Lowest price to sell digital files for download

The downside of this popularity is competition. There are currently over 60 million items for sale on Etsy, and like we said before, there are 2. That means customers have a lot of options.

All you have to do is create an account and start uploading your products — it really is that simple. The benefit of ecommerce website builders like Squarespace is that you get a ready-made, but still easily personalized store at an all-in-one price.

Unlike ecommerce heavy-hitters like BigCommerce and Shopify, Squarespace makes it a lot easier to customize your brand. Most importantly, Squarespace is the best website builder for selling digital downloads. Not only is it cheaper than other ecommerce builders, with higher quality templates to emphasize digital products, but it also:. Squarespace also offers unlimited storage space on every plan, which is perfect for keeping multiple digital products in your store.

Built-in customer support services Cons Have to promote your own site. Less customizable than WordPress Who is Squarespace best for? With this plan, you can sell unlimited products and manage your inventory with ease. Every Squarespace plan also comes with a day free trial, so you can try this builder out risk-free. A CMS is a more powerful, scalable tool than a website builder, and can accommodate more files i. Lots of scalability Cons More complex setup process. No dedicated help and support team Who is WordPress best for?

Those who plan to scale their store The most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress is WooCommerce — but if you only want to sell digital downloads, then WooCommerce is actually not your best option. You can sell digital products with WooCommerce, but it will also come with too many features that only apply to physical products, such as shipping options. It is designed to work with any WordPress theme, though there are also themes created specifically for Easy Digital Downloads.

You can easily accept payments via Amazon or PayPal, and you can upload any kind of digital file to sell on your site.

WordPress is an open-source software, which means the original source code is freely available for users to modify and redistribute as they like. By now, you know which platforms are best for selling digital downloads.

But do you know how to sell digital downloads successfully? When you sell that content online, whoever buys it is buying a license to use it. This is different from buying and selling in the physical sense.

If you buy a dresser at a yard sale, you now own that dresser, and have the right to then sell it to someone else. This is not true for digital content, which means your work is protected from unfair redistribution.

There are different types of licenses that you can choose to grant to your buyers. For example, you can give customers the right to print out multiple copies of your work, or just one. Some of your work may have been created online, which makes uploading it to your website simple. There are two basic options for getting physical art online with ease: scanning and photographing.

If your physical art is 8. From there, you can get the file sent to your email, or you can provide a flash drive for it to be uploaded to. No matter what you do, resist the temptation to take a photo with your smartphone. No matter how quality the image looks, the screen on a cell phone is too small to allow for the file to be printed clearly later. SEO is often the deciding factor in whether or not your products will get the viewership that they deserve.

The more recognizable your item listings are to search engines, the higher your product pages will rank in the SERPs Search Engine Results Pages , and the more people will find them. Search engines want their users to have a straightforward experience, and a large part of SEO is making sure your details and descriptions are clear.

There are a few simple actions you can take to help your products stand out:. Consider platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as opportunities to widen your audience and engage with people.

In this case, it is a printed photograph and many times is printed on a surface that the artist feels best shows off the image.

Whether you are willing to buy this product is up to you, and the digital, in turn, is an alternate option made available. I would compare this situation to watching films in 35mm in a theater vs a Digital Reproduction at home on your television. As good as Digital has become, the look of film is simply unmatched, in my opinion, and although Millennials may be all about Netflix, many people are still willing to pay for the theatrical experience to view a film in a theater the way that the artists who were involved in the production have intended it to be viewed.

Suzanne Kulperger. November 28, at am. My clients often do not want prints anymore. And, more and more, I find my clients unwilling to pay a reasonable price for prints when they do want them. My clients, many who are affluent, would balk at that. Times have changed so much. With everyone walking around with a camera, phones , I have seen the value placed on hiring a professional photographer drop drastically.

Everyone thinks they are a photographer at this point. I have to be honest, I have seen a shocking number of potential clients will go for the lesser shooter if they can get a session for fifty bucks. Digital files Many times, this is all my clients want. I have gotten into the awkward place of clients asking me for all of the images from the session on a disk.

Every shot. Sorry for the venting. People want more and more for less and less money. March 29, at pm. I have been toying around with all these pricing scenarios. I find as well that most people around us are charging a higher yet modest price for digital only but offering these other products as well. Then we offer digital alacarte at a higher price but way lower as a bundle.

