Some of you have wondered about the 'tips' jar that you have been seeing on the sidebar the past four weeks. Others have wondered about the 'promotion' of Zazzle products during the past eight months give or take a month. Here's what's up.
The 'tips' jar was the easiest to do and answer so I'll explain that first:
It started out as a technical question. If I did this, would that be accomplished type question to a coding problem that I was having. In short, the answer was "yes"! I accomplished a technical coding problem without having to call customer service at the host company, technical support at the IP and I didn't even have to call the tech heads in the San Francisco Bay area. Voila! the text was converted to an image and it appeared on the site. There was a second part that was more legal than technical and that require talking to a legal beagle and getting the help from the good people at Elon Musk's old company, Pay Pal.
Part two came about when someone sent me a email message from my web site's inquiry form asking if they could at least, buy me a cup of coffee from the much increased business they had enjoyed from a posting that I had made about their company. Frankly, at the time, I did not know if I could do that or not and furthermore, the European Union (EU) had just announced that they were requiring information posted on sites like the US does if you receive money from readers. The legal beagle informed me that since all my income derived from this site, if any, comes in the way of royalties income and that is the end of that. But, to answer an earlier question, I could allow readers, who wanted, to buy me a cup of coffee, so-to-speak with a donation in the tip jar. Ever tried to toss money into a tip jar virtually when you are not virtually inside the computer? I can tell you, it bounces of the screen and aptly to Murphy's law, it's gonna land on the floor under the desk. So, that is were the PayPal came into play. Any donations to the tips jar would have to come from those that already have or were willing to set up, a Pay Pal account. And, they would have to send me an email first telling me that they were buying me a coffee through the tips jar and then, I could send them an invoice for say $1.50. When I was notified from Pay Pal that someone had sent me $1.50, then the cup of coffee would be "officially" purchased . To me, that made more sense than anything so I went with that idea and the fine people at Pay Pal were very nice to explain how it worked--just as I explained to you why the 'tip' jar was there in the first place. Done!
The final question that needs to be answered is: why all the promotion of Zazzle products? .
Here is that in a nut shell.
First, if you rely on stock images to generate you income just to defray the cost of running the website, its host, email, security, certificates etc.,etc. that portion alone would bankrupt a business in a heartbeat. The average royalty on a stock image sold today is $0.27. Do the math and you will quickly see that you must have buyers in media who are buying your images totally and into the thousands per month. I have media buyers who buy my photos regularly, but not into the thousands per month. While there are those who claim that they make six-figures a year doing this, the truth be know that they are also selling their images as products, as exclusive rights an any number of other marketing ways allow and being paid by sponsorship to advertise on their websites. I do not allow paid advertising on my website at all.
Since I can control the type of image that I offer through agencies, or product services like Zazzle or Imagekind, I know their high quality of products and to suit the Federal Trade Commission and the EU, those 'sales' only produce royalties which I report willingly to the IRS each year when I am sent a 1099 royalty income form. If there is any incidental tax to be paid from said royalties, I am more than willing to pay up. My theory on that has always been, In other words-- you got to be making it if there is a tax bill--you get the jest.
Therefore, without reservation, I offer selected images to be made into product on a print-on-demand format for you to purchase. Usually, the royalty is a bit higher than the $0.27 from stock images. I earn $0.29 on each hair tie that I sell. That is more than the $0.27 per stock image. When a dealer orders 100 hair ties, I have made a whopping $29.00 as opposed to the $27.00 earned on 100 images. There fore, by a whopping $2.00 the hair ties earn more money than the images but it's still all royalties, not earned income. So, this becomes a way to increase the revenue from a single image. Let's say instead of making $0.27 an image on stock to now a higher royalty category generated from a product purchase, the royalty revenue is like getting more miles per gallon from your car after a tune-up. It's really a simple strategy that not only works but one that I am satisfied with and that would allow me to support my website--which I enjoy working on in retirement as explained above.. All-in-all. I have always liked to keep things very simple and this allows me to do that.
Now. I will throw this in to let you know that since I mentioned email to buy me a cup of coffee, I do not sell email addresses. I do not build mailing list or any other form of privacy invasion scheme. Another reason why I use Zazzle and Imagekind and list with stock agencies and sites that have their own privacy rules is because their sites cover their operations. Those sites are more money-oriented than my little site that treads water from year-to-year. All I have ever wanted is to be able to pay expenses of car repairs and upkeep, put gas in the tank and enjoy a meal on the road now and then when I am out shooting. This is more weighted as a hobby than as a business, although the IRS classifies it as a self-employed business.
In my wonderings to keep my readers happy, I came across this out-of-the-way place yesterday that was interesting because the space is paid by the artist to do their creative work, be it for good or for bad. As part of the paint, a note to other artist said to whit: Non-paid wall, respect the work. I found that interesting as tagging has gotten such a bad name, yet, in a poor neighborhood where people want art and color and creativeness as much as someone in Highland Park, this place cried out that "we may be poor but we are still smart and have desires to be successful and creative".
edited 09-28-15: Since posting this article, It has become a favorite of the month. I am also happy to report that both Zazzle and Imagekind have advised that both product and images have been sold. It always means more to me to have someone choose a product made with one of my images or choosing the image outright. The royalty earned from that image is just the workhorse to achieve that satisfaction that someone out there liked one of my images. Goal accomplished!
