While I grew up on an island on the Pacific Rim (Alameda, California, in the SF Bay, to be exact) two of my distant island colleagues - Baron Sekiya, on Hawaii, and Tim Clayton on Austrailia (actually an island continent) have departed the field of staff photographer recently. Baron wrote about his experience - Life Beyond the Newspaper, while Tim wrote about his - Do I stay or do I go? Both talked about the struggles of making the break, and all that you have to do, which got me to thinking - what can I do to help those that are departing the comfort of the staff position to make the transition? I once was a staffer at a magazine, and abruptly lost my full-time status due to financial difficulties at the publication, only this was about 15 years ago. And, for me, so far, so good.

Which brings me to my free offer.
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If you are someone who has left the comfort of a staff photography position from November 1st of this year, and through January 31st of 2009, I will send you a copy of my book for free.

Yes, free.

Here are the details:

You have to have either been laid off or opted to take a buyout in some form or another. If you got fired for stealing, or manipulating photos or that sort of thing, you're out of luck. You'll need to send me a link to a recent photo of yours at the paper (or magazine) online, and I am only giving it to you. If you already bought a copy, well, then you get my thanks, this offer isn't transferrable. I have no idea how many people will take me up on this, but if it gets over a hundred, I'm going to have to include the condition that this offer could end without further notice.

Where will I get the books? Amazon. I have already given away over 200 free copies since it came out, and so once I've confirmed you're a legit former staffer somewhere, you'll get an Amazon gift card via e-mail for the cost of the book. There'll be a lot of the honor-system going on here. One per customer, please. Once you get it, for a start turn to page 71, the section titled "Transitioning from a Salaried Staff Position to Freelance." Then, begin at the Introduction. If you are curious what I am talking about, hit this link and then enter in "71" in the search to see what I am referring to.

Why am I doing this? Because it might make a difference to someone who just feels like they got kicked in the teeth after 15+ years of commitment to a paper, and it might make them feel a bit better. Heck, it might help some amazingly talented photographer continue to contribute to this profession that I love so much, and to continue to be able to make a difference with their images.

Happy Holidays, friends.
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I was struck by the article in the UK's Guardian recently, titled "Is a picture really worth £1,000?", and sub-titled "A church and small businesses are just some of those accusing picture agencies of using heavy-handed tactics when pursuing payment", and I thought - "heavy handed?"

The article then goes on to attempt to diminish the value of the photographs, in an attempt to make those insisting on payment look ridiculous.

But they're not.
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If I say "my photos are worth $1m", then that's what *I* value them at. For some form of validation, I have to convince someone to pay that. Once they have, then, regardless of what you think, they are worth that much - atleast to somebody.

The criticism though, comes in, when it's suggested that a photo should have been valued at $50 - had the license and permission been recieved before-hand, and that the rights-holder - in this Getty Images - was now demanding 1,000 pounds. What is the purpose of this?

It's short-hand for "we will sue you, but if you want to make a retro-active license for it, we'll do that for that much."

What is the purpose for this? To deter future infringement. In the article, one of the parties involved in an infringement wrote about the churches that are involved "now regularly reminds all churches to ensure that all the images they use are fully licensed."

Lesson learned.

The purpose in Copyright, generally speaking, when courts grant punitive damages (and this is where all those $150,000 per infringement pie-in-the-sky copyright infringement ideas come from) is as a punishment to deter future infringements. Is it ever that much? Not very often, but it's a big stick that forces infringers to pay attention to the lawsuits, and come to a settlement.

Lofty figures, whether during an infringement suit, or as an offer of a retro-active license, are put forth to deter future people from doing it, and then just paying when they're caught red-handed.

Should you do a retro-active license?

If you do, be very careful. Your offer should be a part of an "offer in settlement" between you and the other side, because if you don't define it in that scope, your offer could diminish the future court case because figures that are a part of an "offer in settlement" are not disclosable in court proceedings. Further, if you do do this, make darn sure that you are excruciatingly specific about the use, and that, as a part of the retro-active license the other side certifies that they have not previously infringed your works, and are not currently infringing your works, and that this offer in settlement is specific to that one use, and that any other infringements will be handled separately. Often times, having an attorney handle these issues where your claim is in the $1k range, will be well worth the letter an attorney might charge you $250 for. All of this rides, however, on the fact that you are registering your images and have the teeth to back up the larger looming claim if they don't settle.

As always, talk to an attorney about your specific situation, since I am not one.
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Whispers of a Nikon D3x have been floating around for some time. It was first rumored to be coming out in time for the Olympics, and was anticipated between March and June of this past year (Nikon D3x - impending announcement, 4/16/08). Sources suggest that there was a decision to delay that announcement. Some have suggested it was to give the D700 some legs and some suggest they wanted the excitement to be about the D90. Still others surmised that there were details they wanted to work out to ensure a timely delivery date after its announcement.

Regardless of the reason, official word has come out - the D3x has arrived in the form of NikonPro magazine with all the details and specs. Hit the jump for the specs, and more thoughts on what this means moving forward.

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The first thing that struck me was the statement that leads off the third paragraph - "The D3x was designed with medium format photographic applications in mind." This statement is two-fold in its' intentions. 1) Medium format photographers should welcome a 24.5MP chip as a suitable replacement for their medium format cameras. But, the real reason, in my estimation, is this: 2) to set expectations in that arena, and not expect a 24.5MP edition of the D3.

Everyone was blown away by the insanely high ISO of the D3, and the D3x had to make some accommodations for the larger chip, in the form of a reduced ISO range. A stated range of 100-1600, with low/boost settings allowing for 50-6400 illustrate some of the likely technical limitations of a chip this size at the higher ISO ratings.

Here's the basic spec rundown:

• 24.5-megapixel shooting at up to 5fps; cropped 10-megapixel shooting at up to 7fps
• Custom-built Expeed 16-bit processing to handle detail on the 75MB image files
• ISO range of 100-1600 with a Lo1 (equivalent to ISO 50) with boosts up to ISO 6400
• Writes files to dual CF slots at 35MB/s
• Same lithium-ion battery as D3
• 51-point MultiCAM3500FX autofocus system
• Scene Recognition System
• 3-inch, 922,000-dot LCD
• 35.9mm x 24mm FX format sensor (If you can't think in metric, that's 1.4" x 0.94")
• Weather-resistant magnesium body
• Designed for medium-format shooting
• 12ms start-up time; 41ms shutter-release lag time
• USB 2.0, HDMI and AV-out jacks, with 10-pin terminal for GPS and other accessories
• World’s highest-res SLR with Live View at 922,000 dots in the LCD

One of the points missed and I think is of value (I talked about its benefits when reviewing the D700 here- Nikon D700 Report) is that you can use the new GP-1 GPS Unit with this (goes back to the D200 as well) to geo-tag your images.

