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Author Topic: Time to create a new sustainable stock agency  (Read 19322 times)

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« on: May 27, 2020, 01:52 »
+6
https://greenice.net/start-stock-photography-website-like-shutterstock/

I wonder if it might be time to create a new stock agency with contributors in mind. Something like Stocksy but more open to contributors and not with a private club vibe.

Transparent , exclusive content (not contributor) with a fair share FOREVER written in capital letters in the contract. Maybe 50% for regular contributors and 60% for all the initial investors.

Reading that website it does seem feasible. There are some big contributors that have established their agencies. I wonder that if they would unite to do something like this it could be done.

If something like this is not done soon we are all doomed, large and small contributors.
No Adobe or large companies present in the Stock Market Exchange or funded by risk capital are going to save it. The story will repeat again and again.

I think there are people out there with the experience to face such a task. The predatory schemes we see all day should have their days counted.

Doind nothing everytime we are slapped in the face will take is nowhere.



« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2020, 05:55 »
+1
https://www.aimprosoft.com/blog/how-to-create-a-website-like-shutterstock/

I wonder that this has to be not that difficult to create and also not that expensive with lower storage expenses. I think stocksy did it right. Exclusive content is a must(only content no contributor exclusivity). If you can offer enough exclusive content with quality like Stocksy did buyer will follow along.

Now is a perfect time to create such an initiative. The biggest agencies except Adobe have signaled the path to 0 revenue (once you take into account costs of production and time I guess many are already producing on a loss but those with big portfolios are living of diminishing rents).

As stated in the link I posted I don't think the tech part or costs are the problem. The big question is how many producers would jump ship to such an initiative. I think that the timing is now perfect. Only stormy clouds on the horizon with no expectation to get better in the short or long future.

This will need to come out from top producers. I am thinking in the big contributors in Eastern Europe. With a strong presence of IT specialists I ams sure that if they would be able to unite something very promising could come out after this disastrous move of Shutter.

I would jump in a heart beat with my 24.000 assets (video and images) on such an initiative if the foundation would be commited to their contributors. We don't need just another agency like the dozens that can be seen on the right column. We need an agency fair to contributors in the long run. Stamp a 50% forever on it with strong names of the industry and I would say good riddance to all the other exploiters we all know.

georgep7

« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2020, 06:31 »
0
Perhaps, maybe, decentralisation is an answer.

Individual people's portfolios united in a big contributor, creators, artists, whatever we are called, INDEX by type: audio, video, photo, illo, vector, whatever other i forgot
 kind of yellow pages,

perhaps, maybe,

Could attract some individuals to browse and negotiate some work or prices?

And if this worked, perhaps, maybe, some highlights, blogging, tips, creator highlights section, etc etc etc. Kind of Medium style

If this low cost, easy maintainable INDEX created some traffic, contributors

perhaps, maybe,

Would then thought more seriously to setup a shop in whatever platform.

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2020, 07:56 »
+5
Perhaps, maybe, decentralisation is an answer.

Individual people's portfolios united in a big contributor, creators, artists, whatever we are called, INDEX by type: audio, video, photo, illo, vector, whatever other i forgot
 kind of yellow pages,

perhaps, maybe,

Could attract some individuals to browse and negotiate some work or prices?

And if this worked, perhaps, maybe, some highlights, blogging, tips, creator highlights section, etc etc etc. Kind of Medium style

If this low cost, easy maintainable INDEX created some traffic, contributors

perhaps, maybe,

Would then thought more seriously to setup a shop in whatever platform.

What you're describing sounds like Photoshelter https://www.photoshelter.com/explore/. A bunch of individual portfolios connected with an agency style front end and unified search function. They also had a Virtual Agency function where you could combine multiple contributor accounts together.

This concept never seemed to take off for them. If I remember correctly they said it was due to money. They would have needed to raise a huge amount to compete against the big agencies so they shut it down. 

