I think you need to provide a little more information, not only about the site and the types of images you're hoping to acquire (i.e. if you're selling to the Japanese market, are are images of - for example - a typical US or European Christmas of any interest to you), but any other requirements. Almost all of us already have our images keyworded, but a huge majority will be in English only. Beyond uploading, what will you be asking of beta testers? Is there somewhere people can read about the upload process? Do you accept illustrations (and if so, in JPEG only or EPS as well)? Do you have information about price, license terms, etc. somewhere for us to read?

There are probably many more questions, but if we don't know much about whether your site might be a useful way to sell our portfolios, I don't know how we could judge whether uploading as a beta tester makes any sense.

Quote from: jsnover on July 04, 2011, 17:55

I think you need to provide a little more information, not only about the site and the types of images you're hoping to acquire (i.e. if you're selling to the Japanese market, are are images of - for example - a typical US or European Christmas of any interest to you), but any other requirements. Almost all of us already have our images keyworded, but a huge majority will be in English only. Beyond uploading, what will you be asking of beta testers? Is there someone people can read about the upload process? Do you accept illustrations (and if so, in JPEG only or EPS as well)? Do you have information about price, license terms, etc. somewhere for us to read?

There are probably many more questions, but if we don't know much about whether your site might be a useful way to sell our portfolios, I don't know how we could judge whether uploading as a beta tester makes any sense.

What she said. I'm always willing to take a look at something, but I like to read all the details and fine print first.

Yes and 75% of nothing equals, wello.....no need to push that button.

Yeah, excuse me for the secrecy, but we're simply not yet ready to take wraps off the site quite yet. We're re-designing the site's UI and we are just not ready to go live yet. That's why we call it "BETA" at this point.
You are welcome to join the site after our release date 21st as a contributor and you don't have to care anything of that BETA stuff. We pay 50% for our artists from the day one so there's no ladder to climb.

Please be more transparent.  Joan brought up a lot of good points.  Bottom line is that there are a lot of zero sites out there that promise 50% payouts.  Problem is, as I said, 50% of nothing is nothing and you ask us to spend the time uploading and such with "we pay 50%."  All the new sites make this claim.  Nice if you have millions of buyers.  Not so nice if you don't.

Yeah, sure. We can't promise that our business will have millions of buyers. Nobody can't. That's why we don't. We'll just work our butt off to improve the chances that it someday will.

When you start new things there's always bunch of innovation and unique things involved. That's why we don't want someone copying things like our logo and business model before we take the wraps off from our own site. That's why we require people to sign beta testing agreement first.

Why we need beta testers? To adjust the site and fix the bugs so that our contributors are happy - so that the upload process is as nice and smooth as it's possible to make. Every artist is different and it's just not enough if we have our cousin checking out the site when he has time.

We actually do have now a handful of beta testers, but we'd still like a few more. If you are interested, just let me know.

Look, I am not trying to bust your balls or anything, just giving you some advice from someone who has taken the time to upload to several failed sites.  I honestly hope it works out.  Is there a marketing budget? Big?  Buzz-saw through the competition? Just asking.

So is your site still photos or video? Just trying to sort things out for some who are chomping at the bit to click the submit button.And if this is your domain it takes me to basically, well, nothing.

http://artfilmstock.com/

Let me just say, we have a pretty solid marketing strategy in mind, and we are going to throw some money at it too, sure! This isn't something we work when we have time to it.

Obviously you haven't been around for all the other amazing Microstock sites that blaze in with no info or anything.  I would listen to jsnover above.

I'd also lose the 'Well yeah' attitude, like you're doing contributors here a favor.  They are doing you a favor, stocking your store with wares.  Unless you want to open on day one with empty windows, you'd best be a bit more forthcoming these days.

Don't other companies beta test their sites before going live?

I assume they do, but they probably personally invite well respected stock contributors or invite contributors specific to their niche. Like others have said, I've been invited to a number of different stock sites over the years, and I like to thoroughly review ALL the details before making a decision (beta or not). Everyone has different things that they are looking for in a new agency. I could give you a laundry list of things I look for. First, starts off with what they sell. Do they sell my type of work or files (vectors). 2nd is rights. I want to make sure the license isn't selling any rights I don't want to sell. Next is probably price. You want to make sure you are getting a fair price for your work. 4th is royalty rates, but you covered that. The 5th thing is any hidden things like image lock ins, upload process, etc. Also, I personally love contributor price setting. I think all new agencies should include this feature (hint, hint).

In other words, sell us on your company. What makes it great. Oh yeah, and best of luck. The micro contributors are a fickle bunch, but we can always use a few more great agencies.  

Don't other companies beta test their sites before going live?

Maybe you could have a bit of a read through Lee's industry report http://www.microstockdiaries.com/my-experience-publishing-an-industry-research-report.html - at the very least it will save you from the potentially costly mistake of coming into the forums, asking questions that you should already know the answers to and getting many of your potential suppliers off-side before you've even started.

Usually I'm not that interested in new sites but perhaps one based in Japan that's going to sell to the Japanese market could be interesting.