Author Topic: GL News (Read 54487 times)

Sean Locke Photography · « **on:** August 04, 2016, 15:17 »

GL opens to new contributors and drops royalties from 52% to 40%. Exciting!

http://blog.graphicleftovers.com/exciting-news-graphicleftovers/

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #1 on:** August 04, 2016, 15:31 »

why do ALL agencies start news about taking your earnings with EXITING... are they from mars..

we have heard your concerns,... we cut your royalty down to 40%... are they actually for real??

hellou · « **Reply #2 on:** August 04, 2016, 15:43 »

Will delete all. I don`t care GL.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #3 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:06 »

They aren't cutting for anyone already on the site. Only new contributors get 40%.

And yes. It is insane that any stock agency would use the word "exciting" in an announcement when it is now such a joke with contributors.

GLStock · « **Reply #4 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:14 »

Thank you for the post. I'd like to address some key points, while also addressing some concerns people may have.

First and foremost, after almost two years of negotiation, we acquired GraphicLeftovers from a group of 4 partners, all of which had full time jobs and GL was not a primary source of income for them. Because of this, the business was more or less set to autopilot, neglected the desires of many of it's members. The new ownership team will be investing a lot of time and money into not only better staffing the company for better customer support, faster approvals, streamlined payments, but also investing in marketing the business and repositioning it for future success.

Key Point # 1:
We have invested quite a bit of money and time in development in order to "Grandfather" in our old sellers to their 52% commission rate, and $50 payment threshold. While it is important for us to grow margins to be able to stay competitive and turn a profit (after all, this is a "for profit" business, and we did shell out significant amounts of money and time to acquire it), we find it most important to honor the commitments made by the previous owners to their customer base before we began operating the business.

Key Point #2:
Yes, we did cut the commission from 52% to 40% for all new sellers after 8/3/16. I understand that this may seem negative, but in reality, there are many benefits of working with GL that should still make GL a viable option for many stock photo & vector sellers.

- We do not require any seller to exclusively sell with us, and guarantee them that 40% commission regardless if they post with only us, or 100 other stock image sites!
- We give 40% for ALL licenses sold. This mean when people purchase the merchandising or ultimate licenses, or the standard licenses, the sellers will still make 40%.
- 40% is still one of the highest commission structures out there, and there are no minimum sales requirements to receive 40% on your product sales.

There are many changes that we have in the pipeline and are working on to make significant improvements to GL, as well as increasing sales for our contributors. With the site having been neglected, revenues dropped for many contributors. New ownership is committed to turning this around.

I understand many people will not have the most pleasant things to say. It's unfortunate. However, as a seller of your stock photography, you have many options as to where you sell your images. If you choose to partner with GraphicLeftovers, you have our word that we will do our best to not only earn your business, but to make you more with us at 40% than you ever made with us at 52%. For those of you who are already sellers with GL, again, you have been grandfathered in and will continue enjoying the same commissions that you always have.

I am happy to address any questions or concerns, and I welcome anybody to get in touch with us. Whether you care or not, we are still excited for the opportunity to be able to work with so many talented artists.

Regarding the comments about our use of the word "exciting" -- We are excited to be able to work on this company, so please bear with our enthusiasm!

Thank you!

trek · « **Reply #5 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:26 »

Quote from: GraphicLeftovers on August 04, 2016, 16:14

Thank you for the post. I'd like to address some key points, while also addressing some concerns people may have.

First and foremost, after almost two years of negotiation, we acquired GraphicLeftovers from a group of 4 partners, all of which had full time jobs and GL was not a primary source of income for them. Because of this, the business was more or less set to autopilot, neglected the desires of many of it's members. The new ownership team will be investing a lot of time and money into not only better staffing the company for better customer support, faster approvals, streamlined payments, but also investing in marketing the business and repositioning it for future success.

Key Point # 1:
We have invested quite a bit of money and time in development in order to "Grandfather" in our old sellers to their 52% commission rate, and $50 payment threshold. While it is important for us to grow margins to be able to stay competitive and turn a profit (after all, this is a "for profit" business, and we did shell out significant amounts of money and time to acquire it), we find it most important to honor the commitments made by the previous owners to their customer base before we began operating the business.

Key Point #2:
Yes, we did cut the commission from 52% to 40% for all new sellers after 8/3/16. I understand that this may seem negative, but in reality, there are many benefits of working with GL that should still make GL a viable option for many stock photo & vector sellers.

- We do not require any seller to exclusively sell with us, and guarantee them that 40% commission regardless if they post with only us, or 100 other stock image sites!
- We give 40% for ALL licenses sold. This mean when people purchase the merchandising or ultimate licenses, or the standard licenses, the sellers will still make 40%.
- 40% is still one of the highest commission structures out there, and there are no minimum sales requirements to receive 40% on your product sales.

There are many changes that we have in the pipeline and are working on to make significant improvements to GL, as well as increasing sales for our contributors. With the site having been neglected, revenues dropped for many contributors. New ownership is committed to turning this around.

