Selling Digital Downloads of Photos and Videos

Exclusive to the Pro and Advanced  account subscribers.

 

 

Did you know that along with selling vendor fulfilled products and self-fulfilled products, you have the option to sell Digital downloads of images and videos to your clients as well?

In this process, you as the photographer are able to set the price for the digital download, as well as the parameters for the download (like size and number of downloadable images). You can also assign a license to it, so that the person purchasing knows and acknowledges their usage rights before checking out. While we do have pre-set licenses you can choose from, you are also welcomed to create your own custom license.

There are many creative ways that you can sell your images and videos as digital products; some of our favorites are: iPhone backgrounds, Facebook profile photos/videos, stock images, and promotional products.

 

For digital downloads, note that Zenfolio will do the following:

• Take the order and collect payment.
• Store downloadable files for 30 days (can be extended an additional 30 days, if needed).
• Enable customers to download purchased images individually or in a batch.
• Send email notifications to all parties.
• Provide detailed reports.
• Provide customer service.

 

Keep reading for more information on...

• Creating Digital Products for your Photos
• Creating Digital Products for your Videos
• Creating Digital Products of Entire Gallery Downloads
• Create a License
• Selling a RAW file with a digital download
• What happens after a Digital Download product is ordered

 

 

Process-wise, from a bird’s eye view, in order to sell digital downloads for photo and video, you will need to: create the digital product that you’d like to sell, define its terms, apply a license agreement, add it to a price list, set your prices, and assign the price list to a specific image or gallery.

 

Creating Digital Products for selling your Photos

Ready to create a digital product for your photos? Great! 

1. Begin by selecting the Selling tab from your account menu. 
2. Scroll down and click Digital Products on the Selling Page.
3. And then click Add Product, to create a new product. 

Now, let’s begin defining the product you’ve just created!

1. First, let’s give your product a title. 

   • Pro Tip: your title will be displayed when the product is added to a shopping cart, so you’ll want to make it as descriptive as possible for your clients (ie- High Resolution Digital Download, or Low Resolution Web Image, etc). 

2. Next, make sure that you have the right product type selected (photo, instead of video). Keep in mind you can sell both, but you’ll want to have a unique product for each one!  Also select the License that you're wanting to use for this product. 

3. Now, let’s choose the image size for download. 

You have 6 sizing options to choose from: 

• Original  <-Recommended for providing full resolution images
• High resolution (5 megapixels)
• Medium resolution (3 megapixels)
• Low resolution (1 megapixel)
• Specific dimensions (with cropping)
• Largest dimension <- Recommended for providing lower resolution images
• Original photo and RAW files

*When using the megapixel options, the necessary dimensions of the files will depend on the Aspect Ratio (for each image), but here are the minimum dimensions for a few of the common ratios:

Resolution	3:2	4:3	5:4
5 Megapixels	2744 x 1832	2584 x 1936	2504 x 2000
3 Megapixels	2128 x 1416	2000 x 1504	1936 x 1552
1 Megapixel	1232 x 824	1160 x 872	1120 x 896

If you want, check the box on the form to allow your customers to leave you a note when purchasing as necessary. 

4. Next, click the Edit button for Category.

5. Choose the category or categories that best represent the product you are creating (“Download” is great for digital downloads!) Care to delete a category? Simply click the orange ‘x’. Once you’re happy with your selections, click Select. 

6. Now you’ll want to determine the number of items required for the product. This simply tells your client how many images need to be selected in order to purchase this specific product you are creating. The maximum number should only ever exceed 1 if your product requires more than one image (ie- a batch of images, or an entire gallery). 

• For Example: If you want to charge PER PHOTO you will set both the Minimum and Maximum to 1. If you want to sell a batch of 10 images, then you'll want to se the Minimum and Maximum to 10. And if you want to sell an entire Gallery download, you'll set the Minimum to 1 and the Maximum to a number larger than how many photos are actually contained in the Gallery. It is also recommended you check the "auto-fill..." option in this case.

