Author Topic: Is it possible to launch own subscription site? (Read 9959 times)

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #25 on:** August 20, 2019, 10:55 »

Quote from: Shelma1 on August 20, 2019, 10:37

Having worked in ad agencies for 30+ years (and sitting in one now), I’d say your chances of calling an ad agency and stopping in for a chat are zero to nil. You’re dealing with huge corporate structures with a thousand layers of approval and set budgets and approved vendors with legal indemnification in place and millions of images. Even established custom-only photographers and illustrators with well-known, seasoned reps are having a hard time now. Gone are the days of a fabulous catered lunch spent flipping through gorgeous photography and illustration portfolios...sadly.

+ to that, the world of International marketing and sales has changed along with the Internet becoming dominant.

AKA

That's why I said, test market, target best possibilities, make personal contact and see. I don't want to say "no way Jose'" but I'm pretty sure, that's the reality of the situation. I still support people with ideas who try, even when they fail. Slim is still slim, but I'd agree with you, very low probability that an individual could start their own sub agency as a home style small business, and make a profit.

morfon · « **Reply #26 on:** August 20, 2019, 15:29 »

@charged any chance you share a link to your portfolio?

charged · « **Reply #27 on:** August 21, 2019, 02:00 »

A lot you have shared your thoughts and I appreciate it.

I wanted to respond to a few questions in particular…

Yes perhaps $5 sub is too low, but who knows. I’m not a marketplace with hundreds of million of images, whereas Shutterstock and others are. Yes a two buck site for each download would also work. Though the initial thought was looking for a way to draw traffic/customers to me.

Regarding selling myself short at $5 sub plan. Obviously that amount is silly, BUT unfortunately the entire industry is forever moving downwards in price. We all understand the only way to compete now is by price. There is no reason for a graphic designer to come to my site if it isn’t a lot cheaper. Otherwise their time is better spent going to Shutterstock or wherever.

I use to be a graphic designer. I’ve worked for 3 different very large advertising firms in New York City. I used to buy stock photos while I was a graphic designer. I have a good understanding what graphic designers are thinking when they buy images. Given how busy I used to be as a graphic designer, I would never go to someone’s personal site to find images, it would be a waste of my time. I was very busy and I worked on multiple accounts. Thus I already understand the bar to get busy graphic designers to go to a non-mega big stock site is quite high. Hence the thought of $5 sub plan. Plus look at the math, 4,000 accounts at $5 per month is $20,000. Which is more than I make now.

Regarding cold calling Ad agencies. I use to work for large agencies. For the biggest agencies, I could just stand outside on the road with a sign and business cards to give out. For the smaller agencies, it would be easy to just walk in and talk to front desk and drop of some cards. I can also reach out to very old contacts from the past. Though the most time effective way to market is to get on design blogs.

Anyway, I started this thread to sound off thoughts in my head and to see what other’s opinion might be. It is fairly obvious to me that the odds me trying it out are close to zero at the moment. Mostly because I’d have to cancel the exclusive contract to try it out and the drop in income would be too much for me to bare. Though perhaps in 2 years time I might be in a better position to test it out. That is when an unrelated investment (non-stock photo) that I’ve made in might bare fruit, and if so, it should pay out quite nicely.

Dave · « **Reply #28 on:** August 22, 2019, 00:42 »

"I earn enough in stock to be equivalent to the average professional white collar full time office job in the United States", then forget about your own site shoot more images, concentrate on your core business which to my mind is shooting stock.
It is a full time job just running a site let alone promoting it and then shooting NEW images because that is what you will need.
A couple of years ago there was a Finish/Swede, that had over 400 thousand images online, he had a whole studio behind him and he pumped out images full of people all model released, I think he was called Yuri Acor. He had his images on every stock library.

ShadySue · « **Reply #29 on:** August 22, 2019, 04:09 »

Quote from: Dave on August 22, 2019, 00:42

A couple of years ago there was a ~~Finish/Swede~~,

Dane

Quote

that had over 400 thousand images online, he had a whole studio behind him and he pumped out images full of people all model released, I think he was called Yuri Acor. He had his images on every stock library.

