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Author Topic: What about Lucky Oliver?  (Read 37789 times)

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« on: July 05, 2006, 06:40 »
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Anyone here signed up or know anything about Lucky Oliver?  Is it worth my time?

Melissa


« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2006, 08:08 »
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Have submitted my first three but haven't got around to sumbitting more (will probably do about 20 then wait for itcp reading.

process to upload is tedious due to keyword entry

Will let you know.

« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2006, 08:12 »
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you have to keyword each one....oh well i don't have time for that

thanks

« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2006, 11:04 »
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Not only that, you cant copy and paste - each word has to be added separately.  Apparently they are working on both.  There is another thread on them in this forum I think where they actually gave a few posts.

A lot of hype in the talk but everyone gave a pretty clear message back that they need ITPC reading.

« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2006, 17:28 »
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I did the same as CJ, I added my first three and then stopped because of the boring keywording method. 

But I like the look ofthe site, is not such standard like many other new sites such as Micro Stock or US Photostock.

BTW, on the site header they say about vector images, but I don't remember anything specific for vector images when uploading.  Is there a special upload area?

Regards,
Adelaide
« Last Edit: July 06, 2006, 17:30 by madelaide »

« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2006, 14:11 »
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Hey Gang- I thought I would reply to let you know that IPTC reading is now available.  If anyone has additional questions, feel free to email me.  We're still just a month in, so I expect that we will be adding new features on a regular basis.  Thanks for everyone's feedback!

« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2006, 14:17 »
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Just thought I would ask....can we upload same photos to Lucky Oliver and all the other sites too?

« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2006, 16:36 »
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Just thought I would ask....can we upload same photos to Lucky Oliver and all the other sites too?

Melking- you sure can.  To jumpstart our efforts, we're also offering 60% royalty to the first 30,000 exclusive photos.

grp_photo

« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2006, 16:59 »
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I like the look ofthe site, is not such standard like many other new sites such as Micro Stock or US Photostock.

Beside the western-/outlaw/cowboy - look or however you can call it -you have to ask what else is new and what is better. Its easy to see that content-wise it is a complete istock-ripoff nothing new at all. Competetion is great and in general i'm thankful for every new site but i'm not so happy about this one.
I don't have the feeling that the owners really know the market, for me it looks like that they heard about the getty-istock -deal looked at the site and said: "hey we can do the same and earn millions, We give them 10% percent more than istock and all contributors will join us". Come on 30% sucks and to offer an exclusive deal as a new site with no traffic well thats simply to early. If you look for the company behind luckyoliver it seems that it is only a hosting company with no expirience in the photo-/design- market at all. Starting with no Iptc- and no FTP, i think none of the owners have ever contributed to a microstock-site otherwise they should have known better.
If you look at other new sites like featurepics and stockxpert they do a lot better offering a fairer deal (at least 50% with no exclusivity at all) have a lot of experience in the photo-market (stockxpert with sxc.hu also it is partly owned by jupiterimages) offer an easy upload and categories are optional - simply great. Beside that they try new things (set your own price - featurepics).
Sorry guys to have a fancy site design is not enough you have to change your policy, you need new ideas and you have to keyword at least thousand of your own pics in the iptc-data and then upload it to all the sites so you can learn and understand the market and to see the market from our side because you want our pictures and without our pictures you are nothing!
« Last Edit: July 12, 2006, 17:13 by grp_photo »

« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2006, 18:05 »
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Come on 30% sucks and to offer an exclusive deal as a new site with no traffic well thats simply to early.

You took the words out of my mouth.

« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2006, 19:05 »
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At LuckyOliver, we're building a company, not a website -- and certainly not a fly-by-night operation. We're one month into the live site. We've made the decision to build the product in front of our audience so we can get good feedback along the way. Some stuff is still broken, but each week we make good progress.

On the whole the site is in good shape to grow.

