The REAL truth about selling prints online

I've spent a while searching for a platform to host and sell my prints, and to be honest, it's been a nightmare. I've tried several different companies and watched numerous useless YouTube videos but nobody really touches on the important stuff. 

It's easy if you have clients 

The first thing I realized is that most YouTube reviews are primarily made by professional photographers who have clients. They upload their photos into galleries and share them with their clients. It's a system that works well - if you have clients. But for the rest of us looking to sell to the general public, it's a different story.

It's a wedding site? 

It's also important to understand that many photo sites are primarily based on this wedding/client market. They added e-commerce as an afterthought without giving much thought to what people really need when it comes to selling to the general public. They just tacked it on the side of their wedding software and hoped nobody would notice the difference. But there is a difference, and it's a big difference. 

Titles and tags are essential 

One crucial aspect for selling online is the ability to add titles and tags to each of your images. This might sound obvious because, without them, how can anyone find your prints? How can search engines find them? Surprisingly, there are several popular and well known photo selling sites that don't allow this essential feature. 

Many reviewers and YouTubers barely mention titles and tags. Why? Because they're not important to people with clients. Wedding photographers don't need to add titles to their photos, nor do they require their photos to show up in search results. So, naturally, these aspects are not important to them. 

So before signing up for any site, make sure to read the help files and determine if you can add titles and tags to each individual image. If you can't find the answer, contact their support team and ask. And if the answer is no then walk away. Some sites might allow you to add titles and tags to galleries, but that's rather pointless if all the photos within the gallery are untitled.

Let's talk about SEO 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to the optimization of your content for search engines, with Google being the primary focus. Search engines rely on titles and tags to find your content, making them essential for discoverability. That's why any site that doesn't allow them is a waste of time.

But SEO isn't just about titles and tags. Your site also needs to be SEO friendly as a whole. Imagine your site as a big apartment building. When Google enters through the front door, you want it to explore every nook and cranny, making sure each apartment door is unlocked and open. Each room in each apartment should be easily accessible, without any furniture or obstacles blocking the way. Google is lazy and won't put in any extra effort, so you need to ensure your site provides a very smooth and obstacle-free experience.

While there's a lot you can do to optimize your own SEO, some aspects are beyond your control. A lot of it depends on how your photo site provider has structured and coded their platform. And as most of them are built on the back of wedding software you soon realize that SEO is generally poor and not a big priority to them. 

How it started for me 

Let me share how my journey started. I inherited several thousand vintage color images (mostly 35mm slides) from a couple of family members. I thought it would be fun to share them with others so I bought a slide scanner and began uploading them to my Flickr site. Over a period of three years, I'd uploaded over 10,000 photos.

Before I knew it, my photos were all over Google. Literally. I received almost daily emails from people wanting to buy or use them in some way. Some wanted prints, others digital files. People wanted to use them for album covers, magazines and books. My photos even appeared in newspapers like the Daily Mail and London Evening Standard. And I gave most of them away for free in return for a link back to my site. 

The problems begin

But I was also noticing rampant theft. My images started showing up on other Flickr sites, Facebook, and Instagram without any acknowledgment of their source. Some were showing up on news sites and blogs. Even though monetary gain wasn't my primary concern, I felt it was important to receive some kind of credit for the effort I'd put in. One of my images had half a million likes on Twitter, but it was posted by someone without any indication of its origin. I also discovered that people were selling my images. Things started to get out of control, and I realized I needed to make some changes as I couldn't dedicate enough time to address all the issues.

At that time, Smugmug had recently acquired Flickr, so I considered them as an alternative. While primarily a wedding site, they offered the ability to sell images and add watermarks, two things which were lacking on Flickr. I believed this could simplify my life. Moreover, if others were making money from my images, why shouldn't I? Consequently, I removed all my photos from Flickr and embarked on my journey with Smugmug. 

Moving everything to Smugmug

This would mean downloading and uploading all my photos again, a daunting task. Especially having to rewrite all the titles and tags. But one piece of software saved the day and it's called Bulkr. This amazing program can download entire Flickr albums complete with all the metadata. In other words it will download the image and also download the title, tags and descriptions that you added on Flickr. It's a genuine lifesaver. 

You can then upload your images elsewhere (providing that site support metadata uploads, most do but some don't) and all the titles, tags and descriptions will magically reappear so you don’t have to type them all out again. Very easy and highly recommended for Flickr users looking to move their images elsewhere. 

