Blog Makeover with Artisteer
I was searching for a nice template for the blog, I looked at several offerings but I was looking for something clean and not to busy, on one website I found a link back to Artisteer, I was pleasantly surprised by the easy use of this application.
Being a bit impulsive I went for the Standard Edition at $129.95, there is a Home and Academic version as well for $49.95 which will suit anyone wanting a new look for their WordPress Blog, there is also a free try before you buy versions that wantermarks the templates you export. Read the rest of this entry »
A month with The3dStudio.com
Just last month I joined 3dStudio as a contributor, here is my Affiliate Link if you would like to join up as a contributor, I really liked the site as it does not come with the normal start-up hype I have seen so often, as they are already trading with other digital products they have an existing customer base that are used to paying more then micropayments, which is important to any new business.
I was not expecting to much so I uploaded 86 images on the 27th July 2009, as a non US contributor I will need to fill out an W-BEN or suffer a 30% tax on any licenses sold to US buyers, I joked on the MicroStockGroup forum that I would not need to do that for a while.
The transition of microstock
I spend time looking at forum posts, reading blogs, and talking to other digital artists, I am trying to analyse the current market and look at possible scenario’s for the future direction of the microstock industry, and I can see some patterns emerging that will influence how microstock develops, the comments below are just my thoughts.
Microstock is young in the business world, at about ten years old it is just like a child that has had a growth spurt and now it is time to mature, the body of the microstock child has been bombarded during this growth with all sorts of rubbish and other changes, the parents of this child can see it has reached a point now where it is obese and it needs to detoxify, lose the fat and work harder to become much leaner.
Affordable Editorial Images for Blogging?
I welcomed the move by Getty Images who have launched a new service for Web & Mobile images Sized, Priced and ready for digital use.
I have been researching the lack of affordable web sized editorial images for blogging, and looking at many blogs I find that most could be enhanced by a stock image or two, but the key problems as I see them are the lack of affordable editorial images at microstock ‘pay-as-you-go’ prices, and an easy method of search and delivery, and I personally think that editorial web image use has been much overlooked, with the focus being to over saturate the market with trendy commercial images.
Now that the ‘new commercial markets’ have dried up and growth by acquisition is getting to be less of an option for the bigger websites, how to maintain any business growth, I think that the target will become the editorial side of the industry.
Historically the thinking about the editorial use of images is around magazines and newspapers, along came microstock which targeted the commercial side of the business advertising and advertorial, with Istock becoming know as the art directors and designers ‘dirty little secret’, with the low cost images and aggressive marketing this opened up many new markets, like the small business users, personal websites, students and consultants that needed an image for a presentation.
Image by: Flickr/ahxcjb
I Thought I would try 3DStudio for my stock Images
I don’t normally try out new image libraries as many are just a waste of time, they may have high hopes, nice easy uploading, great commission rates but they do not have an existing customer base, it is ok being Photographer friendly and ‘talking the talk’, but there needs to be either a unique selling point or the website needs to have an added value to ‘walk the walk’.
A new start-up announced their move into the stock images world in the Micro Stock Group forums, no new start-up gets an easy ride and they were looked at and many searching questions asked, the response was as usual initially quite defensive, but they turned things around, listened to the feedback contacted a few forum members privately to discuss some points of concern, and they made a few changes based on the feedback and left us with a feeling that they were willing to communicate both ways.
After a few days I had another look at them and decided to try them out, the driver for me was they already had customers for their other products, so I joined 3dStudio as a contributor and here is my Affiliate Link, I would not expect anyone to join on my say so, but here is a summary of my experience with them to help you make an informed decision.