Just to give you a little bit of background on us--I myself have operated a design firm for 8 years, helped more than 55 start-up companies and ran my own gallery space in Sausalito, CA. I've been denied on Istock, purchased over $15,000 worth of stock photos for companies and have submitted 250 of my own images to LuckyOliver.  Our team has even more experience in marketing, public relations, hosting, and design.

To clarify our offer, 30% is the base payment, with the potential for earning more based on your status. We don't require a photographer to be exclusive, but you do have the option of making an image exclusive. We have FTP, now have IPTC reading (based on feedback received a week and a half ago on this forum!), no categories and a formal submission process. We allow photographers to set a buyout price.

We'll let the photographers make the decision on what they think is fair.

Running any business including LuckyOliver still requires employees, rent, servers, marketing, credit card transaction fees and bandwidth. It's not just putting up a web site. I can't speak for our competition, but giving a high royalty rate that isn't sustainable long-term will make it difficult for many of these sites to survive. We have partners and investors that believe in us and have specific skill sets that'll help us get off the starting blocks and into the running--skills that help ensure our growth. How about you give us 6 months and then write a review. :-)

Thanks for the feedback!

grp_photo

« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2006, 00:16 »
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Thanks for your answer!
Some points:
-Dreamstime is a very succesful site since the beginning of Microstock i think it was the second or at least the third microsite and offered a fair 50%-split from the beginning.
-its not enough only to look at istock they only can do so like they do because they still rule the market nobody likes them except a few but this few are exclusive artists so you will never see photos of them on your site.
Fortunately the gap between istock and the others is getting smaller i hope this trend continues. Have a look at the others and contribute to them its essential to become a contributor to understand the market!
-You have to understand that contributors only have limited time and to upload pictures costs too much time even on the easiest site (you still have to deal with slow connections, server timeouts,what did i already uploaded on this site?,unfinished uploads etc). And on the more successful ones the ones we already contribute it costs even more time most annoying istock,dreamstime,fotolia the only exception is stockxpert (pretty painless and my big hope for the future).
-we all already wasted to much time with dead sites like areaimage, gimmestock, shuttermap to name just a few if you don't change your policy you will be a dead site very soon.
- 70% like featurepics is too much i think so too but 30% like is far too low a 50% split is fair to both the site and the contributors and all the new sites with at least little success (123rf,stockxpert,) offer this deal. I could accept 40% but i will never accept  30% i'm not exclusive at istock the main reason ist because i want a fairer share.
-and forget any exclusive deal before you prooved any success to us otherwise we can't take you serious.

« Reply #12 on: July 13, 2006, 03:05 »
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Uploading some photos today i will let you all know how I get on. Of popular subject that don't really get a chance to sell elsewhere

Hopefully FTP + IPTC + no cat =  ;D though sales is the most importnat thing

Certainly was a very busy day at the forum yesterday

« Reply #13 on: July 13, 2006, 04:20 »
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I have been uploading too.  Now we wait for sales.

Teh problem with new sites it that you need to get to a certain size before you can do the big marketing push.

So Bryan - how do you propose to make both of us money (ie. how do you plan to get sales)

« Reply #14 on: July 13, 2006, 04:38 »
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my two cents for big growth.....
And what has been proven by other agencies.

Have a reward to uploading photos for a month or so.  Fotolia did this and got everyone uploading instantly.  it is not worth anyones time to upload to a site that doesn't have sales.  We are busier than that and need a little more encouragment.  If there is a compensation for uploading our photos it will be worth, or at least more worth our time even if the downloads don't come right away.

Get a referal system.  Basically every site has them.  Some better than others.  Sites like fotolia and shutterstock with really good referal systems have people talking about them on every forum.  If microstock comes up as a topic on a photography forum you can be guaranteed that about 10 people will mention either fotolia or shutterstock, just because they have a good referral system.

