Author Topic: Microstock Agency- made by photographers (by you). Let`s start? (Read 32496 times)

sharpshot · « **Reply #75 on:** July 22, 2016, 12:39 »

Quote from: Harvepino on July 22, 2016, 01:09

Agency made by photographers? That is not a new idea. Ever heard of factories owned and run by workers? It is called communism.
I come from a post-communist country and all I can tell you from what I see around me every day is NO! Leave managing to managers. We decided to be photographers, illustrators, videographers, lets stick to that and do it well.

No, communism doesn't work because the government owns the factories. There are companies earned by their employees, not the government, in capitalist societies that do very well, like this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_Partnership

ppdd · « **Reply #76 on:** July 22, 2016, 14:24 »

I think there is a model for something like this that can work, but it needs to be business savvy first and realistic about transparency.

I think things like 90 or 100% commission promises doom the project from the start. Great commissions are fine, but anything over 60% will handcuff a business that relies on promotion of itself to gain customers. Using the 40% in a transparent way will get support from the contributors.

A real co-op is run by managers, who are often paid some money to run the business. There is a board of directors, often all volunteer, who have business experience and oversee the operation. Books are open and spending is transparent, and members vote on the direction of the business.

These business structures are in place to keep the trust of the members. You don't have to trust each other, per se, because you trust the structure that was established in order to even out the influence of any one person. There are a number of options for setting up.

Until something like that is formally established, this conversation will continue to crop up and then crumble.

All my opinions.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #77 on:** July 22, 2016, 21:15 »

Communism is communism. Factories run by the workers are factories run by the worker. They're not automatically the same thing, even though that may have been more the case in certain places at certain times.

And even if this venture was based on communism, one small outfit adopting a communist approach is very different to a country as a whole... it's unlikely communiststock.com would have little, if any, affect on what you see when you look around you every day.

But look at it another way... a small shop owned and run by a family. Are they automatically communists? Yes, it's a small shop and not a factory, but would an online stock marketplace really be a factory? A company owned and run by a group of individuals could just as easily be referred to as a cooperative as it could some kind of communist regime.

I still think it's not really a good idea, the whole stock photographers site made by stock photographers thing, but that's for a whole host of different reasons. None of them related to communism.

stockVid · « **Reply #78 on:** July 22, 2016, 22:00 »

Why is everything looked at in extremes? A stock agency run by photographers is not communism!

Dear god what's happened to the world?

Leo · « **Reply #79 on:** July 23, 2016, 03:07 »

This thread is funny.

This guy can make you rich here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv1RJTHf5fk

I think its awesome how everyone is looking out for you these days and offering so many ways to succeed (at a small price, of course). Its a good time to be alive!

Guy in video is Tai Lopez and a very successful scammer. I wonder what he'd suggest if he was into Microstock? Or would he have competition with some other folks in here?

sharpshot · « **Reply #80 on:** July 23, 2016, 03:33 »

Quote from: stockVid on July 22, 2016, 22:00

Why is everything looked at in extremes? A stock agency run by photographers is not communism!

Dear god what's happened to the world?

I agree. I find unregulated capitalism just as frighting as communism. Does anyone really understand how a hedge fund can buy a debt ridden Getty, saddle it with more debt that they use to pay themselves then sell it on for a profit to another hedge fund? Does anyone think what happened in 2008 when the banks gambled away trillions but almost nobody was held to account was good? I still don't understand the size of national debt, budget deficits and personal debt around the capitalist nations. Most people don't worry about that but anything that is remotely nearer to communism scares them, even if it works very well.

memakephoto · « **Reply #81 on:** July 23, 2016, 09:21 »

The western world has vilified the term "communism" as if it's some evil thing. Mostly because of how it works in China and the former Soviet Union and also because it goes against the ideals of capitalism.

On paper, the concept of communism is beautiful. There is no rich and no poor as everyone shares ownership and the fruits of their labor. Unfortunately in practice it falls apart because it fails to take into consideration the baggage associated with it's key ingredient: human beings bringing with them human nature. We are programmed to separate into classes. All social animals are. There is the ruler, the alpha, and all others establish themselves within the hierarchy from top to bottom.

Capitalism works because it relies on this hierarchy, with those at the top controlling and profiting from those at the bottom. Until we find a way to overcome our very nature, it will always be this way. Like it or not.

Applied to this group: the owner(s) of stock agencies get rich taking the lion share of the revenue from sales and the workers (us) get just enough to keep us coming back.

sharpshot · « **Reply #82 on:** July 23, 2016, 15:36 »

Communism and a co-op are two very different things. There are lots of successful co-ops where the people running them earn more than the workers at the bottom but they don't have the problems that ruin many companies that have shareholders and are often controlled by people that don't really have anything but a financial interest in the business.

