5 Products You Can Create Using Your Photographs

When dealing with pieces of artwork, clearly identifying what tangible line items can be generated from the work of art can be a real challenge.  This is especially true of photographs and there are a multitude of paths an owner of original photographs can travel:

1.  Invest a little money into a screen saver generating software and create either individual screen savers for sale or pull together a compilation CD of many different screen savers.

2.  Create a compilation CD of specifically-designated desktop wallpapers with one-user permission/licensing (i.e. they can use it on their own computers, but they cannot email it to 21 friends and tell them they can install the photograph also).

3.  Create a compilation CD of photographs and allow the materials to somehow be used on the Internet (there are a variety of decisions that would need to be made, such as whether there was a restriction on commercial use or whether copyright credits should remain intact no matter how the photograph is being used, etc.).

4.  Sell individual photographs using one of the many online storefronts offering such services.  Many of them charge an upfront service fee, but if you can generate a stable audience, then this fee may not be as much of a chunk out of the marketing budget.  There are also services that will let you join for free, but there are certain limitations and/or requirements such as possibly having banner ads displayed on the page your artwork is being displayed on.

5.  Upload your photographs to a service that will manufacture various products with your photograph on it.  There are a few services out there that provide you mouse pads, coffee mugs, t-shirts, bags, buttons, bumper stickers, magnets, beer mugs…all you have to do is upload your graphic, select what product(s) you want the graphic on, set a price and then let the company take care of the rest.

None of these line items are guaranteed multi-million dollar generators, however a couple hundred bucks in the pocket because you chose to share your efforts with the public is nothing to sniffle at either.  It all depends on what kind of a market you hope to reach with your photographs interwoven with the serendipity of the Internet (joke emails travel fast…and so do photographs!) balanced by what you actually captured with your camera.

So if you’re looking to open up a thin income stream to augment your lifestyle (maybe a dream vacation or a new computer), go through your photographs and choose a few to experiment with.  Try to avoid any photographs with recognizable facial features (legal reasons) and be strong with your judgment of your pictures…the public can frequently distinguish between a fuzzy, out-of-focus photo and a clear, crisp picture and quality counts when you are selling anything.

Just remember to set high standards and the reward for such an effort will be the generation of some level of income because of your skill as a photographer and your critical judgment as a professional artist.

Time for me to go back to my previous screen saver generating software search! ;&gt