MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: donding on March 03, 2010, 16:39
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Do you think buyers loyalty is directed at one site or do they shop around on all the different sites? I guess the real question is would a buyer shift through the images on one site that they are loyal to and if they couldn't find that "perfect" image there, would they go searching elsewhere or just purchase a "well I guess that's good enough" image at that one site.
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I think at one time buyers had a lot of loyalty to an individual site, but I think that now they realize there are a lot of choices and are more likely to shop around. Maybe not for price, because the prices are pretty comparable for non-exclusive images, but I think they would shop around for the right image.
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I think they probably shop a particular place out of convenience. They usually find what they want at one place, so why shop around to save a couple bucks. Although if an agency burns too many bridges, it's a lot easier for the buyers to go shop somewhere else.
On the flip side, I always wondered how loyal buyers are to particular contributors. Would they leave an agency to shop somewhere else if their favorite contributor left that agency?
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If the buyer is a one man band then they'd most probably shop around depending how important the budget is, it's no different to you shopping for something on the internet.
If they're part of a large company they would most certainly buy at one maybe two sites as that's where the company will have the accounts.
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if i was a buyer i would stick with iStock.
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given that more and more images are available, and buyers are spending more and more time searching for the right image, is it possible in the near future to have 3rd party vendors that will do the actual searching for the buyer? Is that service available now or is this plain stupid idea... ::)
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given that more and more images are available, and buyers are spending more and more time searching for the right image, is it possible in the near future to have 3rd party vendors that will do the actual searching for the buyer? Is that service available now or is this plain stupid idea... ::)
Some of the RM agencies offer that service 'in-house'. Don't know about the micros/third party.
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given that more and more images are available, and buyers are spending more and more time searching for the right image, is it possible in the near future to have 3rd party vendors that will do the actual searching for the buyer? Is that service available now or is this plain stupid idea... ::)
Picture researchers have been around for years, not sure the costs involved would warrant something like that in microstock though. Out of interest how do you know buyers are spending more time searching for the right images.
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given that more and more images are available, and buyers are spending more and more time searching for the right image, is it possible in the near future to have 3rd party vendors that will do the actual searching for the buyer? Is that service available now or is this plain stupid idea... ::)
Picture researchers have been around for years, not sure the costs involved would warrant something like that in microstock though. Out of interest how do you know buyers are spending more time searching for the right images.
Maybe they're not. I should have wrote that IMO, in the future, buyers might spend more time sifting through a library with 5 times more images than we have currently. They can also find images faster through more choices and smarter algorithms but its just one point. no need to dissect it.
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I'm a "one man band" and I used to buy from StockXpert. Now that they are gone the way of the dinosaur, I shop at Dreamstime. You couldn't pay me to shop at iStock because of their search.
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I'm a "one man band" and I used to buy from StockXpert. Now that they are gone the way of the dinosaur, I shop at Dreamstime. You couldn't pay me to shop at iStock because of their search.
It helps to hear from a buyers perspective. I don't buy so don't know one site from another, but I am curious what there is about iStock's search system keeps you away from them?
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It helps to hear from a buyers perspective. I don't buy so don't know one site from another, but I am curious what there is about iStock's search system keeps you away from them?
It is frustrating because of the extra "did you mean" clicks that it takes to get to get relevant results. Also I don't find what I am looking for because it doesn't allow conceptual keywords.
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It helps to hear from a buyers perspective. I don't buy so don't know one site from another, but I am curious what there is about iStock's search system keeps you away from them?
It is frustrating because of the extra "did you mean" clicks that it takes to get to get relevant results. Also I don't find what I am looking for because it doesn't allow conceptual keywords.
I didn't know that about conceptual keywords. I guess I need to quit putting those keywords in. :-\
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It has been my experience that the CV doesn't have the words I am looking for a lot of the time.
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For me personally... I used to buy from StockXpert and Dreamstime, but now I just buy from Dreamstime. In fact, 100% of the income I generate on Dreamstime is spent on buying credits. They make is SOOO easy and level 1 image prices are extremely attractive. I am always buying newly uploaded stuff there for my blogs.
