MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: Stockbo on November 06, 2013, 23:26
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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/ (http://www.pinterest.com/stockbo/)
Best regards,
Ranjeev
Stockbo Team
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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 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=155312761335373&set=pb.144461135753869.-2207520000.1383799314.&type=3&theater)
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Good find Luis! Yeah we are based in Perth Western Australia. Not quite Panama but our beaches are just as good!
Ranjeev
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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?
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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
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thanks for telling us more!
how about pricing/sizes?
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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
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In the Scandinavian languages, the name Stockbo sounds like the name of a small village somewhere in the deep woods 8)
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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
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subscription plan or not?
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Will you be taking any illustration vector or otherwise?
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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it does look very interesting, guess the final question is how hard will you work/spend on marketing campaigns? ;D
ah and thanks for all the replies, nice stuff guys!
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Are you guys going to make it to the MicrostockExpo in Berlin next weekend?
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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.
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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
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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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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%.
Sounds good to me, although I doubt you'll get many takers at those prices. Sub buyers just don't seem to want to put out for reasonable costs.
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Australian folks are loaded, just wish they have never heard of SS ;D
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Australian folks are loaded, just wish they have never heard of SS ;D
yeah. My Australian payments are almost always heavy. :)
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Australian folks are loaded, just wish they have never heard of SS ;D
Must be all those exports of koala fur jackets and platypus purses.
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Australian folks are loaded, just wish they have never heard of SS ;D
Must be all those exports of koala fur jackets and platypus purses.
Primark? ;D
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Australian folks are loaded, just wish they have never heard of SS ;D
Must be all those exports of koala fur jackets and platypus purses.
You know you can be a pretty funny guy sometimes. I like that.
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My only advice to Stockbo would be to make sure and inform contributors whose ports you review to notify those contributors even if they are not accepted.....
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I have sent in my link
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Sounds good. Sent in my links to pics and video on shutterstock for your consideration. I seriously hope you will consider accepting video submissions before launch as I think it would benefit us all to be right out there from the start instead of as an after thought.
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Haha guys! We're happy that you know that Koalas and Platypuses originate from Australia. :D
We're very appreciative of the feedback that has been given and to the artists who have emailed us with links. We'll be going through them over the next few days. Stay tuned to hear more from us.
Regards from Down Under
Kevin
The Stockbo Team
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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.
Hello kevin/stockbo. probably you did not read all the messages in thread after your last message. So i ask you once again (of course if stockbo has decided) how much time you take to remove once images after his request to delete them ?
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Sorry gemmy12.
The contributor will have the ability to delete their own images from Stockbo if they wish to. All we ask is that contributors think about deleting them first, because when they do so, the images will no longer be available for re-download if a subscriber or buyer has lost the image that they have already purchased. We've decided to give artists more control of their art.
Regards
Kevin
The Stockbo Team
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Sorry gemmy12.
The contributor will have the ability to delete their own images from Stockbo if they wish to. All we ask is that contributors think about deleting them first, because when they do so, the images will no longer be available for re-download if a subscriber or buyer has lost the image that they have already purchased. We've decided to give artists more control of their art.
Regards
Kevin
The Stockbo Team
thanks for the reply Kevin. Wish you guys good luck.
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Hey guys.
Just an update prices will have to be in AUD. Luckily its still a strong currency and fairly close to the USD.
Also thanks for all your emails and links! We are going through them and promise to reply to everyone as soon as we can.
Have fun to all those going to Berlin for the expo! And good luck with that freezing weather we're in the ~30 degrees (Celsius) range all week here.
Ranjeev
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Got accepted onto Stockbo... now lets see how it goes.
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Got accepted onto Stockbo... now lets see how it goes.
Congratulations - that's first step done and now to see how the sales will go ...
I've applied with a link to my port as well, as they seem to make a good confidence-building start! :)
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Got accepted onto Stockbo... now lets see how it goes.
Ditto.
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I was accepted too. Sounds good, I'll be interested to see how it goes.
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Hey all.
We're still in the process of replying to many of your applications. We have replied to some already and as we can see in the thread, some of those individuals have acknowledged this. For those of you who have yet to recieve a reply, don't be disheartened. By no means have we forgotten about you. In fact, we'll be onto you with a reply in the coming days. :D
Many thanks for the ongoing support.
Kevin
The Stockbo Team
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I'm in... ;D
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Received an acceptance email as well.
1. Refreshing to see that pricing and commission structure is not overly defensive as it completely avoids the ridiculous sub. commissions of so many other sites.
2. Interesting to note from the guideline their preference for more natural shots versus the studio isolates so common in microstock.
Two great positives there - the clear market approach and a fair, more logical pricing and commission (esp on subscription packages) :)
Wishing them great luck in the marketplace.
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How did you come up with the name STOCKBO? I assume the added BO means something?
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How did you come up with the name STOCKBO? I assume the added BO means something?
In Catalan it means 'Good' so STOCKBO = GOOD STOCK :-)
BTW, I'm in too.
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Thats a good point
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/BO (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/BO)
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Actually the bo had no real meaning when we came up with Stockbo! We compared a whole bunch of stock industry names and from personal experience brand names that are short and have two to three words / syllables tend to be the most memorable.
We tested a few other names including fotostocked and stockedpic (which we still have the domains for!) but people always remembered and loved Stockbo. 'Best of' Stock was what we thought it could represent but I like Peresanz's Catalan reference too!
Ranjeev
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Actually the bo had no real meaning when we came up with Stockbo! We compared a whole bunch of stock industry names and from personal experience brand names that are short and have two to three words / syllables tend to be the most memorable.
We tested a few other names including fotostocked and stockedpic (which we still have the domains for!) but people always remembered and loved Stockbo. 'Best of' Stock was what we thought it could represent but I like Peresanz's Catalan reference too!
Ranjeev
BOdacious
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Actually the bo had no real meaning when we came up with Stockbo! We compared a whole bunch of stock industry names and from personal experience brand names that are short and have two to three words / syllables tend to be the most memorable.
We tested a few other names including fotostocked and stockedpic (which we still have the domains for!) but people always remembered and loved Stockbo. 'Best of' Stock was what we thought it could represent but I like Peresanz's Catalan reference too!
Ranjeev
BOdacious
Well played :)
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I am waiting for a reply for about six weeks now.
The account for the site is disabled (http://stockbo.com/ (http://stockbo.com/)).
And the mobile phone is not available at the moment...
Looks like Stockbo is finished before it even started. I might go around the next days and check, if the office is still there (I am living just 10kms away). Let you know.
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They have been sending out email to people they invited to contribute. They're definitely still around.
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I am waiting for a reply for about six weeks now.
The account for the site is disabled ([url]http://stockbo.com/[/url] ([url]http://stockbo.com/[/url])).
And the mobile phone is not available at the moment...
Looks like Stockbo is finished before it even started. I might go around the next days and check, if the office is still there (I am living just 10kms away). Let you know.
Actually, they are alive and kicking. Just established my account a couple of days ago have been given the go-ahead to start uploading. I would email them with a friendly reminder.
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it just looks like they have a coding problem when trying to sync up to LeadPages (https://www.leadpages.net/products/)which looks like what they were using on their landing page.
The site was using ktools (at least it looked very very much like it) - perhaps they updated the software and crashed things?
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it just looks like they have a coding problem when trying to sync up to LeadPages (https://www.leadpages.net/products/)which looks like what they were using on their landing page.
