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Messages - cthoman
2851
« on: January 25, 2011, 17:51 »
And I'm not counting minuscule agencies with no marketing budget who give 90% to the photographer as 90% of almost-zero is still almost-zero.
Well, if you started promoting those agencies a little more they might actually sell more. I think people forget some of the biggest advertisers for these micros is us contributors. I've sent plenty of traffic to these agencies with links, referrals and affiliates. Maybe, you can't just will something to happen, but you can certainly be proactive in trying to make it happen.
2852
« on: January 25, 2011, 14:30 »
1 really, really good one. Or 1,000 really poor ones. Or something in between. 
I've seen the "1000 poor ones" strategy, but is anyone working on the "selling just 1 amazing image" strategy.  I'd say 300 or $1 per image is a fair goal to shoot for, but I going with this... [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0epRjfGLw[/youtube]
2853
« on: January 25, 2011, 13:03 »
"386 Photos sold"
Wow, it sounds like the contributors weren't doing their job of promoting their wares.
I was kind of surprised by the numbers as well. Maybe, that's part of the reason for closing.
2854
« on: January 25, 2011, 11:33 »
I'm Silver too. And wow what a pleasant surprise these days when XL sales went drastically from $2.48 to $2.00!!
Wow! I guess that is about 20%. It looks more dramatic when you look at it like that. I used to get a ton of those for 8 credit vector sales. That makes me feel better about my decision to leave FT.
2855
« on: January 25, 2011, 10:55 »
I hate this feature of their site. I'd much rather have potential clients contact me and try to turn it into freelance work. Instead, the only option is to check (not for sale).
2856
« on: January 25, 2011, 10:52 »
I don't like to cannibalize my collection, so my strategy is usually to offer to make them something exclusive. It can be similar, but has to be unique and different too.
2857
« on: January 24, 2011, 17:38 »
Vectors.
2858
« on: January 23, 2011, 12:54 »
Could you elaborate?I don't see any price increase anywhere, except for Exclusive Plus files.Price for credits varied just in cents.
For me, it was detailed illustrations going from 10 credits to 12 credits. I can't say about the rest. Here's the price increase thread: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=293832&page=1
2859
« on: January 23, 2011, 12:22 »
Well if this cut is live right now?? must say Im not seeing any differance at all. Maybe lots of people are worrying for nothing?
They did sneak a price increase in there too. My average sale used to be 20% of 10 credits. Now, it's 17% of 12 credits. Makes for kind of a wash. It's still a disturbing trend of squeezing from both sides (buyers and contributors).
2860
« on: January 22, 2011, 17:15 »
Cory, about affiliates - you'd be doing exactly what you don't want to do: driving traffic to other people's sites for free. You won't be losing sales, but why should someone who never spent a cent or made other effort to advertise their store benefit from your advertising? In the scheme I propose everyone will have to chip in to drive traffic to the common place. Only fair in my opinion.
And yes, I think we will do a trial run - offer a month for free while we're setting up, but after that we'll need cash to start marketing.
I'm confused. I meant my own affiliate program, so I would pay you a percentage for each sale you drove to my site. That way I'm paying for performance, and I don't have to worry about getting priced out of an advertising program. I haven't set up an affiliate program yet, so I'm open to suggestions on that. It would mean less upfront capital for you, but I think it would work better in the long run. You'll have sales statistics, so you can move your best performing sites to the top of the list and searches or as featured sites. Also, I'd prefer not to have people leave my site for another similar site. Even if they can't find what they want, it is possible I can create it, so I'd rather have them contact me as opposed to leaving to find it somewhere else. Those are my concerns with the way you've described the setup.
2861
« on: January 22, 2011, 15:21 »
Cthoman, I love your site and would love to have you on board. However, please consider this - if I already had an established site with high traffic, would I be asking for just 20 dollars to plug your link in? The cheapest relevant adverts we found are about 250 dollars, and that's the bottom.
Plus, you're not sharing your customers in this scenario. You are redirecting customers to other sites in case they don't find what they are looking for in your portfolio. So you're not losing a sale - you wouldn't have made it in the first place.
