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March 22, 2016 By Louis Leave a Comment

Dollar Photo Club Alternative with Twice the Image Downloads

The Dollar Photo Club is closing. You will no longer have access to its library, your member area and even your purchase history. You will not be allowed to update your billing information as well. Furthermore, your renewals will not be processed so do not expect any charges on your payment method in the future. Luckily, Stock Photo Secrets has you covered. Its new stock photo website offers fairly the same product, with a bit more.

Introducing Stock Photo Secrets’ Dollar Photo Club alternative, 99 Club offers select benefits that expired DPC members will surely love. It has over 4 million high quality images in its collection, with 60,000 to 80,000 more uploaded every month. You can pick any stock photo, vector or font that suits your creative needs because they surely fit your budget. For only $99 a year, you can download 200 images of any size.

The 99 Club collection is filled with premium quality images with royalty-free license. You can use them in any project for as long you like. That’s right – for as long as you like. You can download and use them forever without worrying about additional license fees along the way. If you exceed your daily limit, no worries. You can still download additional images for only $0.99 each. The $99 is a one-time payment, and your membership will not be automatically renewed at the end of the year.

stockphotosecrets-home

Stock Photo Secrets’ stock photo agency has a simple website. It is easy to use and navigate. You will surely find what you are looking for quickly and easily. It also has an easy to understand terms and conditions. It gives you more without having to go through the trouble of migrating to Adobe Stock. With a constantly growing image bank and the best value for royalty-free images, it is the best Dollar Photo Club alternative for expired members.

While it is a great alternative for expired DPC members, 99 Club is not associated with the Dollar Photo Club or Fotolia. It is a product of Stock Photo Secrets, which has been around for over ten years and has no plans of closing anytime soon. Thus, you do not have to worry about your account expiring. 99 Club is here to stay. It is also available for creative professionals who want to take up the limited time offer. They, too, will surely benefit from the membership.

The Dollar Photo Club will terminate all its services on April 15, 2016. You should have found a better alternative by now. If you haven’t, you might want to check out 99 Club – the Dollar Photo Club alternative with twice the image downloads. Join now and start downloading!

November 15, 2015 By Louis Leave a Comment

Can You Use Cheap Stock Photos for That?

A girl shooting with her cam Can you use cheap stock photos for that? This is probably the most responsible question every creative professional should ask before they incorporate an image to their project. Since cheap stock photo sites are the most affordable way to quickly get cheap photos for your creative projects. The images are important to artists and photographers as well as individuals like you. Thus, it is important that you do not steal or misuse art.

Here are some quick and easy answers on the proper use of cheap stock images:

Using cheap photos as part of your logo, trademark, service mark or design mark
The whole purpose of having a trademark or logo is to represent your company uniquely in the marketplace. How can your logo be unique if you are using stock images that thousands of other people use? Besides, it also violates the content license agreement, which could lead to financial and legal damages.
Using cheap stock images on reselling t-shirt, apparels and other products without an Extended license
Are you planning to resell a product with a royalty-free photo printed on it? You need to purchase an Extended license, which you can get for an additional fee. Downloading a royalty-free image does not guarantee that you can do anything with it. There are certain items in the original license that limits you to resell images as part of products. If you intend to do so, you get an Extended license. It gives you more freedom than the Standard license.
Redistributing stock photos cheap as complimentary gifts without an Extended license

As mentioned above, downloading high quality, royalty-free stock images with a Standard license does not give you the right to redistribute them for free or as gifts. You need an Extended license to do that. However, you still need to read the Extended license agreement because they too are subject to some restrictions.

Depicting a model in sensitive or libelous way. How would you like your photo taken and labeled with sensitive statement? You probably would not like it because it is a violation of your rights. The same is true with models and artists. Neither a Standard license nor Extended one can save you from legal charges when this happens. Even if you are using the images for a good cause, make sure that you are not violating any item in the license agreement.

Many people are still not aware of the proper use of cheap stock images. It is a good thing we are here to educate them. Whether you are purchasing an image with a Standard or Extended license, it is always best to read the license agreement to make sure you are and will not violate any terms.

October 28, 2015 By Louis Leave a Comment

How to Sell With Adobe Stock Photos

adobe stock photos

The one question that rarely gets asked when people look at the massive libraries of MicroStock agencies is this: where did they get all these photos? The answer is simple – from photographers! Now, I know what you’re thinking – so you’re telling me that photographers contributed over 40 million photos to create this library? This answer is also simple – yes. Yes, they did.

The business model is simple. When a photographer contributes a photo, they don’t get paid. They get paid when a customer purchases a license for the image.

Before we go too far, but start by figuring out where Adobe got 40 million photos in the first place.

When It All Began

One year ago, in 2014, Adobe Stock didn’t exist. How did Adobe Stock create a library with so many photos in one year? To be honest, Adobe Stock didn’t exist until June 2015 when they launched. Going back to December 2014, Adobe was on the prowl to purchase a pre-existing stock photo library to add to their Creative Cloud. That’s when Adobe found Fotolia.

Adobe Acquired Fotolia

Logo_Fotolia

Adobe offered $800 million in cash to purchase Fotolia. Fotolia took the bait. Now, when you go to the Fotolia’s website, the only link they have to prove that Adobe owns them is a small Adobe logo in the upper left corner of your screen.

Instead of forcing every Fotolia customer to create a Creative Cloud account, Adobe decided to let Fotolia continue to run as its own a business entity. Honestly, the move was smart. Adobe decided that making waves of angry people wasn’t necessary.

The Birth of Adobe Stock

adobe stock

After the acquisition, it took Adobe a full six months before they launched Adobe Stock. The wait was well worth it. During this time, they were not only importing Fotolia’s entire library into a brand-new service, but they were restructuring their entire Creative Cloud to accept it.

Adobe Stock Is Now a Member of the Creative Cloud

Since Adobe Stock is part of the Creative Cloud, you can now purchase raw stock photos from directly within the Creative Cloud applications. Adobe streamlined the process. This means that Adobe’s customers no longer needed to subscribe to a separate stock photo agency, license a photo, save the file to their computer and then import it into the Adobe application. This seamless integration is why Adobe took six months to introduce Adobe Stock.

Adobe and Fotolia: the One in the Same

If you were to compare the Adobe library and the Fotolia library, you would discover that they are one in the same. Everything that gets contributed to the Fotolia library gets added to the Adobe library automatically by proxy. From this perspective, it wouldn’t make sense to have one account with Fotolia and a separate Creative Cloud account.

How Each Are Different

The truth is that Fotolia is a little different from Adobe Stock. If you have an account with Fotolia, you may find yourself with a Creative Cloud account simultaneously. Fotolia does exist as a separate and distinct business entity.

How to Make a Living As a Stock Photographer

Stock Photographer making a Living

As a stock photographer, how do you make a living? While many photographers make a living doing events, other photographers are busy photographing everyday things in the world around us. Stock photographers make a living by contributing their photos to various stock photo agencies. Verbiage is important here – stock photographers don’t donate their photos. They contribute them.

Stock Photographers Are Paid on Commission

When a stock photographer contributes a photo to a stock photo agency, they don’t get paid. That’s a good thing – it has two effects. First, the photographer retains the rights to the photo. The stock photo agency does not purchase those rights. Second, it entices the photographer to submit photos of the highest quality possible. You see, the photographer doesn’t get paid until a customer purchases the photo. This means that the photographer can get paid each and every time that a customer makes a purchase of licenses the photo. Secondly, customers are not going to license low-quality photos. The more high-quality photos that the photographer can contribute the more money the photographer can earn from the photos.

How to Contribute to the Adobe Stock Library

If you visit the Adobe Stock website, you’ll find a little link toward the bottom for contributors. However, you’ll also notice that Adobe does not accept contributions directly. You may contribute – but not through Adobe. You must go through Fotolia. This is the only case in which having a Fotolia account simultaneously with a Creative Cloud account may make sense. You see, you don’t get charged for having an account with a stock photo agency. The account is free. You get charged when you purchase their photos.

October 15, 2015 By Louis Leave a Comment

The Value of Cheap Images

Do you know the what the difference is between an investment and an expense? Allow me to illustrate. If you are the owner of a restaurant, your revenue would be dependent on how many customers you can get to the front door. Most the time – if not all the time – if someone comes through the front door, you’re going to make money off them in one way or another.

In this example, you’re a business owner. As such, you probably have some money set aside explicitly for advertising purposes. Let’s say that amount is $10,000. You found an advertising agency that wants to run several different advertising campaigns. The purpose of these campaigns is to get more customers to come through your front door. So you write them a check for $10,000 and call it a day. Next thing you know, you turn around and see one of your employees wasting paper towels. He didn’t do it on purpose – he just used more than he needed for the particular job. So you go through reprimanding him about using one more paper towel than what was necessary. This is a true story – I’ve seen it happen. My question is why would you go through the effort of saving money on a single paper towel if you’re going to turn around and spend $10,000 in advertising fees?

The answer is simple. One is an expense while the other one is an investment. And that’s exactly what cheap images do for your business. The value of cheap images – if used correctly – can bring you customers and hot leads. These are people whom you can make money from. It doesn’t matter if you spend $10 per image or two dollars per image. Either way, these professional stock photos are an investment of your advertising dollars with the purpose of generating new revenue.

cheap stock images

You can easily zero in on more customers. People in micro niches do it all the time. These people are able to make it big by only focusing on a very small part of their business field. In other words, no matter how many customers you think you have, there’s always room for more. Investing in cheap stock images (here are the top 5 cheapest stock agencies) can be invaluable in your marketing endeavors. They can assist you with blog posts, articles and brochures. They can assist you with television commercials and announcements. I mean, how can people spend money on you if they have no idea that you even exist? People have tunnel vision – they have lives. You’re not on their radar. It’s your job to put yourself on their radar, and these images, no matter how cheap they may seem, are how you get there.