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NEW PARADIGM SHIFTS IN STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY - PART II
It's been eight months since we published the first installment in this series on stock photography, back on 10/28/05:
http://www.inkjetart.com/news/archive/IJN_10-28-04.html#5
We talked about the history of stock photography's three paradigm shifts over the past fifteen years:
- The rapid appearance and evolution of royalty-free stock, and the erosion of easily accessible outlets for the stock image producer.
- The introduction of Alamy.com in 2000 - offering stock image producers the first large-scale online marketplace for both rights-managed and royalty-free stock images.
- "Micro-payment" agencies - following a somewhat similar model to Alamy, but offering image licenses that average only $1.00 or $2.00 each.
At the end of the article, we allowed our subscribers to give us feedback as to whether they be interested in having us feature and review other online marketplaces that are similar to the extremely successful Alamy.com model.
The response was overwhelmingly in favor (several hundred responses) to only two responses that did not want us to continue this discussion. In response to those requests for more online marketplaces similar to Alamy, this article will feature these....
FOUR ADDITIONAL ONLINE MARKETPLACES FOR STOCK IMAGE SALES:
- Absolute Stock Photo - http://www.absolutestockphoto.com/
- Acclaim Images - http://www.acclaimimages.com/
- My Loupe - http://www.myloupe.com/
- The Stock Solution - http://www.tssphoto.com/
All four of these online marketplaces follow a similar selling model to Alamy.com -- with pricing that is more in line with industry tradition. While the four "micro-payment" agencies featured in the October 2004 article offer beginning photographers a quick way enter the market and see what sells, they are seen as a threat to traditional stock photo pricing values by more established stock photo professionals. This is clearly demonstrated in the following Web presentation by The Stock Solution, albeit a an advertorial for TSS, it defines their direction and focus:
http://www.tssphoto.com/photovalue/
All of the online maketplaces in this article offer both rights-managed and royalty-free images, with the exception of Absolute Stock Photo, which only offers R-F. All operate on a principle similar to a traditional stock photo agency: there are no fees to join or to host your images, they only take a commission when sales are made. All require the contributor to keyword and caption their own images. All require contributors to upload their high-resolution (JPEG compressed) images over the Internet to the online marketplace. (Alamy still requires submissions via CD or DVD, which can sometimes delay marketing by 30 days or more. Some contributors who have slow Internet connections prefer this method, but others like the quick-to-market approach these four new featured marketplaces offer.)
Table of Contents:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
- History of stock photography over past 15 years
- Increased photographer responsibility brought on by digital technology:
- Digital image submission requirements
COMPARING THE FOUR ADDITIONAL ONLINE MARKETPLACES:
- Absolute Stock Photo
- Acclaim Images
- My Loupe
- The Stock Solution
COMPARING MARKETING & WEB TRAFFIC (of the four featured marketplaces)
- Alexa.com Traffic Rankings
- Google PageRank
- Link Popularity
- Keyword Ranking
- Offline Marketing
OTHER ONLINE MARKETING OPTIONS
- Photographers Direct
- Digital Railroad
- Independent Photography Network (IPNStock)
- mySite
- Mira.com
CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Go back to the July 5th Newsletter
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