The site was using ktools (at least it looked very very much like it) - perhaps they updated the software and crashed things?
Hmm, I see what you mean. I've been going in through the 'backdoor' and hadn't noticed this problem. I'm sure they are aware of it....?
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I am waiting for a reply for about six weeks now...
... Looks like Stockbo is finished before it even started. I might go around the next days and check, if the office is still there (I am living just 10kms away). Let you know.
No, it's not finished. I got e-mail yesterday (after 2,5 weeks waiting): "Welcome to the Bo family of photographers :) ......."
Time to work now :)
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I am waiting for a reply for about six weeks now.
The account for the site is disabled ([url]http://stockbo.com/[/url] ([url]http://stockbo.com/[/url])).
And the mobile phone is not available at the moment...
Looks like Stockbo is finished before it even started. I might go around the next days and check, if the office is still there (I am living just 10kms away). Let you know.
Hey Rob we're really sorry we missed sending you a reply. Guess cause you are in Perth too and we wanted to meet up but ended up getting mixed up about who had (or not) replied. We've sent you a reply now.
Our landing page is run through Leadpages and it seems like their servers are having a few problems. We're liaising with their support to get it back up. The state of the site is fine and we haven't broken it yet :).
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Good news after all.
Thanks for the reply. I received your mail. Catcha ;)
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can't access your site to check it out.
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Good news after all.
Thanks for the reply. I received your mail. Catcha ;)
Awesome :D
can't access your site to check it out.
Hey noodle the site isn't actually live yet. Stockbo.com is our temporary landing page which is hosted through LeadPages which seems to be having a few problems. We're working on getting that back up. The actual site we're hoping to get live very soon.
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it just looks like they have a coding problem when trying to sync up to LeadPages (https://www.leadpages.net/products/)which looks like what they were using on their landing page...
Good call.
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The site was using ktools (at least it looked very very much like it) - perhaps they updated the software and crashed things?
Using Ktools?
Getty don't have anything to worry about just yet.
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I have to admit to being surprised by the enthusiasm shown by contributors in this thread. We periodically seem to get people in here popping up to offer us fabulous riches and a fair deal in their new stock site, only for it to fizzle out soon after start-up or not even to get that far. I can't honestly see how you are going to compete and establish yourself without a huge marketing budget and you don't make any mention of backers with deep pockets. You don't seem to have any 'previous' in the industry (unless I have missed something) so I am not sure who you are and where you have appeared from and what has led you to believe you have the necessary expertise for this venture.
If StockFresh and Veer haven't been able to make it (they are both still going but neither is looking healthy or a serious competitor to the 'big boys') then I'm sorry but I really can't see how you will.
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I have to admit to being surprised by the enthusiasm shown by contributors in this thread. We periodically seem to get people in here popping up to offer us fabulous riches and a fair deal in their new stock site, only for it to fizzle out soon after start-up or not even to get that far. I can't honestly see how you are going to compete and establish yourself without a huge marketing budget and you don't make any mention of backers with deep pockets. You don't seem to have any 'previous' in the industry (unless I have missed something) so I am not sure who you are and where you have appeared from and what has led you to believe you have the necessary expertise for this venture.
If StockFresh and Veer haven't been able to make it (they are both still going but neither is looking healthy or a serious competitor to the 'big boys') then I'm sorry but I really can't see how you will.
I'm willing to give any startup a chance as long as they treat the contributor with some modicum of respect. Way too early to say anything positive or negative about Stockbo but since the only thing I'm investing is my time I'm willing to give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained so the saying goes.
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I have to admit to being surprised by the enthusiasm shown by contributors in this thread. We periodically seem to get people in here popping up to offer us fabulous riches and a fair deal in their new stock site, only for it to fizzle out soon after start-up or not even to get that far. I can't honestly see how you are going to compete and establish yourself without a huge marketing budget and you don't make any mention of backers with deep pockets. You don't seem to have any 'previous' in the industry (unless I have missed something) so I am not sure who you are and where you have appeared from and what has led you to believe you have the necessary expertise for this venture.
If StockFresh and Veer haven't been able to make it (they are both still going but neither is looking healthy or a serious competitor to the 'big boys') then I'm sorry but I really can't see how you will.
I'm willing to give any startup a chance as long as they treat the contributor with some modicum of respect. Way too early to say anything positive or negative about Stockbo but since the only thing I'm investing is my time I'm willing to give it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained so the saying goes.
exactly but I do agree with StockCube as well
without dropping a few millions in marketing nothing will happen, sure one sale here and there but nothing huge
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I think most start ups announced here were either US based (Oversaturated market) or Eastern Europe (not trusted), this one is in Australia, aimed at the Ozzie market, which seems to be a good bet. Just my two cents.
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I think most start ups announced here were either US based (Oversaturated market) or Eastern Europe (not trusted), this one is in Australia, aimed at the Ozzie market, which seems to be a good bet. Just my two cents.
we do have an Ozzie one already called PhotoDune and they aren't flying high (30$ a month), anyway I am willing to give them a try
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snip...
If StockFresh and Veer haven't been able to make it (they are both still going but neither is looking healthy or a serious competitor to the 'big boys') then I'm sorry but I really can't see how you will.
My experience with veer is totally different from SF - I make more on Vr most months than a year at SF. Still Vr seems to be going slowly downhill and SF appears to be going nowhere.
Any new site either needs to bring something new or have some serious backing to make it these days though. By something new I don't mean super low prices either.
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Nothing ventured nothing gained indeed :). Those of you who have been in the industry long enough would have no doubt seen your fair share of rise and falls. It's the same with any industry (especially ones with low barriers to entry).
We're not promising your riches (although we do hope to get you some). But we do promise to treat you with complete respect and transparency along the way. And we promise to give it a bloody good go :).
Ranjeev
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I got your email: "We're revamping the search results and gallery results pages to something like Flickr has. This will also eliminate the cropping and show your images in their full glory;"
Are you sure about this? What kind will be the watermark, what protection?
(sorry for my poor English)
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I got your email: "We're revamping the search results and gallery results pages to something like Flickr has. This will also eliminate the cropping and show your images in their full glory;"
Are you sure about this? What kind will be the watermark, what protection?
(sorry for my poor English)
Hey Ariene I've replied to you via email but the images will still be protected by watermark. They will not be huge, we just meant that the proper orientation of the image will be visible, and it will look a lot better.
Merry Christmas Everyone :)
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I have sent an email for FTP login, havent had a reply yet. I have 1100 images to upload.
Happy holidays.
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Merry Christmas Ron!
We have sent you an email with your very own FTP login. We're excited to see those images on the site. Just to let everyone know, just because it's the holiday season we won't be slowing down here in the Stockbo camp. :P
Regards
Kevin
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Hi Kevin,
Thank you, I have received the FTP login, but after reviewing the examples as per your request found here http://www.pinterest.com/stockbo/ (http://www.pinterest.com/stockbo/) I can only conclude that I dont have any images that fit that style. I dont shoot instagram style. You might have better luck with the Stocksy crowd, their rejects seem a good fit for Stockbo (I mean no insult, Stocksy is image exclusive). You said your style is not like Stocksy, but I think it is identical.
Not sure why I was approved as a contributor as I dont have one image with that look in my portfolio. So I wont be submitting any images to Stockbo because we are no match. I wish you had been up front about that, because then we wouldnt have had to waste time on this.
