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STOCK
PHOTO NEWS from A-Z FOTOS
No.
26
The
first Modern eZine combining Stock Photography and
Marketing - Published since 1999
'Equally
important for picture buyers and image providers.'
October
2007
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CONTENT
*
From the Editor
*
Market segmentation of stock photo delivery
*
Your gift for reading SPN
*
Multi domain hosting - cheap and huge
*
Bilingual Marketing - Profit from Two Languages in
Promoting Websites and Business
*
Will Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III kill digital backs and
medium cameras?
*
Alamy hits 10 million images
*
age fotostock unveils easyFotostock - low budget
Royalty Free pictures
*
THP Photo Services launches THP PhotoStorage
*
Since Last Stock Photo News
*
White-list Stock Photo News
........................................................
Archive of earlier issues of Stock Photo News at
http://www.StockPhotoNews.com
>>>
Subscription information at the end of this ezine.
........................................................
FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome
to a new issue of Stock Photo News with helpful
hints and info for the picture researcher, publisher and
the stock photo industry.
The
tuff segmentation that is already in play will continue.
The price for simple pictures will continue to stay at a
very low level compared to the past.
When
everybody is running around with a digital camera that
can produce the technical quality for reproduction for a lot
of uses it will be possible for the user of pictures to find
suitable pictures as long as the demand isn't for outstanding
photographic performance.
And
because of the camera phones the news and press
photographers are also under pressure. Many others might have
been on location before the press photographer has arrived.
This
is the theme in this issue of SPN. Make sure to read
the press releases below as documentation.
As
a gift for waiting for Stock Photo News, I have included
some useful gifts I expect will be valuable for your future
work. Remember to download them while they are still available.
Words
and text are still a crucial element of all online success
and I include a fresh article about bilingual marketing -
many
should be able to benefit from these points.
Enjoy
reading Stock Photo News!
Soren
Breiting, Editor.
----------------
A-Z FOTOS
"Find Stock Photos from most of the World"
http://www.azFotos.com
----------------
Comments,
tips and relevant articles are appreciated. Send
email to sb@TAKETHISAWAY-azfotos.com (please remove the
inserted part added to avoid email harvesters).
***
Important note: I will not sell or rent the email
addresses belonging to our subscribers - I respect your
privacy. This mail list will only be used to send you the
monthly ezine. - This ezine uses opt in addresses.***
Soren Breiting
........................................................
MARKET SEGMENTATION OF STOCK PHOTO DELIVERY
The
web is full of sites that are offering pictures of a
mixed quality for a slant but with the best pictures being
good enough for serious use. Some are in fact brilliant
photographic images. And too many amateur photographers
are simply happy just to see others making use of their
pictures.
As
said - people find it more fun to help others with their
photo needs than giving a hand with washing windows!
The
effect of these trends is documented in the press
releases below. Segmentation of the stock photography offers
between low cost delivers with huge image databases and very
little focus on editing, but using the mechanisms of web 2.0
doing some of the evaluation.
The
web 2.0 is referring to the interaction between the users
and the website and the whole idea of creating community
linked to the online presence.
And
on the other edge we see tightly edited stock photo
sources with much focus on creative and unique images and
high pay out to the lucky photographers who are good enough
for this competition.
Parallel
to this segmentation we see a quest for still better
picture search engines and for the quality of the key wording
of each stock picture. As part of that when combined with
the
availability of the pictures we see the success of Alamy now
with more than 1 million stock pictures online.
In
the big picture more advertising agencies and other
professional picture researcher are becoming more comfortable
with using micro payment stock photo sources, according to
the report '2008 Online Images Outlook: Microstock Adoption
Accelerating', referred to by Stock Asylum Staff Report
from 24. Oct.
This
accept of micro payment stock is mainly taking market
shares from the royalty-free stock photo market but I guess
it will continue and eat of the whole traditional market
for stock photos, too.
The
consequences for these trends for the stock photo
industry seem to be a need for still being more perfect in
the offers for the upper segment of the market.
This
is about technical as well as creative quality of the
offered pictures.
But
what might be overlooked is that the ability for creating
branding towards this exclusive market might be very important
too. The credibility of the delivered quality and uniqueness
will be on test every day.
This
seems to be relevant for picture agencies as well as for
individual photographers, especially for commissioned work
and on assignment jobs. To be branded as a *star photographer*
will be very attractive.
For
photographers as well as for picture agencies to cover
the full market segmentation might be a part of the best
strategy, too, as we already see examples of, see for example
the press release from AgeFotostock below.
........................................................
YOUR GIFT FOR READING SPN
Find
the valuable gift for reading SPN and staying with us,
at http://....... SORRY, This gift is only for
subscribers to SPN
........................................................
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........................................................
