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Author Topic: Picture Nation  (Read 23169 times)

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« on: August 27, 2009, 03:27 »
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Hi
Just wondered if anyone here knows anything about picture nation ... ??
being a bit of a novice I started out by joining anyone who would take me...  Now I am getting a little better I am wondering if I should offload some of the firms that are not working for me.
PN have about 250 of my pictures but have never had a single sale... istock have just 30 and are giving me several sales a week, which is good for the low number on site.

I wonder if anyone out there is doing well with picture nation ??

Chris


« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2009, 04:21 »
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I uploaded about 250 a few months ago and have only had 2 blog size sales.  Looks like a waste of time so far.

« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2009, 05:50 »
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I agree. I have had two sales in about five months with over 500 on line.

« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2009, 02:08 »
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They were going well for me last year (pre recession) but sales have slowed way down this year. They have, however, just launched a new (much lower) pricing structure. Hi res sales that were 75 are now 15 and so on. They are also now offering E.L.'s. Commission remains at 40% so still represents a good premium over most micro sites. Basically, they have acknowledged the competition from Microstock and are moving to be more competitive. There is a newsletter on their site about this if you log in, giving more detail. On the plus side they have now been going for around four years so are not an untried start up. Clients include Sky news and BBC Television (PN is run by an ex BBC news director so she has the contacts!). Most of my sales have been editorial, but I cannot speak for anyone else. It's really a question of how much upload time you have available. I'll continue to upload to them in the hope that the new pricing and marketing they are doing will lift sales. But, yes get 250 images on at Istock and expect regular sales. With a newer, smaller site that would be unrealistic. Regards, David 

« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2009, 14:48 »
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Has Picture Nation gone bust????

Their website has been "Temporarily Unavailable" for days now so I'm assuming they've gone out of business.  I've got around 35 commission outstanding so it would be nice to know if they are in receivership and so there may be the possibility of getting at least some of this if I could file as a creditor in any liquidation.

Their 10 fee for submitting photos they brought in at the end of last year kind of indicated they were in trouble and look at ANY way of increasing revenue so it wouldn't surprise me if they are no more......

« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2009, 11:51 »
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Re; Has Picture Nation gone bust?

Maybe/maybe not!
Meassages posted by PN on Twitter:-

We will be back online in the next few days - apologies to our members but the site will be faster very soon.....no pain, no gain :-(
Posted Oct 12th

Then:-

It never rains..... what do you do with IT when they won't go?
4:06 AM Oct 15th from web

So perhaps it's just an IT problem after all. 

« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2009, 14:20 »
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Hi to you fellow Picturenation photographers, I've been in a bit of a minority here on MSG, so welcome. I don't have any inside info (I've held off contacting Jane Louise, because I reckon they have enough to deal with at the moment). I am taking at face value that they have (big, obviously) IT problems at the moment and wishing them the best for sorting it out quickly. It does seem a long time to be offline but do not forget that they are a small team. The big Micro sites probaly have dozens of IT people to call on if there is a problem. I'm guessing probaly just a couple (tops) at PN. Since we have a rare thread about British sites you may be interested to know that I contacted BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies) last week regarding Britishimages.co.uk. They confirmed that they have lost all contact with them and cancelled their membership. So I guess that one really has gone (with my 500 images aboard). Hope to see PN up and running very soon. Regards, David.

« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2009, 15:27 »
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I didn't get any sales there before this problem.  I can understand the big sites having IT problems with their huge traffic but they sort them out fast, PN shouldn't be down for this long.  Will the few buyers they have stay loyal if they can't even access the site?  I would love to see a UK site doing well but they need a miracle now.

« Reply #8 on: November 14, 2009, 07:20 »
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Their site is still off-line with just a blank page apologising and saying that this is due to IT issues.  How daft do they think we are? ???  It's been off-line for for almost 6 weeks now and they've obviously gone bust....  :-\

It would be nice if they would just be honest about it instead of their ridiculous message saying "we haven't gone away".... Whatever....   ::)

I think it's time to rummage around the internet and see if it's possible to file as a creditor in any bankruptcy proceedings!  >:(

« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2009, 06:46 »
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I agree with sophie6. How anyone could take this long to move servers is beyond me, unless they have somehow managed to lose all our images in the process!!

The other question is why they would want to move. Their existing site seemed responsive enough so why go to the trouble and expense unless they were being forced to?

It certainly seems as if they have gone to the wall. Pity really because it was a brave, if somewhat foolish, move to try and break into an already overcrowded market. Nevertheless I'm clinging to a faint hope that they will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes if only so that we can get our commissions!


« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2009, 09:11 »
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I am getting worried, I hear on the grapevine that they moved hosting because they could not afford to pay their bills.  :( Anyone know who they were, I can remember it did say it at the bottom of the page, but i cant get to it now.

I wonder if they have gone into liquidation already, sophie6 have you had any luck finding anything out? I have about 200 in comissions, but i dont think that I am going to get anything.  >:( they wont reply to email, and they wont answer the phone,.

I think I will try Shutterstock next.

« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2009, 15:00 »
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Hi fellow Picturenation contributors. Firstly I should say I do not have any inside or first hand information on the situation at PN. For those that haven't seen it go to their Facebook page and click on "Just Fans". There is a posting there from a PN member who has spoken to Jane Louise. He says he was told that there is an ongoing legal dispute which resulted in PN effectively being "locked out" of their own data base. As I cannot verify this I won't go into further details here (it's still there to read on Facebook). I know from personal experience that anything involving legal matters can often take longer than you expect to sort out.  Secondly, PN are a Limited Company and subject to Company Law. If they had "gone bust" as some are speculating, a liquidator would have been appointed and in these circumstances I think there is no way there would still be that "sorry we are offline but back soon" web page online as it would be a misrepresentation  of the legal situation. Equally PN wouldn't be allowed to keep posting on Twitter that they will be back soon if this wasn't the case. Indeed, what would be the point anyway? I have dealt with a number of newspapers and magazines over the years that have gone bust and you usually get a letter from the liquidator within days asking you to make your claim against the failed business. We haven't received anything, so again I suggest they are still in business. My guess? A whole package of legal and technical issues keeping them offline (and if it's legal, they probaly cannot say much either). I'm not a lawyer, so don't take any of my comments as gospel, but they do represent my personal experience of the scenario when a business goes down. None of this matches that, so I say keep checking the site and lets hope they are back online very soon. I echo the previous poster who said it was good to see a British company breaking into the market and I am wishing them well. Regards, David.

« Reply #12 on: November 17, 2009, 18:26 »
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This has been going on too long now.  They didn't have many buyers and I am sure the few they had will of gone elsewhere now.  It is so hard for the small sites that do everything right, what chance has a site that is down for weeks on end have?  I don't see it as anything above zero.

It would be great to have a successful British site but I don't think this one deserves our support now.

« Reply #13 on: November 18, 2009, 12:38 »
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I understand what you are saying Sharpshot. I guess I am just hoping that they have some loyal customers as well as contributors. I am still surprised they haven't updated on Twitter as they must realise what people are starting to think. I know they look at this forum sometimes, so can see for themselves. Regards, David.

« Reply #14 on: November 19, 2009, 13:15 »
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Just had a look at PN's entry on Companies House web site:-

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/58d6a606829f0ca054089c359ceec511/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo [nofollow]

and

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/2f13816cdbd368d21acb52b2faf00896/compdetails [nofollow]

No mention of liquidation so far.

Nevertheless if rumours about legal action preventing them having access to their databases are true it doesn't look too promising.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.


« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2009, 20:22 »
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Try it now - looks like it might be coming back.

+ I can't log in.

« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2009, 06:29 »
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Try it now - looks like it might be coming back.

+ I can't log in.

Hmm...I got excited initially but now I'm not so sure. Would they re launch online with a site that doesn't work? And check that error message "page may not exist". I think what we have here could just be a "ghost" page. As an example of what I mean search for former British photo agency britishimages.co.uk. You can still get log in pages for that come up, which go nowhere when you try them. Just the way the internet works it seems, with loads of cached pages floating about. That's not to say they won't be back, but I think they would re launch with an operational site (and there would be postings on their Twitter page to announce it). Regards, David.


« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2009, 08:03 »
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Very true David. I logged in very early this morning and found a familiar website with login screen. This morning its back to the notice we have had for the last couple of months which suggests that they make have been testing IT changes they have made, late at night. But I suppose most testing would be done on a non-live server. Perhaps PN's departure is a good thing (for me) as it always seemed too easy to get images accepted, and I never had 1 sale after a few months contributing. I'm learning the hard way now by uploading to iStockPhoto.

« Reply #18 on: November 21, 2009, 09:13 »
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That's interesting, I'm now getting the notice page as well, though the (non) log in page has been up most of the day for me. Who knows? I did get some good sales from PN. They had slowed of late but I am/was hopeful about the new lower rates. After several years of selling images online, my commission from PN still exceeds anything I have made on the micro sites (though Shutterstock is catching up very fast!). Good luck with Istock. Regards, David.

« Reply #19 on: November 22, 2009, 09:12 »
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After several years of selling images online, my commission from PN still exceeds anything I have made on the micro sites

Can we please get real? PN is dead, certainly after this disaster. No need to pamper the dead. They are as dead ad the Norvegian parrot from Monty Python. They ceased to be, they are no more, they're gone. The dog ate the backup of their images or they didn't grasp the concept of backups at all.

« Reply #20 on: November 24, 2009, 15:09 »
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After several years of selling images online, my commission from PN still exceeds anything I have made on the micro sites

Can we please get real? PN is dead, certainly after this disaster. No need to pamper the dead. They are as dead ad the Norvegian parrot from Monty Python. They ceased to be, they are no more, they're gone. The dog ate the backup of their images or they didn't grasp the concept of backups at all.

Well I was going to say FD, never mind the dog, but the cat has obviously got their tongue (not the cat on the left, I hasten to add!). However, their site has a new update today, at last. "Should" be back online this week. So parrot or phoenix? Hmm, we'll find out in the next few days I guess. By the way, I love your phrase "pamper the dead" -that would be a great name for a rock band, in my opinion. Make sure you get the royalties on that! Kind regards, David.

« Reply #21 on: November 28, 2009, 16:20 »
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I'm skeptical about whether they will be back "this week".

« Reply #22 on: November 29, 2009, 06:44 »
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Looks like another non mover!
Have been there for some time and no joy.

« Reply #23 on: December 02, 2009, 15:14 »
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Lies lies lies! :-*

« Reply #24 on: December 22, 2009, 07:13 »
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The site has been updated (21st Deceomber) with a similar notice to before. They intend to get back up and running but who knows when.

Meantime I've managed to make my first sale on iStockPhoto and I'm starting to realise that there is very little point in banking on sales from PN.


 

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