30^th January 2009 – Prague, Czech Republic, EU–  Pixmac is starting a unique promotion – offering all contributors an opportunity to get money for their pictures even before they’re sold.

Great Opportunity for photographers!

From 1st February 2009, all contributors who upload their pictures on Pixmac will get a $500 sales guarantee for 2 years for every 500 approved pictures. If you want to get the cash immediately, you can choose the option to get $100 for every 500 approved pictures – before having had any sales. Portfolios preferred include high quality pictures with people or isolated objects on a white background. This unique opportunity lasts until 28th  February 2009.

Detailed conditions

The contributor can choose from 2 options.

First

$500 sales guarantee for 2 years for every 500 pictures uploaded and approved on Pixmac. This means that in 2 years Pixmac will give you $500 even if your sales are 0.

Second

$100 for every 500 pictures uploaded and approved on Pixmac immediately after the 500th picture is approved. This will be an advance payment on the first $100 earned on those pictures.  Pixmac accepts the risk of selling these pictures and in the event that no sales are made, the contributor will retain the money.

One last thing. If you are uploading these days, the process will propably take longer time to publish your pictures on Pixmac. We are making our best, but the number of pictures uploaded is high.

There were some small agencies that already are not with us. Lucky Oliver is one of them. Is the field is actually getting crowded? Or those companies were not healthy? Lets dig deeper in it.

The first thing everybody should know is that the reader actually is a possible buyer. So the user interface and its feeling of speed is the crucial thing to have in mind. Then, the photographer.

The Photographer is in totally different position. He or she knows much more about the field, is curious about what’s happening inside the agency, because it’s his pictures what’s selling. And that is something what every agency should keep in mind. Pixmac, as a young alternative to big elephants, is making this true.

The other thing is the target groups. Most buyers, as we have been researching, are small companies or even individuals. Usually entrepreneurs or freelance designers who know a bit about on-line services. They know it’s easier way to get pictures than negotiate with some old-fashioned agencies. The other thing is, that these electronic pictures usually remain there between ones and zeros. Most users are putting this into website designs or as a desktop backgrounds. Some are using them for print or jut for a decoration of their home.

Pixmac tries harder

Because we already know that microstock field is getting a bit crowded we try harder. We’re paying people to do the keywording for free for our photographers. We are thinking about the user interface as a tool that should be fast and easy. No marketing “blah blah” around. And the last thing we do is listening. We reply to every email that falls into our mailboxes. And we actually do the change if there is something that is not working well for the users – usually within hours.

Pixmac is also friendly to buyers. As far as I know, we are first agency who acquires photographers and in the same time sells pictures from other agencies. That is why we already have more than a million of pictures for the buyers. For the short time we’re here its great news for the buyers.

The Microstock phenomenon

The difference between regular photo agency and a Microstock agency is price. Most of the traditional agencies depend on a small group of their photographers. Pixmac depends on a growing community of freelancers and photo enthusiasts. And the digital era brings better prices to everybody. That is why Pixmac can offer more for better price.

Hello there everybody! We recently launched new micro-stock website ‘Pixmac’ and would like to share our experience with all of you out there. First of all, let me introduce our targets and ideas. So we can share the spirit together.

The main idea of Pixmac from its beginning was to make website faster and easier to use. To bring the joy to photographers and to the buyers. That is why we are still improving the speed of loading and displaying. And that is why we have chosen to distribute the server data all over the world.

As for the usability, we try hard to make the tool easy to use, comprehensive and working without almost any help hanging around. We still look at the site from the users view, what he or she needs. This is something the competitors usually forget.

The last thing to mention is our picture database. We try and always will, to bring the best pictures in just few seconds. That is why we decided to make the keywording for those of you who are photographers. Also we have some hidden features under the hood to make the results even better and more accurate. And, we have a lot of ideas how to improve that even more.

Still, we know that Pixmac is not yet perfect. But that is our job to improve it every day as it grows. Thank you for all your feedback, we are listening!