When I first encountered the Word Wide Web in 1994, I created a home page for my photography business. I felt at the time that having it would lead to additional work and income.
It soon became apparent though that I would fall short of my goal for the following reasons:
- People looking for photographers would not spend their valuable time searching through hundreds of thousands or even millions of photographer's websites looking for a photographer that suits their needs.
- People looking to purchase usage rights to images would not search through photographer's websites hoping to find the image they want. They would also experience some trepidation about the photographer's pricing structure and their ability to deliver the image in a timely manner.
So for most photographers, using the World Wide Web to increase income would prove to be an elusive goal. Having a web page would be helpful if someone had already heard of you and could then check out your work online, but as for attracting new business, the web did not hold much promise.
Stock Image Agencies
One method of getting additional income that predates the web was to be represented by a stock image agency. Stock image agencies enter into a relationship with a photographer whereby they "represent" the photographer's work. The stock agency will take a body of work from the photographer, usually several thousand images, edit and catalogue them, and market them to the business community.
In the last couple of years stock image agencies have appeared on the web and increasingly images are available in digital format. GettyOne and Corbis are two of the bigger players.
Unfortunately for most photographers, stock agencies only want to work with a select number of photographers that can commit to providing them with a large body of work at the outset, and agree to continually add to the collection over time. This leaves out the vast majority of photographers who may have only a few hundred marketable images.
So for the perhaps millions of photographers around the world, tapping into the promise of the World Wide web has proven to be elusive. That may change though...
Introducing Photomatica