FAQ

(Frequently Asked Questions)

FRANÇAIS

How did you find me?

Do you provide FREE listing for Photographers and Models?

HOW DO I FIND?

- A Photographer?

- A Model?

- A Photo Buyer?

- A Non-Trading Member?

- A Stock Photo?

- A Breaking News Photo?

- The Top 20 Stock Photos List?

- The Top 20 Model Photos List?

- ALL the Public View Photos belonging to a Photographer?

- ALL the Public View Photos belonging to a Model?

What fields are SEARCHABLE?

Why are you more effective than I am in marketing my services and work?

What do you do to ensure a healthy traffic of photo buyers?

What do you offer that your competitors don’t?

Why are you more effective than your competitors in attracting Photo Buyers to do business with you?

Your site is too general. I specialize in a very narrow field—how can you help?

I only do assignments around my area of residence, so how can you be of any help to a local Photographer/Model?

Why should I join this marketplace?

How much does it cost for a Photographer membership?

How much does it cost for a Model membership?

When and how do I make my payments?

Can I cancel my membership anytime?

How do I get started?

What are the requirements for the image files that I can upload?

How do I publish my pictures on this site?

How many pictures can I publish?

What if I exceed my disk quota?

Can I change my pictures once they are published?

How do I update or delete my photos? (for Photographer members)

How do I update or delete my Model Photos?

How do I know if someone is interested in my services or photos?

Do you get involved in the deal?

Do I have to pay you if I sell my photos or get a contract through photo-direct.net?

How much does it cost for a Photo Buyer membership?

What is a Paying Photo Buyer membership?

How much does it cost for a Non-Trading membership?

What is a Paying Non-Trading membership?

SUPPORT ISSUES:

- I cannot see the menu or the drop-down menu options

How did you find me?

Our Marketing people spent a few man-months surfing the Net and reading trade magazines and journals to identify photographers or models that meet our criteria as the most likely candidates to be part of this marketplace.

Do you provide FREE listing for Photographers and Models?

Membership is currently FREE

If you are a Photographer or a Model and don't want to pay, but still want to be listed on our web site, you can subscribe as a Non-Trading Member. However, you cannot have any photos associated with your free Profile.

How do I find a Photographer?

Click on in the left-hand side column and enter your Selection Criteria.

Or go to SEARCH-->Photographers and enter your Selection Criteria.

When browsing the Photographer Results page, you can:

- Put any Photographer in your Photographer Folder by clicking on

- View the Profile page of a Photographer by clicking on the Photographer's name, and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find a Model?

Click on in the left-hand side column and enter your Selection Criteria.

Or go to SEARCH-->Models and enter your Selection Criteria.

When browsing the Model Results page, you can:

- Put any Model in your Model Folder by clicking on

- View the Profile page of a Model by clicking on the thumbnail photo. When viewing the Profile page of the Model, and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find a Photo Buyer?

Click on in the left-hand side column and enter your Selection Criteria.

Or go to SEARCH-->Photo Buyers and enter your Selection Criteria.

When browsing the Photo Buyer Results page, you can:

- Put any Photo Buyer in your Photo Buyer Folder by clicking on

- View the Profile page of a Photo Buyer by clicking on the Photo Buyer's Company Name, and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find a Non-Trading Member?

Click on in the left-hand side column and enter your Selection Criteria.

Or go to SEARCH-->Non-Trading Members and enter your Selection Criteria.

When browsing the Non-Trading member Results page, you can:

- Put any Non-Trading member in your Non-Trading member Folder by clicking on

- View the Profile page of a Non-Trading member by clicking on the Non-Trading member's Company Name, and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find a Stock Photo?

Click on in the left-hand side column and enter your Selection Criteria.

Or go to SEARCH-->Stock Photos-->Public View Photos and enter your Selection Criteria.

When browsing the Stock Photo Results page, you can:

- View a high resolution version of a photo by clicking on the thumbnail photo.

- Read comments posted by other members on any photo by clicking on

- Post your comments on any photo by clicking on

- Rate any photo by clicking on

- Put any photo in your Public View Photo Folder by clicking on

- View the Photographer Profile by clicking on , and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find a Breaking News Photo?

Go to SEARCH-->Stock Photos-->Breaking News Photos and enter your Selection Criteria.

When browsing the Breaking News Photo Results page, you can:

- View a high resolution version of a photo by clicking on the thumbnail photo.

- Read comments posted by other members on any photo by clicking on

- Post your comments on any photo by clicking on

- Rate any photo by clicking on

- Put any photo in your Breaking News Photo Folder by clicking on

- View the Photographer Profile by clicking on , and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find the Top 20 Stock Photos List?

Click on in the left-hand side column.

Or go to OPEN-->Top 20 Stock Photos

When browsing the Top 20 Stock Photos, you can:

- View a high resolution version of a photo by clicking on the thumbnail photo.

