I've been struggling to get through a roll of Tri-X @ 1600 so I can try it in Microphen but I've been too busy. Orders began picking up again. And I realized something else - that the price is the single most important factor in sales - other than that so-and-so likes the image.
In other words, when I increased prices about 20% - sales of those prints dropped off as if they were the Roadrunner falling off the cliff. Zoooooom! Small cloud of smoke.
At the same time, the smaller $20 prints are beginning to take off - zooooom.
So there you go. There is an invisible and mystical price point hiding in your business. And the only way to find it is through trial and error.
Now I'm busy hunting for two negatives for an order that are playing hide and seek. I spent two days a few months ago organizing the negs. and now the two I need have disappeared. On the other hand - every time I look for them - some other negative that I never printed surfaces like a dirty mole coming up for air. "I've been down here so long - I thought you'd never dig me up!"
Someone with a photographic divining rod or an archeologist would be useful.
And I'm not completely inept at filing. I swear I'm not. I have boxes organized by year. From these boxes which might contain a thousand images in the original sleeves - I pull images that are for sale and put those in a separate box organized by title.
However - sometimes someone asks (usually a design firm) for a print of something that isn't in the Photography Store section, but which they've found by googling the site. That's when the game of hide and seek begins. What year was this done? Last year? Year before?
I can't organize them by subject because there are always diverse subjects on any one 6 image strip.
That's where I'm at. I've got to find the negs. and then I've got to lower the prices for the larger pieces. Then I should be sitting pretty.
10/18/2005
Take Me Out to the Ad Game
I'm finding it more and more difficult to watch a baseball game on t.v. with the sound on. Last night - during the Astros v. Cards - I decided ahead of time that I was going to time the ads and include all the little crap that flashes across the screen:
WATCH BONES THE NEW HIT T.V. SERIES FROM FOX
SLEEP GOOD WITH LUMESTRA
WATCH PRISON BREAK
THIS TRIVIA MOMENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HISTORY CHANNEL
THE DEFENSIVE LINE UP BROUGHT TO YOU BY INSURANCE COMPANY
THE OFFENSIVE LINE UP BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ARMY
THE FIRST HIT BROUGHT TO YOU BY ONLINE POKER
THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY PORK, THE OTHER WHITE MEAT.
I also began to write down how many replays of a hit or catch were replayed (with the FOX LOGO before and after). Average - 4 times. Peak: 8 times.
I also counted any ads for the World Series (on Fox) but lost count.
Why are all these companies bringing me things? It didn't used to be like that.
Along with the normal spate of commercials between innings. I decided not to count the signage behind home plate that changes every inning since that would mean the entire game was an ad.
Anyway - the results from last night's game:
TOTAL TIME OF GAME: ABOUT 3.5 HOURS.
TOTAL COMMERCIAL TIME: 57 MINUTES.
That doesn't include the pre-game or the post-game show. In other words - close to 1/3rd of your baseball game is advertising.
If you get a game with lot's of pitching changes - the ratio is even worse since every change means at least another two minutes of commercials. So the game where the pitchers are changed on both sides as early as possible are the most lucrative for the network.
During the previous series on ESPN - they would actually cut to a commerical at the end of an inning while the announcer was still talking. I don't mean once in a while - but every inning.
So the conspiracy theory of the day is: what is the relationship between the modern use as many pitchers in a game as you can, and television. Is there a dark sinister force at work which has changed the game of baseball? We already know that t.v. has pretty much eliminated the day game. If it can do that - what else can it do?
Final score: baseball game 3
Network 1
WATCH BONES THE NEW HIT T.V. SERIES FROM FOX
SLEEP GOOD WITH LUMESTRA
WATCH PRISON BREAK
THIS TRIVIA MOMENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HISTORY CHANNEL
THE DEFENSIVE LINE UP BROUGHT TO YOU BY INSURANCE COMPANY
THE OFFENSIVE LINE UP BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ARMY
THE FIRST HIT BROUGHT TO YOU BY ONLINE POKER
THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY PORK, THE OTHER WHITE MEAT.
I also began to write down how many replays of a hit or catch were replayed (with the FOX LOGO before and after). Average - 4 times. Peak: 8 times.
I also counted any ads for the World Series (on Fox) but lost count.
Why are all these companies bringing me things? It didn't used to be like that.
Along with the normal spate of commercials between innings. I decided not to count the signage behind home plate that changes every inning since that would mean the entire game was an ad.
Anyway - the results from last night's game:
TOTAL TIME OF GAME: ABOUT 3.5 HOURS.
TOTAL COMMERCIAL TIME: 57 MINUTES.
That doesn't include the pre-game or the post-game show. In other words - close to 1/3rd of your baseball game is advertising.
If you get a game with lot's of pitching changes - the ratio is even worse since every change means at least another two minutes of commercials. So the game where the pitchers are changed on both sides as early as possible are the most lucrative for the network.
During the previous series on ESPN - they would actually cut to a commerical at the end of an inning while the announcer was still talking. I don't mean once in a while - but every inning.
So the conspiracy theory of the day is: what is the relationship between the modern use as many pitchers in a game as you can, and television. Is there a dark sinister force at work which has changed the game of baseball? We already know that t.v. has pretty much eliminated the day game. If it can do that - what else can it do?
Final score: baseball game 3
Network 1
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