I just wrapped up another article for Rangefinder which I think will help photographers decide on the best sales solution for selling images online. If you already have a selling system in place, I think it will provide some food for thought.
After completing my article I asked Tim from PicturesPro if I could evaluate Photo Cart. I wanted to see just how much PHP or MySQL I would need to know in order to get up to speed and productive with his system. As I expected, from my experience in installing similar systems, there are only a couple of config changes that you need to make to a setup file prior to and after installion. Everything else is scripted with a Web based installer and through the Web based administration GUI.
Perhaps I have an advantage that most do not (having software/web development background) but with this experience I feel like I can provide a better guide as to the real level of effort is required to get the system deployed on your host’s servers. In fact, there are a few templates that you can use right out of the box which offer a reasonably nice looking solution. I myself would opt for customizing from the start, which consists of pointing to my existing CSS file with a few customizations here and there, and editing some settings through the Admin interface. So far I have not edited any PHP code or done any customizing of MySQL database.
In less than a day, I have configured Photo Cart more or less to my liking. You can see it and play around with it here.
I intend on putting it through the test by using this system for a wedding I’m shooting with my sister-in-law later this month. I’m also experimenting with Wedding Photography Registries and will report here throughout the month on the results. If you offer wedding registries on your website, please share your experiences here.
If you are interested in this system for your own website, take a look here. Let Tim know that you heard about it from Steve Tout.
I will be reviewing a Beta version of Photo Cart for Tim later this month, and posting a short teaser review here. So if you are interested in staying on the cutting edge in shopping carts for photographers, check back frequently, or subscribe to my blog through Xanga or a RSS Newsreader.
