The Stock Solution
(A Stock Photo Agency)
6640 s. 2200 w.
West Jordan, UT 84084 USA USA
Phone: 801-566-8684
E-mail us: info@tssphoto.com
All images Copyright © The Stock Solution 1995 - 2003
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by Royce Bair
NOTE: This article was originally written for a magazine directed to photographers, however much of the information here can be applied to any business that wants to establish and promote their Web site.
Like in the movie, "Field of Dreams", just because you build it, does not mean they'll come. Many photographers have paid several hundred dollars to have a home page established on the World Wide Web, only to find out that no one came to visit their site, or if they did, no one bothered to call. Here are some tips on creating an effective Web site:
AVOID THE TEMPTATION TO PURCHASE A "MALL" SITE. For only $30 to $50 per month, plus a set up fee of about $50 to $100, these places will build you a home page listing your name, address, and phone number. You'll even be able to show a few photos with a few words to tell how cool you are or list some of your impressive clients. These Internet re-sellers (it cost them only $10 - $15 per month/site) will tell you how their WWW mall receives thousands of hits every day and that you are going to benefit by all the exposure. But just like the real malls there are probably a few "anchor" businesses that are receiving most of the traffic, and you will be stuck in an out of the way corner where almost no one passes by or notices. Remember, Web Surfers have to have a reason to visit your site. Just because it's there is no reason --that's about as much fun as browsing through the phone book!
Six Main Ways People Come To Visit Your Web Site:
1. A DIRECT INVITATION. This is much more effective than a hundred Web Surfers who come by happenstance. The direct visit happens when someone asks, "Can you send me your portfolio?" or "Do you have a catalog you can send me?" Your response: "Do you have a connection to the Web? We can even discuss this job over the phone while you look at my portfolio." Electronic portfolios and catalogs on the Web can be monitored to review the number of "hits" each image receives, and can then be easily updated to remove non-effective images and add new items. Try doing this with a printed catalog or portfolio! Photographer, Seth Resnick's "Live Photo Research", goes one step further by offering a custom search and scan service in which he will put new stock images on his Web site within hours after a client requests a stock photo subject from his files. We offer a similar service on our site, called Online Photo Search.
2. ASSOCIATION WITH OTHER SITES OF SIMILAR INTERESTS. If you have to do the "mall" thing, make sure it is not a general mall, but a special interest group, i.e. as a group of other photographers or artists. One of the best I've seen is the Pictureline site. Each photographer's page is not only well designed, but none of the photographer's pages are linked back to Pictureline's home or index page --that way, when you advertise your home page, you're not also sending people to your competition like other "mall" sites force you to do!
3. LINKS FROM OTHER SITES. This is why it's called the World Wide WEB. You're given a link on their Web site because they think you're cool. Translated: You have something on your site that they or their peers value, and it makes them look cool to be associated with you. To get these links you have to have an awesome site --great content (photos) and good Web design (more about this later).
4. LINKS FROM DIRECTORIES, LISTS, OR SEARCH ENGINES. These searchable "yellow page" directories (i.e. Yahoo, Infoseek, Web Crawler, Excite, and Lycos) often direct the most qualified and serious people to your site. These people are not just "surfing" (taking what comes), they're seriously looking for information. Spend a few hours in the beginning filling out the "Add your URL" forms at all of these sites --it will be time well spent. Scott Banister's free "Submit It!" service is one of the fastest ways to publicize your site. Scott's Web site allows one to register with over 15 different search engines and catalogs by filling out just one form.
5. MENTION OF YOUR SITE IN A NEWSGROUP OR MAIL LIST DISCUSSION. Participation in Usenet (newsgroups) or mailing lists that relate to our industry (photography, publishing, graphic design) can build a lot traffic to your site, if it is done in a subtle and professional way. Always end your messages with a brief (no more than four lines) "signature" that includes your Web site address and what it has to offer (see our signature at the end of this sheet). Pete Ashdown, director of XMission, has a great online demo of how to utilize this technique. It's called "Doing Business on the Internet Outside the World Wide Web". Check out our "Other Links" for a list of links to various newsgroups and mail lists related to photography and publishing.
6. MENTION OF YOUR SITE IN A PRINTED PUBLICATION. Sending out a news release about your site to publications in the publishing and communications industry can produce visits from the most qualified Web Surfers. Slanting the release in a way that shows how the readers in each publication can benefit from accessing your site, and how they can use similar techniques for their own Web promotions will help improve your chances for an interview with the editors.
They Came. They Saw. But Will They Stay?
You've got them coming to your site now, but how do you get them to stay and browse a while, and even call you?
1. KEEP IT SHORT AND SMALL (or compressed). Your home page should grab their attention quickly, and entice them to go to your next page. Don't try to show too much all at once. Give them the option. Tease and entice. Remember, the average connection of 14,400 bps only allows text and graphics to appear at about one kilobyte per second --and that's when conditions are optimum! If your 1st page does not appear in one minute or less, they will probably stop and go somewhere else. Our home page contains four graphics that would normally use a total of 225K (24-bit color) or 75K (8-bit color). Instead, they have been compressed to a palette of only 32 colors (5-bit color), and now use only 34K. The loss in quality is nominal compared to savings in download time. (Kodak has some great information on their site about how to prepare images for the Web.) The GIF images on our home page are also "interlaced" so that they appear in a progressive resolution mode, not only giving an appearance of greater speed, but allowing the user to interact with the graphic buttons before they reach maximum resolution (very important for repeat visitors who have "been there, done that" and just want to move on to the next page).
Another tip that will help Web surfers to quickly navigate within your pages is to define the size of your graphics within the HTML code. This simple, but important step will quickly establish the position of each of your graphics or images on the page, allowing the text to flow around them and complete your page layout while the images continue to download.
"Doc Ozone" has some well illustrated tips within his Web site on how to make "transparent" GIFs, as well as instructions for interlacing. Doc's FAQ page will link you to other tricks, i.e. drop shadows, buttons, and lighting effects. Be sure to make small and limited use of these byte hungry effects in your home or primary pages. Save the larger "Wow" effects for your secondary pages --once you've captured the Web surfer's interest.
2. SPECIALIZE OR CATEGORIZE. A year ago, photographs were a novelty on the Web, and surfers came just to see the images. Now there are a zillion photographers on the Net. Stand out with the best collection of "pig" photographs or whatever (see our page on the Italy-based "beauty/fashion" photographer, Tony Anderson, or UK-based "geological patterns & formations" photographer, Jules Cowan). See our Category page or our OPS Database pages for two examples of categorization.
3. GIVE SOMETHING BACK TO THE INTERNET COMMUNITY. The Net has traditionally been non-commercial. The backbone of the Net is a still free. Give something back or present something of value and you will be rewarded with links (see our Valentine, Christmas, and Reproduction Tips pages). Offering to send something free, like a CD-ROM catalog (see our free CD page), is a great way to get people to respond and to evaluate their response. Be sure to have a qualifying tool in place.
4. HIRE A COLLEGE STUDENT TO WRITE YOUR HTML AND MAINTAIN YOUR SITE. Hire the best graphic and Web designer you can afford, but if you're on a budget, look over our "Top Photo-Design Award" pages (for photographers and graphic/Web designers) for some great Web design ideas, then hire a college student to implement your borrowed ideas.
A "Signature" example:
======================================================================= Royce Bair tssphoto@xmission.com PH: 801-566-8684 THE STOCK SOLUTION A stock photo agency Salt Lake City, Utah USA http://www.tssphoto.com/ Over 2,000 images online
All images Copyright © The Stock Solution 1995 - 2003
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