Author Topic: Sales at CutCaster (Read 73826 times)

Red Dove · « **Reply #175 on:** March 17, 2010, 09:56 »

There it is. Very interesting to hear from a buyer and thank you hqimages for taking the time. Much appreciated from me.

No sales for me in six months and views have also dropped. I have a few "exclusives" on there, mostly stuff I wouldn't have bothered to submit to IS or SS, to be quite frank. Only reason CC took them is to build their portfolio I suppose. For me, CC is too much of at risk at the present time to divert any exclusive images....I'm not a factory anyway, usually upload 5+ images a week to the top 3.

I've stopped uploading to CC since end of February - have to go where my port works for me.

Cheers and good luck.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #176 on:** March 17, 2010, 10:15 »

Quote from: sharpshot on March 17, 2010, 03:58

Some sites I have tried have had success selling the same microstock images at higher prices. Perhaps some buyers will spend time looking for cheaper prices but there are also buyers that are used to paying a lot more and find midstock cheap. When FP lowered their prices, it didn't make any difference, sales are still low there, I made much more with zymmetrical selling at higher prices. I don't think prices are the problem with cutcaster, the buyers can put in a lower bid if they want to. There just aren't enough buyers there at the moment and that is probably because they started much later than the other sites, they haven't had a big enough collection of images to attract new buyers and they have spent much less than the big sites on marketing. I still hope cutcaster can attract more buyers but it is going to be a difficult task.

There is a problem with that "lower bid" option, Sharpshot. It may require educating the buyers. I had a return buyer complain about my price increase on March 1. I suggested that he place a bid and he did not know how ... He is French. Finally, John had to intercede by actually lowering the price in the data base.
Also, as for views, I posted a while back about the option to link your images or lightboxes to external search engines ... Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc. My bigsellers are in a lightbox that has received more than 2500 views. I'm positive that most of those are referrals from Google Searches. Try a search on "motocross legends" and you will see what I mean.

My successful agency in microstock (or any stock) has been with Cutcaster. But, it is very niche oriented.

And, John Griffin is a pleasure to work with.

HQimages ... my images at cutcaster are very unique. They are scans of 30-year old black and white pictures. Nobody else wanted them.

stockastic · « **Reply #177 on:** March 17, 2010, 11:10 »

I'm a very small player and my opinon hardly matters, but here it is.

1. I'd like to never get another email from Fotolia saying "Congratulations!! You just sold an XXL image for 35 cents!!".

2. I'd be happy to have all my images exclusive at a place like CC even if they initially made considerably less than what I'm getting at FT, SS, and IS, because this is just a part-time thing for me, and dealing with all those sites is a time consuming pain, and the reviews (especially at IS) are getting progressively weirder as they try to hold back the flood.

3. I'd like to make just one sale at CC so I know you guys aren't pulling my leg.

4. Even if I decided to go exclusive, there's that obnoxious 6-month shutdown waiting period at DT holding me back.

5. CC has to give me a way to reset the prices on all my images at one time, whenever I want.

6. We'd all have to price our images realistically at CC.

sharpshot · « **Reply #178 on:** March 17, 2010, 15:54 »

The DT lock in only matters if you want to go exclusive with istock, as they don't let you sell any RF images anywhere else. That is too restrictive for me but several other sites let you upload images exclusively while letting you upload different images to other sites. That is the way cutcaster do it but I still haven't uploaded anything exclusively there yet. If the summer is good here and I can get out and take loads of photos, I will give it a go but at the moment I am not producing enough images to justify experimenting with cutcaster.

Lcjtripod · « **Reply #179 on:** March 19, 2010, 17:21 »

Sales at CutCaster! What sales? With about 500 images and many moons of uploads = ZERO Sales.

I guess I should stop shooting Golf and start shooting Motorcross Races.

Disappointed,
-Larry

stockastic · « **Reply #180 on:** March 19, 2010, 17:55 »

What I think Warren is telling us is that he had a set of somewhat unique images, and was able to make a CC lightbox directly available to Google searches. So someone was Googling on motocross, and up popped his images, and there was CC all set up to sell them

For a topic like 'motocross' someone is likely to use Google. For 'isolated apple' or 'confident doctor' they're probably more likely to go to a big microstock site because Google would flood them with junk.

