A New Iron for My Fire?

Monday, March 24, 2008

I am starting to spread a rumor that I'm not accepting any more weddings for a while. While I love the shooting opportunities, I simply do not have time to process the couple of thousand images I capture. The reason is a very little girl named Piper who needs her Mommy time.

Still, I like to have something to do with myself. In the last few years, I have fallen in love with templates.

Oh gee. You hadn't figured that out.

I love starting with a photo and seeing what comes out.

I realize that there are hundreds of free Blogger templates online, so who would want to pay for a personalized template? Still, I know how much I love mine when I get a really good one.

I mentioned this to Pete on Thursday afternoon.

Me : I could make blog templates for people
Me : charge for it
Me : but I rethought it
Me : and realized that there is enough free stuff out there
Me : I probably don't want to mess with it

Pete : I disagree, personally ;-) but it has nothing to do w/ the money
Pete : you do a very good job and pulling out the real person and reflecting that
Pete : free stuff is general
Pete : boilerplate
Pete : it allows an ever-increasingly faceless populace to be ever-increasingly standardized
Pete : mechanical
Pete : radio buttons and cheap applications
Pete : sort of like politics....

Me : lol
Me : well, let me blog it and see what people think

Well, I could offer two and three-column templates for New Blogger with a personalized header and unique backgrounds.

I could charge $30.00 for a fully personalized template that would include installation.

Or what about personally-designed wedding blogs - for the more romantic among you?

So, what do you think? Would there be any interest if I were to offer something like this after I finish up my photo-processing from this spring? Should I charge more or less or at all for my time? Thoughts? Suggestions?

8 comments:

J said...

I would be interested! I especially liked a couple of your Blogger photo sites that were essentially a slideshow page put in a blogspot site.

Definitely charge for your time. I would suggest making a few simple samples available for general download, and offer some screenshots of more in-depth productions. Then charge for the in-depth productions.

Heidi said...

Awesome idea...but $30? You gotta be kidding! That's like shooting a wedding for $300, which I know you've done, but you shouldn't have. ;) You're worth more...way more. Check this out:

http://www.templatemonster.com/cms-blog-templates.php

Personalized blog templates - $700! That's the upper end for personal blogs (says my hubby), and he says professional blog templates can run a couple THOUSAND.

So yeah, GREAT idea, just - please charge us more than $30, okay? But not $700. ;) Maybe a couple hundred. Maybe a sliding scale for how much work was involved. But definitely MORE than $30. Please. (And I'm saying this as a potential customer!!!!)

Missi said...

Hey Kelly, one thing I love most about your blog is how beautiful it is. Most of the time I like to check your blog just to see if you have changed the template:)
I would be interested, for sure, in having you do a personalized template. I have no idea about what a good cost is from another, but defiantly charge...that's a lot of work!

Anonymous said...

I think your work - particularly that involving your own photographic interpretations - is definitely worth paying for, and I really think there is a market.

The workman is worthy of his (her) hire ... to coin a phrase ;-)

~FD

Naomi said...

*raises hand*

I want one.

...do you do payment plans?

;-P

HisDelightIsInMe said...

I definitely think you could charge, Kelly. . . but actually I was posting to tell you that you better be back from your hiatus of wedding photography before I get married (don't worry - I don't plan on that being any time soon).

KSolarisL said...

A wedding blog sounds like a great idea! It would be a great place to log a couple's relationship: from engagement to wedding and honeymoon pics and beyond! You could defiantly charge quite a bit for something like that. Had another thought but the kid is calling ;)

the Joneses said...

I'd be interested in a custom design for our blog. You should charge more than $30... but I have to admit that I can't spend TOO much on my page.

-- SJ

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