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Author Topic: For people who sell their own images - invitation to join Stock Image Portal  (Read 24996 times)

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« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2011, 12:02 »
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Interesting idea. More links are always good. As a just launched site though, the value doesn't really seem to be there. Paying for a link to a page that has no page rank and sharing my customers with a new site doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. I'd prefer to partner with someone more established. I'll keep you bookmarked and see how it develops though.


« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2011, 12:31 »
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« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 14:46 by attator »

« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2011, 12:54 »
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great idea, and congrats for trying to actually do something rather than just the endless complaining discussions that get us no where.  good to see someone with the spirit of independence.  Can't wait to hear how this project evolves over time. I am still confused as to the layout of the main link webpage will there be a search box that will help direct you to portfolios that specialize in business, medical, nature, etc. photos. or will be people have to just click through a hundred different websites with different layouts to find the images they are looking for.  I understand Rome was not built in a day just trying to understand how someone who does get directed to the site will then be directed to a specific portfolio or will the links just be grouped by categories?  Wishing you much luck, anything that helps us not be reliant on other agencies for sales is always a good thing!

« Reply #28 on: January 22, 2011, 13:03 »
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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.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2011, 13:07 by FD-regular »

WarrenPrice

« Reply #29 on: January 22, 2011, 13:24 »
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I have a personal site but no store front.  I'm sure it is possible to create one with searchable data base but lost my designer/developer to a paying gig.
I tried smug mug through there limited trial but didn't see that working.  Question is: could something like smug mug work as a store front to link with the discussed portal?

« Reply #30 on: January 22, 2011, 13:29 »
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'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.

« Reply #31 on: January 22, 2011, 13:46 »
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Exactly.  It's effort that would better be directed towards something more than a page of links.  That was my point.
There are many photography link farms around and they score very low as such. Google punishes link farms. You need a side by side comparison of content as a consequence of a search.

You will need to reflect your comps (not thumbs) to Google Images, Bing, etc... surrounded by description, keywords, title, with all possible image SEO tricks. Starting from the comp on the aggregation site, you need just one click to the external sales page so you don't need to bother with QC, carts, licenses.

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.

« Reply #32 on: January 22, 2011, 13:49 »
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Quote
   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.

« Reply #33 on: January 22, 2011, 14:00 »
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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'.

Fotonaut

« Reply #34 on: January 22, 2011, 14:05 »
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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.
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.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2011, 14:09 by Fotonaut »

RT


« Reply #35 on: January 22, 2011, 14:12 »
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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.

« Reply #36 on: January 22, 2011, 14:32 »
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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'.
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.

« Reply #37 on: January 22, 2011, 14:50 »
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« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 14:46 by attator »

« Reply #38 on: January 22, 2011, 14:57 »
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« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 14:45 by attator »

« Reply #39 on: January 22, 2011, 14:58 »
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Interesting idea. More links are always good. As a just launched site though, the value doesn't really seem to be there. Paying for a link to a page that has no page rank and sharing my customers with a new site doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. I'd prefer to partner with someone more established. I'll keep you bookmarked and see how it develops though.

Cthoman, I love your site and would love to have you on board. However, please consider this - if I already had an established site with high traffic, would I be asking for just 20 dollars to plug your link in? The cheapest relevant adverts we found are about 250 dollars, and that's the bottom.
Plus, you're not sharing your customers in this scenario. You are redirecting customers to other sites in case they don't find what they are looking for in your portfolio. So you're not losing a sale - you wouldn't have made it in the first place.

« Reply #40 on: January 22, 2011, 15:02 »
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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.

« Reply #41 on: January 22, 2011, 15:21 »
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Cthoman, I love your site and would love to have you on board. However, please consider this - if I already had an established site with high traffic, would I be asking for just 20 dollars to plug your link in? The cheapest relevant adverts we found are about 250 dollars, and that's the bottom.
Plus, you're not sharing your customers in this scenario. You are redirecting customers to other sites in case they don't find what they are looking for in your portfolio. So you're not losing a sale - you wouldn't have made it in the first place.

All understandable. I just wasn't crazy about the link exchange and link redirecting part and I didn't see the value in paying $20 a month at this time.  If there was a test drive or it was based on affiliates, I'd be much more likely to sign up. I like the idea and I'll definitely keep an eye on it, but I have some other things I'd prefer to pursue first. That's just my 2 cents. I'm often wrong and am prone to changing my mind.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2011, 15:23 by cthoman »


« Reply #42 on: January 22, 2011, 15:23 »
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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.

« Reply #43 on: January 22, 2011, 15:23 »
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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

Thank you. I am not proposing just a link farm. I am proposing a - simple at this point - system to achieve 2 main things:
1. Give our customers more choice so they could actually purchase the image they need and come back if they need more.
2. Pull our resources to be able to do some broad advertising.

The customers will be able to do a search of descriptions on the portal site (it's not a rocket science to implement) providing we can get to hundreds of entries (which I doubt, not at this point).

About Google ranking - I have no ambitions to beat Getty in Google ranking, are you guys insane? We don't have a chance to directly compete with big guys and we won't even try. We are talking here about small niche market of conscientious buyers who would want to purchase from artists directly and willing to make a few extra mouse clicks to do that.
We won't make millions doing that. But we can make some money if we pull our resources.

I can go ahead with few people that already contacted me and put more of my own money into promoting a site and build it up and drive traffic to it. You can sit back and watch me do it. But if you decide to join a year later when the site is "offering more value" - well, it won't be 20 bucks a month to join, hope you understand. More value will cost more.

« Reply #44 on: January 22, 2011, 15:27 »
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'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.

« Reply #45 on: January 22, 2011, 15:31 »
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« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 14:45 by attator »

« Reply #46 on: January 22, 2011, 15:34 »
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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.

« Reply #47 on: January 22, 2011, 15:40 »
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'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.

Sean - when you give me a link to your site, I'll answer your questions. Right now it's a mute point - you are discussing things for the sake of discussing things. I respect your work but I am bit confused about your position here - why do you care?

I am not taking anyone's money right now. I am asking people who'd be interested to express their interest to me. Once I have enough potential participants, there will be details,  but they won't be discussed publicly on this forum. Common sense, no?

« Reply #48 on: January 22, 2011, 15:46 »
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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.

« Reply #49 on: January 22, 2011, 15:47 »
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I'm interested Elena. You can contact me via PM for more details. Thanks, Ljupco


 

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