Smaller and popular categories we need

Urban & rural scenes – suburbs, playing streetball, playing basketball, mowing lawns playing in the grass, rural scenes

Arts & entertainment – music, taking photos, painting a picture, playing in a rock band

Lifestyle & relationships – families, gatherings, parent/child shots

Arts & entertainment – dancing, out drinking, listening to music with headphones

Industry & work – factories, production facilties

People – mature adults, seniors

Health & beauty – people working out, at a spa, relaxing at the beach, skiing, putting on makeup

Education – any categories you can think of. we are weak in this and need it for upcoming season

Social issues – environment, marches, etc

People – especially of newborns, babies and kids under 5

Illustrations & vector graphics – we are getting ready to have this on the live site so get readddyyy to rummblleeeeee.

Business – any types. can be in office setting, at a business lunch, work at home, call center etc.

Celebrations – weddings, birthdays, Halloween, opening presents

Top 14 Selling Categories for last two months

I don't like top 10 lists. So I decided to put together a top 14 list. Just for fun and to help you. Here is some of the info that we learned over the last two months that can help you guys. I did my best to organize the numbers and then put them into categories for you. I hope this helps everyone.

Top 14 Categories with the Most Total Downloads in June

1. people- kids, young adults and babies
2. people- adults, mature adults, senior citizens
3. nature- flowers, plants and trees
4. business-business tools and concepts
5. objects on white background
6. nature- scenery and landscapes
7. signs & symbols
8. business people
9. emotions and moods- concept stuff
10. vector graphics and illustrations
11. objects- still life
12. travel- transportation
13. architecture & interiors-building exteriors
14. sports related

We have been asked for these type of images

Do you have these types of images?

1. youth culture, kids hanging out, kids playing sports or music together, kids at school,
2. families and kids (not too staged they said),
3. active seniors, riding bikes, going for walks, playing sports, enjoying life
4. business and technology and
5. still life

Please upload them or ask questions here if you have any for the buyer. I will make sure they respond with some guidance.

Fotolia Moves away from Micro-Stock, Incorporates Traditional Collections

Fotolia has debuted what it’s calling the “Infinite Collection.” This is a set of 15,000 agency-distributed photographs that would normally be found on expensive stock photography sites but are now being sold for as little as $20 on Fotolia. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Will this force higher end stock photography sites to lower their prices? Is this a form of price discrimination because Fotolia won't list the collections they are getting the photos from? Are the photographers whose photos are being sold aware that they are being sold this way by ?

I'll be watching this development closely to see how well they can incorporate this offering into their business model and client base.

Interview with Alamy CEO James West

When you get a moment this is an interesting interview with James West, the CEO of Alamy. He is one of the younger leaders in this space and he definitely is innovative and not a part of the core group of old school folks. Take a look when you get a chance.

About the Image reported that, "The UK-based image portal, Alamy, recently took the unprecedented step for a privately held company of releasing its revenue figures to the public. The figures show a company on an impressive trajectory having grown total sales from US$129K in 2001 to US$24.2MM in 2006. Founded by its CEO James West and his uncle, Mike Fischer, in 1999, Alamy also manages to dedicate significant sums to medical research and invests in technology to reduce the company’s carbon footprint."

The article is interesting for Photographers and anyone following the business trends. They go over the effects of microstock, the falling dollar, editorial vs commercial client base and Alamy's Novel pricing approach which was still hush hush.