Ed Endicott Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 It's nice to see the excitement about the demand for images. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/giving-away-photos-to-make-a-profit/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=tw-share&_r=0 ...but even he explains all they're getting out of it is views. How does a photographer pay for a home or food with just views? Start-up has been spectacular. We get about 5 million embed views a day. Basically, 99 percent of the traffic on GettyImages.com will never buy a picture. On the one hand, it is a horrible statistic, and on the other hand it’s a fabulous statistic, because it shows that people are picture-crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Ed, that's why the embed feature has the future possibility of carrying advertising. The hope - or at least my hope - is that it will evolve into a YouTube-like payment system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted August 27, 2014 Author Share Posted August 27, 2014 Brian, do you know how that system works? I have a couple of videos up on YouTube (shared by other agents I've submitted to) and I've never gotten a royalty from somoene viewing my video on YouTube. I've also had blogs in the past with advertising/affiliate links to Adorama as well as other resellers...and I never made any money to be able to even pay the web host for hosting fees (one of the reasons I no longer have a blog). How does one make money from that scheme? I keep seeing "hope" and various other similar terms passed around but (without trying to sound too sarcastic) I also "hope" one day I'll be able to win the lottery. Hope doesn't exactly pay my bills. Warren Buffett has stated he doesn't invest in tech stocks because he doesn't understand how they make money and he doesn't see anything "tangible" being sold....I'm aligning with relation to that opinion for this type of scheme mostly because I don't understand it. If the industry is moving toward this type of thing, I am seeking answers with relation to how photographers can profit from it. ...and honestly I still don't understand how Trey Ratcliff makes money from his "Stuck in Customs" brand as he encourages people to download and share his images for free (another brand I don't understand about this industry) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jools Elliott Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Thanks for that. Interesting read. Glad that I am with them AND have started investing time in video and time lapse as it is a very up and coming market. Alamy, take serious note of the video side as you are falling way behind in this by not making it easy for contributors to upload directly to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Brian, do you know how that system works? Ed: Only in the sketchiest way. I have a good friend who makes several thousand dollars a month from YouTube videos and he tells me it involves the number of views you have and the percentage of those people who watch the ads. The system is explained in at least a few books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 So K advises photographers to avoid relying on one source of income, plus to become proficient in video, if not already. Sounds good. I'll add it's also smart business practice to avoid hopping into business bed with anyone with history of putting pillows firmly over faces of those lying next to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Giving away photos to make a profit? I think Shutterstock must have them all shook up. I thought the mantra was to lose money on every single sale, but to make a profit on the volume. Voodoo economics in my opinion. Too bad they went private. At least we used to be able to read their annual report and have a good laugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Voodoo economics in my opinion. Sounds more like "all you can eat" economics to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dov makabaw Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Great business model - give your images to Getty for peanuts and find other sources of income to live off and undermine the competition in the process. Why didn't I think of that? dov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TokyoM1ke Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I think that it's a bit of a sign of the times. Thanks to the Internet, a lot of people expect something for nothing... which is not unreasonable as they now often get it! Ultimately services like Alamy and Getty have to adapt their business to a model that works today and those who make their living from those services will have to either adapt as well or go hungry. I'm not offering suggestions as to how one should adapt or the timeframe but the reality is that we are in a very different world from that even ten years ago. In my day job, I occasionally write for a few specialist publications and get paid for my contributions (just about enough to make it worthwhile). However, talking to journalist friends, they are coming under increasing price pressure, unless they are particularly well known in their field, and are looking to other ways of making a living (general books, one-off books for private publication, web sites etc.). I love the voodoo economics idea - I confess to being unable to understand the business models of many of the Internet companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I think that it's a bit of a sign of the times. Thanks to the Internet, a lot of people expect something for nothing... which is not unreasonable as they now often get it! Ultimately services like Alamy and Getty have to adapt their business to a model that works today and those who make their living from those services will have to either adapt as well or go hungry. I'm not offering suggestions as to how one should adapt or the timeframe but the reality is that we are in a very different world from that even ten years ago. In my day job, I occasionally write for a few specialist publications and get paid for my contributions (just about enough to make it worthwhile). However, talking to journalist friends, they are coming under increasing price pressure, unless they are particularly well known in their field, and are looking to other ways of making a living (general books, one-off books for private publication, web sites etc.). I love the voodoo economics idea - I confess to being unable to understand the business models of many of the Internet companies. If you're making enough money from writing to make it worthwhile, you're doing very well. I used to do a lot of freelance writing -- mainly travel-related stuff -- for magazines and newspapers. When crowdsourcing and rights-grabbing contracts came along, I couldn't make any decent money and basically gave up and decided to concentrate on photography instead. I guess this means that I failed to adapt. Had I been younger, I probably would have made more of an effort. As it is, I miss writing, but I'm glad that I made the switch. Trying to eek out a living at writing is exhausting these days. Thank goodness for Alamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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