I think that DPC Prints should increase the photographer's percentage of the markup after a certain sales goal is reached. I believe that a ladder should be created along these lines or something similar:
After a photographer has profited the following amounts, the photographer keep percentages change to:
$200 - 60%
$300 - 65%
$400 - 70%
$500 - 75%
If a photographer is establishing sales that reach these levels, it would seem that the sales are strong enough to warrant letting the photographer keep a little more of the profit from the sales.
Sounds fair to me, DPCP will still make more money from them than other people below this number, due to the amount of prints that they had to sell to reach that point. It would also be an extra benefit to encourage avertising, as referrals will help people reach this goal quicker. It's a bonus over other similar services as well :)
I just think that once you sell a certain dollar value in prints, your own take should increase along with that volume.
And the site's take will also still increase on an absolute basis, although not as fast.
I think you need to develop a scale, though, with fixed minimum and maximum values. I'm not sure I'd agree with your specific suggested values without more thought, although they seem a reasonable starting point. Also, I'd like to think about whether it should be based on gross or net sales, or number of sales, and how "commissions" for referring to sales of others' photos should be accounted-for.
I think the numbers I posted are excellent points to start. Number of prints is no good cause a lot of people are selling prints for barley over the markup. There is no incentive for D&L to increase the cut to those because there is nothing in it for them to start with.
Do you feel like the percentages now are keeping you from wanting to / being able to sell more prints? The main reason I ask, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, is that for us to consider changing our business model, I'd want to see the logical connection in action/reaction. Or am I trying to draw a conclusion that just won't be there?
This larger problem is the one that you mention in your second post -- we have lots of traffic, and not lots of sales. To our credit, sales have been steadily climbing, and continuing to develop the site's performance is of the utmost concern to us.
We are VERY open to suggestions and are working every day behind the scenes to plan out the future of the site.
Do you feel like the percentages now are keeping you from wanting to / being able to sell more prints? The main reason I ask, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, is that for us to consider changing our business model, I'd want to see the logical connection in action/reaction. Or am I trying to draw a conclusion that just won't be there?
This larger problem is the one that you mention in your second post -- we have lots of traffic, and not lots of sales. To our credit, sales have been steadily climbing, and continuing to develop the site's performance is of the utmost concern to us.
We are VERY open to suggestions and are working every day behind the scenes to plan out the future of the site.
Drew
Percentages are NOT keeping me from wanting to or being able to sell at all.
I think the connection in action / reaction is simply that, if a photographer wants to make a higher percentage, they must generate a higher volume of sales dollars. I think the model I posted is somewhat logical. If any given photographer produces a certain dollar amount in sales, maybe their percentage could go up. If I generate $200 in profit for myself, I have generated at least $200 in profit for the site as well.
Maybe a different model could be considered as well... Maybe if a photographer averages a certain $ profit over a period of time, they go to a higher percentage bracket. That definitely would keep the photographer in the mood to push his/her own print sales.
Create a baseline of some sort. Say... if you profit $100 in a certain time period, you move up to a higher percentage bracket. If you don't maintain that level, you drop back for the next period.
I am doing everything I know how to generate traffic. As you know, it has been somewhat successful, but my referral sales don't show it. I don't know where my sales are coming from, but they aren't from referrals.
Just looked at your DP Prints stuff jmsetzler. An awful lot of prints there, and all great shots.
Without asking you for anything too specific, do you make a decent amount selling your prints there, or is it just the occasional sale that eventually adds up to a cheque?
Create a baseline of some sort. Say... if you profit $100 in a certain time period, you move up to a higher percentage bracket. If you don't maintain that level, you drop back for the next period. . .
This would be similar to the system used by Safeway Stores in conjunction with eScrip charities; the first $200 in purchases in a [accounting period] pay a rebate at x%, the next $200 at y%, and anything over that at z%. Unless you are going to cut a check for every sale, this should be fairly easy to implement.
It is based on current sales, and so is an incentive to maintain continuous traffic, and rewards only "current" performance. And it "re-sets" every "pay period" so there's no carry-over sales to track and calculate.
Now, let us in on the real secret -- how do you have so many images in your portfolio and stay under 10mb? I am almost maxed-out, but don't want to eliminate shots which may be linked to forum threads and such.
