MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Sites that no longer exist => LuckyOliver.com => Topic started by: DanP68 on February 20, 2008, 03:45
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My portfolio continues to fail miserably with Lucky Oliver. I've made $0.60 in February so far, and that actually qualifies as a BME. ::) Total Earnings? $1.50 since September. I make that much in one morning at Shutterstock.
Lucky Oliver now constitutes less than 0.01% of my total earnings over this period.
Hey, maybe it's just me. People do post now and then about success and payouts at LO. Perhaps my portfolio simply does not fit in with their model. I noticed Compete.com shows falling traffic at LO since peaking early last fall. Granted you can see a similar pattern at more established sites, but this should not be the case with a website spinning up from a small base.
As of today I will no longer be uploading to Lucky Oliver. It seems a waste to spend 1/8 of the effort for 1/10000 of the return. If sales pick up over the next month I will re-evaluate. If they do not, I may simply close shop and place my efforts elsewhere. All the best to Brian and his staff, and good luck to those who are getting some return on their investment.
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I am pleased with the sales there recently. A BME last month and it is continuing this month.
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You aren't the alone one Sharpshot. Keep it up!
It must be my style doesn't fit in with Lucky Oliver. Just one of those things, I guess.
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LO works better for me than FP and SV. LO 800,-$, FP 600,-$ and SV 150.-$ so far. Sure SV is not so old but monthly earnings are also better at LO. Comparable Portfolios. I actually losing patience with SV.
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Dan, I think your portfolio is good and you should do well there. I noticed you have only made 4 comments on other peoples images. The images with comments go on the front page. If you leave comments, other people comment on your photos and they go on the front page. I think this is a good way to increase downloads there.
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Yeah, I've always been leery of that strategy. I don't understand why an image with a comment should be placed on the front of the main web page. I mean, what if the comment is, "Your image stinks." 8)
I suppose I could do this for a few days to see if it reaps benefits. It really feels like I am scamming the system though. Images should sell based on quality, search placement, and demand. I just don't get why LO chooses to do this.
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I like that they do something different from the other sites. It is possible to sell there with a big portfolio full of great images but this gives everyone a chance to get their images on the front page.
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Yeah, I've always been leery of that strategy. I don't understand why an image with a comment should be placed on the front of the main web page. I mean, what if the comment is, "Your image stinks." 8)
I suppose I could do this for a few days to see if it reaps benefits. It really feels like I am scamming the system though. Images should sell based on quality, search placement, and demand. I just don't get why LO chooses to do this.
I'm with you...gave them up a year ago....if I don't have time to waste on uploading to low earners, I d@mn sure don't have time to play the "comment" game...
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My portfolio continues to fail miserably with Lucky Oliver. ...
Given the bad sales experience that most people here have had with LO, I'm wondering why you bothered with them in the first place. I'd be very surprised if a significant percentage of "carnies" average more than $1 per day. Didn't you do any research before uploading there?
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I lost my patience. I have just asked them to cancel may account. The only site on which I did not have any downloads is LO. True, i just made one comment and I stopped uploading there 3 months ago. Still i have had there 333 images ... and the rest is now history.
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If it wasn't so darn easy to upload there I'd be long gone. I've gotten maybe $110 there out of my best 184 images in over 18 months. I guess there's something to be said about consistency. It was very slow action there at first and very slow action there now. I had extremely low expectations when I saw their "marketing" strategy but went along with their cutesy approach. Now it seems like more of a con. Whatever it is it just doesn't work for my images. I haven't bothered uploading my last few dozen images there.
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Well I surely understand where all you folks are coming from.....
Been there myself nearly from the start... member since August 2006
got 381 images
got 36,718 views
got only 56 downloads
got $72.20 in the piggy bank (had one EL that accounts for over a third of that)
I feel the same.... thinking my shots are just not the kind that LO buyers want.... 'cause I sure have no problem selling them everywhere else. Kind of depressing..
However.... in spite of all that, I'm not pulling out. In fact, I'm continuing to upload. The upload process is one of the easiest around.... I'm still hanging in there for awhile more. Something has to give. It just doesn't make sense that LO's customer base is so oddly different than IS, SS, DT, BigStock, and the other agencies that are selling my junk. Something has to give.. hopefully soon, I know they are new, but after a year and a half... I thought there'd be a little more....
I'm in for awhile more. I'll hang out for 2 years... Heck, I've got 71 tokens there. There's gotta be some use for them....???
