Author Topic: How? (Read 3848 times)

SuperPhoto · « **on:** July 19, 2018, 01:37 »

How could you market your "own" site to make sales? (Whether video or images)

I read (and agree to an extent) about people being upset about other microstock sites cutting commissions, lowering prices, etc, etc... So... how could you market your own site & make sales? (Most recent being videoblocks - which I totally agree is wrong for them to go back on their word. They "promised" 100% commissions "forever" - so they should have figured out a way to stand by that... because by going back on their word - it now means nothing. Nothing to stop them from "deciding" to say go to 25%, 10%, 5% etc in the future. Plus, they were very non-specific in their "marketing" efforts... so in essence, their e-mail is

Videoblocks (in essence/paraphrasing) e-mail: "Thanks for uploading your videos, giving us data on which clips sell - so we could buy those dirt cheap from you and build our membership library and grow that hard. However, we've now decided that we also want to get any marginal revenue left over, and don't feel like paying for clips even more at the dirt cheap prices we did... so - if your clips on our site that we benefit from SEO where you did all the work keyword, titling, etc make a sale, we've decided we are going to take 50% of those earnings too... If we get around to doing some extra marketing for you, great. If not, well, we've decided we just want to take 50%".

So... If you paid for hosting, I think you could get away with about $30/month. (Would you pay it? And would you pay for the extra cost as you scaled up, i.e., storage space/bandwidth, etc, so maybe $100/month for say 5,000 videos? Do you even 5,000 videos?)

That seems to be a logical alternative.

The big sites seem to have economies of scale (which simply means they are so big, they get a lot of traffic/buyers - so it is "easy" for them to make sales). So, you as a little guy with maybe 1,000 videos may find it hard pressed to go head to head with say a site like videoblocks that has 1,000,000 videos in their library.

So... if you did make your own site, upload your own videos, showcase your own work, take care of your own payments, etc... how could you effectively market/find those buyers, to not only cover your costs, but make sales too?

I think this would be a good discussion.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 19, 2018, 07:03 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on July 19, 2018, 01:37

How could you market your "own" site to make sales? (Whether video or images)

I read (and agree to an extent) about people being upset about other microstock sites cutting commissions, lowering prices, etc, etc... So... how could you market your own site & make sales? (Most recent being videoblocks - which I totally agree is wrong for them to go back on their word. They "promised" 100% commissions "forever" - so they should have figured out a way to stand by that... because by going back on their word - it now means nothing. Nothing to stop them from "deciding" to say go to 25%, 10%, 5% etc in the future. Plus, they were very non-specific in their "marketing" efforts... so in essence, their e-mail is

Videoblocks (in essence/paraphrasing) e-mail: "Thanks for uploading your videos, giving us data on which clips sell - so we could buy those dirt cheap from you and build our membership library and grow that hard. However, we've now decided that we also want to get any marginal revenue left over, and don't feel like paying for clips even more at the dirt cheap prices we did... so - if your clips on our site that we benefit from SEO where you did all the work keyword, titling, etc make a sale, we've decided we are going to take 50% of those earnings too... If we get around to doing some extra marketing for you, great. If not, well, we've decided we just want to take 50%".

So... If you paid for hosting, I think you could get away with about $30/month. (Would you pay it? And would you pay for the extra cost as you scaled up, i.e., storage space/bandwidth, etc, so maybe $100/month for say 5,000 videos? Do you even 5,000 videos?)

That seems to be a logical alternative.

The big sites seem to have economies of scale (which simply means they are so big, they get a lot of traffic/buyers - so it is "easy" for them to make sales). So, you as a little guy with maybe 1,000 videos may find it hard pressed to go head to head with say a site like videoblocks that has 1,000,000 videos in their library.

So... if you did make your own site, upload your own videos, showcase your own work, take care of your own payments, etc... how could you effectively market/find those buyers, to not only cover your costs, but make sales too?

I think this would be a good discussion.

Firstly you need to be an extremely good photographer to stand out from the crowd...but more importantly you have to be brilliant at marketing including the research side of what sells and social networking as I'm pretty anti social I wouldn't be much good at that either

. Even then I think the odds are against you...thats not to say that those at the very top of their game can't make a success of it.

cathyslife · « **Reply #2 on:** July 19, 2018, 07:10 »

Not to mention getting your site to even show in the search engines. Takes big money to get on page 1 of search results.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 19, 2018, 07:25 »

Quote from: cathyslife on July 19, 2018, 07:10

Not to mention getting your site to even show in the search engines. Takes big money to get on page 1 of search results.

Thats why I think you need the social networking skills I reckon the chance of getting your pics in front of a complete stranger these days are close to zero. There's actually a reason why the most successful sites spend so much on marketing ;-).

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #4 on:** July 19, 2018, 09:05 »

Well - my question is more of - how WOULD you be able to market your site?

(Not - 'oh man, it's too hard').

I'm genuinely interested if anyone has any ideas on how to do this successfully. Or even just ideas.

niktol · « **Reply #5 on:** July 19, 2018, 10:30 »

I'd be genuinely interested in that too. My own attempt several years ago failed miserably, it clearly requires knowledge and skills. Needless to say, people with knowledge and skills don't share those for free. Or at all.