Good luck with the start up. Happy holidays
Ronald
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Hey Ron, the stuff on Pinterest is just an example from what we could find on there but for a better idea maybe take a look at what we have already approved on Stockbo. From there you can see that we are not being as particular as Stocksy but we still have a certain style that we are after. When we go live we'll be able to Pin images directly from the Stockbo collection instead.
We approved you because you are an extremely talented photographer, and have the capabilities to provide the type of images that we are after. Yes not everything in your portfolio is what we are looking for, but we did find exceptional images in there that we loved. We apologise for the misunderstanding, it was definitely not our intention to waste your time.
Hope you are having a great Christmas!
Ranjeev
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Thanks for the reply and compliment, but I dont have the talent you think I have. I cant create the Stocksy/Instagram look. Its also not my thing, its not my style, so I wont be producing anything like that.
I believe the instagram look is going to go away at some point so it will reduce the lifetime of the photos as well.
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Your site doesnt show any photos, so I cant see what you mean there.
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Your site doesnt show any photos, so I cant see what you mean there.
You should have the link to the actual working site, from the footer go to Photos > Newest and the latest approved uploads should be visible. Those should provide a much better example of what we are looking for compared to the Pinterest board.
Ranjeev
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Thanks. I just noticed you rejected my best sellers. I have 225 of them, which is 25% of my portfolio and generate the most revenue for me. Its the same reason why I dont submit to DT.
Thanks again, and good luck with the start up.
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Fair enough, yeah we are sticking to a natural style of images to start. Thanks for the wishes. If our styles ever meet and you wanted to upload something, you will always be welcome :).
Ranjeev
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Does the system read IPTC data yet?
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Does the system read IPTC data yet?
I haven't seen any contributor e-mail saying that it does, and the last e-mail saying it was on the list and should be done next week was December 18th.
With FTP and reading IPTC data I'll give upload a selection to see what gets accepted or not and how simple the upload process is.
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Does the system read IPTC data yet?
I haven't seen any contributor e-mail saying that it does, and the last e-mail saying it was on the list and should be done next week was December 18th.
With FTP and reading IPTC data I'll give upload a selection to see what gets accepted or not and how simple the upload process is.
I have tested with a few files, upload via FTP and title, description and keywords are being read from IPTC. Copyright info is not.
Can't say I understand there acceptance criteria though - but that's their playground.
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My uploads went pretty fast, and all data was there. Didnt check for copyright data. However all images were rejected, so it ends here for me. Let me know how you all get on.
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Can't say I understand there acceptance criteria though - but that's their playground.
Seems to be a fashion - 'guess what a start-up is looking for'.
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Can't say I understand there acceptance criteria though - but that's their playground.
Seems to be a fashion - 'guess what a start-up is looking for'.
It's become pretty easy for me - upload what I know to be representative of the stuff I do with a mix of best sellers and things I like but don't sell in the highest volume. If that gets rejected (like at Photocase) then there's no point in continuing - if they don't like those, they won't like the rest of the 2,500+.
Cuts down the amount of time to spend and I've long since stopped worrying about trying to be some other sort of photographer.
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Fair enough, yeah we are sticking to a natural style of images to start. Thanks for the wishes. If our styles ever meet and you wanted to upload something, you will always be welcome :).
Ranjeev
I'm f****d in that case ;D
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Can't say I understand there acceptance criteria though - but that's their playground.
Seems to be a fashion - 'guess what a start-up is looking for'.
It's become pretty easy for me - upload what I know to be representative of the stuff I do with a mix of best sellers and things I like but don't sell in the highest volume. If that gets rejected (like at Photocase) then there's no point in continuing - if they don't like those, they won't like the rest of the 2,500+.
Cuts down the amount of time to spend and I've long since stopped worrying about trying to be some other sort of photographer.
I think that sums it up for me, thats the advice I am going to take. For a while it bugged me that I couldnt get the instagram look you see on Stocksy and Stockbo, but I realised its just not me, I dont shoot like that. Washed out colors, blown out skies, soft focus, weird angles, etc, but I need to stop trying to be something I am not. People will say its an opportunity to learn something different, good for them, its not for me.
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Does the system read IPTC data yet?
Unfortunately not correctly yet but its being worked on. We'll crack the whip on our developers and hopefully roll it out this week. We'll send out an update email tomorrow.
Also we'll work on making what we are looking for clearer :).
Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and is gearing up for the new year!
Ranjeev
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Ron's last post about being whom you're really are hits home with a lot of us. I say , "what is - is what is". Just accept it.
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Ron's last post about being whom you're really are hits home with a lot of us. I say , "what is - is what is". Just accept it.
Unfortunately, now I don't think I have a lot of work that qualifies. Anything that has "that look", I put on Stocksy.
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Ron's last post about being whom you're really are hits home with a lot of us. I say , "what is - is what is". Just accept it.
Unfortunately, now I don't think I have a lot of work that qualifies. Anything that has "that look", I put on Stocksy.
Looking at what's been accepted so far I don't think I have that 'look' either. But, since I'm not with Stocksy, I'll give 'em a try once the crop issue is fixed.
I certainly wouldn't change the way I shoot for any agency, much less a startup, so I suspect my time there will be short-lived.
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I see the vote down brigade crawled out from under their rocks again. Petty bunch of trolls.
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I was going to create an account today and got to the part where I had to check the box that I agreed with the terms and conditions. Thought I should have a read :)
I found a couple of things that didn't seem right to me.
There were some odd wordings that puzzled me (such as if I failed to renew my registration my account would be disabled - what renewal term applies here?) but one big one jumped out that it appears Stockbo takes all merchant/PayPal fees out of the contributor's earnings. It's possible that this means that the fees are split 50/50 - I've read this a couple of times and it's not clear to me
"...the registered User ...will receive the amount of the payment less the commission and administrative charge (including credit card, PayPal and merchant fees) by Stockbo at 50% of the payment."
First, this needs to be much clearer so we know that contributors are paying 50% of the actual fees, 100% of the actual fees or either of those percentages of some "administrative charge" that is determined by Stockbo and which could include anything they want it to.
A little later on in this clause it says "Stockbo reserves the right to vary its commission and administrative charge depending on any changes in the rates imposed by PayPal or any of its third party merchant facilities on the transactions. Stockbo will notify the registered Users who have uploaded Stock Content in writing of any changes to the commission and administrative charges."
If you're taking some portion of the fees out of the payments to contributors then you have to stop saying you're paying 50% royalties because you aren't.
There's a reason that big name stars want a percentage of the gross takings from a movie, and that's because there are endless games that get played if they get a percentage of net profits - typically that profits are creatively accounted to zero.
The costs of operating the site sit with the site owner, just as the costs of producing the images sit with the contributor. Contributors should not have to pay site owners costs out of contributor earnings.
Moving on in the payments section, there's more language that raises questions (emphasis added by me):
" The balance after the deductions under clause 7.3 are made due to the relevant registered User will accrue weekly. A summary of the accrued payments will be generated and the payments will be credited to the relevant registered User’s PayPal account fortnightly on a Monday GMT+8."
This sounds as if you don't have a minimum payout threshold and that contributors have no choice about when to receive payments from you. I think that's a mistake. For various reasons, contributors may want to take their earnings more or less frequently. You don't say anything about how the timing of this weekly accrual matches with the timing of the payment schedule, but I would hope they'd match up.
Does this schedule mean that contributors will not be able to see what they've sold in real time (ideal) or daily (reasonable)?
