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Key words in this issue: Business Tips | Tour Etiquette | Promotion Time | Ink | Sell Photos |

NEWSWORDS: German Court | Masterfile | De Niro | High-Priced Photos | Digital Organization | Ground Zero Rebirth | Marlene Dietrich |

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## PhotoAIM weekly newsletter for 08/24/02 ## 383d

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PhotoAIM, the weekly newsletter from PhotoSource

ISSN 1530-0511

If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAIM, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.

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THE KRACKER BARREL

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Gettin' Down to Business

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Advance Notes: Stock photographers are realizing that processing credit card transactions is an inherent part of doing business on the Web. Since credit cards are the best way to conduct business on the Web, the question becomes, "How do I leap from operating by mail, phone and fax, to credit card processing?"

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If you want to emerge from the last century's way of doing business (checks, cash, and billing), you will want to consider accepting credit card payments on-line. It's called having a "merchant account." You'll experience less paperwork, no problems with bounced checks, and instant revenue deposited directly in your bank account.

What's the first step to signing up for a merchant account? Check with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or your Web hosting service. Either of these may already provide merchant account services for its members. However, most do not. You are then left to search out a service on your own. Here are some tips to getting a merchant account.

THE LOCAL BANK

Your local bank probably offers credit card services, but since you operate as an on-line Internet company, you might find resistance from your bank. They are used to dealing with local retail merchants (the shoe store, hardware store, etc.) and not an Internet "mail-order" business. Also, your bank might require a security deposit of $5,000 to $10,000. Another problem: some banks will deal with only two of the four major credit card companies. So you might find yourself having to work with two banks in order to have all four (MasterCard, Visa, Amex, and Discover) available to your customers. Another problem in dealing with banks is they might charge you a higher fee for processing your cards (4% to 5% instead of 2.5% to 3.5%).

A BROKER

Another option is to get your Visa, Master, Discover, and Amex accounts through a "broker." A broker is a company that will handle the bookwork of dealing with the credit card companies. Brokers are Internet-based, and specialize in getting credit card accounts for on-line businesses such as yours. The broker will charge you an extra fee on top of your discount rate for this service. It's not difficult to get approved by the broker. No security deposit is required. Because it is an Internet-based company, you can apply directly on-line. If you are a foreign company and want to get U.S. accounts, they can usually help you, too.

A set-up fee for a broker should be around $125 to $400. The only other fee you'll have to deal with would be for the software you'll need to process the credit cards. You can usually purchase the software outright, or rent it for around $20 to $30 per month. Brokers can also supply you with "shopping cart" software. You'll be able to start taking orders on-line right away.

FULFILLMENT HOUSE

Another approach you can take is to sign on with a fulfillment house and use their merchant credit card account system. The company will handle, process, and ship your orders through an 800-number with live operators (24/7); they will keep track of your database, provide some customer service, process credit cards and ship out orders. These companies have their own merchant credit card accounts and will let you use their accounts to process your orders -- for a fee. The fee is usually a 6% discount rate instead of the normal 2 to 4 percent that you would pay if you had your own account.

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This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Theodore Whiting:

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As a special service to our PhotoAIM subscribers, we provide you with a fresh, up-to-date list of photobuyers every month. Look for this list every third week of the month, to update or add contacts to your personal Market List.

CHANGES

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KAREN PUGLIANO, Freelance Photo Editor, former address: One Lake St, Upper Saddle River NJ 07458; current address: 4 Willows St, W Harrison NY 10604.

THE CREATIVE COMPANY (123 S Broad St, Mankato MN 56001) former contact: Laura Munsermann, Photo Editor; current contact: Anne Fitzpatrick, Photo Editor.

DESIGN FIVE (503 Oak Lake Ave, Santa Rosa CA 95409) Contact person Diane Austin, Photo Researcher. Former phone: 1 707 539-7172; current phone: 1 503 528-9522.