Have a minimum order amount close to the digital price. Then people can get prints or all items however they have to spend a certain amount and have an option. So for instance The part that is driving up what we need to charge in some peoples scenarios are the markup factor which like mentioned includes all the cost associated with getting a image ready for print, uploading it, packaging it and shipping it. Which is the cost of good sold. I guess if you do digital only technically you don't really have a cost of goods sold at all like the article states.

I guess i look at the time portion of the equation as part of why my salary is comprised of which is part of my fixed expenses. To make up more salary we would need to do more weddings which the general public has a higher perceived value on and is willing to pay more for. Or corporate head shots and events which are on a separate price scale. We are just finding it harder and harder even if you offer a better product general consumers are less and less willing to pay those types of prices when everything else around them is tailored at sales and deals and lower prices.

To reach the people that will pay the Bottom line here is like others have mentioned it will get harder and harder to sell at a higher price point for something that people dont necessarily want.

Maybe i have this all wrong but its just what i'm seeing doesn't mean its the same for everyone. October 20, at pm. Callum: you get my business; all you others, sorry How much did you say per digital copy??!?! Don't be ridiculous! Go buy a camera and try that. Real photographers spend years and thousands on training to take great images. The reality is photography studios are not packed with work all year. That is why you see such a high failure rate.

The camera has very little to do with photography. Plus professionals shoot Raw! Do you know how a camera works? The camera tries to make everything 18 percent grey. When the wedding dress comes out grey you will wish you hired a professional. After over a decade in I still struggle, some people have to learn the hard way! December 10, at am. We photographers take pride in the hours that we spend in the beginning shooting nothing as in a doll a bird a tree to get to know what we can do as well as the point and shoot POS you speak of.

OH can I get an 8X10 edited from your cell please no thank you apply your thought to your surgeon. October 29, at pm. Great Info I look forward to future informative and "changing" articles. November 23, at pm. There is huge scope for abuse once someone has a high-res digital copy. Images can be put online in various ways, without any watermark, those then stolen and used by opportunists, even print magazines. Of course a print can be scanned but it practice that doesn't seem to happen much.

Pursuing theft is time consuming and should be factored into the cost. Joseph Kilgus. December 9, at pm. This is such a difficult topic for our studio. As a new photographer building a business, we thought this was what we needed to do to because of our limited experience and low perceived value.

We knew that our business wasn't sustainable at that rate. So, we made a huge change and moved to offer product only: albums, prints and wall art. We had several prospective clients call and gave us the "what for" about our pricing structure and couldn't believe we didn't offer the files.

We lost business. We were telling them "No". We saw our prospective clients dwindle. We ticked off some existing clients, too, who didn't want to pay the premium price. We lost business we thought we had already won.

It was frustrating. After a year of struggling like this, we decided to listen to our clients and start offering the digital files again. We didn't notice much of a positive response in terms of more clients by doing this. In fact, new prospects continued to dwindle. Clients would email asking if we offered digital files and we would do our best to explain why prints are so important and why digital files cost more, but this was hugely unpopular.

So we decided to make the move to all-inclusive sessions: the fee includes the session, the editing and the digital files. It's easy to communicate and understand, we thought, and people get what they want.

We also didn't like that people were only getting files - after all, we want them to enjoy their photos on the walls, in their offices, etc. Those who did use their digital files to order prints got them made at Walmart, which just doesn't sit well with us! This way, our clients have a professional hard copy of their selected images, they get to see how nice professional prints look vs.

The response has been good, but it isn't as profitable as we want it to be. That remains to be seen. We think we offer quality work that challenges many of the better photographers in our area, but because we have little exposure and marketing has been hit-and-miss, we just don't have the leads we need to ratchet this up to the level we want. I can't say that what we're doing is the right way to do things, but we think it's a step in the right direction.

We just need to get paid what we think we're worth. For any given session, we shoot to provide double the number of images to proof, from which clients make their 15 selections. We offer additional digital files since we've already taken them, processed and edited them - why not? We've had one client actually buy more digital image files.

The rest are content with Sometimes I wonder if this hurts our business - as if clients may be getting irked that they have to leave the other images "on the table" - yet they don't seem interested in buying more. I don't know. Perhaps we're marketing to the entirely wrong clientele, but we have yet to find the "right" clientele who will pay what we believe we're worth.

