Stock Photo News from A-Z
FOTOS
The
first Modern eZine combining Stock Photography and Marketing
August
2001
CONTENT
*
From the Editor
*
Tips for using conceptual pictures # 3
*
Guest article: Immunisation For 'What-Am-I-Supposed-To-Do-Itis'
- by Michel Fortin
*
Take better Travel Pictures, Go close. Tip # 3
*
Sharing travel photos
*
Where to find pictures from around the world?
*
Searchking develops a kill for the Ezula Top Text virus
*
Learn from free marketing courses
*
Press release about alamy.com, the image brokers
This
edition was send to 985 intelligent readers.
You
find the web-based edition of this issue here at
To
visit the latest earlier edition of the
Stock Photo News, go here
FROM
THE EDITOR
Welcome
back from your summer break. I hope you have had a
great
and refreshing time. I am back after intensive travel
in
central Asia combining my photography for stock photo agencies
with
vacation time. - Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang (China) and Pakistan
are
all great countries with fabulous nature and a diversity
of
very kind and proud people with a long history.
What
ever the currency or economy in your country is going up
or
down pictures will have their role to play to tell the story
of
the world, of people's moods, indicating concepts and symbols,
and
function as eye-openers or attractive decoration in all
parts
of daily life.
Picture
professionals will have their hands full as long as you
are
able to see the opportunities and adapt your competence and
activities
to the changing reality.
I
hope Stock Photo News can play a role for your future
competitiveness
by bringing you important information and
refreshing
ideas from the mixed field of illustration, publishing,
marketing
and online challenges. - Without taking too much of
your
busy time.
The
guest article this month by Michel Fortin is such a quick
overview
and injection which we all will be able to benefit from
by
using it for a "sevice check" of our web sites´ functionality.
-
And
!!!
You HAVE TO READ ABOUT THE EZULA VIRUS, below !!!!
Enjoy
your reading! - And keep fit for a changing World!
Soren
Breiting
A-Z
FOTOS
"Find
Stock Photos from most of the World"
www.azfotos.com
Comments,
tips and relevant articles are appreciated,
please
email me at sb@azfotos.com
PLEASE
send YOUR FRIENDS an email by a click on Recommend-It
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can win 10.000 dollars)
***
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-
we respect your privacy.
This
ezine uses opt in addresses, only. ***
TIPS
FOR CONCEPTUAL PICTURES # 3
This
new list can hopefully further your own ideas.
Conceptual
pictures function as symbols, icons or
analogies
in advertisements, for book covers,
illustrating
articles and features etc.
Supportive
...
Arch
...
Pillar
...
Weight-lifter
Love
...
Red roses
...
Red hart
...
Kissing girl and boy
...
Two animals snout to snout
...
Flowers of Corydalis spectabilis
Maternal
concern
...
Duck with small ducklings
Cute
...
Animal pubs/kittens/youngs, like
...
Koala
...
Nanny
...
Kitten
...
Puppy
Spread
your "seeds"
...
Seeds from Dandelion (Taraxacum) beeing blown away
...
Old-fashioned way of sowing a field by hand.
Send
me additional ideas for these concepts,
and
I will publish them with your name/website
in
the next issues mailto:sb@azfotos.com .
New
concepts will also be listed in the next issue.
Immunisation
For 'What-Am-I-Supposed-To-Do-Itis'
By
Michel Fortin
"What
am I supposed to do?"
That's
a question your visitors may be asking, and one you
need
to avoid at all costs. It's like a disease that will do
nothing
more than cost you sales and traffic. The solution
is
to "take them by the hand." Tell or show them, literally,
what
you want them to do -- even if it's simple or obvious.
Adding
"hand-holding" components to your website is not just
about
Web usability, it's about directional marketing. In
order
to encourage longer stays, repeat visits and, of course,
online
sales, you need to direct your audience to take action.
And
you need to make it easy for them to do so, whether you're
directing
them to click, join, enter, type, download or buy.
If
you don't, with today's leery and click-happy audience your site
will
be no more than a passive, electronic billboard -- a mere
blur.
Your website may be a beautiful work of art, and it may
also
drive traffic because of its educational or entertainment
value.