However Bulkr seems to be inactive at the moment as the developer seems to have disappeared. Hopefully it’s only a temporary thing as I want to renew for another year but nobody is replying to my emails.

All my images are now on Smugmug!

Thanks to Bulkr I was able to transfer everything to Smugmug in a couple of relatively easy weekends. Everything was watermarked, all the products lined up (both physical and digital) and my new store was open for business.

Fast forward 6 months

All my images have disappeared from Google. Nobody was sending me emails anymore. My photos stopped showing up on social media. Nobody was even stealing them! It’s like my photos didn’t exist. So I started doing some research and soon discovered that many others had experienced the same thing. In other words Smugmug has really bad SEO. Somebody had even written a blog post entitled: Smugmug: Where photography goes to hide. And that sums it up pretty well.

I had uploaded them with the exact same titles and tags I had used on Flickr (thanks to Bulkr). And they went from being all over Google to disappearing completely. I’ve no idea what the problem is but what I do know is that Smugmug is a complete waste of time if you want your photos showing up on Google. But it’s probably wonderful if you're a wedding photographer. 

Let's talk more about how amazing Flickr actually is

Before we move on let's talk a little more about Flickr and how it can benefit your online photo business. Back in the day Flickr was the #1 photo sharing site before Facebook and Instagram and Twitter left it in the dust. Today it's mostly ignored by younger people but it still has some relevance and still has a fairly thriving (older) user base.

But the thing that makes Flickr extra special is their amazing SEO. When I first went there I didn't even know what SEO was. I'd upload a photo, add a title and within a couple of weeks that image were showing up on Google. I thought that was normal, I thought that's how all photo sites work. I didn't realize that this was far from normal.

So whatever Flickr are doing they're obviously doing something right when it comes to SEO. They are without doubt the best photo site if you want your images showing up on Google.

So my advice is to use Flickr as a marketing tool. Upload your images there and in the description provide a link to your main site. Say something like "You can buy a framed print of this image by visiting my site at yourdomain.com". Your Flickr images will almost certainly show up in search results before your main site. People who click on your Flickr image will see the link and hopefully move on to your main site afterwards. It's a great marketing tool and a great way to drive traffic. 

I still use it today for marketing. But make sure you watermark all your images before you upload them, or they will get stolen. There's no way to watermark them once they're uploaded. Simply add "yourdomain.com" as the watermark. And make it big enough to deter theft, and put it right in the middle. 

And add the info to the description box as you upload them, not after. You can do it in bulk during the upload stage and add the description to every photo easily and quickly. But there’s no way to do it in bulk after you’ve uploaded them, you'll have to fill out the descriptions for each one individually. 

Their best asset is their amazing SEO and they need to capitalize on this. But unfortunately they don't seem to care. So our search continues! 

Let's try Zenfolio!

I then decided to try Zenfolio. They offered many of the same features as Smugmug including the ability to title and tag each image. Yes they’re another wedding site but I’d read a bunch of their help files and it sounded worth trying. And surely their SEO couldn't be any worse than Smugmug? I was again able to upload my Bulkr images without having to type out all the metadata again. So that was good and relatively painless. 

What's Zenfolio Classic?

I soon discovered that Zenfolio had recently brought out a "new and improved" system. But apparently the new system is not compatible with the old one so everybody on the old one got to stay there while all new customers are put on the new version. I then realized that most of the help files and reviews I’d been reading were all related to the old one. Which they now call Zenfolio Classic. And most of that information doesn't apply to the new version. In fact there’s very little documentation online relating to the new version.

For example, by default it doesn’t display photo titles. Even if the photo has a title it won't show it - it'll show the filename instead. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Yes you can change it but you can’t do it in bulk, each individual photo has to be changed manually by going into each image and checking the box that says display title. I'm not doing that for 10,000 images. 

Secondly their limited selection of templates are great for wedding photographers but mostly useless for e-commerce. They don’t even have a search function for customers to search your site! The old Zenfolio had search. I wrote to them and asked why and they ignored me, didn’t even bother to send a reply. And at the time I was a fully paid up member. So I decided to cancel.

There's nowhere on their site to click cancel so you have to email them. So I emailed and strangely enough they replied in less than an hour. They asked me why I wanted to leave and I told them everything I just told you. They had nothing to say, and gave me a full refund. 

So the search continues. I wasn't on Zenfolio long enough to find out if their SEO was good or bad. 

