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Wordpress - selling digital downloads


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Posted (edited)

Does anybody have experience or knowledge of  using Wordpress blog technology to sell digital image downloads - I mean making thousands of pics available not just a handful. 

 

I read all this stuff about setting up an online store but how could it relate to stock photography if at all?

Edited by geogphotos
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I know Etsy has the ability to have fully automated downloads of digital files but I don't know about Wordpress. Etsy would have a small listing fee for every photo you upload so it might not be the best route to take.

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18 hours ago, geogphotos said:

Does anybody have experience or knowledge of  using Wordpress blog technology to sell digital image downloads - I mean making thousands of pics available not just a handful. 

 

I read all this stuff about setting up an online store but how could it relate to stock photography if at all?

 

It's easy enough to set up an online digital download store, but not sure about doing it through a blog.  And if you want to put on thousands, that's a lot of work as you would have to upload them one at a time generally.

 

You can set one up with Wordpress.  I use Shopify now for my pet products (they don't have any photography specific themes) but in the past used the ecommerce software OpenCart.  You have to run it through an independent web host.  I used JustHost.  All ecommerce software will be able to offer digital downloads.  I'm pretty sure OpenCart has photography specific themes.

 

There are tons of options out there.  I assume you are aware of Zenfolio, etc but they not only charge a monthly fee but take a cut as well.

 

Goo luck Ian.

 

Jill

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Posted (edited)

Wordpress is just a tool for building your own website. Which can include an online shop. You'd have to do all the marketing etc.

Edited by Steve F
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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Steve F said:

Wordpress is just a tool for building your own website. Which can include an online shop. You'd have to do all the marketing etc.

 

A do-it-yourself web site to offer stock image licenses has been somewhat of a Holy Grail for stock media producers. 

 

The tools to build a web site to provide downloads etc. are available.

 

The 2000 lbs gorilla-in-the room is getting the site and images visited by enough serious regular stock license buyers to generate enough sales to make it economically viable. 

 

Driving a large volume of target audience web traffic to the site are the keys to the kingdom but very difficult for an individual. Many have tried - but few have been successful AFAIK.   It's so much more than "If I build it they will come".

Edited by Phil
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16 hours ago, Phil said:

The 2000 lbs gorilla-in-the room is getting the site and images visited by enough serious regular stock license buyers to generate enough sales to make it economically viable. 

 

Driving a large volume of target audience web traffic to the site are the keys to the kingdom but very difficult for an individual. Many have tried - but few have been successful AFAIK.   It's so much more than "If I build it they will come".

 

Exactly! Marketing is very time consuming. Plus it also needs to be a big enough collection to be worth buyers looking at it in the first place.

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Posted (edited)

I have my WordPress website set up as a stock image site/blog. 

 

I use WordPress combined with NextGen Pro (Imagely) and Stripe. I got a lifetime subscription to Imagely so they also do my theme as well. 

 

Take a look and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. 

 

https://images.artist-at-large.com/

 

(I'm currently restructuring one of my other sites which is eating up my bandwidth across all of my sites, so let me know if you have any problems viewing.)

 

Oh, I self host and work on my own websites. I'm not using Imagely's web hosting. 

Edited by kimba
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10 hours ago, kimba said:

I have my WordPress website set up as a stock image site/blog. 

 

I use WordPress combined with NextGen Pro (Imagely) and Stripe. I got a lifetime subscription to Imagely so they also do my theme as well. 

 

Take a look and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. 

 

https://images.artist-at-large.com/

 

(I'm currently restructuring one of my other sites which is eating up my bandwidth across all of my sites, so let me know if you have any problems viewing.)

 

Oh, I self host and work on my own websites. I'm not using Imagely's web hosting. 

 

 

That is extremely impressive . Thanks for sharing. 

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