Why I’m Going to Shoot For Zivity

We recently interviewed Cyan Banister, CEO, Founder, and Editor-in-Chief of Zivity.com and I thought I’d give my take on Zivity.

First, for those of you who don’t know what Zivity is. On one hand it is a site where you can look at serieses of images of models. The twist is people pay to subscribe and in return get votes. Then they can cast those votes and based on the number of votes a series gets, the model and the photographer get money.

As I said in the interview, Zivity has gotten a lot of flack from photographers for the split between the model and the photographer. Right now for every vote – which is basically a dollar – the model gets 60 cents and the photographer gets 20. Cyan did say they were planning on increasing the photographer cut to 30 cents.

So why would I spend time and money to create content for Zivity. Do I really think I’m going to make my investment back?

For instance, my first Zivity set is the Alicia Milk Shoot. That shoot didn’t have an MUA, so I saved that, but I did buy the milk substitute ($45) and the kiddie pool ($20). Plus I have my on going expenses, including studio rent (hundreds every month), camera and lighting equipment. Not to mention travel to the studio – a 30 minute 20 mile drive each way, call it $10. So if we total that up, I’m spending around $100 on that shoot.

I’m submitting two sets from another shoot I did where I did have and MUA, which I split with the model. But an MUA is around $70-$80.

To give you a reality check the highest voted set on Zivity right how features model Apena – who has a huge following and is a consummate self-promoter – and has 2,479 votes. Well I’d make my money back if I hit that number. But as in all things, that’s not average and I’m not sure how long that set has been up. The 10th highest voted image only has 806 votes. Get to 20 and your around 500 votes. The most popular this month has 103 votes.

This is out of hundreds of sets on zivity with at least 3 being added every day. Three good sets – sets selected by Zivity editors to be featured.

So your chances of making $100 on a set is pretty low.

So why do it?

1. Because I spent the money anyway. I paid for all the milk shoot stuff because I wanted to make those images. It’s my art and that was a cool concept. It was contraian enough to appeal to me. So my investment wasn’t about making the money back. It was TFP.

2. I might make something back. In almost every TFP shoot you do you aren’t going to make any money. I could make the case that a shoot helps my blog and my blog will make me some money and that would be true. Truer than most photoblogs because I have a business model, but for most people there is no income from a TFP shoot.

4. Promotional value. I think Cyan said Zivity had 10,000 members. So having a profile there and my work in front of people willing to pay to express their appreciation, has value. And my profile links back to Photographer and Model so it can be a source of traffic. Won’t be sure how much until my first set goes live.

5. Ego. In the end I think this is my big motivator. I’m going to get feedback on my set from consumers. Not just people on forums who like to look at pretty girls and the only pay off is a one line post “Wow great image”. On Zivity in order to comment on a set you have to pay at least a dollar. That kind of comment means something.

6. The only cost is time. While you have to be a member of Zivity to post, if you submit a set your membership is free. They also take no rights to the images, but get a non-exclusive license to use your images. Meaning you can use them anywhere else you like as well.

Zivity isn’t perfect. I’d like the split to be more equal, though I understand Cyan’s reasoning. I’d like the split to be negotiated on a per set basis, but that would be complicated to implement.

But Zivity does represent a possibility of real change in the model photographer underground. That realm of photographers and models mostly shooting TFP and doing it for the love of the work. Zivity is a business model that creates a real feedback forum from not just other photographers, but general public and provides at least the possibility of income. As Cyan said, her dream is that people would make a living off Zivity. That isn’t going to happen with 10,000 members, but could with 1,000,000. Which isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

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