Also worth noting is the compatibility with the D3 batteries. It seems Nikon is finally happy with their battery configuration, and isn't changing it again. Also unchanged (and would you expect any less?) is the lens mount. Yes, you can go back to any F-mount lens you'd like. On top of that- Nikon's EXPEED engine is designed to minimize the effects of color fringing for those lenses specifically. How's that for taking care of legacy customers? That's a definitive pro-consumer decision - enhancing the ability of lenses they've already sold which might otherwise cause someone to decide now is the time to upgrade a lens. Nice move Nikon.

What does this portend for Canon?

Well, this chip-size is larger, by about 3.5MP. Ok, so what. The pixel game is essentially over. What continues to be the battleground will be clarity of files (can you say Foveon technology anyone?), high-iso noise (and Nikon, with the D3, set the equivilent of Kodachrome 25 as the benchmark for future noise measurements) concerns. What the Wikipedia article notes (and a citation is indicated it's needed) is that a Kodachrome 25 slide on 35mm will hold detail equivilent of 25MP or more of image data. This is in line with information I gleened from meetings over a decade ago with people in the production department at National Geographic, who gave as a guidepost the maximum size of an RGB 8-bit file from a 35mm slide as being 60MB, or 20MP. Thus, at more than 20MP, in my estimation, size is no longer the issue. What's next? Video.

So, why no video on the D3x? We can guess a lot of reasons. My guess is that it's a fun pro-sumer capability that is getting tested in the D90, and when the D800 comes out, it will have video capabilities comparable to the 5D Mark II. As throughput on CF/SD cards gets better, and the price of cards plummets to a negligible amount, it might be a feature that a pro would want, but I am guessing that the jury is still out on that for the flagship editions of Canon and Nikon cameras. I for one am not bothered one iota at video missing from the D3x DSLR.

The one remaining question is one of price. The D3 was introduced at $4,999, and you can get one for around $4,100. Competitors the Sony A900 with a 24.6MP chip is the low-price point here, at $2,999. While Sony has made significant inroads in Europe (see our video interviews here and here from PhotoPlus on the A900), I surmise that they are coming in very low to get into the US market, because traditionally Sony is the premium brand premium priced product. Canon, on the other hand, has dropped down to under $7k, with demo and other used excellent-rated used systems at the $5,600 range. I think we'll know much more come Monday, when Nikon has scheduled announcements. We can only guess that that announcement will be the same as what the mailbag brought to doorsteps today in the form of the Nikon Pro magazine. We just await pricing and delivery dates. Nikon Rumors is reporting one UK retailer suggesting £5,500 as the price, which equates to $8,466 USD.

Look for a head-to-head like we did just a year ago(Nikon - a first look, 12/8/07) when we concluded that the D3 beat out the EOS 1Ds Mark III. So, it's time for a re-match in the ring.


UPDATE:
The D3x has an estimated street price of $7,999 USD, and you can learn everything you need to know (atleast officially) here - Nikon D3x Official webpage.They also have a micro-site here. The delivery date is stated to be December of 2008, and it has been suggested that it will be before Christmas.
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There is a lot going on in the news world these days, and one of the things that struck me as remarkable is that CNN has decided to enter the wire service game. They have economies of scale to depend upon, bureaus in many locations, data networks, storage facilities, and so forth.

In a "newspaper summit" set to begin today, December 1st, and continuing for 2 1/2 days, it's an all expenses paid trip to Atlanta for those with an invite, and CNN will be pitching newspapers on its' cheaper service. Cheaper, that is, than the AP (who is losing member papers), Reuters (which CNN dumped last year, saving $3.5 million), and AFP and Bloomberg as well.
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They are staffing up their newsdesk (check this link for a few of the job listings) and hiring left and right. Staff jobs, yes.

The AP, especially in the US, stands the most to lose. Both Reuters and Agence France Presse are euro-centric wire services, with some in-roads into the U.S., but not to the depth and breadth that the Associated Press has. United Press International is all but irrelevant these days relative to them, and the service Bloomberg offers is mostly a financial one. So, the AP stands mostly alone in their risk for an across the board US-competitor, especially with the brand recognition that CNN brings to the table. Moreover, CNN images - taken from stills and standard-definition cameras, have been gracing the pages of newspapers across the country already. As CNN migrates all of their cameras to HD, the images they can pull from video will increase in quality, and this doesn't even consider the still-image assignments that will be produced by new CNN staffers with still cameras, and reporters to boot. As papers migrate even more of their content to the web, the resolution will become even less and less of an issue as well.

It's a welcome addition to the breaking-news arena, and the fact that they are "staffing up" is a good thing. Whether those staffers are both editors and photographers, or just editors, remains to be seen. Atleast on the outset, having staff photographers will be important to convince prospective subscribers that CNN is serious about original content. Like a restaurant that opens and offers free valet parking, it shows a commitment to the customer. Down the line, they can charge for the valet parking, or do away with it and let people fend for their own parking spot. For now, I would expect paid staffers to begin shooting for CNN in the not to distant future.


Related Stores:
Content Bridges - Nine Questions: How Will CNN Change the Wire Game?
Editor & Publisher - CNN Courts Newspapers With New Wire Service
New York Times - CNN Pitches a Cheaper Wire Service to Newspapers

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Often we wonder "what's next?" in our chosen profession, and the consensus seems to be "video", in one form or another. I just finished a 25 minute Ken-Burns-esque video for a client that I am delivering this week, which uses 400 stills from 5,000+ images from a recent assignment. In addition, we've integrated video capabilities into our service offerings to clients in DC, but the uptake on that segment of our business - at least right now - is minimal.

When we ask Adobe "what's next?" for upcoming versions of software, they demur and don't answer, or they are coy about exactly what will be next in a roundabout way, with a wink and a nod. Here though, is a cool video that demonstrates what they're working on over at Adobe - an example of the increased openness we're seeing from the company. This, I believe, is a good thing.


Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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Yes, as the costs of storage continue to decline, as well as the costs for server technology as well, it would stand to reason that your partner in stock image licensing would share in these cost savings by giving you, say, a greater piece of each sale? Then again, why bother. They've gotten to be so big that they can just do as they please, and take more of your money. What are you going to do about it? Go to Getty?

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Perhaps I am harkening back to days gone by where these organizations were "representing you", as your "agent", and looking out for your best interests. That notion was decimated by how Getty handled (and continues to handle) its' stable of photographers. We wrote about this back in September (Alamy, Oh My!, 9/28/08), about this same 5%, and they wrote on their blog here about the 5% from September, and here just recently, to remind you. The e-mail they just sent out, in part, reads:

The key changes are listed here: http://www.alamy.com/notice-board-1108.asp

We advise you to review the new contract here: http://www.alamy.com/terms.asp

The changes take effect on January 10th 2009, 45 days from November 26th 2008.

We recommend that you read through the changes thoroughly and print off a copy of the new contract for your records, there is no need for any further action on your part.

The key reason for issuing a new contract is the 5% increase in Alamy's commission on all commission schedules as announced on our blog.

