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Messages - cthoman

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2501
Envato / Re: PhotoDune in Open Beta
« on: August 09, 2011, 15:44 »
Kind of sad to see another low paying site pop up.  :(

2502
Selling Stock Direct / Re: Ktools Member Accounts
« on: August 09, 2011, 15:30 »
I don't require an account. I have had a couple issues with people not getting their download emails, so I'm sure it will be something I'll have to require in the future.

2503
Selling Stock Direct / Re: My vectors store
« on: August 09, 2011, 14:31 »
Sales have been solid since I opened it. Nothing spectacular, but not bad. I'm hopeful that I can break into a new level at some point.

2504
Selling Stock Direct / Re: My vectors store
« on: August 09, 2011, 13:29 »
Uh oh... competition.  ;D Looks good though.

2505
Anyway, a blog is a great promotional tool and easy to set up. I can probably help with a walk-through for setup or at least provide some links.


Yes, I know I'm quoting myself, but I didn't know if anyone was interested in this. Here's a link to the Wordpress install for anyone that wanted to set up a blog on top of their store:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

There's a lot of text, but it really isn't too bad to do. Even my technically challenged brain was able to figure it out.

2506
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Big Change at IS
« on: August 08, 2011, 00:15 »
You didn't have a massive uptick in sales at SS like the other established independents? I've been taking an exclusive beating lately so I'm curious to see how the independent illustrators are doing as opposed to photographers. I saw that Helix7 was happy with SS.

Hopefully, this isn't too much of a hijacking post. After the deal with IS, I reexamined my deals with all the agencies, and I thought most of them were pretty crumby especially with the top 4. So, I ditched FT and stopped uploading to IS, DT and SS. I opened my own site and have been concentrating on that, Clipartof and GL. I can't say this decision has really lead to growth, but my income has been pretty stable.

As far as earnings, I think I reached critical mass at SS last year and didn't grow at all despite uploading 1000 images. They aren't shrinking this year though despite not uploading. IS is though. They've dropped 40-50% from last year. DT growth was solid last year. I had to recover from some of their royalty adjustments 2 years ago though. I just felt like I grew too fast there and wanted to sit back and get better levels for my images. Personally, I'm impressed with the results. My income is stable and my RPD is increasing. FT, I just got sick of them. 3 years in a row of lowering royalty rates. The crap they pulled with vector tiers. They don't deserve to... umm... I guess it's water under the bridge.  ;D

2507
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Big Change at IS
« on: August 07, 2011, 21:01 »
You can't be the best when your not attracting the best talent. Although to be fair, I don't really feel like the others in the top four are any more enticing. I think the field is wide open for whoever wants to take the crown. Maybe, somebody will finally wine and dine me.  ;D

2508
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Big Change at IS
« on: August 06, 2011, 14:07 »
The people I listen to see it as a great brand.

Are you saying you aren't listening to us?  ;D

Seriously though, I think there are still many positive things about IS, and it is all still salvageable. But, my gut and my numbers tell me things are just going to get worse.

2509
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Big Change at IS
« on: August 06, 2011, 10:33 »
The challenge and inspiration should surely be to try to make better work rather than moaning all the time ?
I'm still producing the work, but iStock just isn't getting any of it. I'm willing to come back to the table if they want to, but they'll have to ask nicely.  Until then, the only thing I'll be doing at IS is commenting. ;D

2510
That might work to keep existing exclusives from bolting, but I can't see anyone (with a large established portfolio) would trust Getty enough to go exclusive at this point. Once they crushed the competition, who thinks they'd keep the 50% for exclusives for more than 10 seconds? Best predictor of future performance is past performance and all that.

To Getty, contributors are just an expense and as such they want to minimize it.

Yeah, definitely true. I guess it would have worked better last fall before they did the RC stuff. I guess they'd have to rebuild trust first. I don't think I'd want to go full exclusive, but I'd probably ditch SS, FT, DT and a few others for 50% at IS. It probably would be worth a call or a poll to some of their top non-exclusives to see what it would take to get them to leave IS's major competition.