My notion of an ideal agency is one where:
(a) you can choose to be paid automatically when the balance hits a certain amount, or at the end of the month (assuming you're over the threshold)
(b) the agency pays via masspay so the contributor doesn't get stuck with a PayPal fee to receive their earnings
(c) the threshold is low while the agency finds its feet with sales volume
None of this says anything about what sort of sales records will be available to contributors to be able to track sales and payments - I think it's worth spelling out.
The next clause is some sort of "not my fault" verbiage:
"There may be some delay in payment due to Stockbo’s payment systems. In such an event, the relevant registered User must contact Stockbo and Stockbo will take all reasonable steps to provide an estimated date of payment."
So if you're late, we're obliged to let you know that? Shouldn't it be other way around?
Section 10.1 (d) talks about contributors granting you rights to use the images in marketing for Stockbo but doesn't talk about whether that's watermarked previews or full size images, and for free or with compensation. Given the modest cost to you, I think full size image uses should be licensed by you, even if it's for marketing
Regarding changes in the terms and conditions, there's wording about changing things whenever and they're effective immediately. Then there's this clause:
" It is your sole responsibility to periodically check these Terms for any changes. If you do not agree with any of the changes to these Terms, it is your sole responsibility to unsubscribe from the Site and Services. Your continued use of the Site and Services will be deemed as your acceptance thereof."
I think the very least you can do - and I do mean the very least - is e-mail contributors about changes. It would also be decent and reasonable to provide some sort of notice period - alamy's is 45 days, Getty/iStock is 30.
There is no language at all (unless I missed something) about distributor deals and compensation for those. What I'd like to see is that the agreement doesn't permit you to make them and that if you were to make a change to include them there would have to be some sort of notice period. For the most part, distributor deals are not good for contributors and many of us would want to opt out - where removing our portfolios is the last resort for opting out.
I don't see any language in the agreement that says the contributor is entitled to delete their entire portfolio at any time - I know you said it in the thread here somewhere - and rules about payments to contributors who close their accounts.
I realize all of the above is moot until the agency becomes viable, but it reads like something lawyers wrote with primary focus being protecting the site owners and virtually no consideration being given to protecting the other party to this deal.
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I was going to create an account today and got to the part where I had to check the box that I agreed with the terms and conditions. Thought I should have a read :)
I found a couple of things that didn't seem right to me.
There were some odd wordings that puzzled me (such as if I failed to renew my registration my account would be disabled - what renewal term applies here?) but one big one jumped out that it appears Stockbo takes all merchant/PayPal fees out of the contributor's earnings. It's possible that this means that the fees are split 50/50 - I've read this a couple of times and it's not clear to me
"...the registered User ...will receive the amount of the payment less the commission and administrative charge (including credit card, PayPal and merchant fees) by Stockbo at 50% of the payment."
First, this needs to be much clearer so we know that contributors are paying 50% of the actual fees, 100% of the actual fees or either of those percentages of some "administrative charge" that is determined by Stockbo and which could include anything they want it to.
A little later on in this clause it says "Stockbo reserves the right to vary its commission and administrative charge depending on any changes in the rates imposed by PayPal or any of its third party merchant facilities on the transactions. Stockbo will notify the registered Users who have uploaded Stock Content in writing of any changes to the commission and administrative charges."
If you're taking some portion of the fees out of the payments to contributors then you have to stop saying you're paying 50% royalties because you aren't.
There's a reason that big name stars want a percentage of the gross takings from a movie, and that's because there are endless games that get played if they get a percentage of net profits - typically that profits are creatively accounted to zero.
The costs of operating the site sit with the site owner, just as the costs of producing the images sit with the contributor. Contributors should not have to pay site owners costs out of contributor earnings.
Moving on in the payments section, there's more language that raises questions (emphasis added by me):
" The balance after the deductions under clause 7.3 are made due to the relevant registered User will accrue weekly. A summary of the accrued payments will be generated and the payments will be credited to the relevant registered User’s PayPal account fortnightly on a Monday GMT+8."
This sounds as if you don't have a minimum payout threshold and that contributors have no choice about when to receive payments from you. I think that's a mistake. For various reasons, contributors may want to take their earnings more or less frequently. You don't say anything about how the timing of this weekly accrual matches with the timing of the payment schedule, but I would hope they'd match up.
Does this schedule mean that contributors will not be able to see what they've sold in real time (ideal) or daily (reasonable)?
My notion of an ideal agency is one where:
(a) you can choose to be paid automatically when the balance hits a certain amount, or at the end of the month (assuming you're over the threshold)
(b) the agency pays via masspay so the contributor doesn't get stuck with a PayPal fee to receive their earnings
(c) the threshold is low while the agency finds its feet with sales volume
None of this says anything about what sort of sales records will be available to contributors to be able to track sales and payments - I think it's worth spelling out.
The next clause is some sort of "not my fault" verbiage:
"There may be some delay in payment due to Stockbo’s payment systems. In such an event, the relevant registered User must contact Stockbo and Stockbo will take all reasonable steps to provide an estimated date of payment."
So if you're late, we're obliged to let you know that? Shouldn't it be other way around?
Section 10.1 (d) talks about contributors granting you rights to use the images in marketing for Stockbo but doesn't talk about whether that's watermarked previews or full size images, and for free or with compensation. Given the modest cost to you, I think full size image uses should be licensed by you, even if it's for marketing
Regarding changes in the terms and conditions, there's wording about changing things whenever and they're effective immediately. Then there's this clause:
" It is your sole responsibility to periodically check these Terms for any changes. If you do not agree with any of the changes to these Terms, it is your sole responsibility to unsubscribe from the Site and Services. Your continued use of the Site and Services will be deemed as your acceptance thereof."
I think the very least you can do - and I do mean the very least - is e-mail contributors about changes. It would also be decent and reasonable to provide some sort of notice period - alamy's is 45 days, Getty/iStock is 30.
There is no language at all (unless I missed something) about distributor deals and compensation for those. What I'd like to see is that the agreement doesn't permit you to make them and that if you were to make a change to include them there would have to be some sort of notice period. For the most part, distributor deals are not good for contributors and many of us would want to opt out - where removing our portfolios is the last resort for opting out.
I don't see any language in the agreement that says the contributor is entitled to delete their entire portfolio at any time - I know you said it in the thread here somewhere - and rules about payments to contributors who close their accounts.
I realize all of the above is moot until the agency becomes viable, but it reads like something lawyers wrote with primary focus being protecting the site owners and virtually no consideration being given to protecting the other party to this deal.
You read the agreement a lot closer than I did and I'm glad you brought up these points; lesson learned by me. I'll be holding off on uploading until these points are clarified.
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Jo Ann, thank you very much for bringing these to our attention. Can't trust lawyers huh! This is exactly why we encouraged everyone to read through the legal docs. We most definitely want what we have said to reflect in these, and we promised to be as transparent as possible. As such we will go through your feedback, make the amendments and let everyone know.
But just quickly:
If you're taking some portion of the fees out of the payments to contributors then you have to stop saying you're paying 50% royalties because you aren't.
The costs of operating the site sit with the site owner, just as the costs of producing the images sit with the contributor. Contributors should not have to pay site owners costs out of contributor earnings."
We completely agree, and actually do pay all transaction fees but it clearly isn't evident in the terms which we will adjust :)
Ranjeev
I was going to create an account today and got to the part where I had to check the box that I agreed with the terms and conditions. Thought I should have a read :)
I found a couple of things that didn't seem right to me.
