Author Topic: New Pond5 and Membership Program (Read 22259 times)

pkphotos · « **Reply #25 on:** February 25, 2016, 15:14 »

To qualify a clip had to have two or less sales, therefore in general many good clips but not selling for whatever reason.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #26 on:** February 25, 2016, 15:41 »

Yet again... still no sales team to do sales.
How this membership is going to take off without some serious pushing to happen.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #27 on:** February 25, 2016, 15:55 »

Quote from: cobalt on February 25, 2016, 14:02

Well on pond5 someone posted they took all his non selling clips and he is thrilled they will now make him money. He has thousands of files, so this might really work well for him.

It will also be interesting to see if the additional traffic through membership downloads increases overall sales of the files that are not part of membership, i.e. if your best files from a series are only available for normal downloads, but a customer "discovers" you through membership, will they buy the other files as well?

It is something new, will be interesting to see how it works out.

I do hope they put me in control and allow me to decide what to offer. Or to suggest for their editors, maybe they don´t want to pay for all the sunsets of the world...

I doubt it. Bargain hunters are only and always just bargain hunters!

This actually might totally kill top sellers, imho.

You remember public domain free files they've launched last January. It was momentum of great site traffic, good sales, that didn't last forever. Why? Because they didn't have sales team in place to build from there.

cobalt · « **Reply #28 on:** February 25, 2016, 16:26 »

Well I price my files in a series according to quality, best files expensive, outakes and test files cheap. This has increased the sales of everything, the cheap stuff and the expensive files. I also get more serial downloads, where people buy several files from a series, including the more expensive stuff.

So I am not getting on the doom train. Not yet.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #29 on:** February 25, 2016, 18:59 »

Quote from: stockVid on February 25, 2016, 09:31

They emailed me saying that 850 of my clips had been selected for the new membership program. Guaranteeing me $425 a month.

I just logged into my admin and as far as I can see there is no way of telling which clips they selected.

I'm guessing they selected my best 4K/HD clips. If so, I need to remove them from the new program.

My admin just looks like the old one with a new CSS. Anyone know where the 'Membership Out' button is?

Is this called "artist friendly" ?

Mantis · « **Reply #30 on:** February 25, 2016, 20:09 »

Here's the Pond5 Response to me asking about inclusion opportunity:

"We have received an overwhelming response, and unfortunately seats were very limited. At this time, we do not have any plans to add to our Membership Library just yet. Your best bet to be considered in the next round is to make sure that your portfolio is thoughtfully curated and high-quality. I will alert our Content team of your interest, but please understand this is not a guarantee of inclusion."

cobalt · « **Reply #31 on:** February 25, 2016, 23:14 »

So a two tier system.

Too bad, would have been interesting to have that option as well, could have been a really useful tool.

And if the membership content gets preferred search placement, we´ll be out of luck.

Back to uploading and daily life, it is good we have several agencies.

Eta: just read on the forums that membership content will not get preferred placement. So they thought about that, which is good.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #32 on:** February 26, 2016, 02:42 »

Quote from: cobalt on February 25, 2016, 23:14

So a two tier system.

Too bad, would have been interesting to have that option as well, could have been a really useful tool.

And if the membership content gets preferred search placement, we´ll be out of luck.

Back to uploading and daily life, it is good we have several agencies.

Eta: just read on the forums that membership content will not get preferred placement. So they thought about that, which is good.

And who said that and on which forum?
Do you really believe they will say the truth and anger contributors?
Why would P5 introduce something hoping it won't work?

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #33 on:** February 26, 2016, 02:45 »

Or why would they push the membership content when they can collect membership fees then up-sell customers their premium popular content? We don't know what their intentions are but they have acted very openly so far so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #34 on:** February 26, 2016, 02:56 »

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on February 26, 2016, 02:45

Or why would they push the membership content when they can collect membership fees then up-sell customers their premium popular content? We don't know what their intentions are but they have acted very openly so far so I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

That sound like a fairytale!

Collecting membership fees is NOT an easy job. Especially without sharky sales dept!

