i have had images there since 2004 - sales: 0

Quote

i have had images there since 2004 - sales: 0

Exactly my experience.

News from myLoupe -  Jan. 30,   2009
 
Dear myLoupe Colleagues,

I hope that this letter finds you all well.
 
2008 has been an interesting year.  As everyone knows, the year began with a sagging economy that has gotten progressively worse. The economy has affected our sales as it has most businesses. Overall sales were down slightly for 2008.  The outlook for 2009 is for the economic storm to continue.  I am hopeful that things will begin to turn around sooner rather than later, but we are prepared to ride out the storm in either case.  We may be in for a bumpy ride for the short term, but I remain very optimistic about the long term future of our business for many reasons. 
 
Economic hard times also bring opportunities. One effect of the current economic crisis has been some good companies that may have been a bit over extended  are no longer with us.  Some have closed others have been bought at fire sale prices, but the net effect is a consolidation within the industry.  Fewer players in the industry will provide greater opportunity for those who remain.  Particularly, in my opinion, for those like myLoupe that differentiate themselves positively from the industry giants.   Buyers may temporarily be spending less, but the need for quality stock photos isn�t going away. 
 
I�ve spent a lot of time preparing and analyzing financial data and projections required for prospective investors to come on board with us. This exercise has brought me to the reluctant conclusion that a royalty rate of higher than 60% is not sustainable over the long term. MyLoupe was founded on the principal that the content creator should be paid the highest possible return on licensing fees. We�ve led the industry with some of the highest royalty rates available. Our commitment to our founding principles remains unchanged, but the �highest possible royalty rate� must be defined by the need to be a profitable and sustainable business. Sixty days from now on April 1st, royalty rates will be set to 60% for everyone currently at a higher percentage. The only exception will be sales generated through our mySite program, those royalty rates will remain unchanged.
 
Our plans for attracting investment capital are progressing.  Optimistically though I do not expect to see those efforts bear fruit earlier than 3rd or 4th quarter.  Given the economic conditions it  could  take longer. An injection of investment capital will allow us to execute a very aggressive marketing plan, improve our brand recognition, and sell a whole lot more of your images.   
 
In other news, a major redesign of our website is underway. I won�t try to predict a launch date at this time, but it will be several months at the earliest. The redesign is part of an overall strategic effort to improve conversion rates, enhance usability and optimize for search engine placement.  The new logo developed for the redesign has been used in a small ad in the back of Print Magazine (Feb.) and has gotten positive feedback.
 
Something every MyLoupe contributor can do to increase our traffic and your sales, is to link to your image collection on MyLoupe.  You can find instructions on linking to your images when you log in to your admin or if you just want the url find your name in the contributor list at the bottom of the advanced search page, and just copy the url  from the address window when it has taken you to your images.  If you don�t have a website to put a link on, you can put one on your blog, or your LinkedIn,  Flickr , Facebook, or MySpace  profile.
 
Please use concise and informative titles and descriptions for your images, as these fields are how your images are found in Google searches and we do make sales from those searches. Who, what, or where mean a lot more than something cute.
 
Thank you to everyone that has been uploading images. There have been some outstanding images uploaded recently.  Your continuing efforts are appreciated and we are working hard to make them pay off.
 
Regards,
Brian