The following commission splits will apply from January 10th:

- Alamy Blue: Alamy commission 40%, Contributor commission 60%
- Alamy Red: Alamy commission 20%, Contributor commission 80%
storage fees and submissionfees still apply
- Alamy Green: Alamy commission 30%, Contributor commission 70%
storage fees still apply
What is a mis-representation is that Alamy is not increasing their commission by "5%", they are increasing it by 5 percentage points, and there's a big difference.

Consider this. A sale of $100 where the commission was 40% to Alamy, that would mean they would get $40. a 5% increase in what they are getting would increase $40 by $2. A 5 percentage point increase would increase the $40 to $45. So, they are taking an additional 12.5%, not an additional 5%. They are playing games with statistics, making it appear like it's less of an increase than it is. What this means is that you won't see a 5% decrease in your actual dollars received, you'll see a 12.5% decrease in actual dollars received. So, for every $100 you used to get, you'll only be getting $87.50. Curb your holiday spending accordingly.

What's next? A Windows Home Server , which I wrote about (Microsoft Pro Photo Summit2008 - recap, 7/11/08) is something we've put in place here in the office. The box has four 1TB drives, and three Iomega 1.5TB drives, for about 7.5TB of storage space, all accessible to me from anywhere in the world. This is seperate and distinct from my ability to use "screen sharing" on my Mac and connect into the computers in my office.

What I think will be next will be that Alamy/et al will give you X% if they host it, and X% plus an additional percentage point or two if you host it - a sort of distributed computing/peer-to-peer network. All Alamy would need to do is set up a P2P solution and all of a sudden you are being required to host the images, and they become the distribution hub, and collect fees as the requests pass through their servers.
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For those of you looking for specific guidance on a particular point, Amazon has put my book in their AmazonOnlineReader - Best Business Practices for Photographers, so you can read it online to your hearts' content for free.

You can search for any term or word, browse the table of contents, and generally just browse it. It remains among the top ten books in "Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Professional" (thank you very much dear readers), and, for under $20, you can buy it at this link - Best Business Practices for Photographers
- and have it laying around your house to enjoy at your leisure.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)
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There is a lot going on in the great and nebulous cloud in the sky, and not all of it is good. Yes, some taste the sweet nectar of power, and are driven to corruption for their own personal gain. Some try and fail to succeed, and blame the system. What is key, as I sit and contemplate how this applies to the future of photography and it's many aspects, is that there must be a mutual effort to be made - one is the success of one both personally and professionally, and the other is the success of this ever-changing field of photography. The two are not mutually exclusive, lest you subvert the good of the whole for your own gain.

There are those that are the lap-dogs of the status quo, unwilling to take a principled position, or fight the good fight. They take the easy road, without confrontation or sincere criticism, simply interested in making it just one more day.

Then there are the turncoats. They profess to be the do-gooders, the righteous, and are indignant that anyone question them. They may do some good, but all-the-while they are seeking their own expanded power base, and are undermining those they profess to want to help. In the end, there's a net deficit to the collective good that is laid at their feet, and they kick it away, saying it wasn't their doing, knowing all-the-while that anything that stands in the way of their success is to be climbed over, not realizing that it will be their undoing.

On the other hand, there are the titans of industry, who profess to know more than the little people, and who believe that the masses are to be lead, like lemmings, to whatever shifting destination they desire, and which serves their own greater good. Yet they lead, to a degree, not a body of passionate "soldiers", but of a somewhat conscripted army ill-equiped to fight, and then blame the solders for their own demise, unwilling to accept any blame for failure to ready those soldiers for battle.

Then there are the outposts of resistance. Those that are deemed to be the gnats and flies, to be swatted away. The David to Goliath, the John Conner to SkyNet, Luke and Leia to the Empire. History is repleat with stories of the swattable interlopers affecting change and making a difference.

Unbeknownst to many, these outposts are out there, fighting the good fight, each and every day for the profession they love. The rag-tag group of people of singular focus on what is good and right. They are well educated, and they have their mission clear. Attempting to silence one only grows the resistance that much stronger. A modern day Knights Templar if you will (with a more positive outcome some 700 years later, one can only hope.)

The battle indeed rages on. You may not see it, hear it, or feel it, but you hopefully will be the beneficiary of the wins, and insulated from the losses. While there are many things to be thankful for, to paraphrase Robert Frost, "there are miles to go before you sleep". Reflect in your quiet moments of all the good things in your life, but know that all the while, those that are working to undermine you are not pausing to reflect - they are gathering their strength for coming battles. This may be metaphorical, but its effects, if ignored, will be real.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)
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How often are you reminding your clients that you are still alive? That you still want their business? As the playing field continues to evolve, reminding clients that you are still out there, working hard, and looking forward to working for them, is important.

Many people who find themselves a bit slow, are (hopefully) finding the time to do some much needed marketing. And for those who are still busy? You should be marketing when you're busy - in fact, you shouldn't stop marketing at all. The key, is to be thoughtul about your promotional campaign.

So, what details will help you be the most effective? How frequently? When? How?
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We've done a fair amount of research on the subject, and here are some significant statistics that have born themselves out to be true from multiple sources. You can find more stats at EmailStatCenter.

Monthly emails and content and frequency options positively impacted a company's reputation. - Habeas (2008)

Wednesday was the best day of the week in the third quarter of 2007 to send email in terms of click (3.9%) and open rates (25.4%). - eROI (2007)

Most marketers send email to their customers once a week. - Shop.org, State of Retailing Online 2007 report (Sept. 2007)

45% of small businesses execs want to receive the (email) newsletter weekly, 34% said monthly. - Bredin Business Information (2007)

63.8% of retailers conduct up to three email campaigns each month. - Internet Retailer (Aug 2006)

79% of the respondents said they hit the "report spam" button when they don't know who the sender is. - Email Sender and Provider Coalition (2007)

21% of the emails reviewed appeared completely blank when images were turned off, or stripped inside a variety of email clients. - Email Experience Council (2007)

44% of email users said email inspired at least one online purchase and 41% said it prompted at least one offline purchase. - JupiterResearch's The Social and Portable Inbox (2008)

66% of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through email. - ExactTarget, "2008 Channel Preference Survey" (2008)

For advertising-oriented lists, 57% of marketers surveyed said that "emailing unique content by segment" produced routinely justifiable results. - MarketingSherpa "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008" (2008)

69% of at-work email users usually view emails in their preview panes. - MarketingSherpa (2007)

80% of at-work users in the US rely on Outlook, which offers preview panes. - MarketingSherpa (2007)

Most common screen resoltion is 1024 X 768. - OneStat.com (April 2007)

64% of key decision makers are viewing your carefully crafted email on their BlackBerrys and other mobile devices, according to new data. - MarketingSherpa, in partnership with SurveySampling (2007)

64% of online merchants keep key points of content high up in the body of the message. - Internet Retailer (2007)

Utilizing a professional company and/or their tools to test your image rendering across multiple email clients often helps to increase response up to as much as 87%. - Email Experience Council - Email Rendering Report (2007)

A typical landing page visitor spends only 5 seconds on the page. - Marketing Experiments

Seven in 10 US Internet users said they judged these "from" and "subject" lines when deciding whether to report an email as spam. - E-Mail Sender and Provider Coalition and Ipsos (December 2006)

64% of small businesses execs said they decide whether or not to open the (email) newsletter based on who it's from. - Bredin Business Information (2007)

40% of marketers restrict their personalization efforts to the salutation. - Responsys Survey: The State of Personalization (2006)While there is a lot more insightful information at EmailStatCenter, these are several of the items that are applicable to what we do. Keep in mind while reading items, that there's a difference between B2B and B2C, and you need to know which of these markets you are reaching out to, and segmenting and designing your outreach specific to them. Also take note - some of the above details are about retail marketing, so consider how that might be different from your efforts, if it is.

