Cut out the middleman

If you’re a photographer who shoots corporate events like conferences and conventions, you may have noticed there are some online businesses that offer to connect you with customers. How nice of them.

Right now, one such European company is sending emails to photographers in Toronto, and apparently also in many other cities around the world, claiming that it has a customer with an urgent need for photo services in the photographer’s area.

If you ignore this email because of its generic nature or because it looks like spam, you’ll get more similar emails in the following weeks and months. The emails have a fake “unsubscribe” link that does nothing.

All these emails claim that this company has yet another customer with an immediate need for photography in your area. Of course, there is no customer. The oddly worded emails are often the same with maybe the name or date of the unidentified event changed.

The sole purpose of these emails is to lure photographers into becoming paying members.

One such business model of sites like this is to put each job on auction and you pay a fee for *each* bid you make. You have no idea who you’re bidding against or if, in fact, there is anyone else, and you have no idea if it’s a real job. To “win” a job, you have to quote lower and lower and each quote you make costs you more money.

Let’s recap: You pay to be a member. You pay to bid on a job. You pay a commission on a finished job.

Another business model is that you pay a monthly fee to become a member and you pay for a directory listing and you pay for each customer lead. Recap: You pay and pay and pay.

Don’t work against yourself

This type of business inserts themselves as a middleman between photographer and customer. This business model, like that of a stock photo agency, depends entirely on volume. What creates volume? Low prices. Where do these low prices come from? From you, the photographer.

Businesses that insert themselves as a middleman between photographer and customer have come and gone many times. Why? Because this business model does not work:

1. This business model adds an unnecessary layer of business between you and the customer and this layer costs you money.

2. With no direct communication with the customer, you can’t differentiate yourself nor properly promote yourself to the customer. The middleman doesn’t care which photographer is selected for a job because the middleman gets paid no matter whom the customer chooses.

3. The customer is encouraged to shop price and you’re always pressured to offer lower prices.

4. It’s about flat rate or hourly fees. Even though some jobs run in the same general way, the photo requirements – shooting, editing, delivery, usage – can be very different.

5. This business model assumes all photographers are the same and interchangeable. It assumes that photography is a cheap commodity like potatoes at a grocery store.

6. It offers nothing that you can’t do on your own.

If you’re thinking of joining an online “service” like this, think twice. And then think again.

Do you need a middleman between you and your customers? Do you really want to pay them to be in your way?

Your customers always deserve to speak directly with the person in charge of your business. And who is in charge of your business?

Added January 2017: ASMP published a review of another “middleman” company that offers to help photographers find customers. The conclusion was: “I do not recommend this program as beneficial for photographers nor for the photography industry as a whole.”

Added January 2017: There’s another new Canadian web site that’s in the business of being a middleman between photographers and customers. I’m not going to link to this Canadian site since it appears to be a scam to lure in unsuspecting photographers.

This web site is trying to sell $100/month memberships to photographers. The site even “guarantees” that each member photographer will get at least one photoshoot per month.

The site has stolen content, both text and photos, from various photographers’ web sites, including my own. It uses this content to make it look like these photographers are members. I contacted some of those photographers and none of them knew anything about this. They are not members and never approved of this.

The site has no email address, no street address, no names, nothing. Just a contact form.

Added January 2018: Just got another similar e-mail. This one came from a company in France that owns a few dozen URLs each using a different country code top-level domain to pretend that it’s located in whatever country you’re in. It also inserts your location into its front-page headlines to pretend it has hundreds of jobs in your area. (Warning bell #1)

This email started with a generic “Hello You” and then went on to praise my photography. (Warning bell #2)

It claimed to be “in an urgent rush” to find a photographer to shoot a birthday party “in or around your area.” (Warning bell #3)

The event had no date but it had a postal code for the undisclosed event location. Using Canada Post, that postal code is for a factory in an industrial area near Toronto’s Pearson airport. (Warning bell #4)

The email went on to say that they “have several other requests for other dates and cities” and that I should sign up for their service. (Warning bell #5)

Added June 2019: Apparently one of these online companies is just taking photographers’ names and locations from their web sites and posting them in its online directory to make it look like these photographers are members. A friend of mine who is a well-known sports photographer found his name, along with a fake profile picture, listed on its site under aerial photography, real estate photography and wedding photography, none of which he does.

Added May 2022: I’ve been getting several emails from a British web site that promises to “find the perfect professional for you.” The site is a middleman between customers and all types of small businesses.

Every email I’ve received from a “Kate Potter” claimed that it has a customer in my area looking for a photographer. There is no Kate Potter listed in its company directory and “my area” is apparently anywhere in Canada.

These emails include a brief for the photography required. This brief is so vague, so generalized and so wide-ranging that it’s laughable. The customer always wants the photography to be shot indoors, outdoors, in a studio and any place else. The photography can be done nationwide or even shot online!

One such email included a customer’s website address so I contacted that customer directly. They were not looking for a photographer and they never heard of this British company.

A quick web search shows that other small businesses around the world have been receiving the same or similar emails since at least 2019. There are many complaints about this British company.

Companies like this do not refer customers to you for free. This British company requires you, the business owner, to purchase non-refundable “credits” which you use to buy customer leads. Companies like this serve no purpose in your business other than to take your money.