Author Topic: Superhug sells stock images (Read 8480 times)

Jennie · « **on:** August 18, 2011, 06:34 »

Hello.

Superhug is now selling stock images. We want to make the process of buying stock images more simple. To do so, we're trying to make the process of selling stock images more simple. I'd genuinely appreciate your feedback should you be so inclined.

https://www.superhug.com/categories/stock-images/designs

Thanks for reading

Jen x

sharpshot · « **Reply #1 on:** August 18, 2011, 07:18 »

I think you need some big portfolios to make your stock images section appealing to buyers. How do we sign up and do you have FTP?

Noodles · « **Reply #2 on:** August 18, 2011, 07:26 »

Quote from: Jennie on August 18, 2011, 06:34

I'd genuinely appreciate your feedback should you be so inclined.
Jen x

First impression of your heading doesn't match your name "Superhug" That name says warm, cuddly kinda feeling to me, but you placed it in a spiky box! I like the name though

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #3 on:** August 18, 2011, 07:26 »

As sharpshot wrote, FTP - and also IPTC - is fundamental, please let us know exactly how the upload process is. We are willing to support new / small sites with good commissions - especially after repeated commission cuts from two major sites - if uploading is easy.

I see files are grouped in "themes" with about 10 pictures on the same subject, seems a nice idea but requires additional time. Also, prices are varied: some packs of 10 pictures are selling at $1, which is too low. Some have higher, acceptable prices. If it's up to us to decide the price, fine.

I'm asking a lot of questions because I am possibly interested in joining.

Microbius · « **Reply #4 on:** August 18, 2011, 07:47 »

Really like what you are doing over there. I looks a bit different to the usual Micro model:

"By registering as a Member, you are entitled to a personal Webpage to upload content and images and to advertise and provide services to Users. Members may, in their sole discretion, determine the fees payable for each service on their Webpage."

Jennie · « **Reply #5 on:** August 18, 2011, 07:49 »

Quote from: sharpshot on August 18, 2011, 07:18

I think you need some big portfolios to make your stock images section appealing to buyers. How do we sign up and do you have FTP?

Agreed 100% with the big portfolio comment, sharpshot. We don't offer FTP at the moment, no, but zipped files direct to our S3Hub. If people would like FTP then we'll absolutely consider developing it - we're new to stock image sales so we're happy to be guided by those more experienced in the field.

Please feel free to sign up and give our back end a spin

/www.superhug.com/users/new

Quote from: Noodles on August 18, 2011, 07:26

First impression of your heading doesn't match your name "Superhug" That name says warm, cuddly kinda feeling to me, but you placed it in a spiky box! I like the name though

The one constant since the beginning of the Superhug development has been how to convey a hug. I think our verdict is that it's impossible without involving rainbows and teddy bears

Not ruling them out 100%, mind you!

Quote from: microstockphoto.co.uk on August 18, 2011, 07:26

As sharpshot wrote, FTP - and also IPTC - is fundamental, please let us know exactly how the upload process is. We are willing to support new / small sites with good commissions - especially after repeated commission cuts from two major sites - if uploading is easy.

I see files are grouped in "themes" with about 10 pictures on the same subject, seems a nice idea but requires additional time. Also, prices are varied: some packs of 10 pictures are selling at $1, which is too low. Some have higher, acceptable prices. If it's up to us to decide the price, fine.

I'm asking a lot of questions because I am possibly interested in joining.

Those who sell on Superhug have control over how their images (or templates/designs) are featured. When you sign up and upload an image/a set of images, there's a box into which you can suggest how much you'd like to charge for your work. I can count on one hand the number of times we've felt compelled to tell an author her/his appraisal was unrealistic. So yes, it's entirely up to you what you charge. It's your work, after all.

By all means, if you have questions ask them. This is what I do and I don't consider any question too much or unworthy of my time. We're very serious about what we do so please don't hesitate to contact me here, on Twitter (@JenSuperhug) or by email jennie [at] superhug.com

Again, thank you all for your interest and for having read my spiel

Jen x

SNP · « **Reply #6 on:** August 18, 2011, 08:09 »

cool website. hate the name, sorry. I'm exclusive so I won't be contributing but I love to see a new business start off well. your site is really good, clean, simple, easy to navigate, great illustrations. as said previously, you'll need to get some big players to gather clout. build significant traffic, give contributors (and buyers) a reason to migrate (maintain your commission percentages where they are). good luck!

gostwyck · « **Reply #7 on:** August 18, 2011, 09:02 »

Quote from: SNP on August 18, 2011, 08:09

... hate the name, sorry ...

Me too. It does sound like you are selling teddy bears and rainbows. Can't see it developing into a serious stock agency with that name. Who are you targetting your marketing at? Professional designers or 10-year old school girls?

click_click · « **Reply #8 on:** August 18, 2011, 09:24 »

I'm confused, are these images sold as RF?

