Chris Johnson, 42, Divorced Twice, Quite Successful

[cjay]

Hi all,

My name is Chris Johnson and I am based in North East of England. Gary Baker my business partner first joined forces with me in 1997. We launched AskAlix.com, Europe’s largest on-line business directory containing 22 million businesses in 15 countries. AskAlix.com remains a major employer on Teesside and has recently acquired its early rival Scoot.com. AA was sold in 2004.

In October last year Gary and decided to re-engage with business and founded www.ParazziPack.com. The site provides a radical new approach to the photography business. If you have a digital camera you may find it interesting. :idea:

[Jayne]

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forum :D

Jayne

[creospace]

managed to find your way over from homeworking then :)

welcome here

Gary - not the Gary mentioned above :)

[creacom]

Hi Cjay

Welcome to UKBF.

If I hadnt gone into design I would have been a photographer ! So Im going to have a look at your site later when I get a min.

Best of luck with it all

Jacqui :D

[Coding Monkey]

Divorced twice? This isn't an online dating forum ;)

Welcome

[Jayne]

Divorced twice? This isn't an online dating forum ;)

Welcome


You just don't want to share you ladies Tom!

[Coding Monkey]

Yeah, good point. My greed has got the best of me. Please, Gary, carry on. Jayne prefers the older guys anyway 8)

[DavidHorn]

Welcome - hope you enjoy the forum.

(to clarify: are you quite successful in business or at divorce? ) :wink:

[webit]

very warm welcome AA a very big name and many parts of one of our b2b directories [webit] were based on it's model [with out the same profit to date!]

i look foward to talking to you futher.

Best wishes
DC

[fastfences]

Hi CJ and welcome.
From one to another; nothing wrong with being divorced twice; some women just don't appreciate a good guy :wink:
Cheers, Nigel

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Chris,

Welcome to UKBF - hope you stick around

Rob

[Claire B]

Hi Chris

Hope you enjoy the forum!


Claire B

[Magsite]

Welcome to the forum!

Lisa

[cjay]

Hi All,

That is definately the best welcome I have had to any forum. Thank you all very much. A couple answers below to some points raised.

First divorce successful. Second, very very expensive and all in all a bit of a disaster. I have made a few quid and had a lot of fun in the process so I guess I would say the business part has been successful.

Had a look at all your websites, very diverse and cool designs.

Despite my dot com past I have only used forums in last couple of months. It seems like a good way to network and you seem to get out what you put in. So any business issue I can help with I will.

Thanks again for such a warm welcome. :D

[Coding Monkey]

Hi Chris,

Very good community here. Stay around and you'll find lots of advice, plenty of good friends and might even have a laugh, providing Nigel posts more of his poems ;)

Tom

[clairemackaness]

Hi Cjay and welcome, your idea is fantastic and just as soon as my insurance claim brings me a new camera (I lost mine on holiday last week!). I will be signing up right away.

Claire

[Claire B]

Chris, it's a brilliant concept, my husband is a keen photographer and would be very interested in this. You stated on your website, that on average 75% of the photo's will be sold, do you have any evidence of this?

Is this something you have already trialled?

Cheers!

[Jayne]

Tom..Shame on you :shock:

Nigel's poems are lovely and mushy :D

Jayne

[Ozzy]

Hi cjay,
Its always great to see someone on here who's been and "made it" online who's willing to stick around and share his experiences.

Welcome ;)

[cjay]

Hi Clair,

Thanks for your encouragement. Since I read your post I have been trying to find the site where I originally found the 75% figure. I have not succeeded. However, I have found through personal experience that its about right. It is important to note that this number applies to very specific circumstances. The 75% relates to an event such as a corporate ball and only applies to the formal photographs of couples as they move from the reception area into the dining area. I am sure you will have experienced this. The photographer will have established a spot to take these shots, possibly with a backdrop in place. This will usually be on the route guests take to their dinner tables. As couples gather to be seated at their table they are all asked if they would like their pic taking. It is 75% of these shots that are purchased and not 75% of every shot taken during the evening. I spoke to one of our new members yesterday who did rather better at a track day for motor bikes. He sold to every rider. There was 70 of them.

Clearly if working in an opportunistic fashion, ie bars, clubs or the beach I think the percentage will be far less, more like 20%. Another factor here of course if your pics are not good you wont sell any. You can play with these numbers in the downloadable spreadsheet located in the about section.

It is really good to read your comments as it does mean we have pretty much managed to make our idea understandable. :D

[Urban Space]

Welcome :D!

Liam

[Claire B]

The 75% relates to an event such as a corporate ball and only applies to the formal photographs of couples as they move from the reception area into the dining area. I am sure you will have experienced this.


Oh how i wish Chris!!!, I have never been to a ball in my life :cry:

Anyway my husband is away on a business trip at the moment, but he is going to be thrilled when he gets back and finds that i have found more work for him to do :D :D :D

Seriously though, its a great idea, is there anyway that all the photographers who do take part can get together (via a forum on the site for example) and share ideas?

[cjay]

Hi Claire,

That is a very good idea, the forum I mean, I will talk to Gary and get that in motion.

You could of course stun your hubby by telling him you've just become a pro snapper and will have to attend lots a very glamorous events, which will obviously require some additions in old wardrobe department. :lol:

[freecybermag]

Hi Chris

Welcome to the forum. I really really like your idea and would've loved to have signed up nut as I live in Switzerland and can't speak the local lingo perfectly yet I think I'd better not register yet. Although saying that I could take pics of Switzerland and sell them from your site. Could I do this???

Cheers

Chris

[cjay]

Hi Freecy,

You are actually in a very good spot. We have two girls in Australia who are making the most of the tourist market, one of them seems to just wander up and down Bondi beach asking tourist whether they would like their pic taking. If you are near any tourist attractions in Switzerland I see no reason why you could not do likewise. If you can get shots of people skiing for example you could be onto a winner. Clearly some good shots of the spectacular scenery could be sold but I think you would be better being proactive and going for the tourist market and turn the language thing to your advantage. :idea: :lol: