Author Topic: New contributor referral program at The3dStudio.com - 5% for life (Read 19333 times)

The3dStudioDotCom · « **on:** August 23, 2009, 16:32 »

The3dStudio.com is a little different from other stock imaging sites, we were formed in 1996 and are well know and trusted in other media circles as one of the largest and oldest companies on the Internet offering 3D and 2D resources.

We offer both free and priced resources including 3D models, textures, tutorials, plug-ins, software, and feel we are now in a position to move into the stock imaging market. With our established website, own resources and an existing customer base, this makes us different to some of the other start-up companies that may struggle to get established.

Some of the benefits our contributing artist like include the ability to set your their own prices, no minimum PayPal payout, and our high artist commission being one of the best in the industry at 60%.

Although our stock imaging section is still very new, we’ve seen some excellent adoption rates by many great contributors out there (many from these forums) and are very pleased with how fast the stock images are be added to our library and are excited to see how fast our customers are buying up stock images as well.

We have a new program that’s coming out at The3dStudio.com right now and is being announced in our newsletter which is going out today and I would love to get some feedback from everyone here if possible since we really base our site and features on your feedback.

The3dStudio.com is proactive in talking to our artists and we welcome their feedback, one thing our artists have been asking for is a referral program.
At the3DStudio.com you will find we already have a good affiliate program, one where you can refer a Customer and get 20% of any sale, this program will not change, and the good news is after careful consideration of our artist’s feedback we are now extending our affiliate program to include artist referrals.

So what do you get? Simple…you get 5% of their sales for life. No limits, no changes, guaranteed. This example is straight out of our Help section (http://www.the3dstudio.com/help.aspx?id_help=12)...

For example, say you refer Bob to The3dStudio.com and Bob sells Stock Photos. Every time one of Bob’s photos is purchased you will get 5% of that sale. That 5% comes out of The3dStudio.com’s share so Bob still gets his full royalties.

If the average photo that Bob has sells for $12.00 then you would get $0.60 each and every time it sells, for life. If Bob sells 1000 photos per month then you would earn $600.00 in commission every single month without any limits of any kind.

The idea is that you are helping spread the word about The3dStudio.com and since that helps our business overall it seems only fair that you get paid for helping us in that way. Think about what 5% commissions for life really means if you refer just a few sellers to us, that can add up to seriously large sums of money over time.

The program is live right now and if you are interested you can go grab your affiliate links now: http://www.the3dstudio.com/member_sell.aspx
For anyone who already uses our affiliate program you are all set already and don’t need to do anything. The links you have been using have not changed and this new feature is automatically part of your affiliate efforts.

Feel free to post any feedback or suggestions right here or, as always, you can also email me (Matt) directly at [email protected] and I will be happy to answer any questions, read any feedback, etc.

Pixart · « **Reply #1 on:** August 23, 2009, 17:29 »

Adrepis, you should post your referral code here. You have been the most informative about this agency.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** August 23, 2009, 19:36 »

I'm sorry. Even if Dave gives the thumbs up, anyone that says "For Life", I don't trust. Like when you said whatever X% royalties, "forever" in your blog, I don't buy it. Sorry. If it comes down to it, you'll adjust it. It's just the way business it.

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #3 on:** August 23, 2009, 19:48 »

Okay, for you sjlocke we'll make it 99 years if it makes you feel better

Seriously though, I know it sounds hard to believe and we gave it a lot of discussion here. Some wanted a 5 year cap on it but I like LIFE. If you join the referral program now anyone you refer will net you that 5% commission for life. Period. That won't change ever.

Now, it's entirely possible that in a few years time we decide to change anyone who uses the referral program from that point on to a 5 year limit. We don't have any plans to do that but it is possible that the plan FROM THAT POINT ON will change. Anyone who gets a referral in now keeps that referral for life. Just so I am making my point clear, if you refer somebody today using our "lifetime" plan as I mentioned in this post you keep getting their commissions for life even if the plan changes later on. It's that simple.

If there is one thing we have learned at The3dStudio.com it's that we don't lower anything for existing members, which is why we have even put a guarantee on our royalty amount at 60% (http://www.the3dstudio.com/blog_detail.aspx?id=958). Any time something is lowered we will grandfather in all existing members on whatever the program is. This is just how we operate now because it's the right thing to do. We really are trying to put our business in a glass office and be upfront and honest and really trying to do what's best for everyone involved. I realize it sometimes seems too good to be true because people aren't used to dealing with a business that's honest and open but I hope that, in time, we can change your views of us.

oboy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 23, 2009, 20:03 »

Well, if nobody else post a referral link, then here is my affiliate link http://www.the3dstudio.com/?id_affiliate=467960

I am only with The 3D Studio for about a couple of weeks. And with only a small part of my portfolio I had two sales. I like the higher prices and commission. Upload is very easy and fast. I will give them change.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #5 on:** August 23, 2009, 21:08 »

Quote from: The3dStudioDotCom on August 23, 2009, 19:48

If there is one thing we have learned at The3dStudio.com it's that we don't lower anything for existing members, which is why we have even put a guarantee on our royalty amount at 60% (http://www.the3dstudio.com/blog_detail.aspx?id=958). Any time something is lowered we will grandfather in all existing members on whatever the program is. This is just how we operate now because it's the right thing to do. We really are trying to put our business in a glass office and be upfront and honest and really trying to do what's best for everyone involved. I realize it sometimes seems too good to be true because people aren't used to dealing with a business that's honest and open but I hope that, in time, we can change your views of us.

