Introducing Image Revolver -- Brand New Wall Art Site

yis

New Member

« on: January 22, 2009, 13:40 »

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Hi All,

I want to introduce you all to my new website, Image Revolver (http://www.imagerevolver.com). Image Revolver sells wall art as giclée prints and self-print downloads. True to the microstock creed, we believe that affordable art should be available for the masses and supplied by the masses.

We also believe that offering great art in a truly affordable and convenient way will result in healthy profits for artists. To that end, we offer images in standard sizes (8 x 10, 11 x 14, 16 x 20 and 20 x 24) to eliminate the need for costly custom printing and framing on the customer end. Additionally, we offer the art not only as prints, but also as self-print downloads (PDFs) for everyone that wants to save a bit of money by printing art themselves.

We’re currently in Artist Beta mode and have begun to invite artists to take part. I want to welcome you all to join and to offer us suggestions and constructive criticism. We see our artists as business partners and take your opinions very seriously.

Looking forward to seeing you around the site,

Yis Tigay

* We have not opened the site to non-artist users yet, so you will notice that you need to sign up in order to browse art on the site.


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Iriz

« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2009, 14:58 »

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Quote from: yis on January 22, 2009, 13:40

Like the look and feel of the site but not gone on the fact that I have to register to browse.

I think you'll find that's somewhat shortsighted; just because you have a product offering, the assumption that you are entitled to my personal details is dangerous one.

But good luck, you lost me within 5 seconds.


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WarrenPrice

« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2009, 15:18 »

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I browsed a bit but found the size requirement a bit much for my Nikon D80. Didn't feel I revealed anything more personal that right here at MSG. And,, it gave me another place to post links to my own url.


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gostwyck

« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2009, 15:33 »

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There no way that this is going to generate anything like the same volume of sales as microstock. I think you'll need to increase the payout per download considerably to make it attractive to microstockers to spend their time uploading.


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yis

New Member

« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2009, 15:36 »

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Quote from: WarrenPrice on January 22, 2009, 15:18

Thanks for taking a look at the site! I believe your camera is 10.2 MP. Should be enough to submit 8 x 10 images.


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yis

New Member

« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2009, 16:18 »

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Quote from: gostwyck on January 22, 2009, 15:33

Thanks for taking a look. Do you have any specific reason you think it won't generate high volume for artists? One thing to keep in mind -- we limit the number of images that appear on the site to a much greater degree than most microstock sites, so accepted artists don't face the same degree of same-site competition.


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Xalanx

« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2009, 16:36 »

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The site looks nice, although I've seen some photos with lower quality than I would have expected. If I'll find time I'll sign up. But for a while I'll let others share their experience.


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gostwyck

« Reply #7 on: January 22, 2009, 16:58 »

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Quote from: yis on January 22, 2009, 16:18

Microstock is driven by commerce __ everyday businesses need new images for their websites, campaigns, etc. Framed images on the other hand are a luxury rather than a need.

Also, in my view, you're not actually solving the customers' entire problem as they still have to get the picture framed. They would probably be happy to pay much more for a fully finished product that they can stick straight on their wall. That could be a poster or a block print or whatever but it has to be 'finished' to sell in significant volumes to the public. They can already download and print microstock images if they want to.

Of course the other issue is that 99% of images from 'stock' portfolios are not suitable for wall art anyway as they were not created for that purpose. I've got a portfolio of about 3000 images working for me but if, as is probably the case, only 30 or so of those are hang-on-the-wall material then that itself is going to be a hugely limiting factor in earnings potential in comparison to microstock.


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« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2009, 17:14 »

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I'm of the belief that if I spend the time producing an image that I consider should be sold as 'art' the last thing I want to do is supply it in a marketplace that wants to equate itself with microstock.

As mentioned above I can't imagine that art will generate anywhere near the similar amount of sales that justifies selling images on microstock sites, the appeal of microstock is mass downloads which overtime balance out the low commissions, sorry but I can't see the same thing happening with art prints.

Self print downloads - surely if a customer wanted to do a self print they'd do it from a site like flickr without having to pay for an image, but if you are going to offer this service what then is the benefit of me buying a giclee print from you when I could just buy the image and send it of to a printer and get them to do it for me without having to pay the middleman (you).

Sorry but I don't think it will work, good luck anyway and I like the site name.


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WarrenPrice

« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2009, 13:27 »

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Quote from: yis on January 22, 2009, 15:36

Quote from: WarrenPrice on January 22, 2009, 15:18

Thanks for taking a look at the site! I believe your camera is 10.2 MP. Should be enough to submit 8 x 10 images.

