After the lack of response from Flickr regarding the copyright infringement fiasco by Myxer (see prior post) and asking the opinions of some folks in whom I have a lot of confidence, I have decided to move my online portfolio to Photrade. Photrade is currently still in beta so getting in may take some time (due to having to get an invite either from someone in the beta or from the site itself), but it looks to be worth the wait. I first heard about Photrade on the This Week In Photography (TWIP) podcast (#33, “Mostly Lisa”, June 13, 2008).
In addition to having galleries (not very different from those at Flickr), Photrade is set up to allow their users to sell prints and other merchandise (Have you ever thought of having your photo immortalized in the form of a ceramic tile mural? Neither had I!), earn ad revenue from the site, and sell your work as stock. Not only that, Photrade has structured their site to help protect the copyrights of their users.
Sounds ambitious, doesn’t it? Well, I think so, too. However, because it’s still in the beta stage the developers are seriously looking at the feedback that users send in. This means that WE get to have some degree of influence (small, large, whatever) over how this site develops. I don’t know about you, but I like the idea of the decision-makers listening to what I have to say about the service they offer. Especially when the service offers the potential that Photrade aspires to attain. I plan to stick around to see if they succeed. If I manage to sell some of my work and make some money along the way…WOOHOO! The biggest selling point for me is that they are doing something to protect their user’s copyrights!
For those of you who have managed to make it this far into this post, here’s the potential reward: I have ONE Photrade invite left and will send it to the first person to comment here and email me at DBJohnsonPhotography (at) gmail (dot) com (make the appropriate changes so it looks like a real email address).
[UPDATE: Due to lack of response here, I have given the invite to an old friend of mine from college. Welcome aboard, Willie!]
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Thanks, Chris! As you can tell, I’m very new to blogging so the encouragement is very much appreciated.
Hi There
Thanks so much for writing about photrade! We really appreciate it. Without our photraders this would not be possible.
Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to improve your experience. We love getting feedback and it helps us identify what our users really want and what we should work on first.
- Krista
(VP Marketing)
Chris, Thanks for the great post about Photrade.com. I’m honored to hear that you’re so excited to try out our invite-only beta and I’m really excited to hear your thoughts and feedback about how to make the site better. -Andrew (CEO & Founder)
It’s a big Phoparty! Andrew, Krista
Share, Protect, Get Paid…that’s what I am talking about!
Oh and add learn to that, thanks to the Hyperphocal extension!