MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Newbie Discussion => Topic started by: condra on October 14, 2015, 19:45
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Hey everyone.
Just wondering if you think it is important to have a consistent style or theme in your Shutterstock portfolio?
I shoot different styles including macro, bridal, conceptual. I was wondering if that would be a problem. Should my name and style as a contributor be "branded"?
Thanks for any thoughts on this
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Doubt it - unless your port is huge and outstanding I don't think buyers are interested in you - only images
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Sometimes variations help to have consistent sales throughout the year.
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Thanks for the replies. I really like the idea of being able to shoot different styles, and not need to worry about my own personal branding/marketing. :) yay
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Ellen Boughn wrote about branding yourself in her book "Microstock Money Shots" I don't think it is important as it might have been in the past. Every once in a while, I get 25-30 downloads all of the same model at the same time, but again, that is interest in my subject, not me. It does pay to put up a series. Even better, a series where each shot can stand alone or be put together to tell a story The big trick is to find subjects that are timely and under shot, not so easy anymore. Good Luck!
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Thanks so much
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Well, sure it's rather important. Correct categories also are.
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I think branding is more important if you're marketing your own website where buyers know to come to you for a specific subject. Buyers are going to places like SS to find the right image and I don't think they care about who the contributor is.
But I do think consistent style is important either for a portfolio or at least for each series of images. Some buyers will use multiple images for whatever campaign they're working on and usually want consistent style or tone. So that can make the difference between them buying several of your similarly styled images versus only buying one and then trying to find images from other contributors that fit the overall style of their campaign.
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i would say niche is more workable these days . as you keep reading about how come drop in sales by many older contributors, the silent contributors are seeing increase in sales. why? because they don't follow the crowd. it's much like the other stock market... in a crash, some still make money, if not more profits because they don't fall with the crowd.
in other words, the more you copy the top sellers, the more you fall when the sellers fall. still, i think it was yuri arcurs who said , if you copy us, we are already sellers, you are competing in a field which is already full of copycats.. (or something like that).
but if you shoot as ellen pointed out... things that tell a story , stand by itself, and things that are not so over published, you find yourself in an enviable position.
and with ss it is great because you don't have that silly thing where other sites show how well you are doing with number of dls . i think that is the secret today to winning..
if you do well, keep quiet... so no one will be copycat-ting you like mountains of ppl copy yuri, sjlocke, etc..
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I wouldn't bother. On SS, you can break your portfolio down into sets anyway... I have people, sport, wildlife etc. It's useful because you can track your sales by set.