Author Topic: GL News (Read 54551 times)

Noedelhap · « **Reply #75 on:** August 05, 2016, 18:47 »

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on August 05, 2016, 15:13

Quote from: EmberMike on August 05, 2016, 15:01
Quote from: Shelma1 on August 05, 2016, 12:35
...Lower prices...

I'm still not seeing this alleged lowering of prices part of the announcement. Can anyone point me to it? Or did it just get made up in this thread?

Well it seems one of the comments was edited by gl. Apparently it made reference to freebies. I don't know if people are referring to that or if the same comment also made reference to more competitive pricing? I missed it but there's refence to it somewhere in this thread.

You mean this post from GL?
http://www.microstockgroup.com/graphic-leftovers/gl-news/msg461050/#msg461050

Quote

- Why would buyers use us? We will have images they want at lower prices. We will be pushing out free images on a weekly basis...

There's nothing about lowering prices, we're still able to set our own pricing as far as I know.

noodle · « **Reply #76 on:** August 05, 2016, 20:40 »

The $100 payout threahold is a non starter, esp with a non performer

Changing that?

Mantis · « **Reply #77 on:** August 05, 2016, 20:45 »

Quote from: Noedelhap on August 04, 2016, 16:55

I like the 52% commission and all, but sales have been dead for a while now and I doubt you guys can reanimate this dead horse. Wish you all the best though.

I was going to say something similar. Agencies always use the "cut commissions" to excuse to claim they are investing in marketing. But of all the MS companies I can recall who have made this claim of cutting commissions to grow the business, none have flourished even an inch. Alamy for example, who claimed they needed the revenue to open an office in the USA so they can grow sales has resulted in a net loss for me. Sales just died there month over month. I made $33 before my cut in July. I used to make $800 average there. Peter gave it a shot, Duncan gave it a shot, Bigstock is now next to nothing, MostPhotos and the list goes on. It would take a MAJOR strategic shift with a PILE of money to even make a dent in increasing sales.

I wish GL well, though. They've always been pretty fair to contributors. I closed my account there a few months ago. Made about $4 a month there with about 3500 images.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #78 on:** August 05, 2016, 20:55 »

Quote from: stockastic on August 05, 2016, 10:04

You know what? I'm not expecting a miracle. I'd just like to see some of the arrows moving in a different direction - up, not down. So many of us got disgusted and gave up. We felt like we'd been taken advantage of, and that the future was only going to be worse.

Imagine, 10 or more years ago, if you were told that someone wanted to use your photo in a magazine - a really good photo that took you an afternoon to produce. And that asking $5 for that use would get you laughed out of the room.

lol, 10 years? make it 2016-1988= 28 years ago, i was just a greenhorn ,
straight out of photography college, gofer for a top photographer setting up lights,
doing photo retouching, darkroom,etc..
still, got paid 200 dollars as a stringer for the local papers.. a 5 image - photo essay .
2016-2010= 6 years ago, i was told by an editor of an expensive mag , also a film director,
...we get tons of students from the local university begging to get working every year with us for free.
and to add injury to insult, a local newspaper, "we don't pay anything, we get all wire photos for free... but if you like, you get photo credits!!!"
i told the last dude, "whoopie dink, i already have photos published worldwide
for 28 cents!!!"

noodle · « **Reply #79 on:** August 05, 2016, 21:01 »

Quote from: Mantis on August 05, 2016, 20:45

Quote from: Noedelhap on August 04, 2016, 16:55
I like the 52% commission and all, but sales have been dead for a while now and I doubt you guys can reanimate this dead horse. Wish you all the best though.
I wish GL well, though. They've always been pretty fair to contributors. I closed my account there a few months ago. Made about $4 a month there with about 3500 images.

What, not willing to wait 2 years for payout?

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #80 on:** August 05, 2016, 21:04 »

Quote from: Mantis on August 05, 2016, 20:45

Alamy for example, who claimed they needed the revenue to open an office in the USA so they can grow sales has resulted in a net loss for me. Sales just died there month over month. I made $33 before my cut in July. I used to make $800 average there. Peter gave it a shot, Duncan gave it a shot, Bigstock is now next to nothing, MostPhotos and the list goes on. It would take a MAJOR strategic shift with a PILE of money to even make a dent in increasing sales.

