I was thinking of doing a JV with wedding photographers in my area as this idea might just work.

A good photographer could charge $1500 and up and couples don't mind paying this price since it is their wedding day! Could I approach a photographer and tell them to add an option to their package of creating a personally designed website for the couple? One could present the couples with templates from template monster and charge them $500 and up for this. I could give the photographer $100 and up depending on the price of the website. Could also make them a professional video (using animoto or other program) and include it with the website.

The drawbacks to this idea:

1) Do couples really want a website of their wedding?
2) How would photographers benefit from offering this service to their clients?


I would like to get some input from others and see how to better utilize this idea. Thanks

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Look in paper for all the engagements and approach them yourself..Cuts out the middleman..

I don't really know why they would want a website put up about their wedding, unless maybe they are highly wealthy, and well known.

It may work, good thinking, keep it up.

That's a good idea about looking up local engagements. I was checking wedding websites on google and there are a lot of companies that offer the couple to build a free website (most charge on hosting and for extra storage). Seems like there is a demand for it but I am not quite sure why!

I think it is more of a "wow, it would be cool to have our website which we can tell friends and family to go to."

One could make it a site where they would post gift ideas, happenings, updates, get feedback from people, etc.

I gave some friends a present of a website with all their wedding photos on & they seemed pleased with the results.
A couple of guests emailed in their best photos as well.
site was used a bit for a couple of weeks but then hardly used at all, which is expected.
BUT Hard to make money from a service that is not in much demand.

Those are good points. I am wondering how one could do a JV with a wedding photographers as any niche could be penetrated with the right mindset and ideas.

What service could a wedding photographer provide their clients that would make them stand out from their competition? Moreover, how could we provide that service for them?

The first thing that came to mind was websites but not sure if there is a big demand for it as noted above. Let me know if there are any more suggestions out there.

I had a few thoughts reading this.

I bet more than a few couples would enjoy having a custom site made for their wedding, in particular ones with family in other parts of the country/world.

Most photographers are digital today anway, so you could make an online catalog of all the photos that could be shared immediately with family/friends that were unavailable to attend. Add videos as well. Let family that attended log in and upload the videos they took.

Since you would likely charge a one-time fee of some sort for setup, it wouldn't matter that much if the website fell out of use after two months. Have attending guests leave an email address with the guestbook for later login to the website, then frame an email submit for "logging in" to view/download the photos. Probably would only net a few additional bucks, but what the hell.

Not terrible sure how much additional benefit there is for the photographer, aside perhaps from having a feature to offer that other photographers in the area don't. The photographer with the best set of 'features' in their packages will get more clients (probably helps if they take good photos, too :P ) and being able to add "Custom built website with photo and video gallery for family and friends" certainly can't hurt them.

Those are good ideas. Having a custom designed website (template monster template... and there are some really good ones on there) would add a unique feature to the overall package that the photographer puts out.

Instead of guests going to the photographers website to look at pictures of the couple, they could go to the couple's website and see it there. It does add a 'wow' factor and that is all it really does. I wonder how much the photographer could charge a couple for the website? I can tell the photographer I will charge, for ex. $400, to make the website and anything over that he can keep. Maybe someone can elaborate on the price point for creating a website for clients (it will cost me around $100-$150 for someone to customize it and I have to pay for the template as well which will be around $60-$70).

I would say gather a half-dozen professional looking templates and recycle. The photographer can show an example of what each look like and let the couple choose the one they like best, and personalize it from there. With a good setup I can't imagine the customization being a whole lot more than changing the names of involved parties.

What about a price point for making a website for the couple? Should the photographer set their own price and I just let them know that I want $X for each site?

If it were me, I would decide on a set price per website to offer the photographer, and let them incorporate that price into their packages however they see best.
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