Facebook question

eoren1eoren1 Registered Users Posts: 2,391 Major grins
edited March 30, 2011 in Mind Your Own Business
I have a photo blog where I post weekly landscapes around town. Have 70 likes at this point. Got a message from a guy that runs a local Facebook page with 4300 likes/members that he would like to use a recent image of mine without my watermark and with his info for the profile page. I pointed him to my site which has a fee of $50 for commercial use of a digital download and offered a 50% discount. He countered with regularly posting my links to his page in exchange for free use of 1-2 images every so often. The exposure sounds like it is worth it. Hoping to get your thoughts.
Eyal
My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos

Comments

  • Cygnus StudiosCygnus Studios Registered Users Posts: 2,294 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    eoren1 wrote: »
    He countered with regularly posting my links to his page in exchange for free use of 1-2 images every so often. The exposure sounds like it is worth it. Hoping to get your thoughts.

    What exactly do you believe this exposure will do you for? Do you know where these fans live? Do you know how many of these fans click on the links that this person provides? Getting exposure is nice, but if you aren't directing that exposure to an area that will help, it is not much different than randomly posting images on a forum.
    Steve

    Website
  • eoren1eoren1 Registered Users Posts: 2,391 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    Thanks Steve
    The vast majority live in our town (pop 20,000) which is my target audience. As an example, I usually will get 40-60 hits when I post a photo and 'advertise' it on my FB page. He put in a good word on this one and I hit 150 in a matter of hours. The more I think about it, the more I believe the exposure makes it worthwhile. After all, I will likely just give him a 200x600 pixel image to use and the $25-50 in missed sale on this one item is likely to be recouped with increased traffic to the site.
    Eyal
    My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
  • Cygnus StudiosCygnus Studios Registered Users Posts: 2,294 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    eoren1 wrote: »
    He put in a good word on this one and I hit 150 in a matter of hours.

    Web traffic is nice, but it doesn't pay the bills. I am not saying that you should or shouldn't do it, but think about why you are doing it and how you might be able to turn that free image into a sale.

    Maybe if you turn that link into a facebook sale for his viewers or some other incentive for these viewers to buy something, it could be worth it.
    Steve

    Website
  • FoquesFoques Registered Users Posts: 1,951 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    Eyal, a year ago I was in the same shoes as you are. I ended up going your route. Guess what the result was...

    I got one more fan, and a ton of spam on my page. The local guy who owns a page with 5000+ fans posted my link. Since I was shooting bands actively at the time, I ended up giving out my business cards out to people while shooting shows, and my fan based grew to 350.. It has gotten lower since I haven't worked with bands much lately.

    If I was presented with this offer today again, I wouldn't have accepted it.

    Users partial to your shooting are the ones who need to be exposed, not just everyone.

    just my 2c
    Arseny - the too honest guy.
    My Site
    My Facebook
  • eoren1eoren1 Registered Users Posts: 2,391 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    Thank you both for your comments/advice. The photo blog started as a way for me to get to know the town better. As I built up 'likes' on the FB page and comments on the blog, I found myself more motivated to shoot. It's not about the sales necessarily - though it's always nice to sell a print! I'll approach this as a mechanism to broaden my viewership and see what happens over the coming month or two. Seems like a stand-up guy so I'm not worried about getting hit with spam from him necessarily. We'll see what happens with that 200x600 photo as far as his use and acknowledgments.
    Thanks again
    Eyal
    My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
  • FoquesFoques Registered Users Posts: 1,951 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    i'm sorry if I was unclear, the spam was from other users, not the owner of the page.
    Arseny - the too honest guy.
    My Site
    My Facebook
  • Cygnus StudiosCygnus Studios Registered Users Posts: 2,294 Major grins
    edited March 23, 2011
    eoren1 wrote: »
    It's not about the sales necessarily - though it's always nice to sell a print! I'll approach this as a mechanism to broaden my viewership and see what happens over the coming month or two.

    I am a business guy, so my mind thinks of the bottom line first and everything else a distant second.

    There is nothing wrong with the approach itself. It could be a valuable tool if directed that way. Social media like Facebook is the big thing right now and the people who are taking advantage of it are succeeding in ways that were not possible just a few years ago.

    I suggest that you develop a plan. Start thinking of how to utilize this beyond simply getting people to your site.
    Steve

    Website
  • eoren1eoren1 Registered Users Posts: 2,391 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2011
    Wanted to post an update
    Today was the first post on my blog in the new era of partnership. He shared my post on his page with the following:

    Last week, Wednesdays in MHD showed you the moonrise... Today, he shares the moon setting... Beautiful shots, Eyal! All of the images are available for sale on his blog site...

    Within 2 hours, I had $650 worth of sales!!!
    Eyal
    My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
  • WachelWachel Registered Users Posts: 448 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2011
    eoren1 wrote: »
    Wanted to post an update
    Today was the first post on my blog in the new era of partnership. He shared my post on his page with the following:

    Last week, Wednesdays in MHD showed you the moonrise... Today, he shares the moon setting... Beautiful shots, Eyal! All of the images are available for sale on his blog site...

    Within 2 hours, I had $650 worth of sales!!!


    clap.gifclapclap.gifclapclap.gifclapclap.gifclapclap.gifclapclap.gifclap

    Glad to hear it is working. Keep us updated!
    Michael

    <Insert some profound quote here to try and seem like a deep thinker>

    Michael Wachel Photography

    Facebook
  • FoquesFoques Registered Users Posts: 1,951 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2011
    I am glad I was wrong!! :D
    Arseny - the too honest guy.
    My Site
    My Facebook
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