A friend of mine works at an agency that has an iStock subscription. So they mostly get their stuff from iStock. But they will do "one-off" purchases of images at other sites if they can't find what they are looking for on iStock. With the economy the way it is, however, their "outside iStock" budget is fairly limited these days. So later in the month they'll sometimes have to make do with stuff on iStock even if it's not a perfect fit.
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every RM agency accepts requests by phone and email.
in the old days that was all they were doing full time.
some charge some money for the service, others do it free.
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every RM agency accepts requests by phone and email.
in the old days that was all they were doing full time.
some charge some money for the service, others do it free.
I'm not sure that I understand how that fits into this topic...
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If the buyer is a one man band then they'd most probably shop around depending how important the budget is, it's no different to you shopping for something on the internet.
If they're part of a large company they would most certainly buy at one maybe two sites as that's where the company will have the accounts.
Yep! With account holders, they will shop around after their account is up if they feel the need!
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Me and a friend of mine were arguing over this topic. He thinks that buyers stay with one site and I think that they prowl sites for the cheapest possible photo and that's why some of the photos are selling excellent on one site and not selling at all on other.
But, on the other hand, I am very new to stock so I am just guessing.
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Me and a friend of mine were arguing over this topic. He thinks that buyers stay with one site and I think that they prowl sites for the cheapest possible photo and that's why some of the photos are selling excellent on one site and not selling at all on other.
But, on the other hand, I am very new to stock so I am just guessing.
Do you usually go to the same gas station or do you shop for prices every time you fill up? Take it from there. ;D
Some people will shop and look at prices, some will do what's convenient. Some gas stations have loyalty programs, where you get something back for coming back to them. In microstock that would be a volume discount.
For stock, some design agencies have a big multi-user shared IS account and don't have time or care to shop around for pennies off on a photo.
I'd guess that the number of people who buy from the place they have the account, and where they are comfortable are far greater than people who search and shop. Especially considering that just about all the same 5 million Microstock images are on all the sites. If it's a matter of price, then they would already be using the cheaper agency. (opinion, no supporting facts)
I'd say most buyers stay with one site and don't have the time to waste trying to squeeze out another 50 cents off the already low prices.
ps Is it worth it, if you have to fill up, say 12 gallons, to save 2 cents a gallon on gasoline? Oh boy a whole quarter! ::)
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It has been my experience that the CV doesn't have the words I am looking for a lot of the time.
I don't understand could you give an example?
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Do you usually go to the same gas station or do you shop for prices every time you fill up? Take it from there. ;D
exactly.
and having worked in a store in my youth i can tell you that the ones spending a lot time checking
the different prices in every shop in town where the ones with the smallest budgets, the sort
of clients we were more than happy to leave to our competitors...
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It has been my experience that the CV doesn't have the words I am looking for a lot of the time.
I don't understand could you give an example?
There are many words and phrases which are not in iStock/Getty's Controlled Vocabulary.
I find it all the time with species of animals and plants, but a more general keyword phrase which isn't in the CV is 'aerial perspective'. But words are being added regularly (see the New Tags/New Term Mappings sticky at the top of the keywords forum). These were words which were not previously in the CV, but have been recently added by the keywords team).
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^^ Thanks Sue!
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^^ Thanks Sue!
Sorry elvinstart, I quoted the wrong comment. I was looking for an example for what you wrote "Also I don't find what I am looking for because it doesn't allow conceptual keywords."
Thanks
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There are many words and phrases which are not in iStock/Getty's Controlled Vocabulary.
I find it all the time with species of animals and plants, but a more general keyword phrase which isn't in the CV is 'aerial perspective'.
Aerial View is in the CV, and that's pretty close. :)
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Aerial perspective is an interesting one. To me it means the reduction in contrast and cooling of tones as elements in a landscape recede into the distance, thus providing a clue to perspective in a flat rendering (eg photo). Should this be in the CV?
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There are many words and phrases which are not in iStock/Getty's Controlled Vocabulary.
