MicrostockGroup
Microstock Footage Forum => General - Stock Video => Topic started by: helloitsme on May 13, 2016, 09:27
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Has your total revenue increase selling for membership files? How many files? I'm not a part of the membership sellers, but am wondering if it's good for contributors to participate in the membership sales.
It seems like that's the reason Pond5's total revenue for contributors seem declining these days, but I really don't know. If it's bad for contributors as a whole, I hope they stop the membership program.
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OK, nobody is participating in the membership program. That's good. I hope they stop that.
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I am not participating to the program, but since this bloody thing started sales of clips have totally tanked for practically everybody, from what I read in the different forums.
I knew it was coming: if customers can have 300,000 very good clips covering most subjects for about $6, why on earth should they be buying anywhere else?
The only way forward now is to hope that other agencies will start selling footage at $5 for each clip and hope that this will kill pond 5
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I am not participating to the program, but since this bloody thing started sales of clips have totally tanked for practically everybody, from what I read in the different forums.
I knew it was coming: if customers can have 300,000 very good clips covering most subjects for about $6, why on earth should they be buying anywhere else?
The only way forward now is to hope that other agencies will start selling footage at $5 for each clip and hope that this will kill pond 5
If that's the only way forward, I will give up on video.
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if customers can have 300,000 very good clips covering most subjects for about $6, why on earth should they be buying anywhere else?
Could I ask where the number 300,000 came from?
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Look at the pond5 membership sales page.
They offer over 400 000 files, including over 200 000 videos. Maybe they now have more.
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I am not participating to the program, but since this bloody thing started sales of clips have totally tanked for practically everybody, from what I read in the different forums.
I knew it was coming: if customers can have 300,000 very good clips covering most subjects for about $6, why on earth should they be buying anywhere else?
The only way forward now is to hope that other agencies will start selling footage at $5 for each clip and hope that this will kill pond 5
Yea but will there be enough volume of sales at $5 for the agencies and artists to make a go of it? Don't know. Even at $20. you need a hell of a lot of volume. Dollar store does it but would it would in this industry?
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Look at the pond5 membership sales page.
They offer over 400 000 files, including over 200 000 videos. Maybe they now have more.
I know the numbers and where to get them from.
I was just interested where Brightontl had got 300,000 - as they're not the figures.
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The only way forward now is to hope that other agencies will start selling footage at $5 for each clip and hope that this will kill pond 5
And that would be good because ... ?
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I have about 450 files in the membership programs. Sales have utterly tanked this year starting from January, currently running about 40% compared to this time last year.
If nothing improves in next 4-6 weeks I'll be giving notice to remove my content from the program. Pond5 used to be a super seller for my footage at good high price, it's tanked now. Thankfully I don't put all my eggs in one basket and have contingency plans for such events - sales continue to be solid and improving elsewhere.
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Sorry guy, 300,000 was my mistake. I can see now that they have 200,000 clips on the membership area at P5.
But it does not make much difference: it is still a big offer of good clips covering most subject for incredibly low prices.
Why on earth any customer should buy any clips in the marketplace?
Besides many other customers will move there from SS and FT, some already have.
If you are partcecipating, do yourself a favour and get out from this rip off sheme
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The only way forward now is to hope that other agencies will start selling footage at $5 for each clip and hope that this will kill pond 5
And that would be good because ... ?
Of course not good, but the only way to survive for video artists.
At the moment apparently all customers are buying clips in the bloody membership area of p5 and those sale don't generate any royalties for artists (just half a peanut a month for clip, regardless of the amount of downloads).
In other words P5 have cornered th market and taken the artists out of. They can even stop accepting uploads, get rid of curators, of the forum and so on.
With those 200,000 files given away for extremely low prices the can make an enormous amount of cash for a few years. And I am sure that they wil have another go and try to increase the number of files.
Of course SS and FT will lose most or all of their video customers, unless they compete on prices (i.e. a price war with p5). That means selling clips for less than $10.
At that price there is no room for three agencies to survive. The first to die will be p5, because they rely entirely on video, the other two can go on with still sales.
Once p5 is dead and buried, price can try to go slowly back to normal (although is never easy to increase prices)
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<<<At the moment apparently all customers are buying clips in the bloody membership area of p5 and those sale don't generate any royalties for artists (just half a peanut a month for clip, regardless of the amount of downloads).>>>
Just for accuracy's sake - it isn't 'regardless of amount of downloads'. There is another facet to the "deal" but it's up to P5 to tell none-participating contributors the facts - not me.
