Marketing
PhotoShelter and
Agency Access have just released a free ebook entitled “
What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The information resulted from a 35 question survey sent to Agency Access’ global database of 55,000 photography buyers. 500 responded to the survey.
Science Photo Library, has signed a licensing agreement with
Global Grid for Learning, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cambridge University Press and one of the most comprehensive digital educational content collections in the world.
Hawaii photographer Douglas Peebles is exploring a new market for his
images – iPhone Apps. During his more than 30 years of photographing the
Hawaiian Islands he has produced
18 books
and a number of pocket guides to the various islands. He currently has
seven iPhone apps which give him another way to reach consumers.
Photographers who license rights to their images based on how the images
will be used tend to be adamantly opposed to microstock. The principle
reason for such opposition is that microstock images are licensed for
use at very low prices. With microstock there are a few price variations
depending on how the images will be used, but they are minimal compared
to those used by rights-managed sellers. All other aspects of the
microstock business tend to get ignored. I want to examine some
of these other aspects of microstock licensing and point out how
traditional agency photographers might benefit if their agencies would
adopt some of them.
For many photographers seeking to earn some, or all, of their living
producing stock images, one of the most important decisions in 2011 will
be whether to retire from the stock photo business or get into
microstock. Many photographers who are licensing their images at
rights-managed or traditional royalty free prices have seen their
revenue decline significantly in the last couple of years. They are also
skeptical that it is possible to earn any significant money licensing
images at microstock prices. As a result quite a few are choosing to get
out of the stock photography business.
It time for rights-managed sellers to adopt many aspects of the microstock pricing strategy.
The immediate reaction of many RM sellers will be, “I’ll never sell my images as royalty-free.” That’s not what I’m proposing. Photographers will continue to manage the rights to their images. They will continue to be able to license exclusive and restricted uses to their images. But from the customer’s point of view the basic pricing model will look and feel just like the microstock model that they have come to prefer.
Today, press release marketing presents the artist with another low cost
opportunity to promote their artwork. If done properly, press release
marketing will bring traffic to the artist’s website, help in building
and maintaining an artist’s brand and will eventually create incoming
links to the artist’s website, thus, enhancing it’s SEO and gaining a
higher page rank too.
At first glance, PicScout’s new
ImageExchange interface that isolates images that are easily licensable from any Google or Yahoo! search, and displays them in a right-hand panel next to all the returns delivered by these search engines, would seem to be a very helpful tool for professional users looking for images they can license legitimately.
In fact, the returns delivered may be more misleading than useful.
Recently, a new country album by Taylor Swift shocked the music industry by selling over 1million copies in its first week. This is unheard of in a music business, which has suffered similar woes to stock photography. In the past decade, album sales have declined by more than 50%, yet Taylor Swift managed to buck the trend. Is there a lesson to be learned by stock shooters from her success?
Artists who want more exposure and sales for their art will develop a
marketing program to promote their work. When that marketing does
not produce the results that were hoped for, the artist becomes
discouraged and gives up their marketing efforts. The Rule of Seven may
help to explain why an artist’s marketing effort does not create the
results that were envisioned.
Marketing is where things start to get scary for some photographers.
After all, we’re passionate enough about our imagery to want to make
this our full or part time profession, and we’re certainly adept with
technology and digital imaging gear. However, this is where photography
starts enter the business realm, which, unfortunately, doesn’t always
come easy to some creative and artistic types. However, photographers are good at creative problem solving, right?
Well, marketing is the same thing. It’s solving a very simple creative problem that can easily be summed up in one sentence. “How can I convince clients to hire me?”
Everyday artists are being instructed by experts how to promote their
art business online, in social media and in all ways digitally. The
experts espouse these “must do’s and must have’s” on how an artist
should market themselves virally. Yes, digital marketing is extremely
important, but artists should not forget to market and promote
themselves offline as well. Marketing offline is another way to drive
traffic to an artist’s website and help to create new business
opportunities. Overall, offline marketing helps to make sales and to
brand the artist and their artwork.
If you are not familiar with, or have not used Google Alerts to monitor
your art niche, this article can be a very important new tool for you to
use on a regular basis. Google Alerts will help you monitor very
specific sections and segments in your area of expertise or it can be a
great research tool for areas and subjects that you would like to be
involved with in the future.
Today, a lot of businesses get marketing and branding mixed up. They
are confused as to what the differences are, what they both mean or they
try promoting their business with one and without the other. Simply
put, marketing is how you reach your target market with advertising,
promotions and public relations. Marketing is showing the world with
what you do. Branding is who you are or what the world thinks you are.
Every time a prospect or a potential customer makes contact with you in
person, print, virally or by other means, they are formulating an
opinion of you as a brand.
Veer has relaunched its Web site,
billing the new treatment as uncomplicated. While Veer still carries traditionally priced stills, it is certainly
catering to the no-hassle customer segment with simplified licensing
and prices that span the gamut—starting at $1.
Here’s the best chance you’ll ever have to win 100 Euros (or the equivalent in dollars). You can also respond to a photographer survey or have fun testing your knowledge of photography business trends. Check it out. It will only take a couple minutes.
If you are in the stock imagery business and want to stay current with
worldwide industry trends, the annual CEPIC congress is a must-attend
event. Held every year in early June—this year in Dublin, Ireland, at
the brand new Aviva Stadium—the congress provides an opportunity to
meet industry leaders and exchange ideas.
During his keynote speech at the Dublin gathering of CEPIC, Stockbyte
founder Jerry Kennelly announced the upcoming launch of his new
business Tweak. Operating on a
content-as-a-service model, Tweak aims to become a major global
self-service design library and change the way customers access
creative content.
I
had already been a still photographer for over 20 years when I started
exploring digital video and the motion medium ten years ago. I had
built a successful career shooting editorially for magazines like
National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Travel & Leisure to name
a few, as well as producing annual reports for major corporations.
When digital video hit the scene in the late ‘90’s, I was already
starting to feel a slight frustration in trying to tell certain stories
with a still camera. I was beginning to think and see in terms of
movement and sound. At the same time, technology was making it
possible and affordable with digital video cameras and non-linear
editing software for me to use this medium to tell my stories. The new
tools were a means to an end.
This story provides links to some of the stories on this site that may be of interest to someone new to the stock photography business, or someone who might to have a
brief refresher course on some of the things that have been happening in the
last few years. Many of these stories will also give you some idea of developing trends and what the
future might hold.
The opportunity to interact with editors from publishing companies, picture researchers, stock agents and photographers at the American Society of Picture Professionals' Reinvention Weekend in Boston provided a clearer picture of where the business of producing images for publication is headed.
Street vending your photography is not for everybody. But if you can live within the income limits, are innovative, like the outdoors, and truly enjoy people- you can have a lot of fun. Experience and suggestions from NYC.
Chris Barton, a photographer and the managing director of Photographers Direct, has written an article highlighting multiple uses of the same microstock image and asking why a reputable company would do this to itself. There are numerous answers, and most are so mind-bogglingly simple as to make anyone wonder why stock-industry insiders are still having this meaningless debate.
As the photo industry struggles with pricing and licensing structures to accommodate digital uses, such uses keep growing. Every month brings new evidence of advertising, marketing and communications budgets steadily moving in the direction of the Internet, with predictions that 2010 will see digital spending surpassing print.
As buyer budgetary pressures and competition continue to drive prices downward, production companies and solo practitioners are increasingly looking to maximize their earnings by cutting out the middleman.