But if they ask, "what am I supposed to do," you may in
turn
be left asking, "why is my site not making any sales?"
Rick
Olson (see http://www.ibizcenter.com/), in his Internet
Business
Informer ezine, said it best: "While there is debate
on
whether the Web is all about direct marketing or branding,
the
fact remains that you probably want to elicit some kind of
response
from your visitor." I concur. In fact, even big-brand
sites
like Coke.com and Nike.com, whose purpose is to increase
brand
awareness and build brand equity, use direct marketing.
On
the other hand, while the Internet offers us the ability to
gain
the attention, consent and response of such a discerning
audience,
I also admit that succeeding in doing so is a whole
different
issue. I'm far from being a Web usability guru, like
Dr.
Jakob Neilsen (see http://www.useit.com/jakob/). But what
I
do know, from experience and research, is that much of the
Web
still lacks a certain friendliness. It lacks *direction*.
Specifically,
when I conduct critique consultations I notice
that
about 85% of the sites I analyse fail to adequately lead
visitors
to take some kind of action, be it through the copy,
design
or navigation. When I visit some of these sites for the
first
time, I ask: "What am I supposed to do?" Obviously, if I
feel
that way, most visitors probably feel the same way, too.
Studies
show that a large majority of sites are confusing to,
or
misunderstood by, their target audiences. According to Joe
Gregory
(see http://www.joegregory.com/), 97.7% of the sites
that
his company evaluated failed or are poorly marketed, and
82.2%
of them lacked a clear objective. For example, he
found
that it was difficult to find the phone number on sites
that
encouraged people to call, and that it was a challenge, if
not
impossible, to order online on sites that sell products.
(Joe
Gregory found that some sites even omitted prices. In
my
experience, websites also frequently "hide" their order
forms,
making them inconspicuous at best.)
During
the early days of the Web, when it was mostly populated
by
programmers, the Internet was filled with technical jargon.
The
need to design websites and have them communicate in a way
that
most people can understand was non-existent. The pioneers
and
the first "colonisers" of the Web understood the dynamics
of
the Internet. They easily recognised links, mark-up, files,
tags,
network protocols, and so on. This is no longer the case.
Few
people will buy from a website that confuses them in the
slightest.
In fact, according to Gregory's research mentioned
earlier,
46.6% of the sites his company evaluated targeted a
general
audience or used a language that only experts would
understand.
As
more people enter the Web for the first time, the online
population
of "newbies" continues to grow. Of course, people
don't
remain newbies forever. But even users who are a little
more
technologically savvy can get easily confused by a poorly
thought-out
website. When visiting a site for the first time,
they
become newbies all over again as every site has its own
style,
focus, copy and message.
Therefore,
it's extremely important to use words, layouts
and
navigational structures that help the visitor to navigate
your
site and find what they want while strategically directing
their
actions. By doing so, you will immunise your website against
this
lack of direction. Now, there are many ways to accomplish
it.
And to list the steps within the confines of this article
is
impossible -- our resident site reviewer, Ralph Hilliard at
http://WordNetUniversity.com/,
has a site completely dedicated
to
the subject. But here are some of the most obvious ones:
1)
Above all, start a heading with a verb, which tells people
exactly
what to do or what they will be doing. For example, if
a
link leads to your guest book, use the words "sign (or view)
our
guest book," rather than just "guest book." If the link
leads
to a product description page, include the words
(benefits,
too), "Discover how life-altering widgets will give
you
up to 179.3% more of [whatever the benefit is]."
2)
Without overdoing it, include the words "click here" (or
something
to that effect) within text links. If your site
offers
thumb nailed images for example, include "click to
enlarge"
somewhere near the image. In short, show visitors not
only
what they must do, but also what they *can* do. You would be
amazed
to know how many of your visitors fail to do something
just
because they don't know it is possible.
3)
More importantly, keep your links underlined. Web designers
often
opt to remove them for aesthetic reasons, such as with
the
use of style sheets or javascript. But underlined links
are
important visual guides; without them, the majority of
people
will not know the link exists and will inadvertently
ignore
it. Take a look at http://www.engage.com/. The links
contain
either underlines (even within graphical texts) or
the
words "click here."
