What are alternatives for microstock?

helix7

« Reply #100 on: July 12, 2011, 08:26 »

#link

Just wanted to update my Zazzle progress. I added a few more products and designs, in addition to the "horned sperm" character (thanks, Sean). So far I've got a couple of small button sales and 1 iPhone case. I did some twitter promotion, but nothing major.

For the time and effort put into setting up the store and doing some light promotion, I'm of the opinion that Zazzle just isn't worth it. I'm going to leave the store alone for a while and see if anything happens, but I'm not expecting this to ever become comparable to any of the microstock sites I'm on.


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louoates

« Reply #101 on: July 12, 2011, 11:38 »

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Etsy -- Very strange site. Click on art/photography/landscape if you want to see some really ugly stuff. Try the highest price sort for a laugh. The lowest price sort seems to be a loss-leader front for selling higher price prints without having the advertised .20 cent product available.


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Lagereek

« Reply #102 on: July 12, 2011, 11:57 »

#link

Jeez, all these sites? I mean its not even photography and most of them seems a joke. I dont know, is anyone here serious about these mickey Mouse sites?


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madelaide

Premium Member

« Reply #103 on: July 13, 2011, 20:04 »

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I guess results at Zazzle vary a lot. In the past three months, my sales there were above any of the micros. Also 2011 earnings at Zazzle are above any of the micros (less than some once I consider the tax, as they charge me 30% of everything). Last month in fact I made more than the sum of my two best micros. But then no sales yet this month - summer slowdown there too?

I have a very small micro portfolio compared to most of you, and they are no-people images, so I believe this also explains my humble results in micro, and perhaps the type of images I have (photos and illustrations) suit better the public at Zazzle.


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TheSmilingAssassin

« Reply #104 on: July 14, 2011, 06:54 »

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Quote from: lisafx on June 12, 2011, 16:49

Quote from: pseudonymous on June 12, 2011, 02:17

This one is one of my favourites that sells well and was fun creating ... "THE ASSHAT" Cheesy

http://www.zazzle.com/sunnymars/gifts?cg=196070385172875513

It stirred up a few of the older shopkeepers after I posted it on my facebook page LOL. That was fun too!

ROFL!!! Absolutely hilarious! Can't wait to show that one to my hubby Cheesy

Is Pog mo thoin Irish for kiss my ass?

I could have sworn I posted and answered your question previously but I can't find my post. Sorry about the delay, yeah, it's Irish for "kiss my ass"


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TheSmilingAssassin

« Reply #105 on: July 14, 2011, 07:30 »

#link

Quote from: helix7 on July 12, 2011, 08:26

If you're not willing to put some real time and effort into it, yeah, it's not worth it. You make money from micro but how much time and effort have you put into that? Years! You set up a store, add 50 products and expect to make anything decent? Your store looks very boring, you don't have designs spread across as many products as you can and you never really gave it a chance.

Check my store out if you want:

http://zazzle.com/sunnymars*

I've put in a fair bit of work but I'm nowhere near where I want to be and am still working on it. Everything I have done though has paid off and fairly quickly.

I'm not really trying to convince you to keep at it because the less shopkeepers there are, the better it is for me but I just can't believe you gave up on it so quickly. I know a lot of shopkeepers there that do Zazzle for a living and only Zazzle so it's no "mickey mouse" thing as lagareek said above. It's a real earner but you have to put some work into it like everything else (inlcuding microstock) and you have to promote yourself or have other shopkeepers promote you. 50% of my sales come straight from the MP and the other 50% are from referrals. If you have decent products, people will refer them. I do a lot of promoting and make a fair whack of my earnings through that as well. Some people there only promote and make 15% of every sale. That's more than your 10%.

Cheers!


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helix7

« Reply #106 on: July 14, 2011, 09:27 »

#link

Quote from: pseudonymous on July 14, 2011, 07:30

You're probably right, I may not be approaching it the right way. It's definitely not just another site for microstock artists to dump their images and leave them. There's serious maintenance required just to get a decent looking zazzle store set up. And I think that's the deterrent for me. Like you said, I've already put in years developing my stock portfolio. I've got the artwork for the products, and it took a lot of time to create that artwork. I'm not motivated to spend so many hours now setting up a store just to create another channel to sell that artwork through.

I may not necessarily be giving up on it, but I think it's more of a time commitment than I'm willing to make right now. I had hoped that some good artwork would sort of carry itself, generate enough clicks just from the thumbnail being attractive enough. I had an image in Today's Best, and it got 5 views from that. It seems like way too much emphasis falls on the artist to drive traffic to the site.

I'll add some products as time permits, but right now it's just not feasible for me to put in the amount of time that seems to be required to make any significant gains.


« Last Edit: July 14, 2011, 09:31 by helix7 »	Logged

madelaide

Premium Member

« Reply #107 on: July 14, 2011, 18:46 »

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Sunnymars, they way you've arranged your store, all those icons and sections, was it plain HTML or the advanced editor? Very cool.


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WarrenPrice

« Reply #108 on: July 14, 2011, 20:47 »

#link

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TheSmilingAssassin

« Reply #109 on: July 14, 2011, 22:33 »

#link

Quote from: madelaide on July 14, 2011, 18:46

Sunnymars, they way you've arranged your store, all those icons and sections, was it plain HTML or the advanced editor? Very cool.

madelaide, it's a mix of both.


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sharpshot

« Reply #110 on: August 04, 2011, 03:13 »

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I decided to give Saatchi a go with some of my more "artistic" efforts. Quite like the site and they have some great content, just hope they sell something one day.

http://www.saatchionline.com/sharpart