We're slowly but steadily ramping our promotion for PhotoDune, including our biggest promotion to date which I'm just launching now. Every buyer who spends money on PhotoDune in November gets 50% of their spend back as Credit in December to spend again. Contributors get their usual commissions on all purchases. So we should hopefully get a bit of a spike in sales!

http://notes.envato.com/news/get-50-marketplace-credit-back-on-all-photodune-purchases-in-november/

Also we're publishing a whole heap of tutorials about Photo Effects over on Psdtuts using photos from PhotoDune. Some of them are pretty cool, check them out at http://psd.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/. My favourite so far is this one http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/miniature-world-in-photoshop/

Anyhow, lots more to come :-)

Hi everybody,

Just to say PhotoDune for me now is one of the most important agency, because I sell there since September and for this two months have sales as Dreamstime, Fotolia or 123RF have

For example this month at Dreamstime I have 18 sales (307 images portfolio) but in Photodune 27 sales (420 images portfolio)

May be I have specific images which sells good in Photodune, because in BigStock I have just 3 sales  (613 images portfolio)

Go ahead PhotoDune You are the new superstar in this business!

Quote from: Eco on October 27, 2011, 00:37

Sorry Collins I just noticed an error in your message: The sentence "Contributors get their usual commissions on all purchases." should read "Independent contributors get their usual insultingly low commission on all purchases".

lol, it's all in the eye of the beholder Eco!

Thats beauty. Read books. It's nice to see tho that even newcomer agencies can start by ripping microsuckers off. This might just be the most sheeple-loaded industry in the universe.

For a new agency PD works pretty good for me, better than a lot of the other smaller sites that have been around a lot longer and are not going anywhere.

Quote from: sharpshot on October 27, 2011, 04:10

The way to get growth is to have a big collection of images first and then spend money on marketing.

Isn't that what Stockfresh has tried to do? Doesn't look like it is working though, at least not for me.

Its worked for Deposit Photos.  They even paid us to upload, to get a big collection that will make buyers stick with their site.  Stockfresh hasn't spent much money, its a completely different strategy.  Its working OK for me with Stockfresh but I knew from the start that they were trying to build their customer base slowly and I have a lot of patience with them because I know they have been successful before with Stockxpert.

I don't upload anything due to commissions.
But I know personally a lot of photographers/illustrators in my town who don't read regularly (or at all) this forum, but they also don't want to upload anything to PD. Due to the percent.

Things at agencies can only go worse as history shows. For example, when I joined FL, the revenue was 37% (!) Other agencies also cut where they can.

If PD thinks that compared to IS is better, then it's very wrong. I'm not in hurry to upload anything to IS, many others are asking me, it worth the effort and nerves to wait for free slots, and see the stupid rejects due to superhigh needs of IS? For 15-16% the answer is no. So many of us don't upload there.

PD is (or will be) in the same situation... Less photos, less buyers, small library for subscribers.

From photodune's point of view, they can drive traffic and customers from a user base in their other communities, so they can do basically whatever they want and still count on a decent number of users (not be available to other startup sites). So they won't have the same advertising costs associated with other new sites.

One would hope that this led them to offer higher commissions to contributors since they will have lower startup ad costs. They other way to see it is that they are leveraging communities they build, so they've paid to acquire that traffic elsewhere in the chain, so they are entitled to be more profitable with a new venture, leveraging a user base.

I tend to think that they will be assured of some level of success, but be limited on the growth ceiling.

Just my $.02.

We are going to keep chipping away, and as I've said before, I hope we will slowly (and I do mean slowly ) win more and more of you over!

Killing us with with kindness... or maybe cash could help. 

I definitely think the Envato Marketplace is interesting, but I can't say I've been enticed by what they are offering. I'll keep my eye on it, but the deal definitely needs to be sweetened (by a lot).

Quote from: deyangeorgiev on October 27, 2011, 01:40

Hi everybody,
Just to say PhotoDune for me now is one of the most important agency

Is this your first visit to planet Earth???

I see that it is necessary to be more specific, let's say: Just to say PhotoDune for me now is one of the most important agency in a row with Shutterstock, Istockphoto, Dreamstime, Fotolia and 123RF
Of Course not because PhotoDune is at the same level. For me and with my portfolio and this month Photodune sells as top agency, and because of this at this moment is one of(not most important) the most important agencies.

"Hi everybody,

Just to say PhotoDune for me now is one of the most important agency, because I sell there since September and for this two months have sales as Dreamstime, Fotolia or 123RF have
For example this month at Dreamstime I have 18 sales (307 images portfolio) but in Photodune 27 sales (420 images portfolio)
May be I have specific images which sells good in Photodune, because in BigStock I have just 3 sales  (613 images portfolio)
Go ahead PhotoDune You are the new superstar in this business!"

Lol, a new member suddenly appears from nowhere to explain photodune is worth the efforts to upload!!!! Ah Ah Ah!!!
I'm thinking exactly like sharpshot and some others contributors: be fair in your commission and you'll have something to sell!!
Don't forget we're uploading everyday new pictures to fair agencies!!!
I think it's really a shame to see you can spend back half of the buyer money and don't give more to the contributors, wrong move again. Between easy fast money and real quality and competition in the microstock world, you choose the small one. You are proving by this gesture you like much more sellers than contributors who work by your side. That's the way leeches are growing in the rainforest.

Please do not attack me!

I am not against You Smithore, on the contrary I agree with You about the commissions. Yes 25% is not good commission and my opinion about this is that when 123RF can give us 50% and meantime to be able to develop and grows, Photodune can also afford it, but this is a company politics.
This what I wanted to share is that PhotoDune sells good (I am not talking about commissions), they have very good website and for me they have a good future...

When one image has sold in one agency(talking about one specifically sale) this image can be sold only there, can be bought only from this buyer and only in this moment.  I am a new in this business and have no confidence to to give advices who and where to sell, but I can share my experience in digits(sales) in Photodune.

I feel You colleagues as friends and your interest is also my interest.

P.S. I am not suddenly appearing from nowhere, I am from city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria and as all of You I sell images ...

Best regards to all

So, does it mean that we can not expect higher than 25% for non-exclusive contributors whole November? 

Quote from: borg on October 28, 2011, 13:08

So, does it mean that we can not expect higher than 25% for non-exclusive contributors whole November? 

you had 900$

From bundle?
No! 630,77$ exactly...
But we have to think about our future there. Do you think we should not? 

While I definitely understand the complaints about commission rates, I am very pleased with PDune.   They are the most innovative of all the newer sites. 

They're creatively and aggressively marketing their image collection.  The bonus from the bundle sales was a very welcome surprise!  Hopefully we will see some nice extra sales from this new promotion too.

I think my anger at the commission will be surpassed by my envy at those bundle earnings.  I'll probably start uploading soon.

I know I have said it many times before, and so have others, but I don't much care about my royalty rate nearly as much as the total royalties that come my way.  And in that respect PhotoDune has done me proud, especially for a new agency.  Thanks to that bundle, they're my third biggest earner for the year despite having only five months of earnings, and my ninth biggest earner since I started with microstock.  Nobody has come out of the gate with numbers like that.