Help & FAQ's/Using Viewbook/Images
How can I sell my images on Viewbook (with Fotomoto)?
Rien
posted this on June 02, 2010 05:05 pm
Viewbook works together with Fotomoto.com. Fotomoto is an e-commerce system that gives independent photographers and web publishers the power to sell their work on their own site.
How do I integrate Fotomoto into my Viewbook Album or Pages?
Adding Fotomoto to your Viewbook website is very simple. Open an account at Fotomoto.com and just follow the instructions here: http://support.fotomoto.com/customer/portal/articles/7478-How-do-I-...
Autopickup: Upload your high-res images in Viewbook, no need to upload to Fotomoto.
You can activate the 'autopickup' feature at Fotomoto, this way you don't need to upload high-resolution images to Fotomoto, but they will be 'picked up' from your Viewbook account. Read here for instructions: http://support.fotomoto.com/customer/portal/articles/8505-auto-pick...
Specs about image file sizes to upload to Viewbook for Fotomoto Autopickup http://support.fotomoto.com/customer/portal/articles/8310-preparing...
Important: Be sure to add the right 'Site address' or 'Alternate site address' (username.viewbook.com or your own domain) to your Viewbook website, under 'Settings -> Site' in Fotomoto, otherwise it will not work.
You can add Fotomoto to your Albums and Pages. The steps are the same for both.
You can test it all by opening your Album or Page (using the 'Open' button at the top), and then click the 'Buy' button in the options of your Album.
What happens when people buy photos?
1. After signing up for Fotomoto and pasting the Fotomoto ID into your Viewbook website (see instructions above), your (low-res) images are added into the Fotomoto system when a user orders your images on your Viewbook site.
2. When a customer clicks on the "Buy Now" button and completes an order, you will receive an email with the order information and be prompted to upload the high-resolution image so that we can process the order. You do NOT have to upload any high-res images before making a sale.
3. Fotomoto prints, packages, and ships the order direct to the customer.
You can find much more info at fotomoto.com.
Troubleshooting
If the 'Buy' button does not work make sure you:
- Added the right Fotomoto ID, not the whole javascript code, but only the ID part as explained above (see point 5).
- Be sure you've configured the right Primary or Alternate Site address in your Fotomoto settings (Site -> Settings). This must be the exact site address of your Viewbook website.
Want to use Fotomoto as e-commerce site engine with self produced prints?
Add your ideas and comments here.
Comments
i for one am really excited by your efforts to incorporate fotomoto's fulfillment application with viewbook. receiving many requests from blog viewers reviewing viewbook supported photo galleries on my site. can we expect implementation this month?
happy to beta test....
Great to hear. Yes you can expect Fotomoto to be available this month. It will be announced in our newsletter that all of you will receive automatically. We're very exited about this.
my heart beat is more than measurable now ;) looking forward to the announcement. Viva Viewbook!
Will this be available on the basic plan?
Yes. It will be available on all plan levels. Basic, Standard and Pro.
Great that I can sell my pictures on my viewbook site.
Anyway, I tried above instructions, but one way or another the BUY button doesn't work.
Can anyone help me out?
Many thanks...gr Sjoerd Jonkman www.sjoerdjonkman.nl
Hi Sjoerd, Important to match your domain name correctly with the one you filled in the Fotomoto settings.
Cheers,
Alrik
Here's a tutorial on how to get it working:
http://help.fotomoto.com/entries/208334-using-fotomoto-with-viewbook
Cheers,
piam
i did that and i saw the buy button just when i check is the button is there opening the my webpage from my imagemanager ....later when i open in a new window my website buy button has disappeared. domain name is blablabla.viewbook.com or the address where i redirect my viewbook adress ? thank you Luca
www.squaredformat.com
When using the 'Buy' button on your Website (not on a single Album)
1. Use the the 'Style Album window' of the Album inside your Page(s).
2. Add the Fotomoto ID to your Page 'Settings'
Hi,
Is it possible to sell images through Fotomoto by using an embedded Viewbook Album on a Wordpress website post? I can create the gallery and upon embedding the album on my Wordpress post the album displays correctly and with the Play and Buy button on the option bar. The Play button works but when pressing the Buy button nothing happens.
