The Great Pricing Hoax
No sales? Hard time hooking clients? Your deep-discount pricing could be choking your reputation.
It’s not uncommon to offer your services at cut-rate discount with the hope that you’ll snap up eager bargain-hunters. But is this really the right approach?
Successful Pros agree that raising your pricing may not necessarily scare away potential clients – in fact, it’ll do a body good. Here’s why.
That sounds backwards…
Photo by Adriana Klas Photography
“Cheap” sets bad expectations for your clients. If you’re a cheap photographer, clients wonder how you’re cutting costs so much, and if it’s worth it for them to take the risk. They question your ability to manage expectations and communicate with them. Will you effectively guide them through an important experience, or will you simply fire a few snaps, hand over a CD and call it a day?
“Cheap” makes you look as though you don’t think you’re any good. Any business owner who doesn’t think their brand’s the best is probably in the wrong business.
How to Not Be Expensive
Photo by Adriana Klas Photography
Right about now you’re probably worried about scaring away clients by being too expensive. How do your clients really know what “expensive” really is? It’s all about pricing and a concept called anchoring – meaning that they have to compare the value of something new with something familiar.
In English: Clients will be able to better grasp the value of your work by judging their interaction with you.
Here are some tips to help you prove that your work is worth every penny:
- Create a unified brand. A clean website. Clearly placed information. A custom domain and email address goes a long way, too.
- Be professional. Be prompt, cordial, and friendly. You provide a quality service, which is worth paying for.
- Look and act the part. No one is going to pay $5k to a schlup wearing ketchup-stained t-shirts, particularly if they show up late and forget to bring the paperwork!
How to do the “Free” Thing (the right way)
Photo by Sphynge Photography
Just because you should be paid fairly for your work doesn’t mean you can’t cut clients a break, or even do the “free” thing once in a while. Samples are a great way to give clients a nibble of what you do do without giving away the whole farm. Some quick ideas of how to work this into your model:
Model 1 - Waive your session fee, but be sure to charge for prints and digital downloads.
Model 2 - Apply the sitting fee towards the purchase of digital downloads, making the first (X number) free.
On SmugMug, it’s so easy to offer a few deep discounts by creating a custom Coupon to hand out. There are five different types, making sure that you can keep changing it up and keeping it interesting. How to use Coupons.
Get it? Got it? Good.
Calculate Your Costs to Avoid Going Broke
Photo by Sphynge Photography
The reason most photography businesses don’t survive is because their owners didn’t properly calculate their costs. And as the old adage goes, time is money. Don’t forget that your time and expertise are more precious than replaceable objects like paper and gear; you can hire assistants but they aren’t you. (Yes, it’s our mission to make you feel like a million bucks!)
Here are our suggested guidelines for calculating your costs:
- For prints: Your pricing should be not less than 4x your hard costs, including packaging and shipping. Seem like a lot? It’s not – about half of your balance goes towards taxes, 1/5th of goes towards the base cost of the item and the rest goes towards (ta-daa!) your profit.
- Albums and multi-photo goods: Your pricing should be no less than 3x your hard costs, which may include design work as well as the physical cost of the product.
- For Downloads: Price your larger-than-web-sized digital downloads at no less than the cost of ten prints. Giving away images at any printable size means you have to make it worth your while: They will use that file to print lots of prints, and you also run the risk of having your brand diluted if your client opens Photoshop and makes their own digital adjustments. Check out our resolution chart to find out how big they can print.
The Bottom Line
Don’t be afraid to charge a fair price for your work. By understanding your costs and charging more, you’re sending a stronger message to your clients and ensuring that they value you, too.
If you’re already in business and think your prices needs a kick, remember that it’s simple to adjust your pricing using Pricelists. Look here to see how they work, and don’t forget to ping our Support Heroes if you get stuck.
Wanna keep talking about pricing? Never forget that our photo forum, Digital Grin, has a whole section dedicated to the art of turning your photos into money. Check out our Mind Your Own Business section here and post away. Or just voice your thoughts in a comment below.
Good luck and stay tuned! We’ll be sharing more tips and “best practices” for you, soon.
—-
Links you’ll love:
BYOC: Lighting Tips and a Kiboko 30L Backpack Giveaway from Andy Biggs
Streams of light illuminating motes of hoof-churned dust. Storm clouds swirling over the Serengeti. As photographers, don’t we all dream about that? Please welcome guest blogger Andy Biggs, founder of Gura Gear, African Safari leader extraordinaire, and SmugMug Pro. Gura Gear’s Kiboko backpack was inspired by Andy schlepping his gear thousands of hard miles trekking to the ends of the Earth. In it you’ll discover oodles of thoughtfully designed, photography-smart details to carry your cargo. Check it out here, and keep reading to find out how you can win your own to keep your gear safe on your next adventure.
