MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Crestock.com => Topic started by: fotografer on January 15, 2008, 02:42
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I uploaded nearly 100 images last month to Crestock and Bigstock to try the sites. So far on BS I have earnt about 70 - 80$ and on Crestock the grand total of 25c. Is this site worth bothering with as so far it has been a big dissapointment to me. I will get the rest of my portfolio up to BS as it has big possibilities but would like to know whether it's worth the effort with Crestock.
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Crestock is slow, and most of my sales there are subscription sales generating 25 cent each. Not a place to get rich fast.
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I have on download yesterday :)
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very slow mostly sub sales at 25c,I make $ 1-2 with 150 pics on line, very slow....
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i have actually earned as much on crestock this month as 123RF. And much less of my portfolio is uploaded on crestock. i think there might be hope there.
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Good site,good service,quite user friendly but I doubt if it's worth the effort.
I am thinking of removing my photos if I ever reach my first payout and I am not uploading anymore.
and I know some people are happy with 123RF but my thoughts is much the same for them as well.
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This is my experience with Crestock. This January I sent 4, they accepted them reluctantly and downsized them. I ftp'd a batch, but only put through 5. They rejected all of them. Huge blow to my ego. It felt like Istock all over.
Then I thought about it. I struggle with Istock. They take what comes right out of the camera, but they reject everything that I have played with and I think is really fabulous. They are my abusive husband, but they sell, sell, sell, so I will never leave. I'm getting to know what they'll take and slowly my embarrassing % is climbing.
I "HEAR" that Crestock sells mostly subs and that their standards are exeptionally high. If my first 9 photos suck they aren't going to take anything else from me now or in the immediate future. I don't need the rejection blues. I get that from Istock, so I pulled everything that was already live and from my pending. Maybe it's not fair of me to judge them so quickly with only pushing 9 through, but I don't need to have 5 or 10% of my photos on a site that has a reputation of a slow earner. I didn't want to keep 4 photos live that may or may not sell for them, but I will likely never reach a payout on.
On the other hand - I admire that an agency can stand by the quality standards that they have established - and that I have "HEARD" about from other photographers. I just don't know that a micro-subscription site is the right place to be so picky.
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Thanks for the replies. I'll think that I'll just leave my images at crestock for now but not bother with uploading any more unless sales pick up and get the rest of my portfolio uploaded to BS.
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Eeeee.... all right, I decided why not and signed up for crestock, :) just uploaded the first batch two or three days ago; they reviewed two, accepted two, and I already sold one, the rest are still in qeue for review. What's started to bother me is that a buyer pays $5 for a small dl and i only get $1...isn't that a lot more than on other sites for a non-subscription dl?
hehehe... all i'm learning from this is that at one point i'd not want to hand all this money over to stock sites...
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Hey,
@ChasingMoments, it sounds like you will pretty soon have 100 DLs and then be on a 30% commission. But, then, the thing is that lower commission rates don't equal higher profit for stock sites. Not for Crestock, we aren't sitting up here in cold Scandanavia counting our kroner, everything that is earned needs to be re-invested into marketing and the logistics of keeping the site afloat. Crestock's sales are going up and up, but that only results in the opportunity to promote the site more and gain a larger share of the market.
We're working on higher sales, from more marketing. Not low sales with a high comission. 50% of no sales is still, no sales.
We wish you all the best,
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I have only uploaded 50-60 files to Crestock, they rejected about half of them. Only 2 credit and 4 subscription sales in 9 months !
Only 0.25 $ earnings for the site with "our standards are much higher than on others microstock sites". This is ridiculous. I don't want to upload more. If they change earning system I can accept high rejection ratio and slow downloads, but not for 25 cts.
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fotographer, I have tried uploading a proportion of my portfolio to sites before and it doesn't give a good impression of the potential sales when you upload everything. I am sure you would do well with crestock.
I did see a big advert for Crestock in a UK photoshop magazine, so they are re-investing profits. I am pleased that I uploaded my portfolio there. Sales are catching up with 123rf but I have uploaded much less to crestock so far.
