Christmas? Bah Humbug!!

With the recession in full swing, our last minute shopping spree has us speed racing the driver next to us for that coveted parking space just so we can be the closest to the main entrance to our local mall. And, why do we do this? So that we can walk in to hear our favorite Christmas carols being played in the background of a crescendo of crying children being dragged from store to store by their overzealous parents looking for that perfect gift to place under the tree.

Sound all too familiar? Before your frustration and stress reaches its final boiling point, I thought I would share what our family is planning to do this Holiday Season: give a gift to someone in need. For the last few years we have stopped giving gifts to one another and, instead, gave a gift to a needy family or organization in someone's name. If you are so inclined, here is a list of charities you may consider supporting or, better yet, make up your own list.

The Salvation Army International Home Page
Contains information about the mission and work of The Salvation Army in over 110 countries


American Red Cross
Meets the humanitarian needs of the people in your area

Los Angeles Mission
Serves the homeless living on the streets of downtown’s Hope Central (known as Skid Row)

Feed The Children™
Helps poor, hungry and famine-stricken children worldwide


Children of the Night
Rescues America's children from prostitution

Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles California
Grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions


Marine Toys for Tots Foundation
Donates a new toy or gives a donation to help make Christmas a little brighter for a needy child in your community

ShareFest Community Development, Inc. - South Bay, Los Angeles, CA
Creates lasting change in underserved neighborhoods and cities, serving residents and creates lasting partnerships and communities of care

World Relief
Responds to major disasters throughout the world


During the Holidays, take a little time out of your busy schedules to realize how truly fortunate you are.

I wish you all a Happy Holiday.

Jupiter has fallen from orbit

The sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling!!! Well it’s that time again when the stock photo industry is in an uproar over Getty’s acquisition of Jupiter images for 96 million dollars. To add insult to Jupiter's injury, Getty acquired them for less than a third of last year's asking price. Jupiter entered the market with lofty goals, spending approximately 200 million acquiring companies over the past several years.

With one of the heavy hitters striking out, what does it mean for the industry? Less choice, that’s a given. Currently there are two major players left, Getty and Corbis, and several smaller companies all competing for content and clients. Personally I see this as a great opportunity for the customer. Smaller companies, like PhotoSpin.com, take the time to offer a great service, quality images and attentive customer service. They not only want your business, they care about you as a customer.

With all the changes going on in the industry what will happen to the photographers? These are the individuals whose sweat equity made the product the stock companies sell. Sadly, many will get dropped. Some will be lucky to have their collections consolidated into other collections. But all will feel the impact. As a result revenue will drop for the photographer because there are less companies selling their images.

Jupiter may have fallen out of orbit because of their devalued market share, but the images you, the photographer, produced still have value to the client who needs them. Most of you will just need a new stock house before you’ll start earning the money you deserve. This is a great time to consider alternative image distributors like PhotoSpin.com. If you are looking for a new home for your images I encourage you to check out www.photospin.com

If you prefer not to have your images distributed through a subscription service then check out PACA ( Picture Archive Counsel of America) http://www.pacaoffice.org/ They have a list of agencies that will be happy to integrate your work.

"A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Another day of uncertainty in the stock market as Wall Street recoups from the news of Lehman Brothers financial troubles on the heels of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bail out.

Our photo stock industry is in its own downward spiral as Lucky Oliver closes their doors and PhotoShelter announces they are closing down as of October 10, 2008. To add to the downward spin, Getty Images' last public report was that sales are down. And, Corbis Images announces they are lying off approximately 15% of their staff.

