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Poll

Who has the most potential of being one of the next big 6 - you get three votes.

Featurpics
33 (13.6%)
LuckyOliver
37 (15.2%)
Albumo
7 (2.9%)
Snap Village
56 (23%)
Canstock
4 (1.6%)
Crestock
40 (16.5%)
Bigstock
66 (27.2%)

Total Members Voted: 110

Author Topic: Who has most potential for 2008  (Read 17871 times)

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« on: December 23, 2007, 10:15 »
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who do you think?  Remember you can choose 3


« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2007, 12:35 »
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seems like many of us expect snapvillage to perform better this year.
I haven't signed up with them yet because I've  been waiting things to settle down there but I shall sign up ssoon and upload some files as I too expect them to be better in 2008.

« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2007, 12:38 »
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I chose Snap only because of the backing and ultimate potential -- maybe in 2008. So far its been merely incompetent.

« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2007, 13:04 »
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LuckyOliver (if they can get their act together and start marketing)
Crestock
Snapvillage

« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2007, 13:13 »
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Snapvillage has an obvious potential. I just had my first 10 dollar sale there, and they're still in beta.

Featurpics, but only if photographers helps by promoting their portfolio there. For me, that's an obvious thing to do since they generate the best profit per sale.

Bigstock has been developing nicely, and with their new price structure, they have the potential to become a proper earner.

And as for Lucky Oliver: to me, the only thing they have proved so far, is that they are good at designing websites. Unfortunately, their abilities to sell my images are close to zero. It's like driving a Ferrari with no engine: completely useless.

« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2007, 13:20 »
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Snapvillage has an obvious potential. I just had my first 10 dollar sale there, and they're still in beta.

Featurpics, but only if photographers helps by promoting their portfolio there. For me, that's an obvious thing to do since they generate the best profit per sale.

Bigstock has been developing nicely, and with their new price structure, they have the potential to become a proper earner.

And as for Lucky Oliver: to me, the only thing they have proved so far, is that they are good at designing websites. Unfortunately, their abilities to sell my images are close to zero. It's like driving a Ferrari with no engine: completely useless.
Agree

« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2007, 15:54 »
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Well. I'll tell you where I think the best growth will be, and it won't be the answer you first think of..... or even your second or third answer...

Clearly SlapperTown has huge potential, but that potential won't be realised with the present management; the venture lacks commitment and enthusiasm, and without those it will fail to make the spectacular progress Corbis is capable of.

And no, I don't think BigStock will suddenly emerge as a major player - it is a privately owned company and appears shackled by lack of funding and inability to grow the customer base.  I like the people very much, but I don't think its going to suddenly change.

No - in my opinion the area that will show the best growth will be.....

.....being an exclusive photographer at iStock (see, I told you it would be a surprise).

Why do I think this?  Firstly, iStock's customer base has risen over the past year from 1.4 million to 2.7 million; so instead of it suffering from competition, the competition has caused it to thrive.  I spend a lot of time reading the iStock forums; there are a lot of designers there, and a clear message is coming through, which is that the more small agencies that get launched, and the more photographers who promotoe their wares through six, eight or even sixteen agencies, the more the customers are reacting against it and buying exclusive through iStock.  Designers are becoming 'fed up' with seeing the same pictures at mulitple agencies; they say it devalues their professionalism; customers can find these same pictures splashed all over the internet at hundreds of small agencies at differing prices; the designers are becoming 'embarrassed'.  Time and again I see comments from designers that they don't want to use pictures that are splashed everywhere, and at least with iStock exclusive stuff they know it is only available in one place.

People complain that iStock gives its exclusives an unfair advantage, but what they overlook is the demands from the buyers - the buyers increasingly want the exclusive pictures, and they want iStock to place an even greater emphasis on those.

So while many photographers spend hours uploading to multiple agencies, and as more and more new small agencies jump on the bandwagon, the people who will flourish the most will be the iStock exclusives.