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I have only uploaded 50-60 files to Crestock, they rejected about half of them. Only 2 credit and 4 subscription sales in 9 months !
Only 0.25 $ earnings for the site with "our standards are much higher than on others microstock sites". This is ridiculous. I don't want to upload more. If they change earning system I can accept high rejection ratio and slow downloads, but not for 25 cts.
That's why they have so much to reinvest ;D
..yeah, that ran me off last year. Left them and LO...just not worth the time invested. You can argue the same about Featurepics, but at least my 1 or 2 dl's a month = $6 -$10 each (as opposed to .25 each). Personally, I WILL take "low sales with a high comission" thank you very much...I'm a "Call Girl", not a wh@re. ;D
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Hey,
@ChasingMoments, it sounds like you will pretty soon have 100 DLs and then be on a 30% commission. But, then, the thing is that lower commission rates don't equal higher profit for stock sites. Not for Crestock, we aren't sitting up here in cold Scandanavia counting our kroner, everything that is earned needs to be re-invested into marketing and the logistics of keeping the site afloat. Crestock's sales are going up and up, but that only results in the opportunity to promote the site more and gain a larger share of the market.
We're working on higher sales, from more marketing. Not low sales with a high comission. 50% of no sales is still, no sales.
Josh, thanks for responding, hope this strategy pays off. I personally (and I am sure many here'll join me in this) wish you all the best as your success will mean more $ for us in the future
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Thanks, for the reply. I'll probably upload any new images I have when I upload to other sites and maybe do a few at a time of my portfolio to see how it goes. I think if the 2 sales I have had been normal price it wouldn't have bothered me so much but just sub. sales make it seem a waste of time, I said at the beginning that I have made about 70 $ on bigstock in the same amount of time but it's actually about 50$ because I've had a few photos up there for about a year and a half that have made 20$ over that time.
fotographer, I have tried uploading a proportion of my portfolio to sites before and it doesn't give a good impression of the potential sales when you upload everything. I am sure you would do well with crestock.
I did see a big advert for Crestock in a UK photoshop magazine, so they are re-investing profits. I am pleased that I uploaded my portfolio there. Sales are catching up with 123rf but I have uploaded much less to crestock so far.
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No dlds in CS this month for me. I only have 70-something images, true.
Regards,
Adelaide
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can you opt out of sub sales at CS like you can at StockXpert?
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24 downloads so far this month. $9.75. Average of about .40c per download.
Thats with 167 files.
Huge increase over November and December. Looks like their marketing is paying off. ;)
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No dlds in CS this month for me. I only have 70-something images, true.
Regards,
Adelaide
same here.
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I had so much problems with getting approvals at crestockthat I stopped after only 4 approvals. My time has been much better spent elsewhere.
By the way guys I'm loving DT and 123rf as I've had 9 sales between the two this month where I was at only 1 last month between the two. All in all my sales across all sites have been Nov 1, Dec 1, 11 January (BME) !! No sales ever from Albumo, CS and FP (yet FP I get to set my own prices so I will continue to support them FOREVER and there is lots of view traffic at FP as opposed to Albumo and CS)
Mark
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This is my first month in microstock.
By now I have 51 images in Crestock and 3 downloads (3 x 0.25 :( )
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I'm really new at crestock, but i am a bit worried.. no dl's at all. and very very few views...
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I'm really new at crestock, but i am a bit worried.. no dl's at all. and very very few views...
well, given that its prices are higher than almost elsewhere, I'd stick around for a while, upload in your spare time when you don't have anything to upload anywhere else, wait and see what happens, give it some time to cycle through a season or two... and then either get out or stay :)
I myself just joined not too long ago, and i'll give it a few months. After which it'll be either all or nothing. Cuz uploading to so many sites is just not worth the time and effort...
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I made $25.75 in January with around 780 in my portfolio. Not great compared to some sites but a payout every other month will do me.
