Micro Business Plan Projects

Posted on July 08th, 2009 in News

The strategy of developing a microstock portfolio needs expansion and descriptive advice. here is a project list to work on and distribute throughout your calendar. Make this a rainy day pullout list to generate revenue from low cost legal image sales even when it’s midnight, you’re out of batteries, and/or rain and snow are falling. Consider this your Microstock Business Plan.

1. Sign up for a Kodak gallery or a Flickr account. Picasa or Photobucket are also good. Plan to have this url (web address) only your professional aspect photos, no grinning family snaps, blurry images or casual travel shots. Develop a standard for quality for these images and don’t stray from it. Consider establishing a standard photo dimension and size for all images submitted to the (marketing) gallery. They will represent uniformly and display a more polished visual landscape that delivers marketing flair.

2. Consider buying a domain name and forwarding it to this url. To check what domains are available, look at the lookup search tool at Yahoo.com, Godaddy.com, or Network solutions. If your name is taken think up a name that describes you or your photographic style. Congratulations now you are ready to build a brand. Consider getting business cards when the site is developed. It’s a good way to generate business when people see you snapping away trying to get challenging shots.

The name can be descriptive keywords or just a nonsense name. The shorter, the better. It’s easier to remember (and spell) for friends, family, and potential customers to check www.Pygmyfotos.com (an example) than to try to remember http://www.Photobucket/user/informal/black&white/wedding/editcrop.index.asp. Trust me on this.

3. Photo gallery websites tend to lay copyright claims to whatever images are submitted, such as Facebook’s property rights policy. Don’t blow your microstock earnings possibilities by bringing your custom image into your Facebook profile. link a choice few, but not the best ones. Make sure whatever gallery you use does not expose your images to copying online. Techniques that layer a transparent image into the top of an online photo will retard such stealing of your work.

4. Learn about image copyright software. Search out trial usage or invest in the software and find where other online webmasters or bloggers may have “borrowed” your work. Custom edits, singular cropping, and tags may change, but finish at the bitmap level identifies the graphic image file as yours. Learn the beauty of watermarking image files of valuable shots and apply this practice to your online gallery images liberally.

Standard ‘tourist” views, public domain subject matter, and accidents might explain a portion of your image being copied. But how does a webmaster or blogger explain that eradicated electricity lines and phone cable custom bitmapped out using color choices defined in your own palette? Blurry spots where a watermark once was? Learn the wisdom of tweaking at the bitmap level for signature images. They protect your work from theft.

5. Build a referral strategy. New clients or customers may want to know names of past clients, see online work, or get contact data for commissions. Build a testimonials page or form email to send in marketing responses. Make marketing emails and outreach campaigns as easy as copy and paste, instead of a huge effort drawn “from scratch” every time. Allow a few days before following up. Build a follow up list for preferred assignments.

6. By writing blogs or articles online and making sure your images get sponsored along with them, you can begin to establish an online presence. By establishing a photography resume online, the Google result for your (professional photography) name should be images online with your photo credits. Not sure if you have one already? Google search your name and click the “images” option. Safe to say a few more submissions will be welcome.