I don't think the shots on DP Prints are linked at all to the 10Mb on DPC...
The printable files don't count, but the JPEG you first upload to your portfolio to which you link the printable image DOES count, unless it was already submitted as a challenge entry.
Create a baseline of some sort. Say... if you profit $100 in a certain time period, you move up to a higher percentage bracket. If you don't maintain that level, you drop back for the next period. . .
This would be similar to the system used by Safeway Stores in conjunction with eScrip charities; the first $200 in purchases in a [accounting period] pay a rebate at x%, the next $200 at y%, and anything over that at z%. Unless you are going to cut a check for every sale, this should be fairly easy to implement.
It is based on current sales, and so is an incentive to maintain continuous traffic, and rewards only "current" performance. And it "re-sets" every "pay period" so there's no carry-over sales to track and calculate.
Now, let us in on the real secret -- how do you have so many images in your portfolio and stay under 10mb? I am almost maxed-out, but don't want to eliminate shots which may be linked to forum threads and such.
I don't upload large images to my portfolio. I try to keep them all relatively small in file size.
Just looked at your DP Prints stuff jmsetzler. An awful lot of prints there, and all great shots.
Without asking you for anything too specific, do you make a decent amount selling your prints there, or is it just the occasional sale that eventually adds up to a cheque?
I'm not unhappy with the amount I get to keep from my print sales. I would just like to keep more of it :) I have only sold 16 prints since the beginning of DPCPrints.
I'm not (currently) selling prints but have been talking about choosing a site to do so since I have some photos I took in Africa that friends would like to buy.
John I think your idea is excellent and certainly strikes me as a great way to incentivise vendor sales efforts.
I think that if a photographer is able to create that much profit for himself and the site, the extra percentage of the keep is warranted. At those sales levels, DPC will continue to make good money even as they take a lower cut. This would certainly push me to find new and better ways to increase my online sales. It's something I should be doing anyway, but extra incentive never hurts.
In that case I think maybe fewer brackets and higher upper thresholds would be better.
If the idea is to drive in more traffic and increase regular sales, I don't think a person who (maybe by arrangement or a fluke) sells a single, super-high-priced print, should get the same, lifelong benefit as someone who's sold forty or fifty less-profitable prints.
I think I'd rather see lower thresholds which recycle each month or quarter, and with fewer brackets -- maybe 60%, 67%, 75%.
I don't think you are going to get the "Total profits ever in this example."
I could picture those percentages as a quarterly goal and find it reasonable from a business stand point. But if my calculations are correct with the photographer getting 75% and a potential referer(sp?) getting 25% that leaves the store receiving only the base price. And while that might be acceptable on a quarterly basis once the photographer has reached those levels, I can't picture it as a forever and ever thing. However it might be a great incentive on a quarterly basis. I have no idea what the sales levels are like so I don't know how realistic your dollar levels are on a quarterly basis.
I don't think you are going to get the "Total profits ever in this example."
I could picture those percentages as a quarterly goal and find it reasonable from a business stand point. But if my calculations are correct with the photographer getting 75% and a potential referer(sp?) getting 25% that leaves the store receiving only the base price. And while that might be acceptable on a quarterly basis once the photographer has reached those levels, I can't picture it as a forever and ever thing. However it might be a great incentive on a quarterly basis. I have no idea what the sales levels are like so I don't know how realistic your dollar levels are on a quarterly basis.
I think it's unreachable on a quarterly basis. I have only managed to sell 16 prints since the end of March with a profit of about $148. That averages out to about $20 profit per month. But that's $20/month for DPC also. I don't know how well it is working for others, but my referrals suck. I have made 1562 total and 838 unique referrals since the inception with no sales from those referrals. I have to find a way to improve that somehow. One issue that I think could be a problem is that the referral basically has to happen by someone purchasing the print from the initial link/visit to the site. If someone follows my referral link, bookmarks the site, and comes back later, I don't get the referral credit because the referral URL is just a a redirect.
I think the only improvement in referral sales I can imagine is to hand out business cards locally to friends, family, and other associates. I don't believe that pursuing the online community is worthwhile.
