Thank you for your interest.
Complete the form below and we will send you an Independent Contractor Agreement to get started.
My company offers PV solar marketing & sales services nationally.
There is a general need for a library of residential solar photographs.
I will send you an Independent Contractor agreement we will both sign so you can get paid a 50% commission from licensing fees for any residential solar photograph you email for the library.
We will take care of distribution of photographs to various outlets to maximize sales.
We are pooling the efforts of multiple photographers to build a library to distribute and earn higher volume commissions. Submit 1 or 100 photos, ongoing opportunity. My estimates are photos can generate $20 - $500 each over a period of time, it just depends on the popularity.
I can barter 10 photographs of 10 residences with no commission in exchange for a $995 enrollment in our Solar Sales Training course. You can take more pictures of each residence as part of the license fee commission split program.
FAQ
* Pictures need to be electronic high resolution using your equipment and ideally appropriate for marketing materials.
Below are the legal requirements to take the picture and avoid copyright issues.
Looking forward to working with you via email on this project.
This project isn’t my main business so email will be the easiest form of communication.
Once we have a group of Independent Contractors, I will organize a conference call for introductions, training, questions.
Rich Hessler, Principal
RichHesslerSolar.com
(714) 840-9786
richhessler@richhesslersolar.com
16522 Regina Cir, #3
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
http://www.photosecrets.com/tips.law.html
Q: What type of pictures do you need?
A: Right now we need photographs of residential PV solar installed on homes so people can see ‘everyone else is doing it’. We can also use other PV solar topics for eye candy including installation work or commercial locations with solar.
Q: Will you pay for permission or for photograph subjects?
A: No, but you’re welcome to do so.
We can offer tickets to our FreeSolarWebinar.org for individuals. We can offer some discounts on solar sales training and solar lead generation setup depending the accommodations offered.
Q: Do I need a release to take the photography?
A: You do not need a release and there are no copyright issues if you take pictures of private buildings from public land.
If you find yourself taking pictures on private property, we can provide a standard release contract.
Q: Are all rights to the photos owned by you—do you do a buyout of the photos from the photographer, or do I sign some sort of “Paid upon sale,” deal. If so, when/how am I paid.
A: Payment is 50% of licensing fees. We provide the distribution. The photographs will be jointly copyrighted per the terms of the Independent Contractor Agreement.
We will send payment using the email you provide via Paypal. Use the following link to setup your account with us. ACCOUNT SETUP We will also maintain a FAQ list on the same page.
We will make payment the 15th of the month for prior month, annually if less than $50 is due. New picture submission distribution occurs bi-monthly by the 5th & 20th.
Q: Can you please explain how you are going to sell the photos?
A: My company is good at online marketing. Try a Google search on Solar Sales Training. If you look closely at the top 50 websites, our product shows up in one form or another in the majority of the slots. In addition, our existing customer base and approximately 20 other outlets will be used to make the photographs available for purchase. It's all about presence and the nice part is the presence stays in place for a long time.
Q: I can get you guys photos for sure, but not for $20.
A: I recommend sticking your toe in the water and not incurring significant expenses on your part. Try 3-5 photographs to start, this is an ongoing opportunity. Keep your eyes open when you're out and about. Use Google Earth Satellite images and scan the rooftops of neighborhoods close to your home. Because solar receives rebates from the state/utility, in some areas we can direct you to tools to identify solar installations easier. If you know of a solar installer, you could arrange to take pictures for them with joint copyright so you can submit the photograph to this project.
The range of $20-$500 depends on the popularity of the photo and time. When we have some photographs from the field, I will be able to provide better revenue projections and may be able to purchase the photographs up front.
The benefit of working with us on this project is we will do the distribution/marketing of the photographs and because most licensing fees are based on volume of licenses sold, pooling our efforts will provide more compensation for everyone. Without a doubt, there is a solar market need for photographs.
Q: I was a little unclear on the compensation details. How exactly does that work?
A: As you get photographs you can FTP them to us. We will make the photographs available for purchase across the internet. Monthly, we will collect the sales results by photograph and send you 50% of the revenue from your photographs. We use Paypal to send money to your valid email address. To collect the money you may need to setup a Paypal account. My Paypal account is linked to my checking account so I can make free withdrawals, you will probably want to do the same.
Q: Do you know about how many hours a week it would require?
A: I don't require any hours per week. Find a solar subject, photography it and FTP it to us. We'll distribute the picture and if it sells we will pay you a 50% commission monthly, unless less than $50 in which case annually.
Q: Is there a typical monthly income that you can estimate?
A: I do not have historical information to estimate a monthly income. If you take a few pictures while keeping track of your time, you'll know when you've made enough money to invest more time and travel for more pictures. i.e. Don't quit your day job.