Warren could also be selling these images directly, from his own web site, if Google could find it, and Warren could set up the site to process transactions and supply the resized files - not a trivial job. And, maybe, a lightbox in CC floats up higher in Google's results than Warren's unknown site?

I still don't quite understand how to expose a CC lightbox to Google's crawler.

Red Dove · « **Reply #181 on:** March 19, 2010, 18:40 »

Exclusive or unique are the keywords here. With Thinkstock now cold calling IStock clients (see other thread) to push subscription sales I can't see how the CC model can work at their price points unless they have exclusivity..or some value add to clients I don't know about.

There's a race to the bottom and there will be blood on the carpet this year. We all have to duck and dive to make sure it's not ours.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #182 on:** March 19, 2010, 22:12 »

Quote from: stockastic on March 19, 2010, 17:55

What I think Warren is telling us is that he had a set of somewhat unique images, and was able to make a CC lightbox directly available to Google searches. So someone was Googling on motocross, and up popped his images, and there was CC all set up to sell them

For a topic like 'motocross' someone is likely to use Google. For 'isolated apple' or 'confident doctor' they're probably more likely to go to a big microstock site because Google would flood them with junk.

Warren could also be selling these images directly, from his own web site, if Google could find it, and Warren could set up the site to process transactions and supply the resized files - not a trivial job. And, maybe, a lightbox in CC floats up higher in Google's results than Warren's unknown site?

I still don't quite understand how to expose a CC lightbox to Google's crawler.

Playing both ends against the middle, Stockastic. The website ranks pretty high in the motocross world, but only if I keep the blog current. Rather than handle the business end of selling, I refer website queries to John at Cutcaster. Do a Google search on names like Brad Lackey, Andre Malherbe, David Bailey, Danny LaPorte, Herbert Schmitz, Velky, Jobe, vintage motocross, etc. It all leads to SALES.

I also stay on good terms with all my contacts from the olden days in motocross publications. I'll get a few assignments in April and June ... If I ain't too old to work my way around a track. Thirty years from now, my grandson will be selling this stuff.

cathyslife · « **Reply #183 on:** April 12, 2010, 14:38 »

Quote from: stockastic on March 17, 2010, 11:10

3. I'd like to make just one sale at CC so I know you guys aren't pulling my leg.

Me, too.

I think that John is working hard to get things going, though. I just did a search of my name and found my images on ImageTrail. John explained to me that it is NOT a partner program. If someone wants to buy an image from ImageTrail, they get linked directly to the Cutcaster site (for now...but it looks like they are working on having the prices right on the ImageTrail site). That is very clear on the ImageTrail site and my copyrights are intact. I am hoping this extra exposure will give me at least ONE sale soon.

stockastic · « **Reply #184 on:** April 12, 2010, 14:43 »

My photos at CC are totally dead in the water - not getting any views. But, I guess there's no reason not to leave them there, as long as no funny games are being played with "partner" sites or giveaways, like FT.

sharpshot · « **Reply #185 on:** April 12, 2010, 18:25 »

I had another EL last week. Don't get many sales but there is a high proportion of EL's that keeps me interested.

johngriffin · « **Reply #186 on:** April 12, 2010, 18:36 »

Just so you guys know, we don't have partner sites that rep our work like other sites do and report back sales to us.

We want to know when we make sales for our contributors and don't want to rely on thrid parties to report back to us.

We work with companies like ImageTrail, for example, so they index our content and send us interested traffic back to the Cutcaster site so we keep track of the transactions internally and can be completely transparent about sales. We pay the referral fee from any sales that are generated out of the percentage that Cutcaster takes so it doesn't eat into your payout. Your work gets more exposure but it doesn't get murky with regards to who holds the copyright and whether your content has sold. You agreed to sell through Cutcaster and that is what we offer. Sales through Cutcaster. We get traffic from other sources and ImageTrail and Peter are a great source plus Peter is a really nice guy. We only work with companies like ImageTrail if they are open to a referral type deal and don't do transactions on their own site so we don't have to worry about reporting or lack thereof in some off cases.