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I made 25c in January, but they take more or less everything I upload and I like the site, so I will stick with them.
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I made $14 in January with 167 files.
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I'm really new at crestock, but i am a bit worried.. no dl's at all. and very very few views...
well, given that its prices are higher than almost elsewhere, I'd stick around for a while, upload in your spare time when you don't have anything to upload anywhere else, wait and see what happens, give it some time to cycle through a season or two... and then either get out or stay :)
I myself just joined not too long ago, and i'll give it a few months. After which it'll be either all or nothing. Cuz uploading to so many sites is just not worth the time and effort...
ChasingMoments
I like the way your thinking. Perhaps I'll try uploading the 140 or so images that have been approved elsewhere that I haven't at CS since I stopped uploading after only 4 approvals months ago. If they are charging higher prices, perhaps some of that will ultimately be passed on with comission raises in the future after their marketing efforts start to payoff.
Plus ... I've been fortunate enough to travel to Sweden once :)
Jag Heter Mark
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I'm really new at crestock, but i am a bit worried.. no dl's at all. and very very few views...
well, given that its prices are higher than almost elsewhere, I'd stick around for a while, upload in your spare time when you don't have anything to upload anywhere else, wait and see what happens, give it some time to cycle through a season or two... and then either get out or stay :)
I myself just joined not too long ago, and i'll give it a few months. After which it'll be either all or nothing. Cuz uploading to so many sites is just not worth the time and effort...
ChasingMoments
I like the way your thinking. Perhaps I'll try uploading the 140 or so images that have been approved elsewhere that I haven't at CS since I stopped uploading after only 4 approvals months ago. If they are charging higher prices, perhaps some of that will ultimately be passed on with comission raises in the future after their marketing efforts start to payoff.
Plus ... I've been fortunate enough to travel to Sweden once :)
Jag Heter Mark
Well, here's the thing... when I am saying that they charge more than other sites - I'm not too excited about. Why? Because buyers will tend to gravitate from more expensive sites to sites where they can get the same image, even at a higher resolution, for cheaper - and, price-wise, in terms of what buyers are getting for their $$ crestock is one of the least competitive ones. Buyers leaving --> fewer sales. Photogs are thinking in a one-sided way - they say - YAY, sites that charge more are great - but! this is a free market, and in a free market, demand is also important.... and the demand is for cheaper, higher resolution images. Thus, who's going to win? The sites that are charging less for the same images...
Unless you are a mature, established site, with established clientele, stable, solid reputation, loyal contributors and so on and so forth. IS is one of them - solid, steady, predictable approach; consistent strategy, no wobbling left & right & trying a bunch o'things out. SS is another one - also solid, steady, predictable, consistent strategy. DT is probably in the same boat. Newcomers, younger, less established sites like crestock need to be competitive - how? In a saturated market where they have no chance of creating a unique gallery and where all the photogs recycle the same portfolios - how do you survive and thrive? By charging less - then you can compete for your usual, per-credit buyer.
I really wish I could see some stats on the percentage of different sites' incomes that come from "per credit" buyers and that come from subscriptions.... oh well, on to watching the GAME...!!!
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From everything I have read on the various forums, "Microstock" photographers are starting to get tired and fed up of being paid subscription model pricing commissions for their work. That being said ...
There are those designers and other buyers that will "shop around" for cheaper pricing (those that have the time), but its been said many times all over the forum that the designer doesn't care if the price is $1, 5, or even $10 if its what they need to use for their project. That being said ...
Any site that is new or not, and helps push pricing up up so that an equitable share can be shared with the photographer as well as support their marketing efforts to increase their business, should be supported. That being said ...
While Crestock may not be there yet ... if they support higher pricing, can build their client base inspite of the competition, and ultimately increase commissions to maintain its contributor base ... they just might have a chance of surviving :)
Just my two cents worth ...