Making The Most Out Of The Light
By Andy Biggs
When we think of dramatic photographs we often think of brilliant sunsets, saturated colors and a sun that hugs the horizon. Emotionally speaking I think many photographers are looking for those kinds of in-your-face lighting situations. Well, I have to say that much of the time we as nature photographers have to deal with lighting situations that are less than ideal. Ok, most of the time lighting is sub-par, or at least not what we are expecting. Here are some ideas on how to think about your photography in a different way, and how to come home with photographs that still stir the soul.
Let’s be honest. How many times have you gone outside with the intention of going to your favorite location, wait for a long while for sunset and then realize that the light didn’t meet your expectations? This happens to me when I am out on safari on a daily basis. It is something that I just have to deal with. What to do? The best approach is to accentuate the good things and try to eliminate the negative things.
Skip the Sky
Case in point. When the sky is overcast, grey or just not exciting, don’t include it in your photograph. As a wildlife photographer, that means that I might point my lens down more to include more of my subject and less of the sky. I also will use a longer lens that will include less of the environment. The photograph is more about the main subject than anything else, so I will go for a tighter shot than I would normally want.
As a general note, when I compose a scene I like to think of the potential photograph as a game: I attribute a plus, neutral or minus to various elements in a scene. My goal is to eliminate the minuses and accentuate the positives. The neutrals are just there because they have to be there. I use my shooting position, focal length and shooting angle as my variables to get all of the best pluses into the scene and to leave all of the negatives out.
Shoot Portraits
Because the sky is overcast, this means that the light that is falling on my subject is soft. Think of the light as if it is coming from the largest soft box on earth. There is a rule of thumb with lighting: the larger the light source, the softer the light. Well, a cloudy day will yield a very pleasing and flattering light, which will help accentuate colors.
Exploit Texture and Motion
Another approach that I use is to blow out the sky and turn my image into a black and white photograph. When a sky is mostly grey and has no definition in the clouds, it is very easy to overexpose and blow the skies out. This doesn’t always work for color photographs, but it is a great technique for B&W images. You end up with a high-key lighting situation, and it makes it easy to draw attention to what matters most: your subject.
I find that marginal lighting allows me to get creative with shots that have a very low success rate. When the sun has gone away for the day, or when it goes behind a cloud, I seek out pockets of soft light that work for blurred panning shots. I slow my shutter speed down and experiment with about any subject that can be found.
Harsh Light
Midday light can also be challenging, because the light that is directly overhead can create harsh shadows that have a distinct clue color cast to them. Rather than compete with the light, I find that by avoiding the direct light I can get some decent images. One type of example would be a leopard who is in a tree. I can end up with soft light on my subject’s face and body, due to the shade of a tree, and still get an image that I am happy with.
In Summary:
Spend your time thinking about how you are going to use marginal light to your benefit, as opposed to letting it take control over you. Photography literally means ‘writing with light’, and you will never be able to photograph without light. Use the lighting situation to your advantage and you will find yourself coming home with images that you are happy with, even though you had not though of those types of images before.
Remember to use what you have, and use it wisely. Be flexible with how you approach your photography, and don’t go out looking for only one kind of shot, because the light may not be what you want it to be.
Enter to Win a Kiboko 30L Bag Loaded with Photo Goodies
The Kiboko 30L is a magnificent bag, designed by photographers for photographers. It’s lightweight (only 4 lbs), durable, and features a butterfly opening, allowing for unique customizable configurations for long lenses and multiple SLR bodies. The newest incarnation features a removable waist belt and fewer zippers for snag-free travel. In fact, SmugMug’s very own In House Pro, Andy Williams, swears by it. What more could you possibly want?
Here’s how to get yours:
- Step one. Visit our sweepstakes page on Facebook.
- Step two. ‘Like’ the page.
- Step three. Answer the questions on the page.
That’s it! We’ll announce the winners on April 30, so stay tuned and come back.
Here’s the juicy prize list:
- Grand Prize: 1 Kiboko 30L backpack ($429.00 value); 2 free years of SmugMug Pro ($300 value); 1 Monocular ($349.99 value); 1 Really Right Stuff TVC-24 Versa Tripod ($910.00 value), 1 Really Right Stuff BH-55 ($375 value)
- 1st Runner Ups: 1 free year of SmugMug Pro and $75 Gift Certificate to Gura Gear
- 2nd Runner Up: 1 free year of SmugMug Pro and $50 Gift Certificate to Gura Gear
Have Bag, Will Travel
If you haven’t yet scheduled your mindblowing trips for summer 2012, Andy’s teaming up with SmugMug’s own Andy Williams and world-famous photographer Marc Muench to South Africa’s Singita Reserves. This safari has it all: leopards, lions, private game drive vehicles, private luxury camp, off road driving and one-on-one instruction.
