When you put it that way, yes good information would be what are other people asking for their material. That way we could stay in line with market norms.

Part I see as potentially self defeating. Someone will have the dumb idea, that lower price means more sales, and start undercutting. The whole problem with Micro today is the "race to the bottom" who can sell for less and pay us the least, and still have good material for buyers.

I've seen it in the industry of manufacturing, we can all see it in many consumer retail outlets. Heck, do you know anyone who doesn't shop price in the Internet for more expensive items? Competition is fierce! Might as well admit, we are included in that world marketplace and the image supply competition. Price isn't the only determination of why someone buys something.

Quality beats price for most discerning buyers. People selling cons, crap and junk, will sell on price alone. In my case, the prices I plan on setting for the SY site will be based on the end user value, not my cost, or anyone else's prices. I'm going to be selling less artistic, less creative than most of you. Hopefully functional, simple and useful products.

What I'm getting at is this. Price by size alone, doesn't always apply. Neither does, a market survey of asking prices, when there are different standards, subjects and product creation expenses.

But knowing the competing market and prices is still a good bit of knowledge. More info, I agree.

Hey, more info can't hurt. And I really appreciate that your are not "to dictate people's choices." One day, I hope, this will prove advantageous for SY (and I am talking sales here).

As people start to network up with each other, I have one little fear that I thought I would get others opinions on.

The beauty of selling direct is we set our own prices. The fear of selling direct is that we set our own prices...

Eg: buyer comes to my site, sees a nice isolated apple, thinks 'yep, $20 for large size, thats what I'd pay at iStock, if not more' adds it to cart. Then he notices one of my network partners also has a nice isolated apple. Checks that one out, virtually same image, but it only costs $5 for the large, $1 for small.

Why on earth will he buy my one?

I guess what Im saying is I think we need to look out for eachother, not just ourselves when we choose our pricing, so that we don't go too low. Or there will be a lot of networked partners dropped and hurt feelings etc etc. I know I will be highly reluctant to add a network partner if I see their pricing is way too low.

What do you all think?

This is what they call free market capitalism. The market will sort this out over some time. Participate / influence the system by adjusting your prices, and see how it works out for you...

Quote from: farbled on April 18, 2013, 09:26

I'm in the same boat. Most of my stuff is hard to find. My issue will be finding suitable sites to link to that have things in common.

Doesn't it make more sense to network with people who have images which are different than yours? I shoot a lot of sports, action, and food photography. I rarely shoot People/Lifestyle, or Industrial. I want to network with people who fill niches which I don't have much of, so that searchers are finding a better mix of images between myself and the network.

This will be one of the interesting finding of the network as it develops.  What images will people buy from SY and what images will people buy from the regular agencies.  My "hunch" is that specialized images such as farbled's minerals might do better then general lifestyle images.

Quote from: farbled on April 18, 2013, 09:26

I'm in the same boat. Most of my stuff is hard to find. My issue will be finding suitable sites to link to that have things in common.

Doesn't it make more sense to network with people who have images which are different than yours? I shoot a lot of sports, action, and food photography. I rarely shoot People/Lifestyle, or Industrial. I want to network with people who fill niches which I don't have much of, so that searchers are finding a better mix of images between myself and the network.

that was my first thought, but it really only works when people come to your site looking for something you don't have, which isn't going to be the case if traffic is mostly thru search engines.  so if someone doesn't find what they like on your site, they're more likely to find it on a similar site, since they wont be interested in the topics you don't cover.  the aim should be to keep buyers in the network as long as possible

I've been thinking and rethinking about who and how to network with my site. There's so many different ways to look at it. Luckily, I can change or add or take away as needed or after seeing what works and what doesn't. Ultimately, if I can find industrial sites or other niche sites (like jewelry or macro perhaps) then that would work for me. Otherwise, I think any quality portfolio would be good to link to.

One of the best things about self management is that nothing has to be carved in stone thanks to Leo and his wonderful theme. I have no doubt my network settings will change more than my pricing over time.

I shoot a lot of food but have no people in my portfolio.  I think a good match would be someone who shoots food but has lots of options with people eating, preparing food, etc.

Do you actually make the food? I'll take some - even if someone has to take a picture of me eating! I love the food shots the best btw.

 

Quote from: Leo on May 17, 2013, 23:05

Quote from: klsbear on May 17, 2013, 22:57

I shoot a lot of food but have no people in my portfolio.  I think a good match would be someone who shoots food but has lots of options with people eating, preparing food, etc.

Do you actually make the food? I'll take some - even if someone has to take a picture of me eating! I love the food shots the best btw.

  Thanks!  We could work out a deal - fly me to Hawaii and I'll cook and take pics of you eating.   I didn't bake the bread but that is on my list of things I'd like to tackle.   I started with arranged ingredients but I've been trying to branch out more into prepared foods like the shrimp cocktail and guacamole shots.

eventually i'm planning to get my sym site linked to non-photo areas of my other websites, eg my recipe sites:

http://cascoly.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Recipes-from-Around-the-World
and  http://cascoly.com/trav/recipes.asp

if you (or other food photographers) want to add additional links that would be easy to do