Marketing is not your problem. Your clients are the problem. Your clients need to value photography! They should also be at a higher income level. I made this mistake for years. Being a better photographer does not drive customers to your business. You would think that would be the difference maker but the reality is its not. Photographers tend set prices on what they can afford. You are not your client. There will always be low end clients who will complain on price.

Higher end clients spend money on what the believe to be quality. They also want prints! They don't have time to get things printed that's your job to give them quality. You have to go out and get these clients don't expect them to come to you! Focus on the perceived value on your brand. Leave all those people wanting cheap files to cheap photographers. Are you the walmart studio or the Prada studio.

People like leaving a store with tangible items. The ones who want cheap digital are on a budget and their not your client! Telling your client no is a bad thing everything should have a price! December 14, at pm. This is much less complex than its made to be. In the digital age not giving the customer the digital files is more than stupid, it's defying gravity. It reminds me of the WPPI 15 years ago when about half of the photographer swore " I will never use a digital camera" and here came a laundry list of explanations.

Now or soon almost all photographers will be selling their time and talent etc. And the pricing is pretty simple: 1. How long will this task take you? How much do you feel you need to get paid from your time? What are your other related expenses? Call it contribution to general expenses. If a couple will buy from you an album or not doesn't need to matter, and should not change the basic concept and pricing, it's just one more item that will take x time and per your talent etc. If the bride feels your time is too expensive for her she will go online and select to do it her self in one of the few and coming direct to bride profesional albums solutions like www.

You cannot fight it, so adjust and thrive! At the end of he day people are paying you for you time and talent. WPPI has high end wedding photographers that charge If a client wants your work they will pay for it. You dont see women saying why buy Prada when walmart is cheaper do you? It comes down to value. November 2, at pm. Why don't more photographers understand this? If you are providing a service, then provide that service for the appropriate price - then you won't have to overcharge for products.

I agree with JJ, first get your time paid for. But as for pricing "product," the question remains: what constitutes "overcharging" for hi-res or even RAW files, if the client wants them? So, a hi-res digital file should be seen as worth more than a print, any size print, really!

But the client will call that overcharging. Peter Heinrich. January 10, at pm. Chanan, your comment is much more complete. I found the original article to be outrageously simplistic. The value of ANY photo has to include factors like That's a little different than running next door and catching an absolutely adorable shot of your neighbours daughter giggling as she comes towards you in a swing.

Yeah, good luck with that. Someone will like it. May even want to buy it. But they will ask the same 'what if I want to take the same photo' question. February 8, at pm. How bout value based pricing? We deliver value and people invest in value. March 4, at am. The article and the responses have been very helpful - thank you.

My question is would it be a good idea to put the pictures on a flash drive to give to the customer? Phoenix Headshots. September 19, at pm. Hello Deborah, we do have several packages where we deliver a flash drive. Protect your intellectual property with license keys. Set download limits to prevent customers from sharing products. Use buttons, widgets, and an embedded store to sell on social or a website. Apply promotion, coupon, and discount tools. Transact in roughly currencies.

Use Selz Pay to process all major cards or PayPal. SendOwl is a platform for selling digital products — downloads, memberships, subscriptions. Sell to customers via email, social media, or your website. Use drip functionality to release your product over time. SendOwl features a built-in affiliate system, pre-checkout and post-payment upsells, discount codes, and pay-what-you-want pricing.

FetchApp allows you to sell and digitally deliver downloadable goods, such as music, videos, photos, ebooks , PDFs, and software. FetchApp integrates with popular ecommerce systems such as Shopify and WooCommerce. FetchApp automatically emails a secure download link when orders are received.

Price: Free up to 25 orders per day and 5 MB storage. Gumroad is a simple ecommerce service for creators to sell digital goods, including subscriptions, rentals, license keys for software, and pre-orders. Offer codes and multiple product formats. Share previews through social media, and sell through affiliates. Customers can pay with any major credit card and PayPal, with multiple currencies. Customers can also pay what they want. Manage multiple stores through one DPD account.

Sell downloads, services, tangibles, or key codes. All sales are paid directly to your merchant account or payment provider, including PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize. E-junkie is a platform to sell files, codes, generated keys, or software, with download links that expire after limited use.