[robotmay]

Thanks! If you use it and have any feedback then I'd be really happy to hear it.

Aye there are quite a few other sites out there, and I really need to flesh out a page explaining how Photographer.io is different and why you should use it. I'm banking a lot on there being other people out there like me:

* I want large images on a photo site (can't believe nobody else is really doing this)

* Usage limits/subscriptions should be fair

* It should be heavily customisable so I can find the photos I enjoy

* It should give me a lot of privacy options

* It shouldn't have a million inane comments under every photo

* New users should be able to get their photos seen

* Photos should be ranked fairly and adapt to prevent popular people taking all the top spots

I've got a good start (I think) on a lot of those points, though it's obviously far from done. It's also, AFAIK, the only site served entirely over SSL; though I'm not sure how many people care about that :D

I kinda want to position it as the Pinboard.in of photo sites, if that makes sense. I'm not looking to end up with a huge staff; I really just want people to enjoy finding great new photos.

[lakey]

Plenty of good ideas there. Are you aiming at the more serious photographer? You could ban iPhone pics!

I think it's key to understand what people will pay for, and where the gaps are on competitor sites. You'll have more clue than me about all that.

I used to pay for Flickr, but I lapsed and it felt like a shakedown to have to pay to be able to access my pictures. Left a bad taste. I understand the model, but between that and all of the Yahoo integration I got fed up with it.

However I now use Imgur a lot and recently went 'Pro', though it is mainly for screenshots and image hosting, as opposed to decent quality photos.

The key, in terms of marketing, is to either have a brilliant story or brilliant content (or both). If you have the former then the latter follows naturally. Your content is largely the photos, but I think you should take some ownership over content creation - a blog is a no brainer and could be crucial for your SEO and social efforts.

There are plenty of things you can do on the user experience front, though you've made a great start on that score. The detail matters. For example, I'd use synonyms on the homepage for 'fantastic image', just to mix it up.

The ranking algorithm is always a fun thing to work out, and experiment with.

[robotmay]

Hehe, I did consider blocking phone pictures, but some people get some great shots on them and I don't want to miss out on those. I've even managed a few rare half-decent ones: https://photographer.io/p/10

I think most people are actually pretty happy to pay for increased usage limits and the like, though I don't want that to be the only boon. I'm also trying to keep it to one subscription level, as I think the tiered plans on some other sites can make subscribers of the cheaper plans feel less important than those on the higher ones.

I definitely don't want to go down the Flickr route of blocking ex-subscribers from their photos. I'll likely just prevent new uploads in that case.

Imgur is great and I think there's scope for that ease-of-use in the more photographer-oriented market. My uploader at the moment is a bit basic, but I'm working on improving that.

A blog is definitely coming; I've been really lax in getting it set up. I'll definitely have one for launch. I also really need to do some SEO work, as I've done very little so far :D

In the past few days I've finally gotten to the point where I'm happy to do GUI work. It's weird; I have a degree in design, but I always feel like it's wasted time until I have all the important backend work done. I know that's not true, but it's why the design definitely needs some work right now. I'll be working on this quite a lot over the next few weeks!

The rankings gave me a great excuse to play with Redis sorted sets. At the moment it's very simplistic and I don't think it'll scale very well with lots of new users, so I'll be adjusting that. It's really enjoyable to fiddle with though :)

[lakey]

These things take time!

A blog will help with SEO and provide fodder for your social media feeds. Consider the kind of content you'd create. The question to ask is what would appeal to your target audience (I'd avoid making the blog all about your product). If time is tight then, curation beats creation.

I like the idea of one price fits all product. You should try to bill annually, but experiment with sales psychology (you could price it monthly, for example).

Imgur - the tools are so useful. I wanted to support it, as much as I wanted the extra features I ended up paying for. Much to learn. That lovely right click menu...

You're right about prioritising how it works over how it looks. The GUI stuff is fun, and you will no doubt iterate the design as you go along.

Good luck with the roll out!