IN A WORD: DO NOT SIGN UP WITH ANYONE THAT MAKES THE BULK OF THEIR MONEY FROM WHAT YOU PAY THEM. With that said, you can read on.
They called and left a message about two weeks ago. The message said that she was calling from a firm that hooked up artists with buyers; that they had reviewed my work and liked it very much and wanted to talk to me about promoting it.
I called back, but the person who answered the phone (AK accent) didn’t know who had called me, but then realized that they had just put on a night shift and then got me the extension number for her. I left a message.
She called a few days later and told me that the firm connected artists with buyers, and that they had 100,000 corporate customers, and that she would like me to submit a few photographs to them so that the jury could look at them. I didn’t ask if there was any cost to this, and she didn’t mention money. It was very convincing and I remember saying, well, I don’t see how there could be any harm to this.
I submitted ten photos to them online, and a few days later got a callback saying that the jury was very impressed with what I had submitted and that there were a whole bunch of different levels for displaying photos and that it would get me a wider audience. Eventually, I had to ask, since she still hadn’t mentioned anything about money: so what does this cost.
She was hesitant at first to talk money, but gave me the rates for the most inexpensive level of joining which was about $300. For the $300 I would gain exposure, and there would be a link back to my own site, and I could upload six (I think that’s what she said) images.
I said that I was hesitant to do this since in my experience you get lost on these big sites. How is someone going to find you. At that point I told her I would think about it, and went finally to check out their site.
Yes, there were hundreds of artists on it – mostly painters. From the very start there were a few things that I found disconcerting. I did a search for black and white photography, and saw some photos that I thought were sort of just so-so. Also, there were some bugs in the system, and not all the thumbnails showed up. I also found it difficult in terms of navigation. You had to click on the thumbnail, and there would be another button labeled zoom but it didn’t show a very large image at all. Maybe 450 or 500 pixels across. This was necessary because of the web design which had a bunch of info on the right hand side of the page.
I also wasn’t crazy about the fact that it was running ASP, but that’s just a personal peeve about what I consider an ancient programming language. But all in all, just not very impressed by the site, and thought that it was highly unlikely that anyone would find me in that maze of images.
I also noticed that prices for images were very high. Maybe three times what I was selling photos for. I didn’t get that at all.
It’s true, that they would take 10% for each sale, but I got the idea that the real money for them was in signing up artists. Prices started around $300 and went up to $1000 or more. A one time fee.
Well, next I went to Google and searched for reviews of the site.
This was an eye-opener. Every comment I could find from anyone who had tried using them went from bad to worse. No sales. No exposure. And one horror story after another. There were even several comments with stories (true or not I don’t know) about the president of the company having been in prison before starting the company for fraud.
For the most part, the consensus was – and I think this is a good guideline: don’t sign up for anything that wants money from you upfront. In other words, what you want is for them to have to make their money by selling your art.
I wrote an email back saying that I had decided not to participate. I got an email back suggesting that there was a special going on where I could get in for less money. I didn’t answer that e-mail. I put the firms phone number on my blackberry’s “black list” of phone numbers. And that was the end of that.
The reason that I don’t want to mention their name in this blog piece is that they troll the web for stuff about their site and will jump in wherever they can to explain their side of things. I mean, there are a bunch of people who’s only job is to find references to the site and answer them in blogs, chat rooms etc. So I’ll just leave their name out, but if you keep in mind the line about never paying up front to promote your art – you’ll be fine. If you want to know the name of the company – email me.
What is so annoying about these types of firms is that of all people to try to take advantage of, the artists are really at the bottom of the barrel. I mean they are preying on the dreams of artists who are eager to have their work put in front of the public. Rip off some other more worthy group.
A few years ago I sent $175 to a music promoter in England who promised to make an honest assessment of my music and promote the songs if he liked them. Two weeks later he sent my money back.
I’ve been contacted by a company like that too Dave, although they didn’t phone me, just sent an e-mail that looked alot like spam. I had a look at their website and was definitely underwhelmed by the look and feel of the site. Doesn’t sound like the same company though; obviously there’s a number of them out there.
Thanks for the advice, Dave.
What do you think about fees for entering photo contests?
I sometimes think it’s not justified, on the other hand it helps to protect the jury from being swamped with images from people who might not be really serious about it.