Mark
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This is all extremely interesting to me! I've heard a lot of different theories about stock buyer behavior
I guess we can't assume that ALL buyers are this or that... Most likely, some buyers are purely "heavy weight" buyers that need hundreds of images at a time and use only subscription; others are "per credit" buyers that shop around for the exactly right image they are looking for; and yet others are cost-conscious buyers that have done their research (all it takes is look around all the sites once) and who KNOW which site offers best deals and go to that site, and if that site doesn't offer what they need, they move on to the next most cost-effective site. And of course there are some buyers in between. For any sort of meaningful discussion about anything, including the future of stock industry in general, we need to know which portion of all the buyers each buyer type makes up. If most buyers are "sub" buyers - huh! Then per-credit $ is least important to both buyers and sellers, unless photogs unite and boycott sub-sites. HUGE collective action problem; will never happen. If the market is split more evenly, then "each" type of buyer matters, and stock industry becomes "politics" & sites will try to innovate to draw buyers to their side. Say, canstock & 123 don't sell individual credits, they are probably trying to fill the niche bw expensive subs & per-credit sales...
...i can probably write a whole academic article on market direction & buyer behavior & get it published :))) data availability might be a problem though, but if there's a stock site willing to hire me for data analysis ;))) i'm available...
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hello,
my stats for crestock...
uploads: 450
sales: about 40 dollars a month and rising steadily.
I like Crestock and have good feelings about a steady increase in sales.
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This is all extremely interesting to me! I've heard a lot of different theories about stock buyer behavior
I guess we can't assume that ALL buyers are this or that... Most likely, some buyers are purely "heavy weight" buyers that need hundreds of images at a time and use only subscription; others are "per credit" buyers that shop around for the exactly right image they are looking for; and yet others are cost-conscious buyers that have done their research (all it takes is look around all the sites once) and who KNOW which site offers best deals and go to that site, and if that site doesn't offer what they need, they move on to the next most cost-effective site. And of course there are some buyers in between. For any sort of meaningful discussion about anything, including the future of stock industry in general, we need to know which portion of all the buyers each buyer type makes up. If most buyers are "sub" buyers - huh! Then per-credit $ is least important to both buyers and sellers, unless photogs unite and boycott sub-sites. HUGE collective action problem; will never happen. If the market is split more evenly, then "each" type of buyer matters, and stock industry becomes "politics" & sites will try to innovate to draw buyers to their side. Say, canstock & 123 don't sell individual credits, they are probably trying to fill the niche bw expensive subs & per-credit sales...
...i can probably write a whole academic article on market direction & buyer behavior & get it published :))) data availability might be a problem though, but if there's a stock site willing to hire me for data analysis ;))) i'm available...
LOL ... and I could assist as I do Market & Competitive Analysis by profession ... :)
Mrk
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This is all extremely interesting to me! I've heard a lot of different theories about stock buyer behavior
I guess we can't assume that ALL buyers are this or that... Most likely, some buyers are purely "heavy weight" buyers that need hundreds of images at a time and use only subscription; others are "per credit" buyers that shop around for the exactly right image they are looking for; and yet others are cost-conscious buyers that have done their research (all it takes is look around all the sites once) and who KNOW which site offers best deals and go to that site, and if that site doesn't offer what they need, they move on to the next most cost-effective site. And of course there are some buyers in between. For any sort of meaningful discussion about anything, including the future of stock industry in general, we need to know which portion of all the buyers each buyer type makes up. If most buyers are "sub" buyers - huh! Then per-credit $ is least important to both buyers and sellers, unless photogs unite and boycott sub-sites. HUGE collective action problem; will never happen. If the market is split more evenly, then "each" type of buyer matters, and stock industry becomes "politics" & sites will try to innovate to draw buyers to their side. Say, canstock & 123 don't sell individual credits, they are probably trying to fill the niche bw expensive subs & per-credit sales...
...i can probably write a whole academic article on market direction & buyer behavior & get it published :))) data availability might be a problem though, but if there's a stock site willing to hire me for data analysis ;))) i'm available...
