I have been recommending fotomoto.com for about six months. It’s an effective sales platform for photographers.

Fotomoto offers photographers an easy-to-use e-commerce solution directly on their Web site.  Whether a photographer wishes to sell images directly from a traditional Web site or blog, Fotomoto has a solution.

You may recall me complaining during the summer about their terms of service.  This issue was satisfactorily addressed months ago. Fotomoto makes it very clear you own your images and they only want permission to reproduce the images to serve your clients. I’m just late in following up with a good review.

There is no set-up charge for the Fotomoto service. Once you insert the Fotomoto code or activate a plug-in,  all future images posted to the site will simply and automatically be e-commerce ready without any additional work.

Once you place a photo on your site, Fotomoto automatically keeps track of the views and offers image management such as turning the “for sale” option on and off under the print section at the Fotomoto site.

The platform works with standard HTML Web sites, WordPress, squarespace, movable type, pixelpost and photoblog as well as custom scripts or templates. You have the option to sell prints, cards and products (in the future). They also offer a free e-card option that is designed to help promote your site.  Once an account is opened, multiple sites may be added with custom pricing for each location.  They even make custom coupon codes easy to create to encourage sales.

The entire transaction takes place without the customer losing sight of the photographer’s Web site.  Each transaction is conducted through PayPal, which allows for standard credit card purchases.  If you are not familiar with PayPal once you set up an account all you need to do is give Fotomoto or any e-commerce service your email and PayPal will securely take care of the rest.

Fotomoto earns a 15 percent commission of the sale (plus the cost of the prints or products).  I find this very reasonable.  You don’t have to upload full resolution images until a sale is made.

All the photographer options such as setting prices, products and customer management are found on the Fotomoto Web site.  Each of the options is easily adjusted in the well-laid-out and user-friendly site.  They also offer multiple options to answer your questions such as e-mail support, a getting started page, FAQ section, plus tips and tricks to help you customize.

Although Fotomoto is effective for standard Web sites, I see this platform as an excellent answer for the photoblogger. Fotomoto allows the photoblogger to upload his image and move on without additional actions needed.  Each image automatically will be offered for sale (depending on the settings) to fans and followers.

Below is a sample I created from last Sunday’s Royal Oak photo walk. All I did was upload the image and Fotomoto automatically did the rest. Test it out, send an e-card or review the prints.  I set the price just above cost and commission.

Rosh