Hello everyone,

My name is Richard.

I am photographer myself, not a serious one, but still. Photography has always been something I have always enjoyed. Due to some circumstanses I have never sold my photos online, so I can't judge myself and therefore I am here to ask you something.

I am going to open a new microstock website. I know that some of you just stick to the "Big 6", that's how you call it, and you are against the new-comers, but I see an opportunity here as a businessman and as a photographer.

In order to be a good competition I want my company (microstock website) to be held to the highest standarts and yet be user-oriented. So that's why I have some questions:

What is a perfect microstock website like in your opinion? What pricing model works for you? What is a perfect upload system like in your opinion? Are there any features you would like to appear?

Please not just stick to my questions. If there is anything you would like to add, you are free to do it.

Thank you in advance,
Richard

P.S. I have done a lot of research, I mean I came here because I think that in order to make my website as user-oriented as possible, I have to talk directly to the photographers.

Ok, thank you very much, fintastique!

I am sure others will share their opinion too.

Well, 50% of the sale price, all right. And what about the prices themselves & and sizes? I mean shall I stick to regular 1$ for small, 2$ for bigger and so on scheme? I have seen that some sell images that are 300*400 for 1$ and they call it small, others sell 600*800 for the same price and they call it small too.

It's quite important and I am asking you because you know what pictures (and in what sizes) sell better

Richard.

Thank you very much, Clivia

That's an interesting offer, I will consider it.

Ok, and what about the min. payment amount? What amount would you call the most reasonable for both sides?

Richard.

Richard, smart move asking these questions here.

I have some questions for you:

How much capital do you have?
How many pages in your business plan?
How many business mentors do you have?
How many experts are in your team?
How much do good programmers, designers, technicians and reviewers cost in your area?
How many industry contacts do you have?
How will you differentiate your business in a crowded marketplace?
How long do your financial models project it will take before you break even?
What is your launch strategy?
Which industry events will you sponsor and speak at?
How will you incentivise us contributors to give you our images before you can deliver sales?
How many microstock agency CEOs have you interviewed?
What partnerships do you plan to create?
How will you scale your storage capacity, bandwidth and database platform?
What's your Business Continuance Plan and Disaster Recover Plan?
What legal structure will you use to contract with buyers and contributors from around the world?

Don't go in unprepared. There are hundreds of failed microstock agencies and nobody wants to see you join them.

The community here are not against new comers. They're very encouraging of anyone who can make them money without wasting their time. Once you have impressive answers to this list of questions they'll take you more seriously and give you all the assistance you need.

It's possible you will create a competitive microstock agency and make it a 'Big 7'. Just know what it will take to get you there.

Hello everyone,

First of all, thank you, Pixart, for answering my questions.

Lee, by analysing my answers to your questions I may come to a conclusion I am not very well prepared. On the other hand, I believe that anything is possible and why not give it a try? I mean every businessman failed at least once. I have money coming from investments and I am ready to try and invest it in this venture. I am not going after big profit or whatever. I just love the community and I would like to be involved.

FlemishDreams, this market is oversaturated. By the way, I recently read some information about "midstock" and someone said that it was an "empty" market, but I was unable to find any further information about it. Anyone?

Microstock market is oversaturated and therefore one have to offer something that isn't there just yet in order succeed. That's why I came for your help and ideas.

You know, you can prove any business plan you want on paper, but in real life it may fail very quickly. That's why I tend not to trust business plans and that sort of paperwork.

Anyway, if there are any thoughts how we can make a better agency, I am here

Richard.

By the way, I recently read some information about "midstock" and someone said that it was an "empty" market, but I was unable to find any further information about it.

I think that was Bryan of LuckyOliver a while ago:
http://www.luckyoliver.com/blog/242/microstock_vs_midstock

As to answer your specific question at the start: upload speed is very important for a new site where you have to upload an entire portfolio. That means FTP and IPTC extraction of course. No categories (does any customer uses it?) or auto-categories like CanStock (their keyword helper is neat too).