Any help would be appreciated?
Thanks.
Kenneth
Yes you can use Fotomoto with an embedded Viewbook Album.
1) Add the fotomoto code at the bottom of your Page as instructed by Fotomoto AND add '?api=true&aid=a27ab61276766659' inside the code as follows:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://widget.fotomoto.com/stores/script/488670a8ea74f7sdsdd1sd0da3...?api=true&aid=a27ab61276766659"></script>
2) Place the following code between the <head></head> tags of your Page:
<script type="text/javascript"> function fotomoto_add_to_cart(image_uri) { if(image_uri.length > 0) { FOTOMOTO.API.showWindow(FOTOMOTO.API.BUY, image_uri); } else { alert("No image."); } } </script>
Absolutely superb!
Thanks very much for your help Rien, code worked perfectly.
Cheers!
Kenneth
Thanks Rien!
I'll add that to our tutorials :)
Cheers,
piam
The link above for follow instructions here to sign up for Fotomoto above the red Important does not seem to work when I click on it, I get a 404 error with a sorry they cannot open page and saying the page might have moved etc.
Is there a way to just go to Fotomoto.com and get info from there and link it to Viewbook?
Hi Gloria,
Thanks for the question, we just changed our support system and moved all of our documents.
The new location is: http://support.fotomoto.com/portal/article/7478-How-do-I-install-Fotomoto-on-Viewbook-
Cheers,
piam
Just changed the link in the article above. Thanks.
Hey :-)
I do all my own fine art printing myself - when will it be possible to sell through the site.
It's important for me that clients can pay through the site-so design look the same.
Thanks
Kenneth
Hi Kennthrimm,
Are you looking for a solution where you would be able to use the Fotomoto widget but do your own order fulfillment? As in Printing, Shipping and customer care?
Can I ask why? We've had a few artists who want this just so they can sign their own prints, and inspect them before they are shipped to the customer.
If that's what you are after, then I have good news, we are currently working on a solution to give you exactly that functionality. This system would ship the print to you, then you could sign and inspect the print, put it back in the box, attach the new shipping label and off it goes to your customer.
Let me know if that's something you are interested in. If you want something else, then just jump into our forums, and post the idea/request here: http://getsatisfaction.com/fotomoto/ideas/popular and hopefully it can gain some traction.
Cheers,
piam
Hi Piam
Thanks for speedy reply.
With all due respect for your work I want to print everything myself.
Thanks
Kenneth
Thanks Kenneth, well feel free to ask for that feature in our forums.
Cheers,
piam
Thanks for your contributions Kenneth and Piam.
We get this feature request more often; a simple fulfillment process, without the prints / downloads. But with all the order processing and payment in place.
It would be great if fotomoto could have a 'payment only' option for fulfillment. Basically a digital download without the download.
Hi Rien,
This is on our road-map, but we don't have a set date for it, here is the thread about it in our feature request forum: http://getsatisfaction.com/fotomoto/topics/option_to_use_fotomoto_e_commerce_site_engine_with_self_produced_prints
Feel free to send people there to vote on it, and hopefully it will gain more traction.
Cheers,
piam
Hi Piam
First of all : Can anyone post a link or 2 so I can see it on a real site ?
Second :Why dont you just use the feedback you get here in this forum ?
I have signed up with Viewbook so I put my feedback on this topic here like many others as I understand.
I someone gives me a good idea I just say- cool I'l remember that.
When I check your forum on this I had to sign up for "Get Satisfaction" (a bit ironic name in this case) to vote so I left.
I'm sure you will only gain business on this from people you don't attract now-maybe you'll even get some print orders if people are happy with the service but to busy to print.
