Author Topic: Stockbo (Read 33502 times)

Stockbo · « **on:** November 06, 2013, 23:26 »

Hey guys,

I've been lurking here for a while but think its time to say hello! I am part of a small team that’s bringing you a new stock agency known as Stockbo.

We have been in development since the start of the year and will be launching the platform very soon.

There were two main reasons why we decided to start Stockbo. Firstly from a buyer’s perspective, we found that a lot of agencies were competing based on quantity, which meant that buyers had to sift through pages and pages before finding a great image. But more importantly and the main reason is that we didn't think it was fair that the percentage being paid to photographers were getting pretty abysmal.

That’s why we’re offering a minimum 50/50 split straight away. Also, we’re not asking for exclusive photos. As long as your images meet the style and quality we are after (and they aren't uploaded exclusively elsewhere) we will consider them.

We love what Bruce and the Stocksy team are doing for the industry and would be privileged to be apart of this change towards a greater level of fairness for talented photographers.

We've made the platform simple and easy to use, which we will continuously improve and add to as we collect more feedback.

If you are interested in contributing with us and would like to submit some images before we launch, we’d love to hear from you. You can email us a link to your portfolio at [email protected].

To get an idea of the sort of style and themes we are after, have a look at our Pinterest Page http://www.pinterest.com/stockbo/

Best regards,

Ranjeev
Stockbo Team

luissantos84 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 06, 2013, 23:34 »

who is/are the owner(s)? saw the domain is registered in Panama, any more information?

team from FB page (in Australia)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=155312761335373&set=pb.144461135753869.-2207520000.1383799314.&type=3&theater

Stockbo · « **Reply #2 on:** November 06, 2013, 23:52 »

Good find Luis! Yeah we are based in Perth Western Australia. Not quite Panama but our beaches are just as good!

Ranjeev

luissantos84 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 06, 2013, 23:55 »

Quote from: Stockbo on November 06, 2013, 23:52

Good find Luis! Yeah we are based in Perth Western Australia. Not quite Panama but our beaches are just as good!

Ranjeev

what is your background, team experience and such? how about buyers? when will it open?

Stockbo · « **Reply #4 on:** November 07, 2013, 00:56 »

We all actually come from a broad range of backgrounds from photography, accounting, engineering, web development and marketing to name a few.

We're tweaking a few things and are taking on contributors now to build our database prior to the official launch and marketing campaigns, but it should be before Christmas.

Ranjeev

luissantos84 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 07, 2013, 01:02 »

thanks for telling us more!

how about pricing/sizes?

qwerty · « **Reply #6 on:** November 07, 2013, 01:36 »

some suggestions

have ftp upload that works
be as close as you can to a one click submit process
successful read metadata including entered in PS, Infranview
categories optional if you have to have them.
don't implement a tiered commission schedule
drink lots of beer at little creatures brewery obedia is my favourite

roede-orm · « **Reply #7 on:** November 07, 2013, 01:50 »

In the Scandinavian languages, the name Stockbo sounds like the name of a small village somewhere in the deep woods

Stockbo · « **Reply #8 on:** November 07, 2013, 01:56 »

No prob! We're keeping it simple just four sizes with standard pricing across the board.

     S M L XL
Standard Royalty Free 5 10 20 50
Unlimited Print           220 250
Products for Resale           420 450
Electronic Products for Resale     620 650

Thanks Qwerty, great suggestions and we will definitely work towards keeping it as simple as possible for both contributors and customers. At the end of the day we see this as a partnership, so we welcome any sort of feedback and we'll do our best to implement it. No tiered commission for sure, 50% right away.

Little creatures indeed especially with summer around the corner for us!

Is that right Roede? That's great it sounds like the name is already sticking in your head

Ranjeev

luissantos84 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 07, 2013, 02:33 »

subscription plan or not?

Paulfleet · « **Reply #10 on:** November 07, 2013, 03:52 »

Will you be taking any illustration vector or otherwise?

dirkr · « **Reply #11 on:** November 07, 2013, 04:01 »

Quote from: Stockbo on November 07, 2013, 01:56

No prob! We're keeping it simple just four sizes with standard pricing across the board.

     S M L XL
Standard Royalty Free 5 10 20 50
Unlimited Print           220 250
Products for Resale           420 450
Electronic Products for Resale     620 650

Are these meant to be US$? Or anything else?

And: How about buyers? Any specifics about how you want to attract people to buy at your site?

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #12 on:** November 07, 2013, 05:16 »

I don't know if you actually own the images on Pinterest or not, but some of them are uploaded in very large resolutions with no watermarks, and since you've uploaded them instead of pinning them from their original source, there is no meta available.

Aside from that, sounds interesting. Will you want isolated images?

I will probably participate as long as there is no subscription plan.

cobalt · « **Reply #13 on:** November 07, 2013, 05:36 »

I am interested as well, if you are ready to put the work into it. I am very interested in a place for content where it just breaks my heart to sell it for 30 cents.

Will you have a strong focus on industry and technology? And will you take video as well?

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #14 on:** November 07, 2013, 07:48 »

What about pay-out methods? Large parts of the world aren't covered by some of the well-known online payment agencies, so direct bank-to-bank transfers or cheques are important to some of us.

Stockbo · « **Reply #15 on:** November 07, 2013, 10:15 »

We’re aiming for prices to be in USD but may be forced to stick with AUD based on bank restrictions. I will update you with which one is finalised by Monday.

