ImageQuix is now just a click away

If you have yet to try ImageQuix – PWD’s online hosting partner,- now is the time.  We’ve recently made it incredibly easy to sign up with IQ, and your first event is always free.  To sign up for PWD and/or IQ (both accounts are completely free and require no commitment), follow the instructions that match your situation:

• I have neither a PWD nor an IQ account: Click here, fill out one short form and you’ll receive two confirmation emails: one from PWD and one from IQ.

• I have a PWD account, but no IQ account: Click here to login to PWD, then in the bottom-right of the Edit Account page, click the button to create your IQ account.

• I have an IQ account, but not a PWD account: Click here to create your PWD account, then contact us so we can connect your existing IQ account to PWD.

 

Below are links to more information about ImageQuix.  Please feel free to leave a comment or contact us directly if you have any further questions.

• PWD + ImageQuix – Learn why we chose to partner with IQ.
• Getting Started with IQ – A PDF guide which introduces you to the basics of IQ.
• Sample IQ Gallery – Play around with a live gallery.
• ImageQuix Site – Still want to know more?  Go to the source.

PWD News – Canvas via IQ, Bambi Workshop Photos, and more

Newsletter July 13, 2009 In This Issue Sell Canvas via ImageQuix Workshop Photos by Bambi Cantrell Increase Your Online Sales Notice to Mac ROES Users The Dark (room) Ages PWD Sale of the Week PWD Quick Links PWDLabs.com PWD Blog PWD ROES PWD Catalog (PDF) Sell Canvas via ImageQuix Canvas, buttons, and magnets now available for sale to consumers We’ve added new products to our IQ line-up so you, the photographer, can offer your clients more. You can add these items to your price list today. Click “Read More” to learn how. Read More > Workshop Photos by Bambi Cantrell Bambi shares model shots from the workshop You followed her around the Georgia Aquarium, laughing and jotting down notes while she shot beautiful models. Now, see the pictures from the Bambi Cantrell shoot. Read More > Increase Your Online Sales How to make more money by offering discounts In today’s economy the most powerful word is “discount,” but simply lowering your prices is not the answer. There are ways to offer discounts to your clients which encourage them save more by spending more. Guest author Matt McCulloch from ImageQuix shares tips on how to do just this. Read More > Important Notice to Mac ROES Users Or, why isn’t PWD ROES working on my Mac?!? It appears the recent OS X 10.5.7 Java update has changed things around enough to cause some issues with ROES. Read on for the solution. Read More > The Dark (room) Ages Photojournalism before the digital enlightenment In this occassional series, guest author Alan Weiner of The Wedding Bureau shares memories of his time as a contract photojournalist for The New York Times. This week, learn about his portable darkroom and what it took to deliver an image in the pre-digital days. Read More > PWD Sale of the Week 10% off standard prints They’re prints, they’re great quality and they’re on sale. Save now on studio-corrected prints. Order Via ROES > Questions? Comments? Articles? We love hearing from you, so tell us what you like, what you don’t like and any questions you’d like to see answered in future newsletters. Interested in being a guest author? Drop us a line with your article idea. Email info@PWDLabs.com

Increase Online Sales Using Discounts

Today we’re happy to have a guest writer with us.  Matthew McCulloch from ImageQuix shares the following tips on online marketing and selling more prints after the event is over.

Increase Online Sales Using Discounts

In today’s economy the most powerful word in America is “discount.”  That’s not, however, to say you should immediately lower all your print prices.  Instead, there are ways to offer discounts to your clients which, in fact, encourage them to purchase more.  The key is to make your clients think they can save more by spending more.  With ImageQuix, this can be achieved via discount packages, gift certificates, and  promotional codes.

Discount Packages
To make more money from online sales, you need to sell more per transaction.  When you offer only single prints for sale, your clients are going to think of buying in those terms: a print here, a print there.  In addition to single prints, consider adding packages which allow clients to purchase several prints at once.  Price these packages at a discount, and your clients will suddenly think in terms of buying multiple prints because the savings are clear.

For example, if you offer 4×6 prints at $5 a piece, consider offering a package of five 4x6s for $20.  A customer who was thinking of purchasing two or three prints will suddenly see the value in buying a few more.  Your sale just went up by $5-$10.  Don’t stop here, though.  You can mix print sizes within packages, thereby pushing clients towards bigger prints to go with their small ones.

Gift Certificates and Event Discounts

Gift certificates and event discounts are both great marketing tools to help entice customers to order.  The main difference between the two, just for clarity’s sake, is gift certificates take off a dollar amount of the order while event discounts take off a percentage.  Both are created online in the ImageQuix Control Panel, and both are redeemed when the customer enters a corresponding code during checkout.

