Looking Into Business Models for the Emerging Pro

Given the level of interest in the various posts about the business of photography, I am going to be setting up a holding pen in the archives for business-related stories. (As soon as I can grab a few spare minutes, anyway.)

In the mean time, I would love to hear how you guys are using the web as a vehicle for digital photography commerce.

We have done the istockphoto thing to death, but that does not preclude it's validity for a subset of transitional pro/ams.

(See? My mind is partially open...)

But I know there are other models that allow shooters to do events and such (and even stock) that return far more of the money to the actual shooter.

Photostockplus, for instance, keeps a 15% cut and returns 85% to the shooter, while offering websites for them to display the photos and engage in e-commerce.

Apparently, a lot of photographers are using them. Is anyone here using their model?

If not, how are you doing it? Other sites? Face to face?

I know we have a large number of readers that fall into this part of the bell curve, and I would be eager to know your choices and experiences.

New companies are popping up every day. While many are very good models, some of them being downright predatory in their approach to photogs. I would like to try to get a handle on what is out there and do a series of posts on agencies, microstock, photo e-commerce engines and the like.

Please post your thoughts and experiences in the comments section. No names needed, if you choose. Just looking for info to pull together.

Muchas gracias.