2511
I'd probably go for competition crushing. Move the non-exclusives back to a flat 20% and move exclusives to a flat 50%. You'd pay more, but you would probably close down more than half the agencies to the right.

2512
Cheers Cory, I do a lot of promoting already, so thank you, I'll keep that in mind.  Your blog is great, as is your site.  I'm a fair way from creating my own store even... it takes longer than they advertise for doesn't it? 

"PhotoStore allows you to setup a complete photo selling website on your server or hosting space and in just minutes you can start selling photos on your website." 

lol yeah right!  How long did it take you guys to set up?

Thanks. Yeah, it takes a while to setup. I think it was several weeks to get everything uploaded. A couple weeks for my initial design and a couple weeks for the redesign. Then, there are the tweaks.  ;D

2513
I'm surprised actually, I thought there'd me a lot more already selling direct.  When I google, I find heaps of ktools stores so I can chase some of those people and ask if they want to participate... the more we have the better the SEO.


Yeah if you're doing any cross-promotional stuff, definitely shoot me an email. I'd mentioned doing blog interviews as link exchanges in another post, but all I got was crickets. I did one with Arena Creative ( http://www.mystockvectors.com/blog/?p=153 ), but I'd definitely love to do more. Although, I probably owe Lisa a freebie, since she already has links to my site. Anyway, a blog is a great promotional tool and easy to set up. I can probably help with a walk-through for setup or at least provide some links.

2514
Looking back in my email, I did request a demo from them recently, and here's what I got back:

Hi,

I must apologize. We cannot provide you with Stock Media Engine demo for now.
The reason is that we have started major rewrite of our software and there is still no demonstrable version of it.

Nevertheless we can dive into discussion about what you need and what we'll be able to help you with.

Regards,

Ivan.

So nothing to see.

You'd think with the testimonials, they'd at least have a site or two to see their stuff in action.

2515
another one: stockmediaengine.com
Sounds like they bill on bandwidth usage?

Maybe it's me, but I was having trouble finding any concrete details on the site. I'm curious though, so I'll have to fire off a contact form.

2516
If you file a DMCA takedown notice through Facebook, they'll probably remove it with no questions asked.

2517
Yes, a very good catch.  I think I've caught all of it this time and fixed the wording.  I'm tired of Cory getting credit for all of our photographs anyhow  ;D

I guess my nefarious plan has been foiled. I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids.

2518
Yeah, he had his accidentally deleted, so he borrowed mine. But, some of mine is customized.

2519
Thanks. I guess I missed that one when I was proof reading and making changes. There are definitely errors here and there, so it needs proofing. Plus, I wasn't crazy about some of the wording in the licensing agreement. I guess "out of the box" is a relative term.

2520
I'm going to go with... so what?

I think IS could make a lot better decisions in running things, but I don't see anything changing there. If it does, let me know.

2521
General Stock Discussion / Re: Closed to new contributors
« on: July 29, 2011, 14:16 »
I guess they wouldn't have too many vector contributors at 5000+ images. I like the concept of a more moderated or picky agency, but I don't see any of the big 4 making a strong push in that direction. I suppose IS is the closest by trying to create an upper tier of images. I'm not sure if they are succeeding with the strategy though.

2522
I'm not really sure what ur trying to say  ??? ...

That it was an interesting read. No real point or gotcha moment. I just found it an interesting history.

2523
I always thought this was an interesting read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer

Quote
The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. The term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford "-er" abbreviation of the word "association".

2524
Wake me up in a couple days when they put on pads and helmets.  ;D

2525
pros are businessmen, even more so then photographers and most collegues of mine and old pros are supplying to micro, RF, etc. I cant see many turn their nose at money.

I don't see anything wrong with having principles or objecting to selling your work in certain ways. I'm not sure when the term businessman became synonymous with I'll do anything for money. We already have a term for that and it starts with a "wh". ;D

That said, it was amusing to read the comments over there. I like that Tyler provided a link to the end of the year stats that was just ignored.

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