Author Topic: Clustershot.com (Read 34692 times)

clustershot · « **Reply #50 on:** March 29, 2010, 07:08 »

Yes, all transactions are currently only in Paypal.

Apparently our webdav service is seeing mixed results

clustershot · « **Reply #51 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:53 »

We've worked out a plan to conquer this issue:
http://www.clustershot.com/blog/archive/2010/march/frombuyerto

What this means is that you're going to be paid directly, then we'll take our slice from you once a month. We hope you like that option.

We hope to have this built, tested, and launched this week.

Let us know what you think.

sharpshot · « **Reply #52 on:** March 29, 2010, 10:40 »

Will be interesting to see if this works. There is an obvious problem if a contributor doesn't pay you but hopefully that wont happen very often.

oboy · « **Reply #53 on:** March 29, 2010, 11:08 »

Anyone else here from California that has an account at Clustershot?

My photography is more of a hobby that generates a little money. So far I made sure not to sell anything directly. So I only receive royalties / commissions. If I understand this correctly, because of this I don't have to register as a business, and I don't have anything to do with sale/use taxes. At the end of the year I file also a schedule C with 1040 to the IRS.

This would change if I would get payed directly by the buyer. In the moment you don't have to charge use taxes in California for an electronically transferred image, but that my change tomorrow as they change the rules quite often in California. And I don't know how that would affect sales to some of the other states that have sale/use taxes.

So for me I think it would be better to close my account then at Clustershot if the sale would be directly.

Dose any else know a little more about this type of situations?

clustershot · « **Reply #54 on:** March 29, 2010, 11:15 »

Quote from: sharpshot on March 29, 2010, 10:40

Will be interesting to see if this works. There is an obvious problem if a contributor doesn't pay you but hopefully that wont happen very often.

That is the only exposure for us. We trust our users and worst case scenario would only be out 1 month of revenue for the user as we would close their account if unpaid.

oboy · « **Reply #55 on:** March 30, 2010, 12:38 »

Anyone else from California that has thought or a tip about this?

NitorPhoto · « **Reply #56 on:** March 31, 2010, 07:10 »

I liked that option much better when you got the payment from the buyer and you transfered the royalty. I see no point why this new system is better. I am not happy you change the business model on the fly. I already uploaded 3000+ images but need to stop now.

By the way the webdav uploading is simple but extremly slow. A batch of 2-300 images usually takes 10+ hours - totally insane. In all other factors the software design and the usabilty it tripleA.

Edit: ok, after reading the whole story I see your point now. I am sorry what happed to you and I really hope you can sort out your problems. Looking forward to see those great new tools!

FD · « **Reply #57 on:** March 31, 2010, 08:40 »

I sortof gave up on them. They are not stock oriented at all. All the plans they announce have nothing to with building a virtual stock site and grouping acounts, nothing with licenses and sizes.
I planned to write some integration but they don't even have a unique image IDs that addresses thumbs and full size pages, so it's far too much work to integrate.
They are totally obsessed with Flickr and I'm not interested with Flickr after they phased out my Pro account in a too blunt way because my shots were watermarked and I had links to sales sites.

I don't like that in "similar images" on Clustershot are linked to ports of free account amateurs. I'm not paying a Pro account to drive traffic to snapshooters. I wanted:

- variation in licenses: edtorial, commercial / RF, RF-extended;
- variation in sizes: web and full size, automatically priced differently;
- a virtual agency where accounts could be coupled to show "similars" or at least the free accounts could be left out;

Nothing of that has been announced in 7 months, so I think I'll just have to swallow my 20$ loss and start deleting in August. They obviously aren't interested in what we want. The direct payment is just another PITA. Although I could easily incorporate, I'm not planning to do it just for them, especially since I had no sale whatsoever despite they being prominent on my site. The 100$ payout limit is ridiculous for an average uploader, and it seems to become one of those sites earning money and then vanish, like LO and FM and Crestock.

No thanks. I stopped uploading months ago and I curse myself for the wasted time since even their IPTC extraction is non-standard. Why the heck they have to import the location in the keywords? Why the heck they don't import the title? Wasted...

clustershot · « **Reply #58 on:** March 31, 2010, 08:48 »

Quote from: FD-amateur on March 31, 2010, 08:40

I sortof gave up on them. They are not stock oriented at all. All the plans they announce have nothing to with building a virtual stock site and grouping acounts, nothing with licenses and sizes.
I planned to write some integration but they don't even have a unique image IDs that addresses thumbs and full size pages, so it's far too much work to integrate.
They are totally obsessed with Flickr and I'm not interested with Flickr after they phased out my Pro account in a too blunt way because my shots were watermarked and I had links to sales sites.