« Reply #15 on: July 13, 2006, 05:07 »
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If microstock comes up as a topic on a photography forum you can be guaranteed that about 10 people will mention either fotolia or shutterstock, just because they have a good referral system.
I agree. I try and drop shutterstock and fotolia links into most posts I have.  See how easy it is.

« Reply #16 on: July 13, 2006, 05:27 »
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If microstock comes up as a topic on a photography forum you can be guaranteed that about 10 people will mention either fotolia or shutterstock, just because they have a good referral system.
I agree. I try and drop shutterstock and fotolia links into most posts I have.  See how easy it is.


 :)

« Reply #17 on: July 13, 2006, 07:34 »
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Yeah referrals the way forward.

FTP and IPTC reading went OK except one file with garbage for a desciption.

« Reply #18 on: July 13, 2006, 09:56 »
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From Bryan's reponse it basically sounds like he has had success in the past building companies. He is relying on his team's superior marketing and business skills to become successful. I agree that many of the failed stock sites, failed because of their lack of marketing skills. They probably started with a team that had a lot of experience as designers and photographers and figured they would extend it to a microstock site. But their lack of marketing skills killed them. So I agree with Bryan that those skills are needed. But unlike most companies where you control the product design and production and focus, in the stock business you are at the mercy of the photographers. Right now you don't have a product to market. No matter how good your business or marketing skills are, your product is horrible. Meaning you have almost no selection. So instead of focusing on marketing your company that focus needs to be towards photographers and getting your product where it needs to be. Offering referal programs, giving initial photographers a bigger % if they sign up first. Whatever you think will bring in photographers. Offering a payout like fotolia did for every photo for a month worked extremely well for them. Your focus need to be on your product (photograhers) before you can go out and sell it. Having said that we have been a little impatient with you and your company. Like you said you have only been out there for a month. I for one have no intention of uploading my pictures until the upload process is painless and you raise our % from 30% to at least 40%. Maybe you can find others who are willing to take a risk with you, but I'm going to sit back and wait 6-12 months before I jump.

Mark

« Reply #19 on: July 13, 2006, 10:32 »
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Striker - the upload is now painless (easier than StockXpert - beleive it or not). 

So you are just waiting on an incentive to join.  i agree that unless you have shutterstock
or istockphoto download numbers, you need a higher payout ratio.

Note:  see how easy it is for us to refer other sites that have referal programs (not that iStocks is any good if you only refer photags).  You should at least offer a buyer referral program, they are after all what you need.

« Reply #20 on: July 13, 2006, 10:51 »
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allright, I have uploaded my first three.

now give me my referral program and I'll upload the rest :)

« Reply #21 on: July 13, 2006, 10:59 »
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* - I was hoping to refer you leaf - that way I might actually make some good money.

« Reply #22 on: July 13, 2006, 11:02 »
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Thanks for all your suggestions on the IPTC and referral system. I appreciate all the Carnies who have already submitted- your efforts are noticed. For those photographers waiting to submit, we'll be happy to get you on board you when it makes sense for you!

« Reply #23 on: July 13, 2006, 11:05 »
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While we are suggesting upgrades. i noticed your payout is $100 and is by cheque.

Given that you dont have many buyers yet, it is unlikely any of us will see $100 soon so you may want to lower that to give us an incentive (I would want a payout at least once a year - all sites including start ups I support should hit this rate). Some sites are $30 (BigStock) or $50 (FT and StockXpert) and FT even lets you cash out at any time, though at a cost.

You should also get paypal and moneybookers. Most people use paypal but this isn't accepted in all countries so Moneybookers is essentual. Paypal is fine for me.

Note: I didn't put referal links in this time but I think you get the point from previous posts.

« Reply #24 on: July 13, 2006, 11:08 »
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* - I was hoping to refer you leaf - that way I might actually make some good money.

darn, i didn't think about that :( sorry.  I would have actually been willing to wait until I was able to be referred by someone, that would have been a good idea.


 

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