Online galleries with ability to sell photos

[saroy]

In the near future, I will hopefully be needing some sort of online gallery -- with the ability to sell the photos (i.e. put in a shopping cart and check out). Now, if I had the time and a lot of patience, I know I could put something together on my own, but I don't at the moment. I'm trying to figure out which option might be best for me -- feel free to comment!!

Musts:
- people to be able to order and purchase photos
- reasonable cost for site setup
- reasonably small commission taken by the gallery/selling company
- decent storage limits and bandwidth (if I can't host it myself)

Would be nice:
- ability to search gallery by event participant number
- ability to customize the gallery
- ability to password protect albums

I've done a bit of research and am currently trying to narrow down these options:

smugmug - $100/year for a pro account, unlimited storage, 15% commission taken, they make & ship prints, can customize the page design, URL is blah.smugmug.com

photoreflect - no yearly fee, 15% + 3% commission & processing taken, unlimited storage?, you make & ship prints yourself, limited ability to customize the page, URL is blah.photoreflect.com

printroom - $99/year, 13% + 3% commission & processing taken, 300mb storage ($20/100mb additional one time fee), they make & ship prints, can customize page design for additional fee, URL is printroom.com/pro/blah

shutterfly - $99-$149-$199/year for 250mb-500mb-1gb of storage, 15% commission taken, they make & ship prints, no ability to customize the page, URL is shutterfly.com/pro/blah

imagequix - no setup fee, no commission taken, but you buy "credits" to upload photos and create albums so there is constant cost as the site grows...but they don't take commission so maybe it works out depending on how much you sell?

foliolink - more all-inclusive, links to your paypal account, you do prints, can be on your own server, however, a BIG drawback seems to be that you're limited to 130 "distinct image pages" and it's expensive

I am leaning toward smugmug or photoreflect but before I commit, does anyone have any others to recommend? Pros, cons to each?

[LoungeLizard]

I thought you could actually get your own domain name for smugmug. Could swear that the pro setup allows that...

[saroy]

Really? If so, that would push me to them for sure.

Hmm....ok, I just went and checked again and it looks like you're right! I just missed it the first time. That is a definite plus for smugmug!

[Jim Victory]

I use 1&1 and it is about $60 a year for more space than I can use. They have tutorials to help you set up your website. This includes a Domain name.

My site is very simple but it enables people to order using PayPal and I use password protected folders almost exclusively. It merely involves giving them my url plus the password to go directly to the folder.

One day I need to get someone to build me a more professional looking site but I already have a client base and my website is more a convenience for them to order through and view their proofs than to create sales.

Depending on the size of a job I will print and mail the pics myself or use a service. Here is the link.

http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/Hom...10E945C8.TC60a

[bohonk445]

Not sure if this is what you need but I have bought a couple of things from here before:

www.yessy.com

[Michelle Allmon]

digibug.com they keep the wholesale amount and you get the rest. you can make your prices whatever you want. they use a fuji frontier & crystal archive paper.

[CaptainTom]

There is also the TPF sponsor... Exposure.com
Good set up. your own prices, etc.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by LoungeLizard

I thought you could actually get your own domain name for smugmug. Could swear that the pro setup allows that...

from smugmug's info site:


Your own hostname

If you choose a nickname like Ansel that no one has claimed, you could be ansel.smugmug.com. But if you own ansel.com, you can use it for your SmugMug galleries.

Example: www.moonriverphotography.com

[bbailey]

I've been looking at Exposure Manager as I'm hoping to start selling some before the end of the year. It looks appealing and I've heard a lot of good things about them. One thing I like is that you can have the prints done for you, or you can do self fullfilment if you want to use a different lab.

Another that interested me was PhotoShelter.com.

[agillette]

Now, You can setup your own galleries, and still use PhotoReflect's Labricity service, and not have to pay that 15% + 3% commision. There are lot's of free software packes that will setup a gallery with shopping cart.

You get the email order, then just place the order yourself. I know it's a bit more work involved, but it saves you money.

Regards,

AG