I see brand names in images and even in their keywords (Nike, Technics, Blackberry etc.).

I don't understand how this "set" thing works. Whenever I click on an image to get to the product page I see only one image and it's called a set. I can't see any other images included in the "set".

Why are they called themes if images are sold separately?

Quality of images... no comment.

sjlocke · « **Reply #9 on:** August 18, 2011, 09:37 »

Quote from: gostwyck on August 18, 2011, 09:02

Quote from: SNP on August 18, 2011, 08:09
... hate the name, sorry ...

Me too. It does sound like you are selling teddy bears and rainbows. Can't see it developing into a serious stock agency with that name. Who are you targetting your marketing at? Professional designers or 10-year old school girls?

Agreed. The name is terrible. And sorry, it doesn't really look like you are seriously entering the stock image arena, just that you shoehorned a different digital asset into your existing template sales structure (especially the licensing terms as noted in the other post). You don't really have a good filterable search return. I also can't really figure out what I am looking at - these "products" seem to be collections of multiple images. How would a buyer find a specific image if it is buried under a bunch of others.

cclapper · « **Reply #10 on:** August 18, 2011, 09:50 »

Quote from: sjlocke on August 18, 2011, 09:37

Agreed. The name is terrible. And sorry, it doesn't really look like you are seriously entering the stock image arena, just that you shoehorned a different digital asset into your existing template sales structure (especially the licensing terms as noted in the other post). You don't really have a good filterable search return. I also can't really figure out what I am looking at - these "products" seem to be collections of multiple images. How would a buyer find a specific image if it is buried under a bunch of others.

+2

I thought it a little confusing...it seems as though your main function is to sell web templates, but you are offering stock images on the side. That's ok, but I'm not sure about how designers will end up finding stock images at a web template site.

I, too, am concerned about specific licensing terms. I am always interested in making more money, but lots has happened in the past 5 years with microstock, so I am going to be quite cautious.

Re: your company name. I am all for creative names, but Superhug does sound a tad childish. Sometimes the whole "trying to be creative and cutesy" goes a little too far. How does Superhug relate to web templates? If I buy one, I get a Superhug? Not trying to be a smartass, just trying to understand your thinking. I took a brief look at your site...maybe you have explained it there and I missed it? If so, apologies.

Jennie · « **Reply #11 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:01 »

Quote from: SNP on August 18, 2011, 08:09

cool website. hate the name, sorry. I'm exclusive so I won't be contributing but I love to see a new business start off well. your site is really good, clean, simple, easy to navigate, great illustrations. as said previously, you'll need to get some big players to gather clout. build significant traffic, give contributors (and buyers) a reason to migrate (maintain your commission percentages where they are). good luck!

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement, they're hugely appreciated.

The "exclusive" thing is something we've debated long and hard over the past few months. While we can obviously see the benefit for the website on which the images are featured, there doesn't seem to be any upside for the author of the asset for sale. By all means tell me to wind my neck in if I'm being too nosey but I'm interested to hear different perspectives - what does exclusivity offer you as a photographer?

Quote from: click_click on August 18, 2011, 09:24

I don't understand how this "set" thing works. Whenever I click on an image to get to the product page I see only one image and it's called a set. I can't see any other images included in the "set".

Why are they called themes if images are sold separately?

Quality of images... no comment.

Some of the designers who have submitted to us wanted to sell their images in sets. If that's how they want their work to be sold then we're happy to oblige. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through those sold in sets. Some of those with images for sale on Superhug have joined from other, more established stock agencies and have been testing our marketplace and trying out different methods of displaying their items. If they decide our search function isn't allowing users to find their images I'm sure they'll change things pdq

stockastic · « **Reply #12 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:03 »

I think some of you are forgetting about "Dreamstime". That name says absolutely nothing, but that hasn't held them back.

My 2 cents worth: all I really want anymore is some sort of stability, an end to steadily declining prices and commissions. Who wants to invest their time in a business that's washing away like a sand castle? It's at the point now where the big sites seem to have their commission reductions planned out far in advance and are just following a schedule for putting them into effect.

Morphart · « **Reply #13 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:12 »

Quote from: stockastic on August 18, 2011, 10:03

I think some of you are forgetting about "Dreamstime". That name says absolutely nothing, but that hasn't held them back.

Well DreamsTime is a nice name if you ask mean. Relative to Dream, dreaming time, all the images you can dream off, anything that you can image, time to dream!

Jennie · « **Reply #14 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:16 »

Quote from: cclapper on August 18, 2011, 09:50

I thought it a little confusing...it seems as though your main function is to sell web templates, but you are offering stock images on the side. That's ok, but I'm not sure about how designers will end up finding stock images at a web template site.