More grim news reports that overall sales within the photo stock industry are down and photographers and artists are becoming disillusioned with the general lack of return on their investments for creating images for stock. On the bright side, the industry is seeing a larger community of people using images and they are looking for more than a single source to buy their images from. It should also be noted that now, as in the financial stock market, is not the time to panic. I believe that all artists currently working in the stock industry or looking to get in the industry should consider the following:

• Look to diversify by offering your images to more than just a single source for distribution.
• Ask how long the company has been in business. New businesses run a greater risk of failure within the first 3 years.
• Look at the other collections the agency represents, how your work compares.
• What is the pay per image? I would look for Stock images to be a part of your income, not your entire revenue. This is the hardest adjustment for those whose income has been solely dependent on stock image sales. Not all agencies pay the same rate. Not all customers shop at the same sites. You may get pennies per image from one agency and get hundreds of sales, verses a single image sale for a few hundred dollars. The bottom line is revenue for your work.
• Look to have the stock agency promote you as a working professional. They have the traffic and customers to allow you to get identity branding with each of your images.
• A non-exclusive agreement. This will put you in front of more image buyers and give you a greater opportunity to sell your images.

Be patient. The industry will rebound. People always need fresh new images. Products are being made, services need to be filled and as a saying goes “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Or, as a photographer friend of mine used to say “A picture is worth a thousand bucks plus expenses”.

May the best man (or woman) win!

May the best man (or woman) win. And we're not talking about the Presidential election!

They say slow and steady wins the race but that is not always true. In the voting world, the vote determines who will win the race, whether slow and steady or fast and furious. When it comes to politics and contests, the majority vote crosses the finish line and crowns the winner.

Speaking of voting, we just opened voting for our 2008 Spinner Awards contest. The contest allowed PhotoSpin subscribers and visitors to upload their ads to our MySpin Directory for all eyes to see, and yes, to try to get the majority of votes to cross the finish line. These Spinner Award entrants will get the added benefit of promoting their businesses and showcasing their portfolios.

The contest always attracts a diverse group of artwork, both simple and complex, and always interesting. From straightforward logo designs that tell a story with a single image to complex ads that reveal their story through many pages, there are many winners in the 2008 Spinner Awards contest. However, only two entrants can take home the prizes.

Help us choose the 2008 Spinner Awards contest winner by casting your vote before September 15, 2008: https://www.photospin.com/directory-results2.asp

May the best man (or woman) win!

Catching the wave...

Well it looks like the photo stock industry is finally catching the wave and following what we at PhotoSpin have been saying for almost a decade: that subscription services are the way to go. They offer the best value for the customer that downloads more than a few images per year.

Recently we have seen iStockphoto, Dreamstime and Fotolia launch their versions of the subscription service. But did they get it right? With a limit on monthly downloads and prices well over $1,000.00 (US) per year for the top tier offered, are they really giving their customers what they want? We at PhotoSpin have found that our customers want full access to our entire image library with unlimited downloads in multiple resolutions to fit most, if not all, of their design needs at an affordable price.

So, do yourself a favor and check out PhotoSpin.com. We’ve been doing subscriptions since 1999 and there is a reason we are still leading the way…

Double Exposure?

Create a company listing in our MySpin Directory and promote it on YOUR site.

In April we introduced our new MySpin Directory: a place where our visitors and customers can create a company listing, upload an ad and even upload a portfolio. We wanted to offer you a unique place to get your company noticed and grow your business.

Now that the Directory is ‘open’ and collecting listings , we’d like to show you a way to gain even more exposure by promoting your company listing through a banner ad on your site:

• Visit http://www.photospin.com
• Click on the 'Post your free ad now' link located in the blue box on the right hand side of the page
• Create your listing, upload your banner, etc.
• Go to the dashboard by clicking on the dashboard link on the left hand side of the page
• Copy the link located below the banner advertising your ad at the MySpin Directory and paste it into your web page

Your company is now doubly exposed.

As the directory grows we will be adding a blog, a community forum and a job board. Our goal is to help facilitate better communication for you, your peers and your prospective clients.

Let’s continue to build a community for creative professionals and the businesses that support our industry.

How To Survive: Part 2

After giving the question "With all due respect, tell us something we don’t know?" some more thought, I wanted to lay additional groundwork for not only surviving rough economic times, but excelling in this new changing market as well. I offer this with one condition: Don’t kill the messenger!

