We would like to be able to offer Groups and Societies the ability to allow Our Town Story members to purchase reproductions of the images that have been posted. This could create an income stream for the Group or Society that might otherwise be inaccessible or hard to manage by themselves.
We would likely be talking small sums of money (£1.50 - £5, in three tiers, depending on printed size) for example, and in the short term, purchases would be made direct from the Group or Society, with a contact link for the purchase displayed on the photo detail page.
The Society would always have the opportunity to decide whether or not to offer an image for reproduction, and be able to add/withdraw this facility at any time.
In order to reduce the admin burden (i.e. having to go back over hundreds of added images, we are adding a couple of new fields, that are only visible to members with a 'Society' status.
Firstly, in the group's main profile, the following fields will appear: offer selected images for sale - yes/no, 6" x 4" price, 7" x 5" price, 8" x 10" price and contact email address. This will allow the Society to enable/disable the feature, and to set the prices accordingly.
Secondly, when editing a photo's detail page, an option will appear along the lines of 'offer reproduction of this image for sale?'. If this box is checked, then pricing and contact details will be displayed along with the image.
In the medium term, we hope to be able to automate this process somewhat, with Our Town Story able to take payments online (including a commission), and then send 'orders' directly to the Society. Payments would then be passed on to the Society.
What this does mean (but this is pertinent generally) is that societies will need to have some structure to their Our Town Story membership. We would suggest generally the Society has a main account from which all images are posted - other members can then join individually as they may well wish to use the site as individuals anyway, and might move away from the Society but wish to continue their OTS membership. Society usernames can be anything, e.g. @tcfhs, and the profile name should be the full name, e.g. Trumpton & Chigley Family History Society.
We would welcome your thoughts on these proposals - we will add the new fields imminently for 'Phase 1', and will let you know when they are available.
We would likely be talking small sums of money (£1.50 - £5, in three tiers, depending on printed size) for example, and in the short term, purchases would be made direct from the Group or Society, with a contact link for the purchase displayed on the photo detail page.
The Society would always have the opportunity to decide whether or not to offer an image for reproduction, and be able to add/withdraw this facility at any time.
In order to reduce the admin burden (i.e. having to go back over hundreds of added images, we are adding a couple of new fields, that are only visible to members with a 'Society' status.
Firstly, in the group's main profile, the following fields will appear: offer selected images for sale - yes/no, 6" x 4" price, 7" x 5" price, 8" x 10" price and contact email address. This will allow the Society to enable/disable the feature, and to set the prices accordingly.
Secondly, when editing a photo's detail page, an option will appear along the lines of 'offer reproduction of this image for sale?'. If this box is checked, then pricing and contact details will be displayed along with the image.
In the medium term, we hope to be able to automate this process somewhat, with Our Town Story able to take payments online (including a commission), and then send 'orders' directly to the Society. Payments would then be passed on to the Society.
What this does mean (but this is pertinent generally) is that societies will need to have some structure to their Our Town Story membership. We would suggest generally the Society has a main account from which all images are posted - other members can then join individually as they may well wish to use the site as individuals anyway, and might move away from the Society but wish to continue their OTS membership. Society usernames can be anything, e.g. @tcfhs, and the profile name should be the full name, e.g. Trumpton & Chigley Family History Society.
We would welcome your thoughts on these proposals - we will add the new fields imminently for 'Phase 1', and will let you know when they are available.