4)
Include navigation bars with links on the top, side(s) and
bottom.
In other words, make it easy for your visitors to know
exactly
where they are at any time, as they read or scroll
down
your webpage, and where they can go next. Of course, if
your
page is small and fits within a window at the smallest
resolution,
offer only one -- and use common sense. But if a
visitor
needs to scroll, in any way, make it easy for them to
know
at the very least how to return (such as with "back to
top"
links, evenly distributed throughout).
5)
The reverse is also true. If you want your visitors to do
one
thing and one thing only, then don't distract them with
too
many links, particularly external ones that can easily
take
them away from your site. (This is particularly true with
long
copy or direct response websites.) For example, if you
offer
too many choices, users will find it hard to make a
decision.
Instead, offer more choices further in the site
based
on the specific path(s) a user follows.
Essentially,
realise that directional marketing is important
and
will be more important as time goes on. If your site does
not
direct its visitors to take some kind of action, or fails
to
lead them to some sort of outcome, then you will need to
seriously
rethink your site's purpose and strategy.
The
more qualified your visitors are and the more compelling
your
message is, the higher will be the percentage of visitors
that
will buy. Or that will refer others. Or that will return
to
the site. Or that will join your mailing list. Or ...
-------------------
About the Editor -------------------------
Michel
Fortin is a speaker, author and consultant dedicated to
turning
businesses into powerful magnets -- get a free copy of
his
book at http://SuccessDoctor.com. He is also the editor of
the
Internet Marketing Chronicles delivered weekly to 100,000+
subscribers.
Subscribe free at http://SuccessDoctor.com/IMC/.
Find
Michels ´highly acclaimed "Power Positioning Dot Com"
at:
http://www.roibot.com/pp.cgi?IM9009_campaign
Take
better travel pictures. Tip 3
GO
CLOSE
Don't
be afraid of going close on what ever you want to
take
pictures of. With permission you can go more close to people
than
you immediately intended. Go closer to buildings, artefacts,
monuments,
plants, animals and symbols, too.
When
you go closer you concentrate your picture taking - what is
the
most important you want to capture? The involved cropping of
the
immediate framing of the picture can also be achieved with a
zoom
lens, and that is fine. But in general the mantra of "going
close"
is worthwhile pursuing for some time. When you shoot
landscapes
and the like, go close to one object which can function
as
an interesting or decorative foreground of the final picture.
Your
main object in your picture doesn't need to be in the centre.
Often
the final result will be much better if you have this to one
of
the sides. To have it to the left is regarded as most "natural"
by
many people. Just be careful with the focusing and measuring of
the
proper light for this close part of your picture. The closer,
the
more delicate is a precise focusing.
In
general people will regard a photo with one clear main object as
the
most successful.
Have
continued good luck with your travel photography.
Soren
Breiting
SHARING
TRAVEL PHOTOS
Do
you want to share your personal photos with others?
Yahoo
has a great service with free sign up and good
space
for storage at
http://photos.yahoo.com/
WHERE
TO FIND PICTURES FROM AROUND THE WORLD?
World
Photos is a general portal for news pictures and press
photos
from around the world. You will also be directed to more
specific
portals, e.g. about environment or photos of war
and
to press sites.
http://www.worldphotos.com/
Extra
Important
SEARCHKING
DEVELOPS A KILL FOR THE EZULA TOP TEXT VIRUS
SearchKing,
Inc. published a webpage on August 4th, 2001 that
offers
a free script to disable the effects of the Ezula Top
Text
Virus. This script is a simple line of code that can
quickly
and easily be installed on any or every page of a
site,
effectively killing the Ezula virus and ensuring that
it
no longer displays links to other websites.
SearchKing
believes that any script or program that changes or
alters
the code, text, or content of a third party's
website,
without express permission of that third party, is
WRONG.
It is not professional, honest, ethical, or even legal.
SearchKing
also believes that this kind of activity must be
fought
and stopped in way possible for the good of the
Internet
as a whole.