Photo and Video Digital Products have a base product cost of 0.09 per each photo/video sold. Each overall order, however, will not exceed a base product cost of 0.99 per order, per product type – photos and videos count separately. 

7. Optional: If you’d like to upload a preview image (small or large) to represent your product, you may do so in the next part of the form. For the Small upload section, click Browse and select a photo from the files on your computer. The image can be up to 244 x 214 pixels, and will be displayed 'as is' without any auto resizing. The file should be a JPG, GIF, TIFF, or PNG. An uploaded preview image is not required; if you don't upload a Small preview image then the default 'digital product' icon will be used as a placeholder. 

8. Optional: For the Large upload section, click Browse and select a photo from the files on your computer. The image can be up to 900 x 480 pixels, and will be displayed 'as is' without any auto resizing. The file should be a JPG, GIF, TIFF, or PNG. An uploaded preview image is not required; if you don't upload a Large preview image then the there will be no Large preview image for the product.

9. Finally, click Save, and your product will be added to your Digital Product list.
    

 

 

Creating a Digital Product for your Videos

Creating a digital product for videos is very similar to creating a digital product for photos; the main difference occurs in the 2nd and 3rd steps of Creating a Digital Product for Selling Photos. 

 

1. First, let’s give your product a title. Pro Tip: Your title will be displayed when the product is added to a shopping cart, so you’ll want to make it as descriptive as possible for your clients (ie- High Resolution Digital Download, or Low Resolution Web Image, etc). 
2. Next, make sure that you have the right product type selected (video, instead of photo). Keep in mind you can sell both, but you’ll want to have a unique product for each one! Also select the license agreement you want to use for this product.
3. Now, let’s choose the video size from the dropdown menu. You have 4 sizing options to choose from:
   -Full HD (1920 x 1080)
   -Hi Def (1280 x 720)
   -Medium Def (853 x 480)
   -Web (640 x 360)

​

 

Creating a Digital Product for an Entire Gallery Download

Perhaps you’d like to allow a customer to download their entire gallery. Rather than having them select images one by one, you’ll want to simply create a Digital Product for an Entire Gallery Download. 
 

All of the same steps apply, but there is one very important difference in creating a Single Digital Product Download and an Entire Gallery Digital Product Download: Number of Items required for the product. In short, the maximum number that you put in should meet or exceed the number of photos that are in the gallery. 
 

Pro Tip: Set your minimum at 1 and your maximum at a number you know you’ll never reach in terms of gallery images uploaded, like 1,000. This way, as long as your client selects between 1 and 1,000 images, they’ll be able to purchase the Entire Gallery as a digital download.
 

Ready to create a Digital Download product that allows for purchasing an entire gallery? Here are the steps:
 

1. First, let’s give your product a title, and a license. 

• Pro Tip: your title will be displayed when the product is added to a shopping cart, so you’ll want to make it as descriptive as possible for your clients (ie- High Resolution Digital Download, or Low Resolution Web Image, etc). 

2. Now, let’s choose the image size for download. You have 6 sizing options to choose from: 

• Original  <- Recommended for providing full resolution images
• High resolution (5 megapixels)
• Medium resolution (3 megapixels)
• Low resolution (1 megapixel)
• Specific dimensions (with cropping)
• Largest dimension <- Recommended for providing lower resolution images
• Original photo and RAW files

4. Set a Minimum and Maximum for the amount of items (images or videos) that will be included in this product. You can also choose to have the available image slots auto-filled directly from the Gallery.
   
   Photo and Video Digital Products have a base product cost of 0.09 per each photo/video sold. Each overall order, however, will not exceed a base product cost of 0.99 per order, per product type – photos and videos count separately. 
5. Finally, click Save, and your product will be added to your Digital Product list. 

​
 

 

 

​Create a License

In order to sell a digital product, you need to first specify the license that will accompany it. What is a license? A license is defined by name, short description, and full license text, usually written by a legal expert. We’ve actually created 4 pre-defined licenses for you that can be applied to most common uses. These license agreements can be used 'as is' or customized to meet your specific needs.
 