I'm not advocating for or against the "deal" I'm just advocating accuracy; which seems to be the first casualty on the forum.
Having said all that you have made a reasonable resume of the situation; except that some people are doing very well from the scheme - there are always going to be winners and losers. The winners in this case - so far -are the bigger producers who have put the most effort and money in to making quality video. How long this situation will last - who knows - just like with VB, how long will that last? I've been a full-time stock producer for 30 years and it's quite a merry-go-round - but I've always managed to make a good living.
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The 50 cents a month rent price for all downloads, is what pond5 said publicly.
So what else are people going to believe??
Contributors can only discuss what the agency and the participating contributors tell them.
If there is more to the deal and contributors get additional income depending on sales, it will change the discussion.
But you canīt blame contributors if pond5 spreads misinformation about their new project.
The fact remains, that the membership program is a "6 dollar per download" club and that is what will affect sales behaviour and has all non participating contributors rightly worried about an abrupt crash in stock video.
Again, the concept of renting content per se, I think that can be interesting if it is done well. But with all the other abrupt changes, 100% rejections, widespread reported drop in downloads, the new "impress our employees policy" etc...it is just one more abrupt bizzarre strangeness that makes it feel like the pond5 that we knew has disappeared.
And the old pond5 is hard to replace, it will take time until another agency takes the position of pond5 in the marketplace. But somebody will do it, and for many it is a wake up call to explore more agencies and diversify.
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The 50 cents a month rent price for all downloads, is what pond5 said publicly.
So what else are people going to believe??
Contributors can only discuss what the agency and the participating contributors tell them.
If there is more to the deal and contributors get additional income depending on sales, it will change the discussion.
But you canīt blame contributors if pond5 spreads misinformation about their new project.
The fact remains, that the membership program is a "6 dollar per download" club and that is what will affect sales behaviour and has all non participating contributors rightly worried about an abrupt crash in stock video.
Again, the concept of renting content per se, I think that can be interesting if it is done well. But with all the other abrupt changes, [b]100% rejections, widespread reported drop in downloads,[/b] the new "impress our employees policy" etc...it is just one more abrupt bizzarre strangeness that makes it feel like the pond5 that we knew has disappeared.
And the old pond5 is hard to replace, it will take time until another agency takes the position of pond5 in the marketplace. But somebody will do it, and for many it is a wake up call to explore more agencies and diversify.
Good post, Cobalt. Key points above really are the crux of today's gap. I was doing okay on P5 prior to the changes, roughly $400 a month (my cut) and now it's $100 to $25. I did manage to get a 4k sale last week, and that made my $100. Otherwise, I am another contributor who is feeling the video pain and have been told to up my game by P5. Well, like most, I don't produce broadcast quality, I am not a Motion expert to create my own animations, I don't have access to aerial other than investing in a drone and learning that angle, I don't have expensive sliders, pan/tilts, etc. and I doubt 95% of "regular contributors"do either. Based on that recipe, P5 is going to be a main player in killing the video market as it will likely trigger a competitive response from others like SS. They are essentially using a back door pricing scheme that cheapens the ENTIRE MARKET. Pay contributors a "fee"(which financially makes them happy) and sell to customers for $6. The $6 thing is the root of all evil as it will echo across all video markets due to the high quality of the clips in that collection. So, in the main collection, why on earth would a client pay $6 for a nice broadcast clip and then need a shot of waves rolling up on a beach but the one they want is in the main "cheap quality"collection for $79? That's the gap that will contribute to further industry erosion.
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<<<At the moment apparently all customers are buying clips in the bloody membership area of p5 and those sale don't generate any royalties for artists (just half a peanut a month for clip, regardless of the amount of downloads).>>>
Just for accuracy's sake - it isn't 'regardless of amount of downloads'. There is another facet to the "deal" but it's up to P5 to tell none-participating contributors the facts - not me.
I'm not advocating for or against the "deal" I'm just advocating accuracy; which seems to be the first casualty on the forum.
