Frame Destination Picture Framing » Business

Social Media and Picture Framing

Mark Rogers — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:21:17 +0000

I am happy to announce that Frame Destination, Inc. has finally gone social with Facebook and Twitter. I always greatly enjoy interacting with our customers via phone, email, and art events, but this allows us to take that to another level. Facebook appears to be an ideal venue to allow our customers to give us public feedback and learn more about what goes on inside Frame Destination and how me make picture frames. Our customers often tell us they love to refer their friends and this should make that easier. Feel free to become a friend, fan or follower…

Cheers,
Mark
Frame Destination, Inc.

Business competition good or bad?

Mark Rogers — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:21:00 +0000

As I mentioned in an earlier post I was recently in Seattle Washington. I enjoy a good espresso, and apparently so do a few other people in Seattle. Here in Dallas, many of the independent coffee shops disappeared after Starbucks came to town. One of my favorite discoveries downtown was “Ancient Grounds”. In addition to coffee they also sell native American and Asian artwork. Since Starbucks was born in Seattle I was curious about its impact on them and discussed this a little with the owner. He mentioned that since they are large corporate chain, they simply cant compete on the quality level. With my recent experience I had to agree. In his case he opened after Starbucks and has been in business for several years. He also mentioned that competition from other independents not only did not hurt his business but helped it. A couple years ago another shop opened on his block and his business went up. He mentioned that competition can be helpful to bring more business into the area and said that is why you typically see stores like Jewelry stores grouped together in one spot. After thinking about it, I realized that here in Dallas there are a couple of places where I have seen Home Depot across the street from Lowes.

In the custom framing industry I have noticed some Frame Shops were put out of business by Michaels. Other shops I have heard have no problem with Michaels. I recently purchased some carpet and was talking about the impact of places like Lowes on that owners business. He mentioned that he wished Lowes was across the street so that frustrated Loews customers could more easily find his shop.

In my own case I try not to worry about the competition too much and just keep my focus on helping people. People have lots of different needs and no company can perfectly match everyone’s needs no matter how much they want to.

Cheers,
Mark

Understanding Your Photo Market

Mark Rogers — Sun, 18 May 2008 17:28:00 +0000

On a recent trip to Seattle I was checking out Pike Place Market. I ran into Gary Davis a photographer selling wonderful photographs of Seattle and the surrounding area. Since many of Frame Destination’s customers are fine art photographers it is always a pleasure to get to know them in their own business environment. Lots of people take wonderful photographs, but only a small percentage are actually able to make money selling them. Marketing is about finding the people that are interested in buying your images. Gary was able to do that with Pike Place Market. It is a famous tourist destination and millions of people visit the market every year. Tourists visiting the market are interested in Seattle and that is what Gary gives them. He also was wonderful images of other places such as the Grand Canyon that he has tried to show but that is not what that market wants. They want Seattle images so that is what he gives them.

Cheers,
Mark

Picture Frame Destination Newsletter Archive

Mark Rogers — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:07:00 +0000

We have recently updated our newsletter archive on the Frame Destination website. In addition to the typical newsletter content such as sales and new product announcements we try to include useful information about picture framing, printing, and photography related items such as photo storage or CD/DVD care. Our newsletter is permission based so we only send it out to people who give us permission and we never rent or sell the list. We have also added a 2nd option on the list that you can subscribe to where we will send out a short email notifying people that we have made an update to the clearance section on our website which right now is various mats. Most of the newsletters are archived on our site here but some are at an offsite newsletter archive via a new service that Constant Contact who manages our email list started offering.

You can click here if you would like to subscribe to the Picture Frame Destination Newsletter.

Cheers,
Mark

Help People Find Your Website

Mark Rogers — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:10:00 +0000

Regardless of all the hype about SEO it boils down to two critical factors: Content and Links. The #1 goal of the search engines (besides making money) is to find useful and relevant content. They judge the content of a website by scanning the text on the website and looking at who is pointing to it (the links). FLASH and other movies can make your website look really cool but the search engine spiders (the software programs scanning your website) can’t see the movies and FLASH. They can only read text. I am not saying don’t use them, but make sure you have some text the spiders can read. If you want to see what the spiders see and you are using Internet Explorer just go to “View” -> “Source”. Having your pictures on your site is great but the spiders can’t see them either so be sure to “talk” about your pictures and describe them in writing. Tell the story of the shot. This will give the spiders the content they are looking for and help you build rapport with your customers.

For the search engines to find your site and feel like others think you have decent content, you need LINKs. There are many ways to get links. Get all of your friends and family to link to your site in their websites, blogs, and myspace pages. Also, create your own blog and myspace pages. Your blog is another way to build rapport with your customers. You can also look for various directories and post links to your website in them. There are many of them out there and here is a free one operated by the same company that we are sponsoring our video classified service with: Netoffer Online Directory. It contains an Artists section under Popular Local Searches. Another free directory focused exclusively on art is yourArtlinks.com. Various directories like this will not necessarily bring thousands of visitors to your site, but they will bring the search engines. Over time as you collect more links, the search engines will give your site more respect.

