[Leica] a photo business question

["Francesco" <fls@san.rr.com>]

Hello fellow LUG members:

I have a business question for photographers.  I am considering starting
a web service for amateur glamour photographers.  The plan is to offer
photographers who have never made money from their images, but have
a desire to do so, a turn-key way to market their images and start making
money on them online.

Ideally, photographers would send slides for my company to scan and
return, OR photographers would send a CDROM with scans already
completed.  Model releases and age verifications will be mandatory,
of course.  Next, my company would set up a page on our website for the
photographer, where they would sell downloadable or CDROM collections
of their images.  We would do all the scanning and web preparation work,
as well as the maintenance of the site and upgrades of hardware.  Of course,
we would handle collection of income for photographers, and send payments
to photographers each week or two.

The idea here is to offer a simple and fast way for a photographer to see if
his/her
images can sell successfully online.  We handle all operations.....the
photographer
simply sends images and collects money.  My question is.....what is fair and
reasonable
to ask as payment for this service?  I guess I would like to ask those of
you who
have a moment to give me your ideas on what, you as photographers, would be
willing
to pay for this type of service, if you wanted to use it.

I am considering the following scenario:
ONE TIME setup fee of $250 (covers all scans, web page setup, e-commerce,
etc.)
MONTHLY bandwidth fee of $50, to cover web traffic costs and bandwidth
upgrades,
as the site grows (not profit for the company......this just pays bills).
COMMISSIONS on gross sales from 10% to 35%, depending upon volume
(this is where the company makes money).  For example, if a photographer
sells
$1000 worth of images on our site, we take 35%.  If sales break $2,500, our
commission drops to 25%, and so on.

My question to LUGGERS, does this sound fair and reasonable?  Do you think
I am crazy to want 35% of gross income for the services I offer, or does
this sound
quite cheap for the work and services we will be providing?  Let me know
what
you think of this idea and my proposed pricing.  Remember, we are targeting
the
amateur glamour/nude photographer, not established professional
photographers
who have already made money with their adult images.

Thaks for any insight you can offer......
Francesco
fls@san.rr.com