Having said all that you have made a reasonable resume of the situation; except that some people are doing very well from the scheme - there are always going to be winners and losers. The winners in this case - so far -are the bigger producers who have put the most effort and money in to making quality video. How long this situation will last - who knows - just like with VB, how long will that last? I've been a full-time stock producer for 30 years and it's quite a merry-go-round - but I've always managed to make a good living.
You are right. I cannot be accurate on the subject, because we only know what goes around the forum and apparently nobody knows exactly what the p5 deal consists of.
Maybe partecipating artists know things that we don't know.
Another thing that has been said is that partecipating artists will have their clips pushed up in the search engine.
Actually the very few people reporting decent sales are people with files in the membership area.
At the same time they are apparently rejecting a huge quantity of new clips from non-partecipating artist, although I must admit that my last batch of about 100 file was totally accepted, even though I am not partecipating
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The 50 cents a month rent price for all downloads, is what pond5 said publicly.
So what else are people going to believe??
Contributors can only discuss what the agency and the participating contributors tell them.
If there is more to the deal and contributors get additional income depending on sales, it will change the discussion.
But you canīt blame contributors if pond5 spreads misinformation about their new project.
The fact remains, that the membership program is a "6 dollar per download" club and that is what will affect sales behaviour and has all non participating contributors rightly worried about an abrupt crash in stock video.
Again, the concept of renting content per se, I think that can be interesting if it is done well. But with all the other abrupt changes, [b]100% rejections, widespread reported drop in downloads,[/b] the new "impress our employees policy" etc...it is just one more abrupt bizzarre strangeness that makes it feel like the pond5 that we knew has disappeared.
And the old pond5 is hard to replace, it will take time until another agency takes the position of pond5 in the marketplace. But somebody will do it, and for many it is a wake up call to explore more agencies and diversify.
Good post, Cobalt. Key points above really are the crux of today's gap. I was doing okay on P5 prior to the changes, roughly $400 a month (my cut) and now it's $100 to $25. I did manage to get a 4k sale last week, and that made my $100. Otherwise, I am another contributor who is feeling the video pain and have been told to up my game by P5. Well, like most, I don't produce broadcast quality, I am not a Motion expert to create my own animations, I don't have access to aerial other than investing in a drone and learning that angle, I don't have expensive sliders, pan/tilts, etc. and I doubt 95% of "regular contributors"do either. Based on that recipe, P5 is going to be a main player in killing the video market as it will likely trigger a competitive response from others like SS. They are essentially using a back door pricing scheme that cheapens the ENTIRE MARKET. Pay contributors a "fee"(which financially makes them happy) and sell to customers for $6. The $6 thing is the root of all evil as it will echo across all video markets due to the high quality of the clips in that collection. So, in the main collection, why on earth would a client pay $6 for a nice broadcast clip and then need a shot of waves rolling up on a beach but the one they want is in the main "cheap quality"collection for $79? That's the gap that will contribute to further industry erosion.
Mantis, you have resumed the situation in a better way than me.
The big part of the video stock market would have eventually gone down in prices in a few years to single digit per clip, but it is way to soon for this to happen.
Most customers are still very happy to pay the $70-80 per HD file which was more or less the market price, until this bloody p5 membership murder.
Videoblock tried something like this, but it was never a serious threat, because their clips in the membership area are mostly a joke.
The p5 marketplace is another kettle of fish: the played a very shroud move. They selected 200.000 very good clips covering most subjects and can cater for the needs of most buyers.
The sales in the marketplace area are now totally dead for non-partecipating artist, while the ones who have clips in the marketplace are kept happy, since they have been pushed up in the search. Other artists are clearly being shown the door, as we can see by their new approuval policy
In other words p5 has made $6 per clip the new standard price in the industry and has become a closed clubs for a few artists who have clip in the membership
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Of course I am not saying that p5 has not the right to do something like this. Who said that life should be fair?
What I mean is that this memberhip thing seriously risks to kill the footage market for good and that the artists and the other agencies must wake up and react very, very fast.
The only way to survive is to kill p5 as soon as possible
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All contributors should withdraw clips from P5 membership program. It just isn't good for us.
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All contributors should withdraw clips from P5 membership program. It just isn't good for us.
100% agree with this. It is the only way to save the market for footage.
