Author Topic: confused , the good of subs... to whom? (Read 4024 times)

hali · « **on:** November 07, 2008, 16:02 »

i know it's been debated here so many times, and from what i gather most of you hate it. but now i read about StockXpert having the option to earn more with EL and needing to opt in to subscription.
i thought subs make very little money, eg. 30cents, +-
then i read some of you mentioned lately you made a lot of money, and you opted in . did i miss something here?

also, if a buyer can buy our images for 30cents in a sub, why should the buyer pay more ?
the final confusion for me is: why would the site want to make 60 cents instead of 5 dollars, or maybe more without subs. are they shooting themselves in the foot?
or is it only the contributor who loses?
can any of you who understand this things clarify to newbies like myself?

reason i ask is lately i've been having sales, but all subs.

RGebbiePhoto · « **Reply #1 on:** November 07, 2008, 17:43 »

Hali,
Think about it like a bus pass.
There are some people that need to use it once in a while, so they pay the per ride usage. There are others that use it all the time, so they make the up front expenditure and buy the pass for use for the month.
Subscription sales suck. But they guarantee the buyer will actively use the site for the length of their subscription, especially when it is time sensitive, and not by number of downloads.
We have our images at Shutterstock. We sell quantity there, so it makes the sub commission a little less painful. Since we sell subs there, we opted in at all agencies. I used to get real riled up over selling an XL image for .35, but it's all part of my bottom figure at the end of the month, and that's where I make my decisions.
I've dropped some sites that are real low performers, and the only sales were a once in a blue moon sub. But if the dollars roll at a reasonable pace, then I let them ride.

stokfoto · « **Reply #2 on:** November 07, 2008, 17:50 »

ironically sub sales seems to be reducing ppd sales on sites that are(were) mainly selling ppd (like StockXpert DT FT) on the other hand ppd sales(on demand) seems to be lowering subs sales on the sites like SS that is mainly subs based .
confusing isn't it?

lisafx · « **Reply #3 on:** November 07, 2008, 18:14 »

I agree that sub sales take away from ppd sales to some degree, but it is the way of the industry, and thank goodness there are still enough ppd sales to make it worth uploading.

In spite of sales dips on some sites and sub sales on others, like RGebbie said, the bottom line is what counts, and the past couple of months were my BME's one after the other. So overall things are good

loop · « **Reply #4 on:** November 07, 2008, 18:58 »

Sub sales only make real sense for a contributor a istock, where price depens on size and where you have a ppd-minumum-price guaranteed. And, by the way, after a weak beggining, now, at least for me, already makes sense to look at the "Delayed Royalty" susbcription column, because sales happen daily, and increasing in number.

hali · « **Reply #5 on:** November 07, 2008, 22:01 »

rgebbiephoto, stokfoto, lisafx, i have opted back in on subs. if it 's good by you all, i think i should opt in too.
oops, now you 've lost me again...loop, "delayed royalties" ,,, huh? what's that?
is this from the subs , and they use your images some more? so you get more money? ...you all must laugh at me, this is truly a newbie ! !

hrhportia · « **Reply #6 on:** November 09, 2008, 10:58 »

hali,

The way I look at subs is this: you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. On the one hand, subs at $.30 are pretty degrading; on the other, if it keeps the $$$ rolling in, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Susan

madelaide · « **Reply #7 on:** November 09, 2008, 13:14 »

I'm repeating myself here, for me it's not just how little we get paid in subs, but especially how incredibly cheap images are for the buyers. Microstock is already too cheap, I don't think there is any need to get any lower like in subs.

Honorable exception for IS, of course, where subs looks more like a huge discount in a credit package.

Worth mentioning also how subs make images much more at risk, as the recent cases of images from SS uploaded to DT or FT.

Regards,
Adelaide