APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE FOR THIS LONG POST!

It's been exactly one week since I began setting up my site. Last weekend, I wrestled with creating a watermark. This weekend, I'm unveiling a "starter" website and asking for your suggestions, feedback, and input before I go any further.

First off� to those who are still thinking about taking this step, I say: Do it! There's labor involved for sure, but it's actually quite easy to set up your own site once you get past a small learning curve. Leo and Amanda and others involved in developing & testing SYS have done their work well.

A week ago today (Friday), I downloaded SYS and went looking for a URL. Didn't have a clue what it would be but was hoping for something like "naturestock.com" or "naturephotostock.com". Not surprising, most everything I checked was already taken by somebody else (a genuine photog or a scalper� and I didn't want to pay a premium).

Remarkably, I did find available one perfect-for-me URL, and I snapped it up. I'm now officially bestnaturestock.com. And to make it clear that I'm not saying my photography is better than anybody else's, I call the site: "Martha Marks' Best Nature Stock Photography."  It's my best work, and I do think it's pretty good overall, but I'm not claiming it's the very best nature photography on earth. I was just lucky enough to grab that URL, and I'm capitalizing on it. :-)

So, today I'd like to invite Leo, Amanda, other SYS site owners and prospects to take a look at what I've done in the last week. Not all pages are done yet. No EULA or final bio or Network Directory� stuff like that will come this weekend. But there are 7 bird pages ready for inspection. Many more species pages will come over the next few weeks.

Based on what's already done, there are four specific areas where I'd appreciate input from this group.

1. ORGANIZATION/STRUCTURE � My work falls into 5 basic categories: birds, beasts, bugs, plants, & places, so I used those words as my main menu items. Each one will have many sub-categories, like those currently under the 2 "Birds". Not every page will be filled with images in perfect grids, since I'm grouping them by species and I have more quality pics of some species than of others. QUESTIONS: Is the set-up as it is now intuitive enough for a visitor to the site? Is it attractive? Will it work for SEO?

2. SEO � I've followed Leo's advice to change the titles and URLs of all my images, so they're different from what SS, DT, FT, etc, show for these same images. I've also expanded the description section for many images and will try to do it for all eventually. This is the most time-consuming aspect of setting up this site, but I think it's worthwhile, assuming I'm doing it right. QUESTIONS: Based on a sample of the images you can see, am I doing it right? Any other suggestions for enhancing CEO?

3. WATERMARK � The WM I created last weekend shows on all the photos that click off thumbnails on the current 5 pages. I'm still trying to create a white/light version for dark images, including many not up on the site yet. (Thanks, Christine, for your effort to help with this. I'll be working on that this weekend.) QUESTIONS: Does this WM give my images enough coverage to offer reasonably decent protection? Does it look okay?

4. ADDITIONAL IMAGE PROTECTION � The 2nd paragraph on my home page explains that "royalty free" does not mean "free for the taking" and that it's not okay to steal or "borrow" images. But many viewers will go directly to the photo pages and never see that paragraph or never click to the EULA page.( I also believe some people assume "royalty free" means "FREE!!", which of course it doesn't.) 

I'm thinking of appending a similar statement to the description of each image on the site. So far, I've only done that with this one image:

http://bestnaturestock.com/image/mountain-bluebird-pinyon-pine-stock-photo/

QUESTIONS: What's your reaction to the presence of that statement under the image? Is it helpful or a turn-off? Will it hurt SEO?

I'd also appreciate your reactions to anything else on the site as it currently stands. Advice, please!

Thanks, as always, for the great, supportive community you've built on this Forum. I'm pleased to be part of it. I will network with as many of your websites as possible and hope many of you will want to do the same with mine.

Martha

I LOVE IT!

Thank you, Leo! Music to my ears!!! And I can imagine it's fun for you to see how others are taking "your baby" out into the world with so many different kinds of images.

I welcome any suggestions you (and others) may have on any aspect of my fledgling site.

I've been looking through and I can't seem to find anything else to critique. Just a generally really good start! Good job.

You have made amazing progress in a week. 

1.  I would agree with Leo that simpler is better on the logo.

2.  As you gain skills with SymbioStock theme you will pick up all the little tricks to make the site what you want.  Leo has a wealth of knowledge about what not only works but what flows well for the client.

Keep up the good work.  I love the male blue bird on the stalk.  Nice shot.

David

I'm just waking up this morning and... so nice to find great feedback here already! Thanks, Leo, QuailRun, Redneck, for your fine suggestions. I have a busy weekend in front of me and will take your advice.

Stay tuned!

Hi Martha - I agree with the others about your logo - how would it look if you isolated the bird so it was all against a white background?


Hi Solphoto - welcome, I don't think you need a totally niche portfolio for Symbiostock, mine certainly isn't !

I just tried again to go to your site and have a better look, Martha, and all I get is a spinning wheel. I clicked on the links posted in this thread and the pages just wouldnt go anywhere. Maybe you are working on it?

Not sure why it's doing that, Cathy. I haven't been working on it yet this morning. Too busy eating breakfast! But it just did open up for me. Please try again later.

Congratulations! Great start.

SANTA FE!!!!! Yay, another fellow New Mexican!!! - Btw, I'm noticing that New Mexico related images are hitting big within my own metrics on the personal website recently, and for sales so this is good (mostly northern I've noticed); both with people and without.

I'm considering doing my own Symbiostock website, however, my portfolio is very small and not niche enough. I am in web dev/ seo/marketing by trade as a day job, however.

First post btw, hope I'm not breaking any rules... 