I need this feature in a very near future but will look at other solutions in the meantime.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not being rude here - just a kind suggestion :-)
Cheers
Kenneth
Hi Kenneth,
Thanks for your suggestion, the reason we use get Satisfaction is so that we can keep track of all the good ideas, and get community feedback on them. As you can imagine development resources are limited, so we try to focus our efforts where it has the largest impact. To that end, we use our forums to gauge how popular an idea is so we know how to divvy up our time and resources.
Since you asked here is a link to someone who uses Viewbook and Fotomoto, http://www.ds-photography.com.au/
Let me know if you need anything else.
Cheers,
piam
Thanks Piam, I've added it to the bottom of this article. I'd like this feature a lot. No need for things like Paypal then.
Well I would like a Paypal option(or like that) so I can /as mentioned above).
I''l send a mail to support soon.
guys, I have work on my website which I want to sell. Photomot onlylets me do this if I want them to print for me. I do my own printing and some of my work is one-off paintings. So how do I sell off the page?????
Mel
We're adding other selling options to Viewbook later this year. Currently we only support Fotomoto.
Is it possible to see examples of peoples website who have fotomoto, as I would like to see how it integrates with both sites?
I can’t see any in your example page?
Sorry didn't see the above link, do you have any more, links?
Here are a couple more I grabbed:
http://www.jonathanflemingphotography.com/
I thought I listed two, here is another: http://macropolo.viewbook.com
It seems that fotomoto are not overly interested in partners in the UK (they haven't found one in over a year). Therefore offering other seling options (even if it is only paypal) is a must.
We are planning on launching our European Partner shortly, unless something falls through. Keep an eye on our Blog for an update.: http://blog.fotomoto.com/
So far I have not uploaded full resolution images to viewbook. I have uploaded 1500px X 1000px images as they are fine for web viewing. I am guessing that I will have to replace all of my current albums with fullres images. Is this correct?
Is there a space restriction? I know there is an image limit. My fullres images are 10 times the disc space of the smaller images.
Another question with fotomoto.
If I want to add different viewbook albums to different fotomoto price collections, how do I do it?
Hi Jo,
What you need is a separate Fotomoto Account (a new Site Key) linked to that other Viewbook account, that may be something that viewbook can do for you.
Otherwise, we are implementing a rules engine that could assign a photo to a different collection based on various things ranging from Exif data to it's url. But that is still in development, and I can't say when it will be ready to be released.
In regards to your question about print ready files, here is a guide from our knowledge base: http://support.fotomoto.com/customer/portal/articles/8310-preparing-print-ready-files
i've opened an acct w/ imagekind here in us. they not only price, print, ship, and charge, but offer frame & matting as well and can handle the super large output i need for my photos. will your upcoming version allow me to substitute the buy button for fotomoto on each photo?
OK!
Now I have tried fotomoto, with it is to me totally useless!
after that I can not get Danish VAT on the invoice when I sell a photo to a customer in my own country...
in that case I get a big problem with the IRS.
view book must look for an alternative to the customers they are NOT living in the U.S..
The integration with viewbook is great but I agree with Jakob : an european alternative would be fine.
Moreover, Fotomoto has changed their process flow. It's now more complex... and many customers are unhappy.
Any ideas for EU alternatives are very welcome.
A couple of Viewbook users use http://www.metroimaging.co.uk/exhibitions-and-interiors/web-print-f...
Will this work for Australia? I'm currently looking at using Viewbook as a platform for my photography but it will be no use to me if I cant sell my photos online. Please help me.
Hi Lena, technically yes, but I guess shipping costs from the US will be a major factor, see https://getsatisfaction.com/fotomoto/topics/overseas_shipping_costs
Are there any other options (in the US) besides fotomoto? The process seems to be very complicated. I've tried to purchase one for myself to test it and I've never received any confirmation from them. And now after uploading a new album, viewbook won't even take the fotomoto ID so I can sell the print to my client.
Hi Deney,
I'm looking at your account and I don't see any orders, can you email us and we can try and help you:
http://support.fotomoto.com/customer/portal/emails/new
Kind regards,
Piam