I love to read the blogs from people around the world, who share a common love for photography.
Photographers share their knowledge and their musings on just about everything.
One thing I have noticed however, is that there are very few blogs and articles from the buyers.
I wonder if they come to the blog section, or if they simply search for what they want and then log off until the next time they need an image.
A sale in its purest form is an interaction between client and seller. The buyer approaches the seller, with what they want, and the seller does their best to fulfill that need. The photo request section is a fantastic way for buyers and sellers to interact, though I don't think many buyers utilize it. Perhaps they don't know it is there, or don't feel as though it will serve their needs. Time is of the essence in designing, and perhaps buyers can find what they want quickly especially since there are literally millions of images available on this site.
I know that when I do a search for any idea that I have for a photo shoot, there are usually at least 1000 photos. I can then narrow my search somewhat, but still I come up with 500 or so images. Some which come close to what I have in mind, and some that have nothing to do with what I am looking for. I am sure that this is as frustrating to a buyer as it is to me.
I guess that my question is how do you get buyers to express their needs, so that we can better serve them? I know that the front line is in keywords, but there is surely more that can be done to help them better find what they need.
Perhaps Dreamstime could do a survey of buyers to find out what they are thinking. Perhaps offering incentives to get them to participate in the forums could help.
I know that Dreamstime has daily listings of the most common searches for the day but maybe a list of statistics for the lifetime commons searches could help to focus contributors.
In my business, communication is vital to success.
Dreamstime has by far the best stock site forum that I have seen. The level of communication here is fantastic, though I would love to see more interaction and participation from buyers.
Some of my questions to buyers are as follows.
How many pages do you browse through before you just pick something close to what you need?
If you could give your #1 suggestion to contributors, what would it be?
What do you most commonly search for?
I am writing through assumption, and am not sure if all of these things have or have not been addressed, but I just felt as though this topic might be helpful in getting some cross communication and feedback started.
