As a seller who experienced both ways, I do not see any difference in customer behavior to be honest.. similar number of visits results in similar number of sales.. registration or not..

That hasn't been my experience. At Warmpicture, we had an abandoned cart rate of about 65% when we first started. I made some design changes to the checkout screen to keep people from being "distracted" by other stuff, and the abandoned cart rate dropped to around 50% which is below industry average.

However the abandoned cart rate with my Symbiostock site is 100%. The only big difference between the two sites is Symbiostock interrupts the sales process, forces the user to register, then they have to wait for an email, then they have to come back to the site, and then *hopefully they are still willing to make a purchase. I'm an impatient person, so I can tell you that I probably would abandon the process completely and go buy an image elsewhere. And then the other Symbiostock sites all require their own registrations...geesh. Why would I support this network as a consumer?

Leo's work is phenomenal. I'm fully in support of his efforts. But I feel the forced registration is a big limiting issue. We aren't signing up long term buyers through Google Images. We are selling one-off. I just think we are asking for too much commitment just to make a single image purchase. Make it optional, and let's compare results.

Guys, just upload an image worth tweating about. Microstock rules don't apply. Welcome to the pirate infested waters of the internet. Symbiostock is your personal ship with cannons.

I'm surprised someone hasn't invented "Reality Stock photography" to go with this, minding the latest trends. Get creative, have fun, and when you finally get back your original inspiration you can take down your carts and product selection tables, and it won't matter, because people will be sending you emails "Hey how much to use this image! I need it YESTERDAY!"

As for me - I'm burned out. I'm putting up my final post for the next year.

We should remember, that now in Symbiostock sites, many carts can be abandoned not by customers, but by other artists, maybe future Symbiostockers. They don't want to buy anything, but only want to see how it works

Leo's work is phenomenal. I'm fully in support of his efforts. But I feel the forced registration is a big limiting issue. We aren't signing up long term buyers through Google Images. We are selling one-off. I just think we are asking for too much commitment just to make a single image purchase. Make it optional, and let's compare results.

Have you tired installing one of the social media sign-in plugins?  I think that is the short term answer to your problem.

another factor in low sales is

Mean # of images = 1057

Median images = 460

so half the sites have 460 images or less

Quote from: cascoly on July 26, 2013, 02:10

another factor in low sales is

Mean # of images = 1057

Median images = 460

so half the sites have 460 images or less

Rome wasn't built in a day, give it time

exactly - people need to realize that small portfolios take time to be found, and even with 70,000 images there are a lot of gaps in our coverage if you look at the keyword list

up side is one sale a month pays for the hosting and often pays more than 80% of the microagencies

I installed google analytics yesterday to see if I was getting any traffic on my site and sure enough 13 different users but no purchasers so I figured it would be a good idea to add some exclusive content to my SymbioStock site. BTW, 13 different users is more than I received in any day of having my own non-linked site for 2 years!

I like the idea of SymbioStock exclusive images. I just uploaded and marked the new images exclusive to my site. This seems to be a good way to wean clients off of the traditional MS agencies and safely build up our own traffic.

I have now fully SEO'd 55 images...

Would you like to share what you did exactly?  There are so many things that I have read from different sources and it is hard to tell which ones will make a difference.

Quote from: picture5469 on July 26, 2013, 15:12

I have now fully SEO'd 55 images...

Would you like to share what you did exactly?  There are so many things that I have read from different sources and it is hard to tell which ones will make a difference.

use the yoast plugin and fill everything in until you get green on image

Quote from: picture5469 on July 26, 2013, 16:37

Quote from: ShazamImages on July 26, 2013, 16:04

Quote from: picture5469 on July 26, 2013, 15:12

I have now fully SEO'd 55 images...

Would you like to share what you did exactly?  There are so many things that I have read from different sources and it is hard to tell which ones will make a difference.

use the yoast plugin and fill everything in until you get green on image

that's what I've been doing, but it's time consuming.
here's some tips from getting to green:

-- yoast likes to see an image as part of the text - not realizing it's already there on the page   - so add a link to another image, even better if it's not under the same domain
--  outgoing links help (which is why I've been doing the contact sheets -- I can link from a horse image to my nonsym site, which also has other horse images)
-- yoast likes more text. for their reading quality think hemingway not proust. short sentences. 2 syllable words. more words. but dumb it down.  split dependent clauses 
--- repeat focus keyword in title, first <2> line and first actual paragraph

steve

Ive been doing all thats on there apart from linking to non symbiostock sites. I guess an army of non symbiostock sites linking in would be useful.

My site been up a couple of weeks and just noticed one of my images ranked 7 on a google search for 'ocean blue background' right next to SS and IS images. And my site seems to have 680 external backlinks.

I keep watching Symbiostock with interest... waiting to see if anyone is seeing any sales... but the forum is clogged with tons of "how do I do this or that" topics. 

This poll is closed (right?) but I am eager to see if SY starts showing promise for anyone. 

I know the goal is for it to hit critical mass for all the networking and backlinking to create a rising tide that lifts everyone up, but to convince the mass of us to jump in, we have to see that there will be results at the end of our efforts, and not just a waste of time that could otherwise be spent on creating new content that we know will sell.

So, is anyone seeing sales yet?

I have had one sale but since then problems with bluehost, my site doing weird, inexplicable things and such. I am getting registrations, but no more sales. I see users who have registered but dont have an abandoned cart showing, so difficult to tell whats going on. Since my images sell elsewhere, it cant be because they are crap. Maybe just not reaching the right market yet.


I thought that once i got my site built and styled the way i want, i could concentrate on just uploading and shooting new stuff but it seems like issues keep cropping up and i have to keep tracking down problems, adding plugins, resolving problems that those might cause, etc.


I keep plugging along in the hopes that one day soon it will all pay off.


I think that if you are a php guru and have tons of images, you will do well. The more seo stuff and pages with massive links to your site, the better you will do. I believe that the ones who are seeing regular sales right now fall into that category.


I do not see any of it as a waste of time just yet. I know it takes time and a lot of constant attention to get the word out. I was willing to give it a year, and i think its only been about 3 months, so...