Cheers,
Mark

Shipping Picture Frames

Mark Rogers — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:42:00 +0000

No matter how well you pack everything, and even if you crate it, it might get damaged or completely lost. Make sure it is properly insured and try to leave adequate time to ship replacements if necessary.

Express shipments such as 3-Day Express or 2nd day air are handled less and treated a little more carefully than ground shipments.

For prints alone, the most economical is tubes and the safest method is PVC or PVC like tubing.

Acrylic is MUCH safer than glass. We only have acrylic damaged about once a year (and I am not sure how they manage to do it). When shipping glass make sure it is a few inches from all 6 sides of the box, the glass can not be allowed to flex, bind or vibrate against other items in the box.

If you are shipping expensive picture frames and/or artwork consider crating. It will significantly reduce the damage rate due to its strength and due to the fact that is harder to throw a crate. It can possibly still be pushed out of the back of a truck or lost so you still need to have proper insurance.

When we ship large glass we only do so for large frame orders so we can put it on a pallet and ship it freight. A heavy pallet is being moved by pallet mover instead of being thrown.
When we pack picture frames we place something between them such as foam or cardboard and use stretch film to secure them tightly to each other. The box will be vibrated and shaken for many hours so you want to make sure that the contents of the box do not damage each other. We take the resulting stack and wrap it with 1/2 bubble on all 6 sides. We then place this in a box that is couple inches larger on all 4 of the smaller or edge sides. We fill the remaining space with bubble, craft paper, or cardboard. What is used for void fill is not critical. It is critical that the void fill not compress overtime allowing the contents to start slamming around in the box. It is also critical that the contents can’t shift around the void fill and get next to the edge of the box. For that reason we do not use peanuts.

Cheers, Mark

Classifieds and Link Directory

Mark Rogers — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:12:00 +0000

Frame Destination, Inc. has recently begun sponsoring a Free Classified Ads webpage for people for buying and selling items such as art, cameras or anything else. The Classifieds are powered by NetOffer which also has a free directory service we will sponsor in the near future. You can use this directory service to easily get a free link to your website.

Cheers,
Mark

Inkjet Print Sizes for Picture Framing

Mark Rogers — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:37:00 +0000

You have purchased a wonderful photo printer that can create beautiful images – now you must decide what size image you’d like to print and what size paper to print it on. The sizing depends on what you intend to do with the finished print. Let’s look at some options – and the trade-offs – for printing images on various paper sizes. Keep in mind that if you plan to sell your images, many customers prefer that the external mat size is a standard picture frame size such as 11×14, 16×20, or 18×24 so they are not forced into a custom frame shop.

13×19 Printer Paper – Framing Options

Aside from roll or special panoramic sheet paper, the largest common paper size is 13×19 inches. The simplest option is to use the entire sheet and print a 13×19 image. If you have an SLR, which normally has an image aspect ratio of 3:2, this is a convenient size because it requires almost no cropping. An un-cropped 3:2 image printed on 13×19 paper will only lose one-half inch of the image. (In other words, the un-cropped image would measure 13×19.5 inches.)

Another excellent image size for 13×19 paper is 12×18. This size creates its own border, which is advantageous because some printers are not able to print full borderless on all papers. The borders on the paper can be used for the artist’s signature, or as a mounting aid utilizing photo corners . (The corners can be concealed with a mat.)

The 13×19 and 12×18 are not standard picture frame sizes. However, some specialty companies such as Frame Destination Inc. do offer inexpensive, ready-made frames in these sizes. These frames are inexpensive for two reasons: They do not contain a mat and they use less expensive non-archival components. Another advantage to these frames is that they typically require no mounting. You simply slip the paper into the frame and you’re done. In the case of the 13×19 picture frame , you don’t even need to trim the paper.

Some photographers prefer using a mat board with their prints. Although mat boards with 12×18 and 13×19 openings are is not readily available, specialty companies like Frame Destination Inc. offer mats with openings in these sizes . An 18×24 standard frame size with mat is ideal for these image sizes. With the 18×24 the 12×18 will have an even three-inch mat border surrounding the image, and the 13×19 will have an even 2.5 inch mat border.

Compact cameras such as Canon PowerShot and the Nikon Coolpix, and SLRs such as the Olympus E-400 use the 4:3 aspect ratio size, which is perfect for 12×16 prints. Although this picture frame size is not nearly as common as 11×14 or 16×20, it is still a standard frame size.

Although a 10×15 print would normally be done on smaller paper, think BIG and print a 10×15 centered image onto 13×19 paper. You get free a white border, and if placed in a 13×19 frame, the result will be a 1.5-inch top and bottom border, and two-inch side border. A 9×15 image can also be printed onto 13×19 paper, and with a little cropping you can achieve an even two-inch border surrounding the image.

