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Author Topic: Last chance to upload for credits.  (Read 15791 times)

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« on: September 29, 2006, 06:38 »
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Well luckyoliver has said they are going to stop giving out credits to photographers for uploaded photos and start tempting the buyers instead.  Sounds like a good plan as they are worth more to buyers.  If however you want to have some free credits to spend at your leisure... today is the last day, the uploads will be credited with credits.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2006, 06:41 by leaf »


« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2006, 10:50 »
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yes, if they ever review them.  Review time has gone from rather quickly to slower than a snail's pace.  I would rather they not give me the tokens and review the images in a timely manner so they can be available for sales.  KWIM?

« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2006, 11:01 »
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what does KWIM mean?

Since there is basically no sales there, wether it is 1 day or 3 weeks in the cue doesn't really make any difference.  I might get one more sale if they get accepted.  I am happy with the credits.. however worthless they are to me :) (does that sound contradictive or what)

« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2006, 11:07 »
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« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2006, 11:10 »
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dbvirago

« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2006, 11:35 »
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I was going to post the same thing. No reviews, no sales. They need to stop talking about the marketing they are going to do and actually do some. A bucketful of worthless tokesn isn't going to keep me around. After galastock, usphotos, totallyphotos, microstockphots and others, I'm out of patience with startups. I thought the fact that they had good financial backing would be a plus, but I guess it just means they can coast longer without making money.

« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2006, 11:40 »
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did they have good financial banking?  where did you hear that from.

I like the feel and look of lucky oliver.. i think they can be succesful.  I also think they have what it takes to make it work.  Unlike many of the other start up sites, that are a site template and a one man show.

« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2006, 11:52 »
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Howdy gang...just thought I would pipe in to give you a tad more details on our growth plans.  We've received a huge amount of images the last three weeks- more than our staff can now handle.  We've been working on putting together our bouncer review program for the last two months (which includes training, interviews, program materials, and technology infrastructure) Things have slowed down a bit on review times- but this should improve soon.

We want to get this right.  Review times will suffer a bit now, but hopefully all our hard work will insure that photographers will receive the same amount of attention from our review team as we grow.  We want to avoid giving photographers reviews that don't make any sense. We also want to insure buyers get high quality images.

We've also started some of our marketing activities- we're taking a long term approach- so expect gradual results. While you might see spikes in activity, our plans are to insure long term viability- a problem that most new sites are going to struggle with in this market. I'll continue to share more as things become public.

I appreciate all the effort and time photographers put into LuckyOliver.

« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2006, 11:59 »
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Looks like a cut and paste job from LO last post.

Oh well.  Hopefully the marketing that has apparently started, and giving credits to new buyers, will kick off the sales.

Still hanging in there though.

« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2006, 12:03 »
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KWIM     Know What I Mean?
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=KWIM


thanks :)  i shoulda searched i guess.
No, I should have taken the time to write the words. I'm sorry.

« Reply #10 on: September 29, 2006, 12:08 »
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That was a quick answer Bryan, very well appreciated ;)
Bryan, at least you are clear on your intentions, and you have a very positive reputation to work with at this point.
Your transparency approach makes your strength.  I hope now for all of us, and for a long-term win-win situation of course, that the 'piggy-bank' will start to unfreeze, and this will only come with a good designer's outreach marketing approach.  We count on you and your team, and we can be patient :)

« Reply #11 on: September 29, 2006, 13:19 »
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We've also started some of our marketing activities- we're taking a long term approach- so expect gradual results.

Bryan:

Thanks for all of your hard work and for keeping everyone apprised of your plans.

May I ask what type of marketing you are currently doing?  Magazines?  Mailings?  Conferences?

And what are the future plans for marketing?

« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2006, 03:57 »
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Future plans may be a private matter at the moment (???) but please keep us inform of your marketing as you do it.

« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2006, 10:57 »
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Yep, I hope everyone understands. While I'd love to be as transparent as possible, I'm also not going to publish our plans before we've had a chance to learn and execute. If you stay focused on the blog you'll continue to learn more as the pieces come together.

nruboc

« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2006, 22:36 »
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My question to the list is, why would you want LO to succeed? So they can take business away from StockXpert or Dreamstime which pay much better commissions? Quite simply, if LO succeds, then you lose money. Am I missing something? Please let me know if so.

« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2006, 07:05 »
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My question to the list is, why would you want LO to succeed? So they can take business away from StockXpert or Dreamstime which pay much better commissions? Quite simply, if LO succeds, then you lose money. Am I missing something? Please let me know if so.

So, by that logic, we should hope that SS and IS and all the other biggies that pay less than SX or DT would fail too eh?

I don't think there's any evidence that there isn't room in the vast market for many players in the microstock world. There will be some falling out along the way sure... that is already happening with some vendors going away. However, as in any free market, new players come along all the time and try to make their spot. There's a vast market out there and I'd rather play with more vendors and possibly gain more volumen that way than to keep all my eggs in one basket.

Oh, and one more thing... it is very obvious to me that different photos sell differently in each site. I have some that have sold a ton over on SS but yet on IS they languish at the bottom of my sales. And those are two of the biggest fish in the sea. If i were exclusive to one site, then i'd be missing out on a whole different bunch of buyers. So again, i'm preferring to go after more buyers.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2006, 07:07 by maunger »

nruboc

« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2006, 12:25 »
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My question to the list is, why would you want LO to succeed? So they can take business away from StockXpert or Dreamstime which pay much better commissions? Quite simply, if LO succeds, then you lose money. Am I missing something? Please let me know if so.

So, by that logic, we should hope that SS and IS and all the other biggies that pay less than SX or DT would fail too eh?

I don't think there's any evidence that there isn't room in the vast market for many players in the microstock world. There will be some falling out along the way sure... that is already happening with some vendors going away. However, as in any free market, new players come along all the time and try to make their spot. There's a vast market out there and I'd rather play with more vendors and possibly gain more volumen that way than to keep all my eggs in one basket.

Oh, and one more thing... it is very obvious to me that different photos sell differently in each site. I have some that have sold a ton over on SS but yet on IS they languish at the bottom of my sales. And those are two of the biggest fish in the sea. If i were exclusive to one site, then i'd be missing out on a whole different bunch of buyers. So again, i'm preferring to go after more buyers.

Well, IS has been around forever, and they have TONS of downloads. That's why they get away with paying a low commission. I really do hope IS would fail, but that isn't realistice because they are on top right now, have a huge library of exclusive content, and the most buyers. LO has virtually no sales in an already overcrowded market. They have nothing new  or different to offer from a designers point of view. Besides the two you mention, every other site I can think of pays a better commission that LO.

You can go ahead and upload to whoever you want, but  I'll be doing everything I can to drive people to the other sites that actually give a decent commission










nruboc

« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2006, 13:07 »
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Check out featurepics.com!!!! They are also in a start-up position but offer an 80% commission. Can you imagine if a site like that had the sales of IStock? In my opinion for a startup like Lucky Oliver with nearly no sales to pay a measly 30% commission is a joke. Just because you like uploading to every site out there, doesn't mean we all do. In any case, to each his own I guess.

Go, go featurepics!!!! Now that's a startup I could feel good about recommending



« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2006, 13:30 »
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hmmm yeah, this is an interesting subject i think.

I think for a site to actually have big sales they have to advertise quite a bit.  A site can't manage to pay reviewers, pay for hosting, paypal fees, programmers and so on and so on AND have left overs for advertising if they only take 20% of the sale for themselvs.  I think 80% is a little much, but somewhere in the middle perhaps.  I think dreamstime has a good %.

I was looking in a magazine store the other day, and saw a full page add for shutterstock on page 3. Made me glad they were advertising, and there is obviously a reason they ahve the sales they do.  In the end, what i care about is the $ I receive for my X amount of pictures. Whether it comes from a 20%, or a 50% commision is really irrelevant.  If the company works hard and takes an extra 10, 20, 40% worth of commision and gives me sales in return, then i am all for it.

nruboc

« Reply #19 on: October 01, 2006, 13:42 »
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I agree completely, 50% is a fair amount and I'm happy with that. 80% is very high, but if they're willing to pay it than hey, all the power to them and I can only hope for their success (although like you, it's hard for me to believe they can pull it off)

But for a new player to enter this market with 30%??? Just starts to make me fee this site is going nowhere and fast. It will attract the photographers that upload to every site regardless, but it will never attract the numbers they need to make a dent. They are already way behind, and that is no way to catch up.

