If you’re a new LicenseStream subscriber, then you’re already plugged into all the useful new features offered by LicenseStream Creator version 2.0. If you’re an existing LicenseStream subscriber, then stay tuned because LicenseStream Creator version 2.0 is coming to you very soon!
Existing subscribers can expect to see their content rolled over to the new version within the next two weeks. To learn about all the new features, the first thing you’ll want to do is download the user guide.
A favorite new features is the Flash Uploader. It’s a fantastic time saver! Now you can drag and drop loads of items from my hard drive directly into the LicenseStream Creator uploader. Gone are the days of uploading items one by one!
This new feature is especially helpful if you need to set up multiple stores, each featuring a different type of content tailored to a specific market. Now you can direct clients to one store for your weekend wedding photography business, and a completely separate store for your travel shots. If your audiences aren’t completely separate, and customers may cross over from one genre to another, you can simply create multiple galleries within a single store.
Organization is the key to LicenseStream Creator. Before you begin batch uploading and keywording, ask yourself these questions:
1. What kind of content do you have?
2. Will the subject matter attract very different audiences or customers?
Remember that your store offers the only outward-facing part of your LicenseStream account. Galleries are groups within each store. Think of the galleries in your store as you would file folders in your filing cabinet.
Before setting up multiple galleries within a store, think about your future plans. Start by asking yourself: Do you want to divide your galleries up by job? By subject matter? By geography? By year? For example, if you are a weekend wedding photographer, do you want your galleries to be by job? If you have a large collection of travel shots, do you divide it up into subject matter or location? For example:
• Gallery 1: The Jacobsen Wedding
• Gallery 2: The Williamson Wedding
• Gallery 3: Travel Shots
If you have a broad gallery of Travel Shots you may also consider having:
1. Travel-North America
2. Travel - Europe
3. Travel - Asia
Once you’ve got the above roughed out, you’re ready to upload your content. I recommend creating one store at a time. Set up your store then add the content that you’ve uploaded into the galleries you’ve established.
If you’ve already keyworded your content in Lightroom or Bridge, your keywords will carry over automatically when you upload your content into LicenseStream. Otherwise, you can keyword your content within LicenseStream as you’re uploading it. If you want to add keywords quickly to large groups of your content – or even all of it -- you can batch keyword. Good keywords to include in all of your LicenseStream content are:
1. Your business name
2. The name of your website or blog
3. Your name
Including such specific information enhances the chance that someone seeking your work will find it via a major search engine. After all, you’ll want to give potential customers every opportunity to find your work.
There are a plenty of other features that I like in LicenseStream 2.0, so stay tuned for additional feature reviews and tips. Please keep the comments coming – we listen to your feedback to ensure we’re meeting the needs of the people who use it. Simply e-mail your comments and questions to: support@licensestream.com
