MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: RacePhoto on December 21, 2010, 00:17
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I was searching KTools (as some others have mentioned and FD has always reviewed as one of the best)
KTools Photostore Website (http://www.ktools.net/?aff=9770)
Click on Learn More, under photostore and then Featured Clients...
Interesting is how many of their "Featured Sites" offer free photos for web sized. Of all I looked at that's maximum of 600 pixels on the long side. I'm not saying they were fantastic and many it looks like the resize had pixelation and noise, but the sites offer Free Photos to attract buyers.
One site had a subscription that made me laugh, 50,000 downloads for $250. But they didn't have 50,000 images. More like under 4,000. Another had mostly free download and was selling CDs with 100 photos for a few hundred dollars. That was the premium material. Most had reasonable prices, by size that would compete with the major Micro sites. One was selling scans of old photos, $1 each. I wonder how many they needed to pay for the web hosting per year and if they actually broke even?
These sites may not be found and may not be competing, but what about the dent they can collectively put into micro sales? Place with names like "freestockphotos" :o
Had to go back and look some more, and I started laughing. How many picture in the Free Stock Photos transportation set (for example) are NOT infringing. I think I found at least one... :D Makes you wonder how these sites get away with having so many questionable copyright and unreleased people, clear car shots and the like, without anyone ever writing them a note, asking for removal?
(disclosure: yes that's a referral link up above, but not the point)
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Nothing surprising in the lack of complaints. We are in the midst of an entitlement period whereby anything on the internet is fair game to use.
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Yeah, I'm still not big on the whole free thing. I'm just not sure it attracts the right kinds of buyers. That said, there are a lot of discounts you can give that are between full price and free. There's a lot of flexibility when you are getting 100% royalties. I have been giving 50% off coupons at my store to all my first time buyers, so if anyone wants coupons... send me an email.
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Just looking at the minor competition. Kind of like a free sample at every store on every corner and some of them are pretty good for web use. They do require in the free download contract that credit is given, which can be some good promotion?
Have to agree, that if the commission is 100% (minus expenses and whatever else) it's easier to give a serious discount, or coupons, to attract bargain hunters.
Seems like everything is still coming down to the lowest price and a fight all the way to the bottom. Sad that it has come to giving away work, for credit and recognition. There you go, international crowd sourcing and everyone with a camera and a domain name, with storage online, is now a photo agency. ???
The Free word is used to bring people in the door. How many times has anyone here searched for "free" something on the web. I'm searching for a free newsgroup service. Sometimes I search for free avi combining software or free mp3 editor. Midi software has become so obscure that the people who had free utilities have stopped supporting them. I have a WIN98 computer just so I can still manage Midi files. :) But the point is, the word FREE in searches does bring in the views.
I don't know if any of these sites actually sell anything or make enough to break even? I supposed for about $500 for the site and software, I can give it a try for a year and see? I just can't see spending $500 to find out what many other people have already discovered. Running ones own photo website is like any other highly competitive business on the internet. Too many people already doing it. No sustainable profits, if any profits?
Anyone care to comment, if you are running a site, if you get any sales at all? Or better yet, without giving away any secrets, does the site at least break even?
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I think Dreamstime has one of the worst policies about this they offer so many free images on the homepage. They offer almost 7,000 free images while with IS I could only figure out how to get 4 of them, maybe you can find more somewhere else but they don't normally put free images up that will compete too much with the rest of the collection.
OOPS edit:
They have almost 7,000 pages of 20 images each so close to 140,000 free images.