I understand many people will not have the most pleasant things to say. It's unfortunate. However, as a seller of your stock photography, you have many options as to where you sell your images. If you choose to partner with GraphicLeftovers, you have our word that we will do our best to not only earn your business, but to make you more with us at 40% than you ever made with us at 52%. For those of you who are already sellers with GL, again, you have been grandfathered in and will continue enjoying the same commissions that you always have.

I am happy to address any questions or concerns, and I welcome anybody to get in touch with us. Whether you care or not, we are still excited for the opportunity to be able to work with so many talented artists.

Regarding the comments about our use of the word "exciting" -- We are excited to be able to work on this company, so please bear with our enthusiasm!

Thank you!

I appreciate being "grandfathered" and hope GL succeeds in finding customers.

Pixart · « **Reply #6 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:29 »

Any thoughts on rebranding? I always felt that "leftover" lowered perceived value.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #7 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:33 »

Quote from: Pixart on August 04, 2016, 16:29

Any thoughts on rebranding? I always felt that "leftover" lowered perceived value.

Well, they rebranded as GL Stock Images.

Good news about the grandfathering. I don't see that anywhere.

topol · « **Reply #8 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:37 »

So can we upload again?

hellou · « **Reply #9 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:40 »

How do you want to attract photographers and artists?
What's the purpose of the agency?
What is unique about this agency compared to others?
Why would buyers use this agency over the dozens of other well established agencies and other general options?
What is the profile of the target buyer?
How will you attract buyers?

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #10 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:50 »

rebranding my behind https://graphicleftovers.com/ it is still in the url and on their blog they call themselves graphicleftovers, worst name for an agency trying to sell high quality images

PhotoBomb · « **Reply #11 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:52 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on August 04, 2016, 16:33

Quote from: Pixart on August 04, 2016, 16:29
Any thoughts on rebranding? I always felt that "leftover" lowered perceived value.

Well, they rebranded as GL Stock Images.

Good news about the grandfathering. I don't see that anywhere.

It was in the email i got.

GLStock · « **Reply #12 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:53 »

@ Sean - we sent out an email to all sellers, and an internal message to all sellers about this. The blog post was primarily targeted towards new visitors/members. But we sent notice via several means.

@ Pixart - Yes. Many thoughts on rebranding. However, we want to first put together a product that we are fully satisfied with before spending the significant amounts of time, effort, and money that goes into a successful (and not a sloppy) rebrand. There are so many potential "hazards" if done incorrectly, particularly when it comes to SEO rankings, which are obviously incredibly important. We want to be fully prepared when the time comes to rebrand so it does not do any major damage.

@ topol - Yes, you can upload through our interface, and can upload many images at once. We are manually adjusting "upload limits" based on quality of images submitted. Those who have a great internal reputation do not have limits, though new posters start at 20 per day until we see the quality of images being submitted.

@ Hellou, very good questions, and I appreciate them.
- This business has been established for 8 years, so the purpose of it initially was to provide a cheap alternative to the bigger players in the industry, who charge tremendous amounts of money for stock photography, vectors, videos, and more. Our "purpose" is to continue with the intentions of the original owners, while providing better service for all parties involved, and adding on features to the site to make significant improvements to what you currently see.
- What is unique about this agency compared to others is a very difficult question to answer. When there are hundreds of companies who are all doing similar things, sometimes there are small differences that set them apart. For us, our pricing for buyers is much lower than many of the bigger players. You may be able to find the same or similar images at 50-80% less with us. Additionally, we do not offer subscriptions for buyers, which means that sellers' earnings will not be diminished based on a package that any particular buyer has.
- Why would buyers use us? We will have images they want at lower prices. We will be pushing out free images on a weekly basis, and we are committed to the growth of the business. By opening new contributors, we are expanding the volume of quality images that will come through our doors, and this will pique the interest of more and more buyers.

We have a marketing background, specifically lead generation, and will be attracting users via various methods. There are various "target buyers" from one time users to marketing agencies and everything in between. It would not be appropriate for me to publicly outline our marketing plans.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #13 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:53 »

I didn't get an email. I saw a link on FB to the blog article. Then I checked the contributor info on the site and saw 40%.

I'm on vacation this week. I had to log in to GL on my phone to check the agreement. I saw no notification of a message. I just went back, clicked the link and saw a message dated today with the info.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #14 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:55 »

I like the 52% commission and all, but sales have been dead for a while now and I doubt you guys can reanimate this dead horse. Wish you all the best though.

GLStock · « **Reply #15 on:** August 04, 2016, 16:58 »

Quote from: Microstockphoto on August 04, 2016, 16:50

rebranding my behind https://graphicleftovers.com/ it is still in the url and on their blog they call themselves graphicleftovers, worst name for an agency trying to sell high quality images

I get it. Had I started this company, I certainly would not have chosen it. However, during our due diligence, we discovered that the company was referred a lot more frequently by "GraphicLeftovers" than GL Stock Images, and since GL is just short for GraphicLeftovers, we are not trying to shy away from a name that is recognized in exchange for a name that is less recognized, until we are ready for a full-blown rebrand.

Rebranding the right way is not easy. It takes immense planning, work, and money to be done properly. It is something we are working towards, but we are not there yet.

