Business Software Recommendation

[Charles Putnam]

Two of the questions that seem to come up a lot (here and on an unmentionable site... ) pricing and contracts. There's a program called Blinkbid (www.blinkbid.com) that I've been using for a number of years that's kept me out of hot water. I had read about it in one of the first issues of Digital Photo Pro magazine.

It can help not only to give a written proposal, but also allows you to customize a contract that clearly sets out the usage rights so that everyone is happy.

[Sonny]

what is the cost of blinkbid photography?

[Charles Putnam]

If I recall, it was $89 ($39 if you were upgrading). I've been using it since version 2.

[Steelsun]

There's also Photobyte at http://zimberoff.com/photobyte.htm
It's free, but they reccomend that you buy the book that shows how to use it and operate a photo business.
It does full studio and stock record keeping. It's a pain to learn, but is supposed to be excellant once you do.

I need to DL it again and try it out (last time I quit to quickly and just used excel)

[Charles Putnam]

I tried PhotoByte and then opted for Blinkbid. The one thing that I've found Blinkbid does really well (and easily, compared to PhotoByte) is customizing a contract.

As Steelsun noted, Photobite does an excellent job at keeping track of your stock photos. If you do a lot of stock photography, this is one way to keep track of profitable images.