STOCK PHOTO NEWS
no. 5
The First Modern
eZine combining Stock Photography and Marketing
March 2001
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CONTENT
* What
should a model look like?
* Corbis concentrates on digital pictures
* Ask the experts
* The Image Brokers
* Guest article: A Good Title is a Work of Genius
- By Yanik Silver
* Build a web site for selling
* AltaVista, now only manual submission
* Key wording tool
* Nikon medium format scanner
* More tips
You find
the latest earlier edition of the Stock Photo
News
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FROM
THE EDITOR
First
of all, a warm welcome to all our new readers. Last time I
told our "older" readers that we had lost 300 subscribers
last year due to a server crash. Now we have regained a reasonable
number of subscribers. I would like to thank all who have
been helpful and recommended Stock Photo News to friends and
colleagues. We still need that help, so please continue your
nice support! You can still win 10.000 dollars by using Recommend-it!
Building optional email lists becomes more and more the solution
for your online success according to the latest big conferences
discussing online issues. I cannot recommend everyone with
a website to go into that, contrary to what some marketers
claim. But I can certainly recommend publishers, news agencies,
groups of photographers and providers of online services of
many kinds to do it. It is more an investment of time and
creativity than it is an investment of money directly. If
possible go together and produce a common ezine or newsletter
with contributers from the same field or complimentary fields.
It is so important also to realize, that we as subscribers
look for information, and not after sales pitch from a company.
- The variety of ezines is incredible. For inspiration take
a look at a broad selection of good ezines here (opens in
a new window). http://www.funezines.com/index.cgi?referrer=azfotos
In a later issue we will take a closer look on what it takes
to produce a professional ezine and where to find the best
resources to build on.
The potential of email lists and the digitalization of stock
photos are two sides of the same fast development reshaping
the stock photo industry and building on globalization. The
accessibility of the worlds best stock photography for your
creative work becomes close to 100 percent where ever you
are "hiding" your work place.
Enjoy
reading!
Soren Breiting
A-Z FOTOS
www.azfotos.com
Comments,
tips and relevant articles are appreciated, please email me
personally sb@ azfotos.com
*** Please note: We will not sell or rent the email addresses
belonging to our subscribers - we respect your privacy. This
ezine use opt in addresses, only. ***
If you
like Stock Photo News, please Click to Recommend-It www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=848535
(You
can win 10.000 dollars)
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WHAT
SHOULD A MODEL LOOK LIKE ?
A few
years ago people in ads produced for the Danish market should
look really Danish. What that meant can be difficult to explain
in detail, but my point is, that the advertising agencies
tried to match the selected models for the ads to the idea
of being seen by the consumers as "really Danish".
This has changed dramatically since. Now it seems that the
Danish consumers accept models with lets say a Southern European
look - plus many others - as well as typical Nordic types.
I expect similar changes have happened in other countries
which have earlier had a homogeneous population of people
like the Danish. In some countries like USA this new situation
has more or less been the case all the time. But here other
matters related to specific ethnic groups have been in the
focus for advertising for many years.
The reasons behind the change in Denmark and similar countries,
I can only guess about. But it seems obvious to point to two
factors: The Danish population is no longer the traditional
homogeneous group of people. Refugees and guest workers from
many exotic countries now color the image of the streets and
the notion of "people" as such. The other factor
might be the heavy influence of television and videos from
mainly USA. Commercials from the big multinational corporations
are no longer made in special national versions, but the same
visual side is used here and all over the world.
These aspects of globalization have consequence for the stock
photo researcher and the stock photographer. In general it
becomes easier to cover broad markets. That goes for both
the user and the producer of stock photos. At least for the
photographer and the picture agency this is a great challenge.
Good photos with people can be marketed much more broadly.
At the same time everyone has the global competitors in his
backyard! This is strengthened by the concentration of stock
photo agencies (partly covered in earlier issues of Stock
Photo News).
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Corbis, the stock photo giant, concentrates on digital pictures
In the
last issue I told about the changes in the relationship between
the stock photographers and the really big picture providers,
partly as a consequence of the concentration of the stock
photo industry through take overs (take a look at http://www.stockphotonews.com).
Now Corbis, owned by Bill Gates, has announced that Corbis
goes totally digital. Corpis boasts a collection of 65 million
images, and 2.1 millions are already available digitally.
The staff will be reduced with 80 of the total of 1.300, as
the change from two lines of photos (digital and traditional)
to the concentration on digital will improve the efficiency.
