Marketing Your Images with a Digital Signature
By · CommentsBy Sarah Schoenfeld
Signing our prints used to be pretty straightforward before online galleries and POD’s (print on demand) came along.
But now there’s the question of whether to and how to sign photographic artwork that’s displayed and sold online. Because obviously, if a print is printed and shipped directly to customers, the photographer/artist can’t put their name on it. Some photographers now use a digital signature/name included as part of the image, and I encourage the rest to do this too.
Driftwood Main
Signature Sample
Here’s why:
It identifies the artist. This means that anyone who likes an image hanging in a home or business can locate the creator and their work.
Think about a potential buyer who likes a print hanging in a restaurant… if there isn’t a name on it, how can they find more art by the creator? Will they ask manager to find the packing slip, or take the frame apart in hopes the name is on the back? Nah. But hey, if there’s a name right there on the image, they can write down the name, google it and find the artist.
It sends the message that the artist is proud of the work. This adds value from both a marketing and emotional perspective. How much would you spend on unidentifiable artwork that the creator themselves didn’t like enough to sign it? Would you spend good bucks on a toaster oven with no brand on it?
It’s free advertising. It’s inevitable that people will download small resolution images without permission. There’s simply no stopping that. But if your legible name is on it… then no matter where it goes, at least your name goes with it. This is actually useful and free marketing, since it increases your exposure. (If you’re concerned about this, please see my VAJ article about protecting images online.)
Signature on Cat Portrait
Of course someone can remove the signature, but most people don’t have the skills, software or motivation to do that.
Now then… if the signature is large and obnoxious, it detracts from the work. So I try to make mine there if needed, but unobtrusive. Here are some suggestions when adding a digital signature to your images.
The signature should be:
- Legible and small.
- Discreetly placed where it won’t detract, but won’t be covered up by a mat or frame. Close to the bottom, on one side or the other.
- Just your name – not a website url. (I include a copyright symbol.)
- In an attractive, legible font, appropriate to the image. I wouldn’t use a delicate font with a powerful image, or a blockbuster font with an ethereal image.
- In a coordinating color from the image so it will match. I think it looks more polished, and consider it part of my individual style. Like this iris.
Sepia Signature
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A reminder that Saturday, March 13 will be the OVA Feedback Panel for artists and photographers interested in requesting comments on their work. Watch this OVA discussion for details.
Sarah Schoenfeld founded Online Visual Artists in 2007 to support and promote the online marketing of visual art. OVA has grown into a friendly, welcoming and helpful community of serious and professional artists. OVA members share their experiences, feedback, and opinions on various art-related websites with other member artists, as well as marketing tips and advice.
Sarah is also a dedicated fine art and marketing photographer, owner of Doc Pixel Photography. Her commercial work includes products, architecture, real estate and pet portraiture, and her fine art subjects of choice are pets, florals, and the water’s edge.
All images in this article are copyright Sarah Schoenfeld and may not be used for any purpose without permission.
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I was recently privileged to interview Andrea at Visual Arts Junction Radio. You may remember her as the Best Friend Marketer, or the Soulful Marketer, bringing our spirituality to the forefront so that our business can, and should, be the purest extension of ourselves. Be sure to listen if you missed out on the broadcast. You can also learn about some of Andrea’s other workshops here in the VAJ Store.
When someone I meet in the business helps me greatly, I love to pass it on. I tend to need so much help learning about the business end of being a writer and photographer, so I enjoy sharing with you the people who have helped me in that area. Andrea sent me an email all about her next live tele-seminar Service to Sensational.
Live Tele-Seminar March 18th and March 25th @ 12 pm EST
Did you know that a person needs to hear from you anywhere between 7 and 27 times before they decide to do business with you? Did you know that the majority of business owners give up just before they reach that point with a potential client? I know, as an artist, I am guilty of offering my wares once, and then retreating.
These are common marketing statistics that individuals often forget about, leaving you, the business owner, feeling that you are wasting your time and energy. But what if there was a way to serve your prospects and clients in a fun and easy way that was guaranteed to bring you more profit to your bottom line?
Andrea Costantine & Sabrina Risley will be sharing their secrets on their upcoming program on Service to Sensational.
They know that service doesn’t have to be hard, nor complicated. In fact it should be simple, easy, and fun. They’ll be sharing with us tips on how to stop making the mistake of finding a prospect, following up once or twice and then letting them go and instead finding the right people, keep them in your pipeline and never let them disappear or forget about you. There are three things you should know about creating a relationship marketing strategy that produces results:
- You need a consistent system that you’ll follow
- How to classify and categorize people for optimum effectiveness.
- How to actually turn your strategy into profit.
