Over the past few years, the stock photography market has exploded and expanded exponentially. Iconic stock giants such as Getty Images, Corbis (privately owned by Bill Gates), Alamy, and Jupitermedia, Inc. (parent company of Jupiter Images) dominate high end publications and websites. Unfortunately, most of the images available from the companies listed above are simply too expensive for most small businesses to purchase for their web use, advertising campaigns, and media related ventures. Many times you’ll see images owned by these companies used in highly publicized magazines and websites such as Time, Sports Illustrated, CNN, and many others. So, how do small businesses locate quality stock images that they can use effectively to promote their business and/or products?

The answer lies within the microstock websites. This emerging group of sites (such as iStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, and Dreamstime) allow customers to purchase high quality images at much lower prices. Each site has certain licensing options and distribution restrictions for images, but most of the time a customer can purchase the desired image and the necessary license for a relatively low price.

For most companies, finding a good, applicable image isn’t a problem. Just between the three stock sites listed above, there are over six million images. Yes, some of them are duplicates, with the same artist creating galleries on each site. However, there are still several million different images available.

A word of caution though when you are selecting an image to use – try to stay away from the most popular images. Why do I say that? Well, they are popular due to being sold and downloaded more times. Why do I caution you against using popular images? Because you don’t want to create branding material for your company or product that is being used elsewhere. Your business is unique… your product is unique… it may not be in your best interest to use an image that has been sold hundreds or perhaps even thousands of times.

What am I talking about? Well, perhaps it’s best to just use some visual examples. I came across this blog post which shows how three major electronics companies used the same image in various promotions. Check it out for yourself: http://www.brianbehrend.com/archives/2004/09/more_stock_foot.php

Better yet, here’s a nightmare scenario that you would never want to have occur for your company. Can you imagine the constant explaining that Design Matters has to do regarding their (lack of) association with Vagisil? You see, they both used the same image of a young teen girl in their promotional materials. Unfortunately, the link to the Vagisil ad is no longer active. The Wall Street Journal also featured an article on this dilemma several years ago that is still worth reading.

These examples are the risk that you run when choosing to use stock photography for your business. I am certainly not telling you to abandon the use of stock photography for your business! Please don’t misunderstand. However, I am recommending that you proceed with caution. There are very valid risks to consider. The customer’s perception of your business is on the line.

David Ogilvy said, “Always give your product a first-class ticket through life.” This incredibly important concept is applicable to not only a product, a brochure, or your website – but your business as a whole. Is purchasing an image for a buck or two really the best route to take? It can be if you navigate your way through the process wisely.

Choose a Photo That Matches Up With Your Purpose

Don’t just choose one to “fill space.” Rather than use a potentially risky or dull photo, fill that space with great content. Or, at times… empty space might be the best option. Space is good.

Be Creative in Your Choice

Instead of using a picture of a man or woman, (who isn’t employed by your company), perhaps a graphic of some sort will convey the same message just as effectively. Or better yet, hire a photographer to take pictures of your actual employees. It may be slightly more expensive to choose this route, but the end result will certainly be more genuine.

An example that comes to mind for me was a Sear’s sales flyer that I received in the mail not too long ago. It completely missed the mark with me. I flipped through it until about page 3. On that page, I finally realized that every person in every picture had well placed smudges on their faces. (The flyer was geared toward outdoors/construction clothing and accessories.) I even saw painters with paint on their hands and face…however, their painting clothes were spotless. I also wondered why the “architect or engineer” in the picture seemed to have a
big muddy smudge on his cheek when there wasn’t any mud around in that particular picture… he was standing on a nice, dry concrete slab.

The pictures were a complete bust for me. I didn’t look at anything in the catalog with the mindset of “hey… I wonder what’s on sale”; instead, I was just looking at the ridiculous pictures. In my opinion, the whole catalog was a ridiculous attempt to get me to purchase something…and it didn’t work.

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Stock Photos, Custom Photos, or a Blend of Both? – A SPN Exclusive Article

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We have another great giveaway for MyInkBlog readers! Pixmac.com has kindly given us three $199 subscriptions to give out to you guys.

About Pixmac:

Pixmac.com was launched in 2008, and is now the leading microstock photo site. They have a massive arsenal of over 8 million stock photos and resources. You can find nearly any image you can think of at Pixmac. What more could you ask for from a stock image company?

How to Enter the Giveaway

1. Follow @MyInkBlog on Twitter.
2. Post a tweet that mentions this giveaway with a link to this page, or simply RT this tweet.
3. Post a link to your tweet here as a comment.

