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Author Topic: The 3D Studio - anyway selling there?  (Read 31229 times)

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KB

« on: November 28, 2009, 00:23 »
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What I mean is, is anyone getting sales there?

I had 3 sales during my first month, for very nice commissions. I like that they are continuing to upgrade the photo side of the business, recently adding ELs and  web-sizes. But I haven't had a single sale now in a little over 2 months now.  :(

My port isn't huge (600 some images), but it does get regular sales everywhere else.

Is anyone having better results?


« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2009, 01:09 »
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I'm in pretty much the same boat as you... A few sales at first, then nothing for quite a while.

LSD72

  • My Bologna has a first name...
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2009, 02:03 »
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None at all. Stopped uploading until something happens.

« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2009, 04:11 »
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Why would anyone buy stockimages there?  It`s a 3d site ??? Atleast the name says so.  No more free candy there...

« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2009, 05:42 »
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Ditto, zip, nada that is a shame (I have 1500 pictures on line)

« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2009, 07:49 »
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Ditto, zip, nada that is a shame (I have 1500 pictures on line)

+1
I canceled my account last week but they asked me to stay a while for the work the reviewers put in. Fair enough, so I'll stay 6 months more minimum and see how it goes. I stopped uploading though 2,5 months ago.

« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2009, 08:04 »
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I promoted them as I had good sales, now they have a few hundred thousand more images my sales have flat-lined, one sale last month compared to 3 or 4 a month when I started, the buyers are there but with the new assets the dilution happens.

As I have invested the time to upload and they have invested time as well, leaving my assets there for a year is no problem, if I was thinking about exclusive there would be no problem getting them taken down, as a new player in stock images they will need some time to sort out the search the collection and the buyers experience, to find the right market.

David  ;)

gbcimages

« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2009, 11:03 »
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2 months,4 sales.

KB

« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2009, 11:26 »
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Thanks for the many reports.  It's nice to know I'm not alone.

I think I'm going to stop UL'ing there, until sales pick up. I hope they do, as there is an awful lot I like about this site: The ability to adjust prices, the high commission rate (and NO subs!), the easy UL'ing (and 100% acceptance ;D ) and on and on.

But the bottom line is all about sales, which for now anyway seem to be missing.  :(

« Reply #9 on: November 28, 2009, 12:27 »
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I have in the moment 1,270 images online with them and about 1-2 sales per month in the moment.

« Reply #10 on: November 28, 2009, 15:28 »
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Somebody just asked me to comment here so I figured I would...

Our stock photo section took off like wildfire in just the last couple of months and we've had more submissions than we expected in such a short period. That's a good thing and we know many of these new images are from the members here on this forum. So, let me say thank you to those that are getting in on the ground floor with us...we appreciate your early support.

Now, the big question everyone has is on sales, or lack of in some cases, right? Just like we said from the start a couple of months ago, stock photos are new to The3dStudio.com and we never intended to be an istock overnight. We don't intend to ever be an istock for that matter, it's just not what we are about here, but I think our stock sales will see some great increases in the next few months as we ramp up our advertising campaigns.

In the past few weeks we've seen great increases in stock sales and we are very pleased with that trend but that doesn't always translate into 1000 sales for every single seller every month. Part of that is just simple supply and demand and our supply shot up almost overnight and now we are starting to focus on increasing the demand. I can sell 100 images in the next hour but that doesnt mean every photographer will get 10 sales or even 1 from that simply because we have a very large library from many contributors so the sales are more spread out than they worth 1-2 months ago.

Our intent from the start was to focus mainly on getting new contributors at The3dStudio.com for the last few months of 2009. We have been doing that while we continue to improve our stock upload tools, categories, search features, and so on. Weve also added our x-small 400 pixel size for a $2 purchase along with an Extended License option that we think is an industry best and offers something other sites do not. Next up is a very major site design upgrade and this is very much focused on the custom side of the site as we continue to improve their experienceI cant give away too much yet but it will be a much cleaner design, will be wider, and will have increased thumbnail sizes. Its all coming soon.

