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Author Topic: Woohoo... first real SymbioStock sale.  (Read 54417 times)

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Leo Blanchette

« Reply #100 on: June 27, 2013, 21:17 »
0
Hey there!

What I'm going to do is give people the early part of the cart manager plugin for stuff like that.

I'll have it ready in an hour or so.


« Reply #101 on: June 27, 2013, 21:26 »
0
Just had our 3rd sale - $5.75

The buyer didn't get his password, but fortunately emailed us, so we were able to sort it out.

May I ask how you handled it? Did you manually create a password for them? If yes, how did you do that? I am going to put a note on my home page, asking for anyone having trouble to please email me, but I'd like to be prepared with a plan on how to handle it. I think I can go into my db and create a user and get an encrypted pw, but if there is an easier way, I'd prefer doing that.

I'd already had the email to say a user had registered (and seen it looked like a real user!) so I went into Users and opened that user for editing. There's an entry for changing the password there, so I created a new password - I actually used Password Safe to generate a reasonably secure one - and entered that twice, saving changes. Then I emailed it to the customer, telling him to ignore the emailed password.

As it happens, the first email arrived eventually. Once the customer had bought the file, he didn't get the email, and neither did we, so I made the downsized copy locally and emailed it him.

« Reply #102 on: June 27, 2013, 21:34 »
0
I'd already had the email to say a user had registered (and seen it looked like a real user!) so I went into Users and opened that user for editing. There's an entry for changing the password there, so I created a new password - I actually used Password Safe to generate a reasonably secure one - and entered that twice, saving changes. Then I emailed it to the customer, telling him to ignore the emailed password.

As it happens, the first email arrived eventually. Once the customer had bought the file, he didn't get the email, and neither did we, so I made the downsized copy locally and emailed it him.

That's pretty tough. Almost everything that could go wrong went wrong there - but you still managed to close the deal, that's the happy ending.

I hope you can iron out the bumps so it will be smoother once the customers run your doors in!  ;)

« Reply #103 on: June 28, 2013, 19:56 »
0
Just had our 3rd sale - $5.75

The buyer didn't get his password, but fortunately emailed us, so we were able to sort it out.

May I ask how you handled it? Did you manually create a password for them? If yes, how did you do that? I am going to put a note on my home page, asking for anyone having trouble to please email me, but I'd like to be prepared with a plan on how to handle it. I think I can go into my db and create a user and get an encrypted pw, but if there is an easier way, I'd prefer doing that.

I'd already had the email to say a user had registered (and seen it looked like a real user!) so I went into Users and opened that user for editing. There's an entry for changing the password there, so I created a new password - I actually used Password Safe to generate a reasonably secure one - and entered that twice, saving changes. Then I emailed it to the customer, telling him to ignore the emailed password.

As it happens, the first email arrived eventually. Once the customer had bought the file, he didn't get the email, and neither did we, so I made the downsized copy locally and emailed it him.


Thanks for the explanation! I havent had any emails so hopefully it will all be ironed out soon. Glad you were able to save the sale.

farbled

« Reply #104 on: June 28, 2013, 21:38 »
0
I get many daily registers but I am 99% sure they're all spam. Im not worried about it, sooner or later the right buyers will find my site. :)

Ron

« Reply #105 on: July 07, 2013, 23:35 »
+6
Its time to bump this thread with my first SYS sale. Full size image 17.50 euro. And that makes SYS now by 4th best earner, since DP PD CanStockPhoto and GL dont make me more then a tenner per month.  ;D

If I have 1 sale per month like this, SYS is already outperforming 4 or 5 agencies just because of the 100% royalty structure. LOL

It was also a sale of an image added only a few days ago, and the image has been on other agencies for months. Goes to show the strength of SYS.

« Reply #106 on: July 07, 2013, 23:45 »
+1
Congrats, Ron !  :) :) :)

Something is happening. This is the second sales report today I read in the SY forums. Hope they keep coming  :D

Ron

« Reply #107 on: July 07, 2013, 23:47 »
0
Yeah, I saw that too, plus Leo reported a few sales. Its coming !  :D

« Reply #108 on: July 08, 2013, 00:19 »
+1
Congrats Ron!  :D

« Reply #109 on: July 08, 2013, 00:46 »
+1
That's great Ron. Delighted for you.


« Reply #110 on: July 08, 2013, 01:25 »
+3
Well done Ron! We have had a couple of small sales this month, very happy with the way things are going!

