Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
One of the frustrating aspects of creating art is how do you make any money from your talent. One way to do this is to license your images as Stock Images. The way a stock agency works is fairly straightforward. They act as your agent and present your images on a website to the public (this includes graphic design companies and advertising agencies). You retain ownership and the copyrights to your images. The stock photo agent sells a license for a specified use to the client to use your image. When a use of your image is negotiated, you get a fee the stock image company gets a percentage of that fee. In return for the fee the stock agent receives, you get exposure to a large audience. It is up to the stock agency to build traffic. The more traffic they direct to the site, the more sales they make, etc.
Chris Dickman, who heads up Graphics.com (and was the founder of i/us.com which became TalkGraphics.com) passed this opportunity along to me.
Quote:
I wanted to encourage the Xara community to submit their images to our
Stockxpert.com microstock site. There's quite a few illustrations on there now and I think the Xara folks could make some sales. I was discussing this with one of the Stockxpert people and he encouraged me to make the suggestion.
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This link is on the Graphics.com website and features one of the artists who markets his images on Stockxpert.com.
And as a reminder for those who are not familiar with Graphics.com, Chris has a series of Galleries where people can show their work, including The Xara Gallery. The site and galleries are free and you might see some familiar work already there. :)
Gary
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
Great news Gary. Thank you for telling us about it. I just signed up. I might even make a few bucks from this. ;)
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
What format do they need to be in? I guess I have to go check out the site.:)
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
Sometimes I use such websites like Stockxpert.com or fotolia.com to buy photos for 1-2 Euros per image. That's bad enough, isn't it? Because from the side of the artist it's a shame to get 1 EUR (or sometimes only 50% from it) for a drawing which costs hours and hours to finish.
Yes, I know these "success stories" out there, which says that artist are able to sell more images than ever through such 1 EUR websites. But who wrote these "success stories"? And how much images do you have to sell, in order to get a adequate payment? Professional customers are willing to pay 1000-1500 EUR for a illustration and not 1 EUR...
Remi
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
I've bought a few images from istockphoto.com. Although the artist may not get much per image, there's always a chance to have the image sold many times over.
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
Remi
You still own the image and the copyrights. So you are not selling the image, you are renting it.
Gary
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, but if you rent it, lease it whatever it is no longer an "Original" and thus the value is immediately less...:)
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
I really like this idea.... Thanks Priester!!!! The way I see it folks is this.... That image is not making any $$$ sittin on your pc or here.... so "anything" is better than nothing??!! just my opinion
I think it would motivate to make even more to submit once the reality sets in on the potential $$ Not that it would be a sole source of income but... once you get a few extra bucks in your pocket through this.... (lets face it, a buck is a buck these days) it may just give some of us even more motivation to create
I like the opportunity.
John, you could place items here, and get some $$ from people ordering "prints".... I would think that once someone bought the original, you could make it not available??
This would also direct more and more people to your work.... hence.... more potential purchasers!!!! SOmeone may order the "print" and then decide they want to contact yo to buy the original.
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
The low price is the problem. They don't accept simple drawings/images for their service, it must be a really good image instead. And a good image needs a lot of time and experience. If a customer would ask me, if he could use (license) this "valuable" image for his website for 1-3 EUR, I wouldn't agree with such a request. If 50 customers would ask the same, so the result is 50-150 EUR, I would say "no", again. So, how much customers have to be interested in my image, before I say "ok"? It depends on the "value" of the image. But on the other side: If the image isn't worth a higher price, because it's a poor image, then you wouldn't find 50 customer who are willing to pay license fees for this image. And if the image is so good, that a lot of customers want it, the price must be 150 EUR per license or more (that's the price, you'll pay for images from other image databases and not 1-3 EUR).
Remi
Re: Sockxpert.com - Stock Images. Yours?
Hi guys!
My name is Steve Kapsinow, and I'm in charge of community development over at Stockxpert. I've worked with Chris Dickman for a few years now, and I'm happy to see a thread over here on contributing Xara-based work to Stockxpert. Thanks, Gary!
I'm glad some of you are interested in giving it a shot.
To answer a couple of questions. Yes. You can remove the work at any time. So, if you sell the original, you can remove it from our site. Although you cannot ask the people who have already downloaded it to "give it back."
geminiguy is right. Contributors do use microstock sites as a way to market their work. We recently published an interview with a stockxpert contributor who intead of selling the exclusive rights to one of him images, worked with the customer to make original work.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?...icle&artid=564
Riches are not guaranteed to everyone, but the potential to earn decent money exists. It's just another avenue to distribute and market your work.
Let me know if you have any more questions or comments. I'd be happy to discuss further.
Thanks!
-Steve