It’s an amazing time to be alive as a consumer.

With the internet giving people access to just about any product or service provider out there, you have an excellent chance to get what you need for less than you anticipated. When the competition is vast and there’s plenty of people that are willing to give you what you want, as the consumer, you have the upper hand in the price department.

But, just to be safe, do your research before you throw your money at someone who has bargain basement prices. You’re not just in it for the low price; you’re in it to get something of great value at a low price. If an item is cheap and it resembles it’s cheapness upon arrival, you’re going to be disappointed.
There are websites out there that have communities of people looking to sell you unique things at a low price. It’s more important than ever to read the reviews, see what their products look like, and look into whatever you need to in order to make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth.
With that in mind, we did a little experiment.

We went to such a website to take a look around at the watermarks and logos that they had to offer; call it market research. Anyway, as we were scrolling through the pages of watermarks that were presented to us, we ran into a big problem:

There were sellers that had stolen our work and watermarks and were presenting it as theirs.

This problem shouldn’t just upset us, though. It should also upset you, the potential consumer, who might be looking to spend some hard earned money on a watermark for your photos.
Sure, it annoyed us. But the more we thought about it, the more we were upset for the photographers that were investing in these people that were stealing our work and calling it their own.
Why? Because if they’re using our watermarks to lure you into their business then producing logos and signatures that aren’t of the same caliber, you’re getting cheated out of the money you’re putting on the table.

So, once we got past our frustration, we got a little curious. We wanted to see what their actual work looked like. We bought a few “custom made” watermarks from these people to see what they would come up with, knowing full well that the work that they were claiming to be theirs was really ours.

Don’t Not Be Fooled By Imposters

Here’s what we found:

As you can see, some of these folks aren’t measuring up to the work that they promised. Many of them are using mass produced, unoriginal fonts and selling them as “custom made”. If you’re paying for custom made, you deserve custom made.

Next time you are looking to invest in a quality custom made watermark, spend the extra money to get one that is authentic and done well. Cutting corners to save a buck or two only feels good when you get something that is worth more than you paid for it. If you’re getting something that is actually less valuable than the few bucks you put on the table, you’re wasting your time.
Spend your time and money wisely here at Photologo. We’ll make sure you get your money’s worth–and then some.