

Ask HN: How to get the chickens without the eggs? - hellweaver666

This may be a stupid question, but I'm starting a startup in the stock photography sector, however the problem is I need photographers before I can start selling images (obviously). However, from my initial enquiries it seems photographers have no interest in joining new libraries and will only submit to established sites that already have lots of images for sale.<p>So my question is: how can I attract photographers to submit their work to a new site? I was thinking of contacting a few prospects and offering them 100% of the profit from sales for the first year, prizes for the first person to hit 100 sales, 1000 sales and things like that.<p>Does anyone else have any suggestions?<p>Thanks!
======
mansilla
Tap into the amateur photographer with cameras on their mobile phones.
Convince her that she can simply point her phone at things around the world,
snap a shot that's auto-uploaded to your service, and she can make cash.

You and your team handle the categorization and tagging. And/or, the
photographer can come back later on her PC and categorize/tag her photos
resulting in a higher profit share for anyone licensing that photo.

On most smartphones, sharing/uploading photos via e-mail and applications is
intrinsic to the mobile device. Handle uploads via your own mobile application
or simply e-mail uploads.

~~~
robinduckett
This. People will jump on anything with the promise of "free" cash.

~~~
stackthat
Except potentially all those photos will be crap and then you'll end up with a
really mediocre photo selling website and business will scarred for life.

~~~
mansilla
But you can validate and curate the uploads. In fact, that can be part of your
community/crowd-source model, too. If someone else within your community comes
along and rates/tags/categorizes the photograph, he can make a little slice of
the pie.

Hell, get everyone involved in the process.

Solve chicken and egg problem first. Then maybe you can start thinking about
cage-free organic eggs, second. ;)