Read the full news release here http://www.photosource.com/photoaim/corbis.html
In the latest press release the following is stated under
"Corbis® Brings Digital Images to Southeast Asia":
Kuala Lumpur Viewing Centre opens, expanding Corbis’
regional reach from KUALA LUMPUR, March 28, 2001 - Corbis®
(www.corbis.com), the leading global provider of digital images
to both the consumer and creative professional markets, announced
today the expansion of its Asian operations with the opening
of its first viewing centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Located in Mont’ Kiara, in the heart of the Kuala Lumpur
creative circle, this new viewing centre will serve as an
extension of the Asia Hub Office located in Hong Kong. It
will provide local broadband access and on-site customer service
to support Corbis offerings to the local creative professional
markets. Clients can take advantage of high-speed connectivity
to easily view and download the complete spectrum of commercial,
editorial, fine art and historical images.
“ Corbis is dedicated to making it easier for our customers
around the world to access high-quality and unique digital
imagery,” said Leslie Hughes, president, Corbis Markets
and Products Group. “By opening an office in Kuala Lumpur
and localising our services for the Southeast Asian market,
we are better equipped to communicate with and cater to the
needs of our clients.”
The viewing centre is supported by the on-site coordinator,
who assists customers in facilitating a fast and accurate
search, using the Corbis search engine. Corbis also provides
research services via a toll-free customer hotline. The search
request is carried out on behalf of the customer and a collection
of images is offered based upon the given criteria. Within
four hours after the selection is made, the images are downloaded
onto a CD and sent to the client.
Also servicing the viewing centre is the account manager,
who communicates with local clients on a constant basis, in
order to better understand customer needs and build long lasting
local client relationships.
“ The Asian creative professional market is well-poised
to take advantage of the digital workflow benefits that today’s
technology makes possible,” commented Catherine Lee,
Corbis’ general manger for Corbis Asia. “Corbis
is very excited to be at the forefront of moving the image
world into the digital era, and encouraging professionals
and editorial departments to expand their mode of business
to include the sourcing of images online, whether from their
desktop, phone, or at a Corbis viewing centre.”
Watermark Technology for Heightened Security
In delivering digital imagery over the Internet, Corbis recognises
the increased risk of theft, making intellectual property
protection more essential than ever. In addition to active
participation in industry conferences, panels and education
programs on the issue, Corbis has also invested in embedded
digital watermarking technology – a system that will
allow the company to identify incidents of copyright infringement.
With the Corbis Copyright Registration Program, the company
is committed to providing professional photographers with
the best legal protection of their digital copyright to ensure
image integrity and authorised usage.
The opening of the Kuala Lumpur Viewing Centre follows the
establishment of the Hong Kong regional headquarters in June
2000, and plans are in the pipeline for more viewing centres
across Asia in the future. Also in the pipeline of Corbis’
localisation plan are the e-commerce capabilities to include
online ringgit pricing – the first such offering in
the industry. The viewing centres, in conjunction with the
direct online services, offer clients multiple options to
find the best images in the shortest period of time.
....
All according to the press release from Corpis.
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ASK THE
EXPERTS
Photo
District News runs a useful offer with themes for photographers,
where you can raise questions. Just now the questions should
be related to "Photoshop, scanning, digital imaging,
color management, output". You find the entry here http://www.pdnonline.com/forums/experts/index.html
and the archieve here: http://www.pdnonline.com/forums/experts/archive.html
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THE IMAGE
BROKERS
"The
image brokers", British Alamy , are now fully operational
for both picture researchers and stock photographers. They
have recently signed contracts to deliver pictures from a
few established picture agencies and more will come. They
claim to have the ambition to be the website of the future
with most photos available online in the whole world. For
both photographers and picture researchers Alamy is an interesting
innovation taking up the competition of the established big
stock photo companies.
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A GOOD
TITLE IS A WORK OF GENIUS
- By
Yanik Silver
That's
what Emanuel Haldeman-Julius said about changing the
title of a book to increase sales. And he should know, he's
the guy who single-handedly sold more than 100,000,000
" little blue books" during the first part of the
20th
century (Yes, I said 100 million copies).
His book entitled "The First Hundred Million" gives
a rare
glimpse into how to use certain tested title words to
increase your sales. In fact, his book is one of the most
scientific studies of what a title change can do for your
sales.
The most remarkable thing is that Haldeman-Julius simply
advertised his books by title alone. There was no selling
copy, only the title of the book. That's it.
So before you decide on any haphazard title for your next
ebook, manual, ezine article or free report, you might
want to take advice from this savvy marketer.
Haldeman-Julius had a policy in his business - if a title
didn't sell over 10,000 copies a year it was sent to a
place in his office called "The Hospital". Inside
the
Hospital he went to work coming up with a new title for
the poorly selling book and re-releasing it. If the revised
title didn't sell, the book went into the 'morgue".
He tells about a book originally being titled "The Art
of
Controversy" which never really sold until it was changed
to "How to Argue Logically" and then it leapt up
to 30,000
copies. The amazing thing is that nothing else was changed
inside the book, just the title.
And from this "in the trenches" research, Haldeman-Julius
discovered certain title words that could increase the
sales of almost any book when applied. For instance the
words "The Truth About" increased sales for one
book
starting its publishing life as "Patent Medicine".
This
book by Dr. Arthur Cramp only sold 3,000 copies in 1925
but when the title was changed to "The Truth About Patent
Medicine" it rose up to a respectable 10,000 copies.
Therefore the words "The Truth About" are magical.
Next, he found the words "Life" and "Love"
to work well.
Followed by the worn, but still very powerful phrase
" How To". Books with "How To" in the
title were almost
always placed at the top of his sales list. Take for example,
the title "How to Psycho-Analyze Yourself" sold
43,000 copies
while a similar title "Psycho-Analysis Explained"
sold 5,000
less copies. And the title "How I Psycho-Analyzed Myself"
managed to attract only 13,500 buyers.
What's more, Haldeman-Julius discovered the public was
(and still is) clamoring for facts. So the words "The
Facts You Should Know" proved a big winner.
So how can you apply this information?
Easy!
The way you should use this wisdom from the ages is by
applying it to titles, ebooks, ezine articles, free reports
and your headlines. For instance, if I was a cosmetic
surgeon I'd give out free ebooks like this: "The Facts
You Should Know About Liposuction" or "The Truth
About
Laser Hair Removal" or "How To Erase The Years With
Laser
Resurfacing". Each of these could almost be a headline
by
themselves. That's what you want to strive for because
that's what people want!
(c) 2001
Surefire Marketing, Inc.
Yanik
Silver has developed a whole series of sales letter
templates available at ==> http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R201_IS
In less than 3 minutes you can create a winning letter
guaranteed to sell your product or service...WITHOUT WRITING!
Plus Lean How I've Made A Fortune With a Simple 2-Page Web
Site!
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R201_IIP
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BUILD
A WEB SITE FOR SELLING
Many
have taken advantage of the web site building facility mentioned
in last issue. Ken Evoy´s easy solution to how to create
web sites optimized for getting a lot of traffic through the
search engines related to specific key words seems to work
very well. The system is called Build It and you will find
thought provoking information about the whole idea HERE http://contact.sitesell.com/buildit/
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ALTAVISTA,
ONLY MANUAL SUBMISSION
The big
search engine AltaVista has changed it procedure for submitting
sites and web pages. Now you have to do it all by hand, because
you have to read a code shown in graphics to be able to go
on with your submission. They try to fight the heavy flow
of low content doorway pages and the like in this way. Submit
your site to AltaVista here: http://add-url.altavista.com/cgi-bin/newurl?
In general it can be recommended to develop your website with
strong and focused content for the whole website and page
for page. Remember, that only text can be read (together with
metatags and ALT tags). This seems to be the only safe way
for being prepared for the changing algorithms and practice
used by the main search engines and directories. I will get
back to these aspects in a later issue of Stock Photo News.
The work with your important key words is still very important,
keep an eye on that aspect every time you write your copy
for the web pages.
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KEY WORDING
TOOL
A new
and very useful tool has been developed to give you a much
better background for your decisions about which keywords
to give priority. The free version offers excellent help.
Go to Wordtracker
and make a test drive. I am sure you will be surprised.
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NIKON
MEDIUM FORMAT SCANNER
Nikon
now announces its new high performance slide scanner for medium
formats Super Coolscan 8000 ED. This is good news for many
prepress bureaus and medium format photographers as the Coolscan
LD 2000 has already carved its reputation for the 135 mm films
as the personal pro scanner. The new scanner will scan at
4000 dpi and be reasonable priced compared to the existing
options. Get more information here: http://www.nikon.ca/digital/coolscan_8000.html
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PLEASE
REMEMBER !
If you
have any ideas of friends or colleagues or others who earlier
could have been subscribers to this newsletter or you think
would find it useful as new readers, PLEASE send them a personal
email or send an email by a click on Recommend-It . - You
could win 10.000 dollars! Here:
THANK YOU for reading and recommending Stock Photo News.
See you
in next Stock Photo Newsletter!
Soren
Breiting
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Copyright
2001 by Soren Breiting, A-Z FOTOS.
http://www.azfotos.com/
Email me personally: sb@ azfotos.com
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