
you can do a website with adobe lightroom,

There are a couple of providers of LR websites templates - google The Turning Gate or see Lightroom News. Also have a look at sites like Imagekind.com, they have a turnkey-type solution that can include printing, framing etc.

There are plenty opportunities and solutions for this challenge.
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Snook

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2009, 06:43:22 pm »

Hey guys thanks for the suggestions so far.
I should have mention that yes I know how to make a website with lightroom and photoshop as my website for fashion stuff I did that way. what I need or wanted is how do I set up Paypal through the website as there are no options in those templates?
DO I just set prices under the information of each product or image then have them pay through Paypal?
Also how would I link the Paypal directly from my site or would I have to send each buyer a seperate mail with my paypal information?

Not sure if I was clar enough in my first post but what I am looking for is the best/easiest way to set up a website that people can buy my art. Not just a template website as that is pretty easy..

Would I just say send me an e-mail with the product or image they want to buy and then send them a Paypal address?

Also I would like and have a great printer and strecher in Miami. I think most people would want to strech in their home town as shipping would be much easier and make things less complicated.

So I guess I would offer framing and stretching but mainly try an sell the prints on different papers and or canvas with all available sizes. Could I set the site up as under each image have varying options for paper and sizes with prices. Or would I have a single page listing the images sizes papers and prices?

A lot can be done but I wanted a simple ,elegant ,easy to make website. As easy as possible that is.I do not want any bells and whistles as I am hoping the images will sell themselves.

Thanks for any more information or Help.
Any examples would be great if any of you already sell images on the internet or your websites.....:+}

Thanks again

Snook

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feppe

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2009, 07:01:08 pm »

Exposuremanager does most of what you want - they have self-fulfilment unlike smugmug. Also, godaddy and several other service providers have more or less ready-to-run shopping cart plugins. Note that if you offer CC or Paypal payments, you're looking at paying 10% or even higher commissions.

markhout

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ChrisJR

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2009, 05:49:42 pm »

There are a couple options which you could consider.  The first and easiest, if you have Adobe Contribute, is to place a paypal "Add to Cart" link on a html page. If you have Adobe Contribute, setting up a paypal link takes just a few clicks, dead easy.

Another option could be to integrate an ecommerce package into an existing site. A package like Cartweaver is relatively simple to set up and not horrendously expensive. Just choose your programming language, whether it be PHP, Coldfusion or Java (think it's Java off the top of my head) and integrate into an existing html website through Dreamweaver. The instructions supplied are really superb. You will probably need to sort out SSL certificates to go with your own ecommerce site.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2009, 05:50:38 pm by ChrisJR »
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ckimmerle

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2009, 08:22:30 pm »

I've been looking into this for a few days, and have come to the conclusion that, for those of us selling prints online, there is no good solution. Options that allow us to sell from within out own websites are too expensive for occasional sales (which is all most of us can realistically hope for), and those photo gallery sites such as Smugmug are too amateurish and low end.

To make it work seamlessly, you need too obtain a third-party shopping cart or have the skills to create one yourself, sign up for a "payment gateway" (company that transmits credit card info), and open a merchant account at a bank or online site. All three services charge, meaning this solution would cost more than I could realistically make, at least in the near future or, at the very least, cut deeply into profits.


The best solution I have come up with, although I have not yet decided whether or not to give it a try, is PayPal Website Payments Standard which combines the payment gateway and merchant account (it apparently works with many, if not most, of the third-party shopping sites including the one owned by my web host)

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cm...verview-outside

It looks as though there are no costs for setup nor are there monthly fees.  There are a couple of compromises we have to suffer. First, the payment buttons take the customer to a PayPal site for credit card data input, although PayPal membership is not required (they are automatically sent back to the photo site afterwards), and you do have to put up with PayPal's usual fees, which include fees for withdrawing money. Still, it might be the best option if sales are expected to be light.

If I do decide to give it a go, I'll post my thoughts and experiences.

Chuck

p.s. If I am wrong on any of the ecommerce tidbits, please correct me as I'm completely new to this and may very well be misinterpreting or misunderstanding one of the steps.

p.p.s. This site explains it all pretty well: http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles2/ba...d-ecommerce.htm
« Last Edit: September 22, 2009, 10:55:12 am by ckimmerle »
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SCQ

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2009, 02:41:51 am »

I don't want to make this seem like a shameless plug (which it totally is), but I make websites. I don't know what your budget is, but if you want it done right, you really have to get it made for you. Just like how a bespoke suit fits best. Of course there are cheaper options, but it all depends on what you need precisely. PM me and I can send you my email address if you are interested. This offer, of course, goes out to anybody else who may be interested in a site. If you can spend $3000 on glass and for some, $20 000 on a digital back, a good website as a marketing/point of sale tool shouldn't be too much of an investment relatively.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2009, 02:43:45 am by SCQ »
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jasonrandolph

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Setting up a Website for people wanting to BUY my Photos.
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2009, 05:28:50 pm »

I use Zenfolio, which makes the whole process into a type of "plug and play" experience.  You upload your images, set sizes and prices, and essentially you're done.  You can choose to either print out your own images, or let a lab like Mpix do it for you.  Since I don't have a lot of time to spend on web programming, it's a good option for me.  If you want to check out my site, follow the link below.
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