THE KRACKER BARREL
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Why Low-Paying Markets?
A photographer recently asked on our chat section, the Kracker Barrel >http:/www.photosource.com/board<, why our marketletter, The Photoletter, listed low-paying book and magazine markets. Here was our response.
PhotoStockNotes (May 2002) featured our annual list of photography-oriented sites available on the Web, posted in order of ranking as compiled by Alexa.com. There were 152 companies listed.
In that April issue we also separated out the 26 websites that appeal directly to stock photographers, listed in ranking order as per Alexa. PhotoSource International is listed Number One, with the highest ranking. Our site gets 15,000 hits per day.
Within our site, we are always curious to know which section receives the most traffic. Of our 57 sections, the most popular, other than the Home Page, is Stock Photography 101.*
SP 101 is designed for photographers just breaking into the stock photo industry. Its popularity reflects that there are many photographers out there who are new to the field, and who are hungry for how-to information.
IN THE ARTS, RARELY DO YOU START HIGH
Few photographers just starting out or starting over in stock are going to break in at the top. They work their way up. They choose magazines to work with initially that are on the low end of the payscale, markets that the pros don't work with. A newcomer will accept the lower pay from these outlets, for the promotional benefit of the chance to showcase their work and get tearsheets of their published photos. A published picture acts as strong evidence of credibility for a photographer making new potential photobuyer contacts.
Why Two Market Letters?
This is the reason we have two marketletter services here at PSI. The PhotoDaily, for the pros, lists only photo needs that pay above $100 per image. Lower-paying markets are listed in a second, weekly marketletter called the PhotoLetter. These markets don't have a substantial budget for photography, yet they don't wish to resort to rock-bottom Royalty Free images. Average pay range in the PhotoLetter is $25-$50 per image.
PhotoLetter features such publications as American Fitness Magazine, and other special interest, regional, or non-profit publications, or those which have an audience so small that their budget won't allow professional rates. For photographers new to the field, these markets are equivalent to the farm teams in major league baseball, or to summer stock opportunities for actors just breaking into the field of acting. And we all know that many a Hollywood star got his or her start in low-budget movies.
Since PhotoSource International has been around nearly thirty years, there's a lot we know about what works in this industry. In our newsletters, we attach a rating of one star * to three stars *** to each publication we list, based on their track record, how long they've been around (brand new publications get an automatic one * ), and whether we've gotten complaints about the particular market. It's sort of like a Better Business Bureau rating. Photographers know a 3-star rating signifies a reliable market, and that they can make their own choice to take a chance with a 1-star publication.
Some photographers might feel that certain publishers are getting away with murder by offering very low stock photo payments. That's not the case, for two reasons: a low-paying photobuyer soon learns that dealing with beginners or newcomers to the field is not "hassle-free." The publisher discovers that doing business with a beginner is more costly (time-wise, with the need for hand-holding through the process, enhancing/adjusting images, educating the new photographer on what's required, etc.) than paying professional rates for images. Secondly, in a free enterprise society, the customer rules. If the product (in this case, images featured in the publication) isn't good, the customer won't buy it. Similar to the case when a customer who has a passion for good music, for example, won't stay with a Napster-like rendition of a new song. He or she will eventually opt for the best rendition of the music -- and that costs money. This is also bearing out with regards to use of public domain and borrowed images from the Internet. Publishers are learning that you "pays for what you gits." It's not worth the damage to their publication's reputation to feature low-quality Royalty-Free type images or technically imperfect scans.
Learn How They Rank
Incidentally, if you want to find the ranking of any website, you can at www.alexa.com (it is owned by Amazon.com). Just type in the URL of the site, and the Alexa program will let you know its ranking (based on factors like quality and the number of visitors the site gets). This way you can also update the rankings listed in the April 2002 PhotoStockNotes.
*If SP101 is the most frequently-visited section of the PhotoSource website, what is Number Two in popularity? It's the photographer-marketing-insights Kracker Barrel section.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA E-mail: info@photosource.com Fax: 1 715 248 7394
Web site: www.photosource.com
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