I, too, am concerned about specific licensing terms. I am always interested in making more money, but lots has happened in the past 5 years with microstock, so I am going to be quite cautious.

Re: your company name. I am all for creative names, but Superhug does sound a tad childish. Sometimes the whole "trying to be creative and cutesy" goes a little too far. How does Superhug relate to web templates? If I buy one, I get a Superhug? Not trying to be a smartass, just trying to understand your thinking. I took a brief look at your site...maybe you have explained it there and I missed it? If so, apologies.

Sorry, you posted while I was feverishly typing out my previous post!

We had enough requests from web designers suggesting we introduced a stock image element to Superhug that we developed it. We were asked to create something simple and clean that didn't require credits or overcomplicate things with different prices for diferent sizes. Those who requested a stock image element to the website wanted somewhere they could buy assets quickly and easily without having to go and sign up elsewhere.

The licensing thing is something I've asked our Legal types to consider as a matter of urgency. The security of our designers and customers is something we take very, very seriously (we remain one of few digital marketplaces to offer https encryption) so we'll get this right too.

And the name Superhug? It's a name, it's just a name. In terms of its etymology I believe our Canadian Director came up with it somewhere in South London circa 2006.

Jen x

Morphart · « **Reply #15 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:19 »

Quote from: Jennie on August 18, 2011, 07:49

Quote from: sharpshot on August 18, 2011, 07:18
I think you need some big portfolios to make your stock images section appealing to buyers. How do we sign up and do you have FTP?

Agreed 100% with the big portfolio comment, sharpshot. We don't offer FTP at the moment, no, but zipped files direct to our S3Hub. If people would like FTP then we'll absolutely consider developing it - we're new to stock image sales so we're happy to be guided by those more experienced in the field.

Please feel free to sign up and give our back end a spin /www.superhug.com/users/new

If you are asking if I would want FTP to upload to your site? It's a Must... FTP with IPTC data.

I have a lot of vectors, and for new sites, I like when you can upload your portfolio without have to process every single images. Best example of this would be Canstockphoto. Upload the EPS, go to your Unfinished section, tick Select All Images box and hit Submit. Be it 10 images or 100 images, all IPTC data is read, and makes the processing really simple.

iStockphoto is a pain to upload because we have to process each image individually unless you are building your IPTC exclusively for iStock and not the other sites. Vectorstock is an example of site I will never upload to unless they add batch processing and FTP.

Basically, if you want images to sell on your website, get this feature and let it be known here, there are a lot here who likes to give a chance to new sites which are simple of use for us, and have the (cross our fingers, be optimistic, who knows) possibility of making an extra payout each month.

First you need to attract thousands of contributors images to your site, second you need to make it appealing to the customers who buys images, and to have a chance if you stay ''small'', you have to develop a niche for specific image buyers out there... or jump in and try to compete with the bigger Stock sites.

Good luck, and let us know when the FTP and IPTC is out

Jennie · « **Reply #16 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:28 »

Quote from: Morphart on August 18, 2011, 10:19

If you are asking if I would want FTP to upload to your site? It's a Must... FTP with IPTC data.

I have a lot of vectors, and for new sites, I like when you can upload your portfolio without have to process every single images. Best example of this would be Canstockphoto. Upload the EPS, go to your Unfinished section, tick Select All Images box and hit Submit. Be it 10 images or 100 images, all IPTC data is read, and makes the processing really simple.

iStockphoto is a pain to upload because we have to process each image individually unless you are building your IPTC exclusively for iStock and not the other sites. Vectorstock is an example of site I will never upload to unless they add batch processing and FTP.

Basically, if you want images to sell on your website, get this feature and let it be known here, there are a lot here who likes to give a chance to new sites which are simple of use for us, and have the (cross our fingers, be optimistic, who knows) possibility of making an extra payout each month.

First you need to attract thousands of contributors images to your site, second you need to make it appealing to the customers who buys images, and to have a chance if you stay ''small'', you have to develop a niche for specific image buyers out there... or jump in and try to compete with the bigger Stock sites.

Good luck, and let us know when the FTP and IPTC is out

I'm asking and we're listening, thank you for having taken the time to write such a helpful post

Quote from: stockastic on August 18, 2011, 10:03

My 2 cents worth: all I really want anymore is some sort of stability, an end to steadily declining prices and commissions. Who wants to invest their time in a business that's washing away like a sand castle? It's at the point now where the big sites seem to have their commission reductions planned out far in advance and are just following a schedule for putting them into effect.