From there our plan has always been to focus 2010 on bringing in customers and that plan is still 100% on track. We have some various advertising campaigns that will be starting then (some have already started) and this will help us bring in more customers.
I know some people like to wait and see and either wont add any images until they hear of increased sales or maybe they only had a small percentage of their collection until they see an increase. While I understand the logic behind that, the flip side is that the more images we have the larger we become and the faster we can bring in customers. If you have images to add then we would love to get them added, its a very fast process and once youve done that you dont ever have to touch them again. You have nothing to lose but a little bit of your time, and a very small bit at that.

So, I will end this overly long reply with a thank you to those who continue to support us. It will be worth your time in the long run but we arent here to compete against istock, shutter, or any other stock site. Were doing things differently and different can be good if you give it a chance.

« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2009, 11:42 »
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Great answer!  We all know this, but for some reason we cant get our brains to understand why new sites dont sell a LOT.

Unfortunately youre not first to say "soon"

Id love you to succeed...

« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2009, 07:23 »
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"we arent here to compete against istock, shutter, or any other stock site."

What does that imply, or mean?

« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2009, 08:24 »
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"we arent here to compete against istock, shutter, or any other stock site."

What does that imply, or mean?

I.M.O. and at a guess, the model is not to rip-off of the big microstock websites, and it looks like they are not trying to emulate the microstock business models of needing a large quantity of downloads to get a pay out.

The3Dstudio are different in a few ways, as you set your own prices and the commission is set at 60% is much higher than other sites, the comision rate at the time you add your asset to the collection is set for life, but you will never get the sales volumes you get from the big microstock websites, when you do get a sale you get a fair return, it took me three times longer to reach a payout level on the big microstock websites compared to The3DStudio.

If you look at what they are saying, you will never get the same volumes of downloads with them, I read a lot of posts on here where contributors to a new site have high hopes based on the look and feel of a site, expecting the new site to grow fast and take over from one of the big players, where all any new site can really expect to offer is to supplement your income from other sources and not replace them.

The key is not to expect to much to soon, and have another look in a year or a few months time, organic customer growth takes some time, but it can happen.

David


« Reply #14 on: November 30, 2009, 13:16 »
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Zero downloads for me so far with about 250 images online. 16,361 views!!! I have stopped uploading for now.  :-\
« Last Edit: November 30, 2009, 16:14 by epantha »

« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2009, 13:46 »
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Magnum, thank you!

sjlocke, I think Adeptris actually said it very well. I think any time a company enters into an existing market space everyone assumes that company has to match the sales of other large competitors in that same space to succeed. I don't think that's the case at all and I don't measure success by comparing us to anyone else. We have a different model and most people will make more per sale with us than anywhere else. The overall dollars they get might not be the same for most right now but I think that will start changing as we grow. Growth takes time but we've done this before on the 3D side and will do it here.

epantha , we're not trying to fool anyone here and want to be completely honest as to what we are and aren't at all times. I think it's fair to say that we aren't the best fit for all contributors and we aren't here to make any a millionaire overnight. But please understand that a site like ours only works when we do have the full support of our contributors. The idea of "waiting on the sidelines" with partial support just doesn't work. I can't force you to keep adding your photos (nor would I want to!) but I know that it will be worth your time as we grow throughout 2010.


« Reply #16 on: November 30, 2009, 13:54 »
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sjlocke, I think Adeptris actually said it very well.

I would just watch how you state it then.  It comes across as you having really no interest in the stock image side of things and that it's just something you run on the back burner.  Obviously, you are interested in competing with all stock sites, otherwise, you wouldn't be selling stock imagery at all.

« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2009, 15:06 »
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Very fair point sjlocke. I think that's the general problem with any forum, blog, site, etc...I don't think I can ever be clear enough for everyone to understand what it is I mean all the time. What makes perfect sense to me could make no sense at all to somebody else and it's easy for us (on this side of the business) to forget that everyone here isn't as up to date with our plans and vision as we are. So, good feedback, I appreciate that!


