Hi guys,

Some of you might remember that I posted in here months back about some questions regarding a self-hosted platform. Today we are launching our new self-hosted platform. But more importantly, we are also announcing a new product that we are planning to make available to all photographers out there that can change the way you showcase and sell your images.

To give you a bit of perspective, I�m going to take you back in time to about a year ago when I started looking for a solution to a problem: How could I license my images directly to my clients?

I felt like I needed a platform where I had 100% control. A place where I could curate my own work and make sure that my clients would see the pictures I felt best represented us. Also, when clients emailed me directly to purchase images, I felt frustrated when I had to then send them on to agencies who would take 70-85% of the royalties.

So I started researching different solutions to build a self-hosted platform. I wanted a site that looked great and was effective whilst easy to use and maintain. Plus, with a portfolio of more than 20 000 images, I needed something that made it super easy to upload and manage all these assets.

I quickly found that there wasn�t really any perfect platform out there that could do this. 

During my research, I stumbled upon Shopify. For those of you who don�t know, Shopify is an ecommerce platform that offers tons of customisation options. Shopify would provide me with the control that I was looking for, but it didn�t really seem to be built for handling thousands of digital products - and that was a big problem.

In our tests, we found out that to put our products on Shopify would take about 10-15 minutes per item. After a few calculations I realised that it would take me about 173 days of non-stop work to get my entire portfolio online. No thanks! I quickly but reluctantly abandoned this idea and went back to looking for another option. None of them felt right. I guess I had fallen in love with all the possibilities of Shopify.

One of the things that�s so great about Shopify is that it has its own app store that lets third-party developers make all kinds of features that you can install on your shop. This made me realise that there might be a way to make it work after all. What if we could make a tool that could automate the uploading process that would otherwise take me 173 days to do?

I met with a friend of mine who�s a super talented programmer just to get an idea of what it would take. He made it clear that it was no easy task. Something that looks so simple isn�t actually that simple when you have to make a computer do it. After some consideration, we decided to give it a try. We started building an app.

At the same time, there were other challenges. Shopify�s built-in themes were simply not made for browsing thousands of stock photos. By now I�d also looked through 100s of third-party themes out there with no luck in finding something that was just right.  So we also needed a storefront design built from scratch. I started asking around for talented Shopify designers and luckily found one who had previously created some of the most stunning Shopify shops that I�d seen. We teamed up and he started building the storefront design.

Fast forward to January 2019. It�s now been more than half a year since we began the process. A process that clearly proved to be more complicated than we anticipated at the beginning. But I believe we have created something really good. Something that enables photographers to use the power of the world�s leading ecommerce platform.

Our new store (http://store.jacoblund.com) was made possible entirely because of the app. We are not fully there yet - the app still needs tweaks and there are additional features we are planning to add. Soon we�ll invite a few people in for a beta testing program, so we can get more user feedback from other photographers.

If you are interested in the app or the beta testing program please visit http://pixify.landen.co.

Very best,
Jacob

The platform can be the most excellent out there, but in order to self-host, people need to understand that a huge marketing/advertising effort is required to bring customers to the site. Just because you build it, and the photographer builds it, doesn�t mean they will come. I don�t think photographers are looking to �showcase� their work...I am pretty sure most want sales. I tried three different platforms while I was knee deep into microstock. I spent so much time working on the site and finding ways to sell the images, there was no time to actually do what I enjoyed...taking photographs. Sure, there will be some who can afford to hire someone to do the website crap while they shoot, but not sure that represents the majority. But all the best to those who try.