I think it's a great concept with some challenges that would need to be addressed
  • Marketing - Large stock companies have millions to invest in sales and marketing which is why they're the biggest. You can see what happens with little to no marketing when you look at 123RF and similar small companies. Where would the millions come from needed for sales teams and marketing campaigns? Or is there a social media genius that could do it on a low budget?
  • Curation - Some photographers can self evaluate. Others will submit 100 photos of the exact same scene with a slightly different angle which looks like the same photo. Buyers would be turned off by poor selection and quality so there would need to be some level of inspection/rejection. How would this be handled without angering contributors?
  • Pricing - Would need to be simple and consistent. Buyers would be turned off by multiple pricing models and different pricing for each photo. What should the pricing model be that contributors would feel is fair?

Part of the greatness of stock is a huge network of talented people. Part of the downside is getting such a large group to coordinate and agree on anything.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2020, 09:34 by PaulieWalnuts »

« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2020, 08:36 »
+4

Part of the greatness of stock is a huge network of talented people. Part of the downside is getting such a large group to coordinate and agree on anything.

I have been in Photoshelter for a few years now and it does not work for many of the reasons you explained. I think the biggest one is the disparity of prices, releases etc. The big success of stock sites is consistency. The buyer knows a set of rules that are consistent through the whole site, things that dont happen at Photoshelter (prices,editorial vs commercial,releases,technical rules etc.

A succesful site has to have the same level of parameter for all the content. The last thing you want is to confuse the buyer. The buying experience has to be simple and straightforward. I think quality and exclusivity is king to have a chance. Buyers will find you, maybe slower that if you have tons of marketing funds but they will eventually know about you. Look at sites like Pinterest, Unsplash etc, nobody knew them but word spread like fire quickly. Same happened to Istock and Shutter at the beginning.

As you say the biggest cost would be to review the content. I think that the selection process does not need to be so stringent as Stocksy but it is paramount to have a great algorythm to place on front the quality content and let it push it back what is very niche or low in quality. Storage costs is an issue with video but again there are form to tackle the problem. I think that a group of the strong contributors in the field could really push a succesful business model even in the crowded space nowaday.

I just hope that at some point a "Stocksy like" agency fair but more more open in style and contributors will appear on the playing field.

georgep7

« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2020, 08:47 »
0
Thank you for explaining, I didn't knew about PhotoShelter.

« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2020, 08:57 »
+1
The easiest is to support pond5. 40% for non exclusive, 60% for an exclusive port.

And you can set your own prices.

They might be mostly a video agency but they also sell photos.

But of course not the samsvolume as elsewhere.

PaulieWalnuts

  • We Have Exciting News For You
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2020, 09:35 »
+1
Found some old emails about it. It was named Photoshelter Collection and was a strategy to compete with large agencies. They threw in the towel after about a year in late 2008. Wish it had been successful. I remember being excited about it.

Photoshelter Explore still exists and allows search of multiple portfolios.


« Reply #9 on: May 27, 2020, 10:55 »
+3
https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/

how do you access that link? trying to access it gives this message:

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.

« Reply #10 on: May 27, 2020, 17:39 »
+1
What about pulling a move similar to BlackBox and submitting our footage to one account for the time being? We will at least hit the highest % on SS quicker if we band together.  I dunno, maybe that wouldn't work?
« Last Edit: May 27, 2020, 17:43 by thirdbornentertainment »

« Reply #11 on: May 27, 2020, 17:42 »
0
https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/

how do you access that link? trying to access it gives this message:

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.


Worked ok for me. Maybe it got fixed?




« Reply #12 on: May 27, 2020, 19:15 »
+6
I don't have a dog in this fight, because I don't sell on shutterstock, but what they did is pretty crappy.

Why don't the folks that contribute to stocksy talk to the owners of that site, Bruce and ask him to consider launching a new site, for the masses. Just like iStock use to be when he owned it? Bruce knows how to build and launch and run a mega large stock photo site. I doubt anyone else here is going to know how to launch a site and run it properly, because it takes a great deal of knowledge and it takes a great deal of money. Since stock photos pays nothing, following that logic, I know most of you don't make any real money, therefore you guys can't afford to launch a site without someone like Bruce. I could be way of, but based upon my days in a previous life working in digital advertising many years ago, to launch a mega stock site can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Personals websites are cheap, professional websites built for corporations are mega expensive.

