Michael Fryd
Forum Pro
While I may get burned at the stake for heresy, I am going to suggest that you consider changing your business model.
Rather than quoting a low price, and then tacking on extras for usage, why not just charge a higher price upfront and let the client have unlimited rights?
While it seems that you are giving up a lot of income, that may not be the case. What percentage of your images actually do bring in noticeable additional revenue? 1 in 50? 1 in 100?
If you charge a bit extra for all of your work, you get your income income up front. Rather than a possible extra $250 on one image a few years down the road, charge $200 more for the job upfront. That's a benefit to cash flow. A definite $200 today is worth more than a 50% chance of $250 next year. That increases profits.
You know what the income from the job will be. Knowing your income makes it easier to plan expenditures.
You have happier clients. They don't have to worry about limited rights to what they think of as "their" images. That's also a benefit. Happy clients mean more repeat business and more referrals.
The best part is that you don't have to spend time and resources trying to track down infringers.
====
I was in LA over the weekend working a large event. I was talking to some fellow professional photographers.
One was very happy. He charges a high price upfront, and gives his clients all rights to the images. His business is growing and he is making a healthy profit.
Another guy was unhappy. He spends his free time trying to enforce his copyrights. He searches the web, finds his images, and then tries to get large faceless corporations to honor his copyright. These large web companies tend to say that he needs to go after the anonymous user that posted the image, yet they won't provide any way of identifying that person. Apparently the big companies have told him that US Copyright law doesn't actually apply to the Internet as web sites are not mentioned in the law, and the higher courts have not given definitive rulings. Whether or not this is true, he can't afford a team of lawyers to go against these large companies.
Not only is he frustrated with enforcing his copyrights, his business is down. Customers don't want to deal with limited rights if they don't have to. His initial revenues are low, and subsequent licensing is way down due to image theft.
====
Perhaps the above two are representative of where the industry is going? Perhaps they are not.
In any case, I think raising your pricing and selling all rights is not a crazy idea. It may not be for you, but I think it's worth thinking about.
Rather than quoting a low price, and then tacking on extras for usage, why not just charge a higher price upfront and let the client have unlimited rights?
While it seems that you are giving up a lot of income, that may not be the case. What percentage of your images actually do bring in noticeable additional revenue? 1 in 50? 1 in 100?
If you charge a bit extra for all of your work, you get your income income up front. Rather than a possible extra $250 on one image a few years down the road, charge $200 more for the job upfront. That's a benefit to cash flow. A definite $200 today is worth more than a 50% chance of $250 next year. That increases profits.
You know what the income from the job will be. Knowing your income makes it easier to plan expenditures.
You have happier clients. They don't have to worry about limited rights to what they think of as "their" images. That's also a benefit. Happy clients mean more repeat business and more referrals.
The best part is that you don't have to spend time and resources trying to track down infringers.
====
I was in LA over the weekend working a large event. I was talking to some fellow professional photographers.
One was very happy. He charges a high price upfront, and gives his clients all rights to the images. His business is growing and he is making a healthy profit.
Another guy was unhappy. He spends his free time trying to enforce his copyrights. He searches the web, finds his images, and then tries to get large faceless corporations to honor his copyright. These large web companies tend to say that he needs to go after the anonymous user that posted the image, yet they won't provide any way of identifying that person. Apparently the big companies have told him that US Copyright law doesn't actually apply to the Internet as web sites are not mentioned in the law, and the higher courts have not given definitive rulings. Whether or not this is true, he can't afford a team of lawyers to go against these large companies.
Not only is he frustrated with enforcing his copyrights, his business is down. Customers don't want to deal with limited rights if they don't have to. His initial revenues are low, and subsequent licensing is way down due to image theft.
====
Perhaps the above two are representative of where the industry is going? Perhaps they are not.
In any case, I think raising your pricing and selling all rights is not a crazy idea. It may not be for you, but I think it's worth thinking about.
