Thank you Paulie for your description and experience.

I also was with Photoshelter many years and left them. I have a similar thought of them like you described. I am now with Zenfolio but also not so happy. I went with them because the unlimited video but the clips get so compressed that they cannot be sold . I also find their site not intuitive neither the selling option so I will ditch them for sure.

I was thinking of Photodeck. Like their options, they seem quite fast. I though they were french. Yes they are a small company and the risk the close door is always there but as you say they seem committed as the post regular updates and improve their service. Also they don't take a cut of your sales like Photoshelter or zenfolio does.

You got me really intrigued with shopify. I know many people use it, and it seems it is the independent port for many small sellers. I thought it was much more complicate to sell many thousands of items (photos) there. Specially as I need RM because I am RF exclusive so selling as RF is not an option for me. I also thought that once you got all the extras and complements of shopify it would end much more expensive every month than Photodeck. Is this your experience?

Quote from: cobalt on July 07, 2022, 09:29

I am still trying to understand what is the advantage over using Photoshelter or Photodeck?

Photoshelter - I just dropped them after having a website for over ten years. I no longer have any confidence in their longevity. Long time ago they tried to launch an agency and abandoned it. Then they did a much advertised platform update (named Beam?) which seemed half baked. Then they shifted their business away from photographers/artists to chasing corporate clients with digital asset management. Then they went back to chasing photographers/artists so I'm not sure if DAM is still a core part of their business. Then a few years ago they made a highly promoted announcement of massive platform updates. During this time my sales went from okay to nothing. Their platform isn't overly customizable and the user interface is a cobbled together bandaged mishmash of UI designs from different time periods. Now they seem to only spend time on writing posts on their blog which I really dont care at all about. They just seem to be struggling to find their way as a business but that's only my perception.

Photodeck - My main website is with them and overall I'm happy. It's a small UK based company so there's always a concern with them deciding to exit the business. However, they post somewhat regular updates about new functionality they've added. Platform is highly customizable, SEO capabilities are reasonably good and I get decent traffic and regular sales. Performance is very fast and the user interface is well organized and intuitive but probably leaning a little more toward techie than the bubbly friendly UI of Shopify. The licensing options include prints, RF and RM. I totally customized the RM configuration to meet my needs. I get a mix of higher dollar RM licensing sales and print sales. They also have a handful of print integration partners for automated fulfillment. Overall a very nice website platform for artists who are a bit more into customizing.

Shopify - Just setting up my site now. I want a platform I dont need to worry about spending a ton of time on and then them going out of business. And I want more traffic and sales. My Photodeck site gets decent traffic but I seemed to have hit an SEO wall where I'm not able to increase traffic any further. As a test I did a bunch of Google searches to see which art websites showed up toward the front. After getting past the big sites, usually next up were independent artists with Shopify websites. The Shopify user interface is very slick and intuitive with a ton of apps you can add for SEO, customer live chat, stock licensing, and even fully automated POD fulfillment such as through Printful. With Printful, Printify and other POD apps, customers can place orders and you dont need to do anything. The Shopify order automatically goes to Printful and they print and ship.

Smgmug - Tried it for a while and didn't like the platform and had zero sales.

No it is not. Is it as a profitable activity for 99% of the contributor. Yes it is. More than dead, buried under 3 feet of trash.

The only ones that make some profit are the agencies. Sure, there are contributors like myself that still sit on large portfolios that make money. But who starts today has a 99.9% of financial failure. Nearly any creative activity putting the same amount of time and effort is 100x times more profitable.

But it was a cash cow 25 years ago , a good revenue opportunity 10 years ago, and a receipt for wasting time and resources now. Things evolve and move on. So did the creative stock market. Very soon Dahle Midjourney and the likes will totally rip apart what is still left from the 2 o 3 agencies that squeeze investors money before the final collapse.

Sorry to be harsh but the quality from micros has gone from mediocre to garbage The only ones that supply to micros nowadays are bad photographers that do not find any demand of their images from no clients and amateurs that they really don't care if they make a few hundred or a few thousand a year

But as a pro endeavor any field in pro photography is much much more lucrative than stock photography or video. It is what it is.

Great news. Another garbage agency that bites the dust. Bring them on.....

Subs was unavoidable at P5. I think nearly every client is on that page now. What I am looking is royalties and fair share. The problem with SS and the reason I am not with them is that they don't share revenue with contributors unless you think 15% or 20% is a fair share for you.

P5 exclusive is 60% now. They might to try to run this down sooner than later so I am sure the exodus will slowly begin again as it did with SS. Those crooks just don't deserve to work with artists.

Great move from Istock/Getty. They also needed this for their survival in the video department. They lost the music market a long time ago. They are still very strong with still images but I think many clients are looking for videos elsewhere. Not because of prices but because there is not enough variety.

Do any search of any subject on any of the competitors. Many more results. That means that clients are leaving . Less royalties for exclusives that don't see the advantage of exclusivity anymore. That move is to revers those desertions and also attract some new exclusives, specially now with SS buying P5.

I have returned to photo exclusivity, as trying the non-exclusive camp was not worth it. (I did not supply SS and Adobe was much more disappointing that I thought comparing to my exclusive income)
But video is another thing. I do well being non exclusive .

I have all my editorial work as P5 exclusive , this would be not possible being exclusive as Istock does not take editorial content and that is a significant and growing part of my video revenue. So for me, I will keep being non-exclusive with video and exclusive with photography for the time being

This one will come with a newer idea never tried before and that will path the success of contributors and stock holders. Cut prices 20% and royalties 50% . He swears that with his brilliant new idea all contributors will make it up in volume.

Bunch of scavengers. Now time to rip apart P5 contributors unfortunately.

https://investor.shutterstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/shutterstock-appoints-paul-hennessy-chief-executive-officer

Experience with a used car marketplace and Priceline don't suggest any sort of return to the roots of a platform for the creative professional

Vroom announced its new CEO today as they "realign" their business

https://www.autoremarketing.com/retail/vroom-names-new-ceo

He is still listed as Vroom CEO on his LinkedIn page - I guess this was all very last minute

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhennessy1/

And Vroom needs a turnaround plan after Hennessy's turn as CEO?

https://www.barrons.com/articles/vroom-vrm-stock-earnings-ceo-turnaround-plan-51652197593

Mind blowing . Possibilities are endless. This will kill cheap stock photography like we see on micro sites in less than 10 years. Absolutely sure about that.

It is not strange the stock is falling. Some metrics are not good for SS. And that's Q1 when they pay the least to contributors:

The operating margin was 16%, and operating income for the quarter fell 16.3% to $31.9 million.

Operating cash flow for the quarter declined 37% to $22.7 million with a free cash flow of $10.2 million, a 62% decrease.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 3% Y/Y to $54.8 million.

You have to be crazy to contribute to that site. This might be one of the worst sites with digital assets I have seen so far. Without any doubt. The ones like canstock,bigstock bla bla bla are jewels besides this one, if that is even possible.

I am quite happy with P5 sales. I have exclusive and non-exclusive accounts. One of the few fair agencies out there. They are always the last to drop prices when they are forced because all the others go rock bottom with prices and commissions.

I think their exclusive move was brilliant and with 60% commission, kudos for them. If there is want agency I want to succeed over most of the others is this one.

Will be interesting to see the next quarters if they are winning or loosing customers. We will surely know by their stock price. Last months it has fallen down.

Their margins cannot be trimmed more. Well, yes, if they pay 0.03 for download. I am sure many would be still uploading. Heck I think if they would make contributors pay 0.01$ per upload there would be people uploading too