@ Noedelhap, I appreciate the sentiment. While you may think it's dead, the website receives a significant amount of traffic, and still to this day, despite the significant decline, pretty strong sales figures on a daily basis. We're encouraged by that, and not to sound like a broken record, but we are committed to turning it around.

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #16 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:00 »

competing on price, pushing out free images, stuff contributors love to hear these days,

GLStock · « **Reply #17 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:03 »

We have a bowl full of suggestions, but please do not hesitate to make more. We are listening, and as long as the suggestions are possible, we will be working on them.

hellou · « **Reply #18 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:06 »

After uploading i see all in a list.
Page1 until 200.

Each image in one line.
"Recent Uploads"
image 1
image 2
image 3
..
image 2102

Question: I need to click them one by one and need a second click "submit"?
That`s a crazy waste of time.

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #19 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:10 »

you seem to be wet behind the ears if you didnt take my comment as sarcasm, were sick and tired to see images be sold for less and less and pushing out free images gives the wrong impression to buyers. attracting buyers with free images is the wrong approach, once they have something for free they dont want to start paying for it. if you had been connected to the stock world you would have known that earnings for contributors are coming down all over the place, images are getting cheaper by the day, and people have stopped investing in high value shoots for microstock. its not worth it, stop giving our work away for free, change the buyer mindset, images are valuable and expensive and time consuming to make, you are devaluing our assets by lowering the prices and giving them away

edit: GL - you deleted part of your comment where you said you would be pushing out more images for free

stockastic · « **Reply #20 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:12 »

Quote from: Microstockphoto on August 04, 2016, 17:00

competing on price, pushing out free images, stuff contributors love to hear these days,

I think GL will encounter negative reaction to the idea of competing primarily on price. Although current contributors (I am one) are locked in at 52% commission, can we expect current prices to be maintained?

GLStock · « **Reply #21 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:15 »

Quote from: hellou on August 04, 2016, 17:06

After uploading i see all in a list.
Page1 until 200.

Each image in one line.
"Recent Uploads"
image 1
image 2
image 3
..
image 2102

Question: I need to click them one by one and need a second click "submit"?
That`s a crazy waste of time.

Just to reiterate, we are not suggesting that this website is perfect. We did not develop the technology, we did not come up with the name, nor the upload process. It will take some time, but we will be making improvements in areas that are lacking. Considering the tremendous amounts of development that goes into an application of this size, there is a lot to be done. We are here to help, and we will roll out improvements as quickly as possible based on what is most important to all parties.

What you have now with GL is a team of more committed people, who are listening to the feedback we are receiving in an effort to make positive changes.

I'm sure there are negative things to be said about the technology, as there is to be said about any technology created by somebody other than yourself, so we are coming the learn the technology fully in an effort to make significant changes/improvements that will allow buyers and sellers alike a more seamless user experience.

GLStock · « **Reply #22 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:25 »

@Microstockphotos -- I apologize for missing your sarcasm, after all of your kind-hearted responses, that one went over my head. Your comment has been heard though and I understand where you are coming from. Everyone is entitiled to their opinion, so I will just respond by reiterating that we are marketing professionals and we know how to increase traffic volume and revenue for businesses; it’s what we do. We have already seen an increase in sales since we have taken over the site. We of course understand the high value and big time committment associated with stock photos, and once again it is our goal to help contributors earn more money. You don’t have to agree with every marketing plan we have, and every word that I say, but if you choose to continue working with us you will see the results over time.

@Stockastic - We do not have any plans to lower pricing. In fact, we have plans to give more freedom over the pricing of your images. There are a lot of things in the pipeline, and we will listen to all of our members for suggestions as to how to best serve them. The previous owners felt that what the current prices are set to was the sweet spot for both sellers and buyers alike. However, with any business, things change over time. We will evaluate the pricing, and will adjust accordingly as needed to ensure that buyers are happy with the pricing, but sellers are happy with their earnings. It's obviously paramount for us to find the sweet spot, and rest assured, we will be working on this.

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #23 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:33 »

forgive me my kindhearted comments, we have been here many times before, seen many promises. just mind the pitfalls, good to have proper marketing, but if you dont know the stockworld, you are in for a big let down, and with that, us too, because soon will realize you have to lower your cost to be solvent, cut prices to be competitive and you'll stop communicating because you get tired of the abuse

sharpshot · « **Reply #24 on:** August 04, 2016, 17:35 »

Compared to the emails I usually get from sites, this one was great. I wish you the best of luck. Only problem with the email was this line, did you leave "one" out?
" If GraphicLeftovers is not already your number source of income for selling your Stock Photos, we are confident it will by the time we are done with all of the improvements we have in store."

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: GL News (Read 54487 times)

Sean Locke Photography

Microstockphoto

hellou

Justanotherphotographer

GLStock

trek

Pixart

Sean Locke Photography

topol

hellou

Microstockphoto

PhotoBomb

GLStock

Sean Locke Photography

Noedelhap

GLStock

Microstockphoto

GLStock

hellou

Microstockphoto

stockastic

GLStock

GLStock

Microstockphoto

sharpshot

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors