Selling wallpaper?

Photog4Christ · July 8, 2010

I was thinking of making some Windows wallpaper (desktop background) packs and selling them for a small price ($5?). Do you think people will really pay to download a pack of wallpaper, especially when there's tons of sites with free wallpaper downloads??

Thoughts??

Thank you

Photog4Christ · July 8, 2010

Wow! 43 views and no comments. If it's a bad idea, just say so.

CWSkopec · July 9, 2010

It's an interesting idea. I myself toyed with the idea of a free wallpaper gallery as well as offering free month calendars through my blog. Both were more aimed at making sure people came back to my site again and again and hopefully make the money through eventual print sales rather than the immediate pay off.

In the end, I just didn't continue either. I quickly realized that I just didn't have the memory to get a monthly calendar wallpaper done on time each month and I haven't heard a peep since the free wallpaper gallery was taken out of public view on my website. In other words, neither idea really lived up to expectations but I don't blame the idea themselves, I just don't think my website gets enough traffic/following yet for either of those ideas to really pay dividends.

If you've got decent traffic and a good following, you may be able to make a few dollars. Especially considering that you could put a wallpaper pack together in an hour or two and have it for sale from now through the end of time if you liked. The risk/reward ratio greatly favors the reward, if it's a bust, you only really lost 2 hours.

Trey Radcliff over at Stuck in Customs offers iPad/iPhone wallpapers for a small charge.

And David duChemin over at Pixelated Image offers the monthly calendar wallpapers I fashioned my own after (for their brief run).

Just some general thoughts on the subject. Hope something in my ramblings helps!

Malte · July 9, 2010

I would probably not pay for wallpapers just on their own, but as a value-add for someone who is already buying prints or downloads, this would be awesome. Or it could serve as a promotional flyer, free but with your logo in the corner.

Malte

Photog4Christ · July 9, 2010

Chris:

I don't have a huge following and I'm certainly not Trey.

I originally thought I would make the wallpaper available on a "set your own price" basis. If I had the files on my server and a "PayPal Donate" button to allow the download to occur, but I would have to set a minimum of $5 because any less would be counter productive (because of PayPal fees, etc...).

e-junkie is a possible solution. e-junkie will create one time use download links. Once the link is used, then it's not available again. e-junkie is (a minimum of) $5/month. So, I would have to sell at least two downloads per month just to make a profit.

Malte:

Yeah, ** I ** wouldn't pay for wallpapers either, especially since there are so many free wallpaper sites. I just thought this would be a good way to make some extra $$. If I paid money for the wallpapers, then I wouldn't expect there to be a watermark. If I made them available for free, then I would watermark them.

deb22 · July 11, 2010

Do it
I think you should do it, I don't know how many sites you surf but people actually buy lots of these downloads. The one time use is what I am seeing on these other sites so I think that is the way to go and let them pay the small fee each time they want to change, I don't think a pack is cost effective as you want them to come back to you more often and once they get one they are apt to go to the same place for the next. Good luck

Selling wallpaper?

Comments