Did you know you are a member of the largest stock photo agency in the world? No longer do photobuyers who seek hard-to-locate pictures rely on the antiquated methods of the last century to find photos; methods still used today by classic stock photo agencies. You know which ones: Getty, Corbis, et al. No, they are not the largest stock agencies in the world. They represent only a small fraction of the stock photos that reside in the worldwide databases of photographers. And search engines are now leaving the outdated systems of these agencies in the dust.
The largest stock agency, is the Internet + Search Engines + You. Increasing numbers of photobuyers are finding out they can easily locate the source of the exact photo they need by simply using a search engine such as Google, and typing in one or more words describing the photo they need. * If they also add a space and then the word 'photosource', they will come to your private website on the PhotoSourceBANK if you have listed your allotted 3,000 words (text descriptions/captions) www.photosource.com/bank.
How large is this directory of photographs? You be the judge. Figure out how many individual photographers now have digitized their collections and presently make them available to photobuyers via the Internet. If your calculations are similar to mine, you'll estimate there are presently at least 450 million images search/available on the Internet. By the year 2010 there will be three times that number. Getty and Corbis will never catch up.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International. info@photosource.com
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Microstock - A new way to earn less
By Dale O'Dell
Just when you thought royalty-free was just about the dumbest way to earn as little as possible from your stock photography along comes microstock. In the past seven years microstock websites have sprung up like weeds in the already wild backyard that is the internet, and for only a few dollars you can download a royalty-free image for commercial use. This is great for no-budget, low-budget and cheap clients as they can obtain "content" nearly for free, but needless to say microstock is not an effective marketing tool for photographers. The microstock model is profoundly bad for photographers, and thus, I predict, it will flourish.
Photographers long ago gave away any control of the stock industry and have instead acquiesced to bad idea (RF) after bad idea (microstock) while rationalizing and hoping that working harder and getting paid less will somehow benefit them in the long run.
Let's do the micro-math:
According to my research, the average price paid per download of microstock imagery is $1.63 per image. Assuming a fifty percent split with the microstock "agency," a photographer earns $.82 per image sold. Let's also assume the micro-photographer has monthly overhead/expenses of $3000. (This figure does not include overhead for a studio, as many microstock contributing photographers are amateurs and hobbyists.) At $.82 per image it would take 3659 microstock sales per month to cover expenses with no profit. Now for some even easier math: A 1 gigabyte compact flash card costs about $15. With sales of $.82 per image it would take 19 microstock sales to buy a single card.
One could probably earn more money collecting bottles for recycling!
No rational businessperson worth their MBA would go for a deal like this, but then most businesspeople are motivated by money while most photographers are motivated by ego.
Too many times I've heard amateur photographers say, "I don't care about money, I just want to see my pictures published." This is the sort of dumb, ego-driven rationalization that microstock suppliers count on. They know the marketplace has a voracious appetite for cheap imagery and there are plenty of big-ego photographers who will keep them supplied with cheap new crap to sell. Let's not blame the money-motivated micro-marketers for profiting from photographers' egos. The blame and cause for the downward pressure on image pricing lies solely with photographers who participate in these schemes.
You're probably thinking that with multiple sales and multiple income streams, microstock might be a nice income supplement. While I agree that a 21st century photographer requires multiple income streams from a combination of assignments, stock and fine-art, etc., microstock is a costly and time consuming source of insignificant funds.
As a professional photographer I agree with most criticisms of the microstock scheme; it devalues the photograph, and the industry of professional photography in general, and it drives prices downward. If only one percent of traditional stock clients switched to buying microstock images, the net loss to the stock photo industry would be over 21 million dollars! That is irrefutable downward pricing pressure that only causes us all to work harder for less.
While almost every commodity in the world is going up in price, photographers are seeing their prices drop. This is not good for the industry or for individual photographers. But the ship has sailed, the horses have left the gate, and microstock is here to stay. But if you cheapen and sell your work through microstock you probably won't be here to stay.
Dale O'Dell is a regular contributor to PhotoStockNotes. He produces cyber-generated stock photography from his studio in Prescott, Arizona. Email: dale@cybertrails.com;VF Phone: 1 928 541-0944; Fax: 1 928 541-0957; Web: http://www.dalephoto.com
Business
Notepad
Search Engine Optimization for Flash
It used to be that if you used flash in the pogramming of your website, you wouldn’t get many visits from customers who were using a search engine to find you. . A major misconception has been that Flash-based applications are SEO-unfriendly and can't be indexed by search engines such as Google. That is the myth Flash expert Todd Perkins has dispelled in his new Adobe Developer Library book, Search ... Full
Story
STARTING OUT. Break into photography
by taking an online photo course. This website maintains it
will help you avoid the usual pitfalls of beginners in photography.
Designed for all ages.