The problem is that p5 is treating partecipationg contributors extremely well: they have been pushed up in the search engine (so they are the only ones who actually sell clips) and they are the only ones who get their clips accepted
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I participate in the membership program. Out of my roughly 7,000 clips (https://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/artist%3aodesigns.html?ref=odesigns), 1,452 are in the membership collection (https://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/artist%3aodesigns.html#1/2063/membership:1,artist:odesigns?ref=odesigns,artist:odesigns?ref=odesigns,artist:odesigns).
I have no idea at this point how those clips are performing since Pond5 has yet to tell us, but it does give me $729 per month, which is a nice constant so rare in this business.
My March sales were surprisingly low, but in April and so far in May, I'm doing well.
People say that the membership is hurting regular sales, but I don't see it. In May so far, over 35% of my regular sales are clips of mine that are in the membership collection. So, I don't think memberships are hurting regular sales, at least for me.
Remember, users in the membership only can download either 5 or 10 clips per month, and ONLY from a small pool of clips (200,000). It's not unlimited. After their allotment, they have to buy clips just like everyone else, but at a 10% discount which may be a nice incentive for them to continue to buy even after their membership benefit is done for the month.
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The 50 cents a month rent price for all downloads, is what pond5 said publicly.
That statement is not actually 100% correct - it's close but no cigar.
Contributors can only discuss what the agency and the participating contributors tell them[/color].
It's a pity contributors are discussing - quite vehemently - without the full facts.
If there is more to the deal and contributors get additional income depending on sales, it will change the discussion[/color].
It would, but things haven't panned out yet so it's not yet a game changer that's missing - just accuracy and knowledge of all the possibilities.
But you canīt blame contributors if pond5 spreads misinformation about their new project[/color].
People, even those who've signed the membership agreement, haven't bothered to read it properly. P5, to my knowledge, have not spread any misinformation. Just ask the people who've given you the information, to have another read of their contract and this time to pay attention. As I say, this is not - yet anyway - much of a game changer but it is a facet that the screamers on the forums haven't paid any attention to.
The fact remains, that the membership program is a "6 dollar per download" club and that is what will affect sales behaviour and has all non participating contributors rightly worried about an abrupt crash in stock video[/color].
Sure does and it has changed things, and redistributed money.
I was there before, during and after the good times of the stills - it will be the same with video: only the time-spans will be much, much shorter.
The good times of video are still here right now - obviously not by the guys who post on the forum but certainly by some who don't. Next year - who knows. Could this membership scheme have hastened undesirable effects in the marketplace? I would tend to say probably and feel for the guys whose sales have plummeted - it was abrupt and brutal.
The membership scheme has indeed affected sales but I am still getting plenty of full sales from videos that are in the scheme - I'm pleased about that and surprised.
But with all the other abrupt changes, 100% rejections, widespread reported drop in downloads, the new "impress our employees policy" etc...it is just one more abrupt bizzarre strangeness that makes it feel like the pond5 that we knew has disappeared[/color].
That's for sure. I think some of the rejections I've read about have been bizarre - but - can all these contributors look themselves in the mirror and say "All the clips I submitted were well shot, stabilized, without unnecessary similars, properly color-balanced, exposed and focused in the correct place, saleable subjects shot better than present library ones, safe colors, good quality without artifacts and uprezzing and from a camera sensor that's capable, etc, etc.
And the old pond5 is hard to replace, it will take time until another agency takes the position of pond5 in the marketplace. But somebody will do it, and for many it is a wake up call to explore more agencies and diversify[/color].
This has happened since time immemorial in stock photography - you need to develop strong business strategies.
Diversification should be done at the beginning of ones career not as a late crisis management. This is a business after all - adapt or die; that goes for quality of videos and selling strategies.
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I participate in the membership program. Out of my roughly 7,000 clips (https://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/artist%3aodesigns.html?ref=odesigns), 1,452 are in the membership collection (https://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/artist%3aodesigns.html#1/2063/membership:1,artist:odesigns?ref=odesigns,artist:odesigns?ref=odesigns,artist:odesigns).
I have no idea at this point how those clips are performing since Pond5 has yet to tell us, but it does give me $729 per month, which is a nice constant so rare in this business.
My March sales were surprisingly low, but in April and so far in May, I'm doing well.
People say that the membership is hurting regular sales, but I don't see it. In May so far, over 35% of my regular sales are clips of mine that are in the membership collection. So, I don't think memberships are hurting regular sales, at least for me.