We are having subscription plans / packages but we are making it a viable option only for L and XL images. And Standard Royalty Free Licenses only. The idea is to use these to encourage high volume transactions and to attract buyers with frequent large image requirements. Our subscription pricing is as follows:

30 images usable within 1 month for $597 ($19.90 per image)
185 images usable within 6 months for $3,197 (~$17.29 per image)
365 images usable within 12 months for $5,397 (~$14.79 per image)

We want these subscriptions / packages to be lucrative to contributing photographers too so we are fixing the amount that contributors get when a customer uses a subscription to download their image. This is fixed at $9.95 (which is pretty much your share of a large standard license outright sale) no matter which subscription / package is used to download your image. So this means for 1 month subscription / packages you are taking 50%, for 6 months 58% and for 12 months 67%.

Paul, we are sticking with photos for now until we launch, but we’re happy to look at illustrations on a case by case basis so feel free to send through your illustration portfolio.

Dirkr, we’re unable to disclose our ninja marketing tactics at this stage but to start with we’re implementing social media and content marketing strategies to increase Stockbo awareness.

Sean, thanks for bringing that to my attention, I have had a chat with the person in charge of our Pinterest pins and we are rectifying asap. Isolations are fine as long as they are funky and useful. What are your thoughts on our subscription / package plan I mentioned above?

Cobalt, that’s something we definitely don’t want to do and partake in a race to the bottom which is why we are focussing on quality instead on quantity. We are covering all topic areas at this stage and industry and tech is definitely in there! We won’t be accepting video at this stage but we can’t rule it out for later.

Baldrick (I love the name reference!) for our initial launch we are sticking with PayPal but other methods are very high on our post launch priorities. That being said, before that is done if a photographer is unable to use PayPal we are more than happy to do a case by case temporary alternative.

Also I should mention that we will be covering all the transaction costs. So you will get 50% of the listed sale price with any associated cost of sale coming out of our share.

Ranjeev

Ron · « **Reply #16 on:** November 07, 2013, 10:42 »

Very interesting and positive approach. The only part about marketing seems you to me you dont have a marketing plan. DO you have a projected guestimate on how many buyers will find your site, and how many will convert to sales? Did you make any prognoses?

What does you upload process look like? Is there FTP upload? Batch editor?

People here have 1000ands of images, and dont want to spend hours of uploading for little return.

tickstock · « **Reply #17 on:** November 07, 2013, 11:39 »

Ron · « **Reply #18 on:** November 07, 2013, 12:00 »

Quote from: tickstock on November 07, 2013, 11:39

I'm a bit skeptical

A bit? And when are you not sceptical? You are always sceptical, except for when its comes to IS, which the one company everyone needs to be sceptical about.

They offer 50%, something you as super IS exclusive is not even being offered, yet you are sceptical towards them?

SMH

tickstock · « **Reply #19 on:** November 07, 2013, 12:19 »

luissantos84 · « **Reply #20 on:** November 07, 2013, 14:15 »

it does look very interesting, guess the final question is how hard will you work/spend on marketing campaigns?

ah and thanks for all the replies, nice stuff guys!

leaf · « **Reply #21 on:** November 07, 2013, 14:35 »

Are you guys going to make it to the MicrostockExpo in Berlin next weekend?

heywoody · « **Reply #22 on:** November 07, 2013, 17:04 »

Suggestion - get the keywording approach right from day one. A site that actually returns relevant images from a search would have to be attractive for buyers.

Stockbo · « **Reply #23 on:** November 08, 2013, 05:38 »

Ron, that is completely understandable and photographers are more than welcome to upload a small amount of images until they are comfortable that we are serious about this. I can assure you we have thought about marketing and have a detailed plan in place, but I apologise that I am unable to disclose the specifics at this stage.

Our uploader allows batch uploading and batch editing (when uploading initially). This is what we are launching with to start, but one of the top priorities post launch is to make sure the upload process is as painless as possible.

Thanks Tickstock, appreciate the kind words. There will be a lot of hard work ahead but at the very least we can work towards raising the bar on what contributors are getting back.

Not a problem Luis. Marketing and ongoing r&d is a big thing for us so we will be pushing that very hard.

Leaf, unfortunately we found out about the expo a bit too late to organise logistics (being located in one of the most remote cities in the world doesn’t help!) but it is most definitely on the cards for next year.

Heywoody thanks for the suggestion and great point, that’s a big issue for a lot of agencies now days especially the ones relying on large quantities of stock.

Thanks for all the questions and feedback guys. We’ll get onto replying to your emails as soon as we can.

Ranjeev

gemmy12 · « **Reply #24 on:** November 08, 2013, 06:23 »

some queries regarding options for deleting images. how much time will you/stockbo take to remove the images if a contributor decides to delete couple of images ? Will this time be same for deleting whole port ? And will a contributor has to ask the admin or stockbo team to do so or there would be a separate delete button in the site ?
Your prices seem attractive for a photographer. Hope you become a long player among stock sites.

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Author Topic: Stockbo (Read 33502 times)

Stockbo

luissantos84

Stockbo

luissantos84

Stockbo

luissantos84

qwerty

roede-orm

Stockbo

luissantos84

Paulfleet

dirkr

Sean Locke Photography

cobalt

BaldricksTrousers

Stockbo

Ron

tickstock

Ron

tickstock

luissantos84

leaf

heywoody

Stockbo

gemmy12

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