Start your website. Your portfolio can't be smaller than mine . I recently started submitting to stock websites. Have around 50 downloads so far from different stock websites in 3 mths. I feel my pics are not of very good standard but I am trying to improve. Setting up my own website and interacting with great people due to this website has been the biggest motivation so far for me to improve. More than 50-100 likes that I get on pics on Facebook.

APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE FOR THIS LONG POST!

It's been exactly one week since I began setting up my site. Last weekend, I wrestled with creating a watermark. This weekend, I'm unveiling a "starter" website and asking for your suggestions, feedback, and input before I go any further.

First off� to those who are still thinking about taking this step, I say: Do it! There's labor involved for sure, but it's actually quite easy to set up your own site once you get past a small learning curve. Leo and Amanda and others involved in developing & testing SYS have done their work well.

A week ago today (Friday), I downloaded SYS and went looking for a URL. Didn't have a clue what it would be but was hoping for something like "naturestock.com" or "naturephotostock.com". Not surprising, most everything I checked was already taken by somebody else (a genuine photog or a scalper� and I didn't want to pay a premium).

Remarkably, I did find available one perfect-for-me URL, and I snapped it up. I'm now officially bestnaturestock.com. And to make it clear that I'm not saying my photography is better than anybody else's, I call the site: "Martha Marks' Best Nature Stock Photography."  It's my best work, and I do think it's pretty good overall, but I'm not claiming it's the very best nature photography on earth. I was just lucky enough to grab that URL, and I'm capitalizing on it. :-)

So, today I'd like to invite Leo, Amanda, other SYS site owners and prospects to take a look at what I've done in the last week. Not all pages are done yet. No EULA or final bio or Network Directory� stuff like that will come this weekend. But there are 7 bird pages ready for inspection. Many more species pages will come over the next few weeks.

Based on what's already done, there are four specific areas where I'd appreciate input from this group.

1. ORGANIZATION/STRUCTURE � My work falls into 5 basic categories: birds, beasts, bugs, plants, & places, so I used those words as my main menu items. Each one will have many sub-categories, like those currently under the 2 "Birds". Not every page will be filled with images in perfect grids, since I'm grouping them by species and I have more quality pics of some species than of others. QUESTIONS: Is the set-up as it is now intuitive enough for a visitor to the site? Is it attractive? Will it work for SEO?

2. SEO � I've followed Leo's advice to change the titles and URLs of all my images, so they're different from what SS, DT, FT, etc, show for these same images. I've also expanded the description section for many images and will try to do it for all eventually. This is the most time-consuming aspect of setting up this site, but I think it's worthwhile, assuming I'm doing it right. QUESTIONS: Based on a sample of the images you can see, am I doing it right? Any other suggestions for enhancing CEO?

3. WATERMARK � The WM I created last weekend shows on all the photos that click off thumbnails on the current 5 pages. I'm still trying to create a white/light version for dark images, including many not up on the site yet. (Thanks, Christine, for your effort to help with this. I'll be working on that this weekend.) QUESTIONS: Does this WM give my images enough coverage to offer reasonably decent protection? Does it look okay?

4. ADDITIONAL IMAGE PROTECTION � The 2nd paragraph on my home page explains that "royalty free" does not mean "free for the taking" and that it's not okay to steal or "borrow" images. But many viewers will go directly to the photo pages and never see that paragraph or never click to the EULA page.( I also believe some people assume "royalty free" means "FREE!!", which of course it doesn't.) 

I'm thinking of appending a similar statement to the description of each image on the site. So far, I've only done that with this one image:

http://bestnaturestock.com/image/mountain-bluebird-pinyon-pine-stock-photo/

QUESTIONS: What's your reaction to the presence of that statement under the image? Is it helpful or a turn-off? Will it hurt SEO?

I'd also appreciate your reactions to anything else on the site as it currently stands. Advice, please!

Thanks, as always, for the great, supportive community you've built on this Forum. I'm pleased to be part of it. I will network with as many of your websites as possible and hope many of you will want to do the same with mine.

Martha

Hi Martha, you have really nice photos. Added you to my Symbio site

Hi Martha, you have really nice photos. Added you to my Symbio site

Thank you for that!!! I'll start getting my network set up this weekend too, and will look at your site for my network.

Steve, that's a great "bug" image! I've never been very good at bugs but I admire those who can shoot them well.

Thanks - I don't take them very often but this came out nicely. It was actually hand held with a macro lens and one of those Ray Flash ring flash attachments that attach to an ordinary flash gun. It works really well for shadowless lighting of macro objects and if you balance the shutter speed/aperture to naturally darken the background, the subject stands out very nicely.
I reviewed it on my blog about a year ago if you want to learn more about it: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2012/04/review-of-ray-flash-ringflash-adapter/

Anyway, back to the subject - I would drop the statement off your home page as well. I'm sure it would annoy me if I was a real buyer (I don't think you see it on Shutterstock plastered all over the page) and I don't think it makes any difference to the non-buyer. I don't think the role of your stock site is to educate the public on the rights and wrongs of using images without permission.

Steve

I'll definitely take my "don't steal" message out of the one photo caption and not plug it in on any more of those. But... would you get rid of it on the home page too?

And yes, maybe dumping the "royalty free" message everywhere would be good. () I do think people confuse "royalty free" with "FREE!!!"  The pros know what RF means, but others don't... and it might encourage people to steal.

I'd love to hear what others think of that.

Yes, I would take it off the home page as well, you have copyright notices over all your photos and at the bottom of every web page so even I (who can get very protective of my images) do not really think it is necessary.

I also dropped the Royalty free wording from everywhere

your watermark - if you often have a focal point in the centre of your image it might be an idea to slightly offset it ?

Martha/others,  would you know if we can sell the images taken inside national park and/or zoo at royalty free or we need to sell them as editorial?

Asking in this thread because Martha has so many photos of birds