MYSPACE

[aubrey_haynes]

to ALL.... what is your opinion on MYSPACE (for professional photographers ).

[Former P.N Member]

If you want to present yourself as a rank amateur trying to get something for free then do it, if you want to appear to be a professional get a real web site.

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If you don't want to do your own web site there are better options available but most will require some degree of financial investment on your part.

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Do a google search on 'photo hosting' as a starting point.

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Those that I'm familiar with that appear to be of value are:

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<a href="http://www.flickr.com">www.flickr.com</a><p>

<a href="http://www.pbase.com">www.pbase.com</a><p>

<a href="http://www.smugmug.com">www.smugmug.com</a><p>

 

You'll have to dig a little to determine if a specific site provides the service you want.

[Matt Laur]

The only, Only, ONLY reason to have a presence on MySpace (which you would do only if you ALREADY had a separate web presence) would be if you are interested in attracting business from the sort of people that spend all day interacting with their social circles on MySpace. That tends to be a very young demographic, and it's usually people with more time to spend than money to spend. However: you might indeed snag the attention of someone who's looking for a hip, connected, young-mind-setted photographer who "gets" the generation that lives/breaths MySpace... but is the likely revenue from that sort of business lead equal to the time it would take to not only build up a tolerable-looking presence there, but to do the one thing that actually makes it in any way WORK? And that, of course, is uncountable hours schmoozing with other users trying to attract attention and "friend" links. It's sort of like networking among the teenagers at the mall, hoping to get those kids to recommend you, as a photographer, to their parents, who will be writing checks for their senior portraits. It might get some business, but if time is money, it's very expensive business to buy.

[Spearhead]

Having used myspace for the last couple years, I can say that for what I do, it's perfect. The above comments reflect inexperience and misinformation. Just as a starting point, take this:<p><i>That tends to be a very young demographic</i><p>and then go read the truth <a href="http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=49245">here.</a><p>

I use myspace because the bands, performance artists, professional fighters, and models that I photograph use it. Through the networking, I have been able to photograph far more than I could without it, and to find paying work. This also isn't true:<i>f time is money, it's very expensive business to buy.</i> I set up a myspace page in about thirty minutes, far less time than what my website took to build. <p>A number of photo.net wedding photographers have found myspace to be effective. There are good threads on photo.net <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JbVk">here</a> and <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00LX42">here.</a><p>

 

Photography is a hard enough way to make a living, it's worth trying every avenue.

[bobatkins]

I think myspace sucks and it makes you look like a loser (sorry Jeff, and of course there are a few exceptions!).

 

The sight of a link to a myspace account gives me a negative feeling about someone.

 

I know not everyone there is a loser, but I don't think it gives people a very positive impression. It certainly doesn't give me one!

 

I suppose if you have your own domain and website (the professional way to do things), it doesn't hurt to have a MySpace account just to stay in touch with things. If you shoot skateboarders or other youth orriented activities it might also be useful.

 

I do have MySPace page, but I don't generally admit to it in public...

[Spearhead]

I don't know any musicians who don't have a myspace page. Virtually all music labels have myspace pages. All the fighters and gyms I deal with have myspace pages. Some of these people don't do any email other than myspace. And for most of them, using myspace to broadcast announcements, like performances, is far more effective and less spam-like than regular email. If the world you are shooting in is there, you go there.

 

Oddly, I find flickr a lot less valuable. My flickr photos seem to gather interest only when they are photos of strippers, porn stars, and ring girls. The interesting and more commercial photographs get little or no activity, and I have never had anything remotely resembling a client come in through flickr. The people on myspace I deal with are far more interested in talking to me about photography.

[sknowles]

Interesting uses of MySpace. I have one, but not for photography, just personal observations

and thoughts on the news of the day. I got it to keep track friends because you can't post

comments or send e-mail to many there without being a member. As for itself, while it's

popular, I think it's over the top too much of the time, simply to access my account goes

through too much Web pages with too much junk, but sometimes you bite the mouse and

click on...

[phoneguy]

I have generated plenty of business from Myspace. Like Jeff said, Every band, DJ, and

comedian in the world has a profile. I don't think it makes anyone a loser to have one, but

one would expect the old school guys to bash it. Kinda like digital vs. film when digi hit

the market. Chances are the people who think having a myspace is for losers, won't be

there looking for you anyways. 190,000,000 members of myspace. They aren't all kids.

They were bought out by a major corporation that must have seen a way to market to all

of the members.