He has a large team (over 100 in 2012, according to Wikipedia) of shooters, retouchers, support staff and lawyer/s based in South Africa. He started his own site, https://peopleimages.com, and also negotiated a deal with Getty whereby he still submits to them and has faux-exclusive status on iStock
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/yuri_arcurs?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=yuri_arcurs
https://www.istockphoto.com/nz/photos/yuri-arcurs?license=rf&assettype=image&sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=yuri%20arcurs

If you're (@OP) a really big hitter, I guess you could try to negotiate your own deal with Getty.

ShadySue · « **Reply #30 on:** August 22, 2019, 04:53 »

Quote from: charged on August 21, 2019, 02:00

Regarding selling myself short at $5 sub plan. Obviously that amount is silly, BUT unfortunately the entire industry is forever moving downwards in price. We all understand the only way to compete now is by price. There is no reason for a graphic designer to come to my site if it isn’t a lot cheaper. Otherwise their time is better spent going to Shutterstock or wherever.

A lot then would depend on how wide, as well as deep your portfolio is. One day a designer who has a sub with you may need an image you don't have, e.g. a subject or location you don't cover, then they'll go to SS / iS / Adobe and they might decide to take their next sub out there for the breadth of cover. If your images are unique and in demand enough that their need for these images could not be satisficed by the big names, they might hold a little $5/month sub with you in parallel with their sub to a bigger site, otherwise although $5 is a tiny amount, why would they bother?

georgep7 · « **Reply #31 on:** August 22, 2019, 05:43 »

The "on demand" and "sameday" services could save the day.
The question is how much should one price to cover this kind of "stock" services.

Shelma1 · « **Reply #32 on:** August 22, 2019, 06:07 »

Quote from: charged on August 21, 2019, 02:00

A lot you have shared your thoughts and I appreciate it.

I wanted to respond to a few questions in particular…

Yes perhaps $5 sub is too low, but who knows. I’m not a marketplace with hundreds of million of images, whereas Shutterstock and others are. Yes a two buck site for each download would also work. Though the initial thought was looking for a way to draw traffic/customers to me.

Regarding selling myself short at $5 sub plan. Obviously that amount is silly, BUT unfortunately the entire industry is forever moving downwards in price. We all understand the only way to compete now is by price. There is no reason for a graphic designer to come to my site if it isn’t a lot cheaper. Otherwise their time is better spent going to Shutterstock or wherever.

I use to be a graphic designer. I’ve worked for 3 different very large advertising firms in New York City. I used to buy stock photos while I was a graphic designer. I have a good understanding what graphic designers are thinking when they buy images. Given how busy I used to be as a graphic designer, I would never go to someone’s personal site to find images, it would be a waste of my time. I was very busy and I worked on multiple accounts. Thus I already understand the bar to get busy graphic designers to go to a non-mega big stock site is quite high. Hence the thought of $5 sub plan. Plus look at the math, 4,000 accounts at $5 per month is $20,000. Which is more than I make now.

Regarding cold calling Ad agencies. I use to work for large agencies. For the biggest agencies, I could just stand outside on the road with a sign and business cards to give out. For the smaller agencies, it would be easy to just walk in and talk to front desk and drop of some cards. I can also reach out to very old contacts from the past. Though the most time effective way to market is to get on design blogs.

Anyway, I started this thread to sound off thoughts in my head and to see what other’s opinion might be. It is fairly obvious to me that the odds me trying it out are close to zero at the moment. Mostly because I’d have to cancel the exclusive contract to try it out and the drop in income would be too much for me to bare. Though perhaps in 2 years time I might be in a better position to test it out. That is when an unrelated investment (non-stock photo) that I’ve made in might bare fruit, and if so, it should pay out quite nicely.

If you’ve worked in advertising and know people in the business and have had success standing outside handing out cards, why would you not try to get custom shoots? I would think that would be much more lucrative than selling $5 sub plans to 4,000 people.