« Reply #20 on: October 01, 2006, 13:48 »
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i think what will attract the photogs. is the sales.  if they can spend a good chunk of change on advertising then they will get sales.  take a look at fotolia, they started only recently and have a good market share i would say.  they also have a ton of images (how many is another debate in itself)

« Reply #21 on: October 01, 2006, 13:53 »
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Maunger and Leaf, I'm with you. You're absolutely correct that a company that works to promote itself will bring in the sales. And 40 sales at 30 cents versus 5 at 50 cents is preferable. And, different sites have different audiences. My best selling image on SS was rejected by DT. And all submissions to IS have been rejected.

LO has accepted 95% of what I've sent them, and to date (2 months in the game with small portfolio hovering around 200 images), they are my second best selling site. I can personally attest to the fact that there are actual "for money" sales coming in. I have 19 sales, all in the large size. I have faith that LO is on the correct track--even though we don't know their marketing plans yet. At least they plan to market.

In comparison, I have 4 sales from Featurepics, and even though the % payout is larger on Feturepics, those 4 images amount to 1/4 the $$$ amount from the LO sales.

Go LO!!

Pat

nruboc

« Reply #22 on: October 01, 2006, 14:12 »
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Whether it comes from a 20%, or a 50% commision is really irrelevant. If the company works hard and takes an extra 10, 20, 40% worth of commision and gives me sales in return, then i am all for it.

For me it's not irrelevant, I know alot of times the agencies hard work has nothing to do with it. As a designer, I will go from site to site until I find what I need. If IStock doesn't have it , I will look at Dreamstime, if Dreamstime doesn't have it I will go to StockXpert. When I find the image to buy, what did the agency do to get my sale? Google ad-words and a search engine that was able to find what I needed. Is that hard work? Not in my book. It was the photographers hard work that drove the sale. We all give too much credit to the agency for getting us sales in my view, it's all about you creating the content designers need. And for me, 50% is the lowest I feel comfortable with



« Reply #23 on: October 01, 2006, 14:23 »
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Whether it comes from a 20%, or a 50% commision is really irrelevant. If the company works hard and takes an extra 10, 20, 40% worth of commision and gives me sales in return, then i am all for it.

For me it's not irrelevant, I know alot of times the agencies hard work has nothing to do with it. As a designer, I will go from site to site until I find what I need. If IStock doesn't have it , I will look at Dreamstime, if Dreamstime doesn't have it I will go to StockXpert. When I find the image to buy, what did the agency do to get my sale? Google ad-words and a search engine that was able to find what I needed. Is that hard work? Not in my book. It was the photographers hard work that drove the sale. We all give too much credit to the agency for getting us sales in my view, it's all about you creating the content designers need. And for me, 50% is the lowest I feel comfortable with




But, if the designers don't know you exist, or even if they do know you exist but you have no "reputation," will your site be one that they will visit when looking for that elusive image? I doubt it. And if, as a designer, you work for a company you have to go through the company to register with the site in order to download. If you don't know about the site, or if the site has no reputation, you aren't going to push the company to register. Marketing is key.

I know this because I am a photo researcher for a small educational publishing company. Until I got into this microstock game as a contributer, the only sites we knew about were IS and DT.

Pat

nruboc

« Reply #24 on: October 01, 2006, 15:07 »
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i think what will attract the photogs. is the sales. if they can spend a good chunk of change on advertising then they will get sales. take a look at fotolia, they started only recently and have a good market share i would say. they also have a ton of images (how many is another debate in itself)

Do you think Fotolia made it by spending a good chuck on advertising? I guess this is where we have a different line of thinking. All the advertising in the world won't make a difference if your product sucks (to be blunt). Which brings me back to my point. It's the photographers that make a site succeed. Fotolia's success in my book is that they recognized this. Although they don't have the best commission in the world, it does get progressively better with more downloads, and also they did that promotion where they paid real $ (not tokens) to photographers to upload. This is right about the time the site took off, coincidence, I think not.



 

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