Charging To View Galleries?

Is there anyone charging customers or potential customers in order for them to view your galleries? If so, how do you have it set up? Do you get negative feedback from your customers? Do you offer the fee back to the customer if they order and if so, how do you credit them?

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Here is how to do it (Paid Access)
https://www.picturespro.com/sytist-manual/articles/paid-access/

I know people use that feature. Maybe some will chime in with their experience.

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I shoot sporting events. I do charge but dont use the paid access feature as my clients can either purchase what I call a single event unlock or a season unlock. What I do is post proofs in individual folders for a single event. I manually lock each folder w a password. Clients can purchase a single event unlock in a separate area of the website. Once they do that, i manually unlock their folder of images. It does take a bit of time but well worth the effort for the payment.

I use a splash window to explain the unlock process as well as default emails to help the client thru the process. I prepare galleries in advance to take advantage of the pre-register option. My first season using this software and nothing but positive feedback from my clients. I currently have 482 registered uses who have purchased either a single show unlock or season pass. Happy to answer any other questions.

http://www.flatlandsfoto.com/proofs/

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I’m following this one too. I’m actually very interested in they way everyone uses Sytist. Which there was a separate form and or YouTube channel where we can learn more from each other. Hope to see more responses on this thread and thank Joan for you comment.

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I am going to pin this to the top so it doesn't get lost.

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Joan, that is good information. In fact, it's the sporting events that I have the most trouble with theft by phone cameras. I have been met with heavy resistance when I mentioned to my customers that I was thinking about making my sporting event galleries a paid view. I informed them that I would offer a $5.00 credit to their account that would be good towards purchases of images only. I haven't figured out all of the options with Sytist yet, such as the splash windows.

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I met w heavy resistance as well but this is my full time income source and I need to keep the bills paid! I charge $20 for the unlock then offer them a complimentary personal use digital image (sells for $30). For me it was easier to give everyone an image than manage the credits - tho w Sytist that would be easier. Probably less than 50% order their free image - and those that do share on FB etc giving me some additional advertising as each image has my logo. The complimentary digital image is an option on the order form. I require they order that way. Nothing prevents them from ordering multiple complimentary images. If they do, I email them to let them know they are welcome to order one complimentary but can order the others as regular personal use digital images. I shoot many of the same people in a season and those "free" images give them a tangible memory from each competition.

I do use the splash window to explain the process (as well as default emails). It is very easy to use the splash window and can be copied and pasted onto each gallery with a single click. However, that still requires that the customers actually read the info!

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I need to figure out how to charge a customer once. I have customers return each time I post new games images and they don't like the idea of paying each time they connect. I like the idea of a seasonal charge.

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I offer a season pass as well. Covers all their events - and a complimentary personal use from each. I have a separate area of "proofs" for order the single show unlock, season pass and a trainers pass (gives them a commercially licensed image from each competition. Link below to the proofing area of my site. Purchase Proof Unlock is where they are available instead of the individual competition galleries.

http://www.flatlandsfoto.com/proofs/

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Joan-

Thank you for time explaining your process. In looking at your website could you clarify something for me? I see you have proofs posted for a lot of events. Is that just a sample of the pictures? So you then someone says “hey I want to see every picture with me in it” so they purchase a single event pass or season pass. Then you just upload their pictures or do you upload all the pictures for the event? Then you give them credit at which point they could download at least one image without watermark?

Thank you so much. You have been giving me a lot to think about and I’m like Joe and have just started with Sytist (and love it). My main source of income is via Team and Individual pictures but I LOVE taking action shots and I’m trying to eek out a few more dollars to pay the bills.

Thanks Tim for pinning this. I would love to see more discussion on strategies people use in developmenting their business and how it folds into Sytist.

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Hi Scott - My system is to shoot everyone in the competition. I cull the crap and post all the best of each competitor. Images are sorted by competitors name and posted as folders in the galleries Each folder in each gallery is manually locked with a password.For a competitor to view their proofs, they need to either purchase a single show unlock or a season pass. Once they pay me, I remove the password so they have access to the photos. They can then order a complimentary digital image as well as prints, print / digital image combos, specialty items etc. The free digital image is edited and emailed to them I do not offer all images on a disk / flash drive as I am anal about editing every image that goes to a client. All images on a disk for a flat fee would be too much work for too little return.

Joan

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How do you handle a Trainer's Season Pass. Since many trainers have more than one rider/horse in their care. Do you charge them full price for each of their riders?

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Trainers season pass is for the trainer only in the events they are competing in. They get a single commercially licensed image from each show that they can use on their website, business FB page and/or small print ads etc. If they choose, they could sub a students photo for a competition where they are competing. Normally I charge $75 for a single commercial use license or $60 per for 2 or more so it is a great deal for clients looking for some business images.

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Thanks Joan. Now I understand. I thought that it somehow applied to the students in their care. But the trainers do ride in the competitions with their own interests in mind. Promote themselves, horses, barn etc.

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Thank you so much Joan. Very useful information!

I still hope others comment and discuss how charging for gallery views is working for you. Lessons learned?

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My whole take n pay to view is based around a number of the other features in Sytist, in particular CRON emails

Images all uploaded immediately after the job
for 7 days there is 15% discount to match on-site prices
A reminder that the early bird is expiring is sent out on day 5
Galleries set to expire after 4-6 weeks
Reminder sent out 2 days before expiry that gallery will be archived and that there will be pay to view
I have to manually change from expired to pay to view

Every step along the way produces revenue, including the pay to view

All I need is for Tim to make it an option to go automatically to pay to view and Sytist is doing all the work

Mike

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If a person buys access to a paid gallery, is their access granted by Sytist assigning their access in the admin or does it give them the password? If I have a large event with paid access I don't want them getting the password to share with friends.

