With snow outside we've had a cold start to 2010 after a year of downbeat economic news but I'm sending the warmest of wishes to you all in the knowledge that the worst is behind us and one day soon the sun is actually going to start shining. There's no denying 2009 was a difficult period for most businesses and stock generally took a downturn in sales over previous years. As a new business in a niche market we're under pressure from all the competition including the big boys of Getty, Corbis, Alamy and Microstock. Every image request we get also goes out to these mega image libraries and so we really need to have great images to get picked for the job. Having ridden the economic storm we're now in a good position to take advantage of a growing optimism where the small specialist boutique stock library is showing it can compete against the bland mega agencies on quality, creativity and personal service.
So what have we been doing? Over the past few months we've been making our galleries more efficient so they work harder for you. This has meant extensive reworking of the site which has included a subtle revision of the overall appearance and a simplifying of our gallery structure so that art buyers find it easier to locate the images they want.
NEW GALLERIES
The first obvious change is you now go straight to the new 'galleries' page with the
search bar. Slide shows look impressive on the home page but busy art buyers who may be visiting dozens of libraries don't want to spend their time sitting through them. So we've ditched the glitz and replaced it with more functionality, art buyers are visiting Trigger to find specific images and so we're now offering the most direct route for them.
SLIDESHOWS
For those of you who want slideshows to promote your work, we'll be making these available in the near future, so watch this space. You'll then be able to take advantage of marketing your licensed work virally. Any interested clients will be able click on your slideshow images and be taken directly to your sales page on Trigger. We still provide all the sales and personal customer service as usual and make your payments to you via Paypal as normal. All you will need to do is get your slideshow out there by linking it to your website, blogs, facebook, twitter pages etc. Also let your online friends, colleagues, workmates, designer, art director contacts etc know that your images are available to license and purchase as prints.
KEYWORDING
Now we have fewer galleries, visitors will be using the search bar more for specific searches this means 'keywording' is now even more important. This also means before you upload new images you really need to be thorough in applying your 'keywords' to the file IPTC data. This is how clients find your work and so it's no good spending hours creating a great image if no one can find it. We all know keywording isn't fun but if you want to maximise your chances of making sales you need to have a professional approach to your file preparation.
UPLOADING
Once you've put all the hard work in preparing your high res files you need to upload them to us as jpg files. As part of our update the upload process is now slightly different. You can now only upload your files using the standard File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You will need an FTP client software for this such as Transmit or Fetch. You can use any FTP program to upload images to Trigger.
Opening your selected program the left window is your computer, the right window is our server. Select those files you want to transfer in the left window and drag and drop into the right window, or use the 'return' key on your keyboard. The process is similar to the Photoshelter Uploader that some of you have been using but just requires the input of the details below. As always it's important your files names start with your initials eg 'tim kahane' tkah00001, tkah00002 etc.
The configuration details you need to enter are:
We realise this new upload process may cause a few problems to start so if you have any questions we'll do our best to help you.
As our select band of photographers we need you to supply us with great images in 2010 to inspire our clients. Nothing more, nothing less. This means submitting new sample imagery (low res jpgs by email) as often as you can to keep your licensing folio of work fresh and interesting. If clients are seeing the same images time and again they will go to the next image or worse, the next agency!
Make sure your images are working for you in 2010 by getting them into our galleries and infront of our design and advertising clients.
Best
Tim
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