The Shop: Update.
I installed both Coppermine and Gallery photo management software, and after playing around, I decided to stay with Gallery. Coppermine is nice, and a very clean interface. However, Gallery, with it’s themes and pages of configuration allows me to have more control over the interface.
I uploaded just a few test photos, but they won’t necessarily be in the collection when I’m finished. I have to also go through all the photos and decide which to display. Let me know if you want to help me go through several hundred photos.
My business model for the Shop is based on seeking revenue from many different avenues. I’m going to LuLu for a calendar–the Water Mills of Missouri. I may also do one on my recent Florida trip, and call it One Ticket Please (just like the book that is now making its way around from place to place).
For goods, I have a store at Café Press. It’s a hacked mess now, and the images haven’t been refined for their use — but it was fun to play today. That’s when I got the idea for the limited edition of Burningbird refrigerator magnets. Other goodies too. Not a thong, though.
I’m focusing on my Missouri photos, as I can’t help thinking a regional collection could be the best avenue for revenue. We’ll see.
Finally, at Tinfoil Project itself, in the gallery, I’m following a model that Bill Grant is using (yes, pretty Alley Spring photos); except rather than using email, I’m either going to connect in a Paypal shopping cart, or I may interface directly to OsCommerce. I think the PayPal solution is better, at least right now. OsCommerce is a big, complex app.
What I’m doing different from Mr. Grant is that I am providing a web page image for no charge — free for personal web sites to use as long as they provide a link back. The reason for this is to hopefully start generating interest in the work. A larger, high resolution image is then available for sale, for royalty free use by the buyer.
I’m providing prints through my local development studio, though I won’t be charging as much. I’ll also provide an option of a ‘photographer’ print: hand printed by me and signed. I know–aren’t I special?
I’m banking that my photos–not all, but some–are good enough. Or, at a minimum, you’ll all want one each of my limited edition magnets.
Suggestions, as always, welcome.
(And now I return to regularly scheduled writing…)
The link to the old Tinfoil Project photo weblog can still be accessed for now; but the weblog is going away. I’m replacing the photo weblog with a photographer’s How-To weblog, covering digital photography and tools. And in this site, I will be putting the Google ads back up, since the topic is so focused on photography.
The photos will be in the Gallery software, and once I redesign the new weblog, it and the gallery and the stores will all be linked from a main page.
I thought you all might find the progress–how the software evolves– to be interesting, which is why I’m pointing all these sites out now, even hacked as they are.