DallasP · « **Reply #6 on:** July 19, 2018, 15:47 »

Get your SEO top notch for the trickle of organic results ... then post ... all day every day. Or use a post scheduling service like buffer.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #7 on:** July 19, 2018, 17:59 »

That's almost impossible without a good marketing budget. In my opinion it's not worth the effort. No matter how optimized your SEO is, the big agencies will always be ahead of you in the search results. Even if you do attract visitors, you'll have a hard time converting them into (regular) buyers because your port cannot compete with the huge library of the big agencies.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #8 on:** July 20, 2018, 00:52 »

Quote from: Noedelhap on July 19, 2018, 17:59

That's almost impossible without a good marketing budget. In my opinion it's not worth the effort. No matter how optimized your SEO is, the big agencies will always be ahead of you in the search results. Even if you do attract visitors, you'll have a hard time converting them into (regular) buyers because your port cannot compete with the huge library of the big agencies.

You need a USP (Unique Selling Point) probably that your product is original and not found elsewhere. I think this is probably more feasible at the "art" end of the market for commercial type Mstock I suspect its harder.

namussi · « **Reply #9 on:** July 20, 2018, 01:19 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on July 19, 2018, 09:05

Well - my question is more of - how WOULD you be able to market your site?

(Not - 'oh man, it's too hard').

I'm genuinely interested if anyone has any ideas on how to do this successfully. Or even just ideas.

First ask yourself "who is my target market?"

If you can't answer that question, then give up, as any efforts you make will be random.

farbled · « **Reply #10 on:** July 23, 2018, 19:35 »

I think you need to define your target market and how many clients you need to first cover costs and second, make a profit. It makes zero sense directly competing with big agencies. They have their target markets, but those are not the only ones out there, just the biggest in many cases.

I think it helps if you have a niche that not many others have and go after those agencies, design firms, industry-related sites (like reporters or news sites) and other places that would use your photos. Direct marketing I think would be best in that case. I have been a contract buyer at many companies and I have never seen a place use only one agency.

On a related topic, anyone know anything about fixing an uploader page within ktools, specifically for video thumbs and samples, that particular uploader doesn't work properly. Shoot me a message if you do.

Wrighty · « **Reply #11 on:** July 25, 2018, 02:19 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on July 19, 2018, 01:37

How could you market your "own" site to make sales? (Whether video or images)

I read (and agree to an extent) about people being upset about other microstock sites cutting commissions, lowering prices, etc, etc... So... how could you market your own site & make sales? (Most recent being videoblocks - which I totally agree is wrong for them to go back on their word. They "promised" 100% commissions "forever" - so they should have figured out a way to stand by that... because by going back on their word - it now means nothing. Nothing to stop them from "deciding" to say go to 25%, 10%, 5% etc in the future. Plus, they were very non-specific in their "marketing" efforts... so in essence, their e-mail is

Videoblocks (in essence/paraphrasing) e-mail: "Thanks for uploading your videos, giving us data on which clips sell - so we could buy those dirt cheap from you and build our membership library and grow that hard. However, we've now decided that we also want to get any marginal revenue left over, and don't feel like paying for clips even more at the dirt cheap prices we did... so - if your clips on our site that we benefit from SEO where you did all the work keyword, titling, etc make a sale, we've decided we are going to take 50% of those earnings too... If we get around to doing some extra marketing for you, great. If not, well, we've decided we just want to take 50%".

So... If you paid for hosting, I think you could get away with about $30/month. (Would you pay it? And would you pay for the extra cost as you scaled up, i.e., storage space/bandwidth, etc, so maybe $100/month for say 5,000 videos? Do you even 5,000 videos?)

That seems to be a logical alternative.

The big sites seem to have economies of scale (which simply means they are so big, they get a lot of traffic/buyers - so it is "easy" for them to make sales). So, you as a little guy with maybe 1,000 videos may find it hard pressed to go head to head with say a site like videoblocks that has 1,000,000 videos in their library.

So... if you did make your own site, upload your own videos, showcase your own work, take care of your own payments, etc... how could you effectively market/find those buyers, to not only cover your costs, but make sales too?

I think this would be a good discussion.

You have to look at it from two perspectives; your product and your buyer. Your product has to stand out in some way to drive people away from the bigger players, you have to be 'super niche' and provide something that cannot be sourced anywhere else. For example if you were staging/producing images like Gregory Crewsdon.

Secondly you have to 'find' your buyers. This is easier if your stuff is unique because they will gradually come to you, but initially it will require a lot of grass-routes marketing to let people know that you're even out there, and believe me (i've been there for independent films) it is a real slog - you have to give your life to it and a fair lump of money as well.

The other hurdle is customer trust. You have to build that through a good secure site with clearly defined licensing options and a website that functions really well on the back end for sales and transactions. And if you're operating globally, keep in mind the cost for sales processing etc..

So, it is possible, but it is also a lot of hard work. In short, it has to become your life.

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Author Topic: How? (Read 3848 times)

SuperPhoto

Pauws99

cathyslife

Pauws99

SuperPhoto

niktol

DallasP

Noedelhap

Pauws99

namussi

farbled

Wrighty

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