Therefore,
SearchKing Inc. has devoted its own time and
resources
to developing a way for webmasters to defend their
sites
and protect themselves from this attack. They're
offering
their script free of charge to anyone who agrees with
our
philosophy and who wants to be sure that their content is
not
altered without their permission.
The
website at http://www.searchking.com/ezulakiller has the
script
available, along with instructions and other information
including
links to other sites who are joining us in this fight.
It
also offers a forum where we will make the source code of this
program
available and encourage discussion among other
programmers
and developers. We need to continue working to
provide
protection from updates to the Ezula software --
as
well as from any other software like it that may be developed
in
the future by those whose purpose is to violate the rights of
webmasters
around the world.
Please
feel free to distribute this message to anyone who you
feel
may need protection from this type of page theft or who may
be
able to do anything to help get the message out that
there
are people willing to fight.
Thank
you for your support.
-----------------
About Bob Massa -----------------
Bob
Massa is one of the Internet's most recognised, leading
experts
on top search engine placement. For a personal search
engine
placement consultation, or to have Bob and his team
place
your site, visit http://www.magic-city.net/ today.
LEARN
FROM FREE MARKETING COURSES
You
are offered a number of useful courses in marketing and
other
relevant aspects of having a successful website.
Just
go to
www.ALLeMarketingTips.com
PRESS
RELEASE
21
August 2001:
alamy.com,
the image brokers, continues to innovate and
honour
its commitment of becoming the worlds first image marketplace by
releasing
a revolutionary new feature for picture agencies, Agent 1.0.
Quickly
responding to requests, alamy.com is now offering agencies their
very
own website address where customers can search, purchase and
download
images. The agency can also handle negotiations directly with
their
customers - all library contact details are displayed on their
home
page. Agencies can also use this tool to create collections of
images,
much like a catalogue, to represent their best images for a
particular
topic.
"This
is a major breakthrough for the industry. For the first time,
agencies
can offer their customers full e-commerce capability. Agent 1.0
is
an effective and secure way for agencies to take their first step
into
the digital future. By having no upfront costs, libraries can also
invest
more in marketing and focus on delivering value to their
customers"
said James West, alamy.com CEO.
Some
of the libraries using the new service include:
Arcaid
(http://www.alamy.com/arcaid) - Architecture
Garden
Picture Library (http://www.alamy.com/gardenpicture) - Gardens
and
Plants
Steve
Bloom Images (http://www.alamy.com/stevebloom) - Breathtaking
wildlife
imagery
Image
Source (http://www.alamy.com/imagesource) - Contemporary business
and
lifestyle
Image
Farm (http://www.alamy.com/imagefarm) - Objects and backgrounds
Pictor
(http://www.alamy.com/pictor) - Contemporary business, objects
and
lifestyle
BBCWild
(http://www.alamy.com/BBC) - images from the BBC's Natural
History
Unit
Features:
No
set-up costs or rental fees
Unique
web address
Collections
tools
Add
and remove images
Amend
keywords and license restrictions online
Inclusion
on alamy.com
About
alamy.com
alamy.com
are the Image Brokers, founders of the exchange for trading
images.
They run exchanges for branded stock agencies, photographers,
illustrators
and a collections tool for art directors and picture
researchers.
The exchange is open to anyone involved in stock photography.
Please
remember !
If
you have any idea of friends or colleagues you think
would find this newsletter useful, PLEASE send them a
personal email or send an email by a click on Recommend-It.
<http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=848535>
(You can win 10.000 dollars)
THANK
YOU for reading and recommending Stock Photo News.
See
you in the next Stock Photo Newsletter!
Soren
Breiting
Copyright
2001 by Soren Breiting, A-Z FOTOS.
http://www.azfotos.com/
"Find Stock Photos from most of the World"
Email me at: sb@TAKEAWAYazfotos.com
You
are welcome to forward this newsletter to a friend or
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including the copyright notion and contact information,
intact and keep all links.
Stock
Photo News is a monthly newsletter edited by Soren Breiting.
Due to many travels abroad it is impossible for me to keep
the schedule of the issues strictly fitting to each month.
My intention is to bring quality information which is not
outdated a month or two later.
To
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Photo News from A-Z FOTOS Home of A-Z
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