Photographers who are searching for a professional quality online and on demand fine art print service finally have an answer: ImageKind.
The Imagekind website fills a previous void of a professional quality service, yes there were others which were good enough to print the point and shoot amateur shutterbug’s last vacation shots from the Grand Canyon.
The emphasis is on high quality fine art museum quality giclee prints and framing. Imagekind’s partnering with Flickr may sabotage this business plan but more on that later.
Imagekind Account And Printing Features
ImageKind has a simple but elegant Web 2.0 look and features with the ability to add friends, comment and rate other member’s photographs.
The basic account is free which allows 200MB monthly bandwidth, one gallery with up to 24 images and is a good way to test out the site’s features.
Upgrading is of course a breeze at $7.99/month for Pro and $11.99/month ($94.99 when pre-paid for a year) for Platinum membership.
There is an option to watermark the uploaded images which is surrounded with controversy.
What is more important: protecting an image from being copied and possibly reproduced or providing an unobstructed viewing experience for the potential buyer?
The maximum dimension of the display image is 650 pixels and Imagekind does address this issue head on: printed at 300 dpi it would yield to a rather small 2″x2″ print so Imagekind is doing as much protection of the images without watermarks as possible but ultimately watermarking is the photographer’s choice.
Watermarking is not fool proof and it is just like any insurance, it is a seemingly unnecessary, costly burden until needed.
There are different rules for a gallery display and for an internet store front. Watermarking in a gallery would make no sense, watermarking on the internet has its place.
If a photograph is very high quality truly unique piece of art and is likely to be copied, reprinted and sold for substantial profit then watermarking makes sense offering some protection.
The definition of “very high quality truly unique piece of art” is subjective to say the least and it is often comical what photographers deem fine art when it comes to categorizing their own creations.
Once an image is watermarked on Imagekind the only way to remove the watermark is to upload an other image without the watermark, same process applies when wishing to place watermark on an already uploaded photograph which does not have it.
Depending on the dimension (not file size) of the uploaded image these are the Imagekind print options:
10.00 x 8.00 Petite - ONE side must be AT LEAST 800 pixels
16.00 x 11.00 Small - ONE side must be AT LEAST 1,100 pixels
24.00 x 16.00 Medium - ONE side must be AT LEAST 2,400 pixels
32.00 x 24.00 Large - ONE side must be AT LEAST 3,200 pixels
48.00 x 36.00 Grande - ONE side must be AT LEAST 3,600 pixels
60.00 x 44.00 Massive - ONE side must be AT LEAST 6,000 pixels
The recommended resolution is 300 dpi. The file types accepted are: TIFF and JPEG. More or different file type options would be a welcomed feature.
Making Money On Imagekind
Another often debated topic is the potential to make money on Imagekind more precisely how much and using what methods.
Imagekind never claimed to be in the business of internet marketing, they make money from membership fees, giclee prints and framing.
ImageKind offers flashy eye catching promotional item displays called Scrolling Banner and Grid Banner which can be very useful in marketing.
Imagekind also has an affiliate program so it is possible for anyone to sell any fine art print found on Imagekind and earning a pretty nice 20% commission on the item’s base price.
Imagekind being a large and popular website ensures that Google and other search engines crawl its pages often so by naming the photos descriptively and including text content (i.e. photo caption) can enhance chances of being included in search results to increase traffic.
But the rest of the promotion is up to the individual photographer. Some blame Imagekind for not doing even more spite that the promotional links and the affiliate program are available.
Asking for more marketing assistance from Imagekind sounds a bit like asking for a handout. Some photographers probably wish to just upload their fine art masterpieces, sit back and watch the money pour in, but as we know the internet does not work that way.
The photographer is the one who decides the mark up for each print so the profit margin is up to the artist (or Flickr member). Photo framing is a great extra option and often cost more than the print itself which is a bit strange to some members.
What some Imagekind members are not happy about is that when a frame is sold with their photographs they only receive 15% commission on the picture framing. It does feel like a very low percentage and Imagekind has been leaving a bad taste in some members’ mouth from the start.
At this time for professional on demand fine art photography printing (undoubtedly a great niche to dominate) Imagekind is the hottest new thing so they do enjoy some benefits of being a monopoly. Therefore dissatisfied members do not have many other alternatives of the same quality printing company especially without upfront cost.
Ways To Promote An Imagekind Store
Good: use Imagekind link as often as possible:
i.e. http:// yourusername.imagekind .com
Better: use HTML link with anchor text i.e.:
Good: place Imagekind link in email signatures
Better: email friends, family, co-workers, business contacts, other blogger friends introducing your store like a proud parent would announce a newborn; also send affiliate link in case they decide to purchase from someone else (include link in newsletter if applicable)
Good: place an Imagekind link on your blog, website or social networking page (i.e. MySpace, Xanga, Facebook, etc.)
Better: write posts about your photos with plenty of text content in your blog, website or social networking page (featuring one photo or one category/album per post) and link from those posts to Imagekind with anchor text
Good: send out MySpace bulletins and post MySpace comments using Imagekind link with anchor text
Better: create (and save for repeated use) a bulletin/comment template using HTML including 1-5 small samples of the most eye catching photos plus a simple store opening announcement and a link to Imagekind with anchor text;
after the initial store opening promotion campaign more update bulletins/comments can be sent out when new photographs or albums are added to Imagekind
Best: same as above but use a MySpace Friend Adder Bot Software to collect 100’s or 1000’s of industry related relevant MySpace friends; then using the same software automatically send out bulletins and comments to all your friends (they are all interested in photography) at regular intervals with one click of the mouse
Imagekind - Flickr Fiasco
ImageKind recently started a collaboration with Flickr which in turn resulted in a backlash from current Imagekind members.
The seemingly valid argument is that anyone who has visited Flickr can see the majority of the photos there are not what anyone would consider fine art photography, some are but most are not.
Allowing Flickr members to easily get an Imagekind account using their Flickr logon and add their images could flood Imagekind with potentially millions of amateur snapshots. This could dilute the Imagekind browsing experience, could hurt the reputation of Imagekind (offering presumed high quality products) and could possibly affect the sales of existing or future professional Imagekind members.
If Imagekind is in the on demand printing business solely for making money without being concerned to offer only quality products and without catering to their professional artistic community the Flickr integration is a risky shortcut which can easily backfire.
Just cannot have it both ways. Either sell Geo Metros or Bentleys.
This is not an anti Flickr article, Flickr serves a great purpose it just does not make any sense (maybe makes dollars and sense) to mix high quality so called fine art photographs with photos from Flickr.
Let’s do a fictitious Imagekind search before and after Flickr integration. For example a search for Alaska.
Before Flickr integration the search result shows relevant high quality fine art prints and a few weaker efforts by amateur Imagekind members.
After Flicker integration the search result shows a huge number of amateur snapshots mostly from Flickr with some relevant high quality prints mixed up in between.
One could argue that the museum quality fine art prints will surely stand out from the sea of Flickr results and ensure a sale for the professional photographer. But considering the short attention span of the average web surfer and the first impression of mostly low quality search results that potential sale is not as certain.
The example Imagekind search for “Alaska” at the time of this post already showed Flickr results on the first page and all of them are missing the thumbnail preview saying: “This photo is currently Unavailable”.
The individual product page has the same glitch, see screens below:
Not the most professional look or most impressive debut for a new feature but it could be just a bug which will be fixed.
Only time will tell if the Flickr integration will hurt ImageKind or not.
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