Remember, users in the membership only can download either 5 or 10 clips per month, and ONLY from a small pool of clips (200,000). It's not unlimited. After their allotment, they have to buy clips just like everyone else, but at a 10% discount which may be a nice incentive for them to continue to buy even after their membership benefit is done for the month.
As we said above, the only people who are experiencing sales are the one partecipating to the program, because p5 push them up in the search engine.
But is it going to last? Once customers will start getting used to membership prices (around $6-7 per clip) I don't see many reason to shop outside of it.
You say they can only they can only download 5-10 clips per month, but if they need more, they can obviously get a second subscription
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The 50 cents a month rent price for all downloads, is what pond5 said publicly.
That statement is not actually 100% correct - it's close but no cigar.
Contributors can only discuss what the agency and the participating contributors tell them[/color].
It's a pity contributors are discussing - quite vehemently - without the full facts.
If there is more to the deal and contributors get additional income depending on sales, it will change the discussion[/color].
It would, but things haven't panned out yet so it's not yet a game changer that's missing - just accuracy and knowledge of all the possibilities.
But you canīt blame contributors if pond5 spreads misinformation about their new project[/color].
People, even those who've signed the membership agreement, haven't bothered to read it properly. P5, to my knowledge, have not spread any misinformation. Just ask the people who've given you the information, to have another read of their contract and this time to pay attention. As I say, this is not - yet anyway - much of a game changer but it is a facet that the screamers on the forums haven't paid any attention to.
The fact remains, that the membership program is a "6 dollar per download" club and that is what will affect sales behaviour and has all non participating contributors rightly worried about an abrupt crash in stock video[/color].
Sure does and it has changed things, and redistributed money.
I was there before, during and after the good times of the stills - it will be the same with video: only the time-spans will be much, much shorter.
The good times of video are still here right now - obviously not by the guys who post on the forum but certainly by some who don't. Next year - who knows. Could this membership scheme have hastened undesirable effects in the marketplace? I would tend to say probably and feel for the guys whose sales have plummeted - it was abrupt and brutal.
The membership scheme has indeed affected sales but I am still getting plenty of full sales from videos that are in the scheme - I'm pleased about that and surprised.
But with all the other abrupt changes, 100% rejections, widespread reported drop in downloads, the new "impress our employees policy" etc...it is just one more abrupt bizzarre strangeness that makes it feel like the pond5 that we knew has disappeared[/color].
That's for sure. I think some of the rejections I've read about have been bizarre - but - can all these contributors look themselves in the mirror and say "All the clips I submitted were well shot, stabilized, without unnecessary similars, properly color-balanced, exposed and focused in the correct place, saleable subjects shot better than present library ones, safe colors, good quality without artifacts and uprezzing and from a camera sensor that's capable, etc, etc.
And the old pond5 is hard to replace, it will take time until another agency takes the position of pond5 in the marketplace. But somebody will do it, and for many it is a wake up call to explore more agencies and diversify[/color].
This has happened since time immemorial in stock photography - you need to develop strong business strategies.
Diversification should be done at the beginning of ones career not as a late crisis management. This is a business after all - adapt or die; that goes for quality of videos and selling strategies.
Of course P5 can do whatever they want, I got paid out today and it might well be the last, I won't submit to them anymore.
If they reject an award winning image (as a test) for noise and saying I should consider getting a camera with a better quality sensor I know they are not taking contributors seriously. Btw the image was taken with a Nikon D810 at ISO64 during bright daylight.
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The only way forward now is to hope that other agencies will start selling footage at $5 for each clip and hope that this will kill pond 5
You've got to be kidding?
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Membership program is just too bad.
No money for contributors and no money for the agency. They try to drive clients to the site but I'm afraid they are following a wrong strategy.
I think that the real problem in P5 is the site itself. When I buy clips I find P5 a bit confusing in the search results not nice curated and presented, so I go and choose on SS or IS which I find more clear. I'm afraid they should work on the search algorithm to give a smart experience to the customer better then to try other ways to drive clients like the free footage collection or the membership program.
They are investigating different ways but they are using explosives to open those ways and it's very dangerous for everybody in the industry.
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I think people who are in the membership program will of course report excellent sales, their files are pushed in the search and when the customer selects membership only they get very targeted traffic to their portfolios, they basically live inside a walled garden inside pond5. And if they offer super high quality files for 6 dollars, of course the customers will love it.
