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Author Topic: Anyone selling at Featurepics?  (Read 90263 times)

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« Reply #75 on: December 15, 2007, 09:02 »
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Oh, c'mon guys.  I'm begging you...please give me a break about LO.  It would be really nice to be able to talk about the site without folks casting a suspicious eye on me.  I was just responding to Flemish Dreams' and the other comparison posts.  He and I have had the exact opposite experiences with FP and LO for a long time, and I'm really interested in learning why my portfolio is doing so poorly at FP and okay at LO while others are having contrasting experiences.  I'm not trying to bring FP down or promote LO...I'm simply trying to understand the differences and would like to participate in the discussion, if that's okay.

Here is why you do good at LO:

1. Your a reviewer there.
2. When people from MSG and Talkmicro give up on LO they exchange their earnings for credits and buy ur images, since you actually get payouts.


« Reply #76 on: December 15, 2007, 11:33 »
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I think with LO and FP you can have more sales if you put some extra effort in.  With FP, this might involve linking to the images from another site and with LO, you can leave comments and use the forum to gain exposure.  If a portfolio was just uploaded and left at these sites, I don't think there would be much between them.

I don't really think views matter there.  You don't get many (any?) dl's from comments and exposure in the odditurium - at least it has not helped me - you get views but I think the main problem is a lack of marketing and too many sellers chasing too few buyers.

If you have your 100 dls - takes about a year for 600 or so images would be my estimate - like Karimala you can use the Sideshow and maybe that is where her sales are coming from. 

There is a lot of evidence that makes claims of great success at LO questionable. 

 -- My portfolio isn't much (188 at LO) and has only 11 dls after a year - none in nearly three months - but a subset of the pictures there have produced nearly $100 in the last two months at 5 other sites. 

-- The performance of the LO top performers is pitiful.  For instance at the top of the list in April  "Pasture" had 22 dls.  It currently is number 5 and STILL  HAS 22 dls.  Several others from the top 10 of 8 months ago are still in the top 10 and have form 0 to 2 or 3 additional dls.  With the top pictures at LO peforming this poorly it is hard to see how many can be making much.  At least outside the Sideshow.

fred

« Reply #77 on: December 15, 2007, 18:26 »
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Still a long way off payout and sales have slowed right down.

« Reply #78 on: December 15, 2007, 21:32 »
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Sometimes I think my lack of sales at FP have been due to my overall lack of understanding about licensing models. 
« Last Edit: December 15, 2007, 22:56 by Karimala »

« Reply #79 on: December 16, 2007, 03:08 »
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I set all my pics at RF + extension ($1-$5) and I have actually sold a couple of extended licences there, though the amount varies depending on the number of units and price.

One of illustrations on an album cover

They don't get a lot of traffic but if you have your own website you can link your thumbnails back to them.

I find sales are very sporadic

Their ftp and IPTC reader work well they categorize for you so if you can spare the bandwidth, why not upload.

« Reply #80 on: December 16, 2007, 03:46 »
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My earnings at FP the last 30 days have been $8.03. Not much, but compared to my earnings at LO, which are $8.40 the last 12 months, it's relatively good. More than 10 times as good, to be more precise.

Comparing agencies that way doesn't bring more money in the bank, but it does show which ones to leave first, if changes are to be made. Uploading to sites that have low sales and pay less than 50% to the photographer is probably just a waste of time. For me, that places LO firmly on the "cancel list". If they can't make any progress after one year, they probably never will.

Although FP is not perfect,  and their marketing must be somewhat lacking, the 70% cut and the photographer-friendly system makes me stay. A friendly, generous attitude buys them a lot of time. LO's fancy interface and big mouth don't.

