[starchild]

Can anyone give me any info, (or tutorials) about making screensavers?

Last year I looked into this, and was amazed to find people were making them and selling them (or offering them for sale) on ebay and Amazon. I don't know how many are actually sold but I enjoy the idea of making them- anyway. I always thought screensavers were something not everyone uses (or just for decoration/fun) and could be gotten FREE. But, everyone I ever got free seemed to have adware with it, and sometimes messed up my computer.

At the time (last year) I bought a screensaver maker program (ACez) that stopped working right after awhile (sometimes not at all) and the place I bought it from (online) wasn't much help in correcting this. Vague suggestions about the size of the pictures and resolution, etc. Or, not answering at all. I had been using the same size/resolution all along and it worked when I first got it. I tried reinstalling it, downloading it again (I had bought the key) etc. When it doesn't work (which got to be most of the time) a box would come up saying "this has been created with the trial version"

Anyway, that's another story, and I got discouraged making screensavers at the time.

Now, I'm back to this (idea) again. With another program. I have a lot of ideas of how I might do this as a business, and it ties in with my love of photography and computer graphics (PSP and Photoshop) etc.

I'd like to find out more about it this time. Whats the best size to use (for photos)? Someone once told me to save the pictures at 600x800 pixels, I'd been using 8" wide and 72 resolution which seemed about the same.

Does anyone have any info about making and selling screensavers? What to charge, how many to put on a cd (to sell) how many pictures works best ON one screensaver, etc?

Also, if I make them and put them on homemade cds, I think these don't work good on some older computers? (I know my daughter has an older computer I fixed up for her, that won't open homemade cds at all.)

Is this something to put on as a disclaimer? Like the cd might not open on some older computers?

I know I have told about other ideas I've had, and gotten responses from people tellng me all the ways it won't/doesn't work. Like "millions of other people are making screensavers and giving them away from free"

Even if I just end up using my pictures (and ones I am changing with effects and plugins I'm learning in Photoshop) for screensavers just for myself or to give away, it's something I enjoy doing and learning. And, right now I don't have anything else like this to be doing. I think it has possibilities at some point.

Last night I kept thinking of other things I could do (related) like making picture tubes, and/or clip art-graphics and putting them on a cd.

I have learned how to make picture tubes (I think these are only used in PSP?) but have to learn more about putting them together, packagaing them.

I've downloaded them as zip files, and some are self-extracting and some I have to put in. Also, there are usually more than one design in one file (come out at random when used).

So, it's not just a matter of the photos, pictures, graphics, it's how to put them together and package them.

I've also learned how to make websites, so this might also be a souce-offering downloads. Would have to learn about doing this with selling. There must be programs set up to send a download page to someone who pays for something? (I have Paypal account, already)

There doesn't seem to be much available for help with this. Which is good, in a way, because maybe it's NOT something a lot of people are doing.

I once bought a book "How to make money with a digital camera" (I bought it online, only because it said "money back guarantee") supposedly telling how to make and sell screensavers, etc. It was SO terrible, I wrote the seller a long email telling why I wanted my money back, and it was refunded. One of the tips in it was to save the name and address(or email) of everyone who bought from you and SELL IT TO MAILING LISTS. I think maybe the "how to" book was only a setup, to gather email addresses for this. Unless they sold books to people who didn't bother asking for their money back

At least this is something I can be doing and learning about.

Maybe someone here knows something about some of this, or can point me in a direction to learn?

Thanks,

~ Carrie