« Reply #18 on: November 30, 2009, 16:04 »
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225 images - basically my entire portfolio.
11.500 views (!!!)
Started uploading about 2 months ago.
0 sales.

Hi Matt,
I wish you would read this because I think it's important.
What you've got going on there, as opposed to other microstock sites, is special.
It's a foothold into the future.
3 D images are clearly THE way to go. They're everywhere, in movies, books, games, magazines and on TV. 3 D is the future of the imagery world, and youve got it all pretty much under your belt. 
With a bit of extra effort your site could prove to be a golden goose. Different from all the others, ahead in time.
But things must change.
Youre trying to sell images and presentation is vital. Its all about presentation. Unfortunately the site is not up to it and I think a complete makeover is needed.
Look at my stats,   200 images - 11.557 views!
No matter how you calculate those views, the result is staggering.  It is a lost potential and it hurts me to even look at them.  Designers are there, youve got them interested, all you need to do now is to present your products in the best possible way you can.
Hire a team of dedicated web developers. Revamp the site, bring it up to modern standards and lets help translate some of those views into profitable transactions.
Also, tell us what to shoot.
Ive got a Canon 450 D (not great), no expensive lenses and Im not a photographer. But most of the artists around this forum have the very best equipment money can buy. They can provide you with textures / subjects / objects of all kinds at truly amazing quality.
They just need to know what to shoot.
One more thing - I was trying to upload an EPS AI file and I couldnt figure out how to do it. Is there a way to sell such files on your site?  Is there a demand?
I guess JPEGS only would have to do for now.
all the best,

« Reply #19 on: November 30, 2009, 17:45 »
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Hi Eireann,

Large view counts are normal, we get huge amounts of traffic and are well linked on the web. Right now the bulk of our sales are in 3D models but in time that will increase and you will see stock image sales increase. With that in mind, some views you see aren't 100% targeted to stock images so that will explain part of the high views and low sales issue (some 3d customers stumble into stock for example).

The next issue is our site design. It's outdated and the small thumbnails don't translate well to stock images. The good news is that we've known this for a while now and have a solution in progress. We've been beefing up the back end and are almost ready to announce a new front end (the part customers see). We will have better thumbnails (much larger) and an overall better design (cleaner, wider, easier to navigate, etc). All I can say is that those improvements are coming soon...on the order of weeks, not months.

We've really planned out our entrance into the stock image marketplace back to early this year and now we're just going through all of those steps exactly as planned. Rather than making a bunch of quick changes and decisions we usually stick to a slower, more thought out, plan that is more likely to have positive results in the long term (which is why weve been around for almost 14 years now!). This gives us time to learn as we go and avoid costly mistakes.

As for "what to shoot", well, that's hard to say right now. We will be posting more on this subject down the road but right now we are trying to get a large variety of stock images so we have all of the bases covered. Once we really increase sales and have a better idea as to what types of images sell then we will post that (generalized) data. Right now we are seeing sales in all categories and only a few stand out as being extra popular (like business people & situations, lifestyle images, headline images like those dealing with housing markets, various people photos, etc).

LSD72

  • My Bologna has a first name...
« Reply #20 on: November 30, 2009, 18:55 »
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epantha , we're not trying to fool anyone here and want to be completely honest as to what we are and aren't at all times. I think it's fair to say that we aren't the best fit for all contributors and we aren't here to make any a millionaire overnight. But please understand that a site like ours only works when we do have the full support of our contributors. The idea of "waiting on the sidelines" with partial support just doesn't work. I can't force you to keep adding your photos (nor would I want to!) but I know that it will be worth your time as we grow throughout 2010.

Partial Support??? In my situation, I don't have thousands of images to upload. At the time I stopped uploading, you have my full port.I might have about 30 - 40 more images I could upload since then. I don't shoot alot... just in sporadic periods. Back to Partial Support...I gave you everything I got, not just part of my port. So why is it not fair for me to sit back and wait and see if something comes from this? If I even get 1 download, that's enough for me to get my new stuff up there.

