That was my experience as well. I lost money on the site itself and also lost potential income from other sites by wasting a LOT of time building and maintaining my own site, on social media, etc. In hindsight, that time would have been much more productively spent creating new images for the big sites or even taking a freelance gig.

Quote from: sharpshot on December 29, 2016, 10:17
I don't see anything wrong with Cathy's first post on this thread, she is entitled to her opinion and shouldn't be called a troll for that.  Leo requesting deletions is wrong, this is an open forum, I don't agree with someone selling something being able to delete posts that offer an opinion that's valid.

I do: it's that little word "again" along with her use of italics as a means of shouting. Not to mention her impressive track-record of earlier slights against what appears to be her favorite scapegoat person (who happens to be someone who has contributed a lot for FREE, contrary to that allegation of "raking in business again"). Guys -- seriously!

Quote from: Shelma1 on January 08, 2017, 12:07
That was my experience as well. I lost money on the site itself and also lost potential income from other sites by wasting a LOT of time building and maintaining my own site, on social media, etc. In hindsight, that time would have been much more productively spent creating new images for the big sites or even taking a freelance gig.

I get the point -- though, at the same time, self-hosted or self-directed selling (of ANY style of items, including sth people put on eBay or Amzn marketplace) helps you building a customer list or some "goodwill" beyond your sales income. That's something eBay and Amazon intentionally take from you and rake in for themselves instead. All the while making you pay for their "services" on top. Google is similarly "good at this"... It's part of their -- greedy -- type of business model, but people seem to love being slaughtered for immediate gratification instead of taking a more long-term approach (same phenomenon in politics, that's why we're fair game for bureaucrats, globalists, industrialists, and banksters).

Given the (both monetary and satisfaction) value of this, your losses may be less than they appeared in the longer run.

That's not to say a self-hosted site that does not sell anything whatsoever is a viable option, but added to those rankings with "12.2" for Self-Hosted it's still a lot better than "only a loss of time and effort " or "nothing".

-

This thread is about a simple and time efficient way to upload to and maintain a personal site. Purpose as well as screenshots available in original post.

Quote from: stuttershock on January 08, 2017, 12:43

Quote from: Shelma1 on January 08, 2017, 12:07
That was my experience as well. I lost money on the site itself and also lost potential income from other sites by wasting a LOT of time building and maintaining my own site, on social media, etc. In hindsight, that time would have been much more productively spent creating new images for the big sites or even taking a freelance gig.

I get the point -- though, at the same time, self-hosted or self-directed selling (of ANY style of items, including sth people put on eBay or Amzn marketplace) helps you building a customer list or some "goodwill" beyond your sales income. That's something eBay and Amazon intentionally take from you and rake in for themselves instead. All the while making you pay for their "services" on top. Google is similarly "good at this"... It's part of their -- greedy -- type of business model, but people seem to love being slaughtered for immediate gratification instead of taking a more long-term approach (same phenomenon in politics, that's why we're fair game for bureaucrats, globalists, industrialists, and banksters).

Given the (both monetary and satisfaction) value of this, your losses may be less than they appeared in the longer run.

That's not to say a self-hosted site that does not sell anything whatsoever is a viable option, but added to those rankings with "12.2" for Self-Hosted it's still a lot better than "only a loss of time and effort " or "nothing".

I have absolutely no problem with amazon and  ebay taking their 15% of my sales (for non-royalty free photo  items) =--- I make at 100x more for these non-image sales from these sites ( direct sales of my niche non-photo items -- maps & comics) --  I average about $10+/sale from these sites vs about $5 per sale from self hosted sales of the same items, but with at least 10x more sales from these sites rather than my site. do the math -- ebay & amazon would be a great source for royalty free images if they allowed such items (for a short period ebay did allow digital downloads & it was a great, if ephemeral,  source of income)

at this point, my self-hosting pays for the hosting costs & a bit more, thru google ads, not image sales - but not a reliable source of net income

Quote from: cascoly on January 10, 2017, 02:18

Quote from: stuttershock on January 08, 2017, 12:43

Quote from: Shelma1 on January 08, 2017, 12:07
That was my experience as well. I lost money on the site itself and also lost potential income from other sites by wasting a LOT of time building and maintaining my own site, on social media, etc. In hindsight, that time would have been much more productively spent creating new images for the big sites or even taking a freelance gig.

