LIST YOUR "ACCESS" PHOTOS, TOO
by Rohn Engh

1.)What specialized subjects do you have ready access to? For example, if your neighbor is a bridge builder or a ballerina, or a relative is a sky diver, or a friend is an oil-rig worker, you can list these subject areas. With a digital camera, you can easily photograph these subjects and send photos in a lightbox to a photobuyer within a few hours. LESSON: in your PhotoSourceBANK keywords and keyphrases, list any and all scenes and situations that you have good access to.

2.) Also, don’t leave out your favorite armchair interests. For example, if one of your passionate interests is solar energy, or astronomy, railroads, or gardening, list descriptions in this area, too, since they’d be photos you can get easily. You’d be a valuable resource to photobuyers in such subject areas because if it’s one of your abiding interests, you’re very knowledgeable in the field, and understand the nuances of the subject matter. A photobuyer can't be familiar with all aspects of the subject matter they are gathering pictures for. That makes you top dog in this case. You’d make points because you can probably supply pictures that the photobuyer wouldn’t have thought of.

3.) What is your nearest city of more than 500,000? What are local geographical or historical landmarks? You may never have thought of yourself as an expert in your geographical locale, but a visit to the postcard rack at the shopping mall will give you ideas of what notable city locations or area points of interest to shoot. These kind of pictures always need updating, and it’s reasonable to think that a buyer will come along in the future and need the picture. Photobuyers often search the PhotoSourceBANK by zip code, needing photos in specific locations. They'll come back to your psBANK site again and again. Especially if you list a lot of landmarks in your geographic area -- ones that you can get to in a half day's drive. You can get the picture quickly, and you can deliver it quickly. The rest of us can't because we live too far away.

The PhotoSourceBANK is the perfect place to list your highly specific access areas. In cases where you don’t already have a particular photo requested by a buyer, the buyer usually will be grateful if you shoot the picture on speculation. Many times you can transmit the buyer a selection of low-resolution images, to give the buyer a preview of what you have available. You’ll not only have a chance for a $150 to $300 sale, but you will have established a new contact for future sales. Plus you can add the pictures to your stock file.

MULTIPLE KEYWORDS: Here's another tip. Give most of your photos multiple descriptive captions in the PhotoSourceBANK. For certain pictures don’t hesitate to list them several different ways. Remember that a photobuyer might search for a photo with one of several different words. Example: You might call it aviation, she might call it flying. You might call it a carpet, she might call it a rug. List the subject of a photo also by its synonyms.

SIMILARS: Use the thesaurus in your word processor or your favorite synonym dictionary (found on the Web). Include synonyms a photobuyer might use, in your descriptive keywords.

For more help, ask a friend or family member to help you think up captions for your photos. This way you can easily expand your photo descriptions from 200 words to 2,000 words or more. Only your imagination is your limitation. While you're at it, don't forget to misspell. Does anyone know how to spell Muhammed Ali? I can think of five ways. You can too. If you have a photo of Ali, put all five spellings down. The photobuyer will try only one of them.

For a look at a typical page that illustrates the correct directory page format: www.photosourcebook.com/. Click on #7.

The Comma Factor
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Computers are smart, but they are also dumb. For example, a comma will tell the computer software that another word or phrase is coming up. If a comma appears before the word “and" the computer thinks you have entered something called “and.” So, if you list “tiny yellow dogs, and fuzzy kittens,” the software for the Directory will list this selection of words under the categories of “tiny” and “and” (the first word after the comma). Instead, list these words this way: dog yellow tiny, kitten fuzzy. In addition, you can list them as: yellow tiny dogs, fuzzy kittens. In most cases leave out the word “and”. There will be some situations where you should want to include the word “and” such as “Johnson and Johnson bandaid.” Should you separate your categories or key phases by a comma? Google generally ignores commas. However, you might find it easier to read your listings if they include commas.
Some words to leave out: all, at, any, other, around, many. REMEMBER: if it's a preposition, leave it out.

The MAJOR RULE is this: whatever you think the photo editor will look for, put that word first, in your long tail phrase. Remember, you have 6,000 words that you can use, so use them all effectively to make it easy for the photobuyer and the search engine to find your specific photos, and you .