I wish GL well, though. They've always been pretty fair to contributors. I closed my account there a few months ago. Made about $4 a month there with about 3500 images.

agree.
anything or any agency who tries to challenge the "we are the lowest in the world" mind-set
will always find support from me.
but once again, i need to see a successful marketing project
that they can sell and earn regularly money for me as with ss.

Quote from: noodle on August 05, 2016, 20:40

The $100 payout threahold is a non starter, esp with a non performer

Changing that?

that would be the first thing i see. i don't want to die and still haven't reach 1st payout
for my grandchildren 's children, LOL

Pilens · « **Reply #81 on:** August 05, 2016, 22:01 »

It's good news that new owners are now trying to reanimate GL, especially if they continue being always fair to contributors as the old owners have been. Good luck!

For me this is good enough to start uploading again. My suggestion for a smoother upload workflow would be replacing the daily upload limit by a weekly or monthly limit as I tend to work with bigger batches of 100 to 200 images.

IMHO pricing tiers like dt or reverse dt don't make any sense at all if sales are not frequently enough. For my port on GL sales would have to increase at least 20-fold before I could even start telling good selling images from non-sellers. A long way to go...

Nevertheless, attracting high quality niche images could prove being a good strategy helping turn around GL. At least the more seasoned stockers know exactly which of their images fall into that high quality niche category. Just being able as a contributor to select a higher price point for a certain percentage of my images would be a good start in a good direction. If the higher priced images on GL would be additionally curated by GL staff it could be ensured that image buyers as well understand why certain images cost more than others.

Again, good luck to the new owners of GL. I cross my fingers for all of us.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #82 on:** August 05, 2016, 23:11 »

Quote from: Pilens on August 05, 2016, 22:01

-attracting high quality niche images could prove being a good strategy
-seasoned stockers know exactly which of their images fall into that high quality niche
-being able as a contributor to select a higher price point for a certain percentage of my images
-curated by GL staff it could be ensured that image buyers understand why certain images cost more

even i ...like your idea...

cybernesco · « **Reply #83 on:** August 05, 2016, 23:40 »

GraphicLeftovers, I do own a better sounding domain name parked away if you're interested. I think a good name needs a lot of money to market it, which I don't have. When I started my own site I had coined the name UsefulImage.com but decided to change it for my name denispepin.com thereafter for a more personal touch.

Chichikov · « **Reply #84 on:** August 06, 2016, 02:49 »

Change GraphicLeftovers in GraphicL(eft)overs

JoeClemson · « **Reply #85 on:** August 06, 2016, 03:18 »

Non-US based contributors to all the US based agencies have an issue with the US tax authorities, who automatically retain tax on sales made to US customers. Most agencies counter this for overseas contributors based in countries with tax treaties with the US, by obtaining tax ID information from those contributors and then paying the gross sale amount directly to them. I can't see any reference to this issue on the GL website and it may be significant for overseas contributors in deciding whether to sign up with GL. Can you enlighten us?

I'd also add my voice to those who would like to see video sales here, especially if unreleased editorial use was also possible.

sharpshot · « **Reply #86 on:** August 06, 2016, 04:57 »

50% for everyone and a $50 payout threshold would be simple and I don't think it would put anyone off using GL. Being grandfathered in at 52% is nice but if 40% and a $100 payout threshold puts new contributors off, GL wont be as competitive as other sites and wont attract as many buyers.

Pond5 have done very well paying 50% to everyone, so have Alamy. Mostphotos pay 50% and have a 10 Euro payout, if they can do it, there's no excuse for a $100 payout level. Some people will say Mostphotos aren't a success but I have no problem reaching their payout level every month and I think that's what sites should try to do. There's nothing worse than only being able to get a payout once a year, its very demotivating. If GL can get much higher sales volume, then the $100 payout level wont be such a problem but that's going to be very hard to achieve.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #87 on:** August 08, 2016, 12:21 »

btw, is their site working at all. i got a warning that this site is not kosher to enter
or something like that, their verification licence or whatever is not what they say they are.
you know the jargon ... me oldschool catch no balls at all

HughStoneIan · « **Reply #88 on:** August 08, 2016, 13:45 »

Quote from: sharpshot on August 06, 2016, 04:57

50% for everyone and a $50 payout threshold would be simple and I don't think it would put anyone off using GL. Being grandfathered in at 52% is nice but if 40% and a $100 payout threshold puts new contributors off, GL wont be as competitive as other sites and wont attract as many buyers.