« Reply #111 on: July 08, 2013, 07:08 »
+3
Got my fist sale yesterday from my microstock collection, but still $10 :)

Ron

« Reply #112 on: July 08, 2013, 07:29 »
0
Thanks guys, I think the project is starting to work. We are at 60k images at the moment, I am sure we are going to 100k that means we will be bigger then People Images, if we keep going maybe get to 200k images we could be bigger as Stocksy  ;)

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #113 on: July 08, 2013, 07:52 »
+1
Quote
We are at 60k images at the moment, I am sure we are going to 100k that means we will be bigger then People Images, if we keep going maybe get to 200k images we could be bigger as Stocksy

I'm at 1000 images now and only 4000 more to add! We will get there! I'm also experimenting with putting my latest "editorial" type shots exclusively on my Symbio site. These relatively specialized images won't sell well on the main micros, but should appear right at the top of any Google searches. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Steve

Ron

« Reply #114 on: July 08, 2013, 07:58 »
0
I have moved most of my editorial shots to ALamy RM, but I think they will do nothing there. So I think from now on, all content goes to my site, it seems that the SEO is really good on unique images.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #115 on: July 08, 2013, 07:59 »
0
Yes - that was my original plan - to only put them on Alamy as RM, but as the sales there are so intermittent I decided to give them 6 months as exclusive on my own site instead. Not sure if it is entirely logical, but I put the price higher for an exclusive image on my site - thoughts about that?

Steve

« Reply #116 on: July 08, 2013, 08:24 »
0
<snip> exclusive on my own site instead. Not sure if it is entirely logical, but I put the price higher for an exclusive image on my site - thoughts about that?


On my people site I have been doing that, exclusive studio shots with high production value are higher priced.  On my pin-up I am going for $39... My thinking is it may be too high, but it is easier to drop prices that it is to raise prices.   My other images are the regular SYS prices.

Still no sales though.... :(

« Reply #117 on: July 08, 2013, 08:31 »
0
Thanks guys, I think the project is starting to work. We are at 60k images at the moment, I am sure we are going to 100k that means we will be bigger then People Images, if we keep going maybe get to 200k images we could be bigger as Stocksy  ;)

I see about 200 on your category page, so maybe something isn't working?

Ron

« Reply #118 on: July 08, 2013, 08:44 »
0
Yes - that was my original plan - to only put them on Alamy as RM, but as the sales there are so intermittent I decided to give them 6 months as exclusive on my own site instead. Not sure if it is entirely logical, but I put the price higher for an exclusive image on my site - thoughts about that?

Steve
Well Exclusive content could be priced higher, but its hard to say what the buyer will do. If they for example see a similar image in the network for cheaper they might pick that one. On the other hand, I think when buyers want that particular image, they will pay. But a higher pricing on exclusive content is acceptable. Its a unique image, so it could cost more.

Also, 6 months exclusivity should give the image enough time to settle nicely in Google Images.

Ron

« Reply #119 on: July 08, 2013, 08:45 »
0
Thanks guys, I think the project is starting to work. We are at 60k images at the moment, I am sure we are going to 100k that means we will be bigger then People Images, if we keep going maybe get to 200k images we could be bigger as Stocksy  ;)

I see about 200 on your category page, so maybe something isn't working?
Hey Sean, I meant in the network, not me alone. That would be something else ;-)

travelwitness

« Reply #120 on: July 08, 2013, 09:11 »
0
Thanks guys, I think the project is starting to work. We are at 60k images at the moment, I am sure we are going to 100k that means we will be bigger then People Images, if we keep going maybe get to 200k images we could be bigger as Stocksy  ;)


I see about 200 on your category page, so maybe something isn't working?


60k are in here, total images across all sites...
http://www.symbiostock.info/

« Reply #121 on: July 08, 2013, 09:13 »
0
Thanks guys, I think the project is starting to work. We are at 60k images at the moment, I am sure we are going to 100k that means we will be bigger then People Images, if we keep going maybe get to 200k images we could be bigger as Stocksy  ;)

I see about 200 on your category page, so maybe something isn't working?
Hey Sean, I meant in the network, not me alone. That would be something else ;-)

Ah, sorry.  I took "we" as "me", not "we" as "us"...

« Reply #122 on: July 08, 2013, 15:07 »
+2
Good ideas for editorial pictures on SY, editorial are a pain to push on some agencies and Shutterstock reject some because of the captioning...

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #123 on: July 08, 2013, 15:25 »
+2
Quote
Good ideas for editorial pictures on SY, editorial are a pain to push on some agencies and Shutterstock reject some because of the captioning...

I think so. As an easy example, I uploaded some images of the ornate altar in a church in Germany (marked exclusive as I am only planning to upload it on my own site) three days ago. I checked just now on Google. Someone needing that specific image will be very specific in their search and so "Gerlachsheim church" has me at position 2 in Google web search. (Bit too early for image search indexing)

No sign of any other stock images from other agencies even though there is a similar photo in Getty's creative collection, and four external shots of the church in Alamy.

All I can say is that Leo did a fantastic job on SEO!

Steve

« Reply #124 on: July 08, 2013, 15:47 »
+3

All I can say is that Leo did a fantastic job on SEO!


Yes, it is quite amazing. Much better even at this early stage than Photoshelter, Zenfolio and other more or less pricey subscription online stores.


 

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