- Read comments posted by other members on any photo by clicking on

- Post your comments on any photo by clicking on

- Rate any photo by clicking on

- Put any photo in your Public View Photo Folder by clicking on

- View the Photographer Profile by clicking on , and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find the Top 20 Model Photos List?

Click on in the left-hand side column.

Or to OPEN-->Top 20 Model Photos

When browsing the Top 20 Model Photos, you can:

- View a high resolution version of a Model Photo by clicking on the thumbnail photo.

- Read comments posted by other members on any photo by clicking on

- Post your comments on any photo by clicking on

- Rate any photo by clicking on

- Put any photo in your Model Public View Photo Folder by clicking on

- View the Model Profile by clicking on , and contact her/him by e-mail by clicking on

How do I find ALL the Public View Photos belonging to a Photographer?

Do a search to view the Profile of the Photographer (or click on the Photographer Profile icon when viewing the results page of a Search Public View Photos), go to the bottom of the Profile page and click on Browse-->Public View Photos.

When browsing Public View Photos belonging to a Photographer, you can:

- View a high resolution version of a photo by clicking on the thumbnail photo.

- Read comments posted by other members on any photo by clicking on

- Post your comments on any photo by clicking on

- Rate any photo by clicking on

- Put any photo in your Public View Photo Folder by clicking on

How do I find ALL the Public View Photos belonging to a Model?

Do a search to view the Profile of the Model, go to the bottom of the Profile page and click on Browse-->Public View Photos.

When browsing Public View Photos of a Model, you can:

- View a high resolution version of a photo by clicking on the thumbnail photo.

- Read comments posted by other members on any photo by clicking on

- Post your comments on any photo by clicking on

- Rate any photo by clicking on

- Put any photo in your Model Public View Photo Folder by clicking on

What fields are SEARCHABLE?

They are too numerous to name each one of them here. In general, on a search page any input field that is not a Pick-List or a Check Box is a searchable field. We have 2 types of searchable fields: Regular and Keywords. The best way to find out is to try them in a search.

The Regular searchable fields have this textnext to them.

The Keywords searchable fields have this textnext to them.

Why are you more effective than I am in marketing my services and work?

By leveraging the large number of Photographers, stock photos and Models that we have, we have a much better chance than a loner photographer or model of convincing potential customers to visit our site and hence discover you.

How many hours per week do you spend marketing yourself? Probably too many in your eyes, but certainly not enough to be really effective. Also, how much enjoyment do you get from doing these 'necessary evil' activities? On the other hand, we can dedicate more time, energy and money to marketing the collective services of our community. Each action we take to promote our site will benefit all members, while your solo action probably does not even show up on the buyer's radar screen. The bottom line is that we have an economy of scale that an individual can never have. So why do you insist on doing it alone?

What do you do to ensure a healthy traffic of photo buyers?

- Direct marketing to thousands of publishers and photo buyers in the world (not just in North America) who are known to buy stock photos and/or hire photographers or models.

- Advertise through Overture (recently acquired by Yahoo!) so that when a person searches for certain words on Yahoo!, MSN, AlstaVista, Lycos or InfoSpace, our ad will be displayed in a prominent position.

- Update regularly our standing with major search engines.

- Banner ads in sites devoted to photography and modeling.

- Banner Ad exchange programs.

- We will seek every opportunity to get mentioned in trade publications.

- Strike deals with some publishers whereby they could place ads on our site, which no doubt means that their photo editor and other staff members will use our services on a regular basis.

Do you sincerely believe that you have the time, energy, money and know-how to do all of the above?

What do you offer that your competitors don’t?

We believe we offer the most comprehensive marketplace for photographers, models, photo buyers, and suppliers to the photography business. Here are some of the reasons we are firmly ahead of the pack: 

1) We have the industry's most sophisticated database structure, which allows endless possibilities to quickly change, adapt, and expand our system to better serve our members, no matter what direction we may take in the future.

2) The detail and amount of information, as well as the way it is organized to set up your Profile, is unmatched in this industry. This enables you to better communicate your credentials, skills, and value to potential customers. You therefore have a much better chance of being found in a search:

- Click HERE to see what you can enter in a Photographer Profile (mandatory fields are clearly indicated; the rest is optional).

- Click HERE to see what you can enter in a Model Profile (mandatory fields are clearly indicated; the rest is optional). Models can choose hide or divulge their Last Name, Phone Numbers, or Street Address.

- Click HERE to see what you can enter in a Photo Buyer Profile (mandatory fields are clearly indicated; the rest is optional).

- Click HERE to see what you can enter in a Non-Trading Member Profile (mandatory fields are clearly indicated; the rest is optional).

3) Photographers and Models can have multiple photo types:

- Public-View photos in their file (all of our competitors have this).

- Private-View photos (very few of our competitors offer this), which are password protected that you can set them aside for specific potential customers to peruse.

