Marketing

What Buyers Want From Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 395 Words | Posted 10/18/2013 | Comments
PhotoShelter has just released the results of a new survey designed to determine “What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The 48 page report is available for Free here.

Questions Debt Investors Should Be Asking Getty

By Jim Pickerell | 782 Words | Posted 10/17/2013 | Comments
Getty Images has been privately owned by Carlyle Group for a little over a year, and before that by Hellman & Friedman for about 5 years. One of the results of going private is that much of the data that used to be shared about Getty’s operations is no longer available to the general public.

Advertising Revenue Declines Expected For Print Media

By Jim Pickerell | 336 Words | Posted 9/25/2013 | Comments
The MAGNA GLOBAL Advertising Forecast released early this year reported that the Global advertising spend in 2012 was $495 billion up 3.8% from $479.9 in 2011. But, in 2013 newspaper and magazine ad revenues are expected to fall. The U.S. was the largest market with $153 billion in revenues in 2012. Japan, China, Germany and the UK complete the top five.

iStockphoto Rebranded

By Jim Pickerell | 584 Words | Posted 9/18/2013 | Comments
Getty Images has rebranded iStockphoto to just .iStock. with of sub-head of by Getty Images. The new logo is white on black instead of the former red iStockphoto. The rest of the site looks pretty similar to what was offered before.

Thinkstock vs. Shutterstock

By Jim Pickerell | 1927 Words | Posted 8/20/2013 | Comments
Getty Images has watched the rise of Shutterstock – to the company’s chagrin – and is trying to build Thinkstock to a position where it can take market share away from Shutterstock. Read this story to see why I think Getty is unlikely to be successful and why their fortunes are likely to further decline.

Stipple Partners With Getty Images

By Jim Pickerell | 584 Words | Posted 8/1/2013 | Comments
Stipple, the leader in image-based advertising and e-commerce, (see previous story) has partnered with Getty Images to help advertisers better reach their image audiences and to help publishers monetize photos more efficiently.

PhotoShelter Introduces Beam

By Jim Pickerell | 167 Words | Posted 7/10/2013 | Comments
PhotoShelter has launched Beam, a new web platform that makes it easy for photographers to create exciting portfolio sites with a contemporary look. Initially, they have provided four innovative templates, but more variations are expected in the near future.

Best Business Ever

By Jim Pickerell | 406 Words | Posted 6/26/2013 | Comments
Internet entrepreneur and prolific angel investor Fabrice Grinda recently commented on his blog that stock photography may be the “best business ever” – for the organization marketing the work online, not the producer.

Should Web Developers Use Stock Or Original Photography?

By Jim Pickerell | 128 Words | Posted 6/19/2013 | Comments
Recently, Google engineer Matt Cutts was asked if stock photos on a web page have a negative effect on ranking compared to the use of original photography?  In a new Google Webmaster help video he said,  “To the best of my knowledge it doesn’t really make a difference whether it’s a stock photo versus an original photo,"

Visual Connections New York 2013 Opens for Booking

By Jim Pickerell | 191 Words | Posted 6/5/2013 | Comments
Booking opened on June 4 to prospective exhibitors at Visual Connections New York 2013, which will take place on Wednesday, October 23rd immediately following the PACA International Conference on October 21st and 22nd.

Are Your Promotion Efforts Working?

By Jim Pickerell | 2013 Words | Posted 5/30/2013 | Comments
Recently John Fowler wrote on the Stockphoto Group blog on Yahoo “My promotional efforts are failing me,” and asked other photographers for advice on the promotional strategies that are working for them. John shoots mostly natural history imagery with an emphasis on insects especially those of agricultural, health and economic significance. Here's my thoughts on his options.

UIG To Distribute Japan Travel Bureau Images

By Jim Pickerell | 485 Words | Posted 4/18/2013 | Comments
JMC Inc (formerly JTB Photo Communications) based in Tokyo, Japan and Universal Images Group Limited (UIG) have entered into an agreement in Tokyo on April 12th 2013 for UIG to manage the global distribution business of JMC in respect of the JTB Photo picture library of 150,000 travel, travel related, cultural, cultural heritage and religious rights managed images. Another 650,000 to be edited and 10,000 new images per month are part of the deal.