Let's try PhotoDeck

I then decided to explore other sites. Several were quickly eliminated due to their lack of support for individual titles and tags. Eventually, I came across PhotoDeck, which boasted of excellent SEO capabilities. They had extensive online resources and videos dedicated to this topic so it looked like they valued its importance.

On the whole, I found PhotoDeck to be very good. Uploading my Bulkr images was a breeze, and they offered attractive templates, watermarking options, and a user-friendly interface. Their help desk was exceptional, with even the company owner personally responding to some of my inquiries.

However, despite my efforts, I couldn't get their SEO to work effectively. Google continued to highlight various issues, and despite my attempts to resolve them, my efforts proved futile. After persevering for over a year, I finally gave up. Within that time frame, Google had only indexed around 100 pages of my site, which accounted for merely 1% of the total.

So where next? 

My next attempt was Fine Art America, but I immediately noticed how vulnerable my images were to theft. There was no way to watermark them or prevent right-clicking. Additionally, their prices for prints and shipping were exorbitantly high. Consequently, I didn't stay with them for long.

Time to talk about e-commerce

All the different photo sites offer it, some are totally passive and handle everything whereas others are semi-passive and only handle some of it. The totally passive sites, like Smugmug and Zenfolio, make the entire process hassle-free. You upload your images, set your profit margins, and sit back and do nothing. They'll handle everything from returns to irate customers to sales tax. You won't have to deal with any of that. However, they don't do it for free. Smugmug charges a 15% commission while (I think) Zenfolio charges around 10%. 

The dreaded cost of shipping

Nowadays people expect free shipping. They get it everywhere and it's sort of become the norm. And they don’t like unexpected surprises at the checkout. So let's look at an example, let’s look at a regular 11oz white mug. 

Smugmug charges you $12.95 to have your image printed on a mug. You then add on your markup, say $4, and you sell it for $17. So the customer adds it to their cart and arrives at the checkout where they’re faced with $14 shipping - yes Smugmug charges $14 to ship a mug in the US. Want it delivered to Canada? That'll be $18 shipping. Zenfolio actually charge $20 shipping for a mug within the US. Or $65 to ship it to the UK. Seriously.

These excessively high prices mean you probably won't sell anything. It would be better to charge $31 for the mug and offer free shipping. At least the customer knows upfront exactly what the price is and it avoids any nasty surprises and abandoned carts at checkout. But I really can't see anyone paying $31 for a mug, even with free shipping. Plus there’s no way to even offer free shipping on Smugmug and Zenfolio.

And don't forget Smugmug will take their 15% commission from your $4 markup. So you sell a $31 mug and only make $3.40 for yourself.

The semi passive companies

So let’s look at the semi-passive companies, which pretty much covers all the rest. They don't charge any commission but they don't handle everything either. When a customer places an order, the photo site will deposit the money into your account and forward the order to the lab. After that point, you're on your own. You will be responsible for handling customer inquiries, processing returns, collecting and remitting sales tax, and paying the lab using your credit card.

Choosing a lab

Most of these sites allow you to pick a lab from their approved list, and you can choose more than one. And some of them are in different countries. But you can only designate one lab per photo - see more below. The labs are all high quality respectable companies. On some items their prices are very similar but on other items there could be large differences in price so it pays to compare them and shop around. If their shipping prices are not listed then contact them and ask. In general the shipping will be less than you'll pay at Smugmug or Zenfolio. So that's a good thing. And some will also allow you to include the shipping in the final price which is another good thing. Because, where possible, I'd always suggest offering "free shipping" and including it within the price. It just looks better and it's now what people expect.

Two separate transactions

The photo labs consider this type of order as two separate transactions. The first transaction occurs between you and the lab. You place the order, you pay for it, and you provide them with the shipping address. As far as the lab is concerned, you are the customer.

The second transaction occurs between you and your actual customer. The lab does not want to get involved in this part. They will ship the order in a plain package (called white label shipping) without any mention of their name or address. Instead, your name and address will appear on the return label, making it look like the package came directly from you. This approach is considered more professional, and it is, but it also ensures that the lab doesn't have to deal with your customers or handle their returns.

My address is on every package?

Yes. Remember when you first signed up for your account at the photo site? Remember you gave them your name and address? Yes, that address you gave will be forwarded to the photo lab and they will print it on the return label of every package they send out. Now if you've got a business address this isn't a problem but what about a home address? Do you really want your home address appearing on all these packages? 