ART DIRECTIONS, former address: 4 Second Ave Ste 106, Denville NJ 07834; current address: PO Box 397 77 Castle Rock Road, Lake Hopatcong NJ 07849.

AMOR MONTES DE OCA, former address and phone: 1510 Wesley Ave, Evanston IL 60201-4122, 1 847 475-5029; current address and phone: 1349 Chase, Chicago IL 60626, 1 773 274-4178.

FERRARI COLOR (601 Bercut Drive, Sacramento CA 95814) former contact: Grant Rockwell, Sales; current contact: Charlotte Angerer.

TIME FOR KIDS (TIME & LIFE Building RM 2556B, 1271 Ave of the Americans, New York, NY 10020-1393) contact person Jacqui Wong, Photo Editor. Former phone: 1 212 522-1252; current phone: 1 212 522-6124.

KOKINAKES DESIGN (535 Anton Blvd Ste 450, Costa Mesa, CA 92626) former phone: 1 714 424-2507; current phone: 1 949 809-6760.

BUSINESS NOTEPAD

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FILM INSPECTION AT AIRPORTS. The F.A.A. provides air travelers in the United States the right to request a non-X-ray inspection of photosensitive products (FAA Reg. 108.17-AIRPLANE OPERATOR SECURITY). Notify your Regional F.A.A. office if you encounter any difficulty when requesting an non-X-Ray inspection covered under this Regulation. - (Gillespie - Albany, Ga.)

PIXEL PALACE

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INK

Ink-jet Printers. Is it just my imagination or are some photographers more concerned about the cost of ink than the quality of their output?

Some ink-jet printer users are convinced that printer companies are gouging them with high-priced cartridges, and I'm sure there is some truth to that assumption. There are all kinds of generic inks available that are theoretically designed to replicate OEM inks, and if you don't mind getting messy, you can always refill the cartridges yourself.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that neither approach will produce the best-looking output, although maybe, just maybe, you might save a few bucks. A few of my friends tried replacement inks and used them in consumer and professional Epson ink-jet printers. Within a short time, all of them had to send the printers back to the manufacturer for repair, and those costs far exceeded any savings that they ever realized.

As professionals, our photographs, including ink-jet output, represent us to the world and our clients. I want ink and media that produces the best quality, and I want it to last. So should you. Your best bet for achieving that goal is with OEM inks. Digital imagers who want to work with special archival and gray ink sets should do it with another printer, not the bread-and-butter model used for everyday work.

THE WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHER

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Famming 3—Fam Tour Etiquette

It is important you behave well on a fam tour for three reasons:

1.) It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.

2.) You want to make a good impression on the other photographers, writers, and editors you’re traveling with—good contacts all.

3.) You want to get invited back.

Ah, but what constitutes behaving well? Here’s Olders’ Laws of Fam Trip Etiquette:

1.) If you accept a trip to Trenton, New Jersey, and then you're invited on one for the same dates to Paris, France, you're going to Trenton.

2.) Once you're on the trip, never, ever be late for anything. Ever. That’s the fastest way to get the group to hate you for ever. And ever.

3.) Don’t whine. Got a smaller room than that stuck-up thing from Glamour Magazine? Don’t whine. Didn’t get the room with the Jacuzzi or the lanai? Don’t whine. Hate everything you see and taste and smell? Don’t whine. If you’ve got legitimate complaints about the attractions, say it in your article.

4.) Don’t get drunk.

5.) Don’t ask for special favors that might be nice for you but are hell for the person organizing a group of eight other photographers and writers.

6.) Dress good, shave good, smell good.

7.) Once it’s over, send a thank you to the tour organizer — and his/her boss.

Follow Olders’ Laws and you'll be well-remembered, widely published, and likely to be invited back.

This represents the final installment in the Olders' column series. We wish them good luck.

SIDEBAR

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Hard Times?

…not if you keep your promotion going.

