Wetlook World Forum

Current time: Sat 27/04/24 00:59:52 GMT

Translate page FROM -> TO

Translate page TO <- FROM

Message # 21500.11

Subject: Re: Making more photos available

Date: Wed 29/03/06 23:47:11 GMT

Name: Michael

Email:

Website:

Report Abuse or Problem to Nigel at Minxmovies
If you enjoy this forum, then please make a small donation to help
with running costs: (you can change amount)

I would love to see more of your pictures (and hopefully video eventually!) and will definitely support you, no matter which way you decide to go.

I do not pretend to know much about the world of running web sites, the effort and costs involved, etc. But I would suggest that you do not sell yourself short. Judging from the responses you receive on this forum, your work is extremely popular. I seems to me that $10 is way way way too little and I have my doubts about the degree to which people will contribute beyond that (perhaps follow up privately with some sites that do use donations as a source of funding).

And I certainly would agree with those that might advise you to stick with photography and don't let your time get sidetracked into running/managing a web site. As I said, I do not know much about that world, but perhaps there are existing sites out there that might be interested in hosting your material (without you losing ownership). I saw one site a while ago where you purchased "groups of tickets" for a set price (with some discounts for volume purchased at once), and then each "ticket" could be traded in for the download of one set of pictures. This way, you would have a continuing source of revenue, rather than a one time membership with (possibly quite limited) donations.

Hope this provides at least a little food for thought. No matter how you proceed Stormy, I wish you nothing but success and I look very much forward to the possibility of seeing much more of your material !![sm46]

In reply to Message (21500)

Making more photos available

By Stormy Waters - Wed 29/03/06 16:42:16 GMT

Website:

The post below "Constructive Criticism of WL Producers" has inspired me to ask for feedback about a method for making more of my work available.

Many of you have requested to see many more photos than I have published so far, and indeed, I have about 30,000 fairly decent shots of 45 separate shoots with 20 models and about 300 different "sets". I am not enamoured of the typical "pay" site approach because I don't want to become a site manager rather than the guy who gets to actually take the photos. What an administrative burden that must be! But I do need to make some money to recoup my expenses and pay for more shoots.

What I'm thinking about is this. I create a password protected archive and charge a relatively modest fee to become a member for life, similar to Wet in Red's great site. I was thinking that $10 gets you in and that's all you would ever have to pay. I get things started with 3-5 sets (with 20-50 photos per set).

From there on out, I put sets up based on donations made by members. Say for every $100 donated (through on-line payment like Paypal), I put up another set--which would about cover my costs (actually, I'd post pictures once a week (or more often) based on how much was donated, no matter how many or how few that would be). Beyond the initial fee, nobody would have to donate and every member gets to benefit from the generosity of others. I think the costs would be pretty low for everyone, especially if the idea caught on.

I'd make the images easy to download, and offer both large and medium-sized high resolution files. The quality would be so much better than what gets posted on OMP--their compression algorithm wrecks the saturation and sharpness of my images--I can hardly stand to look at them there.

This idea might be a loser, but I've been struggling with how to get my work out there as people have requested. I have had offers by some site owners to buy my sets, but I've told my models I'll maintain control over the image distribution and anyway the offers have been too small to cover costs.

Let me know what you think. If you think it is stupid, say so. I won't be offended. My intent isn't to turn this into a career but to fund more work and make it super-easy for all.

Report Abuse or Problem to Nigel at Minxmovies
If you enjoy this forum, then please make a small donation to help with running costs: (you can change amount)