Here is something that can change: I don't have to participate here. If it bothers you guys - I won't post.

Jon Oringer

Jon, I'd definately vote for your participation! Seeing both sides of an issue is important to me.

If I was a designer and found that an image, for example, of some horses on the 'pasture' was 40 tokens / dollars on LO was readily available elsewhere using the same user name for about one sixth of the price and at a larger size to boot, I know where I'd buy.

Unless LO forces some exclusivity on these images surely such comparisons will surely damage, not enhance, their reputation. Midstock could be seen as Ripoffstock.

I see this ubiquity of image availability as the main reason why a 'midstock' pricing will have difficulty in taking off, if you want to charge a premium on your images you must control their availability. Uploading everywhere whilst also trying to up your prices  ... just seems, to coin a  daft phrase, like having your cake and eating it.

There may be a few buyers who take the time to 'shop' the different sites... however most people i've ever seen comment on the subject who are designers/buyers say that they don't have time to 'shop' - if they find an image that fits their needs, they will buy it and move on.

It seems to me that this market is huge - there are lots of places to find images and I expect that the true number of buyers actually know all of the "top" sites and spend the time to shop around. I'd be willing to bet (not that we have a way to prove this) but I suspect that the number of people who buy images from microstock who actually visit more than 1 or 2 sites to buy is probably less than 10%. This market is FAR from saturated.

If i were eligible to be in the sideshow, I would probably initially leave the prices as they were - just hoping to get the additional exposure and additional purchases. Now, if i were a high flyer, that might be different, but for now, i just want more sales at the same prices.

Quote from: ss123 on April 20, 2007, 16:23

There is no threat here.

While you might not have meant it as a threat, it definitely could have been taken that way.

Especially when you stated: "I would like to remove your photos from Shutterstock."

Let's be clear... take the entire thing in context (you've only highlighted part of the sentence)

"If you truly feel as though we are ripping you off (and that I am a twit), I would like to remove your photos from Shutterstock."

Jon is telling the client that if the client is unhappy, then Jon is unhappy and he'd prefer that the client remove his images.

I don't see it as a threat at all.

Looks like Lucky Oliver is starting its Marketing effort - starting with you. Obviously this will make them money while putting the risk squarely upon yourselves - ala Google Adwords.

I find it funny that they're offering it free for 90 days but you need 100 downloads to participate. They know hardly anyone has 100 downloads, so not many will get the free placement. Thanks guys.

I'm not sure i understand your logic.

There's no "risk" for those getting in in the first 90 days - they're getting good placement for nothing. Yes, after that, if you reach 100 DL's, you'll have to give up a token (you'll have 100 at that point), but it is only one token and it doesn't cost you per click as Adwords does... it is a one time cost. Is that a huge risk? Not like Getty that charges you $250 per image.

If you look, there are plenty of images already appearing in the sidebar... i don't know any stats, but there are obviously folks over 100DLs. Yes, i wish i was at 100 now to get in free, but i'll willingly pay 1 token to try to ensure i get my images some additional visibility.

I happen to love it (but i'm biased since i helped test and got to put in lots of feedback and i'm also a moderator there)... LO is definately trying to do things in a new way. We discussed using traditional forums like this one instead of doing custom development, but I think LO did the right thing by doing it themselves and integrating it in the site.

I'm eager to see how it develops.

500 sales???   For me, at SS, IS and others, okay, no problem, I can do that... piece of cake.               

no 'happy face' posted.   -tom

-tom

from the other thread here called 'pricing' - they are talking about Fotolia stuff... here's a snippet:

"For Standard Licenses:
If you are non-exclusive, then you can't change the prices on your images until you are an Emerald (which means that you have sold over 10,000 images).
If you are exclusive, you can change prices on your images starting at Bronze (which means you have sold over 100 images)."

wow - so it takes 10,000 Downloads over there - and you thought 100 was a lot? heehee

I've got just a few more DLs at fotolia than i do at LO and i've been at fotolia twice as long!

Just another perspective

it will be interesting to see if customers go for it, or if they just search around to the other sites more?

what are others putting their side show images at?  I have put mine at 5 tokens.

Indeed it will be interesting!

The pricing is another question all together - that's the hardest thing i can think of in this biz. LO isn't the first site to start this individual pricing thing tho but as far as i know, this sideshow is the first of its kind and should be a very interesting feature for LO.

and for the first time in my short carreer, I'm actually thinking about going exclusive.....

Say it ain't so tom!

I'll have more to say a little later today - but consider the Best Match search on IS - consider being able to actually influence what images appear on the first page - that would be a great advantage to photogs!

ok, what percentage of people who are members of StockXpert are aware that this was announced? the only reason i know about it is because i happened to read this post... i never frequent the StockXpert home page or the forums only rarely... the only page i view on a daily basis at any of the sites i belong to is the page that shows me the current downloads and i'll bet there's a large percentage of folks who are like me and will never know about these contests.

if a site wants me to know something important, they should email me - i read my email.

am i the only one?

They have no forums. Users have no way of communicating. We have to do it on 3rd party forums such as here.
Communications between management and contributors is done "Off Site" like bryan_luckyoliver is doing in this thread.
There lack in a sense of "cummunity". I feel as though I'm the only one in the whole world uploading to LO. Where is everyone?

you can communicate with others on LO thru the blog postings and the LO staff (in my opinion) is certainly communicating much more than most of the other sites do thru the blog.

LO has stated several times that features like forums are coming and they are a high priority.

and bryan has often stated in the blogs that they're going thru a different route to get customers to start - not doing the traditional advertising. Read the blogs for more info.

FYI Daneel,

i tried your tool on the mac version of Firefox and i'm getting this error:
type error: components.classes[cid] has no properties

any idea what is causiing it? Shouldn't it work on mac?

well everything is in the name

if i were a customer of 'pure nature stock' - i would expect that to be nature - not people - not buildings

if you want to allow some people and some buildings, then to me you've picked the wrong name.

if a store is called "pure towels" and you find some car parts there you'd be confused wouldn't ya?