Summary of Options for 13×19 Paper

Paper Size: 13×19

Standard Frame Sizes: 12×16

Non-standard frame Sizes: 12×18 , 13×19

Standard Matted Frame Size: 18×24

Recommended Image Sizes: 10×15, 12×16, 12×18, 13×19

17×22 Printer Paper – Framing Options

17×22 is a new common paper size for 17-inch printers such as Epson Stylus Pro 3800 and Canon iPF5000. This is ideal for 16×20 images, which have an infinite selection of matted and un-matted frames. Unfortunately, 16×20 is neither a 3:2 nor 4:3 ratio; 16×24 is the 3:2 ratio but can only be printed on 17-inch roll paper.

Summary of Options for 17×22

Paper Size: 17×22

Standard Frame Sizes: 16×20

Non-standard frame Sizes: 17×22

Standard Matted Frame Size: 20×24, 22×28

Recommended Image Sizes: 16×20, 17×22

11×17 and 11×16.5 Printer Paper – Framing Options

These paper sizes are good choices for 3:2 and 4:3 aspect ratio images. The 11×17 is close to the 3:2 image ratio. It can be matted to the standard 18×24 frame size, which creates an even 3.5-inch border around the image. Another interesting option with these two paper sizes is to print an image as 6×9 and then crop the paper to fit in an 11×14 picture frame. The result will be an even 2.5-inch white paper border surrounding the image.

Summary of Options for 11×17 and 11×16.5 Paper

Paper Size: 11×17, 11×16.5

Standard Frame Sizes: 11×14, 9×12

Non-standard frame Sizes: 11×17

Standard Matted Frame Size: 16×20, 20×24

Recommended Image Sizes: 6×9, 8×12, 9×12, 10×13, 10×15, 11×14, 11×17

8.5×11 Printer Paper – Framing Options

Although 8×10 paper is available, 8.5×11 is a common paper size. Most 8.5×11 frames are designed for certificates rather that photos, although some specialty frame shops do offer 8.5×11 picture frames.

Summary of Options for 8.5×11 Paper

Paper Size: 8.5×11

Standard Frame Sizes: 8×10, 8.5×11

Non-standard frame Sizes: 8.5×11 (non-certificate frames less common)

Standard Matted Frame Size: 9×12, 11×14, 16×20

Recommended Image Sizes: 6×9, 8×10, 8.5×11

PMA, PPFA 2007

Mark Rogers — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:44:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) tradeshow which includes the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA) tradeshow. Frame Destination, Inc. is a member of both.

Although photographic printing in general is in decline it is expected to flatten out soon and digital printing is expected to surpass film printing this year. Although image printing is in decline, image capture (the number of pictures taken) is at all time record highs and expected to continue growing at a high rate.

In addition to the new cameras, printers, and video cameras I was surprised to see some of the interesting advances in software for processing digital images. I witnessed an interesting demo of software that could take a group of photo’s, perform face recognition on the prints and automatically create a cool slideshow that is automatically synced with some music and provides panning and zooming from image to image with faces being the focal point. I did not actually try any so I am not sure how easy it actually is in reality.

I also came across some interesting products related to photo storage and picture framing that we will be trying to add to our website in the next few months. One in particular was copper coated CD sleeves to help reduce fading on CDs and DVDs.

Cheers,
Mark

What is critical for success?

Mark Rogers — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:13:00 +0000

In my opinion there are two critical aspects to business success. For me, these two factors are critical to happiness in general. They are attitude and integrity. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? I feel simplicity is a sign of true wisdom. The truth is that you can spend you entire life perfecting and deepening your attitude and integrity.

Attitude seems like a simple and shallow concept. Many people have heard statements like “if you think you will fail you will.” If you study success books starting from the 1920s such as Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”, to Earl Nightingale’s “Lead the Field”, Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, Anthony Robbins “Unlimited Power”, all the way to the very recent release of Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” they all share a single common theme…attitude and they all explore it at great depth. I have learned that a few casual thoughts about your goals or dreams are not enough. You need clear goals and vision coupled with a deep belief penetrating to the core of your being that you will obtain them. If you achieve this, you will do far more than just change your perspective. You will change your reality. Before I opened my business I created a 2-3 year plan as commonly recommended. I had no formal training in marketing or business growth modeling. I had very little access to relevant market data. In other words it was a wild guess. My business came pretty close to my naïve projections. This was very surprising to me, and I can only think of one reason why. I held the projections in my head with a belief I would obtain them.

Depending on your definition of success, integrity may not be required. If all you require for success is money, then all you need to do is give people what they want. With that definition, drug dealers are easily successful. My personal definition of success involves happiness and the ability to enjoy my success. That type of success is impossible to achieve without integrity. A classic example of this is playing out in the media right now…Anna Nicole Smith. She achieved her dreams and got everything she wanted…fame and fortune. One slight problem…she doesn’t get to enjoy it. Owning a business creates lots of tempting situations and I try to remember what goes around comes around to help me keep my integrity in check. My primary concern for my business is helping people…my customers, employees, and suppliers. If I use the business to help them, they naturally help the business in return. Now I am human, and of course I will think of profits and what the business can do for my family and me, but I try to think about profits in terms of growing the business and keeping it healthy so it can help more people.

Cheers,
Mark