Yesterday, deviantART launched the Premium Content Platform for beta testing.

In short: You will soon be able to sell your deviations for points.

In my opinion this comes in very handy for a few galleries of dA:

• Stock & Resources
• Customization
• Journal Skins

This also means that you can now buy and sell Fonts off dA, which goes nicely with the recent Font Gallery Revamp. A step forward into making dA a site for high quality stock.

I love this new option!

Of course, I am aware of upcoming issues and possible problems.

  
Still, I love it

Stolen works, low quality, useless items, "unworthy" items, no more free resources… well, to protect yourself against that, maybe you have to think twice before you purchase something. You should do that anyway

If you are concerned about stolen items, copy the image URL and paste it into google.com. Their image search engine works amazingly and gives quick and good results.

For "No more free stuff!"… I believe this will even itself out. People will quickly adapt to what they are willing to pay for and for what not. There will still be enough of free resources on dA.

Think about it this way: If you offer something for free that other offer for points, you will probably end up with more faves

That said, I believe there will still be good quality free resources around

What does this mean for me personally?

I will probably make some Journal Skins avaiable for purchase
And probably for less than what I charge for Commissions ( 2.900 fyi) Maybe something in the range of 1.000 or less. Depending on the "level" of the skin and time I invested in it. As usually those will come with all snazzy html stuff like lists, blockquotes, menu etc.

I think this is also a good spot to remind people how "little" points actually are

100 = ~1.00 €

I shall not forget to mention that the artist receives 80% of the sale price. Yes, I know that 20% go to dA, but they are hosting the files and everything else, so I have no problem with that.

I also see a great opportunity to enhance the current donation pools. Now you can offer people access to a file you created if they donate to your "cause". This might be a nice little gimmick that makes donating points even more pleasing and rewarding

Before you go rant about points now… you can transfer them into real money. See here. So you don't have to buy dA merchandise or prints with those points

Introducing the Premium Content Platform    
    
DeviantART is proud to announce our Premium Content Platform
Providing the ability for content creators to become sellers and generate real earnings by making digital files of their high-quality work available for download. Sellers are able to set their own prices while retaining 80% of all revenue earned, and buyers are able to quickly get the things they want with the satisfaction of supporting the artists they love.
What is Premium Content?
The Premium Content Platform was built to represent high-quality content — the premier pieces in an artist's repertoire of work. We encourage the sale of everything from comics or stories for download, to high-res files like .PSDs, textures, tutorials, brush packs, and more!

Suggestions!

What would be really nice to see, would be a donation option
I know a lot of sites make it an option upon downloading to give a donation to the creator. Lost Type Co-op does so; you can download their fonts for free tho, by entering 0 into the donation field.

Question Time!

1. Do you think this new platform can enhance your dA experience? Both as seller and buyer?
2. What are your concerns?
3. Do you have suggestions for improving/enhancing the platform