And if an artists decides to rent out their content, by all means let them do it. But they could have offered their files for 6 dollars or 10 dollars before. So they could easily place 30% of their portfolio at 10 dollars, get paid for every individual sale and enjoy the additional traffic that cheap files bring. They would also have statistics and download numbers.
So if the membership program offered the option to be paid by download, 50% of every 6 dollar sale, wouldn they make a lot more money?
There are people on envato offering files for very low prices and they report income up to 5 times higher than on pond5 with the same portfolio.
So there does seem to be a high volume, low price market also in video.
Every artist has to decide for themselves if this is the right time to offer their high quality files for 6 dollars.
When fotolia opened the Dollar Photo Club, they did it on a different website, so that the normal fotolia business would not be affected immediatly. They also marketed DPC mostly in the US and not in Europe, which was their main Fotolia market. So they tried to work in different worlds with teh same content, testing if an ultracheap site will make them good money.
Again, I am not against renting out content to an agency. It is the combination with all the other abrupt changes that makes it weird and looks like they are just throwing stuff at a wall to see what will stick.
For those who say, we should have diversified sooner and uploaded to more agencies - well, many of us supported pond5 because we considered it a truly artist friendly place, worthy of support. And the best way to support an agency is to supply them with content first.
This is one thing the community can do - reward a good site with our content, deny content to sites that treat us badly.
The old pond5 was unique and a really well run place for people who see themselves as entrepreneurs.
The membership program is not the end of the world. It just takes time until someone else replaces pond5.
And since we all share information which agency is worth uploading to, I am sure in a few months we will know which direction to take and the contributor upload streams...and the business...will flow to a new site that wants us.
Agencies that annoy the contributor community, who are also the buyer community, dont do well.
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Maybe artists should do their own trial phase - select 30% of their portfolio, place it at 10 dollars or less for three months, see how many downloads they get and if it brings additional traffic.
After that, join the membership program, if they have the option, and see how it compares.
Is renting out better than choosing the files yourself for ultra cheap prices and getting 50% of everything?
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my video sales on p5 have vanished since that membership scheme took off
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I think people who are in the membership program will of course report excellent sales, their files are pushed in the search and when the customer selects membership only they get very targeted traffic to their portfolios, they basically live inside a walled garden inside pond5. And if they offer super high quality files for 6 dollars, of course the customers will love it.
And if an artists decides to rent out their content, by all means let them do it. But they could have offered their files for 6 dollars or 10 dollars before. So they could easily place 30% of their portfolio at 10 dollars, get paid for every individual sale and enjoy the additional traffic that cheap files bring. They would also have statistics and download numbers.
So if the membership program offered the option to be paid by download, 50% of every 6 dollar sale, wouldn they make a lot more money?
There are people on envato offering files for very low prices and they report income up to 5 times higher than on pond5 with the same portfolio.
So there does seem to be a high volume, low price market also in video.
Every artist has to decide for themselves if this is the right time to offer their high quality files for 6 dollars.
When fotolia opened the Dollar Photo Club, they did it on a different website, so that the normal fotolia business would not be affected immediatly. They also marketed DPC mostly in the US and not in Europe, which was their main Fotolia market. So they tried to work in different worlds with teh same content, testing if an ultracheap site will make them good money.
Again, I am not against renting out content to an agency. It is the combination with all the other abrupt changes that makes it weird and looks like they are just throwing stuff at a wall to see what will stick.
For those who say, we should have diversified sooner and uploaded to more agencies - well, many of us supported pond5 because we considered it a truly artist friendly place, worthy of support. And the best way to support an agency is to supply them with content first.
This is one thing the community can do - reward a good site with our content, deny content to sites that treat us badly.
The old pond5 was unique and a really well run place for people who see themselves as entrepreneurs.
The membership program is not the end of the world. It just takes time until someone else replaces pond5.
And since we all share information which agency is worth uploading to, I am sure in a few months we will know which direction to take and the contributor upload streams...and the business...will flow to a new site that wants us.
Agencies that annoy the contributor community, who are also the buyer community, dont do well.
What evidence do you have that contributor's files are favoured in the search? I'm in the membership program and experiencing my worst sales at Pond5 in 4 years.
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Maybe artists should do their own trial phase - select 30% of their portfolio, place it at 10 dollars or less for three months, see how many downloads they get and if it brings additional traffic.
