Agency Based Discussion > General - Top Sites

How long time did microstock companies use to build a portofolio.

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pingh:
Ok. So there are about 30 microstock companies out there. And most of them have over 200 000 photos. How did they start? I mean, they couldn't open the site before they had any photos - and I, for sure, wouldn't post any photos if they didn't have any beforehand. Did they pay the photographers a sign-on fee or what? I see that Albumo did that, but what about the others? Isn't kind of like the hen and the egg?

Peter:
I was wondering the same question! They couldnt just started with 0....

leaf:
well the owner probably had a thousand or more, and his friend perhaps.  Then there is a few people who just want to 'try' .. say 100 of those that upload 10 images each, and a few that like the easy approval ratings and so on.... it adds up i think.

Lee Torrens:
There are different ways to market your new microstock agency to contributors.

- Fotolia paid contributors for each photo.
- LuckyOliver gave them credits (tokens) for each photo.
- Albumo is paying contributors when they reach an upload milestone.
- It's my opinion that SnapVillage did deals with high-profile microstock contributors, and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the others did this as well. Yuri said that he's been offered many deals by new agencies.

Leaf is right - many of them start out with the owner's own photos. You can still see Bruce Livingstone's portfolio on iStockphoto and Bryan Zmijewski's on LuckyOliver.

Fundamentally, they need to inspire confidence in contributors, such that the contributors believe they'll eventually get a return. Incentives help get the ball rolling, as it's easier to attract more contributors if they can see others already have their portfolios uploaded. Flexing a bit of marketing muscle goes a long way too, as contributors can see you have the ability to draw attention.

Of course it also helps if your owner is the richest man in the world!

Karimala:
SS started with John uploading about 10,000 images of his own. 

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