Yes, exactly. An online post is worth nothing. You send a notarized contract to all your contributors regarding a permanent royalty level, and then I'll buy it. Otherwise, meh. Sorry.

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #6 on:** August 23, 2009, 22:33 »

That's okay sjlocke, I figured you'd be the skeptical one in the group and it's okay if you don't want to participate. Our program isn't for everyone and our site isn't for everyone and that's okay. Just try to keep a little hope alive that not all companies are evil and out to get you and we'll do our part along the way.

I'd like to try and keep this post on topic if possible though, so if anyone has any feedback about the program itself (ideas, suggestions, what you like and don't like, etc) please let me know.

bittersweet · « **Reply #7 on:** August 23, 2009, 23:07 »

Quote from: The3dStudioDotCom on August 23, 2009, 22:33

That's okay sjlocke, I figured you'd be the skeptical one in the group and it's okay if you don't want to participate.

Sean is an istock exclusive, and I can tell you he has absolutely no interest in participating in your site. He enjoys playing devil's advocate to alert the rest of us to potential problems that we might want to investigate for ourselves. Overall this can be a helpful thing, but at times can come across a bit aggressive and pointless.

But back on topic...
Having recently been put in the position of missing out on a potentially lucrative opportunity due to contributor recruitment spamming, I think many times programs like this dilute individual royalty earnings for contributors. Those who invest a lot of time drumming up referrals are on the winning side, as is the site who doesn't necessarily care who gets the sale as long as someone does. ... But the contributors whose sales drop significantly are the ones who get the short end of the stick.

As their sales fall, does this put them in a position of having to seek alternative outlets for selling their work? And in the long run does this negatively affect the site putting bounties the recruitment of new contributors? I don't know the answer.

Adeptris · « **Reply #8 on:** August 24, 2009, 00:08 »

Quote from: Pixart on August 23, 2009, 17:29

Adrepis, you should post your referral code here. You have been the most informative about this agency.

Cheers,
My post has my reffal link in it, and my signature below, HERE IT IS

@Whatalife
Re: Refferal programs, Nearly every micro already has a refferal system in place already, and do they not reward different contributors with commission incentives, labels and tokens, microstock has been built on incentives and greed having a bad class system all of it's own, one where an asset is sold and the payment to the supplier can be 20% different, a new agency has to build thier library or collection, I would rather my assets compete and share on equal terms with people from this forum, with a flat percentage and no lower commision payout level, this is fair to everyone if you have 10 or 10,000 assets you are treated equally.

@sjloke
You can have a verbal contract just by making a promise, the fact that Matt on behalf of The3dStudio has written the same statement on the website and here for anyone to print and file should be enough.

They are not saying they will never change the T&C, but how nice to hear that if they do it will not affect any existing agreements, all the other sites should take note of how to treat loyalty, when they lower anything make that going forward for new contributors, and not retrospective for artist that have supported, supplied the assets at no initial cost, and been used to build their business.

David (just my 5%)

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #9 on:** August 24, 2009, 01:18 »

Quote from: Adeptris on August 24, 2009, 00:08

@sjloke
You can have a verbal contract just by making a promise, the fact that Matt on behalf of The3dStudio has written the same statement on the website and here for anyone to print and file should be enough.

Sure you can, but I doubt anyone is going to sue The3dStudio someday when the online terms change because a post in a blog said something otherwise. When buying things, I'm likely to ignore things like "lifetime guarantee" because you know the company will go out of business, or you'll lose the receipt or whatever. To me, things are more sensible when someone says "We'll do our best to keep this program in place", instead of "for life".

bittersweet · « **Reply #10 on:** August 24, 2009, 01:47 »

Quote from: Adeptris on August 24, 2009, 00:08

@Whatalife
Re: Refferal programs, Nearly every micro already has a refferal system in place already, and do they not reward different contributors with commission incentives, labels and tokens, microstock has been built on incentives and greed having a bad class system all of it's own, one where an asset is sold and the payment to the supplier can be 20% different, a new agency has to build thier library or collection, I would rather my assets compete and share on equal terms with people from this forum, with a flat percentage and no lower commision payout level, this is fair to everyone if you have 10 or 10,000 assets you are treated equally.

