Many user-generated content sites face one (or several) problems, including the following:

1. Copyright Issues

   Site users occasionally post content that is copyright, or steal the content generated by others on the site.

2. Quality Issues

   Without an incentive to do high-quality work, users will post “just good enough” (or “not quite good enough!”) content to fill a particular purpose.

3. Quantity Issues

   Without motivation to create more, communities don’t have enough users contributing content.

A Solution to Some of User-Generated Content’s Problems

Getty Images, which specializes in all sorts of digital images, has purchased Scoopt, a company that is using a new model for acquiring and distributing user-generated images. Users who contribute images that are chosen for distribution are compensated with a percentage (currently 40%) of the image’s sale price.

This model could be a solution to issues two and three from the list above—a financial incentive would motivate the public to submit high-quality (more likely to be chosen) images more frequently.

I think this is a novel approach to an application that could really use the “wisdom of the masses,” and perhaps one that could be applied to other content-types or industries.

Is there anything that your customer-base or audience could do for you that you wouldn’t mind paying for?