Thursday, April 24, 2008

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...

Monday, April 21, 2008

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.