BrianP in Austin
Active member
I am trying to offer a free, small, non-watermarked download to potential customers without registering, umpteen pages of forms, providing an email, full name or being seen to harvest personal information.
My reasoning is that the more times a potential buyer looks at a small (tiny) copy of an excellent picture, the greater the chance that they will buy a larger one. And, it has my name and website on it providing some exposure like a business card.
I want to show full size, 36 Mpixel images to illustrate the product's quality and detail, but these obviously have to be watermarked or they will appear on google images which all but guarantees they will never sell.
zenfolio has 2 ways to deliver free images:
Demanding personal information as a prerequisite for getting the picture IS A PROBLEM and the forms are a needless hassle. Extracting a working email first means that the picture is NOT FREE. Real email addresses with full names attached are worth their weight in Antimatter.
A savvy customer will certainly question the motives for sending an email link to a picture rather than just downloading it. I find it very fish!
If there is NO-PAYMENT (I.E. free), why is a payment form necessary?
zenfolio tech support: "When offering a digital product, it is required that the full checkout process be completed, regardless of the selling price"
They seem to have a "THIS IS THE WAY IT IS", rigid mentality.
When I selected zenfolio 2 years ago, it was as painful as buying a camera/computer/car. Dozens of competing sites with a withering array of features. iStock, SmugMug, Facebook Messenger, Flickr, Alamy, PhotoShelter, ShutterStock, ... I had to make a ~20 column spreadsheet to compare all of the features.
The last discussion on DPReview of Photo sharing/selling website dates to 2012. Are there any success stories on web services which work very well to sell digital downloads (not so much prints)? Any horror stories on sites to avoid?
My reasoning is that the more times a potential buyer looks at a small (tiny) copy of an excellent picture, the greater the chance that they will buy a larger one. And, it has my name and website on it providing some exposure like a business card.
I want to show full size, 36 Mpixel images to illustrate the product's quality and detail, but these obviously have to be watermarked or they will appear on google images which all but guarantees they will never sell.
zenfolio has 2 ways to deliver free images:
- remove the watermark (and never sell)
- a 5 form interrogation including shipping and payment forms even though there is no shipping on a digital download and no payment on a free image. This demands either a full registration or a "mini registration" including a real email and a full name.
Demanding personal information as a prerequisite for getting the picture IS A PROBLEM and the forms are a needless hassle. Extracting a working email first means that the picture is NOT FREE. Real email addresses with full names attached are worth their weight in Antimatter.
A savvy customer will certainly question the motives for sending an email link to a picture rather than just downloading it. I find it very fish!
If there is NO-PAYMENT (I.E. free), why is a payment form necessary?
zenfolio tech support: "When offering a digital product, it is required that the full checkout process be completed, regardless of the selling price"
They seem to have a "THIS IS THE WAY IT IS", rigid mentality.
When I selected zenfolio 2 years ago, it was as painful as buying a camera/computer/car. Dozens of competing sites with a withering array of features. iStock, SmugMug, Facebook Messenger, Flickr, Alamy, PhotoShelter, ShutterStock, ... I had to make a ~20 column spreadsheet to compare all of the features.
The last discussion on DPReview of Photo sharing/selling website dates to 2012. Are there any success stories on web services which work very well to sell digital downloads (not so much prints)? Any horror stories on sites to avoid?