In rough economic times all businesses look to reduce overhead by cutting costs. This is a known fact that has stood the test of time. That said, photographers today need to readdress the whole business of photography and look to the clients that specifically hire them on an ongoing basis: automakers, catalogs, fashions, soft drinks, etc., the products that are made year in and year out. They should also be on the lookout for clients that have new models of products that need to be marketed to the consumer. These clients need a specific product shot for the ad and no stock photo will do. For instance, a new Ipod, a new 2009 car, new fashion, etc.... you get the picture.

The current state of photography today is that more and more people are buying stock / royalty free images and this isn’t going to change. Stock images have become a greater part of advertising than ever before. More and more photographers are contributing to the pool of royalty free images available today, thus, the prices are being driven down by a glut of good images on the market. "Why pay $500.00 for an image when I can buy one for a few dollars?" This has become the mindset of most image buyers. The image history itself isn’t that important for the majority of the projects being done so why pay for it?

So, this sets the table for what I’m about to say. I offer the following based upon my understanding of business now. It is my past mistakes while running businesses that have led me to these conclusions. Remember: Don’t kill the messenger! I do invite disagreement / criticism but not death threats. I believe this is a good model and would look to implement it if I were still a commercial photographer.

Professional photographers need to consolidate their businesses!

Photographers today need to put their egos aside and look to the future. They need to create a consortium of talented professionals, quit being individuals and begin to build businesses apart from themselves. Thus, they need to operate their businesses as businesses. There, I said it. The biggest mistake I made when I was a photographer was I WAS the business. When I quit shooting, I was able to sell a studio and some equipment but NOT the business! Twenty years of good will down the drain. I know of an owner at a local donut shop that just got $250,000 for his rented location, equipment, and GOOD WILL. He sold his BUSINESS.

So, the next question: How is this done?

I would look to large law firms or major advertising agencies as the model.

As a hypothetical, take 100 photographers from around the country all working and billing a minimum of $100,000.00 per year - not much as an individual especially when you factor in expenses-form a consortium and incorporate it. Offer each photographer a base salary and a commission based upon performance, hours worked and dollars brought into the company. The corporation is now billing $10,000,000.00 per year. Now, that’s buying power. The photographers become employees of the corporation receiving such benefits as vacations, options, healthcare etc. If a photographer doesn’t pull his or her weight they can be fired, just like in any other organization.

This hypothetical business now is in a position to get bank loans and lines of credit as well as have a studio in every major advertising city- New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Seattle and Minneapolis ( you pick the cities) - available to all within the firm. No individual photographer is working 24hrs per day so why pay for the overhead as an individual 24hrs per day?

If you take 1% of $10,000,000 or $100,000 per year and spend it on advertising just think of the impact that you could have in the industry. Agencies would like the buzz, art buyers would get one stop shopping and clients would recognize this hypothetical business by name. Why? Because it would be branded as the best, biggest, most complete studio in the world. The company would be able to hire accountants and bookkeepers to do all the billing from one location instead of from the hundreds of individual accountants/bookkeepers that you have now. It also would be able to bring in producers, stylists, reps, and assistants that can work within the company and be pulled into a shoot when needed. As the assistants gain experience, they can be groomed as photographers and become associates, much like associate attorneys in a law firm. The company would also be able to control stock shoots and be their own stock agency. The opportunities are endless. Most important, when you are ready to retire you have equity in the company and you can sell this equity back to the partners or to a new photographer coming into the firm.

Congratulations, you’ve built a company that is bigger than you, the individual photographer! You’re a professional that deserves professional fees and respect.

This is a very rough overview, but it is doable and can be highly profitable. It can be accomplished with as few as 10 photographers in a single city to a few hundred in multiple cities. Again, look at law firms or major ad agencies working under one corporation in multiple cities. To accomplish this it will take a committed group willing to break the mould of what has been and build for what can be. Do you want to survive in rough economic times? More importantly, do you want to change an industry? Here is the road map.

How To Survive…

Here is an article I wrote for About the Image that I feel may be of interest to you. I changed the title of the article to “How To Survive As A Commercial Artist In A Shrinking Economy”:

In my opinion you need several sources of income to survive in this market. Below I list 5 possible venues for revenue and what I believe to be their current status.