BILINGUAL MARKETING - PROFIT FROM TWO LANGUAGES IN PROMOTING
WEBSITES AND BUSINESS
By
Soren Breiting
English
language is a widespread language and Internet has
made its position even stronger globally. But many customers
don't have English as their mother tongue and feel more
comfortable with their own language. A picture tells a 1000
words but marketing with pictures alone won't do it in Google
and other search engines.
Get
a good start exploring aspects of bilingual marketing for
your profit and accountability in this article.
If
you run an internet business you should benefit from these
tips about bilingual marketing. If you are running your
business in an English speaking country then you should analyze
which second language your potential customers would like
to use
to find your website and buy from you.
If
you are running an internet business in a non-English speaking
country you should make sure to have an English version of
the
site, too. That will give you access to millions more of potential
customers.
When
you plan your online visibility in two languages you have
3 options:
1.
Bilingual website divided on two domains
You can keep your two language versions on two different domains.
That will give you the advantage that you can have key word
rich
domain names in the relevant language or use national domains,
like we have with google.com and google.fr .
2.
Bilingual website divided on one domain, but two subdomains
This is another option, as the subdomains will function as
two domains.
But it can also be set up, so the main site is in the root
of
the domain and the extra language is in a subdomain, like
we see
with Yahoo: yahoo.com as the general English language version,
and fr.yahoo.com/ as the French version of Yahoo.
3.
The bilingual website is simply divided with the second
language version in a subfolder. This is a very common approach
to a bilingual website and it will function fine for a smaller
site.
On the other side you will not benefit from some of the special
possibilities for the promotion through bilingual marketing.
For
some time it has been possible to include an automatic translation
script on the English language web pages. The script using
Google's
translation service will then translate the concrete webpage
to the
desired language when the visitor is just pushing a button.
Scripts exist at the moment to translate English texts into
Spanish,
French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Russian
and
Chinese language.
At
the moment such translator scripts are more for marketing
purpose,
as the quality of the translated text is very different from
what a
human translator could do. On the other had the translated
text will
definitely give the visitor an impression of what the webpage
is about.
If you make links to the translated urls from other websites
you might
get some extra traffic through the search engines.
You
can se an example here at Free Articles http://www.free-articles.net/
Improving
visibility with free articles
Many marketers have realized that writing and distributing
articles for
free reprint and use is one of the very best marketing tools
we have
today. Such article marketing rides on the power of viral
marketing.
When each article is uploaded to article directories like
EzineArticles.com , GoArticles.com and ArticleCity.com they
will live
their own life in cyberspace and promote your ideas, back
links and
branding for years to come.
When
you have a bilingual capability yourself it will give you
a nice
advantage, just read on.
To write a lot of articles for the article directories can
be quite tuff,
or at least time consuming. Some use ghost writers that write
articles
on your behalf. Another option is to use PLR articles, private
label right articles. These are typical articles you buy.
If
they are good they will focus on a specific topic and give
good content
with the use of relevant keywords distributed in the article.
English
speaking people will use such a PLR article as their own on
their website,
or, much better, to rewrite it.
In
fact the idea is that when you get PLR to an article you have
the
freedom to use it for what ever you want, except to sell it
as it is.
But such an article will not be accepted in the article directories
because
many others are also using the exact same text. A complete
rewrite will
be necessary for the use in article directories for viral
spreading.
But,
and here comes the scoop. If you just translate an English
PLR article
into another language that will normally function as a completely
new-written article. One of my most read articles in my mother
tongue
Danish comes from such an original PLR article I bought in
English.
I must add that I did the translation a little bit creative,
but that
is also the freedom you have with PLR articles.
As
a bilingual marketer you will be able to go both ways, depending
on the sources of PLR resources in the second language to
English
you will have access to.
Bilingual
websites are a standard for many big companies outside
English speaking countries. For multinational companies directed
towards consumers the quest for multi-language websites and
marketing
is a must, like we see it with Canon.com , Sony.com , Nokia.com
and
jaguar.com .
See
a selection of good PLR articles at
http://www.allemarketingtips.com/plr
........................................................
WILL CANON EOS-1DS MARK III KILL DIGITAL BACKS AND MEDIUM
CAMERAS?
With
a newly developed chip giving 21.1 megapixels and full frame
the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III will be a hard competitor for medium
format
cameras used for high-fashion and commercial photo studios.
Also
for outdoor use, sports, events and wildlife photography the
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III is promising: Noise free use of higher
sensibility and a professional anti dust system to keep the
sensor
and shutter free from dust. A feature that photographers who
often
change lenses will appreciate.
Available
from November 2007.
See the specifications at
http://www.canondigitalcameras.net/canon-eos-1ds-mark-III-digital-camera-professional.htm
........................................................
