If I had to start up a new microstock website

This was the title of a topic here on the MicroStockGroup, and there are many good points raised from the Photographers, but the general consensus is along the lines of a microstock boutique agency, with exclusive content both RF and RM, much along the lines of the Istock Vetta collection, invited contributors and selected content.

This is an option that many other microstock site might already be looking to follow, I thought hard about what would be my target market ,and I still really think that the largest most under serviced asset users, are still bloggers and content providers, and the small sizes are still the future of this industry, the niche collections are the cream and do have a place but are an already limited revenue stream.

Blogging and website content has fast become the domain of the industry, with many self-acclaimed analysts, commentators and critics just like me, from people that think they have a valid point to make and just want to share their perspective, to the many professional bloggers who will review that latest gadgets or bit of software in their given field, and report back in words, sounds movies and pictures their findings to the world wide web blogosphere.

As a blogger and content provider what do I want?

I want some easy tools that allow me to write a blog and post this to the internet, I use the program Windows Live Writer for my content,  I not only use this software for blogs but most of my other website content is updated using Windows Live Writer, with all content delivered direct from my desktop, if I have an image that I own on my hard drive, I can insert this into my post and Live Writer will send this to the website for me when I publish.

But I do not use images much simply because of the hassle in getting the right asset, I could stop what I am doing, go to Istock search for an appropriate image and download it, but that is all time consuming, and if my credits have run out I just pay for another ten credits, so often where an image would add value to my content I do not bother to use one.

I would like to be able to insert a licensed asset into my posts without advertising or having to leave the application I am using, I also do not want to pay for ten credits if I need just two to complete a post, I do not want to download a large size that is far to big for my content needs, and I only want to purchase a licence to use the asset once, as I am not likely to use it again.

As a Microstock artist what do I want?

I want as many license sales as I can get, I do not want any illegal use of my assets, I want my assets to reach and be seen by as many customers as they can, I want a fair commission payment based on usage, a monthly payout if I have transactions not when I reach a commission level.

If I had to start up a new microstock website

I would want a service that resolved the above issues and serviced the largest markets, the content when uploading should only be sized for the web, with the image pixels 240, 360, 480 longest side, an international controlled vocabulary maximum 10 keywords, an easy to use and intuitive interface, easy asset acceptance process and a fast search engine.

Once there were 300,000+ assets the customer website and plug-ins could be launched, the growth would be slow and organic 24 – 36 months, as the target customers are bloggers and content authors, the marketing tools will be these users and not marketing campaigns, blogger, tweeter, reviewers, social network websites.

If a customer was writing a blog on roses, it should just be a matter of menu > Plug-Ins > Images, then enter keywords > search > select > confirm > download or insert.

The confirm would pop up a dialog for the customers login details, if the customer is out of credits the plug-in would allow the customer to enter a value they want to add to their account, this could be $1 to pay for the image, or any other amount, based on the customers details the transaction would then be processed and the asset delivered, metadata within the image would have the embedded ‘transaction ID’ and date.

Contributors would upload their images and submit, if the asset is selected then their would be no further weighting in the search based on sales or views, each asset and artist would be a peer and of equal footing, the asset selection process would be simply to find all assets that match the keyword search and randomize them, so if there were 100 assets returned for a keyword search, each new search with the same keywords would show the 100 assets in a different order.

This process needs to be monetized, so the price structure is simple, artist 55% website 45%, there would be only licensed web use, three sizes and prices with no discounts, 240px=$1.00, 360px=$1.50 and 480px=$2.00, monthly payments any amount if revenue is greater than the payment transaction cost, any artist or customer closing an account would be charged a fixed fee of 5% with a maximum of $5.

Other licensed usage for an asset could be arranged directly with the artist.

But then this is only another “what if”