“We’re on the move…”
Quite literally but, no – not quite.
Some time back I decided to strip out the web based store that I had stuck into the ROGAN COLES PHOTO ARCHIVE. At the time when we first set it up, it seemed to make some sense. This was one of the main reasons for selection the particular WordPress theme that we are currently using here. A while and a bit later, we were plagued with a mind change.
The reason for moving the damned thing out – it was like trying to run a shop from out your bedroom. Don’t worry too much about it. It happens. I have a lady up the road who does just that. This is where I buy my three-in-one coffee and eggs from on occasion.
OK, that’s the real world. Here, we are talking virtual and the Internet. On this website previously, we had this online web store tucked away somewhere. OK, no metaphorical lounge [or, sitting room for some] or the proverbial kitchen here. In fact, it seemed to be nowhere – this according to the web search engines. And, if they can’t find it or even be bothered to show it up, how is anyone else going to find it? You know how it is? You can’t really run a business from your bedroom, can you?
Eschewing all the head banging stuff and the semantics, having a web store stuck on this website wasn’t working. And, I mean just that, it wasn’t working. If it collected one look let alone one click, that would have been a lot. Forget about a time frame. That didn’t exist. At a guess, it might have been up on this website for about a year. So, there was that.
On the other side of the equation, that particular effort also suffered a case of neglect, this while I was developing the main site – the ROGAN COLES PHOTO ARCHIVE. Trying to develop a web store at the same time was a bit like trying to ride two wild ponies in tandem. Doesn’t kind of work.
Net result – we stripped out the web store from this website and, we now have a new purpose built website that focuses on nothing else but selling my work. You can find it here – the ROGAN COLES PHOTO SHOP.
Websites are interesting beasts. Often, it doesn’t matter why and what. If it was a corporate entity, then we would be doing corporate things, like banging our own drum to draw attention and to show off who we are or, how we see ourselves. If I were an architect, I’m sure I would be doing much the same thing – as in promoting what we’re doing and showing off our creations either as something on the boards or as in completed projects. I mean, we are all a product of some description right? We all have something to show or to sell or to tell. Photography is no different. Well, OK – a little different.
While I may make light of the matter here, in fact, setting up an eCommerce website is quite an extensive undertaking. While parts of it are made fairly easy – as in selecting a workable theme and then, deploying featured eCommerce plugins, that’s about the half of it. The rest is about content development and here, there are no short cuts. Each product put on display needs to be “crafted”. There are the product descriptions that you see on the front-end. At the back-end, there’s the pricing, the shipping, the payment gateways, the documentation and then, the mother of them all, SEO – yup, Search Engine Optimisation. And here you thought I was just a photographer shooting pretty pictures? Not quite. The photography part is just the tip of the ice berg, the pretty part. The rest is best kept from view.
Of the photography, the work we have on offer over at our shop is an extension of what we have on show here – but there, it’s just a little more “focused’.
At this stage we are offering wall sized photographic prints. I say “wall sized” because, “wall art” sounds kind of odd to my ear. Wall art, wall sized – much the same thing in that the prints on offer are large. All prints are printed are paper based using the Lamda printing process. For the time being, I have eschewed the whole ink-jet printing thing. Likewise with exotic finishes such as metal and canvas. Added to this, we do not do mounting or framing, But, like all else, we are open to change and any changes are pursuant on demand.
I feel the prices I am asking for my work are more than reasonable, this in the light that you, as a discerning buyer, are making a worthwhile and long term investment. I’ve invested my whole working life in what I do, the results of which are on show here and over at our web store. Thus, you couldn’t expect less, this in terms of the investment you are making and the price being paid.
As a small side note, the ROGAN COLES PHOTO SHOP features a limited selection of work compared to all the work featured here – a smaller subset for want of a better term. That said, if there’s something here that you are interested in acquiring, please contact us and let us know. We would only be too happy to help you out.
Check out our new shop. As always, all comments and suggestions are welcome.