The 'tips' jar was the easiest to do and answer so I'll explain that first:
It started out as a technical question. If I did this, would that be accomplished type question to a coding problem that I was having. In short, the answer was "yes"! I accomplished a technical coding problem without having to call customer service at the host company, technical support at the IP and I didn't even have to call the tech heads in the San Francisco Bay area. Voila! the text was converted to an image and it appeared on the site. There was a second part that was more legal than technical and that require talking to a legal beagle and getting the help from the good people at Elon Musk's old company, Pay Pal.
Part two came about when someone sent me a email message from my web site's inquiry form asking if they could at least, buy me a cup of coffee from the much increased business they had enjoyed from a posting that I had made about their company. Frankly, at the time, I did not know if I could do that or not and furthermore, the European Union (EU) had just announced that they were requiring information posted on sites like the US does if you receive money from readers. The legal beagle informed me that since all my income derived from this site, if any, comes in the way of royalties income and that is the end of that. But, to answer an earlier question, I could allow readers, who wanted, to buy me a cup of coffee, so-to-speak with a donation in the tip jar. Ever tried to toss money into a tip jar virtually when you are not virtually inside the computer? I can tell you, it bounces of the screen and aptly to Murphy's law, it's gonna land on the floor under the desk. So, that is were the PayPal came into play. Any donations to the tips jar would have to come from those that already have or were willing to set up, a Pay Pal account. And, they would have to send me an email first telling me that they were buying me a coffee through the tips jar and then, I could send them an invoice for say $1.50. When I was notified from Pay Pal that someone had sent me $1.50, then the cup of coffee would be "officially" purchased . To me, that made more sense than anything so I went with that idea and the fine people at Pay Pal were very nice to explain how it worked--just as I explained to you why the 'tip' jar was there in the first place. Done!
The final question that needs to be answered is: why all the promotion of Zazzle products? .
Here is that in a nut shell.
First, if you rely on stock images to generate you income just to defray the cost of running the website, its host, email, security, certificates etc.,etc. that portion alone would bankrupt a business in a heartbeat. The average royalty on a stock image sold today is $0.27. Do the math and you will quickly see that you must have buyers in media who are buying your images totally and into the thousands per month. I have media buyers who buy my photos regularly, but not into the thousands per month. While there are those who claim that they make six-figures a year doing this, the truth be know that they are also selling their images as products, as exclusive rights an any number of other marketing ways allow and being paid by sponsorship to advertise on their websites. I do not allow paid advertising on my website at all.
Since I can control the type of image that I offer through agencies, or product services like Zazzle or Imagekind, I know their high quality of products and to suit the Federal Trade Commission and the EU, those 'sales' only produce royalties which I report willingly to the IRS each year when I am sent a 1099 royalty income form. If there is any incidental tax to be paid from said royalties, I am more than willing to pay up. My theory on that has always been, In other words-- you got to be making it if there is a tax bill--you get the jest.
Therefore, without reservation, I offer selected images to be made into product on a print-on-demand format for you to purchase. Usually, the royalty is a bit higher than the $0.27 from stock images. I earn $0.29 on each hair tie that I sell. That is more than the $0.27 per stock image. When a dealer orders 100 hair ties, I have made a whopping $29.00 as opposed to the $27.00 earned on 100 images. There fore, by a whopping $2.00 the hair ties earn more money than the images but it's still all royalties, not earned income. So, this becomes a way to increase the revenue from a single image. Let's say instead of making $0.27 an image on stock to now a higher royalty category generated from a product purchase, the royalty revenue is like getting more miles per gallon from your car after a tune-up. It's really a simple strategy that not only works but one that I am satisfied with and that would allow me to support my website--which I enjoy working on in retirement as explained above.. All-in-all. I have always liked to keep things very simple and this allows me to do that.
Now. I will throw this in to let you know that since I mentioned email to buy me a cup of coffee, I do not sell email addresses. I do not build mailing list or any other form of privacy invasion scheme. Another reason why I use Zazzle and Imagekind and list with stock agencies and sites that have their own privacy rules is because their sites cover their operations. Those sites are more money-oriented than my little site that treads water from year-to-year. All I have ever wanted is to be able to pay expenses of car repairs and upkeep, put gas in the tank and enjoy a meal on the road now and then when I am out shooting. This is more weighted as a hobby than as a business, although the IRS classifies it as a self-employed business.
In my wonderings to keep my readers happy, I came across this out-of-the-way place yesterday that was interesting because the space is paid by the artist to do their creative work, be it for good or for bad. As part of the paint, a note to other artist said to whit: Non-paid wall, respect the work. I found that interesting as tagging has gotten such a bad name, yet, in a poor neighborhood where people want art and color and creativeness as much as someone in Highland Park, this place cried out that "we may be poor but we are still smart and have desires to be successful and creative".
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| Never knowing what you stumble upon, there were three young men admiring the wall. I ask if it was okay for me to be there.They said,yes. I ask if they would mind if I tood pictures. They said it was okay. |
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| The irony of the three young men was that they each had a camera more updated than mine. |
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| The artist have paid for some of the wall space. The owners of the buildings should receive a community award. |
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