Hi guys I'm currently in the process of making a photo stock website with a friend. Between us, we have around $400 to play with, but we are undecided on a few things. First off, the script. We're unsure of whether to buy a pre made one, or get a custom one. For sure, the custom one would be better, but it will undoubtedly cost a lot more. Would it be practical to start off on the pre made one, and then if we're making enough profit, buy a custom one then??? Here are the scripts we're looking at: www.xpoze.org and www.ktools.net The second thing is the theme. Everyone seems to say that a specific niche as a theme would be better, and we were thinking of 'sports'. But we're also thinking that if we made a general one, then we would attract more people and would therefore get more $$$. Thanks in advance for your help Simon
Scripts are one thing, the most important for a stock photo web site are the stock photos themselves? Have you determine where you are getting the source? Frankly speakingly $400 cant buy more than a few stock photos that allow distributable permissions. Total cost for "stocking" up on stock photos with resell rights can set you back a few 100 grands.
Thanks for your reply. Our plan is that people will be able to add their own photos, we plan to advertise on different photography sites, and also places we know where people are keen on photography, so hopefully that will fill the site. Then we will pay the photographers commission as well as having prizes as an incentive to upload more photos..
Great Idea! One main concern is to ensure you have a TOS written that is protective of yourself, as it is quite common for people to submit a copyright photo and claimed that it is their own. This will normally results in DMCA. Best to protect yourself and site with a good TOS as well as control mechanism. Best Wishes.
Just bear in mind that you are up against some monster competition, and getting noticed in this game is very (very) difficult. Also, it is very time consuming for photographers to upload photos, and many won't do it if there is little return on thier time investment. If you can't give them consistent sales, it will be difficult to keep them. Anyway... Definitely go with a pre-made script - that way, you can focus on filling your site with content and marketing (which will be your most important issue). And make sure the site looks professional! Easier said than done, but I've seen way too many cheap-looking stock photo sites lately... Good luck!
Thanks for the advice. We have decided we want to go into the market as it seems that if we can get established then we can make a decent amount of money. We have agreed that we will be committed to advertising soo much, so hopefully if we can get a decent amount of sellers then we can make it kick off. We're going to be running competitions for cash, and also introductory offers, so we should be able to draw sellers in. +rep. Simon
I'm thinking of launching a stock photo site too, and it looks like Xpoze is the better solution. What do you all think?
remember you up against strong websites... I think a good way to deal with this, is add a "people" feel to it... what i mean is, have some sort of feeling that you and your customers/users are almost like buddies xD no joke... some ways to do this is forums (with active admins and mods) or a blog with updates/what you want to do. About Us pages should have a personal touch... I know it sounds cheesy but a good customer service is sometimes more important than price... (to a point xD)
Welcome to the club ;-) We have been running now for little over a year, and use a modded Ktools system It is a very hard business to crack, we have done ok, being NZ based, own servers, over 550 photographers, ranking #1 in Google and Yahoo for our search terms - but it all takes so much time. With the likes of Google Images, that makes it pretty hard to sell photos, when people can just get them for free. Make sure you do not purchase cheap "Stock" photos from different forums (DP Included) we did that ages ago, and got a slap over the hand for doing so. Have a look at our site - www.photosales.co.nz and feel free to get in touch if you want.
Thanks for all the advice guys, but we have scrapped this idea for a different project, although if we do decide to make one then we'll bear all your advice in mind. Thanks again
At the moment we are unsure, we had an idea but we've recently had another brainwave, so we have to decided between the two