Pricing Profiles
To show prices on your website for an image or video clip, you must attach one or several pricing profiles to the image / video clip.
PhotoDeck gives you extreme control over your offering and your prices.
What is a pricing profile?
A pricing profile is a set of prices. It can be a simple price list, or a much complex structure for which the final price depends on a number of options.
Defining several pricing profiles allow you to split your collection into different pricing tiers, and/or sell different kinds of products.
“Royalty-Free” and “Download” Pricing Profiles
An RF/Download pricing profile is a simple list of image sizes and prices. You can re-order the list by simply drag-dropping rows in the list table.
When an image is delivered to your client, it is automatically resized in the size you define in the Delivery Specifications column.
Note that PhotoDeck does not display prices for sizes that are bigger than the original image file. For example, if you upload an 11 Mpixels image and if you have defined a price for 12 Mpixels, that price will not be displayed (PhotoDeck does not upsize at delivery).
Simple Print Pricing Profile
Similar to the Royalty-Free pricing profile, this is a simple list of options that you can completely customize.
Rights-Managed and multi-option Prints Pricing Profiles
Rights-Managed and Prints pricing profiles are extremely customizable. To make the most of this ability, please note the following:
- you can add/create/invent as many pricing options and sub-options as you wish
- a pricing option can be based on a custom list of values, or it can depend on further sub-options
- you must define a base price (and optionally a minimum price) for each group of options at the top level
- the base price corresponds to a specific set of sub-options.
- sub-options are ultimately based on choice lists. Lists include price ratios:
Price ratios
Price ratios answer the following question: “how much more expensive is this option compared to the base price option?”
Consider the following example:
- the base price for an image is $100, corresponding to an A4 image size
- in the image size value list, the following ratios are defined:
- A4: 200
- A3: 300
The price for an A3 image would then be: $100 * (300/200) = $150
Image delivery for Rights-Managed prices
The image is delivered in its original size and format, unless for web uses where a pixel size is defined. In that case, the image is resized to the corresponding size.
Defining delivered image size
When defining a price value, you can indicate that the purchased image must be delivered in a certain size (the Description does not matter).
You can define a size in KB/MB, in which case the image will be resized to exactly your specifications (1 Mpixel = 3 MB).
Alternatively, you can define a pixel size, as well as whether the delivered image should fit within that size, or should be just big enough so that the defined size can be cropped without resizing.
"width x height (min)" vs "width x height (max)"
For example, if your original image width/height ratio is 3:2:
- 100×100 px (min) will deliver an image of dimensions 150x100px
- 100×100 px (max) will deliver an image of dimensions 100x67px
See also: TIP: stock image resizing upon delivery
See also: Checkout and image delivery
Can I upload two price profiles to one image? I want to have it say “Buy Gift Prints” and “Buy Wall Prints” next to the image, is this possible? thanks
Yes, that is possible. You can have only 1 licensing pricing profile per image, but you can have several different prints pricing profiles for the same image.
I’d like to have my images that are available through my agency listed on my site as well as my own images that are only available through me. The sales for the images that are available through my agent need to be negotiated and billed through my agent.
Is it possible, on these images, to feature a link to my agency for negotiation instead of a pricing profile?
Yes! You can simply add a link in the Description field.
I had been wondering how to adding shipping to print orders on Photodeck. I believe that PD are planning to add some shipping options, but in the the mean time this is a good work around. It turns out that the simplest solution is to add a new line to your print pricing profile.
Start out using the “Prints Full” pricing template and then modify your settings as follows:
1) select “settings and prices”
2) in the “prices section” select “details’ next to the first item description ( 6″ print)
3) Underneath the two list menu items, add a new item by selecting “based on a list”
4) give the new item a name “Shipping” or “post and packing” or something.
5) Select “newlist” under the “takes value from” drop down menu.
6) call this list “Shipping” (or whatever you choose).
Now you can start to add your shipping preferences to this list and ‘add new rows for each option” – UK, Europe, USA, Worldwide etc etc.
It is important to have one shipping item which acts as your base price. In my case I created a price profile for “none/collect’ (because I am planning to charge for all items – post and packing is expensive for prints!) and set the price ration for this item to 100. This price ratio is based on the base price of your cheapest item – so in this example it will be based on your smallest standard paper print.
You then need to work out what your shipping costs will be for each location you ship too and add price ratios to suit. Eg, Standard shipping within the UK on an A5 print selling for £30 is about £6. To add £6 to the order, you then need to set the price ratio for UK shipping to 120. To ship to Europe from UK you’ll need to charge a little more, so increase the price ratio for this option accordingly. These price ratios then allow you to account for the extra costs for shipping larger prints, so and A4 Print selling for £45 will, with the price ratio of 120 (20% on top of the print rate) will be £9.
You could also set your profile up to price shipping by weight of package, or you could add a special rate for shipping by DHL or Fed Ex etc, but what ever you do remember that your shipping costs should include both postal rates and the costs of packing materials….
Andy
Thanks Andy for the write-up, I’m sure this will help more people!
One small detail: the base price needs not being the cheapest price. The ratio for that price also needs not being 100, although 100 makes it easier to manage.
For example, you can have a base price of $100 for shipping to the USA, with the ratios as follow:
- UK: 50
- Rest of Europe: 60
- USA: 80
Then the shipping to UK would be 100 * 50/80.
Our recommendation: set the base price for the most common option, giving a ratio of 100 to that option, and then set the ratios for the other options (which you can then read as percentages of the base price).