And for the record, they didn't do anything to up-sell premium popular content before, so why would they do it now?
When buyer go there, they just look for the best selling clips first as they don't have time to dig trough tons of crapy files. It's simple as that.

thepokergod · « **Reply #35 on:** February 26, 2016, 02:58 »

Remember Pond5 is also getting 50% of regular sales so it's still in their interest to promote the main collection. The membership files are also available for regular purchase for those who don't want to subscribe.

My opt in process was pretty friendly - files older than a year with two or less sales and below a price point which I was able to define.

To opt out you need 120 days notice I believe.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #36 on:** February 26, 2016, 03:37 »

Quote from: thepokergod on February 26, 2016, 02:58

Remember Pond5 is also getting 50% of regular sales so it's still in their interest to promote the main collection. The membership files are also available for regular purchase for those who don't want to subscribe.

My opt in process was pretty friendly - files older than a year with two or less sales and below a price point which I was able to define.

To opt out you need 120 days notice I believe.

I would be very surprised that your opt in process went unfriendly!

Here is why...P5 knows you well and promotes you exclusively!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWaoAB_gDU

thepokergod · « **Reply #37 on:** February 26, 2016, 08:55 »

Quote from: KnowYourOnions on February 26, 2016, 03:37

Quote from: thepokergod on February 26, 2016, 02:58
Remember Pond5 is also getting 50% of regular sales so it's still in their interest to promote the main collection. The membership files are also available for regular purchase for those who don't want to subscribe.

My opt in process was pretty friendly - files older than a year with two or less sales and below a price point which I was able to define.

To opt out you need 120 days notice I believe.

I would be very surprised that your opt in process went unfriendly!

Here is why...P5 knows you well and promotes you exclusively!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWaoAB_gDU

Am I going to be a regular target of your anonymous trolling on this forum every time I post in a Pond5 related thread? When you say "promotes exclusively" I guess you mean alongside the 19 other artists they profiled as well as other's whose clips are regularly featured on the homepage.

Disgruntled ex-employee?

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #38 on:** February 26, 2016, 09:06 »

Quote from: thepokergod on February 26, 2016, 08:55

Quote from: KnowYourOnions on February 26, 2016, 03:37
Quote from: thepokergod on February 26, 2016, 02:58
Remember Pond5 is also getting 50% of regular sales so it's still in their interest to promote the main collection. The membership files are also available for regular purchase for those who don't want to subscribe.

My opt in process was pretty friendly - files older than a year with two or less sales and below a price point which I was able to define.

To opt out you need 120 days notice I believe.

I would be very surprised that your opt in process went unfriendly!

Here is why...P5 knows you well and promotes you exclusively!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWaoAB_gDU

Am I going to be a regular target of your anonymous trolling on this forum every time I post in a Pond5 related thread? When you say "promotes exclusively" I guess you mean alongside the 19 other artists they profiled as well as other's whose clips are regularly featured on the homepage.

Disgruntled ex-employee?

Oh sorry... sure you and 19 other artists that got profiled.
But all of you posting opinions on P5, you got to admit, is rather biased.

You can also be anonymous on MSG. It's a free world! :-)
Where is trolling here?... I just politely reminded you second time about this fact?
Sorry if it hurts! :-)

stuttershock · « **Reply #39 on:** March 03, 2016, 13:11 »

Quote from: StockGuy on February 25, 2016, 12:31

Pond5 took all the site analytics data to figure out what was selling and bought up and made deals with content creators to get this 200k library to offer a cheaper and bigger alternative to videoblocks offering. This will destroy contributor revenue. They will promote videos from this 200k collection videos. For example, their search algorithm will rank the 200k collection videos ahead of contributor videos. This is the beginning of the end to video contributors.

indeed, it is -- and it may be time to leave P5. They're not selling anything (while identical clips of mine do sell nicely on VB and others), so P5 was never a good idea anyway. Being awarded a "penalty" in their (internal site) search is the icing on the cake for me, even though my P5 sales could hardly be negatively affected anyway

Also, their "webdesign" or what they call it themselves, is bottom-of-the-barrel. That Flash rubbish they're plastering all over the place is ridiculous and shows theya re not aware of the difference between TV and an e-commerce website. P5 might want to teach themselves some basic layout some time...

