very nice!

and its not someone, its actually a very famous person

.............  and it has obviously scared someone as they have posted a reply saying it won't work !  Little do they know.

Someone from the Alamy forum picked it up and posted there so I have responded to  some of their remarks and said they are welcome to come and visit us here.

Thanks for the update guys. Its worth mentioning in that forum (I don't have access) that modern marketing is not all its cracked up to be, kind of like airport security. Gives us a nice cozy little feeling...but in reality...

Ok, DO NOT say that. But its perfectly self-prolific

Just realised that the response I alluded to was not in the original post but this one http://rising.blackstar.com/a-photo-agency-managed-by-the-crowd.html#more-17873

That's a lot of fancy words for what boils down to an advertisement for another product.

I agree, its people commenting on something they havent seen or tried. I was critical in the beginning as well, then tried it and turned 180 degrees.

As Leo says, if it works for one person, then its working. For me its working, even if I dont get a sale, all I ever wanted was a website to at least showcase my images and offer the option to buy. I have that now. I am over the moon. I am so happy with my site. All I ever wanted, and didnt have to pay for any subscription package or cough up 300 euros for a software package.

Still trying to figure out what Tom was talking about... I asked for a more details in the replies.

Symbiostock needs exposure, so hopefully this will help.

A good flame war on a major site would be cool ( for exposure)       

What I understand is that Tom is generally talking about oversupply and dilution of images buyers want with masses of irrelevant images (produced by amateurs as if pros create relevant images only  ). He has a point. Symbiostock won't solve this issue, which is a general issue of the image market. However, so far all micro/midi/macro/boutique agencies are struggling providing just relevant content (and nothing else) to buyers. There's no easy solution. It's kind of far-fetched to construe Symbiostock's failure on these grounds. Because Symbiostock is a novel approach it will provide different results to a particular image search and thus might evolve into the answer to the problem Tom is talking about at least for a part of the image buyers. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I agree, a bit of controversy adds buzz. And that's good     

Edited: And Tom advertises his own answer, of course.

He seems to post about once a week, maybe that is how often he visits the site?

I had given a positive objective reply but it appears either its still in que or maybe it was deleted...dunno.

I gave one to. It went from pending to gone, so I think it may have been deleted. I thought it was pretty tame.

I don't define "junk" or "art", the buyers and the market does. I don't often critique others images, because they are doing something I'm not. I don't understand models with feathers in their hair waving a scarf in the wind. They probably don't shoot smoke and flames coming out of an exhaust pipe. 

What I was getting at was if someone floods their site with repetitive, substandard, or low interesting materials, the buyers will vote with their mouse, by clicking and never coming back. A good site will get remembered and bookmarked. Self moderation is the best moderation.

So while someone might want Multi-Gender, Multi-Cultural, Business Handshake, I'm never going to shoot it. It could be very interesting to an advertiser. My idea is every site needs to have a direction and identity of it's own and can't be everything for everyone. We have Shutterstock, Alamy and others to do that.

If a buyer comes and sees 300 shots of my visit to the botanical gardens, poorly edited for content, they will flee. My idea which has been the same since I started in micro, is Less Is More. Less keywords but carefully chosen for accuracy and matching the content. Don't add irrelevant keywords that just tend to piss off buyers. Spam your own site and you just sent a customer away.

Less agencies, but pick the ones with the greatest returns (for what I shoot) and edit what I upload to the best images, not a flood of redundant variations, inch by inch. And if and when I get the time for Symbiostock, I'll follow the same plan.

The site will be an attempt to display a limited number of types of images, not a morass of disconnected helter skelter shots. Limited doesn't me exclusionary, it just means selective. If I happen to have a good shot of a turtle and no other animal photos, I'll put it in. But I won't add the dozen other turtle shots "just in case" someone wants a different angle.

Junk is like a messy store, poorly maintained displays, dusty merchandise, no order or logic to the sections. Someone who puts everything and anything up on their personal image site, will find, limited success and few return visitors. Identity, organization and a direction can be a big positive.

Back to the start. Self-Moderation. I won't tell anyone else what they should or shouldn't market, only myself. That's the hardest part for some people. Keeping their inner enthusiasm in line with reality. Try to put oneself in the buyers shoes and what would you want?

Or maybe = One man's junk is another man's fortune? Ask a scrap dealer. LOL

Quote from: RacePhoto on June 12, 2013, 09:10

Otherwise, a buyer comes and looks and say, "this is junk" and will never come back.

The problem is, how do you define "junk"

I have seen images in galleries that I thought "junk" that sold for more than my life's income.

We ( people on this site) have been trained to produce "stock style" images, because that is what the Micro-stores sell.

Is that what all buyers want? I don't know. Maybe Symbiostock buyers will be people looking for images and image styles that the Micro Stores reject.

I think the idea of setting up a niche site will have more traction in the Network.... but this is what I think, and until we have a year or two to work with this beast we won't know. A site just of cut veggies on white may be worth doing....