Creating a consistent service plan that keeps you in front of your market does three very important things for your business growth:
- It helps you reach your prospect the necessary amount of times it takes for them to make a decision. That means when they are ready to make a purchase – you are there for them. Unlike so many others who walk away just before that person was ready to make a purchase. You see when you give up on a prospect and walk away, you’ve done half the work and along comes a competitor in your industry, and since you’ve already prepped the prospect – they’ll get the sale – because they are right there!
- It’s about being a giver. It’s not ALL about getting a sale, it’s also about connecting other people to resources and helping them to grow their business or get their needs met when you aren’t the person to meet them. This builds incredible trust and shows that you really care about the people in your world.
- People will trust you, so even if they don’t need your services they will always remember you when someone else comes along who does. Staying in touch and creating an effective follow up system also gives you the open door to ASK for business when you want to. When you don’t stay in touch, but call to ask for something it just looks like you are a taker, and nobody likes a taker.
Join Sabrina and Andrea in this incredible two-part tele-seminar series on how to go from Service to Sensational.
They’ll be providing everything you need to know on how to
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- Create an effective service plan
- Set yourself apart in the market place
- Become remarkable
- Get an army of raving fans and referrals!
They include scripts, sample emails and loads of resources! It’s a complete system to get you started right away and start growing your business in a more fun and authentic way!
This live tele-seminar series is being offered at a low price – only $49. Andrea says, this price is going to double or maybe even triple after March, so go online to reserve your spot in the series Service to Sensational.
Register for $49 Service to Sensational
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March 18th and March 25th @ 12 pm EST
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If you decide to attend, please leave your comments here about it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. And so would Andrea!
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A new installment in the series, A Self-Publishing Journey. Keep your eyes peeled for the next few months. I’ll be posting about what I’ve learned in my own self-publishing journey, and many top experts in the business will be adding their thoughts to the soup too. See all posts in the series.
Everybody is up in arms about the increased frequency of eBook piracy, or so it seems. If by everyone I mean e-Publishers sounding a piracy alarm, then yes, everyone is up in arms.
I first considered adding this subject as an addendum to the other eBook articles, but after only cursory research for piracy data, I found that most quotes and information (too much to list here, but you can Google it) were from the big e-publishing houses. More lengthy research confirmed this.
Most authors are not really worried. Of course, we all want pay for our hard work, but personally, I’m more worried that no one will read my books, than that everyone will steal them. And I found most authors (speaking out online) agree.
Many older pirated books were simply scanned images of the printed page. No digital text, so no bookmarking capabilities, or making notes in the margins, and no interactivity of linking to sites, videos, etc. Tools and technology are allowing better quality pirated book, and it seems this has scared big business, and in turn, they are trying to scare us into over-reacting.
An interesting background interview by C. Max Magee, of a real live pirate, gives some insight into this dark world with Confessions of a Book Pirate.
But IMHO the importance placed on piracy is placing the cart before the horse. E-publishers, and paranoid authors, themselves seem to have added to the amount of piracy through sheer customer frustration. Through the solutions offered they are instead pushing even honest customers to turn to pirated copies.
For one thing, there is such a mass of prohibitive formats, many times customers don’t realize, until they’ve paid, that they can’t load the book onto their e-reader. This proprietary licensing of books, rather than selling them to us, is as ludicrous as saying that the CD we bought will only play on one company’s CD player.
And, in addition to the pirates, it won’t be long before the book-buying public won’t stand for this either. Adobe seems to be the only one listening (so far). Their DRM technology is used by Sony and Barnes & Noble . They allow users to share eBooks with friends, and read them on multiple devices.
E-Publishing houses might better consider placing piracy on the burner behind addressing their anti-consumer agendas that make it difficult to purchase and share an eBook across our own networks. Until readers obtain real rights to their media, as we do with print books, frustration and piracy will skyrocket.
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The DRM Solutions
Amazon’s Kindle was the first to deal almost exclusively with books that have DRM, and they claim they’ve had almost no complaints from customers. But that was when they were one of the only e-Reader out there.
Many authors and readers describe problems caused by DRM software. This solution punishes customers more that pirates. Once you download a book to your eReader that’s where it stays. You can’t transfer to your laptop, or phone, etc.
“DRM doesn’t work. It only takes one person to strip the DRM from an eBook to make it available to millions, but it also prevents legitimate customers from using the book they way they want to. Unfortunately not all book publishers have learned from the music industry’s DRM failures.” Publishers Fear eBook Piracy, But Shouldn’t by Ernesto at TorrentFreak
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The Delayed eBook Releases Solution
This does nothing to stop piracy, as they have been pirating from hardcover books for decades. And when the pirated e-version hits the web before the publisher’s version you have a lot of PO’d customers who wanted to stock their eReaders honestly, but were denied the chance. This delay tactic actually costs the houses and authors a lot of money, because a good portion of those who download the unauthorized version would have paid if the eBook had been made available honestly.
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The Electronic Refusal Solution
I can’t count how many places I’ve read this story across the net, because it’s so typical of pirating. Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, refuses to offer her books in digital format because of the ease of pirating.
