Looking for advice.

[menandar]

Hello guys,

I was working on my new website for sometime now. I'm posting my request, for some advice you'd like to share, here as I think that any website is related to marketing/business.
One of the new things that I en-devour is starting to offer prints as limited edition, I still have to add some more info to my print page. As I haven't got any previous experience with this, the only thing that I know that in Europe there isn't many photographers doing well out of selling prints, I was wondering if you can share any thoughts on prices, limited edition, printing options/paper etc.
The other thing I was planing to do is to setup a page with prices for different services, now I'm in doubt about doing this as I have noticed that many photographers do not have such info available on their website, while at the same time there is the opposite as some tend to list services and prices.
Any information will be of great help,
Thanks,
Kind Regards,
Nikolay Mirchev.
www.mirchevphotography.com

[menandar]

Anything?
It will be really helpful if you share or advice on anything that can improve the site, not as for user experience but more as  from professional point of view. Also if you find the About info good enough, or perhaps there is something that can be improved there too.
Thanks,
Nikolay.

[menandar]

Thanks Paul for taking the time and providing some suggestions.
Nikolay.

[MarkM]

Hi Nikolay,

I enjoyed your work and the site. It seems your question isn't about the website itself, but rather the prospect of selling prints and limited editions on the web. I don't have first hand experience selling prints on the web, so keep that in mind, but I did go through a similar process of thinking about it and came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the cost and effort. You either have to sell a lot at a modest price or a modest amount at a higher price. I couldn't find anyone who was successful in either case who was using the web as their primary showroom. The consensus I reached (this was a few years ago) was that people shopping on the web just don't buy enough work at a high enough price point to justify the considerable time and effort it takes to print and sell it. Also, when I was honest with myself, I realized the kind of work I wanted to shoot was not particularly sought after in the fine art market.

I decided that if I want to sell prints I would have to find a gallery or rep that specialized in selling work of a similar style. They understand the market better than I could and they have existing clientele. Also, I got the impression that people who are interested in spending real money on photography will want to see the print in person, not on the web. Even still, it seemed too unlikely that I would be successful with the kind of work I like to do, so I have never pursued it.

To me, the work of yours that really stands out looks much more commercial than the work I've seen at art shows. It might be an easier sell to an art buyer at an ad agency than to a print collector. The images I've seen at shows like Photo LA tended to be more abstract and decorative than yours. So I would start by asking whether there is a market for your style and identify people currently representing it. I'm sure there are customers out there for almost anything, but I'm not sure they are buying prints from the web.

[menandar]

Hi Mark,

Yes the Fine art photography print is something completely new to me. I know that there aren't many photographers out there who do well by just selling prints, especially in Europe. I just wanted to find out how, in a best way, I can optimize the content of the website, prices, limited or not limited editions, About info, to include services page or not  etc. Anything that can be done better. Although, currently, I'm stating that my prints are available as limited edition of 500 prints for each size, I'm not sure, maybe this is the current best practice, but the way I feel about it is that I want to offer my work to people who will buy it just because of it's aesthetic/artistic look.
Also if all of the above is put together in a meaningful, well structured,  way that can make sense to an algorithm, and also optimized well for humans, the website should be ranking on top of Google. As Paul mentioned the competition in London alone is huge, and this is quite important as now days socializing/connecting mainly happens online.
Regards,
Nikolay.