New forum suggestion?

Mongrel

Not sure where else to put this so here goes...

As I was thinking of a question I have regarding pricing of some of my pics it occurred to me that it may be useful to have a "Business" Forum dedicated to such questions.

Would that be helpful to the community?

Aaron Wilson

thats an idea.. to talk about as fare as pricing for photos and how to get traffic to your site and so on..

yvonne

Are there many pro's on here? I've just been following a thread on dpreview that got all bitter and twisted because a number of the pro's deeply resent sharing information with other pro's and worse still, those newbie upstarts who undercut them on pricing, because it's not their main trade.

I can understand why they're upset, but the tread got pretty agressive... doesn't look like a whole lot of "sharing" of information will be going on.

Nikolai

Well, for what it's worth...

yvonne wrote:

Are there many pro's on here? I've just been following a thread on dpreview that got all bitter and twisted because a number of the pro's deeply resent sharing information with other pro's and worse still, those newbie upstarts who undercut them on pricing, because it's not their main trade.

I can understand why they're upset, but the tread got pretty agressive... doesn't look like a whole lot of "sharing" of information will be going on.

I like the idea of "Business" forum

And I don't think we all pose a fierce competion to each other here. The only dgrin/smugmug person I know of from my viscinity is DavidTO. And Conejo valley holds (I think) about 5 cities and around 200-300, 000 ppl. The next dgrinner lives at least 50 miles away. I cannot see how we can undermine each other's business even if we all go photo pro (which I doubt we will).

However, that would be a sweet place to exchange the good business practices, which we all should do regardless of our involvement level. And Andy or Shay, being from East Coast, can share thier priceless info and still sleep well, knowing that West Coast is trying to learn from them:-)

Just my $.02..

Cheers!

yvonne

Don't get me wrong. I think it's a good idea. I'm just recounting an experienced I just witnessed. Forewarned is forearmed.

Mongrel

ahhh...

yvonne wrote:

Are there many pro's on here? I've just been following a thread on dpreview that got all bitter and twisted because a number of the pro's deeply resent sharing information with other pro's and worse still, those newbie upstarts who undercut them on pricing, because it's not their main trade.

I can understand why they're upset, but the tread got pretty agressive... doesn't look like a whole lot of "sharing" of information will be going on.

I appreciate where you are coming from Yvonne. I really didn't think of it from that angle.

My thoughts were that since these questions do come up here it may be helpful to have a place for seperate business related discussion. It would keep these type of questions from taking up space on the other forums and make them easier to locate for those that are interested.

I know exactly what you are talking about as far as dpreview goes, and even to some extent Fred Mirandas forums as well. However, in the short time I've been here I've never gotten the feeling that dgrin was even close to those other forums and seems much more friendly .

Also, I think when amateurs ask for help with pricing or how to establish a business, one of the main reasons they ask is so they DON'T UNDERCUT the market. I could very easily come up with a pricing structure that I *felt* was reasonable. I'd rather come up with a pricing structure that was based on what my efforts are really worth (assuming I can deliver a quality photograph) .

As far as "sharing" goes, it's up to the members whether they feel like sharing or not. As Nikolai pointed out, we do have pros here that can offer help and suggestions on getting started-most of them ALREADY help out in that way all the time. And every pro had to start somewhere.

It won't hurt anyone if we don't have a separate forum I'm sure the questions will continue to asked anyway-I know I'll keep asking them

Aaron Wilson

I feel as a pro member on here that we are all like family. Besides no 1 picture is the same... my sf pics compared to other in my area are diffrent and so on.. I love feed back.. to be able to learn from others about what they think helps us all. Besides I think if people on here are upset about it then that would be a great place to talk about it.. also We all could agree on the same prices so we are all equal in prices for examples of the san fransico golden gate. So price would not be selling it but the photo it's self would be.

I have personally have never been able to find my own pictures by doing a search.. with the photos and the galleries with key words attached to them.

fish

Interesting idea. I've added a poll to this thread so the great unwashed masses can vote on it. The admin/moderator team will take the vote results into consideration when making the final decision.

Please register your vote.