 

Go for it, the parents of many brides today are in their late 30's to 40's, have their own

myspace page, and are very familiar with it. Oh yeah, David LaChappell has one...what a

loser.

[fullmetalphotograper]

MySpace by itself, well you seen the general reaction. MySpace with a website and good

marketing could be very successful. It all depends on who you are trying to market to. It also

depends on the message you are trying to deliver. remember bad marketing is worst than no

marketing.

[thomas_sullivan]

I have a MySpace account that I barely use...but, I have looked around it extensively and based on what Jeff and Mike say above, and a few Philly and NYC based photographers I know....if you do music groups, MySpace is a very worthwhile endeavor.

[mtwhite]

<p><A href="http://www.linkedin.com/">Linkedin</a> seems to be the social network of choice for a few small business owners I know, though none of them are photographers and I don't have an account there myself. It might be worth looking into.

[the lone ranger]

I have an account. A friend of mine invited me to join so why not? We have graduate degrees so we're not quite idiots or losers in my opinion. I don't spend time much there, but many people do and if by having my link plastered all over my account gets some extra name recognition for me then I'm all for it. The kids that use MySpace now will be consumers soon so it would be foolish to ignore that in my opinion.

[sam_thompson2]

Younger people tend to buy photography services quite a bit.

 

Graduations, marriage, sport's pictures, senior pictures, baby pictures. Club owners and promoters tend to be of a younger group set as well. If these are the clients you wish to attract. Then it's not a bad place to have a site up.

 

If you wish to do commercial photography. Maybe Myspace is not a good way to go about it.

 

But then again Chase Jarvis a Hassleblad master has a Youtube page and on his blog he mentions he gotten jobs based on some of the videos he has posted.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/achaser123

 

Linked in is pretty good, but it costs money for people to contact you. Which in a way is good to prevent spam.

 

Also Myspace is also full of lamers that call themselves photographers that would message girls to ask them to model for free and photographers sometimes will get lumped into that group. So like with any tool it's what you make of it.

[blake_newman2]

Wait a second! Warner Brothers produced a movie that you may have heard of, it's called 300. They spent who knows how many millions of dollars producing this movie. They spent probably $50,000 creating an incredible Flash website. And, they have a MySpace site.

 

I've also seen other blockbuster movies and huge rock bands create MySpace accounts. Admittedly, MySpace allows amateurs to put up the most horrible sites you've even seen. But, if you know anything about CSS and design, you can actually make a MySpace site look pretty decent and professional.

 

I think the main question is who is your target audience? MySpace has a pretty wide range but I'm sure the bulk of the website visitors are in their late teens and early to mid twenties. If this is your target audience then you'd be foolish not to have a MySpace account.

 

Certainly, I would not rely very long on MySpace for your exclusive website. But, it could certainly get you started and is a great viral marketing tool. There are plenty of economical ways to get started, like a FREE WordPress website, which is completely customizable. There are some fantastic skins (themes) for WordPress on their own website as well as TemplateMonster. There are also photo gallery plugins for Word Press as well.

 

Hope that helps, Blake

[robert_wilde]

I have not yet a myspace page, as I was turned off by the mostly cheesy page designs

there.

 

But reading these comments I am definitely re-examining my opinion on this.

 

For me, as a headshot and portrait photographer, I see possibilities to get in contact with

(or to be contacted by) the most different kind of people.

 

Blake, you mentioned ways to get better design on a myspace page - if "you know about

CSS and design".

 

Well, I know about design, but not about web design, dreamweaver, etc. - do you see any

chances to still get a decent page. Like using templates you can get elsewhere on the web

and uploading it to myspace? (If this is at all possible).

[barefootphotos]

While I am just as frustrated as everyone else with MySpace's functionality and drawbacks, I'd be lying if I ever said it hasn't helped me. I shoot music and fashion and MySpace has connected me with numerous bands, models, makeup artists, designers, and hair stylists. It's been far more successful for me than my personal website, flickr, modelmayhem, OMP, etc., etc. combined.

 

It's not my favorite site by any means, but I'm not going to say no to something that works that well.

[blake_newman2]

<p>I googled MySpace layout and found these:</p>

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http://www.myspace.com/mikeindustries<br />

http://www.myspacelibrary.com<br />

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<p>From a search engine optimization and viral marketing perspective, you can't ignore the power of MySpace. Indeed, some of the ugliest sites I have ever seen are at the top of Google's page rank. Getting found is half the battle.</p>

Hope that helps