On the matter of comments. Yeah I did that... what I found was not an equal tit for tat. I put out a lot more than I got back. I still comment, but I do so only on pix that I REALLY do enjoy.
To Bryan..... some of us are still hanging in there.........hoping it breaks loose..................... ??? 8)=tom
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Now that they have lowered payout to $25 I don't think there is any reason that people should cancel their accounts. At the current rate I should get 2, maybe 3 payouts a year this way. I know that's laughable - but the tough part is already done.
If they were different people running the place, I'm sure my attitude would be different on this one though.
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Given the bad sales experience that most people here have had with LO, I'm wondering why you bothered with them in the first place. I'd be very surprised if a significant percentage of "carnies" average more than $1 per day. Didn't you do any research before uploading there?
Absolutely. I'm pretty sure a guy named sharply_done told me they were just getting hot. 8)
Seriously though, I did what I usually do when looking at new sites. I looked to see if anyone was experiencing success, and there were a few, and then I checked their growth using site analytic tools.
It was worth a shot.
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Total results: $100 payout received, nearly $50 in the bank.
5 dls so far for February BUT nearly all, but one, being sideshow sales = $2-4 commission for me ;D beats a lot of the lower performing sites like craphamlet and the like ;D looking at my overall earnings at LO there is definitively an upwards trend ;-) Yes, I earn more money at SS/ IS in a month then I do at LO in several months BUT I still like the higher commission they give me (after reaching the sideshow WHICH IS FREE)
It just feels better to get $$$ for your work then cents, SY
*In case you haven't joined already fell free to use my Lucky Oliver Referral LInk, doesn't cost you anything, but might earn me a bucky* (http://www.luckyoliver.com/?loaf=hospitalera)
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Heading for my worst month there in a year. Only ELs and Sideshows make it worthwhile. Without them the volume isn't worth the effort. Doing better this month at Canstock!?!
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Dan, I think your portfolio is good and you should do well there. I noticed you have only made 4 comments on other peoples images. The images with comments go on the front page. If you leave comments, other people comment on your photos and they go on the front page. I think this is a good way to increase downloads there.
That's a completely amateurish way to run a stock agency. It's like saying that everybody who wear a yellow T-shirt with an LO logo will get to the front page this week.
As a buyer, I want to see the best, most relevant photos on the front page, not the photos from those with enough time on their hands to comment on the photos of others. As a photographer, I want to improve my photography and key-wording skills, not waste my time on commenting the photos of others.
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I have a few sales there but it is slow. I also don't like sites that require me comment or chat to get pictures noticed. It's all about the picture not the shooter.
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I like LO - they are nice and fun, but I have put them on my "stop" list as my sales there are worse than poor, and I prefer spending my time doing photography rather than commenting on other people's images. Moreover, the logic of the system mentioned above puzzles me - if I were a buyer, I would want to have the most relevant images rather than the most commented ones on the front page - particularly if it does not even matter what the comments are...
I will be more than happy to resume uploading at LO if my sales improve, but if the increase in sales is subject to the "comments" system, I am not very optimistic...
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the lower performing sites like craphamlet and the like
Since I was the first to creatively craft the word CrapHamlet, it's copyrighted. You can buy a license on the word for 0.25cents per forum post but in your case I would suggest an extended license ;D
Caveat - joke ;)
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.... but in your case I would suggest an extended license ;D
Do you want to say that I spent too much time on the forum ??? ? SY
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Do you want to say that I spent too much time on the forum ??? ? SY
Nah, I wouldn't dare. And anyways "he amound you who is without sin, cast the first stone" ::)
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;D If your quotation is from the English King James Bible then you own the Crown royalties now ;D as the translation is crown copyright ;D SY
PS How much do you charge for an extended license for "craphamlet" btw?
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This thing about commenting on other's work is so like Red Bubble.
If you haven't got hours on end to spend on your PC or laptop your images won't be seen.
Anyway, 80% of comments are reciprocal and don't really mean much.
False exposure comes to mind!
Personally, I don't think there's a need for commenting in Microstock.
Just get on with what we are all there for - selling!!
Better to be out taking photographs and uploading to sites where you get exposure and sales on merit!
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PS How much do you charge for an extended license for "craphamlet" btw?
For you it's free of course. Let's call it fairy use ;D
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I spend about 5 minutes a week making comments, it isn't a big deal.