After that, join the membership program, if they have the option, and see how it compares.
Is renting out better than choosing the files yourself for ultra cheap prices and getting 50% of everything?
I highly recommend any serious artist not to follow that advice unless they want to go bankrupt - of course they don't need me to tell them that!
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I'm in the membership program and my regular sales have increased since it started, not just membership clips but others as well.
Lowering prices to try and compete with membership pricing it not a good idea. I have my clips at minimum $79 after increasing them a few times. Increasing pricing did not slow down my sales.
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Maybe artists should do their own trial phase - select 30% of their portfolio, place it at 10 dollars or less for three months, see how many downloads they get and if it brings additional traffic.
After that, join the membership program, if they have the option, and see how it compares.
Is renting out better than choosing the files yourself for ultra cheap prices and getting 50% of everything?
I highly recommend any serious artist not to follow that advice unless they want to go bankrupt - of course they don't need me to tell them that!
Offering your files for 6 dollars in the membership program or offering them for 10 dollars per download yourself?
What is worse?
At least if you do your own trial phase, you will have sales and download data and can compare what brings in more money if you join the membership program.
Joining the membership program without doing your own test, means you are flying completly blind, because pond5 does not give you real time sales data for the 6 dollar files.
Anyone who joins the membership program is supporting a new standard of 6 dollars for high quality files.
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@ pokergod
Pond5 allows customers to filter the search for only membership content and also highlights all membership files with a gold star.
The rest of us donīt get this privilege.
Since many customers always checkout the artist themselves, you should get a lot more traffic or eyes on your overall portfolio.
If you are not getting any additional sales, then this would make me think that the customers are indeed only interested in the 6 dollar files and ignoring anything else.
Many photo agencies have added a subs plan, and usually this meant that regular credit sales would drop down drastically for everyone.
Looks like it will be the same on pond5, except that the artist is not getting individual downloads and only a very small group of artists are part of the membership program and getting rent money.
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Cobalt - you're assuming all of Pond5's customers are now part of the membership program which is simply not the case. I and many others have had multiple regular sales of clips that are also part of membership. And it's not an unlimited download model - once members have used up their allowance they need to shop in the marketplace.
I'm still in two minds about whole thing and agree more data from Pond5 on how many files are being downloaded is very important!
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I am not assuming all customers are now membership downloaders. But pond5 is aggressively advertising membership, so they must have people converting. At 50 dollars a month it is an extremly cheap program.
But I donīt know if the membership program alone is responsible for the drop in downloads.
Probably the lousy interface is also responsible. If you go to an artist portfolio it is extremly difficult to see what the artist offers. You only see a small number of clips, then you have to "click for more" and get another 5-10 clips.
If someone has thousands of files...what will the customer do?
I would give up and go elsewhere...
Maybe there are more reasons, I donīt know what else the new management did.
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I just went to the home page for the membership plans at both Pond 5 and videoblocks and it looks to me that Videoblocks has a much better deal for the buyer, $149 for a year of unlimited downloads and their clips are updated with thousands of new clips added twice per month?.
If I am reading correctly with Pond 5 you pay $69 or $139/year and get 5 or 10 downloads per month? Videoblocks is a way better deal for the buyer unless I am missing something.
I can't see the membership program being the reason sales at Pond 5 basically stopped, I could see it if they gave unlimited downloads for $139/year but not 10 a month.
I also don't see almost all of Pond 5's buyers just running off all of a sudden. I am starting to get suspicious of sales simply not being reported to the sellers and that would be so easy to do, Volkswagen did the same with emissions readings, simple software tweak to bypass certain things and Pond 5 has disabled all stats reporting since they launched the new website and have no commented on why or when or if stats are coming back.
Looking at both sites now there is no way thousands of buyers went to the pond 5 subscription program, if they wanted value they would go to videoblocks and get unlimited downloads vs 5-10 a month for basically same price.
Whatever it is it's something else I think.
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I think people who are in the membership program will of course report excellent sales, their files are pushed in the search and when the customer selects membership only they get very targeted traffic to their portfolios, they basically live inside a walled garden inside pond5.
One problem with one point there, many Pond 5 artists who are in the membership have also reported their sales drop by 75% vs increasing. Everyone is down there including those in membership. That free promotion by having their membership files being pushed to the front (if it even happens) hasn't helped, you would think it would but no.
