Posts tagged as:

strategy

Keep it Simple!

by admin on December 3, 2009

cocktail01bWhen you want to offer your works on microstock sites, you have to attract potential buyers and convince them to purchase your pictures instead of those of other contributors. An essential first step is of course good keywording because you want your pictures to be found instead of to be collecting virtual dust.

But a typical picture search will usually give hundreds or even thousands of results. So it is also important that they attract the attention of the buyer.

It is important to understand that a good microstok picture will have the same effect on the buyer as it has on the buyer’s audience. You try to sell the picture to the buyer, and the buyer tries to sell something with the use of your picture. The mechanisms behind this are the same.

You only have few seconds to convince your customers to klick on your pictures. Keep in mind that search results are always in thumbnail view. Pictures overloaded with details and with many different colors look to “messy” most of the times. The best eye catchers are simple shapes and clear solid colors. White backgrunds help, but also black has it merits as it can enhance the effect of bright colors.

With the big microstock sites about to reach the 10 million picture mark, it is more important than ever for your images to stand out from the crowd.

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Get Ready For Spring on Microstock!

by admin on November 17, 2009

Dandelion with seeds flying awayIts only November, but Christmas is almost over on Microstock! Preemptive uploading is one of the key factors for success om mircostock sites.

Upload Early…

The early bird catches the worm. This old saying is especially true for microstock. Planning advertising campaigns takes time, and magazines need to stock up on topics early enough so they won’t be forced into rush jobs.

Right now, the first decisions are being made about what to publish in next spring. Help publishers and advertisers by supplying them with seasonal pictures as soon as possible.

Evidently, this holds true not only for spring but for any other seasonal topics as well. Last year’s pictures may not yet look outdated, but something fresh is always better than recycled material.

But Not Too Early

Now perhaps you think you’re clever, so you start pumping out halloween pictures. But uploading them right now will most likely backfire. Of course it is good not to be too late. But to be too early is just as bad. Campaigns for next halloween are most likely to be planned in late summer, so any pictures uploaded now will get buried under a heap of fresh material that will come in later.

Many buyers of microstock images have their search results sorted by “newest first”. You have to take this into account when uploading pictures. A good time to upload seasonal material is about three months in advance.

For us digital artists this means that now is the time to create our spring pictures, so we have enough in stock to start uploading around Christmas.

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