• Assignment work- Declining in opportunities but good revenues when you get the work
• Rights managed stock- Declining revenue
• Royalty free stock- Single image sales / declining revenue
• Subscription stock- Single annual payment but growing in market share
• MicroStock- Small amounts of revenue for artists but increasing in popularity amongst buyers and artists. Saturated market but good images are getting sold

Sorry for repeating what is the obvious, but I feel this will help lay the groundwork for new ideas for you and showcase new opportunities that we see for PhotoSpin.com. As a distributor of images we too feel the crunch so we look to new possible solutions to differentiate us in a very competive market.

I believe as a professional that you need to see that the market is changing and the client now determines the value of your work, not you as the artist. We all need to get over what used to be and deal with what is now. We are past the "Field of Dreams' mindset which is: "If you build it, they will come". So traditional marketing and a website alone will not get you new work.

The following recommendations may again be obvious but may provide some insight as to what I think needs to happen to build a successful commercial art business in today’s economy:

• First and foremost - meet and greet- there is not an agency in the world that is going to trust a multimillion dollar account on someone they do not know personally or by reputation - the stakes are too high
• Consider a PR campaign to get your name out there. You can do this yourself on the cheap. By writing your own PR with every job, every rep and every stock distributor you sign. Post it to your website in a section titled news or PR and, if the job warrants it, use an online service to distribute it
• If you are not working with reps, get one in every major city- keep in mind that they charge for what they do. Most are commission based so it’s found money to you
• Consider adding a stock option to your site showcasing your work, with links from specific images on your site to your images on your stock agencies site
• Sell your own “New” stock on your site- you do not need e-commerce - you need to give a number to call and be willing to negotiate
• With over 75% of all stock buyers using stock for references or projects, think of your images as ads for your business. Always list your company as the artist that created the image
• Continually shoot new images to keep your portfolio exposed in the searches
• Look to create images that fill voids in the market
• Do not sign any exclusive agreements- too many artists are stuck now in the back of searches with no possible hope of getting sales
• Be creative with your opportunities to showcase your work. When I was a working photographer I sent new promos every month-the best one I sent out was a printed promo and a wadded up piece of paper with my name and phone number on it stuffed in an envelope along with a hand written note saying "I know most promos get thrown away so I don’t care which one you toss out, they both have my number on it!" I got calls and jobs for over a year with that promo. Art Directors and buyers are looking for someone who will bring something to the party. Not someone who will just regurgitate a layout

These may or may not get you work but as working professional you need to continually work to improve your product and services.

Here is what we are currently doing at PhotoSpin to increase our exposure and revenue for us as well as our artists:

• New MySpin Directory - free to all - allows creatives or companies that support creatives the opportunity to post a free listing and advertisement: http://www.photospin.com/directory.asp
• Revenue share with artist based upon size of collection - giving an artist guaranteed revenue
• In development- a new gallery for buyers to set prices and artists to post work and accept or reject the sale -buyers to use images based on terms: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc.

I hope this helps or, at the very least, confirms what you are already know or are doing...

Knock Knock Knock

In today's slowing economy, we wanted to offer our customers a unique opportunity to get their companies and skills noticed, and grow their businesses. Our goal was to utilize our web traffic to create a new marketing environment for the creative professional and the people that support our industry. Introducing the MySpin Directory.

This new directory will allow our visitors and subscribers to create a free listing and upload a free advertisement for their companies. PhotoSpin subscribers get the added benefit of posting samples of their portfolios to show potential clients a wider variety of the work they do.

As the directory grows we will be adding a blog, a community forum and a job board. Our goal is to help facilitate better communication for you, your peers and your prospective clients.

To learn more about our Directory please visit:

http://www.photospin.com/directory-video.asp

It’s been said that when opportunity knocks you need to be ready and willing to open the door.

So if your ready to get started, click on the link below and open the door to new business opportunities: http://www.photospin.com/directory

Let’s see if together we can build a community for creative professionals and the businesses that support our industry.

Getty Images For Sale: Panic, why panic?