The less you have to tick and click per photo, the better. On ThePhotoStorage for instance, you have to click 3 times 'I agree conditions' to upload photos. Extended licenses, use, photo/illustration should be saved in session cookies, so you don't have to tick those on every photo.

The Model Releases are slowing down the upload workflow most. On most sites you have to pick the MRF on every photo. Imagine you have 20 photos with the same model.
I find the solution of 123RF the best: in the Release Folder, you can pick a specific release, then you get the thumbs of your portfolio, most recent first. By simple ticking then, you can add that release to a number of photos at the same time.

It's a tough choice sometimes for photographers... let me  cite an example here. On more accomodating sites with higher acceptance rates my portfolios do have some early days photos (umm, OK, a lot of photos, lol) that I wouldn't take/upload today. Yet what do you know, now and then some of them get downloaded. Fresh from this morning:



There is no way I would have shot such simplistic and overdone image today... but someone somewhere needs it. The conflict here between photographers and agency is, as a contributor I want this kind of "junk" to sit out there and wait for it's time, costs me nothing, right? Meanwhile, a lot of such things with extremely rare downloads (deservedly rare, no doubt) will introduce additional cost/workload for you as an agency.

My suggestion would be, for the first stage of agency development accept technically sound images without obvious composition flaws and let buyers sort out their commercial value. This, along with easy uploading process, would attract many contributors who are frustrated with "too many of a kind" or "limited commercial value" rejections. Use this period to build strong community feeling. It will also give you more room to find out what your niche of buyers want as this niche shapes up. Then if necessary tighten criteria as your database grows

Thanks for you replies.

Giving an option to cash out early is a good idea, but I have been actually thinking about crediting photographers some cents for each approved uploaded photo.
Let's say one uploads 150 photos, earns $15 (if 1 photo is 10c) and then requests a cash out. In this way it does no good for an agency. But if he uploads 150 photos, earns those $15 and then sells his images, reaches $50 and requestes a cash out, it does good for both sides: photographer is paid for his "uploading" work and it also stimulates photographers to upload photos to the agency.

What do you think of that?

pr2is, I don't find that picture a junk picture. It's simple, but not bad. Simple things are good things. When I say "junk" I mean.. Well it's like when you do a "sexy lady" search and along with great pictures of great girls you get some pictures that have no style and no taste, and you may say that these photos were taken from a home porn photosession or something. (It's just an example)

Richard.

Richard, the Microstock market is changing rapidly; there are lots of people trying to launch new agencies, but they are all chasing a diminishing supply of product.  And the more photographers that get signed as exclusive by the likes of IS and DT the greater the product shortage becomes.

Prices and commissions have to rise, and I suspect that good images will be earning 50% higher commissions on average in two year's time than they are today; FT has increased prices by 33% or so and IS has just slipped through about an 8% rise;  SS increased commissions by 20% in April and restricted that increase to those who can produce the goods, recognising that there is a difference between the part time hobbyist and the player with serious intent.  All of this is just the start.

A new agency has to be able to sell the product and generate an economic return for the contributing photographer; to a great extent the level of commission doesn't matter; after all, what is the point in promising 50% or 70% if few sales are ever made.  Volume of sales is the key, and for that an agency needs quality product and a large marketing and development budget.

iStock can get away with 20% commissions (for the moment) because it has 2 million customers and can sell hundreds if not thousands of copies of an image.  Can you do that?  If you can't, why should I risk diluting my returns from iStock by giving that product to you?

I wish you every success, but I am not going to hand you my images to allow you to build a business unless you can give me a solid economic reason for doing so.

That's called shutterpoint.com, and they never sell anything there.

Ok, thanks for responding.

So you think it is better to stick with the proven microstock business model, don't you?

The reason I am asking these questions and discussing it here is because I want to make an agency that will be needed, not a "one-of-the-10-agencies-that-popped-up-in-September". Photography is not a business only thing for me, you know. So you have my reasoning.

Let's talk more about it. Here or using some online messaging service. Do you have one?

As far as I get you, you want a website to contain both microstock and macrostock images, all in one and be able to price them yourself?

Richard.