Q: Please give me some tips on how to find solar residences!
A: Solar Site Identification Tips/Tricks:
- Use http://openpv.nrel.gov/visualization/index to identify general zip codes with many installations. Solar is its own best advertisement and gets installed in clusters.
- Bring an address/zip code up on google/yahoo maps, satellite view. Scan rooftops.
- Pay particular attention to homes with pools, they use alot of electricity. More expensive neighborhoods have more solar PV installed.
- Keep your eyes open when you're driving around and keep a camera with you. You'll be surprised how many solar installations you'll see when you start looking for them. Think of it like a treasure hunt.
- Google: <city, state, county> solar tour map(s)
- Google: <city, state, county> solar installation maps
- Because many solar installations receive rebates from government supported programs, many of those programs have public data on where the money went. http://lacounty.solarmap.org/
- Be aware, it's difficult to tell the difference between PV solar and Thermal solar from satellite images. We can use Thermal pictures too.
- Artistic photographs of solar components could sell.
- 1Solar installations usually are on the South side of buildings for 100% production, West for 95% and East for 90%.
Let me know if you find some other Google terms or tricks that others can use and I will update this list.
Q: What resolution, file types and quality standards are required for the photographs?
A: Image Requirements:
Image Size: 1600 x 1200 pixels or larger. Any file smaller than 1600 x 1200 pixels will be declined. As a rule for image sizes, the bigger the better. We cannot distribute files that have been up-sampled / rezzed up, (increasing the size / dpi to be larger than that of the original file size).
File Formats:
Image: RGB, JPG files only. TIF's, PNG's, PSD's will be declined. CMYK images will also be declined.
Vector / Illustration: When uploading Vector files, one (max) 270x270 preview/thumbnail JPG is required. The source file for Vector/Illustration files must be a zipped EPS or AI file.
Flash: zipped SWF & FLA
Quality Standards:
Some photos may be declined by various outlets for:
Poor Focus
Poor Lighting
Excessive Noise, Grain & Color Distortion
Compression Artifacts
Over Filtering
Poor Isolation & Cropping
Dust & Debris in Scans
Upsampling or Rezzing up Images
Poor Composition
Inappropriate Title or Description
Copyright / Trademark Infringement or Risk
Adult Content
Profane or Violent Images
Model Release:
All images containing recognizable people require a model release. There are no exceptions. Look at the image and ask yourself ‘Could any of the people depicted recognize themselves in this picture?’ If so, you will need a model release. Sometimes the context of an image is enough to make a person recognizable, even if their face isn't visible.
If the photograph is of a minor (a child under the age of 18), a model release must be signed by a parent or legal guardian.
If the photo is of the photographer (a self portrait), a model release is still required.
A model release should be uploaded with each file. If you're uploading successive shots of the same model, the model release should be uploaded with each shot.
A valid witness signature must appear on the model release. It must be someone other than the photographer.
It’s probably easiest to avoid shots that will require a model release unless you are prepared to go through the extra effort to submit a signed standard model release to us.
Q: Tell me more about bartering photographs for sales training.
A: If you would like to take 10 decent/usable photographs of 10 different residences with solar we will give you a $100 credit for each picture to go towards our Solar Sales Training course. We would not pay you commission from the licensing fees for those 10 photographs.
When you have enough credit earned or if you pay the difference, you would participate in one of our classes as a student and receive a Certificate of Completion and access to our list of recruiters, lead generation and marketing services. This arrangement is perfect for someone that is interested in learning more about selling residential solar.
My hope is you will take several photographs of each residence from different perspectives for the library while you are onsite. Maybe you take 10 photographs of 1 residence, one photograph of each residence can count towards a credit for Solar Sales Training, the other pictures can go in the library for you to earn a 50% commission on license fees.
Q: Can you explain how the value of a photo is determined and how I will know the licensing fees earned by my photographs.
A: The value of a photo is determined by how many people buy it. We will pay you a 50% commission on the licensing fees generated by your photographs.
The commission on each sale is going to be small and will add up. The solar industry is taking off, therefore the volume of sales for a picture could be good for 5 years plus.
Once you submit a photograph, we will distribute it to multiple vendors that are in the business of selling stock photography.
Monthly, we will compile the results by Photographer from the various distribution outlets and send payment to your email address using our Paypal account. After you submit your first photograph we will issue you an account number that we use for tracking.
I know there's a market need for photographs because we've spent many hours searching for photo options and see the same "yellow hard hat solar worker" on everyone's marketing materials. Notice the worker in the background of the picture on the home page of our www.FreeSolarWebinar.com website?