I don't like that in "similar images" on Clustershot are linked to ports of free account amateurs. I'm not paying a Pro account to drive traffic to snapshooters. I wanted:

- variation in licenses: edtorial, commercial / RF, RF-extended;
- variation in sizes: web and full size, automatically priced differently;
- a virtual agency where accounts could be coupled to show "similars" or at least the free accounts could be left out;

Nothing of that has been announced in 7 months, so I think I'll just have to swallow my 20$ loss and start deleting in August. They obviously aren't interested in what we want. The direct payment is just another PITA. Although I could easily incorporate, I'm not planning to do it just for them, especially since I had no sale whatsoever despite they being prominent on my site. The 100$ payout limit is ridiculous for an average uploader, and it seems to become one of those sites earning money and then vanish, like LO and FM and Crestock.

No thanks. I stopped uploading months ago and I curse myself for the wasted time since even their IPTC extraction is non-standard. Why the heck they have to import the location in the keywords? Why the heck they don't import the title? Wasted...

I'm sorry to hear that you aren't happy with us. For the record, we don't link to other users on your pro site, only on the general ClusterShot site. As for grouping accounts (we're calling that "collections" internally) that is something that is definitely on our list of things to develop.

We've been fairly clear on our position regarding multiple sizes. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

What I can do for you is refund your $20.00. You obviously feel it hasn't been worth it for you. We'll gladly settle that for you. Just contact us directly with the email you use to log-in and we'll settle up.

NitorPhoto · « **Reply #59 on:** April 01, 2010, 07:39 »

Quote from: FD-amateur on March 31, 2010, 08:40

I sortof gave up on them. They are not stock oriented at all....

I have an opposing opinion. The site design is good and simple in many ways, in appearance, in usability and also in licencing. They do not follow the common microstock agency rules, this is a different service - otherwise I wouldn't upload anything. It is a great tool as the shopping section of your own business website. Well, yes it would be nice to have some more features especially in how can you link it to your own site.. but we will see what the new improvements are. And hey 20$ for this is really NOTHING! My only concern is how long can they hold on.

cardmaverick · « **Reply #60 on:** April 01, 2010, 21:21 »

Not sure where else to post this request...

Is there anyway you can record INTERNAL site search requests used to find my images? I see that my integrated search box on my website has brought traffic into my pro store, but I can't really see what it is they are actually searching for, seeing the images being viewed is helpful however and gives me a rough idea.

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #61 on:** April 03, 2010, 10:18 »

Last month I got a sale on clustershot for $100, with just 30 images online with them. I still haven't opened a pro ac. yet though and probably won't until I'm able to syndicate my stuff from iSyndica. The cool thing about the image that was bought is that only a few months ago, I disabled the image which was only on dt and hadn't sold, because I felt that the image could fetch more one day.

clustershot · « **Reply #62 on:** April 05, 2010, 15:33 »

We just wanted to give everyone an update.

We've made all of the necessary changes to the site that should free the restrictions on our paypal account. We have let Paypal know and they will be reviewing the changes we've made. Hopefully all will go well and we'll be back to normal within a number of hours.

Once the new changes go live to satisfy Paypal we will be waiting 1-2 days to roll out the new features that got us into this mess in the first place.

WARNING: For anyone who has been considering a pro-account with us this 1-2 day window is your last shot at getting in at the $20.00/year for your first year. When we launch the new updates we are raising our prices to a staggering $50.00/year. The big new feature launching is a very cool and very slick pro-store/page customization. Your own logo, choose a font, you own backgrounds, colours, etc.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #63 on:** April 05, 2010, 16:17 »

I am looking for something new, to expand. I already have a personal pro site but would not be opposed to linking up...
Just moments ago, I made my first visit to Cluster.. I like the site, I like most of what I see.. I decided to check out the competition, see what I'm up against. I am primarily a landscape/travel 'tog. I punched in Grand Canyon National Park..
Low and behold, on the first page, a picture of a jellyfish ..... ? ... keyworded Arizona, California, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Landscape, Mountains.... Humm....
Perhaps there is a aquarium somewhere in Arizona... ?? Don't know. However, I do know for a fact after spending considerable time in the Grand Canyon..... there are no jellyfish.

I am not a big fan of keyword spamming. And it seems to be more prevalent than it should be. I would be interested in signing on... but... guys, this for me is a problem.

=tom

PixelBitch · « **Reply #64 on:** April 05, 2010, 20:02 »

You have a link to upgrade to a pro account but it comes up with an empty window. You could at least email present contributors offering the upgrade and a 48 hour time frame rather than have us keep checking to see when it can be done...and you may get more takers that way.

