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General Stock Discussion / Re: You'll hear about a new site soon - stockphoto.com domain story
« on: December 17, 2013, 09:03 »
Hi everyone,
I'm Jon and I'm the one that bought the 'Stockphoto.com' domain via the Flippa marketplace.
Appreciate the kind comments but I also acknowledge all questions (and doubts). All concerns raised are reasonable and valid - I would have done the same.
I am the first to admit that you would have to be at least a little bit mad to pay that much money for a mere domain name. But I can assure you that the Flippa article was written to provide a tongue-in-cheek overview and as such, it does gloss over many details of my plan for the business - a long-term plan.
However, I'm not a stock photographer and so an important part of my day-to-day routine is to make sure I stay as up-to-date as I can on what works/doesn't work for you, via industry blogs and forums such as Tyler's here.
I surmise that there are two main avenues for the the stock photographer to market his/her portfolio. Firstly through marketplaces like SS, iStock, Stocksy etc. And the second, directly via a personal site. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses (documented extensively in this forum).
It is my hope that Stockphoto.com bridges the gap a little between the perceived lack of control experienced at the established marketplaces (commission rates, submissions etc), and the problem of attracting profitable amounts of targeted traffic at the personal website end of the spectrum.
Stockphoto.com's sole asset is its ability to consistently attract targeted web traffic. I've owned the domain for a year now and unless Google Analytics is lying to me, I know this to be a fact. With a test portfolio of 57,000 images also marketed at established marketplaces, priced at the same levels as that at those marketplaces, I have been able to validate that we are indeed able to attract visitors as well as getting them to buy (for a given level of quality and price). I even have a little profit left over after paying commissions, webhosting and all other expenses in running the business.
So I'm now slowly kicking on with growing the small amount of inventory I have.
I absolutely agree with the following sentiments:
- it's the ugliest website this side of the www
- it's so clunky (too many steps from search to download)
- it's got zero functionality like lightboxes etc
- this guy is not a stock photographer and lacks the perspective and understanding of one
- it's only got one contributor (...for the moment)
I'm working on it
It's, still, practically a test site.
Again, thanks to Tyler for allowing me to be a member of this community (I've been happily lurking here for almost a year now). I'm very pleased to be here and look forward to learning the ropes from all of you.
Cheers,
Jon
I'm Jon and I'm the one that bought the 'Stockphoto.com' domain via the Flippa marketplace.
Appreciate the kind comments but I also acknowledge all questions (and doubts). All concerns raised are reasonable and valid - I would have done the same.
I am the first to admit that you would have to be at least a little bit mad to pay that much money for a mere domain name. But I can assure you that the Flippa article was written to provide a tongue-in-cheek overview and as such, it does gloss over many details of my plan for the business - a long-term plan.
However, I'm not a stock photographer and so an important part of my day-to-day routine is to make sure I stay as up-to-date as I can on what works/doesn't work for you, via industry blogs and forums such as Tyler's here.
I surmise that there are two main avenues for the the stock photographer to market his/her portfolio. Firstly through marketplaces like SS, iStock, Stocksy etc. And the second, directly via a personal site. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses (documented extensively in this forum).
It is my hope that Stockphoto.com bridges the gap a little between the perceived lack of control experienced at the established marketplaces (commission rates, submissions etc), and the problem of attracting profitable amounts of targeted traffic at the personal website end of the spectrum.
Stockphoto.com's sole asset is its ability to consistently attract targeted web traffic. I've owned the domain for a year now and unless Google Analytics is lying to me, I know this to be a fact. With a test portfolio of 57,000 images also marketed at established marketplaces, priced at the same levels as that at those marketplaces, I have been able to validate that we are indeed able to attract visitors as well as getting them to buy (for a given level of quality and price). I even have a little profit left over after paying commissions, webhosting and all other expenses in running the business.
So I'm now slowly kicking on with growing the small amount of inventory I have.
I absolutely agree with the following sentiments:
- it's the ugliest website this side of the www
- it's so clunky (too many steps from search to download)
- it's got zero functionality like lightboxes etc
- this guy is not a stock photographer and lacks the perspective and understanding of one
- it's only got one contributor (...for the moment)
I'm working on it
It's, still, practically a test site. Again, thanks to Tyler for allowing me to be a member of this community (I've been happily lurking here for almost a year now). I'm very pleased to be here and look forward to learning the ropes from all of you.
Cheers,
Jon
