Taking Stock on Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Blue Green Waves by Joan Kerrigan

I'm happily in Florida this week, surrounded by water over the next couple of days on Marco Island. It's beautiful here and warm enough to be pleasant without being totally overwhelming. Next week, it's back to the real world, but right now, it's sun and fun here and in a couple of days, we're off to Disney.

Taking Stock on Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Granite Alphabet Series by Joan Kerrigan

I'm starting to wonder if the writing is on the wall regarding microstock as a business model. Many posters on the Shutterstock boards are talking about how their sales have stopped increasing and even started decreasing in some instances, regardless of how many uploads they continue to produce.

Personally, my sales are up and down as usual, but are definitely not increasing proportionately to my number of uploads. With the big changes in the industry lately, one has to wonder what is coming next? Fortunately for me, microstock is still a hobby and not our living.

Stolen Images in Microstock

Grape Spin by Joan Kerrigan

A huge scandal erupted this weekend at Dreamstime when it was discovered that a contributor had uploaded 1200 images since February that were mostly stolen from other microstockers. His portfolio was then discovered at several other stock sites. It took a seemingly long time to suspend the offending accounts and victims were justifiably upset. It takes a lot of gall to steal something and then turn around and sell it in the same marketplace that you stole it from.

So far, I have never found my images in any of these incidents. My work is never a best seller and since it doesn't show up in the top 50 lists, is unlikely to be stolen. But the potential for this kind of theft is huge since reviewers don't always recognize stolen images. It's certainly something to keep an eye on and be aware of.

Lucky Oliver Dies

Cartoon Turtle by Joan Kerrigan

It finally happened; Lucky Oliver has died. The announcement came 2 days ago and tokens can be used up to May 15. I pulled my portfolio last month, following a lot of other contributors who also saw few if any sales. I don't know what happened to the business plan but I suspect the founder underestimated the advertising and marketing needs that are required for a business of this type.

I drew this turtle with my daughter in mind because she likes turtles and she really likes "awkward turtles" which has some kind of strange inside joke to it. I couldn't explain it if I wanted to. Regardless, the Lucky Oliver fiasco is kind of like this turtle: awkward.

Taking Stock on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Funky Alphabet Series: Aa

As promised, here is the first of the Funky Alphabet and Number Series. This was a fun series to do as it is so bright, retro and rainbow colored. Can't ask for anything more! This series is available at Shutterstock, Dreamstime and now my newest stock site, StockXpert.

Taking Stock on Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Sunflower Alphabet Series

This is my latest interest in microstock: alphabets of all different kinds. I'm enjoying the creativity that creating a font entails but the implementation of it and finishing all the letters, numbers and symbols is a little draining. The Sunflower series doesn't have lower case letters but my next couple of fonts do. I'll post more of them from Dreamstime if they are accepted there or from Shutterstock if not.

A Gathering Storm

Birch and Maple Trees by Takeyce Walter

Vivid colors infuse this picture with light and beauty even as a storm gathers in the background. Takeyce Walter has painted a series of these birch and maple trees and made prints available at Imagekind. Each image is equally striking and I had trouble choosing which one to feature. Prints start at $18.49 and go up with size. It can also be custom matted and framed for a complete ready-to-hang package.

Back to Microstock

Celtic Knot

copyright © Joan Kerrigan

After the first quarter of 2008 and zero sales in the ImageKind/RedBubble arena, I've decided to focus more on microstock. Although I have cancelled out of Lucky Oliver, I am getting regular paychecks from Shutterstock and Dreamstime. I've also been focusing on vector designs rather than fractals. I'm not giving up on them but vectors sell better, and they're really fun to create.