The agency I think will show the greatest DECLINE in 2008 (relative to the industry) is Shutterstock as it becomes a victim of its own business strategy.


PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2007, 17:03 »
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Hatman, am I reading that right that you went exclusive at IS?

« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2007, 18:58 »
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Funny that nobody is discussing BigStock, as it's the 2nd place in the poll so far.

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2007, 21:05 »
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Hey, what about Zymmetrical ? according to Alexa we have more traffic than snapvillage. And we haven't really started yet...

Happy holiday all  !!!

grp_photo

« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2007, 01:19 »
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Wow Hatman,
you eat every Propaganda ;D
I agree with you on the struggle on SS i personally don't care as i never liked the model. I also agree that IS is still the strongest in the game.
But the rest is nonsense. There is no exclusivity with RF if a buyer wants exclusivity the only sure way is RM.
There are some DieHards-Istockers on the iStock Forums but these few dozen buyers are NOT representative for 99.9% of the buyers (the forums over there are manipulated and censored i hope that is not new to you).
There are serious reasons to go exclusive with iStock but don't eat this crappy propaganda about buyers driven away by non-exclusive that is plain crap.
You also totally underestimate the rise of StockXpert i'm not sure about snapvillage either but i'm sure about StockXpert the will be hardest competitor for iStock in the long-term.
See in you two years  ;)

« Reply #11 on: December 24, 2007, 06:26 »
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The agency I think will show the greatest DECLINE in 2008 (relative to the industry) is Shutterstock as it becomes a victim of its own business strategy.



I don't agree with you on every point, but on this one, I'm with you. SS used to grow like an explosion. Now, I'm looking at my worst month this year, and the reason is obvious: they have flooded the market with ultra-cheap images. Now, everybody have them, and don't need to download more.

« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2007, 06:28 »
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No, I'd have to partly agree with Hatman on this occasion. Shutterstock is in steady decline and while I don't think going exclusive with IS is the answer to declining revenues, there are one or two other players that need to be looked at carefully, specifically FO and StockXpert.

StockXpert in particular has proven to be a mighty good earner this year and they've now raised the bar considerably which is a very important move.

« Reply #13 on: December 24, 2007, 08:40 »
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I agree that Shutterstock is declining. I also agree that StockXpert is booming. I am constantly having BMEs there and this month, despite the holidays, is no exception. Keep up the good work StockXpert. If they were to introduce a nice exclusivity bonus like Istock has, that could be another possibility for the future. (And they aren't a bitch to upload to like Istock)

« Reply #14 on: December 24, 2007, 09:52 »
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I spend a lot of time reading the iStock forums; there are a lot of designers there, and a clear message is coming through, which is that the more small agencies that get launched, and the more photographers who promotoe their wares through six, eight or even sixteen agencies, the more the customers are reacting against it and buying exclusive through iStock.  Designers are becoming 'fed up' with seeing the same pictures at mulitple agencies; they say it devalues their professionalism; customers can find these same pictures splashed all over the internet at hundreds of small agencies at differing prices; the designers are becoming 'embarrassed'.  Time and again I see comments from designers that they don't want to use pictures that are splashed everywhere, and at least with iStock exclusive stuff they know it is only available in one place.

Yes IS is a leader... no, they don't have the entire market wrapped up as demonstrated by the fact that many of the other agencies are growing.

You're reading forums that have a TINY percentage of the designer market... and not everyone buying images from these agencies is a designer. I am constantly talking to people who still have no idea that there even is a market - and exposure to this market is still exploding.

My personal opinion is that it is a mistake to put all of your eggs in one basket - especially with the huge mistakes that have been made by management. (but then again, i know several exclusives that are making a ton of money so maybe i'm the fool?)

« Reply #15 on: December 24, 2007, 10:36 »
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I will go exclusive with any major agency that agrees to handle only my images.

With such dynamic changes in this industry in my opinion those who are exclusive anywhere are the most vulnerable to adverse changes.

Stock investors are wise enough to never buy just one stock.