I find it all the time with species of animals and plants, but a more general keyword phrase which isn't in the CV is 'aerial perspective'.
Aerial View is in the CV, and that's pretty close. :)
Not at all - these have extremely little, if any, relationship to each other.
Aerial view is a view from above, e.g. from an aeroplane.
Aerial perspective is the effect of atmosphere on light, whereby more distant objects seem paler and more hazy than objects in the foreground.
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There are many words and phrases which are not in iStock/Getty's Controlled Vocabulary.
I find it all the time with species of animals and plants, but a more general keyword phrase which isn't in the CV is 'aerial perspective'.
Aerial View is in the CV, and that's pretty close. :)
Not at all - these have extremely little, if any, relationship to each other.
Aerial view is a view from above, e.g. from an aeroplane.
Aerial perspective is the effect of atmosphere on light, whereby more distant objects seem paler and more hazy than objects in the foreground.
And all my life I thought that was just smog. ;D
I've got an excuse -- I failed Art class as a youngin' (maybe I made a 'D', it doesn't matter).
So, assuming most normal people know this term, it certainly seems like it should be in the CV.
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Back to the original topic -
I was in a doctors office with my son today and looking at the magazines.
I picked up a copy of Parenting (www.parenting.com (http://www.parenting.com))
In the March 2010 issue they use images from: Shutterstock, Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend & Alamy.
So in this case I guess the answer is no, they shop around for the image that fits their need.
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Back to the original topic -
I was in a doctors office with my son today and looking at the magazines.
I picked up a copy of Parenting ([url=http://www.parenting.com]www.parenting.com[/url] ([url]http://www.parenting.com[/url]))
In the March 2010 issue they use images from: Shutterstock, Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend & Alamy.
So in this case I guess the answer is no, they shop around for the image that fits their need.
Do they actually credit the sites that they obtained the images from? Do they also give credit to the photographer?
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Back to the original topic -
I was in a doctors office with my son today and looking at the magazines.
I picked up a copy of Parenting ([url=http://www.parenting.com]www.parenting.com[/url] ([url]http://www.parenting.com[/url]))
In the March 2010 issue they use images from: Shutterstock, Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend & Alamy.
So in this case I guess the answer is no, they shop around for the image that fits their need.
Do they actually credit the sites that they obtained the images from? Do they also give credit to the photographer?
In the magazine yes not so much in the online version - there it looks like they mostly credit the agency, but I din not delve into the online magazine too much.
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When I buy, I typically use iStock. The reasons: 1) It was the first account I set up, so for a quick new purchase I don't have to do much... 2) The buying experience is user-friendly... 3) As a contributor I've found them to have the toughest standards, so I have the perception (real or not) that the images I have to sift through to find what I need is the cream of the crop.
So I'll happily buy from IS during the day at my real job, then at night go home and curse them for rejecting my images. Call it a love-hate relationship.
(I recently did open up a Shutterstock account as well, but only because a certain image I wanted was on Shutterstock and not IS. Since that purchase, however, I've been pretty loyal to IS.)
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I used to purchase from dreamstime when I worked as a graphic designer.
I wasn't a contributor then, and the company I worked for was not aware of dreamstime. I introduced dreamstime to them and although I no longer work for them, even years later, I know that they still use dreamstime.
I think it is more of a habit than loyalty. They are just used to buy from dreamstime now. I still see some friends from there and did introduced them all the websites I contribute to, but they didn't change their habit. Maybe because they already have a dreamstime account and don't bother to create another one, with another site.
Only if they don't find what they are looking for at dreamstime, they may use other sites which is a rare happening.
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Do they actually credit the sites that they obtained the images from? Do they also give credit to the photographer?
Most - if not all - sites required credits in editorial use. DT even specifies how the credit should be given, and it contains the author. From their FAQ:
Do I have to give credit for the image?
Should you use the image for editorial purposes, giving a credit line is compulsory. This is not imperative in commercial usage but strongly recommended and highly valued. The credit line is to be found in your download history or underneath the thumbnail on the image detail page.