Have you ever sold your digital image?

[terrijo]

I have a client who wants an office group photo to use for advertisements and Christmas/Birthday Cards. They want to purchase the original image. I'm looking for some suggestions on price of that image. I don't want to charge too much, but don't want to give it away either.

The Company is a franchise, Kleen Rite Carpet Cleaning. They aren't a multi-million dollar company...

Thank you in advance for your input.

Terri

[jfrancho]

Go price out a comparable image/size/distribution at Alamy. Your price should be similar.

[Mike Panic]

you need to think about it for a minute... they want exclusive redistrobution rights to your work... that means, they can use it to promote their company for years and you are only geting paid once.

id consider doing some sort of limited time license for it... say $xxx for a period of 12 months and then renogiate it after that.

[nevilleb]

Yes, several times.

There are several on-line stock calculators on the net. Take it from there.

for a long term solution, invest in something like fotoquote.

nevilleb

[jeff_b]

This is great opportunity to educate your client. Sometimes giving them a high price for what you don't want to sell them will help them understand why they should buy the product that you really want to sell to them.

Do they really need to own the copyright to this image? Probably not. They will likely use it for a year and then it will become too dated as employees turnover and people age. Offer a lower price for exclusive 1 year usage of the image. Make the outright purchase of the image rights too expensive for them and the 1 year use suddenly becomes very appealing.

Final price? That is up to you. You must factor in all the variables of your business expenses. Do not undercut yourself on pricing. Giving someone a bargain today is nice for them, but if they do come back as repeat business you cannot continue to give discounts. Set the price bar the first time around and stick with it. You can't charge a nickel for something today and expect someone to comeback tomorrow and pay a dollar for the same thing. Make them understand why it is worth a dollar today.

Look at how they will use the image. Are they going to use it in phone book ads and newsprint ads? You are a piece of a larger puzzle here. How much are they paying in total for this advertising campaign? Call the newpaper and find out how much the ads will cost. What percentage of the total is your contribution worth?