Issues with Stock Photography....Need your advice and experience

[Hockeystarz]

I agree that agencies have been working on search for years and it is great, which is why we will never try to compete with them on that. There are a lot of other ways to innovate and we have found one. We'd love for you to check our site out when it's up and give us your honest feedback. Open invitation for everyone who see's this (domain to be put on here in the near future.)

 

[orljustin]

Can't wait. Are you going to let pesky things like model releases and licensing terms get in your way?

 

[RacePhoto]

Funny I looked and no one is taking me up on the challenge to just get accepted and have one picture on ShutterStock.

Anyway, Hockey and I will take the discussion to email so I don't bore you all with the reality check and possibly negative aspects. There are many good parts to Microstock, I was just looking at the current Race To The Bottom that agencies are involved in. Cutting commissions, cutting prices, chopping at sellers for who they sell at. Oh except for SS who just added a 20% minimum single image commission to the already top program. (others are 15% or 13% or worse!)

They were the best in many people's opinion. I think they gained some more fans.

I promise to help anyone interested get accepted and pass the entrance test. Just for using my referral link: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=111418

 

[Hockeystarz]

Maybe one day I will try, not yet with my current photography skills, but thanks for the challenge.

 

[mavrik]

Anything you can create as a new microstock industry, istock and shutterstock will instantly copy. Think about Vivozoom. They had a great idea - we're going to guarantee our images and protect the buyer from any lawsuits about the use of them - in copyright, model releases, ANYTHING. They warranted that all images on site were legal to use.

About a month later, iStock, Shutterstock and Fotolia followed suit. Vivozoom now claims to be the "first" in the industry and their main page mentions iStock because they have to or they're dead.

Anything you can do in a month, iStock/Getty can do in about 5 minutes. Contributors to micro sites have started their own site - if they don't know what's wrong with the current model, how do you when you don't seem to have a grasp of that current model?

 

[Hockeystarz]

Maverick you make a very good point. Something that we are definitely currently thinking through. It's all about building a loyal community to make sure your customers stay with you. Our differentiation will deffinitely seperate us from the micro sites and stock sites. It's just about making sure we can execute it really well. If we get great quality non-cheesy images then we will hit our niche and be off the the races. If not it will be a slippery slope. All the challenges and risks that come with starting a business especially in a crowded space. However, when we hit our niche the space will be a lot more wide open. Thanks for the input