Picture Products

Digital downloads are the obvious picture product to sell.  Shopping cart software which automates the entire process is easy to find and not terribly expensive.  It can even be done with PayPal™ buttons. Your entire business can run in the background while you are out taking more pictures.  However, digital downloads raise some significant issues that need to be solved before you can go into business.

Perhaps you would rather sell physical products.  That reduces the potential for theft and miss use of your images and offers the potential to add value to your pictures.  It also means you will be dealing with packing, shipping, returns, damaged items; the fulfillment process. 

Especially in the beginning it is hard to know what products will sell.  There is a lot of risk in having thousands of some product printed and then finding it can't be sold.  In addition, the cost of commercial printing for even minimal amounts of a reasonable variety of products is a problem. 

I am beginning to think printer developments may offer a way around this barrier to entry. My goal is to find a way to produce small quantities of many different products at a reasonable price.  Preferably they won't have to be produced until there is actually an order in hand.  Even if the cost of production takes away most profit, once I know what sells I can move to a more efficient production process and improve my margins. 

As a very early startup, my product selection is constrained by the cost of the technology needed to produce something to sell.  I need to focus on items that can be produced in small quantities and easily packaged and shipped.  They production process should be relatively simple and not require an expensive investment in equipment or software.  I now belive the long tail concept is very applicable to the digital  products business and provides an excellent conceptualization of what I am planning.