Author Topic: Woohoo, a whopping sale at CanStockPhoto! (Read 8677 times)

null · « **on:** December 08, 2007, 02:52 »

Guess what. After 3 weeks of no sales at all I got a whopping 25 dollarcent from a subscription sale at full 10MP size. After 2,5 years on CanStockPhoto, payout is finally in sight. 4.5$ to go.... or 18 sales.

Disclaimer: this is a sarcastic post.
25 dollarcent for 10MP, what's that? nanostock or picostock?

It might be that market pressures make sites decide to go for the subscription model. That's fine for a site like SS where the sheer volume on sales makes up for the low price, so the net result for the photographer is still good.
A market, however, is made up by demand and supply. I don't know about others, but for me, I rather dump my shots for free on Flickr (which I enjoy immensely) than going through the hassle of make them 100% noise-free, 100% isolated, and to categorize them, just for an occasional 0.25$ sale.

This is no critique of CanStockPhoto.

sharpshot · « **Reply #1 on:** December 08, 2007, 03:35 »

Haven't you done all the work on the photos already? I have started to send some to CanStockPhoto. It is just another upload and a few seconds admin. $0.25 isn't much but that would be $0.00 if you didn't upload it.

Mshake · « **Reply #2 on:** December 08, 2007, 07:00 »

Quote from: sharpshot on December 08, 2007, 03:35

Haven't you done all the work on the photos already? I have started to send some to CanStockPhoto. It is just another upload and a few seconds admin. $0.25 isn't much but that would be $0.00 if you didn't upload it.

I think his point is that .25 cents is way to low for a 10 mega pixel photo. I left there for that reason. If your happy with that pay out for your large size photo then CanStockPhoto is the place to be for you! You will see roughly half your sales being the .25 cents type. I for one think that percentage of sales will continue to grow as they market the subscription sales more and more.

Lets play out this scenario, a savvy buyer is signed up at two stock photo sites , I'll use BigStockPhoto and CanStockPhoto as examples. He finds a photo he likes and is exactly what he is looking for while browsing the BigStock site. He wants a large file of the photo. So he knows CanStockPhoto has the subscription plan, which he has purchased. He goes over there to see if the same photo is available. He finds it! He decides to buy it there saving himself some money over BigStock's price. Under that scenario that photographer has lost out. Sure he gained a .25 cent sale at CanStockPhoto but he lost a sale at BigStock that could have earned him $3.00. The buyer would have purchased the photo at BigStock because it was exactly what he wanted. Now multiply that times one hundred sales or a thousand sales and you can see how the subscription plan CAN hurt your bottom line.

Think about it. The sites with subscription sales will tell you that the buyer will download many more photos then they would without the plan. Yes, that is true but what they don't say is most of those won't be yours. They will download many versions of a subject from many different photographers and pick the one they want later. They will try to tell you that you wouldn't have gotten the sale without the subscription plan. They don't consider that scenario I mentioned above at all, you as a photographer should consider that scenario. You have the control over how your photo is being sold. If you don't like the prices there selling for at a site then you have the power to leave that site. If you really think you gained a sale that you wouldn't have received and the .25 cents is worth it for your large size photos then sites with subscription sales are the way to go for you.

anonymous · « **Reply #3 on:** December 08, 2007, 09:44 »

that's why i don't upload my full size images to the subscription sites. Save them for the sites where you can set the price. $25 - $50 is what they're worth to me. Plus, many of the images I upload there were nixed by SS, StockXpert, or IS. They're good for $20 - $30 a month. I know that is pocket change for many but for me, it all adds up in the end.

Merry Christmas to all!

litifeta · « **Reply #4 on:** December 09, 2007, 17:18 »

$41.25 of sales for a year. 250 in my portfolio. I do like their keyword tool though.

null · « **Reply #5 on:** December 09, 2007, 18:34 »

The scenario that a buyer will shop for the same picture at several sites and then chose the subscription site is possible, but me thinks not that is common, - since a designer is under time pressure, - and if he finds the right shot for 4$ he won't be inclined to lose 5 mins to find the same shot at 1$ elsewhere. The gain of 3$ is marginal in the total cost (and the cost of his time) of the project.

I'm more worried about a customer buying a shot for let's say 10$ at BigStock, then finds later by coincidence that the same shot is for sale at CanStockPhoto for 1$. He might feel a fool and the negative vibes will come down on the head of the photog.

I tend to believe that it is the wrong strategy for a photog to upload the same shot at midstock or 5$+ sites, and also at subscription sites for 1$. A compromise could be to upload only 4 or 6MP versions to (predominantly) subscription sites, and 10MP full resolution at midstock or regular sites. In this case DT poses a problem, since subscription sales are (at least for me) not 50% of the total yet.

Once again (as I posted a while ago at LO), the goals of the sites and the individual photogs are partly the same, but partly also different. A site want to maximize profit for all ports trusted to them and there might be collateral damage for individual photogs. The photog has to have his own strategy to maximize his personal income.

I read posts here and at other forums of seasoned photogs for instance, that reserve their best shots (of a series) for RM like Alamy, and upload the lesser versions to microstock. Imagine a designer that buys a shot at Alamy for 50$, then finds later (by coincidence) that same shot is on CanStockPhoto for 0.50$. Not the sites will get a bad name, but the photog.

madelaide · « **Reply #6 on:** December 09, 2007, 18:49 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on December 09, 2007, 18:34

The scenario that a buyer will shop for the same picture at several sites and then chose the subscription site is possible, but me thinks not that is common,

That's what I think too.

Quote from: FlemishDreams on December 09, 2007, 18:34