ALAMY HITS 10 MILLION IMAGES
Press
Release
Oxfordshire,
UK, 8 October 2007
From
nought to 10 million images in under eight years. That's the
success being celebrated by Alamy, a UK internet start-up
company
that is now the web's largest stock photo site.
Formed
in 1999, the company, based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, has
experienced phenomenal growth to reach today's milestone figure
of
10 million images.
Alamy
employs over 50 people at its UK headquarters and another
100 plus in its offices in Kerala, India. It sells images
to picture
buyers worldwide on behalf of 10,000 photographers and over
400 picture libraries.
Still
privately owned, Alamy is a family business that has carved
out a unique place in the world of stock photography. It combines
a
pioneering, entrepreneurial style with a philanthrophic approach.
It
was started by CEO James West with his uncle and company chairman
Mike Fischer, co-founder and former CEO of RM Plc, the leading
provider of IT solutions to UK schools, colleges and universities.
Their
vision of creating a large, open, unedited, online collection
has helped to revolutionise the stock photo industry. Anyone
can
submit to Alamy as long as they meet technical requirements
and
contributors retain ownership and control of their pictures,
receiving 65 per cent of each sale, one of the highest rates
in the
industry.
As
the company has grown it has invested in new technology to
improve its search engine so that customers can find the right
image quickly and easily. It is currently working on a new
generation
of products and services.
The
company turnover for 2006 was £13.8 million/ $24 million
and is
projected to exceed £14.5 million/ $28 million in 2007.
Alamy turned
profitable in 2004 and, since 2006 has been providing approximately
£1 million/ $2 million a year to a number of medical
research projects,
one of which is operating at the UK headquarters where researchers
are
working on a therapeutic cancer vaccine.
CEO
James West said "Alamy's success demonstrates that it
is possible
to offer customers an encyclopaedic collection, pay photographers
the lion's share, and still be profitable."
........................................................
AGE FOTOSTOCK UNVEILS EASYFOTOSTOCK - LOW BUDGET ROYALTY FREE
PICTURES
Press
Release October 2007 Barcelona and New York
age
fotostock unveils easyFotostock - low budget Royalty Free
pictures
For
the past few months the age fotostock IT and marketing teams
have
been hard at work developing easyFotostockTM, an innovative
business
model in stock photography, which is expected to become another
source
of significant additional income for the company.
age
fotostock has always taken the necessary steps to ensure the
long
lasting existence and profitability of the company, which
has been
operating for almost 35 years, as well as the livelihood of
its
photographers and other specific provider collections age
fotostock
distributes. As business models change it was deemed necessary
to
develop one that suited the needs of an emerging market segment
today.
easyFotostockTM
is the result of the clear understanding the company
has developed regarding the technological disruption digital
photography
has produced, and the benefits of the economies of scale it
has generated,
thereby giving place to an enormous volume of images that
has undeniably
affected the final price. This situation has made it interesting
for many
more segments of the visual market to use images cheaper,
faster and even
more conveniently than ever before.
easyFotostockTM
is a "low budget Royalty Free" (LBRF) model, and
the brand
new site at www.easyfotostock.com is currently being beta-tested
and will
offer a very attractive pricing formula, for resolutions like
1MB, 6MB,
26MB or 50MB, also allowing to subscribe to the service in
order for
clients to enjoy the convenience of such a model, without
the inherent
collateral problems associated with the philosophy of the
typical
standard subscription model.
The
new site will be accessible within the age fotostock website
and
easyFotostockTM will share in client names, as well as the
functionalities
of the e-commerce platform, lightboxes, Digital Access Management
(DAM) back
end and more, thereby offering a sweet deal for all those
thousands of clients
accustomed to using www.agefotostock.com.
Furthermore
all age fotostock distributors using directly or indirectly
our
THP technology (over 120 in total) will have the opportunity
to incorporate
the easyFotostockTM module within their websites, thereby
enabling their
clients to enjoy the same facilities.
easyFotostockTM
is not a another photographer community and for that matter
it will not have a forum where photographers will be moderated
and can
explain stories about how many downloads they make, how much
they like their
colleagues´ images, debating about Model Releases or
how much money most of
them finally receive... easyFotostockTM is an extension of
age fotostock´s
core business, RM, RF and now LBRF that simplifies the purchasing
process
and correctly licenses images to all those clients that are
looking for a
good image at an affordable price.
easyFotostockTM
is the answer for all those clients that still want images
of good enough quality but are not prepared to pay RF or RM
prices as they
neither require the control or sophistication.
easyFotostockTM
is also the answer for that surplus of images age fotostock
receives from photographers around the world and that cannot
be incorporated
into the strict professional editing process for the age fotostock
(RM) and
Pixtal (RF) collections, and that are returned to the authors
because while
the images may be commercially viable they don´t have
that leading edge that
makes them a clear winner.
