Topics:

Getting started
Creating gallery structures
Create your branding
Gallery layouts
Setting up images
Setting up products
Security and protection
Workflow issues
Sales tips

Getting started

• Take some time to acquaint yourself with the Shutterbug Storefront program and interface. Don't start using Shutterbug Storefront with a big, mission-critical event looming a day or two away. Give yourself time to get familiar with it.
• Start small. Create a test gallery and practice uploading. Get your test gallery to look the way you want your site to look before you have created many galleries. It's easier to make big changes on one gallery than many small ones later.
• Once you have things the way you want them to look, set your Main Gallery to those settings. By doing this, all your other galleries will inherit this same look and feel as you create them.
• IMPORTANT!!! TEST YOUR SITE! Log out so you can experience your site as a customer would see it and test your galleries, your cart, and all your functionalities!  Make sure your prices and promotions are displaying properly! After you upload a new gallery... test again!

Creating gallery structures

• Think ahead to what your site will be once you are established. Don't just start uploading individual galleries to the Main Gallery without establishing a game plan.
• Think about your work structure. Start right away to think about the types of photography you do and adopt those as your top-level sub-galleries. For example: Weddings, Sports, Portraits, Dance, Landscape, etc...  This will help you get organized from the start. It is easier than having to reposition and move galleries later on as you grow.
• A gallery can contain one of two things: a) sub-galleries that lead to other galleries, or b) photos. Try to avoid having both in any one gallery. A gallery should either have all thumbnails that lead "further down" in your gallery structure, or it should have photo thumbnails. Therefore, photo thumbnails would only be in lowest-level galleries. While it is possible for people see thumbnails for both sub-galleries and photos in the same gallery, it can become confusing.
• Don't get "cute" with your Main Gallery name. Stick with "Main Gallery" or "Index Gallery." When the site creates the navigation links back to this page, it will let people recognize how to get back to the main page. Use the header for putting in your name or studio name.

Create your branding

• Identify yourself - If nothing else, use the "Contact Photographer link."  Additionally, try to establish something in the way of some text that identifies yourself in the header that will consistently show who you are throughout the site.  A logo in the header is even better!
• Contact photographer link - Use the "contact photographer" link to your advantage. It will appear at the top of every gallery page in the links area. Don't waste space by putting in a long studio or photographer name. "Contact Photographer" works best. Otherwise, it wastes space on the navigation bar. And under Contact Info, be sure to include your phone number. People are more apt to do business on the Internet with you when there is a contact phone number.
• Contact Information page - to be used in conjunction with the "Contact Photographer" link is the Contact Information page.  This is the information that is displayed when the "Contact" link is activated.  More importantly, the "Company Name" that is filled in is used as the top browser title.  That is combined with the gallery name in the top title bar of the browser window, and is what the customer gets "linked to" when they click on your gallery.
  

Gallery Layout

• Thumbnails - Optimum size for thumbnails is 150 - 200 pixels wide. Set thumbnail quality to between 75-85. Watermarks on thumbnails are not really necessary and only detract from their appeal.
• Display photos - Optimum for the default (medium) size is 480 to 520 pixels wide set at 85 (suggested) for quality. (More than 90 does not visually improve the images and simply slows down the page display.) Images that are too wide push the sales information off to the right side of the screen and makes people scroll back and forth. Avoid using the "large" display option except for specialized circumstances. Medium/default size (above) is enough to generate sales. (See "preventing theft" under "Security and Protection")
• Do not allow the layout to go over off the right edge of the screen. This usually means restricting the layout to no more than 4 thumbnails wide.
• Avoid having to scroll too "deep" off the bottom edge   of the screen. Try to limit your rows to 3-4 thumbnails deep.
• Try to make all sub-galleries thumbnails visible from the parent gallery without flowing onto a second or third page. If not, consider splitting up the gallery into more than one section. For example: If you have a tournament with 32 sub-galleries, each representing a game, consider splitting it up into 4 separate age divisions first, then having 8+/- games under each age division.  Split wedding up into categories - prep, church, ceremony, formals, reception, etc.  Split dance work up into acts, etc. etc.
• Logos – headers/footers (dimensions): Try to keep your logo/banner across the top from extending more than 800 pixels wide. It is a good rule of thumb to prevent everyone from having to scroll over to the right.  Also try to keep your logo/banner across the top from being so high that it dominates the page. Since you are limiting the width to 800 pixels wide, try to keep the height in proportion – maybe 100-200 pixels in height, maximum.
• Gallery Layout - Try to use the Sales layout ("Gallery > Edit Settings > Layout") since this layout maximizes the view of the display image and the product list viewed to the right of the image.
• Remember! DO NOT delete or move galleries if there are any pending or recently placed orders!