While it may seem obvious to many, for example, that sending a B2B e-mail at 10pm on a Friday night is a bad idea, knowing how to fine-tune your delivery time and day is important. Knowing as many details as possible helps increase the efficacy (and thus ROI) on your marketing campaign.

As to the "How?" There are several photo-centric services. Adbase, which we've mentioned and reviewed before, as well as AgencyAccess. Read their FAQ's, their white papers, their help pages, their how-to's. Getting it right in your outreach to new and old clients is critical. Put your best foot forward, and do things right, it's your future we're talking about.
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Today's Speedlinks.

• The Perfect Storm Has Arrived - From Vincent Laforet - THIS ONE'S A MUST-READ FRIENDS.


• Magazine Death Pool - A sad take on the death of the pulp printing industry, but it's worth a bookmark!


• Paul Melcher on Getty - Paul's got an interesting open letter to Marc Getty. Within the rant, it's a good read. UPDATE: It seems Paul's post is gone. Interesting...

Now go! Check 'em out, and come back soon!

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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There have been a variety of comments on the subject of Assistant Deputy Photo Editor Mitchell Seidel (LinkedIn: Profile), as reported in Editor & Publisher (Buyout-Depleted 'Star-Ledger' Reassigns Two Journos -- To Mailroom, 11/19/08) now working in the mailroom.

Many reports and comments I've heard centered around the ha ha, isn't that funny, and the is this what they went to college for, kind.

As I sit back and contemplate the evolution and the changes that are taking place, I see Seidel doing exactly what he should - pitching in WHEREVER he is needed.
(Continued after the Jump)
Feel free to mock him if you'd like (and I'll watch your karmic savings account self-deplete), but in this downturn, what Mitchells' actions are saying is "I will do anything - whatever it takes - to keep my job and my paper alive." His actions most definitely are speaking louder than words. Mitchell is not above this "type" of work. None of us are above it. Heck, next they should slash the cleaning crew, and let everyone on their way out of the office at night empty their own trash. What a cost savings that would be.

Mitchell - hats' off to you and your 28 years of service to the Star-Ledger. You epitomize what it means to be a team player.
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As the story goes, the Wizard of Oz was thought to be the end-all-be-all solution to those in need in the land of Oz. Yet, the truth was that the Wizard was nothing more than a charlatan. Take a quick look at one of the Wizards behind the curtain pulling those levers, and pushing those knobs for OZMO - it's Creative Commons.

Ozmo is "a new web-based service focused on helping photographers, bloggers, and other content creators license their work for commercial use", according to a blog post on Creative Commons' website. ASMP wrote is their latest Member Update email. "There are no set-up fees with Ozmo and content creators can license as much content as they want. Payment is collected from the buyer when the rights are purchased. Ozmo even helps sellers track and manage sales and buying trends."

Fatal Error #1 – On its first day in business, OZMO has likely offended and alienated every professional photographer in the industry.
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You realize this once you learn that Ozmo is a licensing service offered by the Copyright Clearance Center, an organization that has collected hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties on the reprographic usage (photocopying) of photographs and other creative works contained in publications, and has consistently rejected appeals by photographers and their organizations to distribute those funds to the rightful owners.

To add insult to injury, the CCC’s Ozmo service has adopted a stock photo licensing scheme developed by Creative Commons, an organization whose leadership has consistently promoted “free culture” which in plain english means the weakening of the copyright protections on which pro photographers depend for their livelihoods. Creative Commons has demonstrated a commitment to encouraging open sharing and free usage of photographs and other copyrighted works.

The particular flavor of Creative Commons adopted by OZMO is “CC+” a new and untested commercial extension of Creative Commons license packages. Creative Commons has received millions of dollars in support from free culture advocates and has used that support to develop CC and CC+ without participation of the professional photography industry, while every photography organization in the country has been actively engaged in collaborating with image buyers on the development of PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System), a comprehensive system of standards designed to simplify and facilitate image licensing. While ASMP’s announcement refers to the adoption of PLUS by OZMO, the CCC’s marketing materials indicate that OZMO has adopted Creative Commons CC+ licensing.

While amateur and hobbiest photographers might find Creative Commons to be a convenient way to share their works, few professionals would consider the use of Creative Commons in any form. The reason: Creative Commons is a dysfunctional system. Images offered under Creative Commons licenses are routinely used beyond the defined scope of use, resulting in widespread infringement.. Attribution is not provided where required. Derivatives are made despite prohibitions on derivatives. The Creative Commons definition of “commercial use” is nothing more than an unfunny joke.

Fatal Error #2: Ozmo customers are required to pay for image licenses using Amazon Payments. From the Ozmo website (here)Why Amazon Payment Services?
Amazon Payments is built on top of Amazon's reliable and scalable payment infrastructure.

With almost 70 million active customer accounts worldwide, Amazon.com is a trusted resource for third-party payments online, allowing for instantaneous payments and anti-fraud protection.Yet, checking the Amazon Payments website (here) reveals:"At this time, payments can be made only in U.S. Dollars...You can also use a bank account to make payments using Amazon Payments. Only U.S. bank accounts can be used, and a verification process must be completed before the bank account can be used as a payment method."So, unless you're using a credit card (and the nationality requirement of those cards is unclear at this time), you've got to be a US bankholder, payable in US dollars. So, while Ozmo touts "70 million active customer accounts worldwide", it's just US bankholders that apparently can make payments.

According to that same ASMP update that arrived via e-mail yesterday, "ASMP members are encouraged to investigate and evaluate this service (OZMO) as one piece of a photographers marketing arsenal."

My advice to photography trade organizations: think twice before aligning yourself with an organization (CCC) that is in the business of withholding royalties from photographers, and a service (OZMO) that has partnered with an organization (Creative Commons) dedicated to destroying the livelihood of your photographer members.

I think that OZMO might just be DOA. Not sure? Consider Pixish. We wrote critically of them - Pixish, Stupid is, as Stupid Does (2/12/08), and less than a year later, we reported on their demise - Pixish - Finally Down the Tubes (11/7/08). Sometimes, it takes several quarters to burn through all that "great idea money", before people arrive at the reality of a bad idea materialized and now worth jettisoning. So, perhaps DOA could save everyone some cash and some trouble.