We want everything to be upfront, transparent, fair and real-time. This is so contributors can see how much they are selling and how much they earn AND don't have to rely on the integrity of murky reporting and partnerships. I can't stand that some companies don't show contributors who is selling their images if they are not a part of the mother company you uploaded to in the first place. Who knows what is going on with the images and sales and you have to trust someone you don't know.

And thanks for your support. I am working my butt off and it is starting to payoff. There are more ELs and more daily downloads by the week. We want to work with you and present another alternative for your photos and illustrations to earn you money.

What we need now is a few more exclusive photos.

mtkang · « **Reply #187 on:** May 05, 2010, 10:08 »

I am lucky to have first sales in my cutcaster after uploading like 30 images. But due to new to cutcaster i am not familiar with their system. I got an bid offer from buyer to ask $4 for a vector that listed as $14.45 by cutcast algorithm. I accepted the bid and the sales are done. I realise that i only got paid $1.60 out of $4 sales. anyway, it is a sale. thanks cutcaster too.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #188 on:** May 05, 2010, 10:29 »

got a sale in August 2009, since that nothing, around 1000 photos!

sc · « **Reply #189 on:** May 05, 2010, 10:30 »

John,

I uploaded about 36 images a couple days ago. Described and submitted and now they are nowhere to be found.
What happened to them?

Thanks
Steve

johngriffin · « **Reply #190 on:** May 05, 2010, 11:02 »

I will email you Steve to see what happened.

sc · « **Reply #191 on:** May 05, 2010, 11:12 »

Quote from: johngriffin on May 05, 2010, 11:02

I will email you Steve to see what happened.

Thanks

and btw 2 sales today

johngriffin · « **Reply #192 on:** May 05, 2010, 18:06 »

I'm hoping for 20 sales not just 2 but its a start for a day. Once this new search platform is released the whole site and search will be vastly improved. Should be released shortly.

garren · « **Reply #193 on:** June 24, 2010, 14:53 »

Yay Me! Got my first sale today! I knew that if I hung around long enough, even with a portfolio as small as mine, I would get a sale.
Thanks CC!

UncleGene · « **Reply #194 on:** June 24, 2010, 23:48 »

I really like John's attitude and how Cutcaster treats contributors. Though I dropped my portfolio there, it will be my first "return" if it moves couple positions up in the poll

cathyslife · « **Reply #195 on:** June 25, 2010, 06:07 »

Quote from: UncleGene on June 24, 2010, 23:48

I really like John's attitude and how Cutcaster treats contributors. Though I dropped my portfolio there, it will be my first "return" if it moves couple positions up in the poll

I loved John's attitude but I just didn't see one sale in months. I, too, pulled my port but I wish the best for the site. John seems like a good guy.

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #196 on:** June 25, 2010, 06:19 »

I am not going to pull my port: once the hard work is done (both for photographers and reviewers), I can't see no reason to delete pictures unless I have doubts about the legitimity of a site - but luckily it's not the case with CC.

But months without sales made me disillusioned about this site and I'm not uploading anymore.

The day I will start to see the results of the hard work John says is doing (and I believe him), I will start again.
Sorry but I'm doing microstock part-time and it's already taking many hours a day and overnight FTP uploads are using all my bandwidth, so I must concentrate on sure avenues.

borg · « **Reply #197 on:** June 25, 2010, 12:39 »

1 sale overall...

I will upload to 1000 photos online, then I will stop...

1000 is enough to see eventual positive trend in the future...

ap · « **Reply #198 on:** June 25, 2010, 14:46 »

Quote from: borg on June 25, 2010, 12:39

I will upload to 1000 photos online, then I will stop...

1000 is enough to see eventual positive trend in the future...

i stopped at 32...

melastmohican · « **Reply #199 on:** June 25, 2010, 14:57 »

1 sale in January per 1300 images. Stopped uploading and hardly even checking sales there.

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Author Topic: Sales at CutCaster (Read 73826 times)

Red Dove

WarrenPrice

stockastic

sharpshot

Lcjtripod

stockastic

Red Dove

WarrenPrice

cathyslife

stockastic

sharpshot

johngriffin

mtkang

luissantos84

sc

johngriffin

sc

johngriffin

garren

UncleGene

cathyslife

microstockphoto.co.uk

borg

ap

melastmohican

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