All understandable. I just wasn't crazy about the link exchange and link redirecting part and I didn't see the value in paying $20 a month at this time. If there was a test drive or it was based on affiliates, I'd be much more likely to sign up. I like the idea and I'll definitely keep an eye on it, but I have some other things I'd prefer to pursue first. That's just my 2 cents. I'm often wrong and am prone to changing my mind.
2862
« on: January 22, 2011, 13:49 »
1. Link to the portal from your online store homepage
2. Put a link to the portal when a customer search on your site comes up with no results (we can help with the code there).
3. Pay a small monthly fee to maintain the site and advertise it (20 US dollars per link per month).
I'd much rather prefer setting up an affiliate program than doing the above. I hope that helps as far as constructive input.
2863
« on: January 22, 2011, 12:02 »
Interesting idea. More links are always good. As a just launched site though, the value doesn't really seem to be there. Paying for a link to a page that has no page rank and sharing my customers with a new site doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. I'd prefer to partner with someone more established. I'll keep you bookmarked and see how it develops though.
2864
« on: January 21, 2011, 13:10 »
People will just find an alternate way to say "+1". Funny though, if the "+1" was replaced with a hearty "Woo Yay", would they be forced to ban that phrase?
That's funny. Personally I found the +1 posts irritating and pointless. If you agree with a post, then articulate your agreement and actually add something to the conversation. I honestly think that trying to paint this as some kind of opression is really stretching things.
I'm not a big fan of them either, but banning them seems kind of silly.
2865
« on: January 21, 2011, 12:24 »
That's a shame. I thought they had a pretty nice product, and it's sad to see an alternative model go away.
2866
« on: January 21, 2011, 10:43 »
Is ditto OK?
2867
« on: January 20, 2011, 22:59 »
Okay that's just extremely confusing. Is there a way to tell if we have a 4, 6 or 8 vector? I'm gonna have to go look. *edit* I see it a lot of 4s and one 6 so far in my looking.
Which leads me to another question...is this effective now or at a later date?
They price them according to complexity. Most EPS files get priced at 4 or 6 and very few are priced at 8. My point was that in 2008, they were all priced at 8 credits (now that is the top tier). In 2009, they switched from SVG files to EPS files and made that tiered pricing change. I stopped uploading for several months after the switch, then realized there was a loophole. If you upload an SVG file (no jpeg required), they will still be priced at 8 credits. I figured I'd share my secret since the majority of my portfolio went in the dumpster there today.
2868
« on: January 20, 2011, 22:50 »
Sadly, there is just no perfect scenario anywhere for anyone in this industry that I can see right now.
Definitely true. I think that is the reality that many of us are facing as the goalposts keep moving farther away. You have to make the best decisions for your own business.
2869
« on: January 20, 2011, 22:39 »
Go out and do it. Whether it is a new agency that pays fair, a coop, a guild, Macro, Ktools, Clustershot, Photoshelter, Photodeck, Pixaria, Xpoze, StockBoxPhoto, or anything else, go out and try it. You really never know. Did we all forget trial and error somewhere along the line?
2870
« on: January 20, 2011, 22:16 »
Thanks for all the advice. I went through and deleted about 3000 files and I'm down to 1.
2871
« on: January 20, 2011, 12:49 »
Are all files like say vectors taking a cut too? I get mainly subs and vector sales. I should probably go back and check the links in this thread. That would f'n suck.
Happy Screw Year... tossers.
Here's a nice little bit of history: http://microstock.sys-con.com/node/1225951I don't think that even mentions the 3% they knocked off royalties in 2009. Also, doesn't mention the vector price cut in 2009 when they switched to a 4-6-8 pricing model instead of all 8 credits.
2872
« on: January 20, 2011, 12:34 »
2873
« on: January 20, 2011, 12:20 »
Go exclusive man! as an independant, this business is finished! in six months all the other big 5, will have walked the same way and youll be working for peanuts.
Not really the direction I was thinking.
2874
« on: January 20, 2011, 11:29 »
I'm done. What's the best way to delete your account at Fotolia? What is the minimum payout? Can I still keep my account to maintain a presence?
I didn't know if anyone had any experience with this.
2875
« on: January 20, 2011, 09:57 »
Edited- Never mind.
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