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Messages - pkphotos
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451
« on: October 05, 2014, 12:39 »
and what i meant about your integrity... you are in general a much better image maker than the three samples you showed us, and for that i am quite surprised you would even upload them. not your usual standard.
I didnt start out with 500 dollar stock photos. I started by throwing up everything I could shoot, learned from the experience and then deleting many files. I will do the same with video. And I also had to learn the difference between the agencies and that 50 cent files can outsell expensive files at getty and give much,much better and more reliable returns.
And looking at pond5 there are thousands of people following the same approach.
Those 10-15 dollar files that you dont like, are probably the main reason that pond5 has so many customers. How else did they achieve critical mass and outsell all the other sites?
Basically all higher priced clips are riding on the wind provided by the cheaper entry price files.
And it is the same customer that also buys the 500 dollar clips, they just buy clips according to their needs and projects. They know they have to sift through more crap while going through pond5, but if they wanted a slick experience and only the best choices, there are other libraries for that.
I sincerly hope they dont change their system and prefer to keep their buyers, including all the small time buyers who want simple files for blogs,schools or youtube projects. They also buy a lot more series than on other places.
Otherwise they will just become like istock that snubs their nose at all "cheapskates" and voluntarily just kicked thousands of loyal customers out.
They dont see that designers need content of many types on many levels.
So, I will keep doing what I do and keep changing my prices regularly, sometimes every week. Up and down, like selling apples and oranges on the free market.
And of course I will also experiment with much higher prices as well.
Most of all I dont disrespect my customers, including those that are looking for clips at 10 dollars. They are very welcome to my portfolio and to see them buy several files at once gives good balance and more regular income.
Pond5 is probably not the right agency for people who dont want to do the research on the site. Obviously if I have a clip of a bridge and I know I am the only one, i will not offer it for 10 dollars. I look at all the files I compete with before I set a price. Everytime, before I even upload.
So, yes, i definetly like giving buyers choices and I will not disrespect them or think badly of them if they are looking for cheaper clips.
Anyway, back to shooting...
Pricing video clips at $10-20 is a defeatist approach and just helps to bring down our industry. Instead of taking the philosophy of 'if you can't beat them join them', just price your clips higher than other people. Buyers will respond to this and you'll end up doing better overall. If everyone did it buyers expectations would be forced to change. Keep your standards and pricing at a professional level.
452
« on: October 04, 2014, 20:03 »
If you personally believe every time you press the movie button out comes a 40 dollar file, you are entirely welcome to do that. I have no problem with it and dont judge you or anyone badly for it. Even if I see many files in video that are worse than even my test shots. But its a free market.
To be honest, most of what any of us are doing in photo and video is just pointing a piece of glass attached to plastic and pressing a button. Some people like to pretend they're performing magic, a few even kinda can, but the simplicity of how the shot came to you or me is irrelevant.
If I spend $1000+ on a set, models, and the whole crew to pull off an elaborate shoot, and that final product looks like 200,000 other shots out there, that clip might only be "worth" $30.
If I point my camera at a bridge in the middle of nowhere and record 10 static, motionless seconds during the worst part of the day, and that clip is the ONLY shot of that bridge, that might be a $100+ shot. If a customer is looking for a video of THAT bridge 8 months from now and mine is the only one, or among very few, they most likely will not scoff at a higher price.
I don't think garbage should be uploaded in the first place, and I believe all video clips should carry a base value that's fair and sustainable to those who produce them for a living. Just because the stock photo boom and those who should have been ensuring it's sustainability failed, and destroyed the perception of an images' value, stock video should not be forced down the same road.
Totally agree with Daryl Ray. In fact I don't think bottom feeding prices are particularly attractive to buyers. To me those bottom prices signify desperation to make a dollar. If you take a very popular subject where there are dozens of clips priced at $10 or $20, I think it's still possible to get sales of the same subject at $50 simply by doing the same shots either better or slightly different. And because people who price their clips at $10 or $20 don't believe in the quality or worth of their work, I don't think it's very hard to do a better job. If they were to price higher and take a more professional approach, I'm sure they'd find their work would also improve.
453
« on: October 04, 2014, 16:00 »
Contributors selling clips at $10 OR $20 are shooting themselves and everyone else in the foot. It's an amateur approach. Clips on P5 should be priced at a minimum of $40 IMO. My cheapest clips are $49 and the majority are $59.
454
« on: September 24, 2014, 13:39 »
Demotix would be the best of this kind, better than Alamy but that wouldn't be too hard.
455
« on: September 21, 2014, 21:30 »
I signed up for payoneer but may stick to what has been working well for me for several years - paypal
456
« on: September 11, 2014, 07:17 »
yes down in SALES too. In fact they have gone completely AWOL for the past week.
457
« on: September 02, 2014, 15:13 »
FAA is a big con, there are more contributors than customers. We are just making the owners rich through subs. I've sold hundreds of mobile phone cases on zazzle and none via FAA. And I've sold hundreds of prints via other POD agencies but just a few via FAA. I won't be renewing my sub once its up for renewal.