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Yes, friends, publishing is sadly not about what's good or great, when it comes to ink and pulp, it's about what sells ads,what keeps the hallway lights on, the cleaning crew emptying the trash bins, and the IT department updating your Microsoft Office Suite with the latest patch to keep the viruses away.

The New York Times reports (Times Shuts Down Sports Magazine, 11/17/08) "Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The New York Times Company, confirmed the closing. Mr. Bryant said that the magazine “was more or less breaking even,” but only because of an Olympics issue in which all the ad space was bought by Nielsen."

Here's where we begin to see tricky staffing though.
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The article at the end, states that almost all the staffers - including the editor - were contractors. Thus, they likely did not participate in retirement plans, healthcare, or other benefits usually reserved for employees. If they did get those things, that's a rare occurrence indeed. The notion of publishing an entire publication almost entirely with contractors - especially by an employee-laiden company like the New York Times, belies a new paradigm - or atleast the front-and-center of it for all to see.

Let's set aside the "gosh, that's too bad" thoughts, because we all have them. Instead, let's look at how and why.

The Times, looking to capitalize on those well-off readers put forth a luxury-styled magazine centered on sports, for the jet-set and well-heeled. It was a quarterly magazine, so even though it started on February of 2006, that means they probably published fewer than a dozen issues. Yet, even with the likely tie-ins to pre-existing advertising in the papers' Sports section for select high-dollar products, they couldn't make a go of it. The mighty NYT Co, with an ad department that has the weight of that same name behind it, couldn't make it happen in the media capitol of the world. It's a business venture gone south. Nothing new to see here, move along.

As papers downsize, and produce new ventures, both with ink and pulp as well as the online flavors, continue to look at the staffing as an indicator of their commitment. Employees with benefits and so forth are one good indicator that someone is trying to do something right. Yet, more and more publications are moving even their existing positions from staff to freelance. Why? Because it's cheaper. Period.

The reality of this is that what happened is business. Period. When people tell you they want you to work for them for free or cheap, "because of the love of the subject matter", or "because of the love of {insert altruistic concept here}", look closely at the organization. If everyone else is doing it as a volunteer, and they're doing it out of a scrappy office in a strip mall on the outskirts of town, and there's no corporate conglomerate listed as the projects' owner, then maybe it's worth considering pro bono. Otherwise, they're trying to pull at your heartstrings while you're feeling, and your pursestrings when you're not looking.

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In light of the demise of Digital Railroad, a few readers have written expressing concern about the future of PhotoShelter, and what their
closing of the PhotoShelter Collection means. So, we thought we'd ask them how things are going, and we turned to Grover Sanschagrin for answers.

1) Some readers were concerned about the closing of the PhotoShelter Collection and seem to be confusing that with the entire PhotoShelter service. Can you shed some light on this?We closed down the PhotoShelter Collection because it wasn't cost-effective to keep it running considering the current economic climate. The last thing we wanted to do was put the PhotoShelter Personal Archive in jeopardy. This is the product we started with over 3 years ago, with over 35,000 photographers subscribing to it. It was a difficult decision at the time, but it was the right decision. Doing so allowed us to cut the burn rate - and "cutting the burn" is the key to survival right now.(Continued after the Jump)2) So, the PhotoShelter Collection was an effort for PhotoShelter to get into the photo agency business, marketing and licensing images collectively for those PhotoShelter users that wanted to participate?Exactly. A global search across all archives has always been possible with PhotoShelter. But the Collection added photo editors, a sales staff, research people, and a beefed-up marketing department. It was free for photographers to participate, and when sales were made, PhotoShelter's take was 30%.3) When Digital Railroad was in its' final death throws, PhotoShelter was very active behind the scenes trying to figure out a way to help stranded photographers rescue their images. Do you feel that most photographers were able to get their images off the DRR servers in time?Unfortunately, most people didn't get their images off in time. The longer someone waited to get their images, the less likely they were to experience successful transfers. The people who jumped on it the moment you started writing about it on your blog were able to get their entire archives safely ported over to PhotoShelter.4) Of the reportedly 1,400 or so active DRR photographers, about how many are now PhotoShelter customers?This may sound like a non-answer, but we really don't know for sure which of our newest customers are from DRR. I can tell you, however, that signups have *definitely* increased. If I were to make a rough estimate, I'd say that somewhere around 35% of the total DRR population have signed up with PhotoShelter since the news first broke.5) Prior to the demise of DRR, it was said that PhotoShelter (as separate from the PhotoShelter Collection) was a cash-flow positive business, so it would stand to reason that the addition of that 35% who migrated from DRR would make PhotoShelter even more stable moving forward. Can you expand on this?I can't really expand on that at all, at least not with the kind of specific details that I know you want. But I will say that I am proud of our management team, and that the decisions made were difficult but right, and the company, and product, has never looked better as a result. As a company that takes its archiving responsibilities very seriously, we're not interested in taking chances. We're interested in long-term survival, and putting the company in a position it can happen -- even during an economic downturn.6) What growth areas do you see for PhotoShelter in the future?Now that the Collection isn't such a large focus anymore, we've turned our full attention to the Personal Archive. We plan to continue with our aggressive development calendar, and respond to the ideas and suggestions of our customers. Making the product stronger is our main focus.7) We've previously highlighted the new embed-able galleries features, as well as the incredible shoot-to-live-online capabilities. Are there any exciting new features you can tip us off to in the near future?Are there exciting new features coming? Yes. Will I tell you what they are? Not exactly. I'm not sure if people realize just how amazing our engineers are, and how fast they can turn an idea into a reality. With their full attention on the Personal Archive, my job has never been more exciting.8) What can the average photographer be expecting to spend each month on your service?We've got several different price points, starting with a Free account (with only 150mb of storage) to allow people to get in there and check it out for as long as they'd like. We've got accounts at $9.99/mo (10GB), $29.99/mo (35GB) and $49.99/mo (100GB). Adding more storage can be done on-the-fly and at extremely affordable rates.9) Shouldn't that nominal amount either be an easily absorbable figure into a small businesses' overhead, or billable out as "online image delivery" to a client when an assignment is delivered that way? (in other words, are other photographers doing it that way?)Considering what you're getting for your monthly subscription, it's an absolute bargain. A serious photographer using PhotoShelter to drive their business has no problem covering these costs. Wedding photographers can charge a bride/groom for an online digital archive; Retouchers can avoid the costs of DVDs by selling archiving space to their customers; Photographers of all kinds can open up brand new revenue streams with print sales or by making personal-use downloads available, etc.10) What seems to be the one stumbling block that a potential user is not surpassing that is precluding them from signing up, and what would you tell them if you were talking to them one-on-one?Many photographers think that in order to make use of PhotoShelter, they'd first have to spend hours and hours uploading their entire archive, and this is time they do not have. I regularly tell photographers to just get started today, and worry about the past later. Tomorrow will eventually be yesterday, so the longer you wait to get started, the more of a chore it will be when you finally get around to it.