Finally, they don't even know how to display a proper price in euros: you put the €-sign on the left-hand side of the numeral. Always has been correct, always will be (alternatively, you write "euros" w/o abbreviation or currency symbol). Clip price should read €37.00 (very much like you write a price in dollars).

Seen quite enough of them.

Ronib · « **Reply #40 on:** March 04, 2016, 01:02 »

They picked 400 of my files.
I asked to se which files they took and i saw that they chose my best ones so i asked to changed some of them and gave them specific files to replace and they did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #41 on:** March 04, 2016, 02:34 »

Quote from: stuttershock on March 03, 2016, 13:11

Quote from: StockGuy on February 25, 2016, 12:31
Pond5 took all the site analytics data to figure out what was selling and bought up and made deals with content creators to get this 200k library to offer a cheaper and bigger alternative to videoblocks offering. This will destroy contributor revenue. They will promote videos from this 200k collection videos. For example, their search algorithm will rank the 200k collection videos ahead of contributor videos. This is the beginning of the end to video contributors.

indeed, it is -- and it may be time to leave P5. They're not selling anything (while identical clips of mine do sell nicely on VB and others), so P5 was never a good idea anyway. Being awarded a "penalty" in their (internal site) search is the icing on the cake for me, even though my P5 sales could hardly be negatively affected anyway

Also, their "webdesign" or what they call it themselves, is bottom-of-the-barrel. That Flash rubbish they're plastering all over the place is ridiculous and shows theya re not aware of the difference between TV and an e-commerce website. P5 might want to teach themselves some basic layout some time...

Finally, they don't even know how to display a proper price in euros: you put the €-sign on the left-hand side of the numeral. Always has been correct, always will be (alternatively, you write "euros" w/o abbreviation or currency symbol). Clip price should read €37.00 (very much like you write a price in dollars).

Seen quite enough of them.

Ha, well spotted!!!
They are just desperate to be creative in everything, even where creativity is not really needed!

sharpshot · « **Reply #42 on:** March 04, 2016, 04:36 »

Quote from: Ronib on March 04, 2016, 01:02

They picked 400 of my files.
I asked to se which files they took and i saw that they chose my best ones so i asked to changed some of them and gave them specific files to replace and they did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is alarming, I thought the membership program would have clips that weren't as commercial as the main collection. Pond5 was one of my favourite sites but I am starting to lose confidence in them.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #43 on:** March 04, 2016, 05:41 »

Quote from: sharpshot on March 04, 2016, 04:36

Quote from: Ronib on March 04, 2016, 01:02
They picked 400 of my files.
I asked to se which files they took and i saw that they chose my best ones so i asked to changed some of them and gave them specific files to replace and they did.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This is alarming, I thought the membership program would have clips that weren't as commercial as the main collection. Pond5 was one of my favourite sites but I am starting to lose confidence in them.

What is also worrying ...what if every single opt-in contributor got to email them with the same request? extra work for ALL involved.

And why would membership buyers go for less commercial clips? They want quality, no?

Is this membership thing just a PR stunt to get some media attention and help SEO?

Pickerell · « **Reply #44 on:** March 04, 2016, 17:18 »

One thing everyone seems to be missing here is that there is a Royalty element in this membership program. Everyone is guaranteed $0.50 per month per clip even i8f they are never downloaded. That $6.00 per-year per-clip for no downloads.

Once they collect $100,000 a month (200,000 images in the collection) then the rest of the revenue (minus their 50%) is paid out to the contributors whose images are actually downloaded. Thus, if your images are used your likely to make much more than your $0.50.

In addition, the way search is structured this 200,000 image collection is likely to get much higher attention than the rest of the images on Pond5. And the non-subscription clips of the videographers whose clips are in the subscription collection are likely to get much more traffic than those of videographers without any subscription clips.