We can be in a capitalist society and have a successful co-op without having anything to do with communism. Is Stocksy a communist site? I don't know if we will ever have a successful site that is controlled by contributors but we don't have to become communists to do that.

ammit · « **Reply #83 on:** March 03, 2017, 17:45 »

Quote from: Harvepino on July 22, 2016, 01:09

Agency made by photographers? That is not a new idea. Ever heard of factories owned and run by workers? It is called communism.
I come from a post-communist country and all I can tell you from what I see around me every day is NO! Leave managing to managers. We decided to be photographers, illustrators, videographers, lets stick to that and do it well.

I`m coming from a communist country also, your response lacks substance! we should leave management to managers, but to our own elected managers. Huge difference!

If you can not convince contributors to join you, you can not convince the buyers neither!

astrn · « **Reply #84 on:** March 03, 2017, 18:49 »

Wow what an old and funny thread.

I did not read all of the entries but the fellow that opened the thread possibly learnt his/her lesson very well after that.
Openning a business is hard. And openning a new business in a already crowded market is much more complicated mumbo jumbo.

I tried to open an agency to test the waters. The only difference is I only put my own images that how far I can go without any advertisement and marketing campaign. Let me tell you; None, not an even millimeter!

The first problem to open any kind of business is, before anything else, even the product itself, is, solving the good old "marketing" issue. Without any form of marketing, even if you sell your product for free, which I did, you gain no traction.

That is the number one rule for any business. Promoting your service is the number one priority.

Moreover, discussing this kind of thing in a public forum is pretty naive act. If you want to gain the attention of the people around here or anywhere you should first built something at least at the first place, good or bad. In that way you will show others that you are really serious about it.

Then you can start to find a way how attract people to your business -buyers, sellers, you name it- then the investors who are willing to be a partner with you. No one give you a money or their time for an emtpy ideas. I can bet most of the people on this platform thought at least once to open a stock selling website in some form.

Solving a problem is a thing, but applying to a business model is something else.

EmberMike · « **Reply #85 on:** March 04, 2017, 17:03 »

So who has the multi-million-dollar marketing budget it would take to get a new agency to be visible in this already crowded market? Because that's what it would take, and "multi-million" is no exaggeration. Companies that are already highly visible still advertise regularly. Shutterstock often has the back cover of some graphic design industry magazines. Some of those ad placements are probably $20k minimum.

The only chance a new agency has, even a contributor-supported one, is to have it run like a startup, with proper funding and a solid business plan. Anything less is a failure right out of the gate.

Photodune Reject · « **Reply #86 on:** March 04, 2017, 18:56 »

I love to see the final outcome on these so called "New Company' startups- all end up being nothing more than a dream until the nightmare awakens me as I upload to iStock knowing I will get only 15%... $:-\$

Mantis · « **Reply #87 on:** March 04, 2017, 21:56 »

Quote from: Photodune Reject on March 04, 2017, 18:56

I love to see the final outcome on these so called "New Company' startups- all end up being nothing more than a dream until the nightmare awakens me as I upload to iStock knowing I will get only 15%... $:-\$

Only you can control your nightmares.

alno · « **Reply #88 on:** March 05, 2017, 02:44 »

I think that all posts about unions, business plans of starting a new little Northern Korea, dropping istock, telling Videohive is awful, Shutterstock 20 minutes long FTP upload problems should really be posted in off-topic automatically, right next to Trump thread and Happy new year everybody.

This forum had (and still having) a lot of really precious info not only for the newbies. Every time you post some hilarious BS like this just because you are bored in front of your computer and have nobody to complain to at home at the moment you bury that info deeper and deeper.

sharpshot · « **Reply #89 on:** March 05, 2017, 04:58 »

Quote from: Irina Anosova on March 05, 2017, 02:44

I think that all posts about unions, business plans of starting a new little Northern Korea, dropping istock, telling Videohive is awful, Shutterstock 20 minutes long FTP upload problems should really be posted in off-topic automatically, right next to Trump thread and Happy new year everybody.

This forum had (and still having) a lot of really precious info not only for the newbies. Every time you post some hilarious BS like this just because you are bored in front of your computer and have nobody to complain to at home at the moment you bury that info deeper and deeper.

So why do you bother looking at this thread then? I don't think these threads go anywhere but I would much rather see people complaining about sites like istock and thinking about what could be done than just putting up with it and letting them take all our money. You might be happy with the little bit they let you have now but many of us aren't and pretending everything is great isn't going to get us anywhere. I also don't understand why threads like this make it any less easy for newbies? If it did, this forum would be nothing but threads like this

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Author Topic: Microstock Agency- made by photographers (by you). Let`s start? (Read 32496 times)

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Leo

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