Great wisdom, Sharpshot. I just wish the agencies would pay attention to the veterans!

GLStock · « **Reply #89 on:** August 08, 2016, 14:06 »

Hey All,

Just want to let you know, we are hard at work, so will not be able to post incredibly frequently. However, we are reading through suggestions and will be working on many of them. Please keep in mind, some things will take longer than others due to the intense amounts of development work and planning that will go into them.

To start:

1) We will ensure that deposits NEVER expire. This one is very important, and frankly is something that we were not fond of either. The old ownership had this in place, and we will be removing it as soon as possible. We will make an announcement when it is officially removed.

2) We will lower the payout threshold to $50 for new sellers (in addition to the grandfathered sellers) based on the feedback here. Your concerns are valid. I think we were a bit excited for our plans of growth that we figured more sellers would be able to cross the $100 threshold faster, but until we get to that point with the business, we want to be fair to our sellers.

3) Videos WILL happen, though it is going to take us a bit of time. In the 8+ years that GL has been in operation, this had been on the back burner for a very long time. When making this significant addition, we want to ensure we do so the right way.

We will continue to release updates and inform everybody of any changes along the way. We have received immense amounts of wonderful feedback, and really good suggestions from many of our members and potential members. We really appreciate this and we are listening so that we can offer the best experience possible.

-- Regarding issues with accessing site, prior to transitioning the site to new ownership, we wanted to ensure that every page on GL was secured. We did this, but there was a minor error which we fixed today. Please PM me directly if you are still having that same issue, but you no longer should experience that. Only a small percentage of individuals experienced this.

Thank you,

Phil

PixelBytes · « **Reply #90 on:** August 08, 2016, 16:16 »

Phil, thanks for listening to your contributors and keeping the payout threshold at $50.

Glad to hear you're enthusiastic! If you and your team can keep that level of enthusiasm and receptivity to buyers and sellers, you may be able to hit the sweet spot the other sites have missed.

Personally, I would love to have a site to be excited about uploading to and where I see my efforts rewarded!

sharpshot · « **Reply #91 on:** August 08, 2016, 17:30 »

Good decision about the lower payout. I hope GL gets big enough to start ignoring us, like the other big sites do

Starting with video could be very difficult. I get the feeling that contributors are more reluctant to upload to new video sites, as it can take a lot of time and they wont have buyers. It seems even harder to get buyers to use sites that are just starting with video. The good news is that Pond5 have been doing some strange things lately and people are looking for somewhere else to upload new video clips. They were very successful letting us set prices, most of us thought their minimum price was too low but being able to price clips higher than the other microstock sites has worked very well for some people. There are buyers that like higher priced content as well. So perhaps this could be a good time for GL, as long as you can be more like Pond5 than some of the microstock sites that have just gone for low prices and have failed dismally.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #92 on:** August 08, 2016, 18:22 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on August 08, 2016, 16:16

Phil, thanks for listening to your contributors and keeping the payout threshold at $50.

Glad to hear you're enthusiastic! If you and your team can keep that level of enthusiasm and receptivity to buyers and sellers, you may be able to hit the sweet spot the other sites have missed.

Personally, I would love to have a site to be excited about uploading to and where I see my efforts rewarded!

yes, keep an open line to contributors feelings these days , watch the forums on ss , is, and msg
... you might find a golden opportunity to fill a niche
and attract a good number of experienced contributors to move their new images
to GL.

just so long as sharpshot jokingly said, so long as you don't grow too fast and starting
betraying the contributors,
you should be fine on a long term growth and mutual capital appreciation if you consider
contributors loyalty the criterion, along with transparency in your intentions.

of course, up next criterion being price lowering is definitely not in our interest
and yours either, as no one wants to make it a living going to the lower bidder anymore.

the contributors know enough not to cannibalize their low earning images for GL
if and when you stand up and be counted as a new site that is unafraid to attract
clientele who is also aware that premium prices mean premium quality.

ss contributors are used to the high bar in curatorship for many years already.
only they have not seen a tangent reciprocal earnings and search priority to these
high standard quality images with ss,etc.