It's easy to write, the proof is in the proverbial pudding but...... we're a small team (that's us in the footer) so reducing the commission of our photographers and designers is not something that will happen at Superhug. Right now we want to develop a platform people want to use and that's simple and effective. Thanks to the helpful comments I've had in here today (and on my first day too!), we've a clear view on how to make that happen.

dirkr · « **Reply #17 on:** August 18, 2011, 11:09 »

Ok, sounds interesting.
What should be there (some of this has been mentioned):

FTP Upload
automatic reading of IPTC data (keywords, title description)
set your own price is cool, but there should be the possibility to set a default that is automatically used (no need to type the price for each upload)
clarify the licensing terms: what can a photo be used for, e.g. use in templates to re-sell? used on a product (e.g. mug or t-shirt) to re-sell? that usually requires a different (more expensive) license on other stock sites. You should offer different licences (normal + extended) or we would have to set rather high prices (since extended usage is included) which would lead to lower sales numbers
where are you located? US? then there needs to be some attention to tax issues (as experience has shown with other agencies)?
image sets should be purely optional, including the workflow

The ideal upload workflow would be: Send files via FTP and you're done. No more buttons to click, fields to fill, categories to choose, prices to be typed manually. Should all be fully automated.
If you get that going, with the rates you offer, expect to be flooded with content

Jennie · « **Reply #18 on:** August 18, 2011, 11:19 »

Quote from: dirkr on August 18, 2011, 11:09

Ok, sounds interesting.
What should be there (some of this has been mentioned):

FTP Upload
automatic reading of IPTC data (keywords, title description)
set your own price is cool, but there should be the possibility to set a default that is automatically used (no need to type the price for each upload)
clarify the licensing terms: what can a photo be used for, e.g. use in templates to re-sell? used on a product (e.g. mug or t-shirt) to re-sell? that usually requires a different (more expensive) license on other stock sites. You should offer different licences (normal + extended) or we would have to set rather high prices (since extended usage is included) which would lead to lower sales numbers
where are you located? US? then there needs to be some attention to tax issues (as experience has shown with other agencies)?
image sets should be purely optional, including the workflow

The ideal upload workflow would be: Send files via FTP and you're done. No more buttons to click, fields to fill, categories to choose, prices to be typed manually. Should all be fully automated.
If you get that going, with the rates you offer, expect to be flooded with content

Some awesome posts today, thank you all. It's been quite a first day on here

We're a Canadian-English-Irish team based just outside London, by the way. Everything we do is in US$ & through Paypal.

Jen x

sharpshot · « **Reply #19 on:** August 18, 2011, 16:52 »

Where's the upload page? I'm not going to upload anything that sells much until the legal side is sorted but I signed up (sharpshot) and can't see any contributor back end.

Noodles · « **Reply #20 on:** August 18, 2011, 16:52 »

Quote from: Jennie on August 18, 2011, 07:49

The one constant since the beginning of the Superhug development has been how to convey a hug. I think our verdict is that it's impossible without involving rainbows and teddy bears

Not ruling them out 100%, mind you!
Jen x

Come on, you're designers, think outside the box here! I like the name, its different and catchy and as a fellow designer I can think of heaps of ways to portray it visually. Images that come to mind, hugging an elephant, hugging a building, hugging anything huge! Float those ideas and see what u come up with. Forget rainbows and teddies, that's dinosaur thinking and there's already too much of that here

VB inc · « **Reply #21 on:** August 18, 2011, 17:27 »

Quote from: Jennie on August 18, 2011, 10:16

And the name Superhug? It's a name, it's just a name. In terms of its etymology I believe our Canadian Director came up with it somewhere in South London circa 2006.
Jen x

I bet he was high when that name magically appeared in his head.

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #22 on:** August 18, 2011, 17:32 »

The name of a company doesn't have to relate to the product it sells, it just has to be remembered. Google, Bing, LuckyOliver and other company names are examples of this, ok well maybe LO wasn't so lucky, but u still remember it and u know what it sold.

michaeldb · « **Reply #23 on:** August 18, 2011, 20:29 »

The three most negative posts in this thread were all written by iStock exclusives. I'm puzzled; what business of theirs is the subject of this thread anyway?

If they want to comment on things which do not concern them, maybe they should do so when they have something positive to contribute? $:-\$

sjlocke · « **Reply #24 on:** August 18, 2011, 20:41 »

Quote from: michaeldb on August 18, 2011, 20:29

The three most negative posts in this thread were all written by iStock exclusives. I'm puzzled; what business of theirs is the subject of this thread anyway?

If they want to comment on things which do not concern them, maybe they should do so when they have something positive to contribute? $:-\$

I'm sorry. We're not allowed to comment on anything other than iStock? Gosh, I missed that rule. Anyhow, I'll comment on what I want to comment on, when I want to comment on it, especially when it has to do with microstock in any form.