So guess what? Each of her books in the series is digitally available, either pirated, or transcribed by the loving fans she is denying, but all unauthorized. Google “download Harry Potter ebook” and you’ll get an extensive list (over 1,860,000 results), some even bragging, such as thepiratebay.org.
“Authors who are holding out against publishing e-books due to piracy concerns, such as J.K. Rowling, need to get over themselves. They are doing far more to promote piracy by not offering legitimate versions of their books than they are to prevent it.” So says Chris Meadows, E-book Piracy Keeping Pace With eBook Popularity
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The Hunt ‘em Down Solution
Author, Harlan Ellison, famous for this quote, “If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump,” filed the first internet piracy lawsuit. He has since filed 240 more suits, including Star Trek. But do any of us really want to walk this path?
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Let’s Address the Real Problem
I’ll end with the man who led us to wrap our heads around electronic publishing’s reader’s rights, science fiction writer Cory Doctorow. The wise and outspoken Mr. Doctorow, who makes an effort to give away as much content as possible, sums up the real problems in this manifesto.
“There’s a dangerous group of anti-copyright activists out there who pose a clear and present danger to the future of authors and publishing. They have no respect for property or laws. What’s more, they’re powerful and organized, and have the ears of lawmakers and the press.
“I’m speaking, of course, of the legal departments at ebook publishers.
“These people don’t believe in copyright law. Copyright law says that when you buy a book, you own it. You can give it away, you can lend it, you can pass it on to your descendants or donate it to the local homeless shelter. Owning books has been around for longer than publishing books has…
“…they say that when you “buy” an eBook, you’re really only licensing that book, and that copyright law is superseded by the thousands of farcical, abusive words in the license agreement you click through on the way to sealing the deal. (Of course, the button on their website says, “Buy this book).”
Read Cory’s entire manifesto
See All the Posts in the Series
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Want Comments on Your Images? Are You Sure?
By · CommentsBy Sarah Schoenfeld
Comments and critiques have been on my mind lately. I’m on the Imagekind.com forum often, and there are usually two or three posts from artists each day, asking what the rest of us think of their work. Most of them are new either to art or selling their art online.
Comments, though, are not a simple thing. Some artists like straightforward feedback and opinions on their work; both for the eyeballs and attention, and because they want to grow and improve their artwork.
I’m in this group. To me, the most important thing is a final image that is the best it can be, accomplishes its purpose and is consistent with the rest of my work. I’m analytical and goal-driven, and have somewhat developed the knack of separating myself from my images and evaluating how they compare to others. I have learned from suggestions and am grateful for the help I’ve gotten.
However, I know and respect many talented artists who are emotionally close to their work and see no reason to separate from it. For them, the most important thing is creating art that is uniquely theirs and expresses their vision. They don’t need or want any criticism. Their work is an intensely personal part of them. They enjoy positive feedback, but criticism to them feels like criticism of their very self.
There are contrasting ideas on giving feedback, too. Some people are only comfortable offering positive, encouraging remarks, while others will happily give their honest opinions.
In fact, some are just a little too honest… such as the gardener who looked at my photograph of a rose, and said “it makes me want to vomit.” I was shocked at the time, but learned a good lesson about considering the subject as well as the light. Because beautiful backlighting doesn’t make up for an unattractive subject like a faded, wilted, torn cabbage rose. So find a pretty rose instead.
And when you ask, “please tell me what you think of my work,” be careful what you ask for, you might get it…
But wait… there’s more. In response to those recent requests for opinions and critiques, the Online Visual Artists community will be presenting an online panel event. Interested artists will be able to receive thoughtful, constructive feedback on their art, in a marketing context.
It’s planned for March 13 at 11:00am PST. I will be on the panel, along with several other serious/professional OVA artists.
The Basics:
- Limited to 6 artists. First come, first served.
- Requests will be accepted between 11am and 2pm, unless 6 valid requests are reached before 2pm.
- Requesting artists must be an OVA member or join. (Membership is free, but each is individually approved. I suggest joining ahead of time.)
- Each artist can ask for ONE of the following:
- Feedback on salability or appeal of one or two images.
- Feedback on a body of work as a whole.
- Prices on art displayed in online gallery.
Watch this OVA discussion for more details.
Sarah Schoenfeld founded Online Visual Artists in 2007 to support and promote the online marketing of visual art. OVA has grown into a friendly, welcoming and helpful community of serious and professional artists. OVA members share their experiences, feedback, and opinions on various art-related websites with other member artists, as well as marketing tips and advice.
Sarah is also a dedicated fine art and marketing photographer, owner of Doc Pixel Photography. Her commercial work includes products, architecture, real estate and pet portraiture, and her fine art subjects of choice are pets, florals, and the water’s edge.
All images in this article are copyright Sarah Schoenfeld and may not be used for any purpose without permission.
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