There were some odd wordings that puzzled me (such as if I failed to renew my registration my account would be disabled - what renewal term applies here?) but one big one jumped out that it appears Stockbo takes all merchant/PayPal fees out of the contributor's earnings. It's possible that this means that the fees are split 50/50 - I've read this a couple of times and it's not clear to me
"...the registered User ...will receive the amount of the payment less the commission and administrative charge (including credit card, PayPal and merchant fees) by Stockbo at 50% of the payment."
First, this needs to be much clearer so we know that contributors are paying 50% of the actual fees, 100% of the actual fees or either of those percentages of some "administrative charge" that is determined by Stockbo and which could include anything they want it to.
A little later on in this clause it says "Stockbo reserves the right to vary its commission and administrative charge depending on any changes in the rates imposed by PayPal or any of its third party merchant facilities on the transactions. Stockbo will notify the registered Users who have uploaded Stock Content in writing of any changes to the commission and administrative charges."
If you're taking some portion of the fees out of the payments to contributors then you have to stop saying you're paying 50% royalties because you aren't.
There's a reason that big name stars want a percentage of the gross takings from a movie, and that's because there are endless games that get played if they get a percentage of net profits - typically that profits are creatively accounted to zero.
The costs of operating the site sit with the site owner, just as the costs of producing the images sit with the contributor. Contributors should not have to pay site owners costs out of contributor earnings.
Moving on in the payments section, there's more language that raises questions (emphasis added by me):
" The balance after the deductions under clause 7.3 are made due to the relevant registered User will accrue weekly. A summary of the accrued payments will be generated and the payments will be credited to the relevant registered User’s PayPal account fortnightly on a Monday GMT+8."
This sounds as if you don't have a minimum payout threshold and that contributors have no choice about when to receive payments from you. I think that's a mistake. For various reasons, contributors may want to take their earnings more or less frequently. You don't say anything about how the timing of this weekly accrual matches with the timing of the payment schedule, but I would hope they'd match up.
Does this schedule mean that contributors will not be able to see what they've sold in real time (ideal) or daily (reasonable)?
My notion of an ideal agency is one where:
(a) you can choose to be paid automatically when the balance hits a certain amount, or at the end of the month (assuming you're over the threshold)
(b) the agency pays via masspay so the contributor doesn't get stuck with a PayPal fee to receive their earnings
(c) the threshold is low while the agency finds its feet with sales volume
None of this says anything about what sort of sales records will be available to contributors to be able to track sales and payments - I think it's worth spelling out.
The next clause is some sort of "not my fault" verbiage:
"There may be some delay in payment due to Stockbo’s payment systems. In such an event, the relevant registered User must contact Stockbo and Stockbo will take all reasonable steps to provide an estimated date of payment."
So if you're late, we're obliged to let you know that? Shouldn't it be other way around?
Section 10.1 (d) talks about contributors granting you rights to use the images in marketing for Stockbo but doesn't talk about whether that's watermarked previews or full size images, and for free or with compensation. Given the modest cost to you, I think full size image uses should be licensed by you, even if it's for marketing
Regarding changes in the terms and conditions, there's wording about changing things whenever and they're effective immediately. Then there's this clause:
" It is your sole responsibility to periodically check these Terms for any changes. If you do not agree with any of the changes to these Terms, it is your sole responsibility to unsubscribe from the Site and Services. Your continued use of the Site and Services will be deemed as your acceptance thereof."
I think the very least you can do - and I do mean the very least - is e-mail contributors about changes. It would also be decent and reasonable to provide some sort of notice period - alamy's is 45 days, Getty/iStock is 30.
There is no language at all (unless I missed something) about distributor deals and compensation for those. What I'd like to see is that the agreement doesn't permit you to make them and that if you were to make a change to include them there would have to be some sort of notice period. For the most part, distributor deals are not good for contributors and many of us would want to opt out - where removing our portfolios is the last resort for opting out.
I don't see any language in the agreement that says the contributor is entitled to delete their entire portfolio at any time - I know you said it in the thread here somewhere - and rules about payments to contributors who close their accounts.
I realize all of the above is moot until the agency becomes viable, but it reads like something lawyers wrote with primary focus being protecting the site owners and virtually no consideration being given to protecting the other party to this deal.
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Stockbo- thanks but no thanks! If I can produce the type of photos you desire I am going to send them to stocky whom I can trust and can sell them better!
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Also how difficult is it to download say GL Stock contract and mod it ? Use existing contracts that are proven to be successful.
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Well, Stockbo has just closed my account and told me my work is no fit. Funny that, because first time around they were more than happy to take my images.
This must be the first time that my comments in a forum made an agency closed my account. I guess Stockbo is the Fotolia of down under. The vague TOS kind of was an indicator of that as well.
Happy new year, good luck with the start up. I hope its a smashing success.
Ronald
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Well, Stockbo has just closed my account and told me my work is no fit. Funny that, because first time around they were more than happy to take my images.
This must be the first time that my comments in a forum made an agency closed my account. I guess Stockbo is the Fotolia of down under. The vague TOS kind of was an indicator of that as well.
Happy new year, good luck with the start up. I hope its a smashing success.
Ronald
I think Stockbo saw Stocksy and also a market for those kind of images. They are trying to specifically compete with Stocksy and are very "selective" in their photographer base. I don't see getting in with my work and even if I could it would be a very few of my images that I could submit, so numbers aren't there. I am not writing them off though because I want to try some new stuff this year.....2014.....and maybe later we will see. I hope they do well, but not so well that my current sales erode :( ::)
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Well, Stockbo has just closed my account and told me my work is no fit. Funny that, because first time around they were more than happy to take my images.
This must be the first time that my comments in a forum made an agency closed my account. I guess Stockbo is the Fotolia of down under. The vague TOS kind of was an indicator of that as well.
Happy new year, good luck with the start up. I hope its a smashing success.
Ronald
Apologies Ron it seems your account was accidentally closed. It's back open. The email you got was part of the automatic system we have in place for approvals to replace applications to the artistry email. Initial invitation to upload if and when our styles meet still stands. Happy new year to you too :)
Mantis, thanks for the well wishes :).
Goofy, all good mate I have nothing but respect for Stocksy! We went for the safer option of letting our lawyers prepare the legal docs, but since there are a few issues we are rectifying. We have already adjusted our License Agreement based on feedback.
Also was great to meet up with Rob yesterday! If anyone else is in Perth and would like to meet up over a coffee let us know.
Happy New Year everyone
Ranjeev
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...
Also was great to meet up with Rob yesterday! If anyone else is in Perth and would like to meet up over a coffee let us know.
Happy New Year everyone
Ranjeev
Ha! for a moment I thought you meant the Fair City of Perth, rather than Perth, Oz. 8)
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...
Also was great to meet up with Rob yesterday! If anyone else is in Perth and would like to meet up over a coffee let us know.
Happy New Year everyone
Ranjeev
Ha! for a moment I thought you meant the Fair City of Perth, rather than Perth, Oz. 8)
Unfortunately the Fair City is too cold for us :P!
Ranjeev
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Hi Ranjeev,
four quick questions:
I uploaded a bunch of pictures a couple of weeks ago, of wich some got accepted in the meantime. Today I edited the titles, descriptions and keywords of four or five of them. Now these pictures are listed as "pending" again. Does that mean that every edit of approved images will be starting a new complete reviewing process? Or do you just check if title and keywording fit the image?
Most of the stuff I uploaded I did not keyword before. Luckily you guys added some tags for me. Was that just because of your problems with the IPTC-data or are you going to keep up that service in the future?
