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Back to Businss by Michael Connors & MorePhotos Staff, Raise the Bar

What to do with those cameras and lenses you no longer use…

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What to do with those cameras and lenses you no longer use… This is definitely a question most photographers have to ask themselves at least one time in their career. If your old gear has been sitting in a box, unused for some time now, is it time to consider getting rid of them? The question is: what do you do with that old digital or film camera Camera gear, photography equipment, sell photos online, photography websitegear now that you don’t use them? Here are some ideas to consider:

Know Its Value: The initial thing to do if your gear is a bit outdated is to check if it has any worth beyond what you think the value is. A quick check on eBay or other ecommerce site will let you know if the camera is truly worth anything beyond bargain basement prices. If your gear is on the newer side you should find out what the value is before you try to get rid of it so you don’t get less than they are worth.

Talk to Photography Teacher: Most every city has High Schools and Colleges that have photography courses. It is very possible the instructors might know someone who is looking for used gear to begin their lessons. Even if a student is not in need, the teacher might have a personal interest or may know someone who does.

Find an Enthusiast: Camera enthusiasts meet in local clubs all over the world to share their love of photography. Most local groups have websites and even classified listings where you can place ads for your equipment. Check in with the clubs in your area to see what they might have to offer you.

Donate It: You can get a good feeling for donating your unused camera gear to a worthy cause. There are many great non-profit organizations that can use your gear in their organizations or sell the equipment and use the funds within. Besides doing a good deed, you can also receive a tax deductible receipt for your donation.

Sell It: The easiest and fastest answer is to sell your unused gear. Craigslist, eBay or a local pawn shop are good options. Also, there are many websites that buy used camera equipment and a quick internet search can give you a place to start.

Sell photos online, what to do with old camera equipment

One of MorePhotos longtime customers buys and sells both digital and film camera equipment. They pay top dollar for digital photographic equipment: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Leica. They also pay top dollar for film photographic equipment: Voightlander, Contact, Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Linhof, Dierdorf. They buy single items, collections, studios and estates. They are said to pay more than a fair price and are honest and reliable. Please call Kenneth Appelbaum Photography Inc. at 561-901-1732 or email kaaphoto@icloud.com.

Back to Businss by Michael Connors & MorePhotos Staff, Raise the Bar, Sell Photos Online, Shopping Cart

Unlimited Image Hosting: You might want to think again

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Unlimited Image Hosting?

If you are a photographer and you are looking for a website shopping cart… And you are thinking about going with a plan that has unlimited image hosting! You might want to think again!

what is e-commerce, sell photos online, unlimited image hosting This is the wrong decision 99% of the time! It actually encourages you to kill your sales! It is like shooting yourself in the foot. (Think about this part: If someone can simply use their SmartPhone to view the images from the website forever, what motivation do they have to buy anything?)

I would like to share with you some testing that Morephotos did and why unlimited image hosting ended up being a bad business move!

For our first test we worked with a photographer that shoots about 25,000 images a month. Originally, he was leaving the images posted for 60 days… so for the next six months we changed that up by posting every other event for only 30 days. Everything was the same, except for the additional 30 days of viewing on ½ of the events. The results surprised us both. He was averaging $4,000 in sales with the 60 day postings, and for the 30 day posting he was averaging $5,000 in sales. This was a 20% increase. He was on our Classic plan at $49.00 with tiered image count pricing, instead of a charge for a percentage of his sales. So his bill to us was $175.00 a month for 25,000 images. The bottom line is, he saved $175.00 in hosting fees and, the bigger number here, he made $1,000 more a month. The net loss to him for leaving them up for the extra month was $1,175.00 per month, now that is some real money!

Before (posting all images for 60 days)

Our bill: $300.00 a month – his sales: $4,000 a month – Percentage Cost: 7.5% of sales

After (posting all images for only 30 days)

Our bill: $175.00 a month – his sales: $5,000 a month – Percentage Cost: 3.5% of sales

The example above is using a large number of images – Let’s look at numbers using a smaller amount of images.

 

With MorePhotos current plans:

Pro Plan $24 a month + 10% of sales – unlimited images Classic Plan $49 a month + tiered image charges – 2,500 peak images
Monthly sales $300 – your total cost $54 Monthly sales $300 – your total cost $49
Monthly sales $500 – your total cost $74 Monthly sales $500 – your total cost $49
Monthly sales $1,200 – your total cost $144 Monthly sales $1,200 – your total cost $49

Bottom line, the shorter time you leave the photos up the more sales you will have. At this point I recommend leaving the events online for two weeks or less. Our classic plan is based on 2,500 peak images per month. Example: If you had 2,500 images posted and took them down in the middle of the month and then posted 2,500 new ones your peak would still be 2,500. And I hear this excuse all the time, I’m not busy three months a year and do not want to pay the extra $25.00 dollars those months. Some of you pay more in your busiest month, with your percentage, than you would pay us all year for our classic plan. Do the math!

The next test we did with the same photographer was discount pricing. Remember, we are posting for only 30 days now, with an average of $5,000 per month. I talked him into raising his price 20% and giving a 20% discount if they ordered in the first week. We tried this for three months and I told him I would pay the difference if it was under the $5,000 per month. I crossed my fingers and toes on this one. After three months the average was now $6,400 dollars per month.

This test resulted in another benefit as well – Less people forgot to place their order before the events expired. This meant less calls to re-post them.

This gave us another learning idea….. Archiving events. This idea built on the shortened availability of the online viewing by adding the capability of getting paid up front to “reactivate” the event. Now after the allotted time, the system automatically puts the event in the archive status. When the customer comes to the expired event and they try to enter, they receive a message. This message says something like this “This event was on line for two weeks and is now archived, to retrieve your event there is a $10.00 fee. If you continue and pay the $10.00 fee, you will receive a credit for $10.00 to use towards your order”. In effect, you are saying “I’m not going to charge you extra, but you do have to buy something”.