« Reply #13 on: May 27, 2020, 22:43 »
+1
https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/

how do you access that link? trying to access it gives this message:

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.


Worked ok for me. Maybe it got fixed?

nope, strange, doesn't work. is it typed correctly?

« Reply #14 on: May 27, 2020, 22:44 »
+3
I don't have a dog in this fight, because I don't sell on shutterstock, but what they did is pretty crappy.

Why don't the folks that contribute to stocksy talk to the owners of that site, Bruce and ask him to consider launching a new site, for the masses. Just like iStock use to be when he owned it? Bruce knows how to build and launch and run a mega large stock photo site. I doubt anyone else here is going to know how to launch a site and run it properly, because it takes a great deal of knowledge and it takes a great deal of money. Since stock photos pays nothing, following that logic, I know most of you don't make any real money, therefore you guys can't afford to launch a site without someone like Bruce. I could be way of, but based upon my days in a previous life working in digital advertising many years ago, to launch a mega stock site can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Personals websites are cheap, professional websites built for corporations are mega expensive.

actually, getting a site set up is not that expensive, nor that time consuming. a skilled programmer (depending on what complexity you want) can put something together in as little as a couple hours, to a couple months.

the challenge is effective marketing, & converting customers to sales, etc...

« Reply #15 on: May 28, 2020, 08:18 »
+3
I don't have a dog in this fight, because I don't sell on shutterstock, but what they did is pretty crappy.

Why don't the folks that contribute to stocksy talk to the owners of that site, Bruce and ask him to consider launching a new site, for the masses. Just like iStock use to be when he owned it? Bruce knows how to build and launch and run a mega large stock photo site. I doubt anyone else here is going to know how to launch a site and run it properly, because it takes a great deal of knowledge and it takes a great deal of money. Since stock photos pays nothing, following that logic, I know most of you don't make any real money, therefore you guys can't afford to launch a site without someone like Bruce. I could be way of, but based upon my days in a previous life working in digital advertising many years ago, to launch a mega stock site can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Personals websites are cheap, professional websites built for corporations are mega expensive.

actually, getting a site set up is not that expensive, nor that time consuming. a skilled programmer (depending on what complexity you want) can put something together in as little as a couple hours, to a couple months.

the challenge is effective marketing, & converting customers to sales, etc...

How many professional websites have you built? In my past career in digital advertising, I've worked on teams that built the Coca Cola website, New York Jets website, micro sites for Toyota, American Express, Canon, and others. You would be surprised just now many different hands touch a project and how it is easily thousands of billable hours, where every hour is billed at hundred of dollars to the client. This was over ten year ago. The cost to build a professional website is vastly different than building someone's personal blog. I don't know what the staffing is like at Shutterstock, but I can make an uneducated guess. I would guess there is at least 1 if not 2 UI full time person. There would be at least 2 or more full time graphic designer. There would be at least 2 full time developer. There is probably a data scientist that crunches sales data for insight. Then factor in that they are in NYC. You are looking at $700k in salary just to maintain the site. Never mind literally the hundreds of other staff that work there. A professional site is very expensive.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2020, 08:28 by charged »

Uncle Pete

  • Great Place by a Great Lake - My Home Port
« Reply #16 on: May 28, 2020, 08:52 »
0
https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/

how do you access that link? trying to access it gives this message:

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.


Worked ok for me. Maybe it got fixed?

nope, strange, doesn't work. is it typed correctly?

Works for me, that's strange:  https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/msg546351/#msg546351


« Reply #17 on: May 28, 2020, 08:56 »
0
https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/

how do you access that link? trying to access it gives this message:

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.


Worked ok for me. Maybe it got fixed?

nope, strange, doesn't work. is it typed correctly?

Works for me, that's strange:  https://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-coop/microstock-coop-what-we-actually-want-to-do-ideas/msg546351/#msg546351

doesn't work for me either

« Reply #18 on: May 28, 2020, 08:57 »
0
Doesn't work for me either.

