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I have been away for a while but there is still elitestockimages.
It has been programmed from scratch using php/mysql with a joomla shell around it, by reading all posts here about a stock guild, a union, and a unified search engine that should be under the control of the contributors only.

The idea was to offer sales links to existing sites, either stock or personal sites - and to break in into Google as super-search engine. What elitestockimages can offer is a one stop search portal over all participants and a single sales link wherever they like.

A portal with just links to personal sites won't score high in Google since it will be considered as a link farm. The buyer will not know where to go for what type of content. A buyer likes to see the options side by side, not by clicking multiple sites.

As the search engine is the key to any sales-oriented site, I put some algorithms in it, by default random. Since I wrote the site from scratch it's very easy to change the best match or whatever: view count, age, relevance, personal weights. The intention was to make the search engine wikied and totally open for the members.

The source of elitestockimages will also be semi-open and can be used for a single photographer too. I looked into Ktools/Photostore (which I have been promoting for long) of course, but I don't like the partial search engine and the priority that is given on images. Many RF sites have defective search engines, like CC, YAY and T3D. Moreover, Fotonaut said that they are working on a totally new version (overdue long) so it's not an immediate solution.

I don't know if there would be any interest in elitestockimages. For the time being I kept it out of Google. The basic idea though is that contributors have and always will have control over the algorithms and content.

'A portal with just links to personal sites won't score high in Google since it will be considered as a link farm. The buyer will not know where to go for what type of content. A buyer likes to see the options side by side, not by clicking multiple sites.'

Exactly.  It's effort that would better be directed towards something more than a page of links.  That was my point.

   1. Link to the portal from your online store homepage
   2. Put a link to the portal when a customer search on your site comes up with no results (we can help with the code there).
   3. Pay a small monthly fee to maintain the site and advertise it (20 US dollars per link per month).

I'd much rather prefer setting up an affiliate program than doing the above. I hope that helps as far as constructive input.

The search engine needs to be in full control of the contributors too. If you do a site-wide search on photodeck, photoshelter, smugmug, clustershot - you won't have any ranking between quality and snapshots.

Yup, if Photoshelter (etc) had some sort of smart quality/commercial value ranking system, and a functional search (with a pricing slider such as the one Veer has), they might be worth its price and be suitable "coop" alternatives.

Oh, and keyword spamming would have to be solved as well.

'The search engine needs to be in full control of the contributors too. If you do a site-wide search on photodeck, photoshelter, smugmug, clustershot - you won't have any ranking between quality and snapshots.'

Right, well that's one problem with any co-op idea.  If you want people to come and use it, it must present quality. While everyone thinks their stuff is awesome, there'd be no control over innumerable sunsets or peoples snaps.  And as Groucho said, sort of,' I'm not sure I'd want to be a part of any club that would have me'.

I believe in good old fashioned dictators. It can't be popular as you see what types of critiques StockFresh got and why. Part of the coop system would to be coopt members too, or you could limit the images to those that had significant sales on the external sites. The point of a coop is that it is wikied and limited. An aggregation site won't have access to sales numbers but you can rely on their QC. If not, you're just another stock site.

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'The search engine needs to be in full control of the contributors too. If you do a site-wide search on photodeck, photoshelter, smugmug, clustershot - you won't have any ranking between quality and snapshots.'

Right, well that's one problem with any co-op idea.  If you want people to come and use it, it must present quality. While everyone thinks their stuff is awesome, there'd be no control over innumerable sunsets or peoples snaps.  And as Groucho said, sort of,' I'm not sure I'd want to be a part of any club that would have me'.

As I said, we won't accept everyone. We will review the sites before adding them.

Quote from: FD-regular on January 22, 2011, 13:03

A portal with just links to personal sites won't score high in Google since it will be considered as a link farm.

it won't be just a link farm if the all the sites it links to actually links back to it

Just a bunch of reciprocal links won't accomplish anything in terms of rank.

'As I said, we won't accept everyone. We will review the sites before adding them.'

Ah, so now we're turning a bit elitist?  Only people that you like can participate?  What qualities is the 'review' looking for?

What kind of 'advertising' are you planning on doing for this link page?  Facebook ads?  Google ads?  I'd imagine you need a more thorough plan for prospectives before they'll participate.

Elena,

I applaud you for taking the leap and trying to get something like this going, I run my own site but till now have done nothing to market it other than referring buyers who have contacted me via regular sites, and yet I am seeing more and more sales coming in through my own site, There is definitely a market for something like this.

My concerns are similar to a couple already mentioned, namely:

- I'd only be interested if there was a central search that subsequently sends the buyer to the site for the image they found.
- Plus, as bad as it sounds, a serious concern of mine would be my images being mixed in amongst unregulated content, I think that could do more harm than good for both me and the site you're creating.

I echo Christians comments, it's a start and whether it works or not anything that raises the knowledge of buyers going direct to the creator is good in my book.

The content will be highly regulated. I wouldn't share my advertising money with something that won't sell.  The central search will not be available at first, but we might be able to implement it later.

By the way, KTools partial search is easily fixable. Check my site www.elenaphoto.com - we don't have a partial search. Plus we made a few simple  tweaks that makes it better. We would be able to share this knowledge with our participants.