Comments on Making a Mark: Imagekind - why I'm looking for an alternative pri...

I have a Red Bubble account. From all the sites th...

2009-07-21T14:43:50.272+01:00

I have a Red Bubble account. From all the sites that I participate, Red Bubble is the best. It instantly gets you engaged with fellow artists. Your work will be viewed since it gets chance to be displayed at the front page of "Recent" work.

Interesting write up, Katherine. I've had a free g...

2009-07-21T01:33:24.608+01:00

Interesting write up, Katherine. I've had a free gallery with Imagekind since Feb. of this year. I chose the freebie to test the waters, so to speak. Plenty of lookers, not many buyers. I've purchased both prints and greeting cards from my own gallery and I couldn't be happier with their quality. I was unaware that shipping outside of the U.S. was so terribly high, though. That's got to cut into sales.

I also had no idea there was such a difference in traffic among these sites. I figured they were all probably about the same.

After signing up with Imagekind in 2007, I also fo...

2009-07-20T19:00:39.896+01:00

After signing up with Imagekind in 2007, I also found Redbubble in Australia, and Zazzle in the US, and signed up with them as well.

They are both free, and provide good quality prints of your work. There are several UK artists on Redbubble, and I believe they opened up an office in London this year. Redbubble has a very vibrant, caring community of artists and photographers.

Worth checking out as there is no up front cost to getting your work printed, and then having to re-sell the prints, unless you want to. Customers that you direct to the site pay the cost of production and shipping on as few as one print, and you get a commission. Both offer discounts if the artist buys their own prints.

As well there are no limits as to how many products (prints) that an artist can upload which I feel is a huge bonus.

Katherine, the alternative to Imagekind is the ver...

2009-07-20T16:51:31.061+01:00

Katherine, the alternative to Imagekind is the very good printer around next door who is eager to do the job better in quality and price.

I bet that you will find at least half a dozend printers in London which can do the job.
Of course the handling then will be all yours!

I would keep IK as standby for the odd US sale and use local printers for your home market.

Well I've started to check out some of the alterna...

2009-07-20T14:17:25.321+01:00

Well I've started to check out some of the alternatives and some of their ways of doing things are very different!

It is this kind of first-hand experience and thoro...

2009-07-20T13:39:31.354+01:00

It is this kind of first-hand experience and thorough investigation that I look for when trying to make an informed decision about such things, and I am sure your frank discussion of the matter will be of benefit to many artists.

I took a look at Imagekind early on and played around with their interface and even ordered a print from my "private" (free) gallery. I really had no quarrel with the quality of the product I ordered, but in the end, I tabled the idea. I just wasn't comfortable with some of their policies. For instance, I think it was a bad decision on Imagekind's part not to allow the artist total control over the type of prints offered in terms of paper type, size, substrate, etc. I and other artists have expressed this to IK several times over the years but last I checked they still had the issue "under advisement."

And all of this was before the Associates Program you described, which I agree seems outrageous. I wonder how hard it is to be a profitable POD company that offers the artist complete control over the use of their image, as well as total order fulfillment at a reasonable price. Does such an outlet exist? Of course, that's not all it would take to make the enterprise a success for the artist, but at least it's a start.

Yes I noticed all the caveats you mentioned. Am de...

2009-07-20T13:33:27.698+01:00

Yes I noticed all the caveats you mentioned. Am definitely interested in finding alternatives as well.