I don't think I'm supposed to disclose the actual numbers, so let me just say this: my Amazon Associates scam is not bringing in nearly as much money as I'd hoped. Clearly, the fault lies with you, my disloyal blog readers: instead of channeling money to my offshore account like good little consumer-drones, you just read my articles and comment on them. Bah ! Bah I say !
Nonetheless, since I can't (yet) subliminally influence the readers, it follows that I must devise some alternative scheme. I thought about this for a while, and decided to take Roger's advice to hawk my own intellectual property.
Roger suggested that I should actually sell my photos. I was initially skeptical -- but then, a random passerby at the WalMart photo center suggested the same thing. And, if you can't trust random strangers, whom can you trust ? Anyway, I personally think that Roger and the WalMart shoppers are tripping. I've been to PhotoSig, and while that site has its fair share of pompous losers and pr0n, it also contains tons of outstanding and breathtaking photographs, the likes of which I will never be able to even remotely approach. This is what separates true professionals from losers like me.
Still, the greed eventually outweighed my sense of decency, so here we go. Being the illogical hippie freak that I am, the first thing I did was generate a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0) for my photos; this action virtually ensures that I'll never make any profit from anything. Next, I looked for a suitable online vendor to hawk my wares. The one I chose in the end was Zazzle. Zazzle allows you to create a poster, T-Shirt or greeting card based on your photo -- using a very nice and sane Web-based UI which is almost as good as WalMart's. They will then sell your product on their site, paying you a generous 10% cut of each sale. Normally, these terms would suck, but the devil's in the details: Zazzle's license is non-exclusive. This means that I can sell my photos on Zazzle as well as anywhere else that I desire, and Zazzle wouldn't care.
So, here we go: my very own little product catalog. If this works out, I'll add more stuff.
Of course, now I'm faced with a decision: what should I do to my existing photo gallery ? Roger thinks that I should immediately take down the super-high-res versions of my photos -- because, otherwise, there's nothing that stops anyone from creating their own Zazzle product based on them, with just two or three mouse clicks. However, I am kind of reluctant to take the photos down... My friends and family members occasionally look at them, and I'd feel like a jerk if I had to tell them, "sorry, you now have to pay for that wallpaper of yours. Sucker !". I could of course disfigure the photos with some sort of a digital watermark, but I've never put much faith into DRM, so I don't think it's worth the effort.
So, right now, I'm not sure... Am I just wasting my time with this sellout crap ? Or should I go commercial all the way (DRM galore) ? Time will tell, I guess...
Posted by metabug at 2004/03/25 07:24 | TrackBack (0) | Categories: PhotosI'm not sure that selling out is even worth it. For this reason I just put up a paypal thing. Only one donation to date, but I bet I made more in that donation than you have with your associate's account. :-)
I was tempted to put up an associate thingie for Wing Lam Kung Fu (a company whose products I have used and fully endorse), but what's the point, since nobody that reads my blog practices Martial Arts (and I'm even slowly declining into "weekend warrior" mode - bah!).
I think the Zazzle thing is a good idea, though, since it can at least get your stuff out there. Somebody might want to fork the dough for your photography. The other thing you could try is making your own prints and auctioning them on e-bay. People buy just about anything.
In any case, its all dependent upon how much work you're going to put into it. And you might want to branch out all together. Try being a freelance photographer. Ansel Adams didn't have a B.A. Just take good pictures because you like to take good pictures. The quality will come through.
Posted by: Jason at 2004/03/25 17:54Well, what I suggested wasn't nearly as sensible.
I think my plan was for you to create permanent Friend of Stas (FOS) membership, say for $1000 in 2004 money.
And you ship quarterly updates of your entire photo collection via DVD-ROM or halographic cubes in perpetuity.
Jason: Well, I thought that actually offering merchandise for sale was a better move than flat out asking for donations. But maybe I've been hanging out at Owen's blog for too long.
Roger: Yeah, and then they can upgrade it to Angel and Boddisahtvah (sp?), depending on how much they spend :-)
Posted by: Bugmaster at 2004/03/27 06:08