STOCK PHOTO NEWS
no. 14
The first Modern eZine combining Stock Photography and
Marketing
July 2002
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CONTENT
* From the Editor
* Do you know: VISUELL/VISUELL INTERNATIONAL?
* Take better travel pictures, Tip # 8:
Lenses for travel
* Focus your web pages
* Corbis Germany
* More subscribers to your newsletter?
* Learn from free marketing courses
Archive of earlier issues of Stock Photo News at
www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/pubarchive.php?azfotos
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FROM THE EDITOR
’Advanced Thailand Geographic’ is
a monthly magazine
published in Thailand and entirely in Thai language. The
approx. 300 glossy full color pages cover topics related to
nature, environment, ecoturism, outdoor photography,
science and culture. Hundreds of photos illustrate the
pages.
These photos are of good quality if not matching the photos
of National Geographical, whose elusive staff of pro
photographers and the extremely tight edition of the
picture material results in the well-known outstanding
quality of the publication.
National Geographic has a long history behind (now in its
113 years of publication, www.nationalgeographic.com ) and
a world wide reputation. The May edition of Thailand
Geographic is just its no. 52, indicating its nearly 5
years age. The attractive lay out from cover to last page
and its limited inclusion of commercials makes it a bargain
at 100 Baht (approx. 2 ½ US dollar) per issue. - At
least
for the visitor! But how many of us are able to read Thai?
I am looking forward to an English edition.
On the other hand it is more amazing that Thailand
Geographic has been able to establish itself and survive as
a purely Thai publication of international quality, than if
it had to depend on an international readership and
economy.
Such newer national publications of high graphic standard
are an encouraging sign of development world wide of
relevance for the creative graphic industry in a time with
a focus mainly on the digital side of communication. Enjoy
your reading of Stock Photo News!
Soren Breiting
A-Z FOTOS
"Find
Stock Photos from most of the World"
www.azFotos.com
Comments, tips and relevant articles are appreciated. Send
email to sb@ azfotos.com
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........................................................
DO YOU KNOW: VISUELL/VISUELL INTERNATIONAL?
VISUELL/VISUELL INTERNATIONAL is a meeting-point for
picture users and suppliers. Each VISUELL subscriber has
automatic access to the restricted web pages (at
www.piag.de, www. fotomarktplatz.de and
www.pictureexchange.net) and get the Magazine
VISUELL/VISUELL INTERNATIONAL by mail. Annual subscription:
Europe EUR 37, Overseas EUR 55. Both editions: EUR 71.
Special service: free small ads, entries in "Photographers
on the Road", etc.
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Take Better Travel Photos # 8
LENSES FOR TRAVEL
If you
don’t
have an interest in special photography, like
birds or architecture, when on travel, just travel with a
camera with a modern zoom lens. A range of 28mm – 105mm
will be very useful in most situations for traditional 35
mm film. Remark that a change from this coverage will be of
bigger influence in the wide side (e.g. 35mm in stead of
28mm) than in the tele side (e.g. from 105 to 90).
Buyers of new cameras are often impressed on the tele side
of the zoom lens, but unless you are going on photo safari
the wide angle range of the zoom is as important or of
higher importance than the maximum tele effect.
A macro function of the zoom or a special macro lens is a
must for photos of details and flowers. My personal choice
of lenses for travel is the combination of a 28-135 mm zoom
lens and a 100-400 mm zoom lens, both with stabilizer
function, which allows me to shoot in low light conditions.
These lenses will cover much of my needs in 35 mm
photography.
In addition I always carry a 20 mm wide angle lens and a
macro lens of 50 mm or 105 mm, depending on my shooting
programme. Normally I also bring a converter of 1.4 times
magnification for the long zoom lens. This can be
supplemented with a 2 times converter. For some travels I
need a broader selection of special lenses. Normally I also
bring a medium format camera with lenses of other
specifications.
Most travellers prefer just a point and shoot camera. The
point and shoot camera has the advantage that you will
bring this with you in more situations than the much
heavier and clumsy single lens reflex system, unless you
work as a photographer.