« Reply #81 on: December 20, 2007, 10:08 »
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I love Featurepics. I had an inquiry about buying one of my photos listed on pBase. I said it would cost $150, and they replied that was fine, but could they use a credit card. I loaded it to Featurepics, priced it at $150, and it sold that afternoon. Smooth as silk!

http://www.featurepics.com/Authors/Images.aspx?id=445

CCK

« Reply #82 on: December 23, 2007, 13:55 »
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I love Featurepics. I had an inquiry about buying one of my photos listed on pBase. I said it would cost $150, and they replied that was fine, but could they use a credit card. I loaded it to Featurepics, priced it at $150, and it sold that afternoon. Smooth as silk!

http://www.featurepics.com/Authors/Images.aspx?id=445



This is one of the great advantages of FP. I sold one photo there since my last post, but whenever someone want to buy a photo, you can do it through FP. I upload to 10 different agencies, and FP is one of only four that have never rejected anything I uploaded.

grp_photo

« Reply #83 on: December 23, 2007, 15:40 »
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I had months over 100 Dollars and months with no sale at all my average at FP is probably about 30-40 Dollar as a response to epixx i make the double (about  70-80 Dollars) at LO.

« Reply #84 on: December 24, 2007, 17:36 »
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I had months over 100 Dollars and months with no sale at all my average at FP is probably about 30-40 Dollar as a response to epixx i make the double (about  70-80 Dollars) at LO.

LO is a strange animal. Some apparently sell well there, some not at all. To me, it's a complete mystery. I sell almost ten times as much on Scanstockphoto as on LO. Even at Stockphotomedia, I have twice the income of LO.

« Reply #85 on: December 24, 2007, 21:39 »
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This is one of the great advantages of FP. I sold one photo there since my last post, but whenever someone want to buy a photo, you can do it through FP. I upload to 10 different agencies, and FP is one of only four that have never rejected anything I uploaded.

FP is not your average agency where you upload and then have to sit on the sidewalk waiting. If a site like that suddenly decides to add subscription and sell your 10MP shots for 30 cents, nothing you can do about it.

FP gives you load of tools to manage your own sales. You can set your prices and license types. For me, it takes off the burden to do direct sales, add a shopping cart to my site, check my email daily. Let FP handle it, and you get 70%.

And of course, you can treat FP just like any other RF site. Uploading is fast and easy, like on LO. One click can do, a few more if you need to attach a MRF. The difference between FP and LO (for me) was 8x more sales (dollarwise) at FP than at LO.

A final note: don't be shy to set your shots at 10$. A customer that finds the right shot doesn't really care about 1$ or 10$. The first shot that I set at 10$ sold a couple of hours later. Made me smile since Shutterstock rejected it as not commercial.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2007, 21:41 by FlemishDreams »

« Reply #86 on: December 24, 2007, 21:54 »
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LO is a strange animal. Some apparently sell well there, some not at all. To me, it's a complete mystery.

Karimala pointed that out already. It's the search engine, stupid. Me thinks that LO relies too heavily on the commenting game for ranking the search results. Bad move. I never liked their commenting game. Have no time for that.

If I want a social site with commenting, I go to my Flickr. IMHO, LO has a basically wrong strategy trying to emulate Flickr. That, and the ridiculously low percentage, the bad watermark and high payout limit made me quit there.
LO should also hire better programmers. FP never had a glitch in its FTP and site functionality, simply because they experiment on a parallel mirror site, not using users/customers as guinea pigs. IT-wise spoken, LO lacks professionality.

grp_photo

« Reply #87 on: December 25, 2007, 02:50 »
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For Clarification:
In my case i totally rely on EL- and Sideshow-sales without them my average would be about 20-30 Dollars.

« Reply #88 on: December 25, 2007, 02:55 »
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Karimala pointed that out already. It's the search engine, stupid. Me thinks that LO relies too heavily on the commenting game for ranking the search results. Bad move. I never liked their commenting game. Have no time for that.

I agree. I'm not opposed to do marketing work on my stock portfolios, but then it has to be direct, and targeted towards my complete portfolio, like on FP, not some children's game that may or may not have positive influence on my sales.

« Reply #89 on: December 25, 2007, 03:01 »
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For Clarification:
In my case i totally rely on EL- and Sideshow-sales without them my average would be about 20-30 Dollars.

The sideshow is a mechanism that promotes photographers that already have 100 dollars on the expense of those who haven't. At the current speed, I'll qualify in around 12 years, but since the speed is decreasing, my guess is more like 25.

grp_photo

« Reply #90 on: December 25, 2007, 03:12 »
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For Clarification:
In my case i totally rely on EL- and Sideshow-sales without them my average would be about 20-30 Dollars.