I don't see a possibility to get a summary of my accepted images in the "My media" section. Is there any?
What the heck happened when some of my images are shown in the orphaned media folder?
So far I really like what I see at stockbo, even when there is a lot of work waiting for you. Keep on running!
All the best
Rüdiger
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I have a bunch in orphaned media as well. Unclear what this means. I'm also wondering if it would be possible to add a tab for "approved media" as well. Thnx.
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I had one picture of a cat approved and now is back in the pending queue...
Strange case...
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Hey guys!
Apologies for the late response forgot to check this post during the weekend.
Thanks for pointing this out Rugider and Alfonso, yes once edited the images are going through a new review process. But this is unintended and we will get that fixed ASAP.
There was an update to the IPTC reading but it is not completely working yet, our developers took a break for New Years (thus a few broken things around the site). But we will keep the service up until that is fixed. We will be going through this week to make sure all approved images have their metada transferred to the site.
Rudiger and jrwasserman, great suggestion we'll add in an "approved media" tab or maybe edit "My Media" to just show approved media since pending and failed have their own tab.
Orphaned media are images that have not been assigned to any galleries which means they won't show up on the front end. Might not be the best term haha which we'll look into changing. You can assign images to more than one gallery by holding the 'control' button when selecting a gallery.
We'll send out an update email today or tomorrow, we've made a bunch of draft edits to the t&cs based on Jo Ann's feedback which we'll send through too.
Btw happy new year everyone :)
Ranjeev
Hi Ranjeev,
four quick questions:
I uploaded a bunch of pictures a couple of weeks ago, of wich some got accepted in the meantime. Today I edited the titles, descriptions and keywords of four or five of them. Now these pictures are listed as "pending" again. Does that mean that every edit of approved images will be starting a new complete reviewing process? Or do you just check if title and keywording fit the image?
Most of the stuff I uploaded I did not keyword before. Luckily you guys added some tags for me. Was that just because of your problems with the IPTC-data or are you going to keep up that service in the future?
I don't see a possibility to get a summary of my accepted images in the "My media" section. Is there any?
What the heck happened when some of my images are shown in the orphaned media folder?
So far I really like what I see at stockbo, even when there is a lot of work waiting for you. Keep on running!
All the best
Rüdiger
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Submitting needs to be efficient, adding more work is not going to help you get people to sign up. Assigning categories is a nuisance. You are are new starter, with no proven track record, no sales. The more time it cost to submit images, the more likely people will not bother.
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Submitting needs to be efficient, adding more work is not going to help you get people to sign up. Assigning categories is a nuisance. You are are new starter, with no proven track record, no sales. The more time it cost to submit images, the more likely people will not bother.
I have to agree. Once you have a significant number of images having categories ("galleries") will not provide any additional value to a client.
I'd suggest you drop them completely. That will ease uploading for contributors and will reduce design complexity for your site developers at the same time.
For clients it does not make a difference, because anything that can be accomplished by categories can (even better) be accomplished by keyword searches.
One more proposal (as we already had discussions re your acceptance criteria): add a notice giving a reason when you reject a file, so contributors can more easily learn what you want.
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If you want categories make them smart categories based on key words instead like Stocksy.
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Great point, we can do that, anything for simplicity especially if it makes it easier for you guys. We'll make them keyword based instead of a manual entry requirement.
We do plan on providing feedback but are unable to do it in batches and since the collection is being built up there is a lot to go through. We'll look at alternatives for now, maybe through feedback emails.
Ranjeev
If you want categories make them smart categories based on key words instead like Stocksy.
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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
If you want people to submit photos it has be lowest amount of work as you don't have any record of selling images. Without images you won't sell any.
I'll be waiting until successful metadata uploading before I send any more.
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I don't mind having to assign an image to a particular gallery and I would imagine that some buyers would prefer to peruse by gallery. However, I would simplify by eliminating some of the more obscure ones such as Assignments, Creative Arts, and Corporate.....add a Nature category and Business category (in place of Corporate). Combine others if possible.
Also, add the Title and Description to the file closeup page.
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It's been a while now since we have heard something new from you. And to be honest, I'm quite a bit excited - and really looking forward for you going live. So, just out of curiosity: how are things working out Down Under?
Cheers,
Rü
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I sent my Link. Im going to offer 831 Great selling original paintings. and see how you do with them, Or if ya even want them. I Like new sites. Best of luck.
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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
:)
If you want people to submit photos it has be lowest amount of work as you don't have any record of selling images. Without images you won't sell any.
I'll be waiting until successful metadata uploading before I send any more.
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Also, I agree 100% with the others, The site that makes it easy and fast will at least get the catalog. I've been with I think about 39 sites since 2002,2003 Wish I had those hours,Days,weeks,Years of wasted time back with good intentioned wannabes. And Im sure most here feel the same.
Macrographics has it down, Hope they stay. I always try new sites and Pray they can give the big 3 a run for the money because they need a kick in the rear.
Again..Good Luck to ya.
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Also, I agree 100% with the others, The site that makes it easy and fast will at least get the catalog. I've been with I think about 39 sites since 2002,2003 Wish I had those hours,Days,weeks,Years of wasted time back with good intentioned wannabes. And Im sure most here feel the same.
Macrographics has it down, Hope they stay. I always try new sites and Pray they can give the big 3 a run for the money because they need a kick in the rear.
Again..Good Luck to ya.
^ Couldn't agree more. And, yes, Macrografiks has it down.
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How will they compete with the big 3 who have backing of MILLIONS of dollars for marketing? The last somewhat successful start up was Deposit and they arent selling much either. Plus Stockbo is looking for the instagram / desaturated look which is limiting any success as well.
You more likely to have success starting up Symbiostock
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Plus Stockbo is looking for the instagram / desaturated look which is limiting any success as well.
Well, they've been taking my images and they are far from the 'instagram/desaturated look'...
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Good for you. I guess they changed their mind then.
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There gonna take my paintings and start a special category. Well See. Been there/Done that.
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There gonna take my paintings and start a special category. Well See. Been there/Done that.
And are they going to commit a chunk of doe to market that kind of image? Or will buyers have to find them by chance? Just creating a category for paintings does nothing for you, zip. Just saying. What they probably really want is your images, which are incredible by the way.
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Today's email said they're launching but that they still haven't fixed the problem reading descriptions from IPTC
Why?
I may be off base, but there seems to be something wrong that functionality this basic hasn't been fixed after such a long time of "working on it". And that they're launching anyway
Once they have this working, I'll upload to give the site a try
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I also received an email from them and noticed that they didn't hide the email addresses they where sending to. Really very unprofessional... Now we all have a collection of email addresses anyone can spam to :-(
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I also received an email from them and noticed that they didn't hide the email addresses they where sending to. Really very unprofessional... Now we all have a collection of email addresses anyone can spam to :-(
Protection of personal data just went for a walk...
:o :o
Whoow! This is a some (huge) minus :o ... can't believe... :|
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It's been a while now since we have heard something new from you. And to be honest, I'm quite a bit excited - and really looking forward for you going live. So, just out of curiosity: how are things working out Down Under?
Cheers,
Rü
Hey everyone! We have been caught up with the developers which has been a bit of a bottle neck which is why we were a bit quite. Thanks ruewi we are excited too!
Rinderart great to have you on board! Your art-work is incredible, it wasn't traditionally what we were going for initially but we decided to bring it forward and take that sort of work now. And thanks for your support, privileged to have someone of your experience on board.
