How to attract more contributors to my stock photo website

Im not sure weather this is the right category for this. I have finished my contributor section on my website but not sure how I can get people posting images on there. Photographers get a commission for every time their images are downloaded. They also get £10 as soon as they sign up. Where can I advertise? Not got a big budget and dont mind doing lots of work myself. Tried posting on photography forums but always get banned or posts deleted

http://www.stockola.com/image/contribute

 

Have you implemented a refer a friend scheme so that contributors can earn a bonus for referring more contributors? How about including a ticker like old car mileage clocks which shows how much contributors have earned in total?

Jordan

 

Just keep promoting it here and there (forums, classifieds, blogs, social media sites, etc.). It will take time. My instant beef with your service is you want visitors to watch a 20+ second video before they can download an image. If I were you I wouldn't go this route while I was trying to get my service off the ground. Even those who happen to come to check it out, will leave it as soon as they are made to watch a video. At least, give people an option to close the video ad, if they choose to do so.

 

I still havnt become established on here yet so cant even have a sig.

Jordan both of those ideas are really cool and to build the contributors I could pay out some of the referrals myself until I have lots of people using. I would just have to make sure I have a way of stopping people cheating the system and signing loads of fake users up, however if i have email validation then they would have to set new emails up so it would work!

The total earnings thing is a cool idea could even put some fake accounts on there with big earnings to get people excited

The ads need to be there really because thats how i plan on paying the contributors without charging for image downloads. Hopefully the images on stockola will be high quality like paid stock websites but for free. I am going to introduce a system where designers who use the site lots can purchase bulk downloads where they get to skip the advert for say 1000 downloads for £30 which is cheap compared to iStockphoto

 

Hello Jimmy,
I wouldn't make fake accounts as it's a possible misrepresentation, maybe you could include the £10 bonuses in the counter for each sign up. I found this guide which may help you http://www.recycledpixels.com/2011/08/25/flip-counters-displays-with-jquery-php/
Jordan

 

That looks really cool will try implement this tomorrow! The only reason I said fake accounts is because it will be quite low number to start with which wont excite people very much.

 

Superb bit of advice, I really wouldn't force users to watch that video, especially being 20 seconds long - you'd be surprised how little patience people have these days! But yes, promoting your site to various different forums and social networks is the best place to start, good luck!

 

I might swap it from video advertising to a large image which must be viewed for 10 seconds. Would people still pay 2p per view for it though do you think? I think more people have image advertising to put on there than video adverts

 

I am surprised that the places you post on are actively deleting your posts. It might be that your site might be competing against some of the moderators that work on the site. Another strategy *might* be to look into buying signature links from established forum members, that way each time one posts, it promotes your site.
You can purchase forum signature links in a section from this forum

on your home page, i found that "Search thousands of totally free stock photos! | Skip to homepage ›››" is WAY too small. IMO needs to be bigger. I would even add a live counter to promote just how many photos you have in stock, as well as how many contributors you have. Underneath this, you should put a row of say, 5 thumbnails of the most downloaded / purchased images? OR top downloaded images of the week. I think that this will be a feature that you can use to promote to users as whoever makes it into the homepage will have an ever greater chance of having their photos sold.

My initial impression of the search bar on the 'home page' turns me off but when going from that onto the 'homepage' I find the design is very impressive. I personally would prefer to land at the "homepage" rather then the initial search page, but many others might prefer it to be the other way around. It is also slightly confusing that you call the homepage, (when it is indeed not the homepage... )homepage. For me, the homepage is always the index file in the root directory of the website.

I have seen people promoting funny images sites by going around on facebook, (and other sites) and sharing in photos. I see photos being shared on forums everywhere. its not "HEY visit my site for photos [LINK]" but rather try "wow, this photo took my breath away [thumbnail]" and of course, in your signature, have a link back to your site.

One thing that I would try, is to find blogs that relate to making money. They might have 1-5 different ways to make money online, and in the comments you just say,
"well, i think an easier way to make money is to pick up your phone or camera, take a couple of photos and upload them to photo sharing sites such as and when the site sells the photos for you, you get paid. People on those sites earn [insert average earnings for your top 10 contributors] per week just for clicking their camera a few times." These are just examples of how I would post on forums and blogs. This way, you are more contributing to the site, rather then simply promoting your own site.

 

Thankyou so much for the great advice and yes your points about the splash page are valid and it is probably hindering SEO. I think I will add a few things you mentioned (top images this week, number of images) on the the actual home page and ditch the splash page for now. I will look into the signature purchasing idea. I think social networking is the way forward I have implemented the facebook comment section on the image info page but I think there is much more I can do with regards to social media.

I basically need lots of contributors to make the site have more images, which will attract more designers who need the images, which in turn will attract the advertisers who pay the contributors.

 

One more suggestion - many other stock photo sites have live support, perhaps this would be a good idea for yours. I can recommend Zopim which is free.

 

Hey Jimmy!

I was reading the entire thread and caught on to your quip about refer-a-friend programs. You're completely right about little difficulties like having people pose as fake users just to get a load of a potential discount or offer that you are offering. I myself, have faced that dilemma before while dealing with the notion of referral marketing - i'd really wanted to implement it in my online business because it's an insanely effective way of getting conversions and sales without spending all those money on ads and stuff that i was skeptical about working. The funny thing is that i am now working in one such app - a referral program for online retailers haha! We have a pretty extensive base of clients and their sales have been increasing with us around. I'd suggest you Google around for customer referral programs and try this marketing tactic out - it could do wonders for you and your business. Also, remember your SEO!

 

Thanks I will try and implement a referral system now I need contributors and this seems a fast and affordable way of doing it

 

been working on this today! Now have a referral system in place where users can post referral links or share on facebook or twitter once they log in. They receive £1 once the user signs up and posts 5 images.

 

By the way whatever changes you have made to your site have made it look way better. It's way more user friendly now. I am still not a big fan of the 30+ sec. promotional videos, but I can still see a huge potential in your endeavor. And the affiliate program should help you tremendously too.

 

Thanks for your encouragement, Still deciding what to do about the adverts, I cant get rid of them but maybe shorten the wait. The affiliate program should be good just need to get the word out!

 

Turns out I cant find an advertiser that will pay enough to do free images. Now charging $1 per image which is cheap compared to Istock. And you dont have to log in which saves time. Just need to advertise it now where shall i do it?

 

Hello James,

Had a look and to be completely honest I would not even use some of those images if they were free. It seems people are using it as photo storage and image hosting. Your best model is to do what you were doing before with advertising, however have a standard for photos so that they are high quality and not just rubbish that people are uploading to try and get some money. For example why would a designer like myself go on a stock photo website and expect to see casual photos from somebody's holiday?

Jordan

 

You could go to the DP Marketplace on the Advertising section and purchase some Ad spots. Also, you may heard of flickr, it's Social Networking for photographers. Go around on there about your website, and even contact the administrators of Flickr and get an ad spot!

Also, I really like your website!

 

You might also want to include an affiliate scheme to encourage those who sign up to invite their friends and colleagues to sign up, too!