Times are tough, and they have been tough economically for a while. Many photographers are experiencing a drop in stock sales, and many publishers of magazines and books are trying to cut corners.

Some photographers are cutting corners, too.

But a word of caution. Cutting corners can be a necessary business practice when times are tough financially, but of course the key to doing this right and not hurting your business instead of helping it, is to know what to cut and what to leave alone.

Generally speaking, you want to avoid cutting anything that directly generates income for you, providing the profits outweigh the expenses. This includes things like image production, marketing, information services, and advertising. You may have to cut down in some of these areas, but don’t cut them entirely.

GET ON THE SCREEN

As you know by now, getting on the radar screens of photobuyers and staying there is the single most important thing for your business. Cutting your advertising and marketing activities is a surefire way of falling off that radar screen. Yes, you may have sold your first stock photo to Jane Doe, a photobuyer, last month. But remember the old adage, "You are past history to a photobuyer after your first sale. Continual promotion will keep you on that radar screen." The current dip in image usage is only temporary, and when things get back to normal, you’ll want to make certain that you are on the minds of all the photobuyers that are important to you.

Good, professional marketing is the key to success for any business, but this becomes even more important when times are rough. In fact many successful businesses will increase, rather than decrease, marketing during rough times. In the case of the stock photo business, when fewer images are being licensed, there are fewer opportunities for your work to be selected over the work of a competitor. Even though the number of customers may still be the same, the number of sale-opportunities have shrunk, and it’s more important than ever to keep your name in front of your buyers.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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"People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be - whether they will admit that or not."

–Earl Nightingale

FREE THIS WEEK

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FREE. Add all the top headlines from today's Internet and Business News. You will be given access to a simple javascript that you can paste into the HTML of your page. Once you have inserted the javascript, you will always have the latest news headlines on your site, without ever changing a line of code.

THIS WEEK'S WEB FEATURE

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Position yourself so that photo researchers come to you for your stock photography. It's easy. Join the PhotoSourceBank. Photobuyers use this directory of specific photos and photographers to find the pictures they need.

Watch for developments in the field of stock photography in PhotoAIM's

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

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You'll be the first to know…

Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.

Robert De Niro to sue over Photo. "Our contention, as we hope to prove in the lawsuit, is that someone snuck into a private residence and took unauthorized pictures for profit," Harvey said.

Masterfile Embraces Shoot-Exclusive Contracts - To add more photos to its library the stock agency Masterfile has done away with its 25-year policy of representing photogs strictly on an "artist exclusive" basis. The Toronto-based agency has eliminated the right of first refusal clause from its contracts and will now acquire images on a "shoot exclusive" basis.

German court awards Marlene Dietrich's daughter compensation in case over nude photo

The Court tried to strike a balance between the rights of copyright owners to exclusively control the display and reproduction of their works, and the important public contribution that search engine operators make by organizing the Web via sophisticated software that must, in some way, make reference to the content of other Web sites.

"I bought a digital camera recently, and am amazed at how easy it is to take great-looking pictures and view them on my computer. "I did a little searching at ZDNet Downloads and found three programs that promised to keep my digital images in order."

Microsoft Advances Digital Imaging with the Introduction of Picture It! Digital Image Pro

A London-based photographer has offered Palestinian children from the Shatila refugee camp the chance to tell their story with photographs, giving them disposable cameras to take snap shots of their lives over the next two weeks.

Cameras will record rebirth of ground zero -Since late May, three 35mm movie cameras have been trained on ground zero from atop nearby buildings, each programmed to take a picture of the vast site every five minutes, night and day.

Paparazzi Pics of J-Lo and Ben Fetch $75K - In a high-stakes bidding war unusual even for paparazzi pictures.

Commercial Printers Embracing Large-Format Devices for Proofing Although 78% of commercial printers make large-format graphics for sale as large-format prints, nearly a quarter of shops use large-format devices for proofing regular print jobs.

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383d

Next Week: Virus Infects JPG files

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