Can a $1 picture say a thousand words?

An old paradigm goes: you need to spend money to make money. No matter how tight your budget is, you can't do without spending on marketing to achieve growth. The trick is to spend wisely.

Let's say you sell beauty products, you'll need a simple but elegant website, printed flyers, probably a catalog, a blogs, e-mail campaigns, sales presentations, brochures, ads. Which means you'll need beautiful pictures so hat your brand is perceived correctly.

Hiring a photographer costs $80-150 an hour and many small business owners have taken this matter into their own hands by figuring out how to use their digital cameras as we reported some time ago. See our post on how to set up the lighting for a home product shoot.

Now, there is a new trend that we have observed among our customers: small business owners purchase stock photography at $1/shot and then send them to PhotoHand for alterations and merging with other images - mostly home made photos - to produce editorial-level ads for products or services.

I this example a professionally-shot image purchased from a stock photography website was altered several times to present different variations of a beauty product. These images were further combined with amateur shots of the branded containers. The total cost with the volume discount - $5.95 per ad.



In another example, a stock photo was converted into an illustration to the company's business model by changing the background, adding some graphic elements and incorporating the company's product pictures. The total cost of the ad production - $16.95.



To create such ads the agency way would have cost at least $300: You would have to pay a photographer, a model, a stylist and still use a photo retoucher. Be smart! A penny saved is a penny earned.

PhotoHand.com Catches Growing Attention of Professionals and Small Businesses

Fast and affordable online service for image editing and photo design - PhotoHand.com is quickly turning into one of the most valuable online resources for small/SOHO business, entrepreneurs and professionals looking to boost their images.

Traditionally limited by modest marketing budgets and now influenced by the current recession, professionals and small businesses are reconciled with the fact that their promotional images can’t rival those of corporations. PhotoHand.com is changing this perception by bringing Madison-Avenue quality image editing and photo design to Main Street folks.

The strictly online mode of operation might not fit the processes of large companies but it is perfect for Actors, Models, Consultants, Dentists, Indie Designers, Small Manufacturers, Beauty Professionals, Tattoo Artists, E-shop Owners... the list goes on.

Just upload your photos through PhotoHand.com website, supply your directions in plain language (what you want or what you don't like in the photos) and in three business days you have the images that will make you or your business stand out - all without breaking the bank.

PhotoHand's fees start at $3.50 per photo for complete cosmetic retouching. For $11.95 your product photo will be altered into an ad worthy of glossy magazines. Online proofing and changes are free.

Unlike many photographers, PhotoHand works under the "work-for-hire" clause and thus does not claim copyright over retouched photos or photo designs. This means PhotoHand's clients have the full ownership of their images and can take them to any printing company of choice.

PhotoHand.com works with amateur photos as well as with professionally shot images. The company realizes that many business owners or professionals take one shot at a time when they are ready with a new sample and paying $75-150 an hour for one-two photos is excessive. Most of them have long figured out how to use powerful digital cameras and how to set up the lights for a shoot.

Naturally, such DIY photos need some editing help but so do professional shots, as PhotoHand can attest. With a little bit of post-production TLC, PhotoHand makes such photos shine.

After all, it's 60% how you look, 35% what you sound like, and 5% what you say.