Get details and dates on Andy’s site here.
You know you want to. (We sure do!)
SmugMug is on StackExchange!
At long last, SmugMug is on StackExchange! What’s StackExchange and why should you care? We’re glad you asked.
"Gee whiz. Finding answers is easy!"
StackExchange is a free, community-driven Q&A where SmugMug customers can get questions like “Why would one pay for smugmug instead of use a free site?” and ”Which domain should I load users’ content (photos/videos) from?” answered quickly and easily.
Think of it as an easy-to-search sweetspot between DGrin (our community forum) and our world-class heroic support, with plenty of additional perks:
- The best answers to a question are on top. Say goodbye to wading through pages of replies.
- Searching is easy.
- You can quickly tell if the person answering your question knows what they’re talking about.
We’re in public beta, which is tech-speak for “we’re just getting started,” so check out our StackExchange page today to start asking and answering questions.
Big thanks to Chief Geek Don and everyone who helped get this awesome, new resource set up!
World Domination: Foreign Currencies Are Here!
There’s no coy way to announce this, so we’ll just say it:
SmugMuggers can now offer pricing for prints, gifts and downloads in one of five international currencies.
That’s right! Your visitors now get to pick their own currency when they buy stuff from your site.
How does it work?
Run (don’t walk) to your galleries and click the Buy button to bring up the shopping cart. At the top you’ll see a fresh new drop-down menu that translates your pricing to the five following flavors:
- USD – $
- CAD – CA$
- AUD – AU$
- GBP – £
- EUR – €
You can click through each one to see pricing in the shopping cart change. We’ll remember the currency that’s chosen and display it consistently when you view our catalog, as well as throughout shopping and checkout.
I’m a Pro. Will I make less money when the exchange rate changes?
No, your profits are safe. We talked about this when we debuted Pricelists, and this is one reason why SmugMug’s custom pricing is centered around profits, not the final price.
Market crash? No prob… you’ll still earn that $100 on those MetalPrints (as long as you’ve priced them that way).
What currency will I get paid in?
We’ve been paying international SmugMug Pros in various currencies since last May. Look here to see how it works so you can get paid in whichever moolah you love best.
Anything else I should know?
Here’s the quick list:
- SmugMuggers of all account levels don’t have to do a thing to start showing the five currencies on your site. We do the conversion automatically for each and every visitor that buys from you.
- The price your customers see on your site will adjust along with the exchange rate. This could happen daily if the market’s feeling feisty.
- Pros: Your customers will see the currency they’ve chosen while shopping and during checkout, but for now you’ll still have to set your prices in USD. We’ll be adding currency support to features like Pro pricing, Coupons, Packages, etc., so please hang tight and we’ll tell you when those are ready.
Whoopee! Now, where can I sell?
In case you were just too shy to ask, you’ve always been able to sell to anyone, anywhere in the world. We hope the new currencies will help your fans get a better idea of how much things cost.
If you want to see the full list of countries we ship to, take a look at this page here and bookmark our handy shipping info page.
What if I have an order problem?
We stand loud and proud on our 100% guarantee on all orders, and, as you know, we’ll refund you – or your customer – if we can’t make it right.
But if your sale doesn’t work out and it was purchased in a foreign currency, please remember the refund may not be the same dollar amount due to the exchange rate differences at the time of checkout and return.
Now, it’s your turn to grade us.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? You’ve asked for this feature for such a long time, we wanna know how we did.
This addition is just Part 1 of this year’s international goodies. We know that SmugMug Pros are dying to set prices in other currencies, too, so stay tuned! We’re building that next.
Does the 2012 wedding season have your stomach in knots?
A while back SnapKnot joined our ranks on ClubSmug, letting Smuggers like you get listed on one of the web’s best wedding photographer directories.
Seriously, check it out: Their easy, intuitive website makes it so easy to get listed and help local brides-to-be find and book you.
They just made it super-easy to get started: Diamond Level members can now slurp photos from their SmugMug accounts into their SnapKnot profiles.
It’s your wedding portfolio seen by millions of eager brides. Clear your calendars!
Here’s How it Works:
Visit your SnapKnot Dashboard and click to edit your Profile. You’ll see a section for SmugMug Pro.
Click to “Link your SmugMug account with SnapKnot” and then login:
You’ll need to authorize the connection:
(Remember that you can reauthorize it at any time from your SmugMug Control Panel if you change your mind.)
Now just edit your profile page and choose which SmugMug galleries to link. They’ll pull in your photos and videos for you, making portfolio-publishing easier than ever.