ImageBrief Closes $700,000 Investment Round

By Jim Pickerell | 407 Words | Posted 3/22/2013 | Comments
ImageBrief has raised a $700,000 round of financing from Square Peg’s Paul Bassat and Justin Liberman as well as other Australian investors. Originally based in Australia, the company has raised $2.2 million thus far.

Imagebrief.com

By Jim Pickerell | 922 Words | Posted 3/7/2013 | Comments
Given the competition in the world of professional photography, anything that can help a photographer find customers is worth considering. A reader recently called my attention to Imagebrief.com that allows art buyers to provide a detailed outline brief of their image needs for current projects. Photographers can review the briefs and submit images for the projects.

Googlegate 2

By Jim Pickerell | 1093 Words | Posted 1/22/2013 | Comments
In the growing clamor and uproar about the free images available through Google Drive Rick Becker-Leckrone, CEO of Blend Images, made some points on the Stockphoto blog that are worth examining. See the previous article for more background.

Googlegate

By Jim Pickerell | 1250 Words | Posted 1/16/2013 | Comments
This is the third in a series of articles on the image collection that is available to Google Drive users. (It looks like there may be many more articles as more details unfold.) To see the first two articles go here and here. This is not just a microstock issue. Hundreds of traditionally priced RF images are involved.

Red Carpet Photos: New Revenue Stream For Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 405 Words | Posted 1/9/2013 | Comments
Stipple and PEOPLE are joining together to help fans learn more about the stars photographed on the red carpet at The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards held on Thursday, January 10, at 8pm EST. Photographers will receive extra compensation when consumer purchase products the stars wear.

Make Money By Encouraging Image Sharing

By Jim Pickerell | 1077 Words | Posted 12/5/2012 | Comments
Is it possible to earn money by giving your images away for Free? With Stipple the answer is Yes! 40% of searches on the Internet today happen outside of search engines like Google. People discover what they are looking for via blogs, Tweets, Facebook and in general, just browsing around. With Stipple when they find your image they can also find you.

Global Ad Spending

By Jim Pickerell | 517 Words | Posted 10/30/2012 | Comments
This article provides trend information on the global and U.S. revenue generated through advertising by newspapers, magazines and online delivery services. Advertising revenue has always been key in supporting the creation and distribution of information content. Historically U.S. publishers have relied on 85 percent of their revenue coming from advertising.

Procedures To Improve Chances Of Licensing Images

By Jim Pickerell | 829 Words | Posted 10/29/2012 | Comments
The buyer’s panel at the recent Picture Agency Council of America (PACA) conference in Chicago offered a number of ideas for ways individual sellers and stock photo distributors might adjust their search, delivery and pricing procedures to improve the chances of their images being chosen and used.

Compensation For User Generated Web Usage

By Jim Pickerell | 2375 Words | Posted 9/26/2012 | Comments
Last weeks announcement that PACA, ASMP and CCC are considering some type of arrangement that would compensate image creators for the unauthorized web usage of their images on sites like Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, etc. needs careful examination by all photographers and distributors before anything is formalized.

Create Your Own Portfolio App

By Jim Pickerell | 297 Words | Posted 8/24/2012 | Comments
Photographers can now build their own portfolio and presentation apps for iPad and iPhone without the necessity of learning to code. Appafolio Biz and Appafolio Plus provide an application tool that lets the photographer produce and display slideshows, galleries and videos.

No More Fixed Prices For Royalty Free

By Jim Pickerell | 311 Words | Posted 8/23/2012 | Comments
Pocketstock has created a new pricing strategy call Bidder that enables each customer to establish the price he or she is willing to pay for a royalty free image.

Marketing Budgets Changing

By Jim Pickerell | 468 Words | Posted 8/22/2012 | Comments
According to Advertising Age measured ad spending for the top 100 biggest advertisers dropped 0.2% for the first half of 2012 compared to 2011. While there was a small increase in spending for TV it did not make up for the losses experienced by newspapers and magazines. Check out some of the other marketing trends.

The Necessity of Networking (Social and Otherwise)

By Michael Masterson | 741 Words | Posted 8/14/2012 | Comments
In the following article, first posted on Visual Connections, Michael Masterson, President of American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP), and a natural networker offers three tips for the imaging professional on the importance of networking, and how to go about it.