Another test we ran used and idea from one of our photographer’s that I thought it would never work. I have to admit, I’m a little embarrassed at how wrong I was. The photographer called me and wanted the archive feature activated at the beginning of the event post. In other words he wanted to charge them to even look at the photos. Like I said, I thought it would never work. He used his cap and gowns event for this test. This meant that if your daughter was graduating from the university you would go to his site and have to pay $10.00 (up front) just to look at the images. Then he gives you a $20 certificate towards your purchase. Before this test, he averaged around $800.00 in sales for this event. After implementing his idea, the average went to $2,500.00 for the same job. He tripled his money with the same university. This is amazing, and could be a new idea to implement in your studio(s). Any job that is relying on sales after the shoot, or a job that you have decided to stop doing due to lack of sales, you might want to consider retrying, using the pay to enter scenario above.

So many little things can make a difference and that is why morephotos.com does this testing. Anyone can send you down the road with a website and shopping cart, but we’ve gone the extra mile and teach you how to use them in an effective way!

Another point I disagree on is photographers’ using their unlimited image posting as a secondary image back up system. The main reason this is not a sound business choice is if a website or shopping cart company has all of your images stored online, you are to a point, held hostage by them. If you want to stop using their service you have to scramble to figure out where to put all of those images, which can be extremely time consuming if you store a lot of images. One really sound choice to keep in mind is this: There are several reliable companies you can use for the online backup of your computer and images, Dropbox is one in particular that we recommend. For only $15 per month you can have worry free storage, that you can access whenever, from wherever… and the best part is, it gives you the freedom to switch up your online services if you desire. Have you ever had a hard drive fail… Peace of mind for $15 a month is pretty cheap when you consider you can backup all of your computer files and images! Check them out at dropbox.com.

Remember this – It does not matter what it costs you, it only matters how much it makes you!

Back to Businss by Michael Connors & MorePhotos Staff, MorePhotos, Raise the Bar, Studio Enhancements

Photographers, Let’s Talk about being Welcoming!

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Let’s Talk about being Welcoming! Do you ever think about the message you leave behind … We all like to be recognized for what we do! It makes us feel important & needed. So why not keep this in mind throughout your day, because you’ll usually find several opportunities to make this happen.

First, might be the way you answer your phone, and I mean actually answering your phone. If I try to call 10 photographers, I might have one answer. Don’t try to screen your calls, you never know who it is or what services they need. I owned a catering company years ago and I told a bride that I would get in touch with her photographer to get some questions answered. He picked up the phone and gave me a riot act about soliciting and hung up on me. It took two other calls to him to explain why I was calling. (Bad business 101)

So when you answer the phone, have a smile on your face and if it turns out to be a solicitor, be nice and let them know you’re not interested, but thanks for calling. Note: Since you are in the photography business, if the solicitor is selling something relating to photography, take a couple of minutes to see what they are offering… you might learn something even if you do not buy anything. This rings big at trade shows too. Do not get mad at your caller, you never know if this person could be a customer down the road. When you answer with a smile on your face your day will go smoother and good things just might happen. I had a good friend who would answer (Hello this is Larry from Wojcik Music, how may I make your day better) a little corny, though it always made me smile.

One of the biggest mistakes I see photographers make is not thanking the customer after the sale. If they do thank them, they do not add an action. Such as additional opportunities for future business with the thank you.

MorePhotos Thank You, Thank your customer, Photographers welcome your callers
For example:

“Thank you Mr. Connors! We appreciate your order and we hope you love your new photo. It was a lot of fun at Johnny and Linda’s wedding, they sure are a wonderful couple. If you have any questions or you would like to see other products, such as Christmas cards, framing etc., that we can design with your photos, give us a call!

Also, I want to let you know we are a full Portrait, Senior, and Family Photography Studio. Here is a coupon towards a family portrait session, our regular cost is $495.00 and this coupon will make it only $100.00. It’s a way to show you more of our work and earn your future photography needs. Because at Happy Photo we love to make memories!”

“Thank you from all of us at Happy Photo” (Maybe have the staff all sign the card.)

It is very important to send the thank you with the product, not after and not in an email! (beware of drop shipping from lab) If you must drop ship, try to get your lab to add your thank you.

There are many other areas you can tighten up the way you treat people. Keep your eyes open as you go about your day. One year when I had my catering business I told myself, “I’m sticking to my prices this year!” Not more than a week later I received a call from a bride to ask about our services. She said she heard great things about us. She knew what she wanted, and told me she had already called another catering company. They gave her a price of $8.50 per person. I had to bite my lip not to price match. So I told her, “I’m not your caterer” and she said, “Why”? I told her our price would be $12.50 per person, though I would do $12.00. Then, I waited for an answer and after a moment she said, great, where do I send the deposit. I kept true to my decision, and with a smile on my face the whole time, it paid off!

Bottom line, always answer your phone, (80% of people go with the first person they have talked to) keep the tune throughout your conversation. Many people may start out with “How much do you charge”. You might say something like, “Because there are so many variables, let’s get together and discuss your needs and see if I’m even a good fit. Knowing the variables will determine the prices.”

If you do not want to be the cheapest company in town, do not be cheap yourself. Customers notice these things… if you do not want to pay for something of value why would they? I say that because some photographers will try to get the cheapest deal on everything. We all do this to a point, though it seems photographers take it way over board. Spend money on your Brand – Logo – Website – even the way you dress – create beautiful example albums – these are things that will make you and your business shine!