Those changes to the terms and conditions discussed earlier are now live.
We also have to sincerely apologise regarding the email. All others we have done so far have always been protected. It's been a long, late weekend working on some last few things and I guess we just got sloppy. Not an excuse but it definitely was not intentional and we will take extra care to make sure it never happens again. Please don't spam anyone :(.
Regarding the IPTC, everything now gets read except for the description. Our developers hit a bit of a roadblock with that and it's probably going to involve a lot of code revamping in the uploading. We will get it fixed but decided to go live as is because an important aspect (the title) is being read. Delaying any longer is not viable and will lose us some opportunities in the market.
Its been a long road with ups and downs but its great to have your support!
Ranjeev
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Hey everyone! We have been caught up with the developers which has been a bit of a bottle neck which is why we were a bit quite. Thanks ruewi we are excited too!
Rinderart great to have you on board! Your art-work is incredible, it wasn't traditionally what we were going for initially but we decided to bring it forward and take that sort of work now. And thanks for your support, privileged to have someone of your experience on board.
Those changes to the terms and conditions discussed earlier are now live.
We also have to sincerely apologise regarding the email. All others we have done so far have always been protected. It's been a long, late weekend working on some last few things and I guess we just got sloppy. Not an excuse but it definitely was not intentional and we will take extra care to make sure it never happens again. Please don't spam anyone :(.
Regarding the IPTC, everything now gets read except for the description. Our developers hit a bit of a roadblock with that and it's probably going to involve a lot of code revamping in the uploading. We will get it fixed but decided to go live as is because an important aspect (the title) is being read. Delaying any longer is not viable and will lose us some opportunities in the market.
Its been a long road with ups and downs but its great to have your support!
Ranjeev
I just tried a couple uploads and none o f the IPTC is being read.
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Hey mate! Did you leave the photos up or have you deleted them? All the photos I can see that were uploaded today have the data on them. I don't think it's populating in that first editor box that appears, but once you save, it should be there. If not let me know. Or feel free to shoot an email to [email protected] so we know which account to look at.
Ranjeev
Hey everyone! We have been caught up with the developers which has been a bit of a bottle neck which is why we were a bit quite. Thanks ruewi we are excited too!
Rinderart great to have you on board! Your art-work is incredible, it wasn't traditionally what we were going for initially but we decided to bring it forward and take that sort of work now. And thanks for your support, privileged to have someone of your experience on board.
Those changes to the terms and conditions discussed earlier are now live.
We also have to sincerely apologise regarding the email. All others we have done so far have always been protected. It's been a long, late weekend working on some last few things and I guess we just got sloppy. Not an excuse but it definitely was not intentional and we will take extra care to make sure it never happens again. Please don't spam anyone :(.
Regarding the IPTC, everything now gets read except for the description. Our developers hit a bit of a roadblock with that and it's probably going to involve a lot of code revamping in the uploading. We will get it fixed but decided to go live as is because an important aspect (the title) is being read. Delaying any longer is not viable and will lose us some opportunities in the market.
Its been a long road with ups and downs but its great to have your support!
Ranjeev
I just tried a couple uploads and none o f the IPTC is being read.
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Hey mate! Did you leave the photos up or have you deleted them? All the photos I can see that were uploaded today have the data on them. I don't think it's populating in that first editor box that appears, but once you save, it should be there. If not let me know. Or feel free to shoot an email to [email protected] so we know which account to look at.
Ranjeev
Yes I now see that if I save the file the Data is there.
Thanks
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Hey mate! Did you leave the photos up or have you deleted them? All the photos I can see that were uploaded today have the data on them. I don't think it's populating in that first editor box that appears, but once you save, it should be there. If not let me know. Or feel free to shoot an email to [email protected] so we know which account to look at.
Ranjeev
Hey everyone! We have been caught up with the developers which has been a bit of a bottle neck which is why we were a bit quite. Thanks ruewi we are excited too!
Rinderart great to have you on board! Your art-work is incredible, it wasn't traditionally what we were going for initially but we decided to bring it forward and take that sort of work now. And thanks for your support, privileged to have someone of your experience on board.
Those changes to the terms and conditions discussed earlier are now live.
We also have to sincerely apologise regarding the email. All others we have done so far have always been protected. It's been a long, late weekend working on some last few things and I guess we just got sloppy. Not an excuse but it definitely was not intentional and we will take extra care to make sure it never happens again. Please don't spam anyone :(.
Regarding the IPTC, everything now gets read except for the description. Our developers hit a bit of a roadblock with that and it's probably going to involve a lot of code revamping in the uploading. We will get it fixed but decided to go live as is because an important aspect (the title) is being read. Delaying any longer is not viable and will lose us some opportunities in the market.
Its been a long road with ups and downs but its great to have your support!
Ranjeev
I just tried a couple uploads and none o f the IPTC is being read.
ALWAYS and I Mean "ALWAYS" use the K.I.S.S. Principle.
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I like the site so far, but uploading is still a bit cumbersome. For instance, to assign a model release to a batch of photos with the same model, you have to upload the release for each individual photo. I think I'll wait to upload again until I can upload a release once and assign it to a batch of photos. Hopefully by then the system will be reading all of the IPTC data and uploading won't take so much valuable time.
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I like the site so far, but uploading is still a bit cumbersome. For instance, to assign a model release to a batch of photos with the same model, you have to upload the release for each individual photo. I think I'll wait to upload again until I can upload a release once and assign it to a batch of photos. Hopefully by then the system will be reading all of the IPTC data and uploading won't take so much valuable time.
Really? ewwww. Not good. they want my 831 paintings. Im sorry theres just no way Im gonna do the same release to 831 Images individually . I just can't justify that time. DARN.Thanks for the info carl.
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They sent out some progress e-mail this week saying that uploads were available again and I went to the site to look around. I had thought I'd wait until the reading of IPTC was fixed to upload, and apparently descriptions still aren't read.
At any rate, I noticed that URLs just have numbers for the images. I'm not knowledgeable about SEO, but in the process of building my own site, plus remembering things that the agency sites have done in the last few years to change their URLs, I've come across lots of recommendations to use descriptive terms, not numerical codes.
http://moz.com/learn/seo/url (http://moz.com/learn/seo/url)
Another thing I noticed - other than how few images are on the site at the moment - is that on an image page there is mention of Albums. See here for example, where it says the artist has 11 Albums
https://stockbo.com/635 (https://stockbo.com/635)
The Albums: 11 phrase isn't clickable and I can't see anything on the page that links to these 11 Albums. At the bottom of the page there is a link to Galleries, but these are site wide, apparently, not artist based. Have Albums gone away but are still listed?
Then I see on the above page that All Media for that artist is 72 items but if I click on the View All Media button, I see a total of 60 items. Where are the other 12 and why are the counts different? It isn't just this artist; a number that I looked at had mismatches.
One last observation is that there are some artists who have listed a website but on an image page there is no link, just the text
https://stockbo.com/2229 (https://stockbo.com/2229)
It's really annoying to have to cut and paste a URL - if you don't want to link, then don't show it.
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I sent 887 Original Paintings, about 50 left. I used the on site java uploader. It was good for the first 500 then timed out,dropping some images. Then got Buggy. I like they got back to me right away. My descriptions showed up and I sent one Property release for all. I like giving new sites a chance because ya never know. I would pick a few hundred or so of your good sellers and give it a shot before sending everything. seem Like good folks there. Also the site for me seems very fast at showing Images. Hope they do well. Haven't sent any People Images and I'll wait on that till it settles in.Thats my report.
https://stockbo.com/search.php?clearSearch=true&searchPhrase=abstract
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I like giving new sites a chance because ya never know. I would pick a few hundred or so of your good sellers and give it a shot before sending everything. seem Like good folks there.
