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Selling photos to paysites?
I was just wondering how many of you photogs have ever sold some of your photos to paysites. I have had a few inquire about mine but havent asked for details yet because I am not sure. Do you have to waive any rights to the content when you sell it? or can you still use it and sell it to other outlets? If the paysite charges like $20 a month to view their content, what is a fair price to ask for your photos when selling them? Anyone have any experiences they can share? Thanks. Aug 05 05 02:32 am Link I used to sell a lot of photos to paysites until the new laws came into effect. It used to be that I could just simply label the CD I sent them with my contact information where model releases and identification documents could be found. I had about 3 clients that were buying on a regular basis and were ok with this. Now, with the new rules the Feds want me to send a model's personal information to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that wants to buy content from me. I am just not comfortable with this. It opens the models up to ID theft, or worse and its just not a liability I am willing to take on. So, I am out of the content selling business for now. It was very lucrative at one time. I had one site that bought exclusive rights for $25/photo and they usually bought 80-120 photos per purchase. I had another site that paid me a flat $800/set of 60-80 photos + an additional $250 if I shot an hour of unedited video.. Best advise if you want to do this. Pay the models as little as they will accept and shoot a ton on each shoot. What I used to do is sell sets from a particular shoot a couple at a time... and sit on the rest. If a particular model got really popular on a site I had sold her photos to then I could creep the price of future sets up. A couple sites to research selling content: www.adultstaffing.com www.ynotmasters.com www.gofuckyourself.com All this said, be really careful in todays climate about selling photos. Keep in mind you have to send a model's ID, Address, Phone number, SS#, and real name, to anyone who buys the content. And then if they re-sell the photos, they have to send the information along to whoever buys from them, and so on and so on. And if anything happens to the model, it will all come back to bite YOU in the ass, since you were the originator. It used to be very lucrative, and probably still is, but I'm just not comfortable with the new rules. Aug 05 05 07:09 am Link If you are still interested, e-mail me and I will give you some leads for buyers of content that I have dealt with personally in the past. Aug 05 05 07:10 am Link I had one "photographer" ask about licensing my photos of a particular model once. He said he wanted a non-exclusive license for a single web site, and offered $.50 per image for full size print-quality files. Then he said he wanted me to take all my photos of her off my web site indefinitely. And he wanted all the photos like yesterday, before any agreements were even signed. Then he got nasty with me when I questioned him, and acted like he was doing me a favor. At that point, I declined to license the images to him, and stopped answering his e-mails. First of all, non-exclusive means the images stay on my personal site, and I can sell to other people if I want to. Second, why does he need 300dpi images for a web site? And third, $.50 per image? Anyone else think this guy was trying to rip me off? My point is, be very careful about who you license your images to. Aug 05 05 10:02 am Link Thanks for the info John J. I wasn't aware you needed to send all that info about the model. I'll have to consider it. Aug 05 05 11:24 am Link Michael Keep in mind also that you are not "selling" the photos, but granting "usage rights" to these images. You should make it clear that you retain the copyright. The usage agreement should also be for a specified period of time, meaning that after that contract has elapsed the user would have to renegotiate another usage agreement and pay you again, if they wish to continue to use them Trust me I learned the hard way 20 years ago when I freelanced for a magazine and gave away my rights (and negatives). I could have easily made a few hundred thousand dollars in the 90s from these shots! (As I'm still kicking myself in the ass!!!) Cover your butt!!! Mark Aug 05 05 11:31 am Link Micheal, You're one of those people I wish had never picked up a camera. You keep going after the easy buck... and flow from one supposed easy buck to the next. The one thing you never consider is who or what could be damaged by your actions. Do me a favor and really think about who and what you are. Decide by your own code what you want to be doing.... and forget the quick buck for a while. Real success comes from that code of value... and it doesn't likely come quickly. Have you ever considered selling used cars or something? Aug 05 05 11:46 am Link These requirements have been discussed nearly a dozen times on this website alone. Aug 05 05 11:58 am Link Posted by John Jebbia: Speaking as a phjotographer who also has a couple pay sites, if you deal with very well known reputable content buying sites or well known pay sites who want you to do content for them the ID theft should not be a problem. They do not get to be well known and big in the industry by being stupid and stealing a models identity. Also, there are plenty of models who like doing content shoots and completely understand about having to supply their information to the content broker or paysite. Aug 05 05 12:43 pm Link Posted by ChristianBehr: Its a shame we all can't be as great and all knowing as you Christian. With a name like that, I guess you have to be holier than thou...thanks for your expert advice once again. Aug 05 05 12:46 pm Link |