458
« on: September 02, 2014, 14:57 »
Yes you can opt out and I did it this morning after getting a sub footage sale. Go to contributor parameters and uncheck the box - "Add my video clips to the Fotolia Subscription Program"
I did this, logged out of my account and searched for one of my videos. Indeed it did say that the video could only be downloaded on demand and not sub.
Sub footage sales at Fotolia should not be tolerated since they are so poor.
459
« on: August 31, 2014, 04:57 »
Photographers are pretty much stuck with physical reality and Photoshop. For CG artists, reality is what you can make it, and is pretty much unlimited. Which skillset has the greater future? One is limited, the other is not.
Both are unlimited
460
« on: August 22, 2014, 06:06 »
Only an idiot would sell products/prints/photos for 5% commission. I deleted my account from Cafepress because they paid only 5%. At Zazzle the lowest I've set my commission is 14% and the highest 25%. It's currently 18%. I find FAA is a very poor performer, they are making too much money from selling subscriptions IMO.
461
« on: August 22, 2014, 05:58 »
I used five of my own images in a facebook ad campaign. All the sales appeared within a day.
why would you pay to use your own photos?
462
« on: August 15, 2014, 18:29 »
BME after only 12 days. MY portfolio is growing rapidly which may explain it.
463
« on: August 11, 2014, 23:07 »
Looks like the hamsters runneth may be over
464
« on: July 04, 2014, 21:21 »
Independence Day in the U.S...nobody's working.
I hate to break it to you but Umerika is not the entire world 
It's half the world in terms of microstock sales. More than half for me, in fact.
Yep. Same here. The U.S. is the largest stock photo market. More sales than in all of Europe and Asia combined.
Approx 75% of my sales are not from the US. It's a huge market but the are 196 countries on this planet and many of them buy photos/footage from SS
465
« on: June 26, 2014, 08:24 »
I would like to know how much images we, microstockgroup netizen collectively have online. One member cited that we successfully removed 25% of DPC. How much power do we really have?
Of course, there are many contributors who are not in this forum nor speak english. I don't dare to hope much.
We are restricted in the fact that most photographers act solo and don't visit this forum. I believe the ones on this forum act collectively to a point. If photographers were to unite we would of course have all the power over the agencies by setting minimal thresholds that we would tolerate. I suppose that's called a union. It would be great if us collective photographers could yield the power to keep maverick agencies in line. Of course it is totally possible.
466
« on: June 24, 2014, 06:11 »
467
« on: June 23, 2014, 06:13 »
Seems to work well, the only issue I'm having is that 133rf won't login. It goes to 123rf login page and then immediately comes back to the app and tries to update.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
Yeas I first had that same problem with 123RF and then P5 also became stuck
468
« on: June 22, 2014, 01:58 »
I tried it, like it, but them some agencies didn't seem to want to update anymore. It didn't matter what I tried, uninstall, reinstall, once a few agencies wouldn't refresh I gave up and uninstalled. Seems to have a few problems.
469
« on: June 19, 2014, 07:35 »
seems to be on and off for the past few days. Sometimes working sometimes not.
470
« on: June 18, 2014, 20:59 »
I can't load the Pond5 site, anyone else having this problem?
471
« on: June 17, 2014, 09:14 »
Sales building steadily as my portfolio increases at a reasonably fast rate. It helps to find your own niches and make sure what you create is equal to or better than the opposition if possible. I do seem to get spurts of sales followed by a quiet spell. Possibly a big enough portfolio would eliminate this to some extent. You really need 1000+ files to get anywhere near regular sales
472
« on: June 14, 2014, 19:04 »
Thanks for the heads up on this piece of crap company! Heck, DPC is looking mighty fine compared to this company!
You can't compare a company that sells products (Cafepress) and one which licenses photos (DPC). However what they both have in common is that they are as bad as each other in exploiting contributors for their own profit. Neither should be supported.
473
« on: June 14, 2014, 18:51 »
I just deleted all my designs from Cafepress after one miserly $25 payment threshold was passed. At Zazzle I make $100+ every month and can set my percentage as I please. Cafepress are too greedy to support.
474
« on: June 13, 2014, 20:20 »
Do yourself a big favour and DO NOT waste your time uploading footage to Fotolia. I sold 8 clips with them for an average of $2.8 a clip. With SS I am averaging almost $20 and that's from a large number of sales. All you will achieve by submitting footage to Fotolia is to drag the market price down and shoot yourself in the foot at the same time. The prices they pay do not even pay for your coffee or water on a shoot.
475
« on: June 12, 2014, 03:22 »
Judging by the fact that 4 out of 4 photographers I've alerted to DPC weren't aware of the site or the fact their photos were being sold there, I think the only thing keeping it alive is the hundreds/thousands of photographers who still don't know of its existence. They are the ones making up the majority of the 21,000,000 images. Fotolia has gone through the back door and not even let contributors know what they've created. That all the photographers I've contacted have immediately replied back to me with genuine alarm and shock shows just how underhand and unethical the DPC concept is. Of course the agency and the customers will be happy with this arrangement.
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