I get the point -- though, at the same time, self-hosted or self-directed selling (of ANY style of items, including sth people put on eBay or Amzn marketplace) helps you building a customer list or some "goodwill" beyond your sales income. That's something eBay and Amazon intentionally take from you and rake in for themselves instead. All the while making you pay for their "services" on top. Google is similarly "good at this"... It's part of their -- greedy -- type of business model, but people seem to love being slaughtered for immediate gratification instead of taking a more long-term approach (same phenomenon in politics, that's why we're fair game for bureaucrats, globalists, industrialists, and banksters).

Given the (both monetary and satisfaction) value of this, your losses may be less than they appeared in the longer run.

That's not to say a self-hosted site that does not sell anything whatsoever is a viable option, but added to those rankings with "12.2" for Self-Hosted it's still a lot better than "only a loss of time and effort " or "nothing".

I have absolutely no problem with amazon and  ebay taking their 15% of my sales (for non-royalty free photo  items) =--- I make at 100x more for these non-image sales from these sites ( direct sales of my niche non-photo items -- maps & comics) --  I average about $10+/sale from these sites vs about $5 per sale from self hosted sales of the same items, but with at least 10x more sales from these sites rather than my site. do the math -- ebay & amazon would be a great source for royalty free images if they allowed such items (for a short period ebay did allow digital downloads & it was a great, if ephemeral,  source of income)

at this point, my self-hosting pays for the hosting costs & a bit more, thru google ads, not image sales - but not a reliable source of net income

good to hear it worked for you. Yes, if they did, indeed, still allow non-physical items, that would be a different story and I might be willing to accept some of their other shortcomings...

My point was the following though: on top of not allowing Downloadables and on top of limiting users by myriad other restrictions and "security" rules they work in a way that does not allow users (small businesses, artists, consultants, whoever these users may actually be) to earn their own CUSTOMER LIST in the course of their work. And THAT is an absolute red flag from any business' perspective where building a customer base is what it's all about -- or your business is "worthless" at the end of the day!

By keeping that (important) part to themselves (while still pocketing fees) they do, indeed, cause me to "have a problem" with them taking an, albeit relatively small, chunk out of my profit. That's all I'm saying. It's also an additional motivator for me to look for other ways of selling.

This obviously includes the entire SELLING DIRECT area which is the subject here.

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on December 28, 2016, 18:37

Quote from: cobalt on December 27, 2016, 22:34
whatever you want to do will be very welcome.

the industry needs a good self publishing solution.

something specifically designed for stock artists.

You are reading my mind. I want it Leo, looks good, and I don't care about uploading to DP. Just need a good self publishing site, raster and vector. Also yes to selling video would be a good match for most of us.

Make the basic good working site first, add the tricks and fancy parts later.

me too -- I LOVE it, and the idea of having a way of handling video in the future makes it even better! The lack of video solutions has bugged me for some time now.

Thanks @Leo, it seems you're reading my mind, too

Quote from: Shelma1 on January 08, 2017, 12:07
That was my experience as well. I lost money on the site itself and also lost potential income from other sites by wasting a LOT of time building and maintaining my own site, on social media, etc. In hindsight, that time would have been much more productively spent creating new images for the big sites or even taking a freelance gig.

Same here. Takes too much time away from what I really enjoy doing.

@ shutterstok: I am still entitled to my opinion, whether it is taking a shot at someone or not. You just took a shot at me...maybe you should be deleted and banned?  Plenty of people here take shots at others. Some are just downright nasty about it too.

When will this be released I want to start my own photo download store. I have a website for years, adding sales is no added expense.