Once I received the news that Getty Images was up for sale my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Panicked calls from photographers who are represented by Getty Images as well as other stock companies rang in by the numbers. These worried artists were wondering what would happen to the industry if Getty sells. What would happen? Truth be told, I really don’t know. But what I do know, I learned from what I read:

“The auction of Getty Images appears to be in jeopardy.”

Though several bidders, mostly private equity firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners, had expressed interest last month, according to the New York Times, Getty received no offers significantly above its current market value of $1.6 billion”.

So, what does this mean to the average image supplier or user of images? The short answer is nothing. Getty as the leader in the stock image market has a responsibility to its shareholders to explore all possible avenues to gain a high return on the investment. If the company does sell, aside from the possibility of reorganization or of selling off some of their assets, not much will change. Photographers will still get paid and customers will continue to get their images. I suspect that prices will more than likely increase again for some of the more popular Microstock images, which for the customer that uses subscription sites like PhotoSpin, is only a positive gain. Currently, an X large image from iStock Images sells for $15.00 per image while an annual subscription from PhotoSpin sells for $299.00 and allows you to download as many high res images as you need throughout the year. Therefore, whether you need 10 images a month or 100, it won't cost you more than the annual fee.

Getty Images For Sale: No need to panic!

The recession is coming! The recession is coming! The recession is coming?

Sounds like a war cry from the American Revolution or an old nursery rhyme about a little chicken and a piece of fruit. The truth is I don’t know if a recession is coming and, from what I’ve read, neither do the economists.

If a recession were to happen, what will it mean to advertising? Back in 2001 when we heard the cry of recession, advertising budgets dropped by almost 10% and internet advertising by a little over 25%. History has shown us that television and print ads are likely to be cut back first. I personally know commercial photographers that never recovered from the drop in assignment work and believe another recession would cause the assignments to drop even further. And, perhaps, the media that would feel the sting from the cut in advertising the worst will be the newspapers, which are already reeling from a drop in circulation (sorry guys).

So batten down the hatches, we may be heading for rough water! But, before we launch our proverbial life rafts, let’s ride the waves of opportunity. One of the greatest opportunities we have today is online advertising. Times are very different and more and more money is going towards internet advertising than ever before, resulting in a greater return on our clients’ ad dollar investment. And, to help get these ads noticed, are the SEO’s (search engine optimization) companies. These companies are growing faster than the national debt and are expert at expediting the visibility of these online ads.

As a designer you may consider developing more internet strategies for your clients. Become educated on SEO companies and how to help better position your customers’ advertising in the search engines. As a photographer I go back to what I have always said: you need to have multiple sources of income including assignment photography as well as numerous stock agencies representing your work.

Whether a recession is coming or not, we wanted to offer you yet another way to get your work noticed. This quarter we will be launching our new MYSpin Community and offering you a great way to advertise your services for free to over 1,000,000 people that buy or create commercial art. We’d love to hear your thoughts and welcome your feedback on our newest project as we enter into the beta testing phase: http://www.photospin.com/myspin-directory.asp.

NEW Year, New Browse, and New Marketing Channel

Sorry for the delay in writing, we've been busy developing the new Browse and community MySpin Directory sections of our website.

Yes, that’s right, PhotoSpin is at it again, trying to make life easier for our visitors and subscribers. As you probably know by now, we increased our image uploads from 400 to 1000s of new photos and illustrations per month. With all the new images making their home on our site, the volume list in our browse section was growing almost as fast as our image uploads. To make things more efficient for our customers, we decided to group our ever growing library of images into neat little categories. Check it out: https://www.photospin.com/browse_photos.asp

In addition to making our Browse section cleaner and more search friendly, we also wanted to offer our customers and visitors a place where they could showcase their work or post an ad as well as check out what other creatives are doing. Coming soon: the community MySpin Directory. Currently we're looking for PhotoSpin subscribers to beta test the Directory and encourage you to take a sneak peek at our mockups: http://www.photospin.com/myspin-directory.asp. If you're interested in being one of the first to post your work or advertise in our community, please drop us an email at beta@photospin.com

We're very excited about all the new changes at PhotoSpin.com and hope that you not only experience more efficient searches, but are able to make a few friends along the way in our new MySpin Directory.

Coming soon music clips...