Save 50% and Start Booking Brides
You can see what SnapKnot’s all about and how it works by visiting their site. And don’t forget that they’re part of our ClubSmug, meaning that SmugMuggers can enjoy an exclusive discount on their SnapKnot subscription.
Log in and look here for more details!
New: Sync Your Photos with Lightroom’s Latest Plugin
Calling all Adobe fans! We’ve heard that Lightroom’s built-in SmugMug uploader has been one of your favorite ways of getting photos into your sites. So we thought we’d let you know about our most recent update.
What’s New in the Latest Version
- Previously, syncing went in one direction only: from Lightroom over to SmugMug. Now it’s a two-way street. Lightroom will find any images you’ve previously uploaded to your SmugMug galleries and match them to existing images in your library. Synchronicity, baby!
- Pros who use Events will find that their clients’ Favorites get pulled into into a separate Collection in Lightroom.
- Movie shooters: You can now also upload video files in addition to still images.
- Finally, we’ve heard your cries about how your innovative, snappy image titles were getting left at the door. You now have the option to publish your Titles or Captions (or both) in the SmugMug image caption field for all to see.
No plugin? Get it now
If you’re coasting on an older version and want to upgrade to the shiniest version, look here.
Or, just click this link to start the download and follow the instructions on our help page to get started.
Enjoy!
We Want to See You in Las Vegas!
It’s that time of the year again.
We rock it in Vegas for WPPI and we know you do, too. As per Sin City’s traditions, we don’t talk about what happens in the booth, but we have pictures to prove that we love meeting Pros like you.
Come visit. Talk to us. Tell it to us straight.
Plus, the event gives you the chance to pick the brains of amazing greats like SmugMug Pros Bambi Cantrell, Scott Robert Lim and more.
Why should this year be any different?
Photo Courtesy of Fotocabina.net
"You better come party with us."
Photo Courtesy of Fotocabina.net
Snag a Discount
Option 1. If you’re not the chancy type, go ahead and grab a discounted pass for just $95. Use the coupon code: WFREGR
Option 2. Want to skip the lectures and just say hi? Click here to get a free pass to the trade show floor.
See you in Vegas, baby!
Total Geekdom: SmugMug’s New Engineering Blog
A quick note just to announce that the Sorcerers of SmugMug have finally staked their claim on a place to totally geek out. Check out SmugMug’s new engineering blog right here:
From the comments you guys leave here, we know that there’s a lot of you who will find it interesting and, hopefully, useful. 
Here’s to SmugMug’s Sorcerers!
SmugMug Censored in Protest of SOPA and PIPA
In protest to SOPA and PIPA, we’re rallying for action on our homepage and shuttering ADVrider, one of the largest motorcycle hangouts on the web.
We, like so many sites on the web, feel very strongly about web censorship. Today’s blackout could be a taste of things to come if you don’t take action now.
Congress has the power to kill the internet and all of your favorite sites: places that we all swap ideas and share opinions every day. Read about the Stop Online Piracy Act here.
If you value free speech, the internet, ideas and entrepreneurship, please take ten minutes out of your day today to contact your local representative. Visit SOPAstrike.com to see the many ways how:
>>>>> http://sopastrike.com/ <<<<<
Plan Your Next Adventure with Trey Ratcliff’s 2012 Calendar
HDR Master, Travel Photography celeb and SmugMug Pro Trey Ratcliff kicks the year off right: With calendars!
Check out his exclusive, all-new photo beauty here. Twelve famous photos are printed on high-quality, thick glossy paper and saddled stitched for durability. It’s the perfect way to stay inspired and plan your own around-the-world adventure.
Win Yours on Facebook
He’s sharing the love with fellow Smuggers and offering 10 copies of this lucious wallhanger to 10 lucky fans.
To enter:
1. Like our Facebook Page HERE.
2. Share this blog link or contest FB post with your friends.
3. Post one of your best Travel photos and tell us the story behind the shot. You can post your photo on our FB Wall or in the comments below.
We’ll pick 10 winners on Thursday, January 19, to win a calendar, PLUS free Smuggy swag for themselves and a friend. That means you AND a friend have a chance to win, so spread the word and share the love
Happy travels!
___________________________
UPDATE: WINNERS!
Huge thanks to everyone who entered this contest. We loved seeing all of your photos and hearing your stories. Here are the randomly-selected winners, in no particular order. They will each win a 2012 Stuck In Customs calendar, PLUS cool Smuggy swag for themselves and a friend.
–Jonathan Wilson of JawSnap
–Knapp Hudson of Stone Coast Photography
–Bernardo Franco of Framing Colours
Congrats everyone! Katherine from our team will get in touch with you in the next few days with info on how to collect your prize.
