If retouchpro.com had a million dollars

[Doug Nelson]

lynda.com just got bought for $1.5 billion dollars. dpreview got bought by amazon some time back. petapixel, fstoppers, model mayhem, all have corporate investors behind them.

retouchpro.com is just me working out of a spare bedroom. I've tried to find investors, but we're seen as some sort of neckbearded backwater (at least to corporate types).

But I can daydream.

Here's what I dream about doing if I had sufficient fundage:

I'd ditch this particular forum software. I'm trapped into it due to it having the only integrated 3rd-party plugin support 10 years ago. Now I can't afford to move away from it (or even upgrade it). I can barely afford the monthly maintenance. There are many features I'd like to add (and subtract), but it would take a minimum 3-person fulltime programming staff to do them.

I'd hire a fulltime booker for RetouchPRO LIVE. Doing the live shows is the highlight of my week. I'd do a daily show if I could. Everything leading up to showday I dread. Finding presenters, educating them on what RP LIVE is, convincing them to work for free, teaching them the basics of presentation and how the software works, it's just exhausting. Particularly since only about 1 in 10 respond at all, and probably 1 in 100 of those actually end up on air.

Of course things would also be easier if I could just go back to paying the presenters. That's how the rental videos got made, and why they're still not free (but still worth it, IMO). But the market moved to both needing to pay presenters AND give the shows away for free, which is why I stopped doing them for awhile.

And of course, now that I'd have this staff of people and I'm doing a daily live show, I'd need some more staff to keep things running smoothly. And more staff to keep things growing and profitable.

15 years ago I imagined retouchpro.com would eventually have an educational track, a certification association, a jobs clearinghouse, a prestigious portfolio address, a publishing imprint, and many other things.

I haven't given up on any of that, but I also realize I've got quite a bit of dust on me from those passing me by.

[creativeretouch]

Re: If retouchpro.com had a million dollars

I'd ditch this particular forum software. I'm trapped into it due to it having the only integrated 3rd-party plugin support 10 years ago. Now I can't afford to move away from it (or even upgrade it). I can barely afford the monthly maintenance. There are many features I'd like to add (and subtract), but it would take a minimum 3-person fulltime programming staff to do them.

Doug, you could create new landing page on the domain (index.php for example) with new futures, images, graphics, slideshow etc. - with menu linked to different parts of the site. You can keep this forum alive this way and develop new futures beside it without even touching the forum code.

People want to see images & videos on the main page and this is great opportunity to advertise your YT videos through photographs. If they don't see them, they will not find them. People are lazy to read =)