From time to time I have experienced the effect of that
mechanism when travelling with my wife. She is a keen
amateur family photographer who always carries one of her
small cameras with her on travel and for all occasions,
while I am typically carrying my 5-12 kilos of equipment.
Sometimes I keep it at the hotel when the forecast for
photography is not that promising and my wife will then get
the outstanding picture.
As a sidebar I can tell that I also own and use lightweight
cameras, but anyway I have experienced to be without a
camera in a situation, when she was ready to ‘fire’.
Finally, If you are going to buy a digital camera ask for
the equivalent of the lens to 35 mm photography, and you
can then use the information given above.
Have continued good luck with your travel photography.
Soren Breiting
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FOCUS YOUR WEB PAGES
Nowadays your success on the Internet will depend on your
ability to provide trustworthy, organized and updated
information, and to have a clear focus for your website.
The clear focus is needed for your visitors and for your
chances to obtain good registration in search engines and
indexes. It will also increase people’s want to make
links
back to your site.
Let us imagine you publish or just sell:
- a magazine on classic cars,
- a magazine on travel and
- a magazine on modern homes.
It is obvious that you will have potential
customers who are interested in all three magazines. But
the majority will be interested in just one or two.
A minimum is that you design individual pages for each of
the magazines. In this way each webpage will be able to
show the importance of exactly that magazine, and you can
convey feelings and context that fit to your main type of
consumer of the individual magazine. Here the graphics will
play an important role.
Each page will also give you possibilities to focus on the
important keywords people use in their search for relevant
information when they use a search engine. Be generous with
your exact information related to the theme of the
magazine. Select your keywords with care.
Use the program Web Position to optimize your web pages for
specific search engines. I have been able to achieve real
top positions for even such popular key words as ‘photos’
and ‘stock photos’ in Altavista, when Altavista
was one the
main search engines.
In general it pays off to select a larger number of more
specific key words. Of course the optimation process will
take you some time, but with this program it is more
worthwhile then with many others. Web position has just
been released in a fully updated and expanded version.
You can download a free version by going to
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?IM9009_WP204
A search facility on your site will give you much feedback
you can turn into profit by adjusting the keywords you use
on the page. I use www.FreeFind.com , a free or paid
service which has shown its professionalism during more
than 3 years service for A-Z Fotos.
You might have something like a store of magazines on your
website with many titles only available in a database. This
represents a special problem. Don’t expect search engines
to be able to register all your dynamic web pages, even if
some are able.
The only way out is to design individual pages for your
main publications and keep them parallel to the dynamic
pages generated when visitors search in your database. If
you design them with the keywords that people look for you
will get a great boost in your traffic. It will be targeted
visitors, because they arrive and get what they searched
for in a search engine.
Specific web pages or specific websites?
From my experience I am not in doubt: create separate
targeted websites for your main products. This is an
inexpensive way to do marketing. Select domain names that
include important keywords. I know that most simple domain
names with popular keywords are gone already. But
registered domains become available everyday.
As you need specific keywords for your specific websites
you will also have many more options. You don’t need
www.cars.com or www.MyClassicCar.com to get the traffic. If
www.MyClassicCar.com isn’t available www.my-classic-car.com
might be.
I have got a number of good domains by combining important
keywords with ‘and’. It seems to me that this will
be the
easiest way to come up with rather short domain names with
relevant keywords build in.
I have registered more than 100 domains with Direct Nic,
and they offer free web hosting (with their banner) and
free redirection of domains. They charge us 15 USD per
year. This is among the lowest prices on the web to my
knowledge. Nobody match their service for that fee. If you
use my affiliate url I will earn a small commission when
you sign up, without affecting your payment. This url is
www.DirectNic.com/affiliates.php?SB-154-C .
The newest improvement is that they now give you excellent
statistics for your free web hosting. Among many other of
my domains with free hosting at Direct Nic is
www.ChristmasStockPhotos.com and I have for example
redirect of some domain names with wrong spellings, like
www.piktures.com
If you
don’t
like to help me with a commission, just go to
www.directnic.com and check your ideas for new domains and
sign up for what you like. Else please use:
www.DirectNic.com/affiliates.php?SB-154-C
If you need a new logo with your domain name for your
website I have just had one made by www.GotLogos.com for 25
USD. You can see it at www.azfotos.com . The logo isn't yet
integrated in my website because I am working on a total
redesign of www.azfotos.com .