Starting to strongly suspect the worst case scenario that sales are happening but not being passed on to the seller.
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Well you can always ask people to do test buys or ask clients to tell you when they downloaded your content (if you know them well)
If sales are underreported, it should be very easy to see this.
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I occasionally buy my own clips for work/clients, and I have never seen an unreported sale this way.
I've also bought other's clips and told them, and I've never heard back saying their clip never appeared in a sales report.
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It is the second time that I read that once the customer runs out of the 5 or 10 cips from the membership, he has to buy them from the marketplace.
How wrong and naif is this idea? He can of course get a second membership.
A monthly download for 5 clips cost as much as purchasing a simple clip!
The only people who are still experiencing sales in the pond are artist who contributed, and apparently not all of them. This is because they get pushed up on the search, but also because not all customers have yet become aware of the crazy dumping of the membership area.
Give it a month and all sales outside the membership zone will disappear.
Give it 3 months and SS and FT will have to lower their prices to $9 per clip to survive.
Give it 5 months and p5 will be finally dead and buried
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It is the second time that I read that once the customer runs out of the 5 or 10 cips from the membership, he has to buy them from the marketplace.
How wrong and naif is this idea? He can of course get a second membership.
A monthly download for 5 clips cost as much as purchasing a simple clip!
The only people who are still experiencing sales in the pond are artist who contributed, and apparently not all of them. This is because they get pushed up on the search, but also because not all customers have yet become aware of the crazy dumping of the membership area.
Give it a month and all sales outside the membership zone will disappear.
Give it 3 months and SS and FT will have to lower their prices to $9 per clip to survive.
Give it 5 months and p5 will be finally dead and buried
I disagree.
SS and FT will not have to lower their prices to survive. They are big boys compared to P5 and they can last for many years.
Stock video is still in it's early days. There's still plenty of $s to be made. Just find your niche and do quality work.
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It is the second time that I read that once the customer runs out of the 5 or 10 cips from the membership, he has to buy them from the marketplace.
How wrong and naif is this idea? He can of course get a second membership.
A monthly download for 5 clips cost as much as purchasing a simple clip!
The only people who are still experiencing sales in the pond are artist who contributed, and apparently not all of them. This is because they get pushed up on the search, but also because not all customers have yet become aware of the crazy dumping of the membership area.
Give it a month and all sales outside the membership zone will disappear.
Give it 3 months and SS and FT will have to lower their prices to $9 per clip to survive.
Give it 5 months and p5 will be finally dead and buried
This not true.. The membership collection is really small with many missing areas. The strange thing is the disappear of buyers.. I have 2000 clips where more than half of my collection is unique (specific to Middle east), there is no competition for me, despite that my sales dropped 60-70% since February.. my clips still at the top in the search results with no membership competition.. I wonder what's really wrong with P5 those days
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It is the second time that I read that once the customer runs out of the 5 or 10 cips from the membership, he has to buy them from the marketplace.
How wrong and naif is this idea? He can of course get a second membership.
A monthly download for 5 clips cost as much as purchasing a simple clip!
The only people who are still experiencing sales in the pond are artist who contributed, and apparently not all of them. This is because they get pushed up on the search, but also because not all customers have yet become aware of the crazy dumping of the membership area.
Give it a month and all sales outside the membership zone will disappear.
Give it 3 months and SS and FT will have to lower their prices to $9 per clip to survive.
Give it 5 months and p5 will be finally dead and buried
This not true.. The membership collection is really small with many missing areas. The strange thing is the disappear of buyers.. I have 2000 clips where more than half of my collection is unique (specific to Middle east), there is no competition for me, despite that my sales dropped 60-70% since February.. my clips still at the top in the search results with no membership competition.. I wonder what's really wrong with P5 those days
Feel free to ask ex CEO who is now now Executive Chairman P5. 8)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1183369148381829&set=pb.100001262668016.-2207520000.1463556295.&type=3&theater (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1183369148381829&set=pb.100001262668016.-2207520000.1463556295.&type=3&theater)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1183376485047762&set=pcb.1183378451714232&type=3&theater (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1183376485047762&set=pcb.1183378451714232&type=3&theater)
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Music sales at P5 are normal (which means very good) so those buyers are still there. I'm a top seller in music with sales every day so I immediately notice drops.
However, no action regarding video/photos in a while...