I wish I had a few hundred good sellers.... :(
But, I agree, good to give new sites a chance. There have been some bugs...pretty typical of a new site going through some growing pains. Time will tell.
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I'm finding the uploading process to be a bit more time-consuming than I like. One reason is because the system is taking the description from the IPTC data and putting it in the title field, leaving the description field blank. So I can either leave it that way, or correct it by manually putting the information in the appropriate fields. I also have to manually type in the copyright information for each photo. Additionally, there's a check box for model and property releases, but no mechanism that I can see for uploading releases and assigning them to specific photos. Perhaps all they're looking for is my acknowledgement that a release is on file.
In order to avoid taking too much time to upload, it would obviously be much better if the system would put the IPTC data in the appropriate fields, and it would also be much better to allow me to enter a default copyright notice on my profile, with the option to change it for a specific photograph if necessary.
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I also received an email from them and noticed that they didn't hide the email addresses they where sending to. Really very unprofessional... Now we all have a collection of email addresses anyone can spam to :-(
Protection of personal data just went for a walk...
:o :o
Whoow! This is a some (huge) minus :o ... can't believe... :|
Yeah, me neither! It was just plain goofy...wait, MORE than goofy! :(
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Hey everyone! Apologies we have been a bit silent here, it's been pretty hectic getting everything going, but we are full time on our emails so feel free to email us at artistry(at)stockbo.com anytime :).
But in regards to your comments:
There are still a few bugs on the site but we will phase them out, we're working on the crucial ones first.
There's no need to upload model / property releases, our check boxes are just there to indicate to the buyer if there is one. We may request it if the buyer requests it though. There's no need to upload one for each image but you can do what Rinderart did if you prefer and email us the bunch of your releases together. With that we can also look after ticking the release check boxes for you if you like, just let us know.
In terms of url image numbers, we've gone this route to make it easier to categorise and locate images, as search engine algorithms don't reward url keywording as much as they used to. Saying that though, we will monitor it and adapt.
Recent bugs to the uploading were because we upgraded servers and the new server didn't have the optimal settings for the site, thus file sizes were being limited and the inactive automatic log-outs were extremely short. We've manually adjusted these making them much much larger so those issues should be gone.
We're also investigating replacing the java uploader to a fancy new html5 version to make things much easier and streamlined. We'll have an update on this during the week.
The IPTC is working for the majority of images (except for the description which is optional) and titles, keywords, and copyright should be imported. Most are working fine but we're looking into why some aren't getting picked up. The title should be in the right place now for both FTP and java.
We most definitely want to make it easier for you and that's what we're working towards. Until we switch to smart galleries we're even allocating galleries for you.
Thanks for all the support and comments :)!
Ranjeev
Stockbo Team
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"We're also investigating replacing the java uploader to a fancy new html5 version to make things much easier and streamlined. We'll have an update on this during the week."
Good news.
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Just received my first payment. Yeah!
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Just received my first payment. Yeah!
wow, how quick...if this site takes vectors or other illustrations? :)
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Just received my first payment. Yeah!
wow, how quick...if this site takes vectors or other illustrations? :)
Well, to be correct on this: I just had my first sale, which led to a direct payment. That's one small step for a man, but nevertheless it's a step into the right direction. ;D
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Great news.
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I just saw Stockbo pricing offer:
https://stockbo.com/featured.php?mode=subscriptions
Price: $5,397.00 - 365 beautiful images. Works out to around $14.79 per image (70% cheaper than an outright XL Image).
Normally the price would be $50/ DL.
"For subscriptions, our contributors earn $9.95 for each image downloaded using a subscription."
:-\
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Something to say about sales there?
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I just saw that Sean is their "featured photographer" - with 0 files ;D
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I just saw that Sean is their "featured photographer" - with 0 files ;D
Where do you see a featured photographer? I just went to the site and couldn't find anything - I don't have an account, so is it something you have to be logged in to see?
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I see him on the home page and when you click on his image it says 0 images. I'm not logged in. https://stockbo.com/index.php (https://stockbo.com/index.php)
(https://stockbo.com/index.php)
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I just saw that Sean is their "featured photographer" - with 0 files ;D
That is funny.
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I just saw that Sean is their "featured photographer" - with 0 files ;D
That is funny.
Mr. Locke, you now know you can retire from stock photography.
just endorse a site. so much simpler, no? 8)
sit and enjoy your ale, matey !!!
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Thanks - I see it now I scroll down :)
I have a 27" monitor and the main image fills that. It never even occurred to me to scroll down!
In the "It's all about you" section, clicking on a number of the icons produces just a name and "This gallery is empty". Doesn't look so good, IMO.
I would hope for photographs from a featured photographer - I guess the newbie Mr. Locke has to stop being so lazy and create something :)
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"This gallery is empty". Doesn't look so good, IMO.
I would hope for photographs from a featured photographer - I guess the newbie Mr. Locke has to stop being so lazy and create something :)
maybe there is something. Mr. Locke's microstock version of John and Yoko's Wedding Album blank side.
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August 10th I uploaded one photo to check this site how it works. Image is pending review still... I sent at least 2 messages to them asking why so long. No reply...
Is it alive? Knock knock, anybody in there?? ::)
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August 10th I uploaded one photo to check this site how it works. Image is pending review still... I sent at least 2 messages to them asking why so long. No reply...
Is it alive? Knock knock, anybody in there?? ::)
I have 27 waiting to be reviewed - uploaded between Jul 26 and Aug 8.
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I had my very first sale 18th of August:
https://stockbo.com/17763
medium size - $5 for me :)
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I had my very first sale 18th of August:
https://stockbo.com/17763
medium size - $5 for me :)
Than you should be on the front page sir...
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Their USP is weak, and is not really different from other stock agencies. Shutterstock is about quality too. The second reason doesn't mean anything for buyers.
https://stockbo.com/about.php
Buyers do not care about what we make. I don't think there are many buyers considering photographer fairness in their decision from which agency to buy images. Their subscription pack offers a 70% discount, which is contradicting being fair to photographers in my opinion.
One could argue that they summed up reasons why buyers and photographers should choose Stockbo, but offering 50% without having the buyers doesn't cut it either. And subscriptions are not fair for photographers either. It is he agency that benefits from subs, not us.
I guess 50% is a good start, but it goes to show that there is a lot more to opening a stock agency than just offering a fair royalty.
I am aware of the argument that if we don't send our images, the buyers wont come either, but I am at a point where I no longer want to spend time uploading to start up agencies for no return. I have dropped a lot of the established agencies for the same reason.
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But Sean Locke - gallery still empty - continues to be in the rotating set of "featured" contributors on the home page. Along with many other empty gallery contributors.
This problem was pointed out months ago and they haven't done anything to fix it. Really looks as if no one is home (not saying that's the case, but just how it looks when you're a visitor to the site)
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But Sean Locke - gallery still empty - continues to be in the rotating set of "featured" contributors on the home page. Along with many other empty gallery contributors.
This problem was pointed out months ago and they haven't done anything to fix it. Really looks as if no one is home (not saying that's the case, but just how it looks when you're a visitor to the site)
Maybe a 'No Vacancy' Sign should be put up 8)