Fair enough, I'll give it a try again. I just get somewhat upset over bad performance sometimes. I must say though that the site is difficult to use, it seems built and designed from the point of view of the owner and the coder, not from the customers point of view, but many of the policies seems to be sound though.
On 06-Jan-2011 5:06 PM, planetearth zero wrote:
RK am sorry to hear about the poor experience you had, it was very different years ago. It might be worth another try, have not heard anything negative before.
On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 11:06 PM, RK <rolf.krohna@gmail.com> wrote:
Let me, on the balance, then share my experience as of today of Photographers Direct.
Initially, could brows the pictures, in my opinion, some good, but a lot of photos type, "my last vacation" typical amateur type pictures.
Tried to register, no response at all.
Tried to contact them and got the message "service unavailable".
Connected through proxies in Italy, UK and two in US and got "service unavailable" or no response.
My impulsive opinion. What a load of rotten garbage. This non-performance really get me up in arms. Not worth it.
I am also missing this.
- The search function was really primitive, something like in the early days of the internet.
- No possibility to post free photos. (Sometimes I do that as a bait for sales)
- When I buy photos I like to search for the photographer, not just send a blind email to see who it may be. I like to know when browsing the photos who is the photographer. There are some real crooks out there you don't want to deal with, and a lot of good ones you like to deal with.
- No "theme" search at all. (This is a prime search need)
I think we need something more functional in stock photography. Searching with any general search engine (as Google) give much better result than this site.
Back to the drawing board, I suggest.
On 06-Jan-2011 12:32 AM, David Smith wrote:
I have had my images with Photographers Direct for about 5 years now and the information being posted in this thread is misleading
PD do have an option to list your photos with them for free and they do an excellent job of marketing. They publish a customer newsletter monthly and they have an impressive customer base worldwide. Photographers with them can upload as many images as they want as long as they continue to be rated acceptable or better on upload. Their criteria is not too rigorous and you can easily request another rating.
Photographers also have the option to receive specific image requests for free and PD sends out such requests almost daily, with many of those notices with multiple image needs - a good way of seeing what their market is looking for and what price they will pay. I have sold images via such requests but most of my sales are from customers searching the PD database and finding mine so good key wording is "key". My sales are down over the years (as expected!) but I am totally happy with their performance, level of service and make an excellent free stock distribution solution with good photographer commissions and information flow.
As PD not have the high res images (just 500 pixel max sizes) you need to be able to organize and deliver the high res versions to the customer yourself. All of my high res. images are with
Photoshelter www.interfaceimages.com (which I pay for) and as a frequent travel and assignment photographer all I need is access to any Internet browser to deliver high res images from my PS archives to the PD customer as I travel. Be aware that many image requests have a short deadline of only a few days or less so you need to be on the ball to get the sale.
They only want a 20% commission, the photographer keeps 80% - very rare these days. You need to negotiate the selling price with the image buyers yourself so no need to accept arbitrary pricing but you need the skills to do so. You pay the PD commission after you get the $.
Note: They will not accept photographers who are with any Micro stock agency and PD owner Chris Barton goes beyond the call of duty to help protect photographers rights. He has my total support.
I thought I should clear up the misleading information about Photographers Direct. This is an unsolicited post. Happy New Year to all!
David SmithInterface Images...Dave
David Smith cell 604-818-7662
Image by Interface
www.imagebyinterface.com
Digital Photography & Travel Writers
for People, Places, Events & Things - Worldwide
Interface Images Stock PhotographyFine Art Photography
Blog- Anna & David's Excellent Travel & Photo Adventures
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn SkypeOffice Tel 604-926-2006Re: 'Photographers Direct' and 'PhotoDeck'
Posted by: "Brad n Lisa" we2grahams@yahoo.ca we2grahams
Tue Jan 4, 2011 1:44 pm (PST)
re: Photographers Direct
When considering stock sites it is a good idea to keep in mind that the chance of someone purchasing your image from the 2.2 million images is pretty slim without some effort on your part. This site does have photographer's gallery in favor of it so you could do promotions on your own. You have to ask yourself is it worth $360/year to you and do you have a quality portfolio to compete with in the market? You really can't rely on them to create sales for you...
One thing I did notice during my brief search session in their database, is that the photographer isn't cross referenced on the photos so even if someone likes your image they don't have the option to 'see more by this photographer' until they login to submit a request. (All the image says is 'photographer based in France') So unless they know your name, they can't check out the rest of your portfolio. I guess this is how they keep themselves involved as the middle man.
0 comments:
Post a Comment