I also think that many photographers look at PhotoShelter and ask themselves if it can do everything they need it to do in terms of how they are running their business, instead of how PhotoShelter can, through innovation, actually improve HOW the are running their business.

My favorite PhotoShelter user is anyone who is curious, willing to experiment and try new things, sees the Internet as an opportunity, and is innovative in their business strategy. This kind of attitude and outlook is critical to success and long-term stability - something we should all be thinking about.
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If your best client came to you and said "learn Spanish, or you're no longer going to get hired by us." Would you?

If your best client came to you and said "The slang and odd language you use isn't condusive to a constructive dialog when we're working together. If you can't speak proper English we won't be able to work together anymore." Would you drop the street talk and keep the client?

If you answered no to either of those questions, you need to think again. This is business, and if you want to do business, and keep doing business, you need to set aside any attitudes like "Who he think he is tellin' me I can't talk street, yo?" and realize that businesses do whatever they can to keep their clients. It's not personal, or an affront to you, it's just business.

When a client thus, comes to the determination that the language you've been using to describe your licensing is the equivilent of ambiguous street language, and decides that they're tired of intepreting what "collateral" really means, and in turn, they specify the use of the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS) system be incorporated into the licensing agreements you convey to them, you'd better step to it.

That is exactly what's happened with the top three image licensees in the US. These three major publishers have called for the adoption of the PLUS standards by picture archives, photographers, illustrators and all other image suppliers. Representatives of McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Pearson each announced that they will adopt the PLUS Picture Licensing Glossary definitions in their contracts, and that they encourage image suppliers to begin embedding PLUS license metadata in all images within one year.
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"We are very pleased that these major publishers - the largest image licensees in the industry - are aligned in their support of the PLUS standards," said Maria Kessler (LinkedIn: Profile), President of the Picture Archive Association of America.

Bonnie Beacher (LinkedIn: Profile), Senior Director of Contracts, Copyrights and Permissions at McGraw-Hill Education, said "The PLUS standards
benefit publishers and their suppliers by simplifying and clarifying the process of licensing and managing images. We are in the process of implementing PLUS standards, and we would find it very useful for our image suppliers to adopt PLUS standards as well."

Jeff Sedlik (LinkedIn: Profile), President & CEO of the PLUS Coalition, said "The PLUS standards will allow publishers to leverage embedded license metadata to increase automation and more efficiently manage images in their digital asset management systems."

What this means is that the Getty, Corbis, Alamy, et al licensors of the world will now be implementing PLUS language into every type of licensing that they do. The license will have to be PLUS compliant, because they won't know if the person browsing their site is a McGraw-Hill person, or a magazine photo editor, as they are filling up their cart full of images, and selecting the licenses they need. So, when the client is considering your work, you'll have to use the same words as the Gettys of the world so that a client can properly manage all images in their digital asset management system.

Clients have already specified to you they need an invoice before they can pay you, and it needs to say "Invoice" on it, be dated, and have your contact information, and so too, the need your tax id # (SSN, EIN, etc). There's little difference here in the standardization of the language for licensing.

When it comes to licensing language clarity, and agreement cross-industry, PLUS is a monumental collaboration, and one we have hearlded from this soapbox for some time. As an individual photographer, it's free for you to use, and you would do well during your down time - like excising the street from your talk, to get to know PLUS better. Your clients are demanding it.

RELATED:

• Digital Railroad, PLUS, and A Stock Sale - 6/17/08
• In The Photo Business - It's All About The Usage - 12/17/07
• Safety In Numbers - 12/4/07
• Adobe and DMCA Liability In An Era of Orphan Works - 10/1/08
• ASMP and their $1.3 - 10/19/08
• VIDEO: PhotoPlusExpo 2007 - Photo Business News, PLUS Coalition segment - 10/21/07

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I love books. If I were to have only one regret this life, it would be that there wasn't enough time to read all the books that I want to. My reading list is a long one, and so often, new books have to fight hard to cut the line. I also collect books, and nestled amongst my signed editions of Ansel Adams' The Negative, The Print, Natural Light Photography, and Artificial Light Photography (note: I am still seeking Book 1), several Sam Abel books, signed limited editions of all the great surf photography books, and books like Csikszentmihalyi's Flow, is a book by the legendary Howard Chapnick - Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism. I was honored to have him sign mine, and yes, be represented by his agency, Black Star. Yet, there's no bias here - his independent status as a legend probably preceded my birth.

So, it is with reverance that another Chapnick - John Chapnick - comes forth with a new book - Photojournalism, technology and ethics - What's Right and Wrong Today? Oh, and get this - it's a free eBook! Hit this link for the PDF.

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In the book, Chapnick states the obvious. Obvious, that is, to those of us who have been doing this awhile. Things like "altering photographs is unethical." Then there's "Staging photographs is unethical." Now, I know these things, yet I see these things happen all the time, and we read time and again about altering photographs and then their appearing in newspapers. Yet Chapnick delves into these issues, citing the policies of wire services and newspapers around the country, and then proffering the thought process:The rhetorical justifications for these axioms center on public service. Rather than simply selling newspapers or attracting TV ratings, journalists have a higher calling—to provide their audiences with the knowledge required to be informed contributors to a democracy. And this can only happen when the public believes in the newspaper’s authority.
Ahh. Now some lightbulbs are going off in readers' heads. So, where does the money trail meander? Chapnick goes on:Beyond this consideration, credibility is essential to mainstream news organizations from a business standpoint. If audiences don’t believe they can trust what they’re reading—and seeing—it’s the equivalent of a broken product. And consumers don’t buy broken products for very long. Indeed!

Chapnick then goes on to address the excuses we're hearing from our motion picture brethren, that staging is justified "for purposes of editing", or "for purposes of time", or "for purposes of storytelling", even when the audience is not told of these "re-creations". One field notorious for staging photography is in the field of nature/wild animal photography, with all manner of baiting, pens, and so forth creating a reality that never existed, but which yielded a cover photograph on the front page of the most prestigious magazines of our time.

In the end Chapnick also offers solutions for the digital era, and it's a solid read, primer (or reminder), for anyone who professes to produce editorial images. So, hats off to John Chapnick for a well written and thoughtful perspective on the issue of technology and ethics in photojournalism today. While ethics need no ally, its' furtherance surely needs this roadmap to ensure that tomorrows' photojournalists earn and keep the reputation of truth-telling - no more, and no less.
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When, several years ago, I was assisting a friend in getting his first Capitol Hill press pass, as we arrived to proceed into the building, I handed him one my disposable razors I keep in my car, and in said "you need to run this over your face." "Why?" he asked? "It's a simple matter of respect", I noted. To this day, he gives me a hard time with that phrase, and we're such good friends that he didn't take offense at my counsel. (and he did get his credential.)