MARKETING TIP
(From Sell & ReSell Your Photos, Page 255):
You can copyright every one of your photographs, free. It's a gift from your government. It costs you nothing. Only when you "register" your copyright does it cost you $10. So place a Copyright Notice on each of your photographs TODAY.
All rights? Should you sell them? Only if the fee is substantial enough to justify giving up your resale rights. What to charge? Usually three or four times the fee you would charge that same market for one-time use for the same picture. (Check the price code range.) Writers, by the way, for all rights generally charge half again as much as the same market would pay for first rights (for an article), if the market is in the top fee range; for a market in the middle or lower ranges their fee for all rights is two to three times the first-rights.
Starting your own small stock photo agency today is simpler and easier than ever -- thanks to the Web.
First of all, to succeed in today's stock agent climate, it's necessary to "know the players." Assuming you have an abiding interest in a particular subject matter, you are already a mini-expert in that subject matter. You probably know of other photographers who may want to team up with you in your specialized agency.
The next step is to find out who stands ready and willing to pay for use of your and your agency's images. These buyers are already waiting for you. One way to find them is at conferences and conventions. Whatever your choice of specialization, the field no doubt has one or more associations whose members have a commercial need for your photography. If they are members of an association or organization, they no doubt attend an annual conference.
At the conference, you will set up a display booth for your stock agency's images. The contacts you make will not only pay for the cost of your exhibit (and don't forget it's a write-off on your taxes) but will also provide you with long-term working relationships on a "first name basis" with many of your clients.
When you decide on a specialization, don't choose a broad topic such as "Health Care;" instead choose "Nursing," "fitness," "disabilities," "nutrition," etc. You'll be rewarded with many sales because you have pinpointed your clients' specific subject areas. They need go no further than your agency for their specialized needs.
WHERE TO START
On the Web you'll find a treasure house of information about associations and conventions. A Canadian association website is an excellent source to find large numbers of associations that exist world-wide, not only in Canada. Contact ASSOCIATIONS CANADA 2002 (416) 362-5211 ext. 4397 or 1-800-387-2689 ext. 4397. Their "ASSOCIATIONS CANADA: The Directory of Associations in Canada," is an excellent fact-finder for business, trade, professional, and consumer organizations containing over 19,000 listings of Canadian associations and selected foreign associations active in Canada. The website address is:
http://circ.micromedia.on.ca /hotlinks/associations /main.htm.
In the USA, there exist several directory organizations for associations. The main one is American Society of Association Executives, The ASAE Building, 1575 I St., N.W., Washington, DC 20005-1103 Phone: 202-626-2723, TDD: 202-626-2803, Fax: 202-371-8825, http://www.asaenet.org/find/.
They are stingy with their information, and a CD containing several hundred listings cost you $395, but you might find it worthwhile.
Two other websites you'll want to look at (for free): http://www.marketingsource.com /associations/
http://www.vcanet.org /vca/assns.htm
You can also call up conventions and conferences directly, at http://www.allconferences.net/. This website will show you recent past conventions as well as those pending, which can be useful for your next year's preparations.
With a bit of homework you can build a database of conferences and conventions that will ultimately result in a strong sales list for your specialized images. http://www.allconferences.net/ .
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes.
Of
Interest
Marketing Tips
DEADLINES are a necessary bind to photographers.
Here at PhotoSource International we request photo editors to send us their listings as far in advance as possible. However, photobuyers, because of the nature of the publishing world, often need pictures "now".
If you see an "immediate" deadline listed in the PHOTOLETTER or PHOTODAILY, and you can supply the specific picture(s), use a light box and send a selection to the photobuyer. He or she may be able to extend the deadline a few days to be able to consider your picture.
LISTINGS: Are they aimed to give you leads for self-assignment, -- to go out and TAKE the pictures needed? Yes, if the deadline allows and if you want to add that kind of picture to your stock files.
However, in this industry, photo editors share a common bond: a definite tendency to decide on the picture needed at the last moment.
Thus the short deadlines that are a hazard of the ... Full
Story
OLD-TYME FLIX -- National Geographic snaps up BBC Photography series, “Genius of Photography”. Outright Distribution has sold BBC2 documentary series to National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) as part of a raft of other post-MipTV sales. Produced by Wall to Wall, the series offered a comprehensive history of photography and was originally produced for BBC2 and BBC4.
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2009/05/nat_geo_snaps_up_bbc_photography_series.html
SIGHT UNSEEN. -- Visually impaired photographers display mind-boggling shots. Twelve visually impaired artists, a few of whom are totally blind, recently showed some amazing images as part of an exhibit called Sight Unseen at the University of California at Riverside.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10238900-1.html?tag=mncol
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. -- "Free software for your Mac that helps you organize, share, and enjoy your photos based on the people who are in them." But the terms of service provide: In order for Blue Lava to make the Service available to you, you hereby grant Blue Lava a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide right and license....
http://www.photoattorney.com/2009/05/sharing-love-and-your-photos.html
