[Mananetwork]

Taken from the flickr group for all to read. Well said!

My advice to everyone is to think before agreeing to having your images sold by Getty. And this is someone who currently has some of his images sold by Getty. I regret ever doing so!!!

Do not be suckered into becoming part of the Wal-Martification of the photo industry. Your images are worth MUCH more than what Getty or any other microstock photography company will offer you. All this is is one big power grab; suck up as many available photographs on the Internet so they can control price and distribution. They make money by developing economies of scale and you get a pittance ($2 to $5) for your image in many cases in return.

What to do instead? Tag your photograph well. Design firms will find you. Make it easy for them to contact you. I made $20,000 last year negotiating directly with firms to buy my images, and that was only working 3 hours a week!!! If you have a good image (and many of you do) and a newspaper, magazine, design firm, ad agency, etc. wants it, they'll find you. Seriously, what do companies like Getty bring to the table? Another search engine, not nearly as robust at Flickr's? Salesmen? C'mon...and you get 20% for all of your creative energy. RESIST THE URGE!!!

I came across the following blog post, which was published just today. It comes from the blog "Thoughts of a Bohemian," which is written by Paul Melcher, a successful professional photographer and entrepreneur who was labeled one of the "50 most influential individuals in American photography" by American Photo magazine.

blog.melchersystem.com/2009/11/06/this-aint-wal-mart

Educate yourself and do your homework before you ink ANY agreement with ANY microstock photo agency!