At least that's how they explained it to me for my story for my Selling-Stock.com newsletter. http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/pond5-introduces-improved-search-and-membersh

It may not be a great deal, but it is very different and a lot better than other subscription offerings. I'm amazed that Pond5 didn't clearly explain the royalty aspect of this subscription model to those of you who have clips in the collection.

Mantis · « **Reply #45 on:** March 04, 2016, 18:09 »

Quote from: Pickerell on March 04, 2016, 17:18

One thing everyone seems to be missing here is that there is a Royalty element in this membership program. Everyone is guaranteed $0.50 per month per clip even i8f they are never downloaded. That $6.00 per-year per-clip for no downloads.

Once they collect $100,000 a month (200,000 images in the collection) then the rest of the revenue (minus their 50%) is paid out to the contributors whose images are actually downloaded. Thus, if your images are used your likely to make much more than your $0.50.

In addition, the way search is structured this 200,000 image collection is likely to get much higher attention than the rest of the images on Pond5. And the non-subscription clips of the videographers whose clips are in the subscription collection are likely to get much more traffic than those of videographers without any subscription clips.

At least that's how they explained it to me for my story for my Selling-Stock.com newsletter. http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/pond5-introduces-improved-search-and-membersh

It may not be a great deal, but it is very different and a lot better than other subscription offerings. I'm amazed that Pond5 didn't clearly explain the royalty aspect of this subscription model to those of you who have clips in the collection.

What you are missing is that our issue is with those who are not part of that program and how it may cannibalize sales for uninvited contributors. I think we get it that those specially selected contributors will benefit, it's the ones not selected that makes this a real issue.

stockmn · « **Reply #46 on:** March 04, 2016, 18:13 »

Quote from: Mantis on March 04, 2016, 18:09

Quote from: Pickerell on March 04, 2016, 17:18
One thing everyone seems to be missing here is that there is a Royalty element in this membership program. Everyone is guaranteed $0.50 per month per clip even i8f they are never downloaded. That $6.00 per-year per-clip for no downloads.

Once they collect $100,000 a month (200,000 images in the collection) then the rest of the revenue (minus their 50%) is paid out to the contributors whose images are actually downloaded. Thus, if your images are used your likely to make much more than your $0.50.

In addition, the way search is structured this 200,000 image collection is likely to get much higher attention than the rest of the images on Pond5. And the non-subscription clips of the videographers whose clips are in the subscription collection are likely to get much more traffic than those of videographers without any subscription clips.

At least that's how they explained it to me for my story for my Selling-Stock.com newsletter. http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/pond5-introduces-improved-search-and-membersh

It may not be a great deal, but it is very different and a lot better than other subscription offerings. I'm amazed that Pond5 didn't clearly explain the royalty aspect of this subscription model to those of you who have clips in the collection.

What you are missing is that our issue is with those who are not part of that program and how it may cannibalize sales for uninvited contributors. I think we get it that those specially selected contributors will benefit, it's the ones not selected that makes this a real issue.

My understanding is that this is basically a beta test. If P5 can make this work and get the membership levels that they desire, the program will be opened up to other contributors.

At this point they have committed to paying contributors a minimum of 50 cents per clip per month for clips in the program and those payment begin immediately. You have to remember that they currently have very few, if any, people who have signed up for this (ie no real income from this program yet). It wouldn't make sense to pay out on more than the initial 200,000 clips (that's $100,000 a month) until they know if this works.

They are going out of pocket to try something that could be more beneficial to contributors than a standard "stack'em high and sell'em cheap" subscription program that pays contributors pennies.

I don't know if it will work out but I commend them for trying something outside the box that doesn't outright scr*w contributors from the get go.

sharpshot · « **Reply #47 on:** March 04, 2016, 18:58 »

So many things have changed with P5 in recent months. Luckily, I only had 2 audio clips when they deactivated them, I feel sorry for people that had lots more. Having already verified my account fairly recently, I don't know why they wanted me to do it again. Review times went from a reasonable period to months. Then they go from accepting almost everything to people reporting that they are rejecting almost everything.

