You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.

Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No

Speed is everything when it comes to trade and commerce. You might have the best ice cream sundae in the world, but if it takes you an hour to make it and another hour to deliver it, you’ve lost a lot of potential customers.

In our field of editorial stock photography, the same holds true. Independent stock photographers have historically been the David attempting to battle with the Goliath. The advent of large conglomerates in our industry (I can think of five of them) has sent a chill through the world of stock photo photographers. “Will I be shouldered out into the cold?” many independents ask.

The answer might have been “Yes” if the question were asked fifteen years ago. Back then the technology to compete would have cost the average independent photography business $150,000 to $300,000. “Out of the question,” you would have said then.

Today, it’s very different. We are seeing the cost of hardware and software, and related services, dropping dramatically. The equivalent technology today is in the range of $4,000 to $10,000. A small business today, armed with the correct hardware and software, can effectively compete with the stock agency conglomerates.

YOUR ADVANTAGE

You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.

Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No m

dent stock photographers have historically been the David attempting to battle with the Goliath. The advent of large conglomerates in our industry (I can think of five of them) has sent a chill through the world of stock photo photographers. “Will I be shouldered out into the cold?” many independents ask.

The answer might have been “Yes” if the question were asked fifteen years ago. Back then the technology to compete would have cost the average independent photography business $150,000 to $300,000. “Out of the question,” you would have said then.

Today, it’s very different. We are seeing the cost of hardware and software, and related services, dropping dramatically. The equivalent technology today is in the range of $4,000 to $10,000. A small business today, armed with the correct hardware and software, can effectively compete with the stock agency conglomerates.

YOUR ADVANTAGE

You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.

Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No

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The answer might have been “Yes” if the question were asked fifteen years ago. Back then the technology to compete would have cost the average independent photography business $150,000 to $300,000. “Out of the question,” you would have said then.

Today, it’s very different. We are seeing the cost of hardware and software, and related services, dropping dramatically. The equivalent technology today is in the range of $4,000 to $10,000. A small business today, armed with the correct hardware and software, can effectively compete with the stock agency conglomerates.

YOUR ADVANTAGE

You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.

Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No

g the cost of hardware and software, and related services, dropping dramatically. The equivalent technology today is in the range of $4,000 to $10,000. A small business today, armed with the correct hardware and software, can effectively compete with the stock agency conglomerates.

YOUR ADVANTAGE

You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.

Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No

You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.

Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No middleman is involved, further reducing the per-photo fee to the buyer.

If the aggregate stock photo collections of independent individual photographers totals more than 450,000,000 photos, why don’t more photobuyers today use independent photographers rather than the large stock agencies?

Because we’re not quite there yet. Not enough photographers are knowledgeable about what’s called “eCommerce." Photobuyers are not ready to abandon traditional shopping behavior. And without a built-in network to jump aboard, independents find themselves floating aimlessly in cyberspace.

Such a network is taking shape, however, on the Internet. Daily, more and more photo researchers are finding that by using the Web, they can eliminate costly hours of searching for “just-right” images. They can also save money by buying directly from the source (you).

HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Using Amazon.com, the cyber bookseller, as an example, we can draw a parallel to this situation. Amazon.com is not a book publisher, (not yet, at least) but a go-between for booksellers and people who shop via the Internet. Amazon.com fulfills orders and receives a percentage of the revenue for its work.

But Amazon