If not then you'll need to come up with an alternate address, and give that to the photo lab. So that means a PO Box or some other type of business mailing address. Something that will undoubtedly cost you extra money each month. 

So what countries should I sell to?

This is where the big problems begin. As I've already mentioned the photo sites give you a choice of different labs and you designate which images go to which lab. But you can only have one lab per image. So which lab do you choose?

Sometimes the choice is clear-cut. For example, if you're selling prints of American cars, it makes sense to choose an American lab because the majority of your potential customers would be in the United States. The same principle applies if you're selling prints of British cars; you would choose a British lab.

However, this approach is not ideal since it limits the accessibility of your prints to customers from other countries. What if an American customer wanted to buy one of your British prints? There's nothing to stop them doing this. But the order would come the British lab and the American customer would be charged an astronomical fee for shipping. And vice versa. So this would probably deter any overseas sales.

But what if your prints have worldwide appeal?

Dealing with the international appeal of your prints becomes a significant challenge. You have to pick one lab from one country and essentially ignore the rest of the world. You're basically ignoring a huge potential market. It's far from perfect. Ideally, these labs should establish international partnerships and offer identical products at identical prices, allowing orders to be processed by one lab or forwarded to a partner lab in a different country based on the customer's address. This approach would minimize shipping costs and expand your potential customer base. But it hasn't happened yet. Well actually it has, in a different kind of way, and we'll talk about that shortly. 

Don't forget about VAT in the UK

There's one other thing you need to be aware if using a British lab - they will charge you 20% VAT on every order. It's a type of sales tax. The prices you see on their price list do not include VAT and it'll only appear when it comes time to pay.

So that mug that you thought was costing you £10 is actually costing you £12. So that £4 profit you were expecting has suddenly dropped to £2. And I believe they also charge VAT on the shipping too, so that's another buck that you'll lose. So you might end up with hardly any profit. So prepare for this in advance and add more margin to cover it. For this reason I'd recommend not selling small margin stuff within the UK, stick to more expensive items with higher margins.

You can resister for VAT and claim that money back. But in return you'll have to charge the customer VAT on all your UK orders. Actually it's a legal requirement to resister for VAT if you're not a UK resident but planning to sell there. UK residents don't need to register until their income reaches a certain level. 

The perfect site?

We've talked about how difficult it is trying to find the perfect site to sell prints. We also discussed the difficulties that arise from high prices and the impracticality of worldwide e-commerce. Interestingly, an alternative approach does exist that might solve our issues, but in a slightly different kind of way.

So what's the difference?

There are suppliers out there known as POD providers (Print on Demand) and they will print whatever you want on just about anything you want and ship it around the world due to their multiple overseas locations. And all at reasonable prices.

So how do I use them? 

Before you can use a POD supplier you need a store. The easiest way to get a store is to use one of the big storefront companies such as Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress etc. They host some of the world's biggest brands and you can sell literally anything you want. 

So you choose a storefront company (I went with Shopify at $29 per month) and then create and design your store. Most of them have templates/themes which makes web design pretty easy and no more difficult than anywhere else. You then add a domain name and now you can add a POD supplier. 

How do I add a suppler?

All these storefront companies have app stores where you can search through all the different suppliers and look at their product offerings, read reviews and see what countries they sell to. And you can choose more than one, each handling different products. Once you find a supplier you download their app and connect it to your store. 

Let's talk more about these app stores 

These app stores also contain a host of other things that can be used to provide assistance or enhance various aspects of your store. It's important to note that many of them come with a monthly fee, so the costs can soon add up. Ultimately, the decision of whether to use them rests solely with you. None of them are technically necessary and you can run your store without having to use or pay for any of them. But some could certainly make life easier for you, your customers and your business in general. 

How do I upload my photos? 

In most cases you'll be uploading everything through the supplier website. Once you've connected the app anything you add on your supplier site will automatically sync to your storefront. So if you want to create a framed print, you'd go to your supplier site, find the section relating to framed prints, upload your image, chose which sizes and frame colors you want to offer, set your prices and hit save. This information will then automatically get sent to your store and the print will show up online and be available to buy within 30 seconds. 

You can go into the storefront site afterwards and edit the product and change things around but the inital designing and uploading will be done on your supplier site.

Shopify and Printful do not support metadata uploads which means all the information gets stripped so you'll have to type out the titles and tags again. 

So what's so different about it? 