Nice one, Andy :)
On a side note, separate from shipping costs, remember to mention somewhere that you are not responsible for the costs customs might charge. I’ve had situations at hand where -even if I indicated that the package was a gift or something with no commercial value- the package was “confiscated” and the client had to pick it up from customs and pay an extra fee.
Yes the customs note is a good point and I will add to my notes on the site. I am still very much experimenting with this platform, but I can already see a good number of hits from around the world and various image searches to my small archive. Very positive!
How do I remove all pricing profiles from an image? If a select the image and then select the blank pricing profile from the drop down menu and attempt to add that, it does nothing.
Hey Bob – just select the “blank” pricing profile as you have done, but remember it takes a couple of minutes for any change on the website to be visible, time for the system to clean the caches.
I have recently taken out a LITE subscription, using the PD2 initiative with PhotographersDirect. For simplicity, I have started with one RF profile, assigned to all images. I would like to consider moving to one RM profile for all images.
(1) RM pricing looks more complicated, but I cannot find any tutorial for it – “Pricing Profiles part 1″ only covers RF and Print profiles – is “part 2″ arriving shortly? I am assuming it will cover RM pricing. Also, I would like to see how RM pricing appears to a potential buyer, hopefully this would be covered by any tutorial.
(2) How can I see the prices set up in the standard RM profile? Because I am only allowed one profile, either RF or RM, (I have no problem with this restriction) I am unable to copy the standard profile, in order to view the prices in it. The only way I can see, is to delete my RF profile, (which presumably would make all my images “not priced” and then take a copy of the standard RM profile, look at the prices in it, modify them to suit my own case (not an easy task) or decide to stick with RF pricing, and then implement the new profile. All this time, my images would be “not priced”
Hello Phil!
(1) Yes, part 2 is overdue – we will work on it next week. To see how an RM pricing profile appears to a buyer, see http://www.maion.com.
UPDATE: Part II of the tutorial is available here.
(2) You are right, if you already have customized an RF pricing profile, there is no easy way to play with a new profile. That’s perhaps not ideal, but you could potentially purchase the “Pricing Profile pack” option for the LITE plan, for the time needed to decide on a final pricing profile.
I too would like to firstly go for Lite and use my Photographers Direct link.
Is it possible to make RM pricing a simple structure for someone like myself, while not a registered business and used to occasional sales based on the comparitively simple Photographers Direct system of a suggested negotiated minimum price for RF or RM as the case may be?
If not registered for VAT is that a problem?
Perhaps part two will help along with the previous question / answer.
Thank you
Hello David – Part II of the tutorial is available here! You will be able to set minimum prices indeed.
Being registered for VAT does not have any impact on what features are available to you.
Is there a way to specify a flat RF price for the unscaled, original image size?
I’d like to keep things as simple as possible, and also avoid the inevitable image quality loss that resampling and shrinking the images will result in. Many thanks.
Cancel that! I’ve figured it out with fresh morning eyes:
In the pricing profile, delete all options except one, then change Description to “original”, and select “No resizing” from the drop-down box.
Easy!
Hello John!
Incidentally, we also have added a new option for you this morning :)
For each RF choice, you may specify a new option: “deliver original file directly, when specifications are similar (+/- 10% in size)”.
With this in mind, you can keep as many sizes as you want — but still deliver the original file when the client choice is close to the original specs!
For example, if you have original images that are approx 10 MB uncompressed, you may want to check this option for the ’10 MB’ choice in the RF prices settings: all original files that are from 9 MB up to 11 MB will be delivered untouched.
… and your client can still order at a lower price a downsized version of your image, if you want to!
An excellent idea! Thanks PhotoDeck
Hi,
Would like to offer 3 kinds of products to my custumers :
- original pics files (selling rights)
- printed pics (several dimensions)
- Expo pictures (on dibond, plexi, etc…), or several objects (mouse padd, etc…)
To do that I need for each picture 3 differents pricing profiles and I’m affraid that Photodeck doesn’t allows that ?
Can you confirm or not ?
Many thanks in advance
Dan
Hi Daniel,
This is completely possible. You can have only 1 licensing profile per image, but you can have multiple “print” (product) pricing profiles. Alternatively, you can also combine the prints and the other products within the same pricing profile.
Hi
Is there any way to copy and duplicate an individual element of one of the RM price profiles. eg ‘Web advertising’ pricing structure I would like to copy and modify to make a ‘Web editorial’ option also.
Many Thanks
Hi Alex,
I’m afraid it is not possible to duplicate in a single click a full branch, but it shouldn’t take much time to replicate, as the lists are common to all branches.
These pricing ratios are confusing, i spend more time on trying to figure out what numbers to type in more than anything else and its frustrating. I know what the cost is supposed to be so why cant it be that simple to put in the price and be done with it.
Adam,
The pricing ratios are what give you the power to define your pcicing as the big stock agencies ;) Otherwise you could have to enter hundreds of thousands of prices for Rights-Managed licensing. If you only have a set of predefined prices, you should instead use a simpler pricing profile model, as for RF / Downloads, or simple price lists for Prints.
Hi, I got photodeck under lite subscriptions, I can only maintain 1 RM price profile. However, I can’t find a way to edit my RM price profile, to add another options
I want to add more options for my RM usage, but I can’t find ‘add new options’ buttons, but for my RF price profile, the ‘add new options’ button is still there.
please help.
Hi mt, check out our tutorial: http://tutorials.photodeck.com/-/tutorials/ecommerce/-/medias/cfc0feb4-3d05-11e1-98fb-cb13ce1e1124-customizing-complex-pricing-profiles