Quote from: clustershot on April 05, 2010, 15:33

We just wanted to give everyone an update.

We've made all of the necessary changes to the site that should free the restrictions on our paypal account. We have let Paypal know and they will be reviewing the changes we've made. Hopefully all will go well and we'll be back to normal within a number of hours.

Once the new changes go live to satisfy Paypal we will be waiting 1-2 days to roll out the new features that got us into this mess in the first place.

WARNING: For anyone who has been considering a pro-account with us this 1-2 day window is your last shot at getting in at the $20.00/year for your first year. When we launch the new updates we are raising our prices to a staggering $50.00/year. The big new feature launching is a very cool and very slick pro-store/page customization. Your own logo, choose a font, you own backgrounds, colours, etc.

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #65 on:** April 06, 2010, 01:18 »

Quote from: clustershot on April 05, 2010, 15:33

WARNING: For anyone who has been considering a pro-account with us this 1-2 day window is your last shot at getting in at the $20.00/year for your first year. When we launch the new updates we are raising our prices to a staggering $50.00/year. The big new feature launching is a very cool and very slick pro-store/page customization. Your own logo, choose a font, you own backgrounds, colours, etc.

You initially started with an almost idealistic stance. You then started charging $20 for pro. accounts, which most people can take with a pinch of salt. Now it will be $50 a year, which you yourself describe as 'staggering', which is odd to say the least for a company to describe it's own prices. It also leaves me with the impression that you aren't making much from buyers, which was your initial intention and are going down the road of making money from photographers. So from free to $20 to $50 to.....? Thanks for the WARNING:

NitorPhoto · « **Reply #66 on:** April 06, 2010, 02:38 »

Good news. I want you to make money otherwise you will close the shop. 50$ is still a very good prize and I hope it helps you stay alive.
On the other hand. Uploading is extremely slow! I am uploading 300+ images in the current batch and it already took like 24 hours. Hey, I want ot upload 10k images it will take a year then?!

clustershot · « **Reply #67 on:** April 06, 2010, 07:03 »

Thanks for all of your comments. I'll do my best to cycle back to them and address them correctly. I just wanted to let everyone know that we got the thumbs up from Paypal and we're making all the necessary roll-out changes here on our end. We should be back to normal within an hour or two.

clustershot · « **Reply #68 on:** April 06, 2010, 08:03 »

Quote from: NitorPhoto on April 06, 2010, 02:38

Good news. I want you to make money otherwise you will close the shop. 50$ is still a very good prize and I hope it helps you stay alive.
On the other hand. Uploading is extremely slow! I am uploading 300+ images in the current batch and it already took like 24 hours. Hey, I want ot upload 10k images it will take a year then?!

Can you contact us directly via our contact form? We want to get more information from you as to where you are uploading from, what client, etc. We should be quicker than that for uploads.

clustershot · « **Reply #69 on:** April 06, 2010, 14:43 »

We're back up and running. For those of you who sold photos and hadn't reached the $100.00 payout level, or hadn't requested an early payout, we've sent your payment along with no additional fees.

For those of you thinking about upgrading to a pro account, now is the time. Our intro price of $20.00 for the year is still good for another 24-48 hours. After that we're launching new features and a new price (50.00).

Thanks to everyone for your patience and understanding during this time. In the end we think it's made ClusterShot better, and most importantly, better for the photographers who use it.

clustershot · « **Reply #70 on:** April 07, 2010, 16:12 »

Our new visual customization feature has launched for our pro account stores. Let us know what you think:

http://www.clustershot.com/blog/archive/2010/april/customizethe

ljooc · « **Reply #71 on:** April 07, 2010, 16:59 »

I just registered but it says upgrade to pro a/c for $50, which page do I go to get the $20/yr for the first year?

jc

clustershot · « **Reply #72 on:** May 18, 2010, 09:49 »

We just added multiple currency support for our pro accounts. 21 Currencies are now supported.

oboy · « **Reply #73 on:** May 18, 2010, 11:00 »

Are the different buyer account/plans - pro vs. non-pro? Is there a list of all supported Currencies ?

clustershot · « **Reply #74 on:** May 18, 2010, 21:25 »

Quote from: oboy on May 18, 2010, 11:00

Are the different buyer account/plans - pro vs. non-pro? Is there a list of all supported Currencies ?

We have two levels: Pro and free. Pro is 50.00/year.

For a list of currencies supported please see this post:
http://www.clustershot.com/blog/archive/2010/may/newprofeature

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Author Topic: Clustershot.com (Read 34692 times)

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