MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => New Sites - General => Topic started by: hatman12 on October 23, 2007, 17:38
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Based in South Africa and appears to be owned by Forgiss (or at least he has a significant interest). Andresr is also a founder member.
Appears to be a well designed site. Brand new.
Haven't had time to do any further research.
http://www.picolib.com/ (http://www.picolib.com/)
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25% royalty??? ::)
You would expect more from fellow photographers.
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I can't find the bit about 25% royalty. If that is true, I wonder if they have offered some of the photographers already signed up a better deal? Would they upload their large portfolios to a new site for that?
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I can't find the bit about 25% royalty.
http://www.picolib.com/joomla/index.php/submitters-overview/33-submission-guidelines/72-royalties-overview
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So it goes up as the downloads increase. I might send them a few and see if there are any sales.
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Based in South Africa and appears to be owned by Forgiss (or at least he has a significant interest). Andresr is also a founder member....
Hey Hatman... That's a wild speculation!!? Yuri has more images there than me and Andres, why isn't he an owner?
No, I am not the owner of Picolib, although I did do some consultation work with them. Basically my images were represented by a company called RedImages here in South Africa, and seeing that I have 8 months worth of travel and tourism images of South Africa, and Redimages were dragging their feet with marketing, I moved my whole gallery over to Picolib and made more sales in two weeks than in 14 months at RI.
I did refer a few people there after picking up some sales, among them, Andres Rodriguez, Yuri, Laurin, David Smith, Juriah Mosin, Bobby Deal, Dolgachov, and a few others... I don't know what Picolib offered them, but I didn't get any special offers. However, 25% relates to just over $1 comms on a basic sale, so it's comparable to other earnings models, and seeing that the cost of doing internet related business in South Africa is much higher than most places in the world, I know why 25% is where they start...
To give you an idea, cheapest bandwidth currently in South Africa is R59 per GB (works out to about $8.50 per GB!) ISP cost in the US works out to about $8.50 per Terrabyte!!
They are a new site, although formed from old businesses here in South Africa (mainly in the graphic design and marketing areas) and there are 6 different companies that have a stake in Picolib (that I know of...)
You will see a lot of my work on their site because I came in to consult about 2 months before they launched (at which point they just fired their programmers), and I convinced them that the work they had just won't cut it in the new market (90% film based images)
Like I said, They are a new site, and just like any site I submit to, they have to perform and bring in money, otherwise they are not getting any of my stuff to sell. What I do like about them is that if they use an image, they buy it (like for the promo screensavers they made), They send out regular image requests, that actually results in sales if you respond. They have an active marketing campaign, and they have had excellent service (so far)
Last time I checked photographers could enter by invitation only, but they might have opened it up allready...
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They must have opened up as I have been accepted as a photographer. Uploaded a few and I am waiting to see if they are approved.
I like the site but the minimum size of 2000 pixels on the short side seems a bit restrictive for a microstock site. Most of my images will be OK but it is a shame if a great image is just below that size.
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hehe yeah Sean invited me, just in case the OP is mis-interpreted ....... I have nothing to do with the site I just got invited to the site in the early stages ;D
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...appears to be owned by Forgiss (or at least he has a significant interest). Andresr is also a founder member...
Just on another note... I will ask you not to make statements like these! it places me in a very dificult situation with the stocklibraries I allready have relationships with!