Drawshop.com - Interview with the designer
PrincessCrafts has been a member of the Drawshop membership since it's inception, many of our pages use his royalty free images.
Introduction:
"Disney style illustrator sells paid subscriptions using Word-of-Mouse marketing"
DrawShop.com sells annual memberships to their downloadable database of 'Disney
style' illustrations using nothing but word-of-mouse marketing. Poul Carlsen
shares how he runs his successful membership site from Denmark, without spending
a dime on advertising.
Poul Carlsen, founder of DrawShop.com, is a web illustrator and well known
throughout the webmaster/clipart communities. Poul's story begins in 1958 in the
country of Denmark where he was born.
Turning a passion into profits
Poul first began illustrating in 1974 when he was just 16 years old, working for
a non profit organization. Through the years he refined and honed his skills,
and eventually started working for a Danish company, where he learned about
marketing brochures, and other graphic layouts.
When Poul was 25 years old he took his next big step. He began working for a
large company called "Sis-International". He opened their department of graphics
advertising, creating their folders, price lists and brochures. All the while
Poul was also working from his home, privately, selling drawings to companies
and magazines. When Poul was 30 years old, he quit the job which he had created
for himself at "Sis-International" to follow his dream of starting his own
company "PC-illustration & Reklame".
Becoming self-employed
Poul was now able to work full time for himself, selling his work exclusively to
scrapbookers, companies, advertising bureaus, and editors in Denmark. In 1997, Poul launched
his now famous DrawShop.com to expose his work not just to Denmark, but to the
world.
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1. Poul, what is www.DrawShop.com all about?
DrawShop.com - is a place where people who are working with clipart, advertising or media
can order customized graphics to complete their work or advertising promotion.
These Graphical illustrations are used in media, websites and printed
materials. Companies and individuals with graphic jobs, who have a limited budget,
come to us for help. This is where our membership site offer, is a great way for
anyone to get quality graphics for a small investment.
2. How did the idea for www.DrawShop.com come about?
It all started in 1995 - when the internet was growing fast. I started thinking
there must be a market for my kind of work outside of Denmark.
I was lucky enough to register a good domain name: "DrawShop.com" - I got in
before other graphic companies and web developers tried to register it.
I was right with my idea! People worldwide went crazy with my talent to draw in
the special "Disney Style". That's what makes my membership site and I unique.
When I started DrawShop.com, I didn't provide customized jobs as a service - we
only sold pre-designed graphics. I quickly realized I was missing opportunities
by not providing customized work. So I added this service to my site.
The Membership download section was first started a year ago. That really
took off, as membership orders for DrawShop.com rolled in.
3. How many new subscribers do you normally get each day or week?
I can tell you on a normal day we get about 2-4 new subscribers.
Members are happy with our work and sometimes want personalized art-work. We are
able to charge members around $500 for a fully custom illustration.
So the initial annual fee of $39 is quite a bargain. As many business owners
know, great art can be quite expensive.
4. You charge an annual fee. Have you found this to be the best payment option
for your site?
Yes, the annual fee works well.
A lot of people buy graphics online, maybe one or two at a time. But why pay $10
for 2 graphics, when you can get our entire range on DrawShop.com, for only $39
per year? And this includes new additions made through out the year.
5. Have you tested other payment options, like a monthly amount?
No, I feel in my case, it's better to offer an annual subscription rather than
weekly or monthly options.
When visitors or subscribers see the graphical content continually growing and
the price remains constant - well, it's a good reason to return and take out or
renew a membership.
6. How do you process credit cards?
We use PayPal and WorldPay, as third party processors.
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