Last year on August I published a post about the use of social networks by the microstock agencies. In the meanwhile other initiatives have been implemented so I’ve decided to reprise that post and update it here.
Microstock agencies are progressively entering in the social network arena to enhance their online business, spread the word, improve branding and for direct customer care.
The biggest agencies are active, with different effort, on Twitter and Facebook. The first Facebook Applications and Twitter services have been launched. Let’s see a list of the Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and new applications.
Here a list of the Twitter accounts of the microstock agencies that I’m keeping up-to-date on the Stock Agencies list page and that you can follow, all at once, in the @mystcokphoto/stock-agencies list (members of the list):
Snapixel @snapixel permits to tweet your new uploads directly after the upload phase and to invite your followers to vote for your photo to be published on the Snapixel Magazine.
Shutterstock @shutterstock has launched Shuttertweet that gives you the ability to instantly send out tweets regarding new images added to your portfolio and/or about your daily download count. They added your referral ID to the Twitter URLs so if someone makes a purchase after clicking the link, you’ll make a referral commission.
This post is intended for focusing your attention on two recent articles about some different points of view of the stock/microstock photography situation.
Todd Arena on the ArenaCreative blog tries to answer this question with a realistic vision of what is necessary in microstock to earn a full time living, a possible way of life for a few hundreds microstockers but not so easy as many are telling us… - bazillion other blogs online where you can learn “How to make a living selling stock photography” – :
I’ve recently discovered a website that has been started to sell stock photos. It’s Graphic Leftovers, “a microstock site for designers by designers” with a good 52% commission and a nice look. I decided to upload there all my portfolio also because they have a gorgeous iSyndica API feature that let you distribute, from the iSyndica Syndicate tab, all your images with just a couple of clicks, after the definition of the channel with the API Key provided by the GraphicLeftovers account. Nothing else, no categories, no unfinished files to review, no other actions on the GraphicLeftovers site: you will find your photos directly online if approved!
We asked Kelly Jay of Digital Leftovers to talk about their project and their vision of stock photography from a “native designer” perspective.
Graphic Leftovers started 2 years ago as a site for artists to sell unused or “leftover” artwork from projects. We started with only 200 images (mostly mine) and then others joined. Since then, professional artists and photographers have joined our community making Graphic Leftovers one of the best sites for member-generated vectors and images. We currently have over 100,000 images and growing at a very fast pace.
The site originally only provided vector artwork, but we found that buyers were seeking “graphic” style images as well. We started to accept photos as part of our site back in november of 2009. Graphic Leftovers is still unique compared to the big microstock sites in that we only provide photographic images of nature, backgrounds, textures, objects and conceptual images but we do not offer people or model shots. Our focus is to stay graphic oriented.
The addition of photos to our site has been wonderful. Vector buyers are enjoying the photo options and the availability of more choices.
February gave back my standard value of microstock incomes, filling the gap observed the month before.
Here my classic six months earning comparison chart:
Il 9 Giugno prossimo si terrà in Europa, a Dublino, un importante evento per il mondo del Microstock: Cepic New Media Conference. L’organizzazione è a cura del CEPIC, Centro dell’Industria dell’Immagine, ed il gran manovratore sarà Lee Torrens, che molti dei miei lettori sicuramente conoscono come una delle voci più significative in ambito microstock con il suo microstockdiaries.
Il CEPIC, Coordination of European Picture Agencies Stock, Press and Heritage, è un’organizzazione fondamentalmente orientata alle agenzie ed all’industria della fotografia, ma ultimamente, ribattezzandosi come Centro dell’Industria dell’Immagine (“Center of the Picture Industry“) ha lanciato questa conferenza allargando l’attenzione ai professionisti dei nuovi media e dell’immagine. Tale evento costituirà l’apertura del Congresso europeo che si concluderà il 13 Giugno.
(informazioni tratte dal comunicato ufficiale e da microstockdiaries)
Il già notevole valore del Congresso CEPIC di Dublino verrà arricchito quest’anno dall’introduzione di uno speciale giorno extra. Il CEPIC sta organizzando una Conferenza sui Nuovi Media per Mercoledì 9 Giugno, invitando tutti gli iscritti a partecipare a questo giorno extra di istruzione, insegnamento e ispirazione, prima dell’inizio del Congresso (tale giornata è inclusa nel prezzo di registrazione).
La Conferenza sarà organizzata e moderata dallo stimato esperto di microstock e presentatore all’UGC (User-Generated Content mediabistro) Lee Torrens. Questo giorno aggiuntivo di seminari e dibattiti affronterà i seguenti temi:
MyStockPhoto.org by rmarinello
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