Schmaps
I’m giving in to some clever marketing by writing this post, I’m sure.
I was messaged on Flickr the other day by someone from Schmaps. Schmaps (wait for it, here’s the marketing) is a free travel guide for cities all across the globe. Apparently they get all their pictures for their travel guides from Flickr users, with their permission of course.
I had some shots from a trip I took to Montreal a year ago. I’m no photographer (though I’d like to be) so these photos really aren’t that great, but it seems that Schmaps liked them enough to shortlist one to appear in their March 2008 guide. They asked for my permission to use this photo of the Montreal Biodome.
My first reaction was “Wow, that’s neat!”. A split second later, intelligence kicked in and I figured I’d wait till I had a moment to see if this Schmaps site is legit. I did some looking around today, it seems they’re honest. Their Terms of Use that I agreed to (yep, I agreed) seems alright, it still allows me to retain all my rights on the photo and they will be linking to my full res Flickr image. The images they post are maximum 150 px wide.
I think their strategy is pretty smart. They use the power of the Social Web to get all their images for free, as well as get more exposure for their site. My room mate now knows about Schmaps, and I’m just now posting this to my blog and subsequently facebook. Doing a quick google search, it seems that many other people have written about Schmaps contacting them as well. More free exposure.
I don’t know if that was their M.O. but if it was, it’s smart. I’ll be receiving another Flickr message if my photo is chosen, I’ll update here when/if it is.