Renew Your Storage Space Subscription Today and Save
In order to better compete in the market place, we are increasing storage pricing. Staring November 1, 2006, ShutterPoint
will adjust storage space subscription prices for subscription renewals as well as new accounts. Please refer to the table below
for price comparisons:
| Expiration Renewal/New Account |
Current Price |
New Price |
|
| 50 MB for 6 months |
$9 |
$12 |
|
| 50 MB for 1 year |
$15 |
$19 |
|
| 100 MB for 6 months |
$15 |
$19 |
|
| 100 MB for 1 year |
$25 |
$29 |
|
| 200 MB for 6 months (NEW!) |
- |
$29 |
<<< less expensive than today |
| 200 MB for 1 year (NEW!) |
- |
$49 |
<<< less expensive than today |
Along with price adjustments, we are introducing more storage options. We now offer 200 MB for 6 months or 1 year, which
provides savings for those of you who require more storage space for your portfolio. Price adjustment will enable us to
improve our infrastructure and expand our promotional efforts so that your photography is more accessible to photo buyers.
When adding more storage to an existing account, we currently use different pricing: flat daily rate of 0.065 cents for each
additional MB of storage space. After the pricing change goes in effect, this rate will become 0.08 cents for 1 MB of
storage space. This rate equals to $29.20 per year for 100 MB of space.
Increase of the minimum acceptable image dimensions
As the quality of images produced by modern digital cameras continues to advance, so do the overall quality expectations from
the image buyers. In order to be able to successfully market your images, we need to ensure that images in our collection can
meet the needs of publishers and designers. Our
submission guidelines require submissions to be at least
500 pixels in any dimension (0.25 megapixels minimum image size), which is extremely small in today's stock imagery marketplace.
Starting November 1, 2006, we will require at least 1024 pixels in the smallest dimension
(one megapixel minimum image size). While the new requirement is still much lower than the recommended size of 4 - 6 megapixels,
we recognize that at times images used for multimedia content or in small size prints may not need to be larger.
If you currently have images in your account that are smaller than the new minimum size requirement, please replace
them with higher resolution copies.
All existing images not meeting the new requirement will be gradually removed from the site during the winter months.
Common Mistakes: Avoid Them and Increase Your Photo Sales
When it comes to selling images, knowing what not to do wrong is as important as knowing what to do right. Based on our
observations, we are presenting a list of common mistakes that every photo seller should try to avoid.
-
Photographing subjects in high supply and low demand categories
Think ahead when picking your subject for photos. High supply/ low demand subjects include flowers, kids, sunsets, and pets.
ShutterPoint has a rather large collection of images with these subjects, but the statistics show that since demand for these
types of photos is low and supply is high, the probability of selling is slim. Unless you honestly feel that your photo in such
category is truly exceptional, don't upload it. Instead, concentrate on what is selling (see next section).
-
Using title or keywords that are not descriptive
Titles and keywords is how the photo buyers search for what they need. If either title or keywords are not descriptive of the
actual photo, they will not find your photo and obviously will not buy it unless they find it. When naming your photo, try to
give a descriptive title rather then a creative one. When coming up with keywords for the photo, write the first words that you
think would come to mind to a person looking at the photo. Keywords should be in relevant importance order.
- Uploading medium or low resolution image and stating that high resolution is available
We noticed that some of our members upload low-resolution photos and ask the buyer to contact them personally for high-resolution
version of the same photo. When image buyers come to ShutterPoint, most of them are looking to make the purchase transaction
right there and then. They may not want to contact a third party and will most likely not buy a photo at all unless it is
available for download right when they need it.
- Uploading editorial-use image without newsworthy content
Quite frequently our photographers upload images that are not available for commercial use. For instance, a photo contains a
model without a model release or it may have copyright issues preventing commercial use (logos, trademarks, artworks, landmarks,
just to name some). Even if your photo is very good, if it is marked for editorial use and does not possess real editorial
value, it will not sell. Before uploading editorial-use images, ask yourself if such an image would be useful to a news source,
and if not, do not upload it.
- Using borders and frames on your images
Borders and frames are subjective. Publishers may want to use their own borders or frames to match the design of their project.
Avoid using borders or frames to increase the chances your photos will sell. Even though they may be easy to remove, do not make
your customers do any extra work.
What's Selling Now
Seeing is believing, and when you examine the What's Selling section regularly, you will be able to tell which photos sell most.
Of course, professionally done images in any category are always selling, but if you pick your photo subject wisely,
your efforts will pay off better.
Our recommendations:
In order to boost sales, try shooting the most marketable subjects - see our Learning section for various examples. Ensure your images are top notch:
- they should be well composed;
- they should clearly get the message you are trying to convey across or illustrate an idea you wanted to express;
- they should have no noise;
- they should be sharp and of high resolution.
Try to clearly understand how and where your image can be used - if you are not sure what it can be used for, neither will be the
buyer. If you have recognizable and uniquely identifiable property or models in your photos, you must
submit a release form, since otherwise you are
limiting yourself to editorial use only. Always assign a
good set of keywords with the most descriptive keywords or
key phrases placed in the beginning of the list. If you get any feedback on your images from other members, evaluate
validity of the criticism (if any) and try to improve your photos.
Contrary to popular belief, lower prices do not change the likelihood of sales by much. Royalty free photography is not a
consumer market - our buyers are mostly businesses and they are willing to pay $50 instead of $25 for a photo if they find
exactly what they need. ShutterPoint has had images sell for over $200 each, and if there were more of those online, more of
them would sell as well. If you are in the business of selling your photography, you must be accommodative to your buyers and
give them exactly what they need!
New Site Features
- You can now set any watermark as your default and it will be automatically applied to all new submissions - this can be particularly useful when you use the multiple file upload facility. See the Watermark Manager to try.
- Quick links to popular feed subscription sites have been added to the forum category pages - you can use them to grab the forum feeds and place them on the website of your choice.
- We added floating thumbnails to the Statistics and Summary page to make it easier to locate images.
- We have updated our Submission Guidelines to include lists of properties and subjects that cannot be sold for commercial use.
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