Attracting new blood to Demotix

My vote is for No. 3. It's clean, and to the point.

Hi!
I'd say the FIRST ONE is water-clear.

Cheers!

No 1 for me, to the point and nice to look at.

pete

1 for me!

1 for me too. Clean, precis and simple to read.

My gut reaction: "Page Design 4"

Many reasons. Clean. Everything's in the headlines. 3-step simplicity.

$ $ $

No (1) is best

1st one without a doubt... Clear, nice design.

Gut reaction 1 or 4, 1 edges it though.

I do have to say about 4, there is information all over the web about Demotix selling images for as high as 5000 pounds, yet this ad has cheap prices listed. To me it is not enticing from a monetary standpoint, and puts into question the high price that has been associated with Demotix in the past, yet selling price is the come-on.

1 is well designed, and from my point of view only needs more "join" buttons, as do they all. If a particular section sparks a potential new contributor's interest he/she should be able to join at that point without looking elsewhere to find where to do it.

It is like impulse buying at the grocery store. You don't have to look for a cashier to buy from. One is right there. If given time you might change your mind about buying.

Yeah 4 looks really really 'cheap' with the prices on, it doesn't look good at all.

Thanks for the responses everyone - they're really helpful! We'll take them into account when choosing the preferred design

Being one of the 'New Blood' that has been attracted to Demotix I would say page 1.

Additional opinion: 1 but maybe with the pics in 4 but of course without the fees paid.

Good suggestion Lawrence, makes the page more exciting from a visual perspective.

Sorry, I am a little late to this discussion.

I have two or three points to make, constructively, I hope. I wish Demotix well.

First, I note that the proportion of signed up members to those actively submitting images is roughly one in five. 4,500 to 25,000. I'd target this area. Sample some of those who are non-active supporters and ask, what for them, are the barriers to active participation. I guess the English language could be a problem. (Maybe a multi-lingual Demotix is the way to go with built in Google translation)

Secondly, I'd encourage more features, specifically photo essays, as well as the single image. Forgive me if I say the pictures here are much of a muchness. Until the jackpot shot. I say this with great respect to photographers braver than me, on most days, to stand in a war zone with nothing more than a camera. But I assume the odds are stacked against that and the market for a single iconic picture is very small. So I'd like to see more photo-journalism. Your CEO Turi, some months back, suggested a section on street graffiti. That's just one idea. Themed Demotix special editions?

I am not saying that Demotix doesn't do this already. I remember a set, I think it was here, of people, poor by any definition, scavenging a waste tip. Quite outstanding. Humanity in a rotting hell.

Last point. Demotix should also be a magazine in the style of Life. Big ask I know. We should curate our stories better than we do. As newspapers and broadcast media close their overseas bureaux Demotix has a massive international reach.

Oh and don't forget video.
That's all I have to say.

Best SP

Some really good points from Steve Punter, I too like the idea of themed editions. Any work that could be seen as feature photography (rather than news) seems to be all jumbled together (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Is there room for Demotix to become a 'Life' style media website?

good points Steve and Paul. Maybe people are a bit discouraged with doing features because at the moment there is no way of knowing whether these will sell. As you know in the past features were usually commissioned and hardly ever done on spec. The way for demotix to go is to tell us what features they are looking for and then we submit our ideas. Or we submit ideas first and they tell us if these are ok. At least if they don't sell immediately we'd know whether we're aiming in the right direction. In the meantime compared to when demotix started, today we're quite ahead of the game. Maybe in the not too distant future they'll come round to organizing themed sections. I for one would love to have a fashion section. The good thing about Demotix is that the team are very young so time is on our side. best Lawrence

I would like to do features but Demotix, at the moment, only pushed the images (with keywords and captions) NOT the story. So *picture* editors search on key words (have I mentioned keywords before?) for images of things they already know about.

If we load features and non-breaking news or time critical news we want to have News editors looking for stories rather than images. The important breaking stuff Demotix pushes. The Feature/documentary stories that the editors do not already know about and are looking for would have to be show cased differently. Also the Editors will need to have more confidence in the sources for an in-depth feature item that is more than just images.

Perhaps to make things easier we could mark feature and documentary stories as such. A milti-choice button that says "News" , "Feature", etc so they could be treated differently.

Good points made by Chris H. Perhaps this (features) is something that could be floated aside from the main (money making) breaking news component. I don't think Demotix is the place for features at the moment, but one can hope, one day perhaps breaking news and features can co exist on one site.

@Chris H you may have mentioned keywords and captions before (tongue firmly placed in cheek) and I may have lost half my lunch breaking reading your contributions regarding said keywords and captions

I think Features could be money making.. For Example an in-depth story about the current state of some aspect Libya now the "breaking news"" media circus has moved on. IT is not time critical +/- a couple of months and is not something a picture editor would search for.

However Demotix has to earn a reputation for good Photo-Journalism. Not just keen photographers. Also have a good level of professionalism. Which is not quite the same as being a professional or amateur as we in the UK have seen in the current enquiry into newspapers hacking mobile phones and using other dubious methods.

Sorry about banging on about keywords but they are what Picture editors search on. With more and more images being made available due to agencies like Demotix it s more crucial than ever.