Author Topic: New proposal from MostPhotos. What's your take? (Read 7081 times)

astrocady · « **on:** August 15, 2008, 18:25 »

Arian here from Mostphotos.com.

We have been in the planing stage for trough the summer and we are now ready to start implementing some new features and marketing campaigns.

We will be working hard to improve the number of sales from now to December. And we need to hit some key points in order to that.
* Increase the over all traffic
* Create better market awareness of our brand
* Get more links to the site to improve our search engine rankings.

We have been trying to come up with ideas on how to market our brand without spending large amounts of cash and we came up with a method.

We can offer a API solution that will allow users of big blog services like wordpress.com and blogspot to search our database directly from their blogtools.
They can then pick an image and use it on their blog. NOT for commercial purposes.

We will deliver a lowres image with a reduced watermark containing the photographers name and the address to his or her profile at mostphotos.
The image will also be linked to the view page of the photo.
This will be free of charge for the blogger that gets some nice images to use in the blog post and we get publicity and a new way for the photographers to show off their work.
We can also provide a list of links to all the blogs that are using your images so you can check it out.

So we need your input on this feature, would anyone be interested in letting us use their photos for this service?
There will be an opt-in so we wont force anyone to do this.

Please post your comments in this forum thread:
http://www.mostphotos.com/forumviewthread.php?thread=1523

Best regards
Arian Barhami
Ceo Mostphotos.com

RT · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2008, 18:44 »

For a site with such a low sales volume are you sure it's a good idea to be giving images away for nothing!

vphoto · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2008, 18:55 »

Quote from: RT on August 15, 2008, 18:44

For a site with such a low sales volume are you sure it's a good idea to be giving images away for nothing!

RT, are you one of those who would not give even an image away to hungry, poor, afflicted with leprosy microstocks?

astrocady · « **Reply #3 on:** August 15, 2008, 19:14 »

I'm really in no way qualified to pipe in on this, but I will anyway. It looks to me that there are a LOT of "artistic amateur" photographers on this site. They take lovely pictures, but many or incorrectly processes and many don't have a lot of commercial value. I'm thinking MP is hoping to tap into these for the blog thing, which if I'm reading between the lines correctly, is primarily aimed at getting as many links to their site as possible to increase their search engine placement. I can actually see this working.

Then again, I'm really new to all this and definitely fall into the amateur category, at least when compaired to most on this board, so I may be way off base.

DanP68 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 15, 2008, 19:33 »

Unless you want to value your own work at 0, then I advise you not to do this.

astrocady · « **Reply #5 on:** August 15, 2008, 20:23 »

Quote from: DanP68 on August 15, 2008, 19:33

Unless you want to value your own work at 0, then I advise you not to do this.

I wouldn't -- but I think there are plenty there who will.

Pixart · « **Reply #6 on:** August 15, 2008, 20:24 »

Doesn't Featurepics offer this? Hasn't driven much traffic there that I'm aware of.

dnavarrojr · « **Reply #7 on:** August 15, 2008, 21:02 »

Double your referral bonus for contributors who get new users to buy their images from your site. Let them do the legwork for you.

sharpshot · « **Reply #8 on:** August 16, 2008, 03:48 »

I think this is a bad idea. Other sites charge people for blog size images. Selling them for 1 euro would be OK but I am not giving them away.

The best way to drive buyers to the site is through advertising in design magazines. All the successful sites do this and those that have failed tried other ways that didn't work.

Phil · « **Reply #9 on:** August 16, 2008, 07:36 »

I wondered briefly about this but got sidetracked with StockXpert.

featurepics do this, as an opt-in I think, but I have no idea how effective it is.

I could see it would generate traffic but

there is already a market for blog images (although cheap)
I see it more hitting a home user market rather than business, but mostphotos is midstock which is more business pricing ?
but then it may generate more interest in the artistic images rather than standard stock images?

so I dont know

imageZebra · « **Reply #10 on:** August 17, 2008, 03:44 »

Quote

The best way to drive buyers to the site is through advertising in design magazines. All the successful sites do this and those that have failed tried other ways that didn't work.

I have to agree, free images wold only attract people who is looking for free stuff.

Per my experience, serious byers don't look for free stuff; but look for image they need. And when they find that image, they pay.

MostPhotos need to advertise to byers; advertising and design magazines is way to go.

louoates · « **Reply #11 on:** August 17, 2008, 09:55 »

Aye, here's the rub:
"We have been trying to come up with ideas on how to market our brand without spending large amounts of cash..."

Why is it that "spending cash" = waste? Wise marketers certainly don't look at advertising as anything other than a good investment. Yet we see lots of these newbie micro sites looking for some magical way to generate traffic and sales. These new guys on the block are not only ignorant in marketing basics they have such shallow pockets they have nearly zero chances against the entrenched sites. Notable example: Lucky Oliver. Lots of misguided enthusiasm that did nothing but drain away what little resources they had. Another misguided site: SnapVillage. Some spending but on atrocious advertising.

Next misguided site: Yay. That's because the initial intent was to drive traffic with "non-traditional" methods. Meaning, I think, let's not "spend" much cash. Looks good on a government-backed marketing proposal I suppose.

Maybe the best idea is to require some marketing know-how from anyone attempting to start a micro site. Better yet, require a favorable vote from potential contributors on their resumes and business plans.

Sorry to be pessimistic, Most, but when I hear such marketing blather it just gives me another reason not to bother uploading.

Magnum · « **Reply #12 on:** August 17, 2008, 10:45 »

It´s sooooo easy standing beside telling everybody else what to do

But before throwing 100000$ in some magazines, without knowing it to pay off, I would also try some other ways.

But this one is a bit bad, I agree.

Microbius · « **Reply #13 on:** August 17, 2008, 11:47 »

Baaaaad idea.

madelaide · « **Reply #14 on:** August 17, 2008, 18:30 »

I think it could be set not simply as opting in/out your entire portfolio, but you could choose let's say 5 images to be part of this.

I'm almost 100% sure I'm opted out from this at FP.

Regards,
Adelaide

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Author Topic: New proposal from MostPhotos. What's your take? (Read 7081 times)

astrocady

RT

vphoto

astrocady

DanP68

astrocady

Pixart

dnavarrojr

sharpshot

Phil

imageZebra

louoates

Magnum

Microbius

madelaide

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