With
easyFotostockTM, a selling engine has been created that will
enable
willing photographers, as well as other participating suppliers,
to expand
the scope of images that can be channeled to the market for
the clients to
select their preferred option.
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THP PHOTO SERVICES LAUNCHES THP PHOTOSTORAGE
Press release October 2007
News
from Age Fotostock:
THP
Photo Services, the business unit from age fotostock that
offers hosting and marketing services for the stock photography
industry, is proud to announce the global launch of its latest
service, THP PhotoStorage.
This
new service provides daily image updates and fulfillment
of high resolution files for over 5 million images (from 243
image providers) currently residing on THP high end servers,
thanks to an underlying proprietary technology developed by
the
age fotostock IT team.
THP
PhotoStorage is aimed at any distributor of stock photography
images that would rather concentrate efforts and resources
in much
needed marketing and communication, than uploading, updating,
correcting, withdrawing, re-organizing, and above all, storing
millions of images from an ever growing number of sources.
In fact,
THP PhotoStorage can now allow distributors the freedom to
represent
as many collections as they want, without all the associated
headaches
that start with the receipt of a huge supply of high resolution
image
files to its subsequent upload onto the website.
About
this new development, Sylvie Cherian, Director of International
Sales at age fotostock commented that "for some months
now we´ve been
receiving constant demands for this kind of service from both
distributors and image providers who´ve already experienced
the
convenience of working with the THP. Before even launching
officially
we already had a number of distributors already set-up with
THP PhotoStorage,
and are presently in discussions to add more very soon".
THP
Photo Services has gained its reputation for the development
of
a network of close to 60 distributors, all of which use a
common
search engine and sophisticated back end technology which
enables them
to display to clients a collection of over 5 million professionally
edited images.
With
the launch of THP PhotoStorage, any distributor can now tap
into an automatic image updating and high resolution fulfillment
service for this ever-growing pool of images, without having
to use the
THP search engine and collateral functionalities; this new
service only
provides storage, updating, support and delivery for the 243
hosted image collections, which include of course the age
fotostock (rights managed)
and Pixtal (royalty free) collections. This new service is
available
for a competitive monthly fee based on the number of images
to be accessed.
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SINCE LAST SPN
Some
months have passed since last issue of SPN which I don't
like to happen. But daily life is quite hectic and the usual
travels abroad take their toll of my time and work at home.
The
mechanisms of globalization becomes stronger and stronger
in my mind about how I understand the world at present. Social,
political and not least environmentally we have never been
tied
so hard together at our small planet.
This
issue of SPN should be a clear testimonial of that.
I
am not sure if we all are in the same boat but may be we are
in the same ocean ?
Let
us use our intelligence and good intentions to be able to
pass that ocean on to your and my grand children in the best
possible way.
I
passed the 60 years mark in August so I need your help.
Ideas
and contributions to this e-zine is as usual greatly
appreciated.
Soren
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WHITE-LIST STOCK PHOTO NEWS
Hotmail:
Place the domains azfotos.com and
StockPhotoNews.com on your Safe List, so that you can
receive our e-zines and e-mails. The safe list can be
accessed via the "Options" link next to the main
menu tabs.
AOL:
Place the domains http://www.azfotos.com and
http://www.StockPhotoNews.com in your Address Book.
Yahoo!
Mail: If one SPN issue is filtered to your 'bulk'
folder, open the message and click on the "this is not
Spam" link next to the "From" field.
The
same goes for support e-mail. Some spam filters: Place
the domains azfotos.com and StockPhotoNews.com on the
filter's white-list. You may need to search a filter's
help for how to do this -- and depending on
software/version, they may call it a "white-list,"
a "good
list" or similar name.
Other
ISPs: If one of your Stock Photo News issue is being
filtered, add the "azfotos.com" and "stockPhotoNews.com"
domains (or SPN´s 'From' or 'Reply-to' address) to your
address book or contact list. THANK YOU! / Soren
........................................................
Copyright
2007 by Soren Breiting, A-Z FOTOS.
http://www.azFotos.com "Find Stock Photos from most of
the
World" Email me at: sb@ azfotosTAKETHISAWAY.com (email
spaced etc to avoid email harvesters).
You
are welcome to forward this newsletter to a friend or
to post it on your own website as long as you keep ALL
content, including the copyright notion and contact
information, intact and keep all links.
Stock
Photo News is 'in principle' a monthly newsletter
edited by me, 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 isn't outdated a month or two
later.
To
sign up for Stock Photo News:
Go to
http://www.stockphotonews.com/subscribespn.htm
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This
issue of Stock Photo News is especially dealing with the globalization
of the stock photography market through online avaliability
of stock photos and amateur pictures from all over the world
and the heated competition between the picture agencies and
commnunity sites following the success of web 2.0 applications.
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