Maybe not everyone has the same access privileges as you guys?

« Reply #19 on: May 28, 2020, 13:50 »
0
Here is a way to beat SS. Unfortunately I have not the intellect to design this . As a group setup a new site, with free images. Yes free images, might as well be free if SS and the other sites go with this new model. Hard to beat free. Not even the evil SS can beat free. You have a site that is just like every other site with the difference all images/videos are free. To get a free image you have to listen to a 30-60 second add . Just like the adds on youtube. The difference you can't rush are turn off the add. At the end of the advertisement you get a unique number/code for one free picture or video that day. You can get as many pictures per day as you listen to different adds and get different codes.The codes are only good per image per 24 hours. The the payout which I guess is small , you get an advertising fee for showing the add. No this most likely won't get you more money than the slims at SS but free is hard to beat. No sure what those  adds pay but I am guessing 20 to 40 cents each. You could also charge a yearly fee like Costco dose, maybe 29 bucks a year to make a little more revenue.

« Reply #20 on: May 28, 2020, 14:02 »
+4
Here is a way to beat SS. Unfortunately I have not the intellect to design this . As a group setup a new site, with free images. Yes free images, might as well be free if SS and the other sites go with this new model. Hard to beat free. Not even the evil SS can beat free. You have a site that is just like every other site with the difference all images/videos are free. To get a free image you have to listen to a 30-60 second add . Just like the adds on youtube. The difference you can't rush are turn off the add. At the end of the advertisement you get a unique number/code for one free picture or video that day. You can get as many pictures per day as you listen to different adds and get different codes.The codes are only good per image per 24 hours. The the payout which I guess is small , you get an advertising fee for showing the add. No this most likely won't get you more money than the slims at SS but free is hard to beat. No sure what those  adds pay but I am guessing 20 to 40 cents each. You could also charge a yearly fee like Costco dose, maybe 29 bucks a year to make a little more revenue.

Absolutely bad idea

« Reply #21 on: May 28, 2020, 14:04 »
0
May be a bad idea, but an idea. What is your idea?

georgep7

« Reply #22 on: May 28, 2020, 14:36 »
0
May be a bad idea, but an idea. What is your idea?

For individuals downloading images here and there sounds a nice idea for small money earning. But bigger clients won't come i guess. Meaning no good sales or some kind of ELs. So why not staying in SS for pocket money?

But this is a cool idea for personal sites maybe? Although ads have gone mad finding no solutions to produce money nowadays. You can find youtube compulsury auto-play services providing "play time" and views as running "ads" even on p*rn sites.

Advertisement passes it's own crisis i think :(

« Reply #23 on: May 28, 2020, 14:41 »
+1
Yes... and how do you get those ocassional sales that yield 90-250 USD a piece?
« Last Edit: May 28, 2020, 14:50 by Desintegrator »

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #24 on: May 28, 2020, 14:53 »
0
Can't knock you for coming up with an idea, but there are a lot of flaws in it. First, it would be more like 0.4 cents than 40 cents per view. I'd need 625 views per month, per item, to make the same as I do now (or a total of 135,000 ad views)*... and I'm not sure how feasible that would be. Second, an ad agency, online news company or video production company etc etc... isn't going to want to sit and watch ads and enter codes before they can create the content they're on a deadline to make. You need 1000 images for a big collage image type thing then they need to watch 16 hours of ads. Individuals and small enterprises might use it, but they're probably the type who are more likely to use the free image sites where they don't have to watch any ads. Yes, the quality isn't as good, but if they want an upgrade from the free sites then they're more likely to go with the subscription sites. And if you want to earn 0.4 cents per download then you're also better to go with one of the subscription sites... without having to build a website. But if not... the cost of creating the site, maintaining it and marketing it so you get to the point that you can be getting 625 ad views per item per month (or more) and I can't see it working.

The poll in another thread had 500,000 items from 68 contributors. If we make a site for, say, 1000 contributors (with 625 ad views per item per month), you're looking at getting 55 billion ad views per year. If we can get that many ad views then we're in the wrong line of work!   


 

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