It's all about products. On a traditonal photo hosting site you upload your image and the customer can chose how they want it - framed print, unframed print, metal print etc. It's all very easy and you can bulk upload hundreds of images a day. 

But with POD suppliers each item is called a product and each product has to be designed and listed seperately. You want to offer a framed print? Upload your photo, design a framed print and create a product. Want to offer the same image as an unframed print? Upload your photo again, design an unframed print and create a product. Want a mug? Upload your photo again and create yet another product.So if you want your image on 6 different things then you'll be uploading and creating 6 different products, all from the same image. 

Isn't this a really bad system? 

Yes. It doesn't make any sense. And there's currently no way to link all these products together. Each will be a separate independent product on a separate page. They really need to come up with a better solution. 

So unless you've only got a few dozen images I'd suggest focusing on just one product. Say framed prints. Or unframed prints. But maybe not both, unless you've got a lot of free time. 

Is it really worth the hassle?

In the short term it'll certainly be more time consuming and listing different versions as different products is downright silly. 

But I think the long term gains are worth it. Your product and shipping prices will be substantially lower and the option to sell worldwide opens up a huge potential market. You might actually sell something. And once you get into a routine you can do it pretty quick, I can list about 30 products an hour so it soon adds up.

I started by only offering framed prints but I've since switched to unframed posters for all my new uploads. They're substantially cheaper and it gives the customer the freedom to go out and buy their own frame based on their own personal preference. 

What supplier should I use?

This all depends on whether you want to only sell in one country or worldwide. Some of the big worldwide players that handle photgraphic prints include Printful, Printify and Gelato, plus others. There are other companies that will only ship to specific countries. 

To minimize international shipping times (and costs) these worldwide companies have multiple factories around the world so your print will be made and shipped from the most convenient country based on your customers address. And the process is fully automated without you having to do anything. I chose Printful. 

Let's compare Printful to Smugmug

This isn't going to be one of those silly YouTube comparisons that just wastes everyone's time. In fact I don't need to say anything more, just look at the table below. 

	11oz Mug	US Shipping	Canada Shipping
Smugmug	12.95	$14	$18
Printful	$7.95	$6.50	$7.79

 

What about UK shipping? That's $4.99. Japan? $4.79. Any country in the European Union? $5.19. So basically you could offer that mug with Printful for around $20 and offer free shipping anywhere in the world and you'd make 5 or 6 bucks from each one. Certainly beats out the $31 you'd have to charge at Smugmug - and that's for US shipping only.

And it's pretty much the same across the board. I can sell a framed print with Printful and offer free shipping anywhere in the world (with a decent profit margin) for less money than Smugmug would charge me to supply it and ship it - before any profit margin is attached. And don't forget the Smugmug price is for US shipping only, not worldwide. 

How is their SEO? 

So far I've been very impressed with Shopify, most of my site was indexed within a couple of months. There are also paid apps which will optimize your SEO even further. 

What happens when a customer places an order?

Similar to how it works with most non-passive photo sites. When a customer places an order it will get sent automatically to your POD supplier and they will route it to their most convenient worldwide factory based on the customers address. The storefront company will then deposit the customers money into your account and you pay the supplier with your credit card. You'll also be responsible for customer service, sales tax etc. It's basically the same an any non-passive photo site. But again there are apps available that would help with these. 

Will my address appear on the package? 

No. Printful will use your company name but with their address. The Printful name does not appear anywhere. And neither does your address 

How does VAT work? 

Printful will charge you 20% VAT on any UK orders so bear this in mind. (see my discussion above).

Do I have to pay a monthly fee to the POD company?

The majority of POD companies don't charge any monthly fees. Some have monthly or yearly subscription plans that offer big discounts on shipping but this isn't worth doing until you start selling a lot of stuff. 

Final thoughts

Overall I'm happy and I feel a lot better using Shopify and Printful. I can finally charge sensible prices and offer worldwide shipping without feeling like I'm price gouging my customers. I now feel that my store actually has a good chance of success and I'm looking forward to adding more images and improving it further in the future. So far I've only got maybe 10% of my photos online. 

Yes it's more time consuming and I really don't like how different versions of the same photo all have to be listed as individual products. This is a huge downside and seriously needs to be addressed by these companies. And it's not just Printful that does this, both Printify and Gelato do exactly the same thing. But that's about the only negative thing.

I hope my info has been useful to you and it would be great to hear your thoughts and your own expereinces.

My site can be found at 

oldcolorimages.com