Setting up shop

[Gardenwife]

I am opening a storefront for my photos sometime soon, but have a few questions first. Since my funds are as limited as my space at home, and for quicker turn-around, I was thinking I'd outsource prints and have them sent directly to my customers. Do any of you do this?

I'm just starting out and need to choose one which provides good quality prints but at a price which will allow me a decent enough profit to make it worth my while. Of the online photo finishers, who do you recommend?

Thanks in advance for any pointers you can offer me. I believe there's a market for my work, and I'm confident about the marketing aspect of it, but I want to be sure the prints are good as well as affordable.

My gallery is located at http://gardenwife.com - I will be adding a section of images for sale and each photo will have a link to my storefront for orders. Does it makes sense to do it that way?

http://www.deviantart.comhas an associated site that allows you to set up for selling prints on-line. I haven't used for my personal sales but a lot of folks do. Also, DaveT (owner of http://www.onlinephotographers.com) also owns a printing service that I have used (with excellent results).

[host]

I am no expert for photo outsourcing but I do a lot of internet sales. Oursourcing in general with your dropshipping may not be the best choice. You can process them locally and ship them to your customers (Walmart, CVS and many other companies do good film processing)

1) It won't be personized with your company info.
2) You could include marketing info if you shipped them yourself.
3) You could be sure the quality was good before you shipped it out and then got a complaint.
4) You can offer other value added features such as a real frame or even a software type of picture frame at an additional cost for the added processing.
5) If you ship it yourself you can track the orders to be sure they are delivered to your clients.

Just thoughts.