Feedback sought - a new photography sales site

[Bradbcam]

 

I have kindly been given permission by the administrators to ask from feedback & suggestions from you all on a new photography sales site that I am creating. I'd appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes and provide any feedback, suggestions or improvements that you could offer.

This is not a sales pitch. I have agreed to abide by the rules of the forum and will not be including any links or general brand information within, I am merely seeking to ensure that I get 'it right' and develop the most photographer friendly experience that I can.

 

For many years I have been a keen amateur tog and have helped some of my close friends to setup their own businesses doing everything from portrait work to travel photography. They all share a common general annoyance at the lack of fair/ commercially viable ways for them to sell their images to the businesses. The main pain points being the commission taken by sites such as Ghetty or account subscriptions fees. Which leads us to the site that I am launching later this year.

 

                We aim to give photographers of all levels a way to sell their images directly to businesses and worldwide brands based on their specific requirements but we are no standard stock site. The core rules that form the backbone of our site are:

 

• ·         No stock tags -  All images will be GPS tagged and businesses will look for images of their business. This removes the frustration of searching for images based on loose terms
• ·         Fair price - images will be available for purchase at some of the lowest prices on the current market
• ·         Fair commission - the artist will get 50% of the total purchase price
• ·         No comments - we will only show images. No back story or funny titles, just the photography facts
• ·         No fees - There will be no financial obstacles to start uploading images
• ·         Retain your rights - breaking the mould a bit here but our T&C's will not include us taking your artistic rights on content
• ·         We will be current - sparing a short launch period, images must be uploaded within 30 days of being taken

The focus of our site is geography. All searches will be performed based on a location and results will be presented based on a radius, thus allowing a business to locate images from their premises for use in advertising materials, websites, etc.

We will also be hosting current event images, so wont be aimed purely at businesses.This idea came from some user feedback initially on how they'd use the site to see what's happened around their home/place of work. My favourite example is still "why has that helicopter landed in the school field".

 

We are still in the early stages of development but I wanted to show you some of our current test screenshots for your perusal (this is the first place they are being shared)

Image preview

As you can see we're focusing on the core details of the image itself (please excuse the latin script, that's going)

 

Media Manager

This is a very early draft of our media manager system. Allowing users to see basic details of their image popularity & manage them accordingly.

We have to limit the number of uploads due to server restrictions. Initially this will be 50 images but can be increased through certain conditions or account upgrades (tbc)

 

I don't want to drone on, so I've tried to keep this brief. I'm happy to answer any specific questions that you may have and I'm hopeful that we can make this an ongoing conversation. and I invite feedback of all (constructive) types and questions, but (just to re-iterate) I cannot provide links to the site itself or brand information.

 

I have a couple of very simple questions to get the ball rolling.

1) Would you use a new stock site to share your images?

2) Are there any features you would like to see in a photography retail site?

3) Do you currently use GPS data in your photographs (maybe for logging interesting spots)

4) is 50% commission fair to you?

 

 

Thank you for your time

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by Phil
Screenshots Amended

[ChrisLumix]

I'm not really in the market for selling pictures, though it seems a fair and above board approach you've taken. I don't use sites like Flickr, but I have one question and one comment.

 

1. Would the pictures be uploaded in web format (e.g. 1000 pixels maximum) to discourage theft, with a view to purchasers having a full quality picture uploaded privately if they agree to purchase?

2. I'm disabled. My photographic stock is NOT current. It may never be again for most intents and purposes. Why cut yourself off from a rich seam of past images that have never been seen before or offered for sale?

On the subject of GPS - no, I don't use it myself but I'm sure others here may do.

[EdwardL]

To answer your questions directly:

1. I run my own (quite new) photography business and have my own website so it's not something I'd do.

2. Features - something I insisted on when sorting out my website was an "engine" that brings up photographs really quickly - I hate waiting for image downloads.

3. I don't use GPS and if I were to, it would be for personal photography and probably when abroad so when I got back I might be able to find out where I'd been 

4. 50%?  I think so.  I sell images (prints, mugs, etc) off my site and after all the costs I achieve around 50% although it does depend on the product and markup I've chosen.

 

Always exciting and sometimes nerve wracking setting up a new venture - best of luck!!

[colinb]

 

 

• Fair price - images will be available for purchase at some of the lowest prices on the current market
• ·         Fair commission - the artist will get 50% of the total purchase

 

          50% of what? How can you judge what 50% is when you don't know what 100% is? 

 

e will also be hosting current event images, so wont be aimed purely at businesses.This idea came from some user feedback initially on how they'd use the site to see what's happened around their home/place of work. My favourite example is still "why has that helicopter landed in the school field".

 

 

        I take a fair few pictures of local events but I'm not sure a commercial site would work? Who would buy the picture when you can see the answer for free on Facebook and the web site of most local papers??

 

SORRY SOMETHING SEEMS TO BE A BIT ODD!! Not with your idea .... Phil I have just tried posting via both my Imac and windows laptop????

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by colinb
PHIL - there seems to be a problem !!!

[Bradbcam]

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to do my best to answer your points below

1. Would the pictures be uploaded in web format (e.g. 1000 pixels maximum) to discourage theft, with a view to purchasers having a full quality picture uploaded privately if they agree to purchase?

Our systems will reduce images to a web preview and watermark them to deter people from stealing them.

As our buyers range from web only businesses to full brochure travel companies we wanted to ensure we had the high quality images available so a full quality (at upload) image will be retained on our systems and will be sent upon purchase.

2. I'm disabled. My photographic stock is NOT current. It may never be again for most intents and purposes. Why cut yourself off from a rich seam of past images that have never been seen before or offered for sale?

This is something we struggle with, and we are considering a "historic" section as we grow, but we wanted to be the only company offering current & relevant stock to our buyers.

To answer your questions directly:

2. Features - something I insisted on when sorting out my website was an "engine" that brings up photographs really quickly - I hate waiting for image downloads.

Slow websites tend to be the bane of my life currently. Hopefully the web preview images will be compact enough & our servers powerful enough (according to our tech team) that image loading wont be an issue

4. 50%?  I think so.  I sell images (prints, mugs, etc) off my site and after all the costs I achieve around 50% although it does depend on the product and markup I've chosen.

We will be charging companies an extremely competitive rate to draw volume of sales. We are initially launching with a £10 per image model so each sale will net the artist £5 but there will be additional charges for exclusivity (mostly relevant to current event images). I appreciate that professionals can make a great deal more via their own mechanisms but our intention is to be an additional/supplemental sales site for the true professional. 

 

Always exciting and sometimes nerve wracking setting up a new venture - best of luck!!

Thank you, I appreciate the support.  This is currently my full time job and nerve wracking is an extremely good description

 

 

          50% of what? How can you judge what 50% is when you don't know what 100% is? 

Hopefully I've answered this above

 

 

 

        I take a fair few pictures of local events but I'm not sure a commercial site would work? Who would buy the picture when you can see the answer for free on Facebook and the web site of most local papers??

Although this may be relevant for local news paper who send reporters to events but this isn;'t always the case. The arguement against social media (uploads by individuals) is two-fold:

1) They are visible to friends only and can sometimes be hard to find in standard searches (hashtag lottery)

2) The rights infringements by some social networks might not be acceptable to people who wants to retain the rights to their images

Don't get me wrong, we don't want to discourage people from sharing images but by uploading them to our site and then sharing them, you retain full ownership.

 

I hope i've managed to work the quotes well enough. Again thanks for your replies so far