Yesterday, when I turned up at the White House for my planned coverage of Barack Obama's visit, I was dressed in a suit. That's just me, I guess. Others were not similarly attired, but there were a half-dozen other still photographers wearing ties. I recall with great respect then Agence France Presse photographer David Ake, 15+ years ago, always came into the White House well dressed, and he recieved the respect due a properly attired photographer. Today, Ake is the head of the Associated Press' photo operation here in DC, and he remains well dressed.

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Re-enter my good friend and colleague, David Burnett. David is a classy guy - top of his class in so many ways, and his class can surmount jeans, except when it's a random challenge by a press operation that has lost much of it's knowledge-base because of the few days left in it's existence. David recounts on his blog - Common Sense, Not Very Common, (11/11/08), writes:So last Thursday, at what will no doubt be President Bush’s last cabinet meeting, Paul Richards of AFP and I were singled out of the crowd of a dozen still photographers, and refused entry to the photo opportunity in the Cabinet Room. Like Paul, I have been on the road for months doing the campaign. We were both surprised, unhappily, when we were informed that with just months to go in an 8 year tenure, the White House has decided to ban jeans from the Oval Office, and (apparently) the Cabinet Room if worn by photographers.While I concur that David shouldn't have worn jeans, he would have learned that 7+ years ago had the current administration instituted that rule - and enforced it - way back then. To enforce a rule they've previously not enforced, or been lax in enforcing, is just petty, and belies the mindset of the outgoing administrations attitude towards the press.

While you ponder this, check out previous blog posts on this subject:

Proper Attire Whilst Making Pictures, 6/1/08

Leave The Flip Flops For The Politicians, 5/23/07

So, as the saying goes, dress for who you want to be, not who you are. Wait, I want to be David Burnett...but can I do it without wearing jeans?
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Below you will find formal notice about DRR's suitor - Newscom - recinding it's interest. Of particular interest is the following:

"The creditor will have all information erased from the storage devices and then sell the equipment at auction."

The concern is that someone will simply do a simple erase, and anyone with recovery tools can recover ALL of our images. ALL OF THEM. Stories abound about people's private information getting found on a company's old servers (Government probe launched after details of one million bank customers found on computer sold on eBay, 8/28/08, among others). Here, we have images which will be recovered and then someone will decide they have this huge library of images to do with as they please.

Someone needs to get information on just how they plan to do the erasing.

Formal notice after the jump:
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November 10, 2008
To Digital Railroad Members and Customers;

As reported on October 31st, Digital Railroad (DRR) had received a letter of intent (LOI) to purchase specific assets of DRR, namely its hardware and application software used to store and retrieve images. This LOI was rescinded on November 5th.

On November 6th, a second company became interested in purchasing some of the assets of DRR, but late on Friday, November 7th this company also ended its negotiations.

Without a commitment for the purchase of its assets, DRR’s senior secured creditor will move to take physical possession of the hardware on which the intellectual property of DRR and the copyrighted images of its customers and partners reside. The creditor will have all information erased from the storage devices and then sell the equipment at auction.

Digital Railroad had hoped that it could preserve the images on the storage devices so that the owners of these images could recover them. Unfortunately, this was not achievable. We apologize for the difficulties that this has created but without additional resources we have no other recourse.

With regard to images in Marketplace that have been downloaded and/or used, and for which the publisher has not already made payment, we will work, with the assistance of photographer associations to have the publishers pay the photographers directly.

Please check the Diablo Management website www.diablomanagement.com for regularly updates regarding Digital Railroad. The DRR link is at the bottom of the DMG Home page.


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So, how do you go about marketing yourself when you want a ready-made solution that you can implement in a brief period of time, with maximum impact? You outsource.

You are a specialist in your field - photography. So too, was your wet-lab technician in processing your film. So too, are you struggling with mastering photoshop/lightroom/etc in your post-production and workflow efforts. All of these things presumes you have work. However, what if you don't have any? Want more? Want to promote your new website?

We outlined how to use a bare-bones solution like Vertical Response (Marketing 101: Bare-Bones-ing It With Vertical Response, 10/5/08), and that works - when you actually have a list of people to market to. What if you don't? Then, how much will it cost you each month in time, or dollars out-laid to an assistant to update your lists? I submit that your monthly costs will exceed $60 or so, and if that's the case, then why not entrust it to an outsourcing solution like many other things we outsource? Why not let a professional handle the distribution of your marketing materials? Heck, you entrusted the postman when you were using snail mail!

To that end, I thought I'd walk you through my experience using the service AdBase. Step-by-step, so you can see how easy it is. Yes, AgencyAccess, and others, are out there, and yes, AdBase has a free trial here, so too, AgencyAccess here. But, often we as photographers fear the unknown, so this will de-mystify it for you. Show you what's possible. But, it's by no means exhaustive. This is one way, but there are, of course, many others.

