Dreamstime Introduces FREE Images

Posted on 1/5/2007 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

2

DREAMSTIME.COM INTRODUCES FREE IMAGES



January 5, 2006

The micro-payment site Dreamstime.com has announced that as of February 15, 2007 designers will be able to download high resolution royalty free (RF-LL) images at no cost, compliments of Dreamstime.com and its community of contributors. This FREE section of the site is designed to attract bargain hunters and is expected to ensure the company's continued growth as well as improve its imagery.

    (Images downloaded under the Royalty Free Limited License (RF-LL) enjoy the same benefits as the regular Royalty Free License with the exception that they are limited to 10,000 copies in print usage.)

Only images that have been online for one year, and have had no sales, will be considered for this free section of the site. Photographers may choose to use this section as a way of cleaning their portfolios and thus raising the overall quality of the offering. Each photographer can choose to offer images for free, or not. In some cases these images will be marked for deletion anyway because there is an over abundance of better images in the category already on the site.

According to Serban Enache, CEO and co-creator of Dreamstime.com, "A year with no sales in this market means the image is really having a problem: is too common and faces tough competition from other images, is simply weak or has keywording issues. Regardless of the reason, it is unlikely that such an image will generate a significant number of downloads in the future. One year with the kind of traffic we have is quite enough."


"Creating this sector has a three-fold purpose," Enache continued. "First and foremost, our small staff wishes to thank the entire Dreamstime community for making us big! Their contributions and participation are a reflection of our success. Second, this sector enables Dreamtime.com to be consistent in offering new and fresh images...and finally, the anticipated heavy traffic on this free page will also serve to enhance portfolio exposure for all contributors."

Dreamstime editors will make the final decision on whether an image should be added to the free section of the site. It is expected that this section will never exceed 1% of the total images on the site, but it is hoped that it will have a broad cross section of all the site's subject matter. From time to time images will be deleted to make room for new images.

One advantage for photographers giving away images is that it may encourage customers to look at the rest of the photographer's portfolio to find other similar images. For example suppose a photograph has a number of cloud images on the site and he puts one of them in the Free collection. A customer might see the free one and think, "Hey,
this is close to what I want, maybe this guy has more cloud images." Then he
goes to the photographer's portfolio to see what else he has. Currently, Dreamstime has over 39,000 images on the site keyworded with the word clouds. Anything a photographer can do to get customers to look at his images first may be worth giving up a few sales.

Once an image is donated to the free service, it is up to the algorithm if this image stays free, gets deleted (not enough interest) or is transferred back (proves as being very popular). In the case where an image is transferred back, it will probably enter a re-keywording stage.

Complimenting the Free Section, Dreamstime.com has also introduced a series of discounted subscription packages to make photography shopping even more enticing. Dreamstime packages now range from $89.99 to $929.99 with up to 3,600 downloads available for one year.

In addition to being "the place to shop" for topnotch stock photography, Dreamstime.com has balanced the scale to afford contributing photographers increased royalties for their submissions. Dreamstime.com has enhanced the compensation structure to render contributors more value for their photos while in turn ensuring higher quality photos for the designer.

With over 250,000 customers all over the globe, Dreamstime.com provides imagery to a wide variety of clients in the creative market from the private sector to Fortune 500 companies. Today, with nearly 850,000 photos available, Dreamstime.com has more than 10,000 current contributors from novice, amateur and semi-pro photographers.


Copyright © 2007 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

Comments

Be the first to comment below.

Post Comment

Please log in or create an account to post comments.

Stay Connected

Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.

Follow Us

Free Stuff

Stock Photo Pricing: The Future
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy ...
Read More
Future Of Stock Photography
If you’re a photographer that counts on the licensing of stock images to provide a portion of your annual income the following are a few stories you should read. In the past decade stock photography ...
Read More
Blockchain Stories
The opening session at this year’s CEPIC Congress in Berlin on May 30, 2018 is entitled “Can Blockchain be applied to the Photo Industry?” For those who would like to know more about the existing blo...
Read More
2017 Stories Worth Reviewing
The following are links to some 2017 and early 2018 stories that might be worth reviewing as we move into the new year.
Read More
Stories Related To Stock Photo Pricing
The following are links to stories that deal with stock photo pricing trends. Probably the biggest problem the industry has faced in recent years has been the steady decline in prices for the use of ...
Read More
Stock Photo Prices: The Future
This story is FREE. Feel free to pass it along to anyone interested in licensing their work as stock photography. On October 23rd at the DMLA 2017 Conference in New York there will be a panel discuss...
Read More
Important Stock Photo Industry Issues
Here are links to recent stories that deal with three major issues for the stock photo industry – Revenue Growth Potential, Setting Bottom Line On Pricing and Future Production Sources.
Read More
Recent Stories – Summer 2016
If you’ve been shooting all summer and haven’t had time to keep up with your reading here are links to a few stories you might want to check out as we move into the fall. To begin, be sure to complet...
Read More
Corbis Acquisition by VCG/Getty Images
This story provides links to several stories that relate to the Visual China Group (VCG) acquisition of Corbis and the role Getty Images has been assigned in the transfer of Corbis assets to the Gett...
Read More
Finding The Right Image
Many think search will be solved with better Metadata. While metadata is important, there are limits to how far it can take the customer toward finding the right piece of content. This story provides...
Read More

More from Free Stuff