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
at
http://www.stockphotonews.com/08.htm
To
visit the latest earlier edition of the
Stock Photo News, go to
http://www.stockphotonews.com/07.htm
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
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send YOUR FRIENDS an email by a click on Recommend-It
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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.
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 whatever 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.
Soren
Breiting stock
photos at Alamy Wildlife, nature, travel pictures
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@TAKE-AWAYazfotos.com
You are welcome
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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
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