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Why Shutterfly?
When I first set up my photography business, I already had a website where I could display my work, but I did not have a way of selling photos online. I looked through industry magazines, and found that Shutterfly offered a fully-functional e-commerce solution that I could set up quickly and easily. I uploaded my photos and organized them into albums and galleries. I was able to choose which products to sell, and set my own prices. All this for a fraction of the cost of hiring someone to develop an e-commerce solution. I can take photos at a game or music event, and have them uplaoded within an hour of getting back to my computer. Customers would often be shocked to see that photos were already posted to their team’s gallery by the time they got home from the event!
Keeping our children’s photos safe on the Internet is a serious concern these days. Providing the necessary security was easy because Shutterfly enabled me to password-protect my customers’ galleries. This came in very handy for my youth sports photography business, because some parents and coaches were concerned about having their team’s images available for anyone to see on my website. The coaches or team coordinators were given a password for their event so other visitors to my public website could not view them. This selling point was the difference between “I’m not comfortable having my child’s photos on the Internet” and “Yes we would love you to take photos at our game!”.
I was also able to set up share sites for games I shot for my son’s soccer team. I posted photos from nearly every game for five years, and shared them with his team and their parents. Families could order prints and photobooks directly from the share site. I could also link to other parents’ Shutterfly share sites so the team could see all of the photos from a central location.
In the last few months, I have been surprised by customers ordering photo products from events that I shot as far back as 2007. Having my photos available for sale with no additional work on my part is a great convenience. I get a notification from Shutterfly that an order has been placed, and my revenue is automatically transferred into my bank account.
Shutterfly has given me the ability to expand my business by enabling me to sell professional photos, customized the way I want it, without the cost normally associated with developing a customized e-commerce solution.
Dom Ioele – Mario Michael Vincent Photography
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