Last week, just after I posted the initial message on this topic, I e-mailed an informal survey to 40 of my "best" clients: folks with whom I have done a lot of business over the past 5 years and whom I would term are "heavy users" of my services both at shows, in terms of reprints and for pet portraits.

The results of that survey (while not scientific) are certainly interesting:

I received responses from 20 of the people I sent it to for a 50% response rate;

On the question of would you prefer to receive a file or a print, 47% of the respondents preferred a hi-rez file; 35% preferred receiving a print; 18% said they'd like to get both.

For those who said they would like to receive a file, most would be willing to pay more for full usage rights with the target price of $30 getting more votes than $50 (my print price is $25).

Also, for those preferring a file, the respondents were pretty evenly split between receiving it via e-mail and receiving a CD although most of the respondents would like to receive it both ways.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the survey is the amount of discussion it inspired. Almost everyone confessed that they simply scanned the print they receive now and use it on their websites and to make additional prints. Nobody had any idea of what usage rights were and they were shocked that web usage was not "included" in my original print.

I had a lot of dialogue with a person who is a webmaster and she vehemently disagreed with not being able to copy prints. When I told her about the pirated image that had found its way to the dog owner's website who had not paid for the image, she suddenly understood the issues. Later that day I received an e-mail asking if she could post another image from the Rottie National and I sent her the file with a little note that said "now, wasn't that easy?" She agreed that it was.

Some of the notes ranged from the sublime (why not a print and a web-quality file) to the ridiculous (I'd like unlimited usage rights to the print included in the $25 price). But it was a valuable exercise even if all it did was educate 40 people.

I promised to post the results. I found them interesting.

Jim