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Author Topic: "Because photographers don't need middlemen."  (Read 26422 times)

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« on: February 12, 2010, 11:57 »
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Anyone know anything about photodeck?

http://www.photodeck.com/


« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2010, 12:21 »
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First I've heard, interesting, maybe.

« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2010, 12:22 »
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Quote
First I've heard

Me, too, but I'll be keeping an eye on them for sure! Thanks for the heads-up.

« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2010, 12:28 »
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So, it's either something like PhotoShelter, or a hosted per person software thing?  We'll see...

« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2010, 12:44 »
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The Photodeck domain is owned by Jef Maion, a successful outdoor and landscape photographer, so will be interesting to see what he comes up with.

http://www.maion.com/photography/index.html

« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2010, 12:58 »
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The Photodeck domain is owned by Jef Maion, a successful outdoor and landscape photographer, so will be interesting to see what he comes up with.

http://www.maion.com/photography/index.html


Yes that looks interesting, thanks.

« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2010, 13:57 »
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It will be interesting to see what develops.  Thanks for the link.  There are already a number of options for selling yourself available - getting the buyers however is a bigger problem.

alias

« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2010, 14:17 »
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Important to warn potential clients of the dangers of going outside of the agency model unless 2 issues are specifically addressed.

There needs to be some system in place by which any buyers are indemnified against the risk of using pirated content or content which is not properly released. So the agency or new model needs to be able to supply a guarantee. That means that the agency or new model has strict systems in place - and insurance.

It is not enough, for example, to make the client responsible for the content. Any new model will quickly fail unless it can offer buyers something equal and better to what they are offered by an agency model.

3rd less important issue is quality control.

« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2010, 15:52 »
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I get the sense that this will be more geared towards RM licensing than RF. I've been debating buying a Cluster Shot pro account and giving that a whirl. The Cluster Shot license reads almost like an extended license, so I would probably price my images fairly high on there ($50-$100).

« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2010, 22:01 »
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I get the feeling it's just going to be a "micro script for sale" website. Holding page is not very impressive. Who knows maybe he is a php genius though and the product will rock.

« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2010, 22:56 »
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Now as it looks like it maybe be between my balls...
Who cares about it?!?

« Reply #11 on: February 13, 2010, 07:03 »
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Reminds me of clustershot's pro account, small fee with your own store front. Small commission to process sales.

alias

« Reply #12 on: February 13, 2010, 09:11 »
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Reminds me of clustershot's pro account, small fee with your own store front. Small commission to process sales.

Where are you pulling the comparison from ? Other than the 'coming soon' page is there further information available somewhere else ?

« Reply #13 on: February 13, 2010, 10:29 »
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Reminds me of clustershot's pro account, small fee with your own store front. Small commission to process sales.

Where are you pulling the comparison from ? Other than the 'coming soon' page is there further information available somewhere else ?

Well if the site doesn't have any "middlemen", it sure needs to be financed in some other way. I can't figure out any other way than the photographer paying for the service (or maybe advertising).

WarrenPrice

« Reply #14 on: February 13, 2010, 11:36 »
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Reminds me of clustershot's pro account, small fee with your own store front. Small commission to process sales.

Where are you pulling the comparison from ? Other than the 'coming soon' page is there further information available somewhere else ?

Well if the site doesn't have any "middlemen", it sure needs to be financed in some other way. I can't figure out any other way than the photographer paying for the service (or maybe advertising).

This is off the subject but Perry's mention of "advertising" got me to thinking.  Aren't advertising dollars hard to come by lately? 

Leaf .. Have you noticed a slowdown in advertisers????


« Reply #15 on: February 13, 2010, 14:59 »
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Reminds me of clustershot's pro account, small fee with your own store front. Small commission to process sales.

Where are you pulling the comparison from ? Other than the 'coming soon' page is there further information available somewhere else ?

Well if the site doesn't have any "middlemen", it sure needs to be financed in some other way. I can't figure out any other way than the photographer paying for the service (or maybe advertising).

This is off the subject but Perry's mention of "advertising" got me to thinking.  Aren't advertising dollars hard to come by lately? 

Leaf .. Have you noticed a slowdown in advertisers????


I think my view on 'the advertising market' is about as extensive as someones view of the 'microstock market' with only 10 images.  That said - people still need to advertise no matter how bad the economy is.  The companies who actually do have money will seize the opportunity to advertise when the other companies are counting their pennies and cutting their spending.