So here we go - step-by-step, though setting up a mailing list campaign using AdBase, and then summary thoughts and pricing information at the end.
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The first thing you'll do on the home page, once you're signed in, is go create a list of people you want to make out reach to. You can, of course, use pre-made lists, but let's go through the process of creating our own. First click on the My ADBASE tab, as shown below.Scroll down to the "List" section, and choose from the drop-down menu "Custom List".Once you've done that, ADBASE has broken down the variety of categories into several super categories, separated by US, and Canadian. Below, for this mailing, we've chosen US Print Advertising, and there are a total of 10,266 e-mail addresses at 1,953 companies that hire, within that category, across the country. We can further narrow down that field using one of the other 8 filters, from agency size, job title, type of business, and so forth.With that in mind, let's make outreach to just the geographic region that is "Northeast", as chosen below. We could have specified one or more area codes, or even a specific zip code. Remember, we're building a list here, and more importantly, we can build multiple custom lists. So, if I wanted to build a list for the DC area, I would choose area codes 202, 703, and 301. If I then wanted to add in Baltimore and Richmond, I would build a list that included those area codes. And lastly, we can then select multiple lists to mail to as a part of the mailing. So, you can take the shotgun "pray and spray" approach, or you can take a snipers tact, with extreme precision - say, just award-winning firms in the 202 area code that have billings over $5m a year? Bingo, you can do that.Below is the summary of our list, refined by region to just 3,901 e-mail addresses. While that may seem like a small number, it's still a huge number, and probably not one you can manage to market to, and to maintain an ongoing market outreach to. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint, so choose your recipients with the notion that you will be marketing to them over time, repetitively.Below you will see the tab for your next destination - eMailer. Click that tab, and let's have a look.Below is the "Summary" tab, and you'll want to start here. Choose a name that means something to you, and then begin to choose what type of e-mail you want to send. For my first attempt with them, I took the same html template that I used on Vertical Response, and sent that out. Here, we're going to use a very basic version of one of their templates, and talk about some of the variations you can apply to those.Your next tab is the "Style" tab. Of course, as you become more familiar with the features and options, you can choose to customize them, but in this case, I'll be choosing the Simple Black style.Up next is the layout. YOu can see that you can choose how any images, and the spacing between each. This is a very what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) approach. If you want to add text in, other image areas, and so forth, just selecting the boxes allows you to do that very easily. You can also specify the final width of the e-mail, and the default is 650 pixels. If you choose, as I have selected below, to have 3 images in the layout, you are presented with six variations to choose from, which pretty much runs the gamut of options. After looking at this, I decided that I wanted to do just one image, as above.Next up is the Content tab. Think long and hard about the subject line, to minimize the likelihood that it'll get deleted. What subject line would peak your interest? What would get an instant delete? Also of importance is the Plain Text box. This is the e-mail that people who don't get/want html e-mail will see, so be sure there's a link to click in there, as well as other insightful/informative text. As you can see, I've opted to personalize the salutation, which I did by clicking the small icon at the top of that box of the two heads, and chose the field - in this case - first name, whom I wanted to be identified in my salutation. I felt this was more personal than a "Hi there!" salutation.Next up is the Featured Image entry. This is where you'll select or upload your image. Since I don't have one already uploaded, once I click "Select", I'll choose the "Upload New Image" tab and upload it. Of critical importance is the "Terms" checkbox. If you're a photographer, it's easy to certify that you own the copyright - unless that work was shot as a Work-Made-For-Hire assignment, then you have no right to use the photo. If you are in another field - retoucher, or another field, you are certifying that you have permission from the photographer to use their image. Once I've selected my image, named the file, the "Upload Image" button appears, and clicking that uploads the file to the ADBASE server.Now, we see a preview of everything, and on the left is a preview of the text inputs, and two images below is the preview of the what the e-mail will look like. You can click the "View Full-Size" button to see the e-mail, as well as all the other text at the bottom that is compliance information with SPAM laws. If I had opted to have text areas, I would see that information in this preview as well. Below is a general preview of the e-mail.If you're not careful, you'll miss the "Linked to" option. It's important that when someone mouse-over and then click on the images, they they get taken to your website, so clicking the "Add Link", and then entering in the destination information there is important, as shown below.The next tab is the Tracked Links tab. These are the links that ADBASE will actually track for you to see if somone has clicked on the ad. This is especially valuable when you have multiple images, to see which images were the most popular in the e-mail you sent out.Next tab is the Delivery Options tab. Here you'll fill out where the e-mail came from, and which list you've chosen. ADBASE will tell you how many e-mail credits you have left, and how many you'll be using up based upon the size of your list.Down near the bottom is a "Preview Recipients List" link. Clicking that gives you a list of everyone that is on your list, and other details about them. (This is probably a screen grab you'll want to click to see larger, but all of them in this piece are click-to-see-larger enabled.)Clicking the "Save and Review" tab above, you come to see everything specific to this e-mail campaign. When you're ready, click the "Schedule This Email to be Sent".Here, you may choose to do it immediately, or at a specific date and time. I strongly encourage you to be thoughtful about this and do it at the right time, not just rightaway.Then, you'll see that your e-mail is set and pending, ready to go, as below.Once the campaign is underway, you can see it in progress. Below is the first one I did, in progress. You can see that almost 1,000 people viewed my e-mail with the image, (the number well exceeded 1,000 when the entire campaign was done). What you can also see is that I didn't get a great deal of clicks through to my website. Perhaps this was as a result of a bad image choice, or the shotgun approach to the mailing in terms of reaching the right audience.

When I asked ADBASE about my mistake, they responded:I noticed that the open rate of your campaign is currently 17%. This is obviously lower than our system average. After taking a quick look at the lists that you sent your campaign to, it is clear that you didn’t spend a lot of time targeting your list (e.g. you mailed all magazines instead of picking magazines with specific subjects). In our experience, the more targeted the distribution, the higher the open rate. For comparison, the average email campaign sent using Emailer has a distribution of just over 1,000 contacts.

I would also point out that the open rate you achieved with your Vertical Response campaign is much more in line with that one would get by mailing a personal client list which I believe is what you did. Ok, lesson learned, I won't do that again!Take special note of this - 84% done. ADBASE doesn't blast out every e-mail all at once. They do it over time. They do this so as to not otherwelm the recipient's servers.Here's an explanation of why they throttle:

I also asked about e-mails going to people outside of normal working hours, and what impact that had on view/open/click-through rates. Here's what they wrote, in response:We do acknowledge that sending promos outside of business hours does reduce their open rate. Our average open rate is currently 21% overall. This goes up to 22% between the hours of 8am-6pm and drops to 18% after-hours. So the effect is not huge but it is still significant in our opinion. As a result, we are currently testing some changes to our back-end system that will prevent our mail throttling system from sending email outside of normal work hours. This will lead to campaigns taking a bit longer to send, but should have a positive impact on the overall open rate.So what does using the service cost? ADBASE subscriptions range in price from $395 to $1,695, with pricing depending upon the desired functionality and coverage each client requires. Their most popular editions are the Editorial edition and the Standard North America edition. If you wanted to go whole-hog, the Premium North America edition has the same functionality as the Standard North America edition, but includes 1) Emailer, their custom-designed email tool that allows you to determine which individuals open their email and visit their websites, for ease of followup, and 2) Fine Art data which includes art galleries, museums, and corporate art curators.

Each Subscription Includes:

• One-year license to access the edition of your choice
• Unlimited usage and access during the subscription period
• Constant updating of the database
• ADBASE Accuracy Guarantee
• ADBASE Insight (educational resources for Creatives)-practical articles, webcasts, whitepapers and podcasts-all content created specifically for artists by the ADBASE team and industry experts
• Access to partners and their special offers for ADBASE clients including: sourcebooks, postcard printing and mailing services, and consultation services
• Choice of output including mailing labels, email lists, and telephone call sheets, ASCII output, mail fulfillment

The typical photographer/client chooses a North American subscription with Emailer, along with an annual capacity of 24,000 Emails. Overall, when this is sold as a bundle, the cost of each email works out to about 3.5 cents. Obviously this is more expensive than others, but they have built a system that is so specific to the needs of artists that they believe it still delivers a lot of value as evidenced by over 50% of our clients having added Emailer onto their subscriptions.

ADBASE is the only provider that offers an online email solution where you yourself create and send your promotions, freeform, or with the templates, as shown above. They also are able to pinpoint more than 25 specific regions, if you're taking a regional approach to your campaign. Lastly, ADBASE is the list provider used by ASMP, APA, Alt Pick, theispot, Serbin Communications and many others.

Clearly, ADBASE is well defined as substantially different from options like Vertical Response, eROI, Constant Contact, and other bare-bones solutions, and making an investment in ADBASE is worthwhile to consider at approximately $0.035 per e-mail, up from $0.01 with Vertical Response.


RELATED:
~ Marketing 101: Bare-Bones-ing It With Vertical Response, 11/4/08

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My good friend and colleague, David Burnett, who wrote this really great piece about his experience "in the buffer" covering election night in Chicago - History In The Buffer - and which is a remarkable diary of his election night experience, and well worth a read, has put together a really interesting piece about his experiences behind the scenes at the Olympics. Check it out!


The Olympics You Didn't See from David Burnett on Vimeo.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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