Hint: How to Link to a single tweet on Twitter.

This contest will stay open for entries until Tuesday May 10th, 2011. Winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

That’s it, good luck to everyone and thank you for participating!

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Are you looking for a stock image for your design? Are you designing your own gift card and look for the best image to use? Although you can find many sites that provide you with stock images, but few are unique and have enough large database to find your best choice.

Among the strong competition between stock photos sites to acquire clients, it is hard to find a way for new stock sites. Not only because of these big names have large database of users and resources, but also because these sites already got the trust of photographers to sell their photos on these sites.

In September 2008, a new raising stock photo site – or microstock photos site as Vitezslav Valka, Pixmac CEO says – was able to find its way among these big names in the stock photo market. Pixmac is not just a stock photo site; it includes more than 10 million images that cover images from Fotolia and Dreamstime. Furthermore, Pixmac provides competitive prices that start from $0.10 for royalty free images.

As a stock photo buyer, Pixmac is a good choice to find your best image at a competitive price. You can choose from different types of subscriptions and find out which is the best for you and your business. Credits packages vary depending on your needs and budget, the higher the package you choose, the less price you can get for the image.

If you are a photographer that would like to sell images for stock images sites, you have another place to sell your images. Pixmac provides photographers a commission that reach %30 of their image’s price for the non-exclusive content and % 45 for the exclusive content. You can also receive your earnings easily via Paypal or Moneybooker.

Pixmac is not just selling your images, the team behind Pixmac takes care of it based on a strong markting ideas and strategy to increase the visibility of your content and increase the earnings as well.

With a simple couple of steps subscription, you can enter the Pixmac world to buy images, sell images and further you, you will be able to download hundreds of free images in high quality.

Pixmac is also providing an affiliate program where you can earn money by telling people to join Pixmac and let them use their unique redirect URL. You can join this program by clicking on my affiliate link here

Pixmac is a new raising site in the stock photo world, it provides free and low cost stock images for buyers who are looking for high quality photos. Photographers got a great chance to sell their photos on Pixmac with high commission and the ability to get their payments easily. However, I think it is a good place and chance to find you image needs and sell your images as a photographer.

Below are samples of Pixmac free collection of images:

Related topics you may like to read

• Free Advertising Assets and Photos

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Last week, Pixmac, a microstock photo site (read more about them on the microstock:insider blog) teamed up with Six Revisions to give five readers 20 credits to use on their site. Over 30 participants shared a photos they found on the Pixmac site that they thought to be representative of design or development. Today, we’re happy to announce the winners.

The Winners

The five winners of 20 credits on Pixmac are:

• Anparasu
• Sebastian
• Michael L.
• Mary
• Zach S

Here is a screen grab of the MySQL query used to select the winners at random.

Congratulations to the winners! The winners should already have received an email regarding how to obtain their Pixmac credits.

Thank you!

Thank you Pixmac for sponsoring a wonderful and fun giveaway on Six Revisions, and thank you to the participants of the giveaway.

About the Author

Jacob Gube is the Founder and Chief Editor of Six Revisions. He’s also a web developer/designer who specializes in front-end development (JavaScript, HTML, CSS) and PHP development. If you’d like to connect with him, head on over to the contact page and follow him on Twitter: @sixrevisions.

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Pixmac, a microstock photo site (read more about them on the microstock:insider blog), is giving away 20 credits worth $23.00 to five randomly selected winners.

How to participate

This giveaway is sort of like a scavenger hunt; this is what you have to do:

Step 1: Head over to the Pixmac

• Web Address: http://www.pixmac.com

Step 2: Look for a photo that you think represents design and/or development

Step 3: Head back to this page and, in the comments:

• provide a link to your photo
• describe why you think it represents design and/or development
• and share your experiences with using the Pixmac site

Giveaway details

The giveaway ends on November 10, 2009, after which commenting will be disabled on this post. Five winners will be randomly selected from the comments of this post. Please make sure to fill out the email field in the comments web form because this is the only way we can contact the winners.

About Pixmac

The Pixmac stock photo agency offers more than 7,000,000 pictures. It’s very easy to use and you can start purchasing your photos in a matter of minutes, no registrations required! Registered users are able to purchase credits at a reduced price. Finding the photos you want is fast and easy with their excellent search feature. Check out the Pixmac blog where you’ll find interesting interviews and news about Pixmac, and connect with them on Twitter and Facebook.

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