Worth starting ?

[niserin]

Hi guys,

I am a stock contributor with some years of experience, you can view my portfolio e.g. here http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-64681p1.html

I am constantly seeking new venues to licence my photos and just recently have found out about creating products with desings/images on them.
Do you, more experienced in that field, think it would be worth the time to create products with my kind of stock portfolio ?

Thank you for any support!
Michal

[rinderart]

Michal, Any outlet is worth checking out. some folks do well and others never sell anything. Your port is Very "Stock" looking and thats great But. Based on My experience "artier" Images sell the best Like graphics or paintings. Your not selling concepts then You are selling something for a wall or clothing Etc,Etc. different Market.

[niserin]

Thank you rinder,

Yeah it looks like a different market, but the more I analyze it the more I think that with a bit of adjusting and adapting it may work hmm....

I have many plain landscapes etc and I have just spotted that zazzle and cafepress also sell pictures for posters and as you say on walls. Then there seems not to be that much work on desinging the products in this case. Just upload and voila.

[fieldsphotos]

I am also just starting into this realm (Zazzle).  I am hoping that all my sunsets, flower macros, HDRs, cute cats, and butterfly photos that the stock agencies don't want are an untapped gold mine when selling directly to the public.     

I also have some great landscapes that do OK in stock, but that I am hoping will do well as art posters, calendars, greeting cards, etc.

It is worth a shot, at least for me.  It does seem like you have to promote your own products more so than you do with a stock agency.   

[niserin]

Promoting in what sense ?

Google Ads or something ?

[fieldsphotos]

Not really sure yet - I believe SEO (Search Engine Optimizing), blog posts, facebook, referral links and stuff like that.  Driving web traffic directly to your "store" of products.

There is a whole section on the topic in the Zazzle forums, so I have to assume it plays a big part in some folks' success over there.   

[antistock]

the main issue with PODs is exactly that : they don't advertise and they expect YOU to advertise for them for free !

Zazzle, Cafepress, RedBubble, DeviantArt, Etsy, FineArtAmerica, they all live on the shoulders of their contributors and the odd "viral" marketing and free links on social networks.

they're not stock/art agencies, and neither a proper marketplace like eBay or Amazon.
the other issue is they often don't even support FTP or IPTC.

sooo... is that worth it ?

not much actually but it's still worth a try as they're the only place to sell your second and third rate images, i mean really on RedBubble especially there's people selling images of their dog... and quality is the last of their problems as it's all printed in low-res no matter if it's shot with a 50$ camera in ISO3200... their buyers are absolutely clueless but judging from their forums it doesn't look like they're selling like hotcakes, the top sellers are mostly idiotic vectors and other teenage sh-it, sunsets landscapes and backgrounds also seems to sell decently.

but, if my sixth sense is correct, these guys making lots of sales have already a big community of users on their shoulders, for instance they run huge music forums and advertise their music t-shirts on the PODs, or they have 1000s of facebook friends willing to buy the latest gadget of their favourite musician or whatever.

in conclusion, it's far from being easy, it's no more no less than running your own web site and selling by yourself.

i'm struggling to decide if it's worth investing time in making a dozen photo calendars for instance and the more i think about it the more i feel it's wasted time, not because it's a bad idea but because these PODs are simply doing nothing to promote your products.

[7Horses]

I'm with Redbubble for more than a year now and with a  port of +200 pictures I only had one sale. Have to admit I never took care of "keywords" to find my work but I promote it using my personal site and my facebook page. Since I only offer "printed products" I don't know how the  T-shirts and other products sales are.

[mtkang]

I think you got a very impressive portfolio that most of people here will need your advice instead.

I guess you will earn more spending time to create the new images that uploading to POD channels.

Hi guys,

I am a stock contributor with some years of experience, you can view my portfolio e.g. here http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-64681p1.html

I am constantly seeking new venues to licence my photos and just recently have found out about creating products with desings/images on them.
Do you, more experienced in that field, think it would be worth the time to create products with my kind of stock portfolio ?

Thank you for any support!
Michal

[niserin]

Thank you guys, now things are looking a bit clearer to me.

Yes, these channels seem to be rather time-consuming.
Now I am thinking about hiring a friend who would use my photos to design a bunch of different 'crappy' and teenage commercial products there.
Promotion still looks vague and I have to dig deeper.

mtkang - thank you for nice words. I don't consider myself an expert but if anyone got any questions I am always willing to help.

best,
Michal