- Personal-View photos (none of our competitors have this feature) that are not yet ready to be released as Public or Private View, or photos that you want to keep on the server for your own use.

4) We also feature a special Breaking News photo category so that news and media companies can quickly find breaking news pictures for immediate publication before the news become stale.

5) Our parametric search engine has no equivalent in this industry. Its heat-seeking missile capabilities allow photo buyers or any other searchers to quickly and accurately find the right Photographer or Model profiles, or stock photos. This has a huge advantage over the basic general search engines featured by ALL of our competitors. Time is money, so photo buyers don't want to waste their time scrolling dozens of unfit pictures when looking for specific picture content. This marketplace is a business place where the ability to find what one searches for is paramount. As our member base grows, so does the probability of finding what one looks for.

    - Click HERE to see a Photographer Search page.

    - Click HERE to see a Stock Photo Search page.

    - Click HERE to see a Model Search page.

    - Click HERE to see a Photo Buyer Search page.

    - Click HERE to see a Non-Trading member Search page.

6) When viewing a Stock or Model Photo you can:

- Rate it between 1 and 5 (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- Post a comment (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- Read all comments posted on that Photo (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- Put it in your folders segregated by Public or Private-View types (none of our competitors offers this feature).

7) You can view vital statistics on your profile (OPEN-->My Personal Statistics) and on each one of your Public, Private, or Breaking News photos (UPDATE-->Photographer-->My Photos or UPDATE-->Model-->My Photos):

- Until today how many searches has my name been part of (selected) the results page (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- How many times has my Profile been viewed by people (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- How many times has my Name/Profile been put in people's folders (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- In how many searches had my photo been displayed (selected) in the results page (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- How many times has my photo been viewed it in its full size (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- How many times has my photo been put in people's Photo Folders (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

- What is the Rating Average for each one of my photos.

- How many times each one of my photos has been rated so far (most of our competitors don't have this feature).

8) We feature the Top 20 Hit Parade lists (Top 20 Stock Photos and Top 20 Model Photos), which should boost your exposure and chances of making sales (none of our competitors offers this).

Last but not least, in the next version of our software we will feature Classified Ads (Products, Services, and Events) as well as the ability to post Photo Wants, Photo Assignments, Modeling Assignments, and Photographer Upcoming Travel Itinerary ads. For sellers (Photographers, Models, and Non-Trading members) this should increase your visibility and the probability of making sales or getting assignment contracts. Photo Buyers, this should enable you to streamline your procurement process.

We invite you to read the relevant sections under the menu button.

Why are you more effective than your competitors in attracting Photo Buyers to do business with you?

We believe that offering a feature-rich system that presents a user-friendly, efficient, and effective way for Photo Buyers to do business with us will motivate them to come back often or even to use it on a daily basis as an integral part of their internal systems, tools, and processes for doing photo and photographer/model searches.

Moreover, as stated in our answer to the What do you do to ensure a healthy traffic of photo buyers? question, we have a comprehensive plan to market this site to your potential photo buyers around the world.

Your site is too general, I specialize in a very narrow field—how can you help?

The beauty of our site is its chameleon-like ability to serve photo buyers and photographers in the way they want. Whether you specialize in fine art, underwater, astronomy, cartography, or medical and microphotography, there is a way to precisely categorize your skill set so that people looking for these specialties can use our parametric search engine to quickly pinpoint you from the hundreds of our photographers with different expertise.

Please examine the Photographer Profile carefully and see how you can define your profile to accurately represent you, your specialties, preferences, experiences and credentials, no matter what your specialist area is. When doing a search, the photo buyer can also precisely define his requirements so that only the right type of pictures, Photographer Profile or Model Profile will show up in the search results page.

I only do assignments around my area of residence, so how can you be of any help to a local Photographer/Model?

Precisely because we are a Global Marketplace with international presence and membership, there is a good possibility that someone, local to your area, seeking the service of a local Photographer/Model, will find you when he does his searches. Our search engine is so flexible and comprehensive that a searcher can narrow his searches down to the ZIP Code (Postal Code) or Phone Area Code. In fact, we believe that our search engine is much more powerful, flexible, and useful than that of Yellow Pages (paper or online version) for finding photographers and models.

On top of that, if you have stock photos that you want to sell, this site will help you sell them to customers, not only in your area, but across the world. This not only increases your chances of making a sale, but also gives you the chance of being known and selling your work outside of your usual business geographic area.

Why should I join this marketplace?

You can read a comprehensive list of good reasons why you should join us at:

- Photographer

- Model

- Photo Buyer

- Non-Trading Member

How much does it cost for a Photographer membership?

Membership is currently FREE

It costs US$19.95 per month for a Photographer membership. This allows you to publish photos on our site, which total disk space should not exceed 2 MB.

How much does it cost for a Model membership?