This reminds me so much of the way istock went, I hope its temporary and they can go back to being the site I used to think was one of the best.

obj owl · « **Reply #48 on:** March 04, 2016, 20:43 »

Quote from: Pickerell on March 04, 2016, 17:18

One thing everyone seems to be missing here is that there is a Royalty element in this membership program. Everyone is guaranteed $0.50 per month per clip even i8f they are never downloaded. That $6.00 per-year per-clip for no downloads.

Once they collect $100,000 a month (200,000 images in the collection) then the rest of the revenue (minus their 50%) is paid out to the contributors whose images are actually downloaded. Thus, if your images are used your likely to make much more than your $0.50.

In addition, the way search is structured this 200,000 image collection is likely to get much higher attention than the rest of the images on Pond5. And the non-subscription clips of the videographers whose clips are in the subscription collection are likely to get much more traffic than those of videographers without any subscription clips.

At least that's how they explained it to me for my story for my Selling-Stock.com newsletter. http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/pond5-introduces-improved-search-and-membersh

It may not be a great deal, but it is very different and a lot better than other subscription offerings. I'm amazed that Pond5 didn't clearly explain the royalty aspect of this subscription model to those of you who have clips in the collection.

How it really works as do all these schemes is:
Pond5 increase their revenue for increased downloads for less money paid per download to contributors.

It is possible the total payment paid to contributors by Pond5 is greater than it is now, but Pond5 will have to take a lot of customers from other sites to do that. It is possible that those who only submit to Pond5 and are in the scheme will make more money, but only if they are selling little at the moment and only after sales at the main library at Pond5 and at other sites has reduced dramatically.
They are not creating new buyers with this scheme, just hoping to take market share from other sites and if their current buyers go for this new membership they could potentially cut their own throats. Competition between sites means less for contributors anyway you want to spin it. The truth is the only way for contributors as a whole can benefit is if the numbers don't stack up, in which case they will scrap it.

If they double the memberships to $200,000 "that's potentially 20,000 downloads at current membership prices, which will not downloaded from elsewhere", that's $100,000 for the $0.50 paid out regardless of downloads, $50,000 to Pond5, leaving $50,000 between those whose files were downloaded. That's an average of $2.50 per download is it not?

I don't think anyone was forgetting the Royalty element in this membership program, but you are good with figures Mr Pickerell can you make it look more attractive, or anybody else for that matter?

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #49 on:** March 05, 2016, 04:12 »

Quote from: Pickerell on March 04, 2016, 17:18

One thing everyone seems to be missing here is that there is a Royalty element in this membership program. Everyone is guaranteed $0.50 per month per clip even i8f they are never downloaded. That $6.00 per-year per-clip for no downloads.

Once they collect $100,000 a month (200,000 images in the collection) then the rest of the revenue (minus their 50%) is paid out to the contributors whose images are actually downloaded. Thus, if your images are used your likely to make much more than your $0.50.

In addition, the way search is structured this 200,000 image collection is likely to get much higher attention than the rest of the images on Pond5. And the non-subscription clips of the videographers whose clips are in the subscription collection are likely to get much more traffic than those of videographers without any subscription clips.

At least that's how they explained it to me for my story for my Selling-Stock.com newsletter. http://www.selling-stock.com/Article/pond5-introduces-improved-search-and-membersh

It may not be a great deal, but it is very different and a lot better than other subscription offerings. I'm amazed that Pond5 didn't clearly explain the royalty aspect of this subscription model to those of you who have clips in the collection.

Well, it's a risky thing to explain something that not ALL contributors would like to hear.

Did they mention IPO?
Their new CEO seems keen on it. https://twitter.com/ryan1scott/status/695592830866231296

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Author Topic: New Pond5 and Membership Program (Read 22259 times)

pkphotos

KnowYourOnions

KnowYourOnions

cobalt

KnowYourOnions

Mantis

cobalt

KnowYourOnions

Justanotherphotographer

KnowYourOnions

thepokergod

KnowYourOnions

thepokergod

KnowYourOnions

stuttershock

Ronib

KnowYourOnions

sharpshot

KnowYourOnions

Pickerell

Mantis

stockmn

sharpshot

obj owl

KnowYourOnions

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