We've moved our blog to http://blog.cutcaster.com/

Please visit us at the new Cutcaster blog at http://blog.cutcaster.com/ and get the most recent updates.

The Cutcaster Team

Costa Rica Earthquake - Image Request

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook Costa Rica on Thursday and we have had some requests for images of the destruction. Does anyone have images of the Costa Rica earthquake that they can upload to Cutcaster? We have had two requests for images of the Costa Rica earthquake in the last two hours and would be great to upload some of these editorial images. There were no reports of injuries or deaths. Thanks again.

Getting more views for your Cutcaster images

Here is something very easy you can do to drive traffic to your studios and work. Some of you may not use these "share" buttons on your media details page or your studio pages but you should be.

They are a very important form of driving traffic to your studio as well as your images on Cutcaster or your own site and you should use this button to leverage getting more traffic and views/downloads of your content. And they are completely free.

On the media details page on the right side...



To promote your work or someone else's work (if you like their stuff) on Cutcaster you hover over the "share" button and click on the different networks you want to send the content to. The different sites will allow you to title it and put in a description and then feed it to their millions of users. It is very Easy. From our research and experience, this works in driving traffic and buyers to see your work and translates into sales.

Try it out for yourself and see how the views and traffic will pile up for you. Just click on the share button and send to the networks that you are a member at. My personal favorites are StumbleUpon, Digg, Myspace, technorati, facebook, reddit, twitter and delicious. But there are many places you can drive traffic from and I bet you will be happy that you tried it.

If you need some help understanding how to do this, just email us.

Cutcaster year end wrap up- An idea turns into a movement

Cutcaster began 2008 as an optimistic unknown; an innovative idea that was just taking shape and full of potential. Our aim was to develop a dynamic marketplace where buyers could easily find and license fresh and unique user-generated content while content creators worldwide could discover the true value of their work. No one had heard of Cutcaster outside of a handful of people. We had 800 accepted files, fewer than 300 members and I was still trading stocks on Wall Street. At the end of January, I left the stock market to work full time on Cutcaster. What started with a few hundred files blossomed into a community of over 3600 members and 107,393 accepted files on January 1st 2009. (Congrats to both Marburg and Beth Pulsipher for having the closest predictions to our year end total accepted files). What a difference a year makes.

What Happened in 2008 - A few highlights:
1. Buyers outreach program started in mid-September- Email, print and web advertising, Google Adwords campaign, press releases, direct sales calls and email blasts, SEO techniques, joined two affiliate programs, our internal referral program, handwritten introductory letters, onsite Cutcaster demos, participation in buyers’ conferences i.e. Picturehouse, and participating in different forums.
2. Contributor outreach program- Grew from 800 files to over 107,000 by years end. Pretty amazing growth, I’d say, and the quality has been excellent so keep up the great work.
3. Started the year with 300 members and now we are over 3600 members and 1700 members have uploaded a file or more.
4. Numerous site features and enhancements rolled out. We have always been fast to correct things and roll out features that the community needs and things will continue to be like that in 09.
5. New image and vector search algorithm
6. Best customer service in the industry- We roll out the red carpet for everyone.

What to expect in the New Year
1. I’m moving the Cutcaster headquarters to San Francisco at the end of January and you shouldn’t notice any changes except a new address. This is so I can efficiently run Cutcaster and be close to the talent and money that I need to take on our competitors. I’m sad to leave NYC but extremely excited to be on the West Coast.
2. A lot more attention and work on the buyer front i.e. roll out corporate accounts, introduce credit packages and extended licensing, enhanced clipfolders, search algorithm tweaking and re-weighting the results, more direct sales calls, attending more buyer conferences, Cutcaster API’s, promoting more exclusive content on Cutcaster, tiered pricing for different resolution sizes and much more advertising in both print and web.
3. More sales, more data to help you make better decisions, more tutorials to help you know what to shoot and how to shoot it, more image and illustration requests
4. A much faster site

Goals for 2009
1. More sales, more revenue lines for contributors, more ease of use on the site.
2. Surpass 1,000,000 images and vectors
3. Get over 400,000 new images in the marketplace from sources that weren’t in the shallow pool of stock we see today
4. Increase membership to 20,000
5. More fun

Obviously, Cutcaster is a tool to earn money from your content or find outstanding content for the projects you are working on. However, Cutcaster is a community in action and is only as good as our contributors, supporters and buyers. We know we have nothing if we don’t have a strong community and that is why we work tirelessly to best serve our members. A special thank you goes out to Ashley, My family, Justin, Michael B., Zac, Lope, Barbara, Tara, Charley, InSITE, Lita, Dennis, Janie M, Linda, Carolyn, Jeffbeck, Martin, Shaolan, Victoria, Moriya, Dan M, Vasiliy, Jason, the whole Blip.tv team, Gracie, Henrik, Jeff S. and Shawn to name just a few.

