"finding" images to use

I have talked about how to find material but I have a new suggestion that I want to put out there. People seem to spend alot of time and effort trying to find images online. People! Images found on the internet are RARELY legal to use on something you sell. Making sure that it is might be more hassle than its worth.

Often the images I see people wanting are things like backgrounds (trees, water, a fountain, clouds, a rainy day, fog), or something common (a dog, a horse, a flower, a street sign). Sometimes its even something local like a landmark or tourist attraction near them. Of course any serious entrepreneur in this business MUST have a digital camera and/or a scanner. And they MUST have their camera with them always. But you probably already know that I rarely bother talking to the serious entrepreneurs. So lets continue talking to the rest of us. :)

Now I know that specifically going out and trying to get those shots is a pain. But consider this.. Dont you have a throw-away camera in the car? You are supposed to. I think that all insurance companies and the police say that you should keep one in the car in case of an accident. Then they warn not to keep it there for years without replacing it.

Well here is what Ive found. While waiting someplace or running errands I will see a perfect item. A mossy rock, or a sunset, or a pile of dog ****. I can go to my car, get the camera and snap it (and immeadiately ask permission to use it if I need to). When the camera is half full (dont want it to get all full) I will replace it. They are cheap. Then I get the images developed. You can now get the images as computer images on a CD! Or you can take them to local businesses like Kinkos or Staples and get them scanned.

Ive even seen someone doodling some cartoony art, or selling some homemade mugs with monster faces, and gotten some great stuff for use that way. Of course, you must ask to use their work and might want to get them to sign something in your idea notebook (you carry one of THOSE dont you?!?) just to cover yourself. But its still pretty easy and a great way to get more material. And its material which no one else has and you dont have to worry about CUP violations.

Gandalf Parker

Free Copyright?

There are different levels. But of course the only thing equal to a copyright, is a copyright.

People say that the "poor mans copyright" is no longer a workable
thing. That was the common suggestion of putting your idea in an envelope
and mailing to yourself, then never opening that envelope. True, it does
not take the place of a real copyright but that does not make it worthless
either.

Actually there are cases where it was accepted as "evidence" but none I
know of where it was accepted as "proof". My last major gig was sysadmin
for a law firm that become owner of an ISP. I got to hear a lot of
interesting discussions. Especially about internet things.

Its one of many methods that a person can show that they at least tried to
lock it down. Its better than just saying that its yours, or getting
friends to testify that they saw it in your scribble pad. But its
considered far from being a replacement for copyright. Variations include:
paying a couple bucks to get it notarized, putting it in a bank lock box
and never visiting it again as their logs can verify, giving it to a
lawyer to keep in their vault, including it as part of your "legacy" so
that its included with your will and other papers that you might already
be paying a lawyer to verify time/date then store untouched by court
standards. And of course, copyright. Also many of those can be grouped
together.

The end result is that like many things, there is a scale of how firm a
result you will get based on a sliding scale of how much money and effort
you want to put into it. The "mail it to yourself" is probably the easiest
and cheapest, therefore the least effective. Not worthless, but basically
its about 39 cents worth of protection.

Gandalf Parker
--
If I knew more about what I was talking about I could charge more for my help.
What am I charging now? Oh this was for free.

How can I offer personalized shirts to my customers? (part one)

Offering personalized shirts to customers is on many shops. And there are shops I WISH did more of it. Instead of offering the same image in 100 ways, or every version of a zodiac sign on every item, or every state, or an entire shop for each letter of the alphabet in order to become the monogram king of CafePress.. please look into offering individual designs as they are needed by people willing to buy them first. We will all benefit from less load.

Anyway, if you just want to offer it for your customers then the easiest way is to get an affiliate ID for your shop, then direct them to the CafePress customize page with your ID so you can get 20%. So if my OddThotz shop got an affiliate ID (pid) assigned of 2837642
then I could have a link on my shop for "design your OWN shirt" and send them to www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/ with my pid which would make the link be
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/customize/?pid=2837642

The next easiest way is to just say "if you need a variation to one of these, or a personalized version, then email me with your request". Such as this one at JCA_Designs.
http://www.cafepress.com/cr9245_custom?pid=2837642
You get abit more control over things like the use of your shirt images, and pricing. Also, you get to see the persons design ideas so possibly you would want to include an "ideas belong to me" disclaimer so that you can put good ideas into the public-sales portion of your shop. For items that are too personalized for public offer you can place it in a hidden section of your shop then email the person back with the link. They will be able to purchase the item even though no one else can browse that section. You also want to avoid the temptation to add tags to that design.

A more involved method would be an online form. Something which has specific blocks to fill in that will help less creative customers to figure out what they want. Such as having a block to fill in that says "what text do you want" and another that says "what image do you want". Also something that says "what item should it be on" and "what color should the text be". Adding a form to a CafePress shop can be done by javascript such as MegaCreations has done at http://www.cafepress.com/megacreations/636266?pid=2837642
Or like most things that you can add to a web page, there are sites which specialize in making this possible. Such as thru myContactForm.com and you can see an example of that at the Kat_House
http://www.cafepress.com/kat_house/669804?pid=2837642

Of couse then everyone jumps to the thought of "how about offering drop down menus with choices of my image and choices of fonts and ...." which is great thinking (and part two of this conversation)

Gandalf Parker