Tryingmybest · « **Reply #93 on:** August 10, 2016, 13:16 »

I get sporadic sales here, but I like it (as an illustrator). Thank you for reaching out to us here. Good luck. Best success for all of us!

Noedelhap · « **Reply #94 on:** August 11, 2016, 14:20 »

Well, I just got my first sale after 6 months, so there's an improvement

8 cents short of a payout, so hopefully the next one will be soon.

GLStock · « **Reply #95 on:** August 11, 2016, 16:04 »

Thanks everybody for the wonderful feedback. We are diligently working on improvements, here is an update.

First and foremost, after listening to the advice of the members of this forum, we have rolled back the contributor payment threshold to $50. Again, I think we were a bit too excited about our growth plans for the long term that we were not quite thinking about the short term, and so we appreciate your feedback there.

Here is what will be coming by early next week:

1) We are giving our sellers MUCH more control over the pricing of their images. Instead of having the option to sell your images for $6, $10, or $15, we are now adding the following options:

$1, $3, $5, $7, $10, $15, $20, $25, $30.

Instead of a maximum price of $15 per image, you have the option to increase this significantly, as well as having the ability to test different price points with GL.

2) No longer will the size selected by the buyers affect how much you earn for your images. We will be rolling out ONE price for all sizes of images, while still allowing the buyer their choice in image size. The GL system is currently set up to automatically resize images and charge based on size, with the largest image size being the price you selected, and the smaller image sizes being priced proportionately lower.

For example:
With the current configuration, if a seller selects to sell their image for $10.00, the full sized image is set to $10. However, the medium size costs $5.00, and the small size costs $2.00.

With our next release, if you select $10 for your image, regardless of size, the buyer will pay $10.00.

We understand and appreciate the hard work our top quality contributors put into creating beautiful stock photography and vectors. We will continue working to make positive changes to protect the sellers’ best interests, while working to drive more and more buyers to our site. We believe that this change will be a great step in the right direction.

We have so many items in the pipeline that we are excited to announce, but these are closest to completion. We will give you all a heads up as soon as we have rolled out these new changes and will update you soon with other items that we are working on and close to completion on! Thank you

.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #96 on:** August 11, 2016, 16:48 »

Well, I'm torn. I used to occasionally buy the smallest image for $1 to use in my blog. If I can't, as a buyer, change the price by deciding what size I want, I probably won't buy unless the price is a buck. Maybe $3.

Of course, I'll probably up my images to $30, since I'm not really selling enough that losing a few sales will make a difference. Guess we'll see.

hellou · « **Reply #97 on:** August 11, 2016, 17:07 »

Please change the uploading progress. Have thousands of files. After uploading i have to click each file and need another click to submit. Please change it and i will go on. Good luck.

sharpshot · « **Reply #98 on:** August 11, 2016, 18:14 »

I think having different prices for different sizes is a good option for buyers and the last thing GL should be doing is putting buyers off. GL already has very low sales volume and if buyers are lost because of this change, that could be a catastrophe. Lots of sites have had to switch from same price for all sizes to having different prices because buyers went to their competition.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #99 on:** August 11, 2016, 18:26 »

Quote from: GraphicLeftovers on August 11, 2016, 16:04

With our next release, if you select $10 for your image, regardless of size, the buyer will pay $10.00.

let me play devil's advocate to say, maybe, this could be a good move too.
since the contributor has the option to select from a wider range of prices 9 from 3.
it may sound a bit torn as sjlocke says, but then again, if the contributor has an item
meant for full size, it could well be a good idea to go out on the limb to price it to the highest
.. otoh, if the item is more usable to small sizes as for blogs, home page,
the contributor could choose to price it in line with micro prices.

now we only have to give GL a chance by uploading to your site in support
and then see if you can market the sales to compete with getty and ss...
and the other mid stock alternatives

anything is a breath of fresh air, in this current situation with ss becoming ~~more and more~~
less and less contributor friendly

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Author Topic: GL News (Read 54551 times)

Noedelhap

noodle

Mantis

etudiante_rapide

noodle

etudiante_rapide

Pilens

etudiante_rapide

cybernesco

Chichikov

JoeClemson

sharpshot

etudiante_rapide

HughStoneIan

GLStock

PixelBytes

sharpshot

etudiante_rapide

Tryingmybest

Noedelhap

GLStock

Sean Locke Photography

hellou

sharpshot

etudiante_rapide

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