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Rangefinder Magazine
Features
EventPix.Com Offers New Way to Market Wedding and
Event Photos
by P.J. Heller
When it comes to marketing photos on the Internet, Todd
Anderson is a believer in the KISS—Keep It Simple, Stupid—approach.
So when the Woodland Hills, California professional photographer was asked
to help design a new web site on which wedding and event photographers
could sell their work, he followed that basic plan.
The result, at www.eventpix.com, makes it a simple matter for consumers
to order images online and easy for photographers to reap the rewards
of their efforts.
The biggest problem that Anderson saw with most e-commerce web sites geared
to selling wedding and event photography was that they weren’t easy
to navigate.
“What I’ve found about most of the other companies who are doing
this is that they’ve got tech guys who have made these web sites,”
he said. “And they’re not really user-friendly. They make sense
to the tech guys. But from a photography standpoint, when I’m selling
to a grandmother or to mothers or fathers or to bridesmaids, you have
to make it as simple as possible.
“When you’re dealing with the masses, anything you can do to
cause a little bit of a problem is going to cause a lot of problems with
a lot of people,” he warned.
With more than a decade of experience in selling his
wedding, portrait and commercial work, Anderson relished the idea of helping
to create a web site in which consumers could quickly and easily locate
photos they might want to purchase and where photographers could retain
control of their work.
Unlike other photo marketing web sites, which require photographers to
send in their film for processing, printing, scanning and uploading, EventPix.com
leaves that to the individual photographer, he noted.
Even more important, Anderson said, is the fact that the Santa Monica,
California-based operation does not handle order fulfillment, nor does
it collect a percentage of sales, which at some sites can be as much as
25 percent. All money paid for images goes directly to the photographer,
who is responsible for having the orders printed and shipped,” he
said.
“What we’re trying to do is give control back to the photographers,”
Anderson explained. “You do what you want. You run your business
the way you want. We’re giving you a conduit to get to more people.”
After photographing a wedding, for example, usually only a handful of
people—the bride, groom and their immediate families—ever get
to see the wedding proofs, Anderson noted. “It can also take weeks
or months for the proof book to make its way from family member to family
member.
“Using the Internet, however, allows everyone in
the wedding party—family members, relatives and friends—to quickly
see and order photos from the wedding, resulting in increased revenue
to the studio,” he said.
“What’s nice about the Internet is now it’s a universal
mailbox,” Anderson said. “Everybody can go and look at the photos
and order whatever they’d like.”
To drive people to the web site, photographers give out small promotional
items at an event which provide the necessary link and password to gain
entry. Photographers can have visitors either go through their own web
site with a link to EventPix.com or have them go directly to the EventPix
site.
Anderson prefers the former, sending people to www.toddanderson.com. Once
there, they click on “recent events” to view a list of events
he photographed by customer name. After clicking on one of the names,
visitors are transported to the EventPix.com site, where they enter a
supplied password (Anderson uses the date of the event) to view and order
images.
The first thing that appears is a series of thumbnail images. Clicking
on any image brings up a larger-size picture. Visitors can place any of
the photos in their electronic “shopping cart” and purchase
online, using a credit card. Or they can continue browsing for more images.
After making a purchase, a customer will receive an e-mail verification
within 48 hours. “The photographer is notified of the sale immediately
via e-mail,” Anderson said.
To make locating an image easy, photographers can set up various categories
where they can drag and drop images. Categories for a wedding might include
such headings as “bride and groom,” “bride’s family,”
“groom’s family” “bridesmaids,” “groomsmen”
or “extended family.”
“When somebody comes to the site, they don’t have to look at
100 photos to find the ones they want,” Anderson said, explaining
that they can just go to one of the categories to find a particular image.
Photographers can specify what print sizes are available for each image
and the cost for each print. Portrait photographers who want to take advantage
of the site, for example, might only offer 8x10 and larger prints, while
a wedding or prom photographer might offer prints from wallet-size on
up.
Photographers who sign on with EventPix.com receive a proprietary desktop
software application, EPX Express, to allow them to upload images to the
site. The software is so speedy and efficient, you can upload up to 100
images to the EventPix.com site in only minutes, even over a 56k modem.
“Images can either be scanned by the photographer or burned to a
CD-ROM by the lab for uploading to the site,” Anderson said. “Photographers
who shoot digitally can have the results of their work posted to the site
the same day as the event,” Anderson added.
Anderson, a vice president at EventPix.com, said about 50 photographers
have already signed on to the web site, which he said went live April
15. He noted that the cost to post photos on the site is extremely reasonable.
There is a per-event hosting fee of $50 ($40, if you are a member in good
standing of any photographic association), which allows a photographer
to post up to 100 images for two months. Blocks of space for posting an
additional 50 photos cost $25. Additional time for the postings runs $25
per month.
“It can be customized to what you want to do,” Anderson said,
explaining that someone might want to post 100 images for two months while
another photographer might need to post 400 images for four or five months.
The site is designed to appeal not only to wedding photographers, but
to other event and portrait photographers, as well. “For photographers
who don’t have a web site of their own, it provides a way for them
to still market their work on the Internet,” Anderson said.
On the consumer side of the EventPix. com web site you’ll find a
database of photographers, making it easy for shoppers to find and hire
a photographer in their area.
Anderson stressed that simplicity was the key to the site and would be
one of its biggest selling points.
“I talked to about 1000 photographers at the recent WPPI convention,”
he said, referring to the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International
event held in March. “I told them to look around and if they could
find an easier web site that they or their clients could navigate, they
should go with it.
“It’s simply not out there,” he insisted. “All of
the other web sites out there are kind of cool, but there are a lot of
trap doors—cul du sacs.”
For more information on EventPix, visit the web site, or call: (310) 395-5390.
P.J. Heller operates Dateline: a free-lance photojournalism service
based in Santa Barbara, Calif. He can be reached via e-mail at pjheller@west.net.
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