Posted by Silja Sjödin on October 27, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Hello
I´m marketing my snow photography portfolio, images for sale on the internet, delivered ready to hang on the wall.
My idea is that the buyer order a picture from me online, please check my portfolio
http://www.siljaphotography.fotosidan.se/portfolios.htm
and I upload it to be printed on canvas from any interior design service who´s doing canvas prints and they deliver it to my customer-- not to me but I pay them for this service though.
The buyers could be from all over the world, my targetgroup isn´t yet specified exactly and I hope to find the right photo marketing places for my business.
My question is if somebody experienced could tell me if it is reliably to let deliver prints that I´ve probably never seen as I think I have to order the print from the same country where my customer is.
Please, let me know.
Thank you very much, love Silja
Posted by Jim Bullard on October 28, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Questions:
How are you finding the interior design services "all over the world"?
How can you be sure that they will do a quality job and deliver it promptly?
My thought is that if you are offering "ready to hang" from your website, you are implying responsibility for the quality of the finished printing, matting and framing, all of which is being done by someone you've never met and whose work you've never seen. If you could network with artists and photographers who could recommend reliable printers and framers this could work but I'd sooner take responsibility for only my work, print or have the photo printed by a local shop whose work I can review before sending it out and then let the customer handle the framing at their end. That also gives them more freedom to choose mat colors, frames, etc.
OTOH there are some printing services that offer framing as well and ship all over. Red Bubble comes to mind and I've heard of others. I've never used any of them so I can't vouch for them.
Posted by Silja Sjödin on October 29, 2009 at 3:58 AM
Hi Jim
Thanks for taking time to reply, it´s highly appreciated indeed.
To me it´s of great importance having somebode "outside" questueing
my doings as I´m working alone and have nobody to share my ideas with.
Finding interior services all over the world is meant to manage by keywords and googling. It ´s a jeopardy, I know, but I should like very much testdriving the idea if it´s a realistic one.
By viewing the feedback applications is one way, asking for references is another one and so on.
Search for forums with photo print for sale- topics...
Selling my photography online is a question about marketingcommunication, displaying my images like a do in a portfolio right now, I´m showing them in lowresolution, not sharpened, no noise ware-- the customer got to trust me about the quality as it´s delivered ready to hang on the wall. On the internet the marketingcommunication is not face to face, but in real life it´s meant to be. If my customer is absolutely satisfied, they will communicate it to others. That´s the best!
So, it means I´m willing to change my intentions a little bit here and a little bit there.
Maybe be focused about the prints only in my country and send then from here, the shipping prices are different depending on country. And change the size as I haven´t find what I´m looking for abroad when it comes to megasizes like 110 X 180 cm.
Actually I have found one in my own city who´s doing that big prints and even bigger sizes like monumental prints but they are lazy-bones, it takes a wekk for them to reply when sending out an mail of importance, calling them there´s only an answerer, no visitors adress but their homepage looks just great-- very glassy and very classy, easy applications to use and one easily navigate from the gallery to teh pice-list and so on.
It makes you want shopping or use their service but the contact with them is a disaster
This is the back-yards of marketingcommunication from my point of view-- it looks promising, the customer is called to action, one is tempted to go ahead and buy and it´s okey of course.
But the following step, after the order is made and the product is delivered" ready to hang on the wall" must be safe, quick and well done when it comes to the service I´m buying about printing my photography.
In this start-up phase I´m offering only one big size ready to hang on the wall. The development depends on what the customer is asking for and from where is my target-groups coming from, the statics visitor analyzes shows and tells a lot.
I´ll take my time to check out OTOH and Red Bubble-- I´m spending a lot of time on the internet just checking web-places. If I fell sure about any of them I believe it´s a good idea to order about 3 tets prints from each of those I´ve found could be my print partners-- 3 to me and 3 to some friends, one domestic and 2 abroad, just for testdriving.
Okey, enough for this time. Thank you very much, greetings Silja
Posted by Clark Hecker on November 17, 2009 at 4:59 PM
Check out Imagekind (www.imagekind.com) for a similar service.
But I would suggest ordering small samples of your own work printed by the contractor so you can verify quality and accuracy; otherwise you have no way of knowing if the contractor's work meets your standards.
We're doing something approximately like that, but using LabPrints to host galleries where customers place orders. The print orders go directly from LabPrints to our lab, who in turn ships directly to the customer. As a result, we never see the prints.
But..... I say again, BUT. I say one more time.... BUT!!!!
We have used our particular lab for a long time and trust them completely. I wouldn't consider doing this with just any lab or printer, simply because our reputation is on the line with their good or bad printing, including calibrations questions and issues. And the only way to get to know a lab well enough to trust them is to use their services for awhile and closely examine the prints before shipping them to the customer afterward.