Gift Certificates
Giving clients an online credit as part of their package is a great way to encourage customers to visit the event online and place an order.  You will find your customers more inclined to place larger orders if they get an amount taken off of their total.  Including gift certificates as part of your photography packages also helps add to the value of using your services.  This also doesn’t force you to commit to reducing your prices and devaluing your presumed worth as a photographer.

For example, include a $100 Gift Certificate as part of your Wedding Package.  Design and print a card, and give it to the Bride and Groom to use towards their online purchase.  On the card, be sure to include the amount the gift certificate is for, the code they need to enter during checkout, instructions for accessing the event, and your contact information.

Another great way to encourage sales is to print out several $5 gift certificates and hand them out during the event.  Make sure you give each one its own unique code.  When you take pictures at the event, hand out this card to guests after you snap their photo.  Let them know they can go online to order their photo and use the card to save $5 when their total is $25 or more.  This creates the expectation before they even view your images that they need to spend $25 to save money.

Event Discounts
One of the best ways to get customers to order from an event is to create an event discount for the first two weeks an event is online.  Make sure your customers know that if they place an order within the first two weeks, they will receive, for example, a 15% discount on any order over $50.  We encourage you to advertise this at the event itself while you are taking the pictures.  Advertising at the event is your key to success! Put out customized cards at the event which include the discount amount, the discount code, the length of time the code is good for, instructions on accessing the online event, and your contact information.

Optionally, you might request guest emails during the event which allows you to notify them when the event is online.  Send out an e-mail to all guests and include a link to your website, instructions for accessing the event, and the discount information.

If you’re serious about increasing your sales, the above strategies are a great place to begin.  For more advice and tips, feel free to contact us here at ImageQuix.

New PWD products available via ImageQuix

We’ve added new products to our IQ line-up so you, the photographer, can offer your clients more. New options include a photo button, photo magnet, and popular sizes of canvas gallery wraps. You can add these items to your price list today. Here’s how: PC users: Open the ImageQuix software and click on Price Sheet Manager. Choose an existing price sheet, or create a new one. From the drop-down menu, select a product. Enter your own price (you may want to consult the PWD Labs catalog), and save your changes. Use this price list for future events, or use it to update existing events. Mac users: Due to limitations in the Mac software, full-service Mac users will need to contact us so we can update your price sheet for you. Full-control users may update their own price sheets using the PC instructions above. Questions, suggestions or comments? We love hearing from you, so don’t hesitate to contact us about this or anything else.

www.PWDLabs.com |     info@PWDLabs.com |     866-912-0337

IQ Tip: Get Paid Sooner

Now that PWD has been teaming up with ImageQuix for a while, we have some photographers asking a good question: “Where’s the money?”  A few of you have been expecting IQ to send a check for your print sales but have yet to receive anything.

Well, have no fear!  The good guys at IQ have not forgotten or misplaced their checkbook.  It’s simply a matter of policy defaults.  You see, by default, IQ does not send out a check until you have reached $100 in profits.  At that point, they’ll promptly get your money to you and you can do with it whatever you like.

But what if you don’t want to wait until the needle hits 100?  Then we have more good news for you.  That number – $100 – is just the default.  You can set it to whatever you want, with a minimum of $5.  Here’s how to lower the minimum so you can get paid more often:

1. Login to your online IQ control panel
2. Under “Settings”, click “Edit My Profile”
3. At the top of the right-hand column, you’ll see a place to adjust your minimum payment.  Set this as low as $5, and you can also choose your payment frequency.
4. Click “Update My Profile” at the bottom, and you’re done.

Yep, that’s all there is to it!  Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, be sure to let us know if you have any more questions we can help you with.  You can leave a comment below, or contact us directly.

IQ Tip: Customize your icon set in ImageQuix

For those of you who don’t like the default ImageQuix icons (shown below), we have some good news.

IQ users should recognize these guys.

IQ just released three new sets of icons for hosting members to choose from.  I personally like the first one (“Black and White”), but everyone should now be able to find one that fits their style.  Here’s a preview:

Three new icon sets to choose from.

 

Pretty cool, huh?  Are you ready to change your icons?  Here’s how:

1. Login to the IQ online control panel  (click here, or take the easy route and go through your IQ desktop software).
2. Under Settings, click “Edit Basket Settings”
3. Halfway down the next page you can preview and set your new icons.
4. Be sure to check out the icons on an active event since you only see a few of them in the setup screen.

That’s it.  Enjoy your new icons!