A guide to RM pricing

RM price calculators are, I have no doubt, a reason that photographers and buyers gravitate towards RF. These devices that once propped up the wallets of a few photographers ought to be consigned to dustbins, at least for most of us. I for one have had enough of the complexities of RM pricing. The sort of buyer that comes to photoconnect simply does not understand it.

This is what I do when I get an enquiry on photoconnect:

When I get a call for a photo I listen to the buyer and try and work out what their background is. Do they have big money to spend or not? I look at the image - is it special? I ask them how they want to use it, and how big. I then pluck what I think is the best price that I will get for that photo from that buyer out of the air and ask them to pay up front by paypal. I do not mention the word license. On the invoice I stipulate the use they mentioned.

It's traditional licensing without the agony - except the occasional haggle!

Marketing update

I am plotting on this the blog the success or otherwise of various marketing tactics that I have employed.

Now, I do not consider myself to be an expert at marketing (and photographers should not read this in that light) but I can usefully report on the success or otherwise of some options that I have tried to sell my services as an assignment photographer (not my stock photography where of course I rely on Alamy and the pulling power of this site on the search engines).

I'm prompted to make this post by the latest monthly bill from yell.com.....

In December Yell sent me 20 visitors of which an astounding 35% became 'conversions' in the sense of getting to my contact page - but only one actually contacted me. It was one of those chummy approaches which make you think that the job is already sold but after I quoted came a deathly silence. So still no work from Yell.

I continue to get most of my work from the rather more cost effective Google Adwords adverts, and a free advert at the Creative Match website. I have since shelled out over £100 for an enhanced listing there - so far this has not brought an explosion of visitors but we shall see.

'Organic' visitors from the search engines to scottyh.net continue to grow, in particular for models looking for portfolios. I also gained an assignment in the City of London from that source. Evidently the fact that I charge puts most models off but there is something for me to work on there.

I also conducted a mailshot to about 300 publishers. This was conspicuously unsuccessful investment of about £150 in total and a fair bit of time. I am currently doing a similar but smaller exercise with design firms in London which is pulling in visitors to the site in rather greater numbers than the publishers that came but no contacts yet.

More next month........

Disintermediation - please one day soon!

"Removing the middleman. The term is a popular buzzword used to describe many Internet -based businesses that use the World Wide Web to sell products directly to customers rather than going through traditional retail channels. By eliminating the middlemen, companies can sell their products cheaper and faster. Many people believe that the Internet will revolutionize the way products are bought and sold, and disintermediation is the driving force behind this revolution." (Definition from http://isp.webopedia.com/TERM/D/disintermediation.html)

It may be a buzz word but it's not one that the stock photography industry has heard of. Instead it seems that the number of intermediaries is growing and photographers compete to place their image at cheaper prices with more and more of them. At the same time commission percentages go up and the only men making real money it seems are the middlemen.

The ability of a photographer to deal directly with buyers is there right now. But it's messy compared with a nice clean sanitised one click credit card or bean processed download from an agency.

Unfortunately many photographers have great difficulties in dealing with buyers. There's arriving at a price (today there is not such a thing as a correct price anyway!!) and there's preparing invoices (or do I mean receipts) and collecting the cash (before or after delivery?) and the license (what should it say?) and delivery (.jpg, .tiff?) - so much to worry about.

One day soon all the intermediaries are going to get a rocket up their backsides when one of the big search engines enter the fray and construct something that will allow photo buyers direct and easy access (with payment facilities) to photo sellers who set their own prices. The new intermediaries (the search engines) will make their money, as they do now, by carrying advertising.

Prices are sure to rise at the bottom end of the market as photographers with 'micro agencies' learn that they can charge their buyers more. Rather than get 20 cents (after commission) they'll initially go for $5 (because buyers can afford this) and spurred on by stories in their discussion forums become truly courageous and then start charging $50 (because it's only crap photographers who would sell images for $5). Vices like greed and snobbery would drive prices of good images up - and that would be good for all photographers.

A price calculator to be binned is the micro stock calculator whose $1 per photo is as inflexible as the RM price calculator.

I sense that that agencies like Alamy and Getty with their special markets and client service needs would probably not be affected. They will still have their place but happily the micros will go down the can....