I'm not sure I completely understand your response. I'm not familiar with the practices of "nearly every micro", only the referral program at istock, which rewards people who bring in buyers. There very well may be others who reward for bringing in new contributors, but it does not change my question about the long-term effects of such a program. Maybe it works great. I don't know. I'm only voicing my thoughts based on some reports from people who have been directly and negatively affected by such a program. Maybe they are just anomalies in an otherwise perfect system.

The royalty commission structure of the sites, their greed, or your perceived "class system" has nothing to do with this topic.

Adeptris · « **Reply #11 on:** August 24, 2009, 02:37 »

Quote from: whatalife on August 24, 2009, 01:47

<...
>...
The royalty commission structure of the sites, their greed, or your perceived "class system" has nothing to do with this topic.

Hi Whatalife,
Sorry if I am reading your replies wrongly, there are lots of ways many sites use incentives to bring in buyers and contributors, by setting targets with upload or commission rewards, or just financial gain through affiliate and referal links, I do know there are some contributors on other sites that have no portfolios only affiliate accounts, and that is something you have indicated.

I could understand your points about dilution if one of the established site with millions of assets went on a drive to recruit new contributors, but this is a new player looking for contributors to build a library or collection, and we know that for any agency to attract customers it will have a target number of assets it needs to trade.

The point I was trying to make about the 'class system' is simple, a buyer will search and purchase an image, one contributors payment can be 50% less than another contributor, but the images are 'equal products' in size, quality and content, is one contributors image really worth 50% more than anothers because they have uploaded or sold more assets, I would think not, but that is for another thread.

Back on Topic:
It looks to me like The3dStudio are looking to build thier library and offering an incentive to those that are willing to network to fellow artists for them, they could have used a different approach and offered a lowered commision and used the difference in revenue to spend on direct marketing, I.M.H.O. the use of the affiliate incentive will benefit it's contributors longer term, all the website can hope for long term viral growth.

David

oboy · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2009, 08:27 »

I think it is quite normal that sometimes there will be more new contributors and sometimes and as a contributor you will feel this in your sales. But as the company and pool growth, you will feel less and lesser this effect.

When I was reading first the word lifetime, I was not thinking so much of that the 5% will always stay the same, but more of that the connection between the referrer and the new buyer or contributor will stay for a lifetime. And I don't see anything unbelievable in this.

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #13 on:** August 24, 2009, 13:43 »

whatalife: I guess I am not sure what negative impacts you are referring to on a referral program. You can refer buyers or contributors (sellers). For buyers you gain a 20% commission on their entire order. For contributors, you get 5% of their lifetime sales. If there is a negative in there that I am not seeing let me know and I will try my best to clear it up.

As David suggests, what we are basically saying is that we are new to stock, we want to build up our library quickly, and to do that we know we can't recruit contributors as fast as we'd like so we want to use you as our recruiters. You have the ability to reach an audience that we cannot and you can do it on a level that is more personal and less "spammy". That's worth something to us and that's why we think you deserve the 5% lifetime commission for that work. We could blow tons of money on advertising to get these new contributors and that will have mixed results (though we obviously are doing that as well) but we'd rather "invest" the money in those that are supporting us from the start. It just makes sense to us that way. No hidden agendas, no secrets involved, just a good old fashioned grass roots effort because that sort of system just seems to work best.

sjlocke: I see your point. If I see a product that has a lifetime guarantee I may take that with a grain of salt depending on the company that backs it and I can appreciate somebody being concerned about us as we appear new in the world of stock. The difference is that we have been around for 13 years now and our entire business is based on doing the right thing and serving our customers. To some degree, we still operate on the idea that a "handshake" still means something and while I realize that's naive in today's world it's still a principal that we operate on and I just can't change that because it's what I believe in. At the same time, I can't very well go around spewing all sorts of promises and then breaking them down the road and expect anyone to stay with us. Do right by us and we will do right by you. Simply telling you that I "will do my best" isn't good enough for me, I'd much rather spell it out like I have.

oboy: Any referrals you get will remain as a lifetime connection to you (as you have stated) and they will remain at the 5% level for that lifetime as well. Now, if we stop or change this program next year then anyone that you got before that time STILL would be tied to you at 5% for life. That's the guarantee we are putting on this program.

tobkatrina · « **Reply #14 on:** August 24, 2009, 14:02 »

*dumb question alert*!!!

Youdon't just want 3D images, right? Is a full (normal) stock portfolio welcome there???

Katrina

Adeptris · « **Reply #15 on:** August 24, 2009, 14:13 »

Quote from: tobkatrina on August 24, 2009, 14:02

*dumb question alert*!!!

Youdon't just want 3D images, right? Is a full (normal) stock portfolio welcome there???