There have been more, and I can’t thank you all enough for providing your support and patience as we grow. We know that it is a community in action that accomplishes more than any individual does, no matter how strong they may be. Spread the word, keep up the enthusiasm, and continue to be a part of something from the ground floor.

Here is to a great 2009,

John and the Cutcaster team

New Image Ideas for your new year shoots

At Cutcaster, we have been speaking with more and more with the magazines out there and are hearing from quite a few that they are working on their spring issues. This is a great time to think about upcoming shoots. Here are some ideas we heard kicked around from our calls.

1. Spring Break travel spots/Concepts
2. Kids activities inside or outdoors
3. Fixing up the home/Home Renovation
4. Diet/dieting concepts
5. Upcoming fitness season
6. House/Spring cleaning
7. Home Gardening
8. Moving Season

Lets kick around some ideas here and see what new shots we can come up with. I will make sure it is seen.

New Cutcaster watermark. Better than the old one?

What do you guys think? Here is the old one.



Here is the new one.



Let me know your thoughts.

How to add your Cutcaster studio to Google?

Share your place on the net with Major search engines and get more views.
Adding your Cutcaster studio link to major search engines is really simple and really effective to get more exposure. Here is a link to my, John Griffin's Cutcaster studio page i.e. http://www.cutcaster.com/studio/pub/582007626.




See the last paragraph under the bottom of the "About me" section. That is where your public link can be found. To submit your Cutcaster studio to Google, you can follow this link. Or you can copy and paste this link into your browser as well, http://www.google.com/addurl/.

If you have problems, let me know.

Advanced Search at Cutcaster

Cutcaster is developing one of the most targeted image search engines on the Internet in order to save you time and return the most relevant, highest quality results from the start. Try it and never reach for the aspirin bottle again after every photo and vector search.

Four easy steps to find the perfect choice from the first keyword searched.

1. Start with basic keywords or a compound phrase, then Refine
2. Enter singular or plural terms. We recognize either.
3. Our system supports Boolean operators like AND and OR so you are free to use them within a search. We do not offer NOT at this time.
4. Click Advanced Search to see a more detailed set of search filters. Check any desired box and find what you are looking for.

You can use several modifiers to narrow down your searches.

Use AND between search terms to find images that contain ALL the words you type. Or just separate words with a space, which will be interpreted the same way. Note: Typing & or + between words also finds images containing all those words.

Use OR between words to find images that contain any of your search words. Note: typing a comma (,) or vertical bar (|) between words also finds images containing any of those words.

Use quotation marks around several terms to find a phrase.If your multi-term search already exists in the Controlled Vocabulary as a phrase, those search results will be returned, with the option available to see other results as well.

For advanced keyword searches, enter a specific keyword in the search area box. Then you can apply any of the search filters in the advanced search before you press Find (such as file types, Categories, Model or Property released or Exclusive to the site).

Search by Members- If you want to take a closer look at a Members portfolio, click off the Members check box and type in the person’s name.

Adult Content - you can set or unset the 'Adult Content Filter' by checking / unchecking the box.

Search by Categories - You can select up to 5 categories that you wish to search by.

And if you really can not find the perfect image or vector in our Library please contact us by emailing content AT cutcaster DOT com.

Top 10 best selling categories of the year

1. people- adults, mature adults, senior citizens

2. business-business tools and concepts

3. objects on white background

4. business people

5. vector graphics and illustrations

6. travel- transportation

7. signs & symbols

8. food

9. sports related

10. architecture & interiors-building exteriors

Thanks for you all your great images and keep up the good work in the new year. We have an exciting year ahead of us at Cutcaster.

Beware of the Doghouse, Cutcaster Men ;-)

Great video from JCPenny on "the Doghouse." We have all been there. I'll probably be sent back there again by the time the year is over ;-) Will bring a smile to your face. Have a great weekend and go get your holiday presents.

Full Credits
Client: JC Penney
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Gerry Graf
Executive Creative Director: Amie Valentine
CD/Copywriter: Josh Rubin
CD/Art Director: Jason Musante
Head of Digital Production: John Swartz
Integrated Producer: Kwame Taylor-Hayford
Senior Producer: John Doris
Director: Bryan Buckley
Production Company: Hungry Man
Executive Producer: Kevin Byrne
Producer: Mino Jarjoura
Post Production: Big Sky
Editor: Chris Franklin