Shoot
I don’t get a lot of time watching the programs that bring the more ‘entertaining’ and fun news. Not necessarily the news that has to do with celebrities, but just the fun and light hearted news and subjects. But now that I’m at home sick (with my arthritis once again, but trying new medication now) I have some time to scoop out the latest fun news.
One of those programs brought an item about Sjootz.nl (pronounced shoots, website is in Dutch). This is a website where (amateur) photographers can open an free store to sell their photographs. You make money by selling copies or by letting others download your photo. They watermark your photos for you so they can’t be used without permission. It all seems really good, of course you have to give some percentage of the money you make to the website.
The way the bring it makes it sound good. They see a commission on a photo for 10 cents, you want to sell a photo for 1 Euro, your profit on this photo is 90 cents. Sjoots will pay 85 % of the 90 cents (your profit) and keep the 15 % themselves. Which in this case leaves you with 77 cents per photo.
All in all that does sound tempting. But when I look a little further it says they will only pay you when you have made 25 Euro or more and that’s what raises questions with me. I can understand they have to go for a certain minimum to make it worth it, but what if I never reach 25 Euro, will I never get that money? And what about the rights of my photographs, will I keep the rights myself, or will I somehow wave away (some) of my rights by uploading my photos there?
There is a lot of information about your rights on their website, but they use so many legal terms that it makes my head spin. I have to give away some of my rights to them but it’s not clear when reading through it what those rights mean exactly. I’ll be able to find out if I search online but it should be clear to anyone who wants to use the site what exactly they’re giving up or allowing to happen to their photos.
It sounds so great to have a site that sells your photos for you. That doesn’t take away a very big cut of the sales and seems to have some good media coverage so it’s ‘out there’. But for some reason it doesn’t drag me in right away, not until I know more about the rights I keep and give away and how things are arranged if I never sell more than 10 Euro worth of photos.
Of course I don’t doubt their intentions for creating a website to allow amateur photographers to sell their photographs and reach a larger crowd that might want to buy their photos. But for me, I just have to know what happens to my work and money first before I allow anyone to ‘mess’ with that. So for now I’ll just follow from afar what this website is doing and how things are handled and then decide whether or not to open an account with them. And if anyone is ever interested in any of my photos and would like to order a copy they can just contact me, it’s always negotiable…
3 Comments on "Shoot"
Thanks for visiting my site!
That photography website does sound quite interesting, even though it’s not really my kind of thing. 
Thanks for letting me know about the link Luke, it’s fixed now.
Leave a comment
Before you post be aware that first-time commenters are moderated and anonymous comments will be deleted.
The website sounds like an interesting concept . Although either the link you provided is incorrect or the website is currently down . I got an address not found era when I clicked on the above link. When I get the chance I will have a look thou some of your other entries .