The sideshow is a mechanism that promotes photographers that already have 100 dollars on the expense of those who haven't. At the current speed, I'll qualify in around 12 years, but since the speed is decreasing, my guess is more like 25.
Your sideshow-pictures must be good and it must be pictures you don't have on lower priced sites otherwise you won't see a sale with your sideshow-pictures.
In my case i put my midstock-level and to some degree even pictures i have on traditional stocksites in the sideshow.
But a good third from my income at LO comes from EL-sales you don't need a sideshow for that.
« Last Edit: December 25, 2007, 03:27 by grp_photo »

« Reply #91 on: December 25, 2007, 06:41 »
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But a good third from my income at LO comes from EL-sales you don't need a sideshow for that.

Unfortunately, since I've 1 - one - sale at LO between 10 October and 25 December, generating the impressive amount of 00.30 American Dollars, your argument about EL's doesn't hit me as particularly relevant for my future there.

The reason may obviously be that my photos are crap, which is unfortunate for those friendly customers who buy them at other agencies.

grp_photo

« Reply #92 on: December 25, 2007, 08:53 »
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I'm sure your photos are not crap at all. Sometimes ones photostyle sell on a site better than on another that is a normal thing. I just wanted to point out that is not the sideshow alone.

« Reply #93 on: December 25, 2007, 08:58 »
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i sell a few a month sometimes and sometimes i dont sell a thing....its quite random sales....but i am happy when i get a sale cos the min i get is $1 and i get $3.50 or higher for other sales....

« Reply #94 on: December 25, 2007, 12:01 »
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LO is a strange animal. Some apparently sell well there, some not at all. To me, it's a complete mystery.

Karimala pointed that out already. It's the search engine, stupid. Me thinks that LO relies too heavily on the commenting game for ranking the search results. Bad move. I never liked their commenting game. Have no time for that.

Actually I don't think commenting has much to do with dls there - probably increases views, but that sure has not helped me - their current 25 recent downloads only have two shots with any comments at all and one of them is the sites top picture - at 54 dls!!

I have not had a dl in three months on a portfolio of 188.  That is several orders of magnitude worse than any of the other 5 sites I am on with a subset of the same images.  I have a lot of trouble accepting claims of acceptable results on LO.  Just looking at LO's top performing images tells the story.  54 dls is the best anyone has done in over two years!  The number 6 picture in the list was number 1 in May and has not gotten a single download since then.   

I think the mystery is pretty clearly just a lack of customers.  fred



« Reply #95 on: December 26, 2007, 06:57 »
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Featurepics tickets over quite nicely for me, I dont think it will ever be a big earner but I have had 3 payouts this year....so nothing to grumble about

« Reply #96 on: December 26, 2007, 19:36 »
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Haven't sold anything there since 11/21. By far my slowest site. November was my best month and December close behind everywhere else.


have a look at

http://www.featurepics.com/Editorial/Stock-Image-Price-Statistic.aspx

shows what prices there are the most sales at etc.  Seems to me to be either price at $2 or $5 to get the most people??

« Reply #97 on: December 26, 2007, 20:00 »
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have a look at

http://www.featurepics.com/Editorial/Stock-Image-Price-Statistic.aspx

shows what prices there are the most sales at etc.  Seems to me to be either price at $2 or $5 to get the most people??


What it says, is that customers are mostly looking for images between $1 and $10, but that they will by the cheapest one that suits their needs. That's understandable, but if more photos were priced at $5 and above, they would probably still by them. $10 is dirt cheap, regardless of what you compare it to, and particularly if you compare it to the costs of an advertising agency.

« Reply #98 on: December 26, 2007, 22:40 »
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Joined but haven't begun uploading yet.  I'm looking to try to sell RM there.  For you RM sellers on FP, I am curious about one thing: when you make an RM sale, do they tell you who bought your picture and where it will be used (which magazine, website, etc)??

« Reply #99 on: December 26, 2007, 22:58 »
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Joined but haven't begun uploading yet.  I'm looking to try to sell RM there.  For you RM sellers on FP, I am curious about one thing: when you make an RM sale, do they tell you who bought your picture and where it will be used (which magazine, website, etc)??

Good question. I'll ask at the forums at FP.


 

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