Want to create your own? Great! Licenses can be created, edited or deleted at any time from the Licenses page.

Here’s a snapshot of the Zenfolio provided licenses:

• One-time printed use (no online publishing). Allowing the right to reproduce the purchased image on up to 100,000 copies of a single printed article.
• Unlimited online use (no printing). Allowing unlimited rights to use the purchased image online only; not allowed to print.
• Royalty-free commercial use. Allowing royalty-free rights to use the purchased image for any purpose, for profit or otherwise.
• Royalty-free personal use. Allowing use of the purchased image for personal purposes only and not for profit.

Note: Zenfolio is not liable for any dispute arising out of any digital image license agreement, and provides NO warranties for ANY digital image license, whether the license is created entirely by you, the Photographer, or provided by Zenfolio as a template and used by you "as is" or as modified. Zenfolio is also not responsible for the enforcement of any digital image license agreement; this responsibility lies solely with you, the Photographer.

 

Creating a Custom License

If you have a unique license that you’ve created that you’d like to use, it’s easy to implement using our Custom License feature. 

1. Begin by selecting the Selling tab from your account menu. 
2. Click Digital Products on the Selling Page.
3. Select Licenses.
4. Click Add License next to My Custom Licenses.

Now, simply follow these steps to create your license: 

1. Type a Name for your license in the text field provided. It’s good to note that the License name does appear in the Shopping Cart and order details.
2. Next, type a short description in the text box provided. This is your opportunity to help customers understand the license terms without reading the full license text. It also appears in the Shopping Cart.
3. Type the actual text for the license in the License Text box. 
4. Finally, click Save, and your license will be added to the My Custom Licenses section of the Licenses page. 

Note that your customers will be asked to read and agree to the terms of the license before they check out on your website. You are always able to review the license applied to the products purchased from the Order Details page. 

Customizing a Provided License (recommended)

Like the licenses that we provide, but want to tweak them a bit? Go for it. 

1. In the Digital Products page of your account, choose the Licenses option on the left
2. Under Zenfolio Licenses, click Duplicate for the license you’d like to adjust. A new page will load with the duplicated information.

Now, simply follow these instructions to modify and save your new adjusted license. 

1. Give your license a brand new name (this is optional). This name will appear in the Shopping Cart and order details.
2. Type a new Short Description in the text box provided (also optional). This is your opportunity to help customers understand the license terms without reading the full license text. It also appears in the Shopping Cart.
3. Type the actual text for the license in the License Text box. 
4. Finally, click Save, and your license will be added to the My Custom Licenses section of the Licenses page. 

Note that your customers will be asked to read and agree to the terms of the license before they check out on your website. You are always able to review the license applied to the products purchased from the Order Details page.

 

 

Selling a RAW file with a digital download

If you’d ever like to sell or include a RAW file with an original photo as a digital download, you can. 

In order to do this, the RAW file needs to be linked to the uploaded image. 

Click here for more information on uploading and linking your RAW files

All of the same steps apply when creating a Digital Product to include a RAW file, with one differentiation: "Original photo and raw files" must be selected from the Image Dimensions dropdown list.

When creating your Digital Product, be sure to:

• Select Photo(s) as the Product Type. The Digital Product must be Photos as RAW files cannot be linked to videos. 
• Select Original photo and raw files from the Image dimensions drop-down menu. RAW files cannot be sold alone as a Digital Product. ​

Once this has been set up and saved, your customer will receive the RAW file in the downloaded .zip file along with the original photo and license agreement.

 

Once you have setup your digital product, you may still need to:​

• Add your digital product to your price lists
• Set prices within your price list
• Assign price lists to a gallery or individual photo
• Collect Sales Tax
• Know what happens after a Digital Download product is ordered

*Zenfolio offers an easy and efficient shopping experience built on state-of-the-art infrastructure, as well as integrated and scalable vendor support to pass orders directly for printing and delivery without any action needed by photographers. We charge a 9.9% fee on the selling price of the products, downloads, and packages our photographers offer through their online storefront.