A site 'without middle men' could be pretty easily funded by a pay to play account, or where they took a small % of commissions.  It would be quite small since they would only essentially have to cover server and programming expenses.  Photographers themselves would have to do the advertising.  The amount of buyers that are needed for the microstock model to work is really really high though - and for people to attract enough buyers to their little port would be almost impossible.  Big advertising $$ are needed I think to bring in enough buyers to make it worthwhile.  How (or if) they plan to solve that problem will be interesting to see.



« Reply #17 on: April 12, 2010, 14:10 »
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Because photographers don't need middlemen?

That's a bit like saying an inventor doesn't need Wal-Mart.  He can get by just fine hawking his widget on street corners.  He can keep 100% of his sales!  Yipee!

An incredibly naive notion.  Anyone with business sense understands the value of selling through an agency and how far back you'd be starting if you decided to just sell on your own.  It's nice to think you can keep (close to) 100% of the revenue from a sale, but how are you going to attract customers in the first place?  The agencies provide many services to us, some better than others, and some are more worth the chunks they take from our sales than others.  But unless you're a "name brand" with a lot of customers who chomp at the bit for you to post more images they can buy, you are better off in the agency model.

That's my two cents... or .36 cents after agency commissions.

« Reply #18 on: April 12, 2010, 14:18 »
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Jef, I'm interested in hearing more about PhotoDeck. I cruised your website, but don't see a lot of details on how much it will cost to set up my own website. Any more info you can share here?

« Reply #19 on: April 12, 2010, 14:35 »
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Is it only photographers that don't need middle men or can illustrators not have them too?  :) I've been looking at a couple of these make your own stock site systems, but I haven't been completely sold on any of them.

« Reply #20 on: April 12, 2010, 14:53 »
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Of course, there's always Flickr.  You can put up very small versions of your pics with watermarks on them, and encourage people to contact you to obtain the full size non-watermarked version.  I get asked multiple times a week, and I quote them a price that is similar to what they might pay at an agency.  I probably make about $50 a month doing this.  Plus I send them my referral link to Shutterstock, and earn another $10 - $50 a month through referrals.  Also, about once a month, my Flickr exposure leads to some custom work, in which a buyer wants an image edited a certain way, text added, or new pics done from scratch, so I earn an additional few hundred a month doing that as well.

« Reply #21 on: April 12, 2010, 15:27 »
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Of course, there's always Flickr.  You can put up very small versions of your pics with watermarks on them, and encourage people to contact you to obtain the full size non-watermarked version.  I get asked multiple times a week, and I quote them a price that is similar to what they might pay at an agency.  I probably make about $50 a month doing this.  Plus I send them my referral link to Shutterstock, and earn another $10 - $50 a month through referrals.  Also, about once a month, my Flickr exposure leads to some custom work, in which a buyer wants an image edited a certain way, text added, or new pics done from scratch, so I earn an additional few hundred a month doing that as well.

I sent you a sitemail about this, PD.

« Reply #22 on: April 12, 2010, 15:30 »
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Where images are stored? I notice that they have an option to use their e-commerce solution on my own site. I hope they put some info about this option.

« Reply #23 on: April 12, 2010, 17:30 »
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"Because photographers don't need middlemen."

Chuckle Chuckle .. this is a middleman service .. duh

« Reply #24 on: June 07, 2010, 09:19 »
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Today's email from PhotoDeck:

Thank you for being part of PhotoDeck Private BETA program.

We have received extremely positive feedback, and the suggestions
have been very valuable in helping us shape a great product. These are
exciting times!

What's next?

We will publicly open the BETA program within a couple of weeks. The
commercial launch is scheduled for July.

Note that PhotoDeck is ready to support real stock websites. In fact,
we have a few of them in full use already - so don't wait!

Pricing plans after commercial launch:

- All launch features with 30GB storage: $24.99 / month

- Limited customization and features, with 10GB storage: $9.99 /
month

No setup fee, and PhotoDeck takes no commission on sales that
originate on your website. Options for additional storage will be
available.

In case you missed it, we have deployed killer lightboxes, among
other features.

Tell us what you think, and help spread the word!

J-F Maion

PhotoDeck founder


 

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