Crowdsourcing

I’m about third way into this book and I can say that I am still into it.  It fuels me and continues to spark new ideas. Some of my personal fav’s in the first 100 pages:

_Spot on our very own istock top10 Nick Monu (nico_blue). Yeah that’s right. Jeff calls him “tall, handsome, and intelligent…[and] the greatest threat to professional photography…” Nick is 22, let me say that again – twenty-two, and brings in $10,000 month from istock alone, which he uses to pay for his med school bills. In case you crave an advice from Nick, take a look here.

_Do you consider yourself amateur or professional?  “IRS defines a professional photographer as one who make more than $5,000 from the sale of his or her photographes” (pg. 27).

_”To build a new system you don’t compete with the old one, you build a new system that makes the old one obsolete” (pg. 83). A great thought. Crowdsourcing is THAT system. It mobilizes the crowd, and what a great resource the crowd is. Huge, hungry, creative and passionate.

_”There is a valuable lesson here: people want a voice” (pg. 106). To many contributers, istock is a voice. An outlet for creativity, an expression. It is that to me. It is somewhat fulfilling when the voice is heard everytime a purchase is made, everytime a rating is made, or feedback given, even a friendly sitemail sent. Yeah, istock sells more than photographs, it sells community, and I love this community.

Crowdsourcing

I was chillin’ at Barnes and Noble over the weekend and stumbled upon a book I’ve been hearing about a lot on istock: Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe.  Needless to say, I had to have it, especially since it was embedded with the 20% off sticker. 

I couldn’t wait to dig in to the book, so I found a comfy chair right at the store and started reading.  Within minutes I started to get so excited about it.  My brain was literally exploding with ideas that could apply to my own place in life (youth ministry).  I started dreaming.  Real big.  In fact, when my wife Jamie came back from her shopping spree, she thought I was crying.  I was just that excited.

Here are some key thoughts so far:

_Crowdsourcing examples: threadless.com and istockphoto.com (what’s that? ;))
_Stats: There are more teens creating content for the web than consuming it
_Crowdsourcing doesn’t sell t-shirts or photos, it sells community (lasting friendships, feedback, kudos, help from other contributors, critique)
_The crowd will almost always outperform any number of employees and therefore…
_The many can work together to outperform the few

This will be a good read.  I am a part of the crowdsourcing movement and I relate to everything the author is talking about.  On the other hand, I work with a crowd of about 500 teenagers every week.  Every week there is a crowd of untapped potential that is being wasted.  Perhaps it is time to think beyond the few staff members and instead look to ‘them’ for help.

My first case study will deal with the habit of uploading.

How much should you upload?  Is there a specific number to shoot for?  Of course it depends on your expectations, available time, acceptance rate, etc…  Let’s take a look at our istock top10:

top10 case study: Uploads per month

Surprised?  There are at least two similiarities.  The first is the size of the portfolio.  It’s massive.  3,000-10,000 images represents a huge commitment and dedication (avg. 40-180 uploads per month).  Imagine having to post-process and keyword that many images.  The second is longevity.  It took 3-6 years to get to the place where they are right now.  Success is not immediate and takes years of hard work.

Is there a lesson to learn? 

#1  Identify where you are.  My upload rate is 75% lower than the lowest top10 upload rate.  A good thing about that is there is a lot room for improvement.    But that’s where I am and that is what I can build on.

#2  Set a realistic goal.  A realistic goal I can set is doubling my upload rate.  I believe I can improve from 10 to 20 uploads per month.

#3  Develop a plan.  A goal will only be a good intention if you don’t have a plan.  Be specific.  I am going to devote 30 mins on Tuesday and Thursday night and 2 hours on Fridays for shooting, editing, and uploading. 

#4  Commit for the long haul.  I am going to stick with this plan until the end of the year, and then do steps 1-4 all over again.

spxchrome

Thanks Stefan! Decent equipment, holes in the collection, and having fun. I don’t ever want istock to become a chore…something I dread. When I started I had so much fun learning, and I don’t ever want to lose that. Great advice!

“If you are talking about advice to help drive sales, that’s simple. It would be to learn and understand what buyers of stock photography are demanding. It doesn’t matter how good of a photographer you are if you can’t provide content that is useful to the buyer.”

-Christine (DNY59)

Thanks Christine! I got on google and started learning. Subscribed to a few great blogs, such as Microstock Diaries. There are more links in my blogroll.

jhorrocks

 
“My one piece of advice is to be persistent and try to do at least one thing a day that helps improve your skills as an iStock contributor. That one thing might include uploading a photo, Photoshopping a photo (or even re-working/photoshopping a rejected photo), improving keywords and descriptions, grouping images in relevent categories (or lightboxes) for buyers to more easily find, etc. In the end, persistence will pay off, and it is as easy as picking one or two simple things each day to work on. In time, that collection of simple things adds up to a big success!”

– Justin (jhorrocks)

Thanks Justin! Your response came in first! Love your advice about persistence. Great to be persistent on istock and life in general. I struggle with that because the pace of my life is so fast. I will think about scheduling time throughout the week specifically for istock.

“If you could offer one piece of advice to another istock contributor, what would it be?”

I was a little nervous asking these guys.  I mean, these are the best istock contributors around the globe.  But on the other hand it is an opportunity to get inside of their head and to learn to step outside the average.  I will post their responses as they come in…I can’t wait! 

I went through a multiple-page application process on Getty, punched in all the hidden secrets of my life and bank account…and signed a contract at the end. Technically, I could upload images through my newly created Getty portal.

But istock says not to do that, I must upload through istock. The problem is my profile page still says Your Getty contract is being processed. So I’m waiting, and waiting…

In the meantime I am still planning my first Getty series. It’s hard for some reason. I keep asking myself would this sell better on istock or on Getty? Can’t put the same series in two places. But hey, I have lots of time to figure that out