Setting up Images:

• Show only you best work!  Unless you only got a couple of rare shots of someone in a special surrounding, absolutely cull out anything that doesn't show your best work.  Only use good poses, good composition, tack-sharp focus.  Use the auto-color correction for your display image settings if you don't do any color correcting yourself.
• Less is more - Ever go to a meeting where the same old topic gets hashed over by different people? Doesn't it make you want to just get up and leave out of boredom...?  The same thing holds true with photos. You may have gotten the same kid kicking the soccer ball with 12 different shots, but they all pretty much show the same thing.   They may ALL be 12 really great shots.  In that case, pick 2 or 3 of the absolute very best shots.  More than that is "overkill" and it tends to diminish the value of your images.  It's alright to show significantly different photos, but showing 20 or 30 shots of what is essentially the same thing doesn't prove you are a good photographer.  In fact, it shows the opposite.  It diminishes the value of your superb work and people get bored. What happens then? They leave without buying anything.
• Too many images! - This is very important!  Again,less is more. If you see that you have created numerous pages of thumbnails in a gallery, ask yourself if you would have the patience to browse through through all those pages to try and find your kid?  That translates into another customer lost! If you start looking down and seeing 6-8 pages (or more) of images in a gallery, then you either need to cull down the images more and choose the absolutely very best ones, or reorganize and split up the gallery into more organized sub-galleries.
• Image Names - keep it simple! Avoid long, elaborate naming schemes - they only clutter up your gallery and they confuse the customer! They push out and over-extend the layout of the thumbnails A good "rule-of-thumb" in the gallery thumbnail view: If the file names extend out past the edge of the thumbnail, shorten up your names. (Remember, the filenames only need to serve as a simple naming reference. Be sure to keep all of your EXIF data be saved/stored with your images and use that to track date and time, etc)
• If you use the file names assigned out of your camera (for example: "IMG0001" or "DSC0001") do not reset the number sequence back to "zero" after each photo assignment. If you do, you end up with identical filenames used in different galleries on your site. Again, this avoids potential confusion.
• Provide Information - Remind people that all printed images will have color-correction applied and that images in your gallery are in "display resolution" only.  (A good place to do this is in your footer...)
• Cropping - uniform crops are better. For displaying images in your galleries, avoid cropping photos in random aspect ratios. Usually go with a 2x3/4x6 aspect ratio, or whatever the "native" aspect ratio is for images coming out of your camera. If you must have a variety of aspect ratios, consider adopting the "square" thumbnail settings

Setting up products:

• Less is more - Our most successful photographers usually do not have long lists of products. 12-15 products are the norm - some even less. More than that means people have too much to choose from and often choose nothing.
• Promotions - Again, less is more. 1-3 promotions is sufficient. Offer promos that increase average ticket sales by purchasing your most popular products combined with your most profitable items.

Security and protection

• At all costs, try to avoid password protecting the Main Gallery page. You want people to see you're open for business. Would you advertise your business but lock the front door when they get there? Of course not!  Additionally, the way our security measures work would mean that any further passwords on sub-galleries would be bypassed since entry was gained at the Main Gallery.
• If you must use a password to protect a sub-gallery, make sure you be sure to use the "password prompt" feature. And definitely make sure you have a "Contact Photographer" link in case they need help getting in.
• Remember - try not to encourage password protection - try to only use it if someone asks for it.   Passwords slow down visitors and slow down sales. Unless you have a gallery and use a business model where a specific family or couple is going to look at a specific gallery, you want to try and offer the viewing public access to your work as easily as possible.
• Prevent theft - Make sure you enable "right-click protection" in your entire site.
• Prevent theft - Since "print screen" screen captures are inevitable, make sure you liberally use watermark protection on your display-sized images. (not necessary on thumbnails...) And don't make the display images too big. (See above recommendations).
• Prevent theft - Remind people in your site about copyright protection. (Most often this is done in a footer...)

Workflow issues

• When in doubt, use the "Display Only" workflow. It works.   It saves time. Really.  You'll get better results and will have more satisfied customers in the long run.  (That saves time, too!)
• If you use Print-Ready workflow, only offer products that use the same crop/aspect ratio as the images you offer.
• When in doubt, read about "Display Only" workflow. Then seriously consider using it - again.

Sales tips

• All of the above is a distillation of the things we see from the photographers that we know have better than average sales. 
• Get more ideas from our unofficial Shutterbug Storefront forum on Yahoo groups.    http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/expman/
  Don't just read the latest posts but go back through and read the ideas of many of your peers. There are "pearls of wisdom" in there.  And don't be afraid to post a question.
  
• Promote, promote, promote. You can never promote yourself too much. 
• Give people a reason to go see your site's photos.  Offer a free photo.. ("Check out our website to see how you can get a free photo of this event!".... The set up a reprint discount!)
• Have business cards to hand out to event attendees all the time - they should CLEARLY say where to go on the web to see the event photos.
• Consider using a banner with your website at all events.
• Have flyers or postcards to hand out at all times.
• Event borders - Don't just offer images. Offer "value-added" products such as "custom graphics posters" and use the new Product Questionnaires" to help implement them.

Summary:

We certainly don't have all the answers, and you should know your business best. However, we can often see the tendencies of our most successful photographers. This is just to give you some idea of what those tendencies seem to consistently be...