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I spend about 5 minutes a week making comments, it isn't a big deal.
Right, It doesn't take long to make a couple of comments, you don't have to drag it out.
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I spend about 5 minutes a week making comments, it isn't a big deal.
It's not a big deal, but it's also completely pointless.
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I spend about 5 minutes a week making comments, it isn't a big deal.
It's not a big deal, but it's also completely pointless.
"Exacta-mundo," says The Fonz.
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I spend about 5 minutes a week making comments, it isn't a big deal.
It's not a big deal, but it's also completely pointless.
This is very true!! As I have pointed out before, the idea that images need comments to be sold on LO is not supported by any evidence I've seen. I have checked the most recent downloads list on several occasions - just now for instance - and there have never been more than 2 of the 25 with comments - less than 10%.
I have been fairly active in the forums and commenting there and still have only 12 downloads - only 1 in the last 4 months! That doesn't prove anything - I only recently went over 200 in my portfolio - however, a variety of images I have there that sell - some quite well - on IS, SS, DT, FT, BS do not even get looked at on LO.
I started uploading again recently in hopes the site upgrade would improve things but it seems to be taking a long time to get it to work right. Currently it takes forever for new images to get indexed into the search.
Hope for LO is fading fast!! fred
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Having an image on the front page from someone leaving a comment gets views for the rest of the images in your portfolio. People click on the image with a comment but might then browse your portfolio and find something to buy.
I do think this works. My sales seem to increase when I get a few comments on my images.
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What if... you signed up under a different account, uploaded a couple of low-sale disposable shots... and then started commenting on your main own images, just in time to get them on the front page when the buyers on the East and West Coast come in the office and had their first coffee? ::)
Wicked, but feasable.
I can see the corporate buying pattern over time of day very well on ShutterStock where you have many downloads per day. On the West Coast are the most voracious buyers, and in Europe (CET) just 10%.
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This is very true!! As I have pointed out before, the idea that images need comments to be sold on LO is not supported by any evidence I've seen.
That's funny because the only time I've had sales is when I've played the ratings game. Although, not necessarily the photos with new comments.
I just wish they would get the keyword indexing working.
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This is very true!! As I have pointed out before, the idea that images need comments to be sold on LO is not supported by any evidence I've seen.
That's funny because the only time I've had sales is when I've played the ratings game. Although, not necessarily the photos with new comments.
I just wish they would get the keyword indexing working.
The site is a joke - a carnival that is run like a circus!!
c h e e r s
fred
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I can see the corporate buying pattern over time of day very well on ShutterStock where you have many downloads per day. On the West Coast are the most voracious buyers, and in Europe (CET) just 10%.
Though my DLs everywhere are absolutely pitiful (I still have no photos showing at IS or SS, though I'm approved at both), almost every DL has been at the strangest times. I expect to get them while at work during the day (ET), but this is not the case, I have gotten most of mine late night (after 12pm, before 6am) or on the weekends, when I least expect to get them.
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I thought comments worked for the image that received a comment, not for the person commenting it.
I even think someone explained that comments should include main keywords, because having them many times in that page would make them come up better in search engines (I don't think it was meant in LO search tool).
Regards,
Adelaide
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Is the site down? I can't get in over there - haven't been able to for a while....
(sorry, just read the other thread on this. Oh well)
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May be we can start a new thread similar to an old one for StockXpert (with LO-specific modifications)? E.g. choose what you like most from the _least_ popular part of portfolio of the person above?
(without starting a thread, thus not asking for comments for mine, Adelaide, my 2 cents to you ;) )
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Lucky Oliver is only 0.30% of my income, not even 1%,
I get more sales at SS than views at LO and what I make on LO in a month I make at SS in about 3 hours, well at least I get a payout every month so pocket money doesn't hurt, hopefully they will pick up because the site is quite nice.
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AndresR sums is up completely.
I kept track. Each day this week, I had more earnings from Shutterstock before 2 pm EST than I have had in 6 total months at Lucky Oliver. Mitch can spin that stat however he wants to. But as far as I am concerned, Lucky Oliver is no longer worth uploading to.
From this point forth, until Lucky Oliver makes me as much in a month as Shutterstock does in a day, there will be no more uploads. I'm through playing comment games.
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Why should i have to comment on someone else's photo to sell my own stuff. I really dislike the sites that requre user to flatter each other. Let the photo sell itself.