Portfolios.com

[Don Pye]

Hi Everyone;
In the last six months or so I've had at least three calls from Portfolios.com telling me how great my work looks and that they wish to feature it on the front page of the site for a number of weeks. Sort of like Artist of the month kind of thing. So I'm seen by the millions of visitors to their site. Of course you are expected to sign up for a year.
Any of you been approached in the same manner as this? It's seems more like a sales approach by trying to caress our egos for cash.
http://www.canphoto.net/iB312_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Don Pye

[Jodi]

Hi Don,

I too had a few of those same phone calls (and emails)! It started out sounding like a real bit of praise, and an excellent opportunity... but I realised before long that it was just a sales pitch. When I didn't bite, they kept lowering the price to try to make it more attractive.

Perhaps you could use their phone calls as an opportunity of negotiating a cheaper price on their subscription, if it interests you at all. (turn the tables a bit, you know?)

Love to hear if others have had similar experiences. Who knows, maybe there's even a portfolios.com employee out there with some input.

Cheers!

Jodi
jodipudge@hotmail.com
www.portfolios.com/JodiPudge

[silverwindstudio]

I could only look at it this way:

Since I am in the business of selling images I would be happy to give them a quote for non-exclusive web usage licence to one or more of my images. http://www.canphoto.net/iB312_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

I am not and never would be interested in paying someone else to host any of my images.

[Alastair]

I've been a member of Portfolios.com for at least two or three years now and I have had a bit of traffic from it, but not really that much. *I think that if you can get featured on the front page it's great, but I wouldn't expect much in the way of spinoff... Don't expect the phone will ring off the wall or anything. *
I'm curious, though, do you guys have the 'leather' portfolio and they're trying to get you to sign up with the 'titanium' one, or did they just track you down and tell you they wanted to showcase your work, hopefully so they could sell a subscription.

Makes me wonder,

What am I, chopped liver? *I know, I shouldn't flatter myself, but it would be nice if they asked their (paying) members if they could showcase their work. *I could use the extra exposure, especially considering that I have yet to turn a profit from the Portfolios advertising cost. *I do firmly believe that if you are going to spend money on an on-line prescence, do so in the form of your own site first.

Portfolios.com: *I await your call.

Cheers,

Alastair.

[Jodi]

Alastair

I'm only a vinyl memeber, which is why I think they've targeted me (vinyl memberships are free...). Since they are already getting your cash, perhaps they leave you alone! I must say, that there were no firm promises of showcased work... I can't exactly remember how they worded it, but it really felt like they were trying to squeeze a buck outta me by offering a few flattering words.

Jodi
jodipudge@hotmail.com
www.portfolios.com/JodiPudge

[M Beckett]

I also had the same approach -- I have a free portfolio and they gave me a great line of how they have clients looking for "my kind of images" all the time!! Sounds great until you realize that they really don't have anything concrete in mind, they're just blowing smoke hoping to offer you a great opportunity for a really low low price. (probably working on commission) -- the guy I talked to told me he was into the music scene in Toronto and couldn't envision living so far away from world culture as I do. I have a feeling he wouldn't be as great at selling my images as he is at selling his website.

mb
from the Arctic

[andrewr]

I went through this as well, and eventually upgraded from the free package to the leather package after being hounded on the phone with compliments and promises of high paying clients. They dropped their price several times, so I gave it a try. I also updated my page weekly so I would rank high in the searches. I tried it for six months and never received one phone call or email. During that same time I booked several assignments from clients who found my personal site through Google or other online searches. So I decided that the portfolios.com rates where way too high ($399US/year) and I would probably never see a return on my investment with them.

I canceled my subscription and put more time and energy into my own site, and it has paid off with several assignments. The only way I would recommend portfolios.com is for someone who has no web site and wants to quickly get an online portfolio that they can easily update themselves. But don't expect to get any work from it. You'll still have to do a lot of promotional work yourself if you want people to see your page.

Cheers,

Andrew

[Alastair]

Hey Andrew,
My experience with Portfolios.com has been IDENTICAL to yours. *I mean, exactly the same. *I updated my site every Monday, and throughout it all, I received considerably more attention from my own site, and that is also where I have put my resources. *I don't think I'll renew for another year with Portfolios.com (my subscription runs out in September)
I once received an e-mail from a fellow in Portland regarding Portfolios.com and how I liked it. *I responded that it wasn't really working out for me, and he said that there were several other people he had spoken to who said the same thing. *I wonder if there is anyone who is making money of off Portfolios.com... Well, aside from the guy who runs the site, of course....

Regards,

Alastair.

[mer]

I was just considering a vinyl membership with Portfolios.com. As a result of the comments made, I'm going to hold off. Thanks.

[Jacques Gratton]

I had similar experience as others who have posted here. In the end, I could get 4 months for 117 US$, giving me the opportunity to show my "incredible" images to potential buyers (for calendars, agendas, posters, etc)...

They phoned me 5 or 6 times, trying to get my credit card number, and putting pressure.
I decided to go with the free vinyl portfolio, figuring I would get more exposure through my modest website.

Below, is a copy of a email I received from them.

Jacques

Jacques Gratton Photographe

557 Wakeham
Gaspé, Québec
Canada, G4X 1Z9
(418)368-7775
www.jacquesgratton.com


Diana Li wrote:

> Hi Jacques,
> I called to speak with you today. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today about your photography business and schedule.
>
> Portfolios.com is inviting you to showcase your creative images and http://www.jacquesgratton.com at the top of our industry-leading search engine.
>
> Further to your Preferred Photographer invitation, we'd like to feature your sample images in front of our clients and showcase you and your archive #1 in our search. We believe that your high quality work is ideally suited to the art gallery / private collector market, ad agency, editorial, corporate, entertainment industry and publishing clients that utilize Portfolios to source top photographers and license great images. You can sell original photographs and limited edition prints to corporations, hotels and galleries, and also license your pictures for usages such as calendars, annual reports, advertisements, book jackets, CD covers, and national and global ad campaigns. Any chance you are looking to add some new high-end clients this year?
>
> Come see our website at http://www.portfolios.com and view our testimonials at http://www.portfolios.com/testimonials.html. Come see the results of our awards show as well.
>
> If you have any questions beforehand or just want to get started, feel free to email or call to discuss now.
>
> Yours truly,
>
> Diana Li, Creative Consultant
> 1-800-303-9277 x 256
> 1-905-284-9999 x 256
> diana@portfolios.com

[silverwindstudio]

If you don't mind rolling your own site or using one of the "site builder" packages there are a lot of good service providers out there.

We are hosted by planetvelocity.ca costs a fair bit but if you don't need Triple redundancy pipes and backups they also have a budget version called XLinternet.ca (http://www.xlinternet.ca) that gives a lot of bang for 8.25$cdn a month.

I just started looking at adding a shoppng cart to the site, but it looks like it gets more than a bit expensive if you want to start running a shopping cart/merchant account and assocaited stuff needed to make it go. http://www.canphoto.net/iB312_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif