[Retronaut]

You can make the proofs available for, say, a couple of hours for your customers to make their purchases but so much of the impact is lost when proofing online. They are viewing in a less than ideal environment, and you are not there to be involved, and also the experience is totally detached from what you offered them during the shoot (a personal experience in an environment that cost money).

Let's say you charge $1000 for a portrait. How on Earth can your customers make sense of that when they are sitting in their own environment, viewing an image that literally cost nothing to view, and is going to cost maybe $50 to print and frame?

I think it is far easier for people to understand the cost or value of something if they have to pay that to get it, to make it happen. I do a lot of real estate photography and visit several new homes every week before I am commissioned to photograph them. I could easily bring my camera and take photos when I first, but that would destroy the understanding of what it cost to get those photographs taken.