The Phoblographer has written many articles about photo sharing websites that abuse photographers. Unsplash, for instance, is one of the most serious scammers. They will take the work of a photographer and strip them all their image rights. Then they won’t pay them anything. According to them, exposure is the only payment. We don’t like their products, so it’s no surprise that they aren’t popular. Clickasnap steps in. While Clickasnap wants photographers to be paid, there are flaws in the execution.
HOW DOES CLICKASNAP WORK
Before I get into the Clickasnap issues, let me first briefly explain how it works for those who aren’t familiar.
It’s simple. Photographers upload their photos and depending on which subscription they are on, they could earn money. There are several ways to make money. First, you can earn money through views. Clicksnap pays 0.25C for every view it receives. You can also sell images as digital downloads and, in certain instances, as physical products (such prints). Photographers are only allowed to withdraw funds after they have earned $15
CLICKASNAP & THE ISSUES
CEO Tom Oswald stated that Clickasnap was the world’s first paid per-view still image hosting site. It is true that nothing in this statement is incorrect. It is misleading however.
Photographers with a free account won’t be paid. They can upload photos, but they will need to subscribe for a paid account to make any money. My problem with the above quote? It lacks transparency. Although I can understand the need for companies to be persuasive and have a lot of respect for photographers, I don’t think they should. They can still make money, but they need to invest some of their own.
THE LANDING PAGE
The website will display a selection of images uploaded to it by photographers. It’s sad to say that there is a lot of photography my blind grandmother could have done – and she’s already dead!
Is this the problem? If a company is searching for stock photography, the first impression matters. If the first page on a stock photo website I visit is filled with amateur work then why would you spend your time searching for quality images? Clickasnap should implement quality control on its homepage. It must do this quickly.
While this may seem like a small issue, it could be enough to make companies return to using rights grab websites to receive images for free. We don’t love Unspalsh but they have a nice website with high quality photos on the homepage, which makes it more attractive for users. Clickasnap must offer attractive stock photography to attract customers who want to beat them.
This brings us to the next issue.
THE WEBSITE
While I don’t have any idea of the company’s budget, it’s easy to design a website that is clean and modern in 2021. It looks much better than it did in the early 2000s. This doesn’t make the website retro and hip. It just means that it is visually unpleasing.
Numerous pages have typos in their copy. It can make the site look amateurish and could put people off. The links at the bottom don’t always work. A few of the links at the bottom feel like they lead to a different website, despite it being the same one.
In essence, branding and image are all around. It’s not user-friendly.
DO PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE JUSTICE
This concept appeals to me. Clickasnap should pay the photographer. The company must also ensure that it provides an opportunity for photographers to get paid. The above issues are a problem for any serious company that wants to purchase stock photography.
This is how it should look. Let’s imagine I go to a physical gallery for prints. When I first walk in the door, I am immediately struck by the awful work. I decide to go on, but staff don’t provide a clear answer to my questions. The captions underneath the prints are filled with spelling mistakes. The gallery layout is confusing and easy to lose. Are you going to pull out your wallet and invest some money in work? No.
As important as design and execution is user experience, so is design. Clickasnap will succeed, especially for the photographer. However, it must clean up its “digital gallery” in order to make that happen.