We are in this to get paid. Money is the Motivator. If we were not in it for that... I think Flickr (and other free hosting sites) would be very very very crowded by now.

I hope you succeed because if your making money... then the contributors are making some too. Hopefully, I would be riding that wave too.

 As you stated, Sites don't match with every contributor.  I speak for myself. I give time to every site I upload to. If they don't perform for me, I don't upload anything new. After that then its watch time until I decide to pull my images. If no sales in 6 months... most certain to pull port so I don't have to spend time checking it.

« Reply #21 on: December 01, 2009, 13:50 »
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LSD72, I never implied that you were giving partial support. The problem is that some contributors only put up a small portion of their collection to sell and that's not really enough to make this work. We can only be successful if large numbers of contributors give us their full support for a long period of time. We're not here to make every millions in the next 3 months or 6, this is a long term operation and I think all contributors who are serious about selling need to understand that.

Some won't add any until they "hear" some feedback from others first. Others only add a small portion of their collection and that's what I would call partial support. I understand why those people do that, but it's still partial support. We're all in this to get paid so I completely understand that money is the #1 motivator, but to get paid we just need full support from as many contributors as we can possibly get...once we have that setup the money will follow.

Some will add their images for a few months and then remove them and this is a strategy I understand. To me, once you've added them why would you want to remove them? You've done the hard work by that point and our reviewers have also put in a lot of time and effort. I've heard others say they don't want to spend time checking their sales on a site but my answer to that is simply "don't check" because the royalties will get sent to you no matter what :)

KB

« Reply #22 on: December 01, 2009, 16:23 »
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Some will add their images for a few months and then remove them and this is a strategy I understand. To me, once you've added them why would you want to remove them? You've done the hard work by that point and our reviewers have also put in a lot of time and effort.
I'm pretty sure that was a typo meant to read "... a strategy I don't understand".

I might know why. At least, the reason I removed my images from a startup after about 6 months and 1 sale: It seemed pretty obvious that I would never reach payout, and my concern was the Lucky Oliver scenario, where the site goes bankrupt and the money disappears. I don't think that is likely to happen with a long-running, established site such as The 3D Studio. So I also don't understand people doing that here.

« Reply #23 on: December 01, 2009, 17:10 »
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Some will add their images for a few months and then remove them and this is a strategy I understand. To me, once you've added them why would you want to remove them? You've done the hard work by that point and our reviewers have also put in a lot of time and effort.
I'm pretty sure that was a typo meant to read "... a strategy I don't understand".

I might know why. At least, the reason I removed my images from a startup after about 6 months and 1 sale: It seemed pretty obvious that I would never reach payout, and my concern was the Lucky Oliver scenario, where the site goes bankrupt and the money disappears. I don't think that is likely to happen with a long-running, established site such as The 3D Studio. So I also don't understand people doing that here.

But we got paid out from Lucky Oliver even though they closed the doors.

« Reply #24 on: December 01, 2009, 17:32 »
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Magnum, thank you!

sjlocke, I think Adeptris actually said it very well. I think any time a company enters into an existing market space everyone assumes that company has to match the sales of other large competitors in that same space to succeed. I don't think that's the case at all and I don't measure success by comparing us to anyone else. We have a different model and most people will make more per sale with us than anywhere else. The overall dollars they get might not be the same for most right now but I think that will start changing as we grow. Growth takes time but we've done this before on the 3D side and will do it here.

epantha , we're not trying to fool anyone here and want to be completely honest as to what we are and aren't at all times. I think it's fair to say that we aren't the best fit for all contributors and we aren't here to make any a millionaire overnight. But please understand that a site like ours only works when we do have the full support of our contributors. The idea of "waiting on the sidelines" with partial support just doesn't work. I can't force you to keep adding your photos (nor would I want to!) but I know that it will be worth your time as we grow throughout 2010.


Okay..started to test the waters and upload a portion of my port, then i saw that you're only offering  20% for stock (at which point i declined to upload). What about a higher payout since you're new to this arena?


 

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