LOL ... and I could assist as I do Market & Competitive Analysis by profession ... :)
LOL ! So, what do you think? Do I have a point? And being in "market and competitive analysis" - what are you doing here? Shouldn't you know all the secrets & where all the agencies are heading and so and and so forth? How'bout you give us your take on things? :)))
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This is all extremely interesting to me! I've heard a lot of different theories about stock buyer behavior
I guess we can't assume that ALL buyers are this or that... Most likely, some buyers are purely "heavy weight" buyers that need hundreds of images at a time and use only subscription; others are "per credit" buyers that shop around for the exactly right image they are looking for; and yet others are cost-conscious buyers that have done their research (all it takes is look around all the sites once) and who KNOW which site offers best deals and go to that site, and if that site doesn't offer what they need, they move on to the next most cost-effective site. And of course there are some buyers in between. For any sort of meaningful discussion about anything, including the future of stock industry in general, we need to know which portion of all the buyers each buyer type makes up. If most buyers are "sub" buyers - huh! Then per-credit $ is least important to both buyers and sellers, unless photogs unite and boycott sub-sites. HUGE collective action problem; will never happen. If the market is split more evenly, then "each" type of buyer matters, and stock industry becomes "politics" & sites will try to innovate to draw buyers to their side. Say, canstock & 123 don't sell individual credits, they are probably trying to fill the niche bw expensive subs & per-credit sales...
...i can probably write a whole academic article on market direction & buyer behavior & get it published :))) data availability might be a problem though, but if there's a stock site willing to hire me for data analysis ;))) i'm available...
LOL ... and I could assist as I do Market & Competitive Analysis by profession ... :)
LOL ! So, what do you think? Do I have a point? And being in "market and competitive analysis" - what are you doing here? Shouldn't you know all the secrets & where all the agencies are heading and so and and so forth? How'bout you give us your take on things? :)))
ChassingMoments
You make me laugh :) While I cannot go into the details of my day job, I have very much become interested in the world of stock photography. As I am able to reach certain insights and conclusions over time form my observations and homework, I promise to share them on the various forums. While I am still very much a "noobie" when it comes to stock photography ... I do know how to analyze markets, competition, and competiting products very well :)
I do believe you have a very valid point :) There are two (and perhaps 3) distinct types of end account users of our images.
#1 The first type of buyer, like you said there are the "heavy weight" buyers who will most likely have multiple subscription accounts from those companies that offer subscription and / or have major corporate accounts with Macro Sites. Either way they have big bucks to spend on subscriptions, or high $$$ photographs or licensing
#2 The casual user who sees an image that he or she likes but lacks the knowledge to know that the same image is available on another sight for $1 as opposed to the $15 that he or she is currently contemplating paying
#3 The hybrid user is savvy enough to do some moderate price comparisons and is likely to be registered at multiple credit type of accounts and might shop around for the best deal as they know enough to know they see similar if not the same image across multiple sites.
As microstock players well know ... its a numbers game. All of your images that sell 1 or 2x add up across multiple accounts and sites. Combine them with your best sellers across multiple sites and you can create a nice little revenue stream for yourself given enough time, effort, and patience.
All for now ...
Mrk
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To revive this old thread, I signed up with CS 4 weeks ago, and they accepted 7/10 10MP shots. Two of them have been sold since then for a disgraceful 0.25 cents each.
It's a good idea to have high standards, and offer premium content. But you have to match that with premium prices too, not with a lousy 0.25 cents for a 10MP shot.
If CS wants the best from its contributors, the contributors want the best from CS too. And that is certainly not 0.25 cents. It's even an insult to buyers that have to pay 2$ at other sites for the same content.
I upload more when I have time, not at 10MP but downsized to the minimum they accept. And if the large majority will be subscription sales at a devalued quarter dollar, no thanks.
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I've now had 15 sales and 14 of them were 25c sub sales. :(
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I have sold 12 there so far today. That is my BDE by far. 184 sold in total at an average of 36 cents. That is a similar average price to shutterstock.