GotLogos shows a great variety of styles and ideas in their
gallery. If you tell them that you got the advice from
Stock Photo News they will provide you with an additional
grey scale version for free. The grey scale can be useful
for b/w letter heads etc.
Soren Breiting A-Z Fotos
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PRESS RELEASE: CORBIS GERMANY
Corbis Germany Opens Door to 65 Million Corbis Images,
Now Providing Complete Commercial and Editorial Collection
Corbis Germany Will Provide Localized Content by Fall
SEATTLE,
WA (June 5) – Corbis® today throws open
the door to
more than 65 million images in Germany with the formal opening
of a full-service office in Dusseldorf. Now providing German
advertising and publishing customers with a complete
one-stop Corbis offering, the transition of the office from
Corbis Stock Market to Corbis also improves customer
service with a central point of contact for the wide
spectrum of photos and consulting services. Corbis will
expand customer sales and consulting services in Germany
with specially trained service staff in Düsseldorf who
will
assist customers in finding suitable photo material from
the various subject archives.
Currently underway for launch in September 2002 is
development of a German version of the web site to enable
customers to search in German. “Creating a formalized,
full-service presence in Germany is very important to
Corbis as a company,” said Corbis CEO Steve Davis.
“ Germany is a sophisticated market with many customer
needs, and our new office in Düsseldorf will serve as
a
single operation center for Germany, and Austria as well.”
Corbis Germany will be overseen by managing director
Michael Höing, who has managed the Dusseldorf and Vienna
teams since January 2001. Prior to Corbis, Hoing held
managerial positions at Burda, Heaven 21 and
Internationalen Münchener Filmwochen. Höing describes
Corbis objectives in Germany: “Our involvement in Germany
is not simply to provide our customers with a wider product
portfolio, but we also intend to focus more increasingly on
European and German content in the future.”
Corbis Focuses on Quality Corbis offers an extensive
offering from such historical collections as The Bettmann
Archive and Hulton-Deutsch, news agencies such as Corbis
Sygma, Corbis Saba and Corbis Tempsport, and art
collections such as the National Gallery London and
Christies. In addition, Corbis offers a wide range of
high-quality, modern stock and royalty free photos.
Earlier this year, David Harrigan was hired as European
Director for Commercial Photography in order to ensure the
quality of future photo productions in European markets.
Based at Corbis’ London office, he will direct the
company’s effort to represent photography and art that
is
increasingly oriented towards a European tastes and styles.
Corbis will publish special catalogues in Germany
presenting subject trends, starting with the “46/64”
catalogue which captures unusual collections of photos of
Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964.
Corbis Germany opens on the heels of the Corbis Japan
launch in March. Located in Tokyo, the office represents a
joint venture with the amana Corporation and Corbis.
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,
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LEARN FROM FREE MARKETING COURSES
You are offered a number of useful courses in marketing and
other relevant aspects of having a successful website. Just
go to http://www.ALLeMarketingTips.com
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Please remember !
If you have any idea of friends or colleagues you think
would find this newsletter useful, PLEASE send them a
personal email or send an email by a click on Recommend-It.
www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=848535
(You can win 10.000 dollars)
THANK YOU for reading and recommending Stock Photo News.
See you in the next Stock Photo Newsletter!
Soren Breiting
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Copyright 2002 by Soren Breiting, A-Z FOTOS.
http://www.azFotos.com "Find Stock Photos from most of
the World"
Email
me at: sb@ azfotos.com
You are welcome to forward this newsletter to a friend or
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Stock Photo News is 'in principle' a monthly newsletter
edited by Soren Breiting. Due to many travels abroad it is
impossible for me to keep the schedule of the issues
strictly fitting to each month. My intention is to bring
quality information that is not outdated a month or two
later.
To sign up for or to cancel your subscription go to
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Photo News from A-Z FOTOS www.azFotos.com "Find
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