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Their access is granted as if you assigned someone to a gallery. They won't have the password to the gallery.

If you wanted someone to view the gallery for free, you would give them the password which will bypass the paid access.

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Other option to giving them the password is to manually add them.

Mike

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Tim,

one thing that I could do with is some form of super user that can view all the galleries for free that are set to pay to view

Mike

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One time download, monthly Subscription Yearly, etc... A subscription model would work well in most cases. We have users that pay us to host their image up to 5 years in advance. This is big Line of Business (LOB) for us.

Love to see a subscription model to make it not such a manual process. I would imagine the majority would agree.

Cheers,

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Joan,

Thanks for all the information. I really like your approach to doing it this way. I have plans on doing something like this in the future.

I kind of understand the layout you're talking about. What's your process of culling 1k plus photos and sorting everything out before uploading to Sytist? I'm guessing it took you awhile before getting your workflow figured out. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I currently use Photo Mechanic to cull all my photos. I rate the photos in Photo Mechanic and then move them over to Lightroom for all the global editing. Do you have a workflow for grouping each rider, or is that done at a later time?

Thanks again for all of your input on this topic.

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Im a LR kinda girl. I name all my competition images in LR with the riders last name plus last day of competition and file number. For example Davis-121917-0001. After naming files I cull the crap, flag the picks and do a quick crop / straighten and export watermarked proofs to a folder. I found the easiest way to create folders to upload was after all the proofs were exported. I just create a named folder and drag that riders images in - rinse / repeat. I usually have between 150 and 200 riders per competition. Usually takes an hour-ish to create / drag / drop (depending on how tired / caffeinated I am! A number of my peers dont name the image files like I do. They create the folders (most before the competition starts) and then drag and drop. For me, its easier to do after I have the actual selected files. I find that there are always people who end up not competing and others who add in. Re naming the files - takes some time but not as long as you would think. This helps me find a particular file down the road. I just had someone order a group of images from 2009 that were stored on dvds. The naming system made them so much easier to find. All the rider has to remember is the name of the competition and I will know the date. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Joan

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Thanks so much for the detailed explanation. When it comes to events like this, sometimes it's never easy and a work in progress of tweaking over time.

It's smart to do all the naming right away, it will pay off in the future. I just finally finished correcting the naming process and updated all past photos. It's never fun to do, but when done right the first time, it's a lifesaver.

I think it would be awesome to have a registration/subscription option where you set all the dates and pricing. This would help avoid a few extra steps of following up with the long process it takes.

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I belong to a networking group of event professionals, and I photograph their annual awards dinners and other events. From these shoots I create two different sections. One is free, which allows free downloads with a logo, and the other is a paid gallery allowing for full resolution downloads with no watermark or logo.

https://solarisstudios.com/galleries/nace/

I do wish there would be different levels of paid access. Each level giving a different duration of gallery access. A product like this would help to promote image licensing.

Edited Sat Dec 30, 17 5:57 PM by Aric Hoek

It would be lovely to be able to apply this to individual sub galleries within a main gallery.

Edited Mon Feb 12, 18 1:16 AM by Dean Lake

I can see this working well for individual galleries.

Has anyone implemented the pay to view concept for GROUP photographs? IE a sports team or a class group? I would like to see a feature where you can see the total paid amount grow, and when it reaches a certain level the folder/file is manually unlocked. This could help to prevent 'sharing' of images and future proof our group photography service, AND then allow the file to be released digitally (I understand the liabilities around that, but here in NZ I feel I have that covered off with a legal doc. professionally written that is part of the accepted terms and conditions at checkout.) People are continuing to 'share' group images by simply taking pxts of each others. Further logistics would need to be thought out like what if it doesn't reach a certain level. Whereby perhaps the individual paid amounts are converted back to credits towards prints instead.

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never release the group file digitally, simples

Mike

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Brooke, I feel your pain. The truth is, people have been trained by Facebook to share any photo they like, so digital photos themselves don't feel like they have a cash value.

To guarantee a certain income level, the most effective (and simple) way I have found is to pre-sell the photos to the entire group. In an ideal world, the team builds an extra $10 into each enrolment fee and then everyone gets a "free" group photo. You get less per person, perhaps, but a 100% buy rate. You then use Sytist to distribute the photos and sell upgrades and extra products, and you don't care if they share the photo with each other because you've already been paid!

If they won't build the fee into their membership, get an order form out to the team leader (coach, teacher, etc) in advance. That way each person is making the decision independently of each other and you get the money up front. If almost nobody buys the photos, then you can return the small number of orders and say that nobody seems interested and it's not worth you coming out ... (which will then cause panic and a push to get more orders).

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Thanks Michael
Glad to hear someone else on the same page. I believe that electronic record keeping is the way forward and I would rather embrace it than fight it! I invested in sound privacy contracts to make this happen and I haven't looked back. I now have more than 80% of my clients on a contract - (as you suggest above where it is included in registration or enrollments). It works so well and is far less administration work. Students love the downloads, and some parents add prints to cart (which is cream on top). As you say, people share them regardless - it's not hard to take a pxt of your group and post it on FB right! I see it all the time. Even if it's lack of understanding rather than a malicious attempt to breach copyright it's still qualifies the point that people want electronic records! All the best as you convert your clients too.

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