I really wouldn't want to play pot luck with unknown labs such as you suggest doing.
Discussion
4 repliesI´m marketing my snow photography portfolio, images for sale on the internet, delivered ready to hang on the wall.
My idea is that the buyer order a picture from me online, please check my portfolio
http://www.siljaphotography.fotosidan.se/portfolios.htm
and I upload it to be printed on canvas from any interior design service who´s doing canvas prints and they deliver it to my customer-- not to me but I pay them for this service though.
The buyers could be from all over the world, my targetgroup isn´t yet specified exactly and I hope to find the right photo marketing places for my business.
My question is if somebody experienced could tell me if it is reliably to let deliver prints that I´ve probably never seen as I think I have to order the print from the same country where my customer is.
Please, let me know.
Thank you very much, love Silja
How are you finding the interior design services "all over the world"?
How can you be sure that they will do a quality job and deliver it promptly?
My thought is that if you are offering "ready to hang" from your website, you are implying responsibility for the quality of the finished printing, matting and framing, all of which is being done by someone you've never met and whose work you've never seen. If you could network with artists and photographers who could recommend reliable printers and framers this could work but I'd sooner take responsibility for only my work, print or have the photo printed by a local shop whose work I can review before sending it out and then let the customer handle the framing at their end. That also gives them more freedom to choose mat colors, frames, etc.
OTOH there are some printing services that offer framing as well and ship all over. Red Bubble comes to mind and I've heard of others. I've never used any of them so I can't vouch for them.
Jim Bullard
West Stockholm, NY
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/
Thanks for taking time to reply, it´s highly appreciated indeed.
To me it´s of great importance having somebode "outside" questueing
my doings as I´m working alone and have nobody to share my ideas with.
Finding interior services all over the world is meant to manage by keywords and googling. It ´s a jeopardy, I know, but I should like very much testdriving the idea if it´s a realistic one.
By viewing the feedback applications is one way, asking for references is another one and so on.
Search for forums with photo print for sale- topics...
Selling my photography online is a question about marketingcommunication, displaying my images like a do in a portfolio right now, I´m showing them in lowresolution, not sharpened, no noise ware-- the customer got to trust me about the quality as it´s delivered ready to hang on the wall. On the internet the marketingcommunication is not face to face, but in real life it´s meant to be. If my customer is absolutely satisfied, they will communicate it to others. That´s the best!
So, it means I´m willing to change my intentions a little bit here and a little bit there.
Maybe be focused about the prints only in my country and send then from here, the shipping prices are different depending on country. And change the size as I haven´t find what I´m looking for abroad when it comes to megasizes like 110 X 180 cm.
Actually I have found one in my own city who´s doing that big prints and even bigger sizes like monumental prints but they are lazy-bones, it takes a wekk for them to reply when sending out an mail of importance, calling them there´s only an answerer, no visitors adress but their homepage looks just great-- very glassy and very classy, easy applications to use and one easily navigate from the gallery to teh pice-list and so on.
It makes you want shopping or use their service but the contact with them is a disaster
This is the back-yards of marketingcommunication from my point of view-- it looks promising, the customer is called to action, one is tempted to go ahead and buy and it´s okey of course.
But the following step, after the order is made and the product is delivered" ready to hang on the wall" must be safe, quick and well done when it comes to the service I´m buying about printing my photography.
In this start-up phase I´m offering only one big size ready to hang on the wall. The development depends on what the customer is asking for and from where is my target-groups coming from, the statics visitor analyzes shows and tells a lot.
I´ll take my time to check out OTOH and Red Bubble-- I´m spending a lot of time on the internet just checking web-places. If I fell sure about any of them I believe it´s a good idea to order about 3 tets prints from each of those I´ve found could be my print partners-- 3 to me and 3 to some friends, one domestic and 2 abroad, just for testdriving.
Okey, enough for this time. Thank you very much, greetings Silja
But I would suggest ordering small samples of your own work printed by the contractor so you can verify quality and accuracy; otherwise you have no way of knowing if the contractor's work meets your standards.
But..... I say again, BUT. I say one more time.... BUT!!!!
We have used our particular lab for a long time and trust them completely. I wouldn't consider doing this with just any lab or printer, simply because our reputation is on the line with their good or bad printing, including calibrations questions and issues. And the only way to get to know a lab well enough to trust them is to use their services for awhile and closely examine the prints before shipping them to the customer afterward.
I really wouldn't want to play pot luck with unknown labs such as you suggest doing.