Katrina

Katrina,
Yes you are correct, they have 3D and now they are wanting stock images, just visit and look at the section for photo / images it is the third section here

I have been watching the number of assets grow!

David

epantha · « **Reply #16 on:** August 24, 2009, 14:25 »

I still can't believe the number of views you get in such a short period of time.

Adeptris · « **Reply #17 on:** August 24, 2009, 14:31 »

Quote from: epantha on August 24, 2009, 14:25

I still can't believe the number of views you get in such a short period of time.

They are real check out the second answer on this topic about The3dStudio

David

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #18 on:** August 24, 2009, 14:36 »

Katrina, the answer as David said (I can't keep up with him!) is that, yes, we want your normal stock portfolio (images/photos) as that is the newest section of our site. You can see our stock categories at: http://www.the3dstudio.com/product.aspx?id_category_0=290 (and we can add categories as needed on request).

epantha: This is mainly due to that fact that we actually have been around for a long time (13+ years now) and have a well established group of visitors / customers already. Some of these customers buy stock images as well as 3D and the other items we sell but we will also be targeting more stock customers as our inventory grows. It's sort of a situation of stocking our shelves before we can truly go after customers but some of our stock contributors are already seeing some respectable sales overall, especially when you factor in our higher prices and royalty structure.

sharpshot · « **Reply #19 on:** August 24, 2009, 17:23 »

Matt, I see we are being asked to fill out a W-8BEN form and have a U.S. Tax ID number, if we are outside the U.S. and want to use the the tax treaty benefits. Shutterstock recently asked for this but now they have a simple online form and there is no need for a U.S. Tax ID number. Veer marketplace have a similar simple form. I think you will need to do this, if you want a significant number of people outside the U.S. to contribute to your site. Getting a U.S. Tax ID number is a long process and can be expensive. As we have seen recently, lots of contributors would prefer just using the sites that don't ask for one.

Please don't say it can't be done because that is what shutterstock said, shortly before getting it done.

tobkatrina · « **Reply #20 on:** August 24, 2009, 18:04 »

Quote from: The3dStudioDotCom on August 24, 2009, 14:36

Katrina, the answer as David said (I can't keep up with him!) is that, yes, we want your normal stock portfolio (images/photos) as that is the newest section of our site. You can see our stock categories at: http://www.the3dstudio.com/product.aspx?id_category_0=290 (and we can add categories as needed on request).

Thanks! I had looked around a bit on the site and well with my Artist 5 second attention span couldn't find it. Didn't want to waste time uploading something you didn't want! LOL

Ok guys check your referrals, someone here just got another! LOL

cascoly · « **Reply #21 on:** August 24, 2009, 18:56 »

i too was surprised at the immediate thousands of reviews -- but what was more amazing were 4 sales so far this month, for about $20. i had about 300 images at the start of August, about 1000 now. with 30,000 views. upl is quick & easy. this first month they've already beat IS, FT, 123 and SX in royalties

highly recommended -- my affilaite link is below

steve

The3dStudioDotCom · « **Reply #22 on:** August 24, 2009, 20:41 »

Quote from: sharpshot on August 24, 2009, 17:23

Matt, I see we are being asked to fill out a W-8BEN form and have a U.S. Tax ID number, if we are outside the U.S. and want to use the the tax treaty benefits. Shutterstock recently asked for this but now they have a simple online form and there is no need for a U.S. Tax ID number. Veer marketplace have a similar simple form. I think you will need to do this, if you want a significant number of people outside the U.S. to contribute to your site. Getting a U.S. Tax ID number is a long process and can be expensive. As we have seen recently, lots of contributors would prefer just using the sites that don't ask for one.

Please don't say it can't be done because that is what shutterstock said, shortly before getting it done.

Can you post a link to this on shutter, I'd be happy to take a look at what's going on and investigate what you are referring to. Of course, I can't guarantee that we can do something simply because some other company does...we have to listen to what our CPA's tell us on this issue and that's why we have the system that we have now. You can email the into to me at [email protected] as well.

Pixart · « **Reply #23 on:** August 25, 2009, 00:06 »

. Deleted cranky comment.

Adeptris · « **Reply #24 on:** August 25, 2009, 00:18 »

Quote from: The3dStudioDotCom on August 24, 2009, 20:41

Can you post a link to this on shutter, I'd be happy to take a look at what's going on and investigate what you are referring to. Of course, I can't guarantee that we can do something simply because some other company does...we have to listen to what our CPA's tell us on this issue and that's why we have the system that we have now. You can email the into to me at [email protected] as well.

Hi Matt,
Online submissions are quite common now, they will have an url or upload area where you can send an xml file in a specific format, and digital signature is also accepted, contact the IRS support desk would be better.

David

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Author Topic: New contributor referral program at The3dStudio.com - 5% for life (Read 19333 times)

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