I'll just hang out there a browse that marvelous collection. I'm sure you guys must produce some fantastic prints but 8x10 doesn't really seem like wall art. Reminds me of the olden days when my 35mm film camera couldn't hang with the large format guys. Sad


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Lcjtripod

« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2009, 11:48 »

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Sign in to look Huh

No thanks! I never do that with any site.

-Larry


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null

« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2009, 12:11 »

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Nice looking site.
- Don't ask people to register just to look.
- Don' ask a paypal address until it's time for payout.
- Where is the business info? Name, street address, phone.


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m@m

« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2009, 12:32 »

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Sorry not for me or my pictures...good luck!


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kaycee

« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2009, 13:07 »

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looks nice but the image size oh boy with a 6 MP camera I could not even crob the picture any more .More then half of my images I could not use to upload very frustrating..................
Haver to upload my camera......................


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yis

New Member

« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2009, 19:53 »

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Thanks for the replies so far. Image Revolver is certainly not for every photographer. For starters, our size requirements are indeed quite restrictive, as some of you have pointed out -- but we are steadfast in our dedication to ensuring that every image we offer is of print quality. Beyond this, we aren't looking for stock images -- a pretty big barrier for stock photographers! Nonetheless, I am guessing that many of you out there went into photography to create art-for-arts-sake, and that exactly what we are looking for.

Just to clarify, we are offering the prints with framing and matting options. Also, we will be offering a batch uploader and an aspect ration crop tool soon.

Enjoy your weekends!


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Phil

« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2009, 00:28 »

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Hi, just some thoughts... (and as always maybe I'm dead wrong)

I would welcome any good opportunity to sell images, especially more artistic, landscapes, 'non stock' type images, but all I'm seeing is negatives Sad

first, what is your marketing plan? (considering the number of start ups that try and fail without one, I now feel that any site without a large budget to spend on specific well targeted marketing will fail, gimmicks and 'special' or 'unique' ways of targeting customers and search rankings etc etc have all seemed to fail).
then a beta site that wants my personal details including my paypal address just to browse their product? sorry I dont think so, thats a 'close tab' straight away. I'd be extremely dubious of any site that wants that, says to me that it is a dodgy site Shocked

reviewing is going to cost you a fortune Undecided

you openly admit you have a weak watermark, makes me not keen...
while it is different market than stock, there is competition from things like webshots etc, photographers smugmug type pages etc, even ebay Undecided

. Take out the business customers, the photographers etc etc I would think the number of people who want to buy someone elses image via the internet without seeing in front of them, and unframed etc wouldn't be real large. I have never heard of people making large amounts with any of the sites like webshots, redbubble etc (which offer more than just prints). IS and FP I think do print sales, never had one, dont think I've heard of anyone having one??
so I agree with sentiments that you are too cheap, I cant see the volume to make it worthwhile, the majority of contributors are stuck with 11x14 and $2.40 or less, (really nothing amazing) because of your sizing

(obviously there is pans and drum scans of MF film images but straight from digital camera)
8 x 10     $5.00     $1.50 (7.2 mp)
11 x 14    $8.00    $2.40 (13.8 mp) - bigger than all 1 but nikon camera and bigger than many people use.
16 x 20    $12.00    $3.60 (28.8 mp) - missed the 5dmk2, a900 etc, so I think only the MF digital (so yuri, iofoto and ??)
20 x 24    $15.00    $4.50 (43.2 mp) - yuris & iofotos are 39mp??, how many people have the 50mp/56mp backs (and are willing to sell at micro prices Huh

)

If I was a customer you dont offer any images of large wall hanging sizes (personally 16x 20 isnt big for a wall print)

i'm sorry please dont take offence, maybe I'm being stupid and missed something obvious (hopefully

) but on the face of it those sizes and 'sign up' to browse policy says not a lot of thought has gone into this site and that the site owners don't have a lot of experience.

I wish you all the best with the site
Phil


« Last Edit: January 25, 2009, 00:43 by clearviewstock »	Ignore \| Logged

yis

New Member

« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2009, 04:00 »

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Though I don't want to claim you are wrong, I do want to alert you to a few things. First of all, although you are correct to point out that most digital cameras cannot offer 16 x 20 and 20 x 24 prints at top print quality, we don't only offer photos on the site -- we offer illustration, which can be saved out in hi-res easily. Beyond this, hi-res scans of photo slides and negatives are a fairly simple affair, even for many hobbyists.

As for the current requirement to sign up in order to browse, we opened the site to uploads only about a month ago. We have been keen to create an insulated environment where the initial "founding" artists can submit art exclusively in the safe presence of other artists.

I hope this explanation is helpful.