« Reply #16 on: December 24, 2007, 11:08 »
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I actually like the idea of being exclusive to a site but current market situation makes me think it is  still better to remain non-exclusive for the moment.but if things change and there is a good  exclusive model I'd seriously consider it.

edit:
btw what if the sites decides to have only exclusive photographers,I guess that couldn't happen soon but may be in a near future,who knows?
« Last Edit: December 24, 2007, 11:11 by stokfoto »

« Reply #17 on: December 24, 2007, 11:55 »
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I'm interested in what people think about i-stock after the price increases, in theory if other agencies don't raise their prices going exclusive at istock and getting an even bigger piece of a bigger pie might look more enticing. Maybe 2008 will be an istock year.  Here's hoping this is just a first step in agencies putting more value on their collections as the quality gets better and better.

« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2007, 05:57 »
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I will go exclusive with any major agency that agrees to handle only my images.

louoates.com is still free - what keeps you? ;-)

« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2007, 10:26 »
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You know this upcoming pay increase at IS is starting to make sense. They must feel confident enough that a price increase will be absorbed by the designers because they know that they are coming to IS for exclusive content. This might be a reason to go exlcusive at any agency. If you have built up a big enough portfolio and some loyal customers the shift to exclusive could be a way to bring a larger percentage of sales. I think I've only heard of a couple examples of IS exclusives becoming unexclusive, but most have been very happy they made the switch. The only thing I don't like about IS exclusivity is that you can't upload your rejects elsewhere. All is not lost though, since you can sell your rejects as RM on Alamy (which IS does allow you to do).


« Reply #20 on: December 26, 2007, 17:34 »
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BigStock now leads the poll, and nobody comments it.  :)

I voted for BigStock because it has shown a constant flow of sales to me. Not a huge flow, but constant, unlike any other in the poll.

Now, do I think it will get better? Not much, but the new price plan was a neat change.

And I voted for FP also because it let me set my price, RFxRM, and give me smart tools to market my images.

Regards,
Adelaide
« Last Edit: December 26, 2007, 17:38 by madelaide »

« Reply #21 on: December 26, 2007, 19:06 »
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hi,

without in depth looking at their financial status and management plans, ideals etc etc, I feel that each of these sites (and a number of others) has the potential to become a very serious player by this time next year, I think they each also have the capacity to fall in a heap and disappear.

A thought for the sake of discussions (re the istock exclusive discussion).

Istock have also gone very hard on their inspection.  The acceptance rate is quite low for many people, if this continues there will be considerable content that istock doesn't have that others do, would that then give others some advantage counter to istock exclusivity (yes it may be lower quality, but still good enough (hmm one of the main arguments for microstock in the beginning?) ie a divergence of content that may bring people to the other major players as the content becomes different.

also I find the idea of saying I dont want overdone images interesting.  I am starting to find on istock that images with 0-few sales struggle, once it has more, it grows and grows (seem right to other people???).   looking through images in the database, one images will have hundreds of sales and one very similar will only have a few, even when they come up on the same page.  It appears that people tend to buy the image with lots of sales, maybe??? they think it must be good or better because lots of other people have bought it????


Phil





« Reply #22 on: December 26, 2007, 19:45 »
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All is not lost though, since you can sell your rejects as RM on Alamy (which IS does allow you to do).

You can sell RM at FP as well.

« Reply #23 on: December 27, 2007, 13:39 »
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BigStock now leads the poll, and nobody comments it.  :)

I voted for BigStock because it has shown a constant flow of sales to me. Not a huge flow, but constant, unlike any other in the poll.

Now, do I think it will get better? Not much, but the new price plan was a neat change.

And I voted for FP also because it let me set my price, RFxRM, and give me smart tools to market my images.

Regards,
Adelaide

Perhaps the reason is because Bigstock has been around the longest and is seeming pretty stagnant.  they have been in about 7th place for the last 2 years.

« Reply #24 on: January 21, 2008, 05:38 »
0
For me Big Stock is a rising star.
I give them the vote.


 

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