Adobe and Stock Vectors

There are many new companies who fail to become a prominent stock agencies. There are not without reasons why they fail. They do not have technology, marketing, commitment, and people. And to cut it short, they simply don't have the money to do it.

Apple is great. Steve Job is one in a billion. Just look at Apple, they are not just a computer or mobile manufacturers. They make money from various type of businesses. They sell music, games, and softwares as well. They don't develop games and software applications themselves, they let people like us to do it. They take royalties from iPhone App Stores and Mac App Stores. This is exactly the same scenario as what we have at Shutterstock, IStockPhoto, Fotolia, Dreamstime, and GraphicRiver.

Now why Adobe don't want to do this type of business? Why Adobe don't want to become a stock agencies for vector and photo? They have the money and already have the brand name. If Adobe cannot do it, no one else can. The market for stock vectors and agencies is still very big. Simply ask any of your friends who are a graphic designers about Shutterstock and IStockPhoto, they probably have not heard about them. This is not a saturated market.

Adobe is the most well known graphic technology in the world. I suggest Adobe to have a store for contributors like us to submit our vectors and photos there. Is just easy for them to market this. Can you imagine for every Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshops that we are using will have a small button on top of the tool bar that says "Sell this artwork?".

I truly believe Adobe can takeover the whole market of stock agencies easily. The world is changing. If Adobe just want to brand themselves as a Software Companies forever, then I must say they are retro.

Adobe, please become our stock agencies.

I have write an enhancement request to Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/bin/webfeedback.cgi to suggest them to become a stock agencies for us. Below is how it sounds like.

Hello Adobe, 

I have a suggestion. Can you please become a stock agency like IStockPhoto.com, Shutterstock.com, or Fotolia.com?

I have write a blog entry about this at http://sellingvector.blogspot.com/2011/01/adobe-and-stock-vectors.html to request Adobe to become a Stock Agency.

Hope you will consider my suggestion.

If you want Adobe to become a stock agency, please write a suggestion to them as well :)

Thanks.

7 Reasons Not to Hire People to do Vector Stock For You

1. Return of investment. 

You may not get back what you have invested from the person you hired. The reason being is because a stock vector may not sell at the end of the day or at worst, gets rejected. Here is an example of what you will get per vector depending on the quality of the vector. Bear in mind all of the figures below are just estimations and may not be accurate at all.

An antique abacus vector.
Skills required: Average.
Production time: 3 hours.
Earning after first 6 months: $1.00
Hiring a freelance to create: $50.00.

100 road sign vector.
Skills required: Average
Production time: 10 days.
Earning after 6 months: $50.00.
Hiring  a freelance to create: $500.00

2. Management.

Hiring someone means you have to look into his work to ensure that there is quality control. You also need to have discussion (waste of time) with him and sometimes you have to look at his angry face when you comment on his works. This is called management. And managements means more investment.

3. Potential of infringement.

How do you know that a vector he produced are not stolen from somewhere else? Will you check? There are millions of vector out there and most are free. Bear in mind that this is a very serious offend if your portfolio contains a copied of others people work. You may get your whole account banned for just 1 vector.

4. He may become your competitor.

Now, isn't that something common and shouldn't be a concern? Yes, it is common if you are in car repair industry, hair dressing, or software house, but vector stock industry is different. Imagine your portfolio is popular with seamless pattern design, and this guy who has been working for you has learned all the necessary skills to produce back the similar, but better vectors. He may soon start a new portfolio that competes with you on the same category. You have to understand that you have no advantage in this because buyers don't really care much about your reputation, nor do they have emotional attachment with you.

5. He can do it too.

When you are making a lot of money from him, he will sooner or later realize that he can do this on his own. This will happen a lot sooner than you can expect.You must understand that anyone with illustration skills can do this on his own. All he need is a computer, a software, and some keywording skills. Nothing more, right? This is not an industry whereby you need a lot of resources to start.

6. He may moonlight from you.

What's stopping him from producing higher quality vector for his own portfolio, and producing lower quality one for you? 

7. You learn less.

On a technical side, you will be spending a lot of time managing your workers. Will you still have time sharpening your skills on illustration? Afterall, the most important aspect in this industry is your illustration skills.

The above reasons make sense if you applied it on vector stock. However, if you are in stock photography, then the above 7 reasons do not applied anymore. The overhead to become a big and successful stock photography contributor is very high. You need cameras, models, studio, photography equipments, and travelling expenses.

Today is the Day

Today is the day that I will start a blog about stock vectors (graphics and illustration), and perhaps a bit of stock photography.

I am a vector illustrator myself and you can view my portfolio at Shutterstock.

I am also buying photos and selling vectors at

IStockPhoto
Dreamstime
Fotolia
GraphicRiver
123rf

This will be the start of a new journey in my life.