MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

I like taking pictures of birds. Like most of you, I have hundreds of great pictures nobody ever sees sitting on my computer (some of you probably have thousands). So a couple of months ago I came up with the brilliant idea that I should have someone create a website for me. I went out and bought the domain name GreatBirdPics.com and I wrote down specifications and shared them with potential developers.

What would make this website different from others with bird pictures? 1) I would emphasize that the members would only upload great pictures (not a picture of a sparrow taken through the screen door with an iPhone). 2) It would be highly searchable - a user would be able to search "Painted Stork flying in India", or "male Baltimore Oriole feeding its young in Illinois", or "female Purple Finch at a bird feeder in Michigan." 3) I wouldn't charge users to upload their own pictures (like Flickr and 500px). 4) I would attempt to get images of as many different species from as many different countries as possible.

When I set out, I was hoping I could have someone create the website for $5,000. So far it looks like it's going to cost much more. So to my questions: 1) Can you think of any other websites that are already doing this (and therefore wasting my time and money)? 2) If not, is it worth having it created? I can dream and think that I could monetize it through ads some day to recoup some of the cost, but who knows. 3) Do you think a website like this would attract users?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

dhroberts Loc: Boston, MA, USA

I for one find this to be a great idea, and would happily share my very best images there. With no experience in such things, I have no idea what a reasonable development cost would be.

Perhaps someone who knows more about the various ways to drive people to your site (and get it to rise in Google rank) can chime in here.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you would presumably permit photographers to retain the copyright to anything posted on your site.

Finally, your criterion of only the best shots would presumably have to be enforced somehow--are you willing to police your site yourself? If it becomes successful that could be a lot of work!

kenievans Loc: Dallas

You might consider starting out a little smaller. Start with a Facebook page. If you get enough interest then upgrade to a website. You could drive traffic to the website with the FB page. I follow the FB page Birds Of Texas. There are some wonderful photos posted there but it is not well monitored and there are lots of "can you identify this bird" posts. There are 50k members on that site. Just a thought and good luck.

blackest Loc: Ireland

You may not make money at all, but it could be good.
If you can afford to eat the loss and that will be costing you for a few years at least, then go for it.

I think you need to make it a site for selling bird images. It's a bit chicken and egg. You need customers and great photographers , without both your site will struggle.

I would make it a platform for selling bird pics in order to attract the photographers to your platform.
I like the domain name but you really want related names e.g greattrainpics.com ect. buying the .com if its free is peanuts. The work to develop a greatbird pic site could easily be reinvested to other similar sites. You don't need the other sites now but get the names now even if you don't use them for 5 years. It would be attractive to investors later.

question 3 is difficult to answer bird enthusiasts are quite dedicated, non bird enthusiasts tend to think they are a little crazy but there are a lot of bird enthusiasts, but there are enthusiasts for many subjects e.g trains. Well curated collections should be able to earn money for photographers and investors. You would be essentially going against stock sites but be priced higher and be earning photographers better prices

If you are comfortably off to be able to do this without missing the money it could be worth doing but you maybe throwing thousands at it with no return on the other hand establishing a niche brand across several fields may be a pot of gold in a decade.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

I used "Go Daddy". I would talk with them as to what they would charge to create your site. My sense a heck of a lot less than 5K

Bill_de Loc: US

Take a look at your competition and determine what will make your website more compelling.

https://birdwatchinghq.com/bird-pictures-photos-images/

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cascoly Loc: seattle

no need to spend $5000 as long as you are wiling to do some of the work yourself. sites like smugmug cost less than $200/yr. you do the uploading and cataloging. if possible find a site that reads meta data that includes captions and keywords, so a database is created automatically. Symbiostock was a collaborative project that did this, but ultimately fizzled out - I still maintain my site at http://cascoly-images.com/pix/ which will give you an idea of what can be done

re searching - no need for the super-specific searches until you have a huge collection

you will definitely need to be a gatekeeper, besides weeding out 'poor' images, you would otherwise be open to hosting inappropriate content

finally, if you do decide to pursue the $5000 option, (which requires custom programming?) get a fixed price contract that clearly describes the project, with demonstrable objectives

cascoly Loc: seattle

not to be too negative, but the in recent years it's become very difficult for an independent to get noticed. eg, most of the images you'll see in google images are from microstock agencies which spend large budgets with google adwords, or from other mega sites like pinterest

a more modest goal would be to design the site you describe for a well defined audience such as bird lovers on UHH and similar sites, and rely on word of mouth, not google

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Thanks for the reply. Yes, photographers would retain copyright on anything posted. I was considering even placing a copyright notice on each page on which the image is displayed. Getting only Great shots is tricky. I was considering making it a condition of membership (I agree to post only Great Pics...) and would have an Admin flag so that any member seeing an image they deem not Great could alert the admin (me) and I would make the decision.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Good suggestion and I have posted some on FB. However it doesn't give me any search capabilities, which I think is a strength of the concept. I may resort to that if I can't swing the cost of the website.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Thanks for some very interesting ideas. My original pitch to web developers was that the platform could be eventually expanded/modified to include GreatTrainPics.com, GreatDogPics.com but purchasing the domain names for them now is a good idea (keep it a secret so nobody steals the idea)!

As for selling, I'm at a loss there. It seems like it would open up a whole Pandora's Box of issues, legal and technical, which I don't think I could address now. I am questioning if I can justify the current cost - increasing those costs now won't work for me. However, as a future idea it's a good one.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Good suggestion. I have approached several privately owned web developers and all have been at least 5K and usually twice that. The sticking point seems to be the database with search capabilities. I could easily get a WordPress photography Theme for nothing and populated it with some of my pictures, but it would not have the search capabilities. Most web-based databases are built using SQL or mySQL and the web developers I've talked to have some expertise there, but not enough to do what I want it to do (or it would take them so many hours to create it, the cost goes through the roof). I'll let you know if Go Daddy can do it.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Thanks for the Link. I'm familiar with most of those sites (except the stock photo sites). Each has their own strengths but none of them seem to do what I envision. I'll take a closer look, though. thanks

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

I tend to agree with Kenni on the Facebook idea as a starting point. Hosting a closed group would give you control of the membership and the postings, and a base from which to develop a website when you get that worked out. You could invite bird photographers you know, and build from there.

I belong to a closed FB group for photos of wading birds, and it is easily searchable within the group page. I can type in my name to see my own photos that are posted to that group, or "great blue heron" or "roseate spoonbill" to see just the photos posted in the group of those specific birds.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Interesting suggestions. I looked at your website and it looks like you have it set up like stock photos - charge to download. Has that been successful for you (if you don't mind me asking).

What might not be apparent from my description is that this would be a membership/collaborative effort. Does smugmug have the capability to resister memberships? I will check.