MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Selling Stock Direct => Topic started by: cidepix on August 11, 2011, 15:24
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I was getting jealous of all the guys starting their own shops, so I decided I should have a website too :D
I went with CMS Account.. We will see how it goes.. If after a while I am not happy about it or encounter problems with it, I might switch to Ktools.. But so far, have had no real issues..
http://www.vectorella.com/ (http://www.vectorella.com/)
I also had this personal site for a few years now but finally gave it a good make up using wordpress:
http://www.cihandemirok.com/ (http://www.cihandemirok.com/)
I do have a few more sites including a wordpress site with getshopped ecommerce plug-in but won't mention it here becase it is not as practical to upload as CMS account..
On the other hand, I have no idea about how Ktools work, maybe it is much better than CMS account.. Would like to get a second opinion.. the reason I went with CMS account was: at the time I made the purchase, (nearly a year ago) the design looked better than Ktools.. Maybe I am wrong..
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Stick with Wordpress if you are familiar with it! Better SEO better Plugins, no fees no update issues, open source.
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Two thumbs up, IMO. I spent about 20 minutes looking at the site and could not find anything wrong with it. Lots to like. I had not heard of CMS Account.
Hope you will keep us posted on how it goes for you.
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If you are also offering vectors at Shutterstock, you should take a closer look at the plugin for Wordpress which we have developed. It let you show your Shutterstock vectors below any blog post or product. They also come up at the search and so on.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shutterstock-affiliate-plugin/ (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shutterstock-affiliate-plugin/)
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It looks good. It looks like it functions fairly similar to Ktools. Definitely, a nice clean look.
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Very good indeed.
Is CMS a software you buy and use in your own site?
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It's standalone software: http://cmsaccount.com/photostore/overview/ (http://cmsaccount.com/photostore/overview/)
It's front end is better than ktools, in my opinion. At least until the next major Ktools version (4).
I found the admin kind of crazy and confusing compared to ktools, but I didn't spend much time with it. CMS does seem to add lots of features and front end templates.
BTW, this is a great looking site, congratulations!
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Two thumbs up, IMO. I spent about 20 minutes looking at the site and could not find anything wrong with it. Lots to like. I had not heard of CMS Account.
Hope you will keep us posted on how it goes for you.
Thank you!
I think it still needs some improvements.. I hope I won't have any major issues with CMS account.. I will definitely update this thread If I run into trouble with it..
One small issue is when you download a new version from their site and install it, all your modifications are at risk.. You will have to do every single customization all over again if you are not careful.. Luckily I just reverted to the older version as I had back up files..
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It looks good. It looks like it functions fairly similar to Ktools. Definitely, a nice clean look.
Thanks!
Your site looks pretty good too.. Did you have to make a lot of customizations or does Ktools actually look better now? Because It didn't look that clean and decent last time I checked their demo a year ago..
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Stick with Wordpress if you are familiar with it! Better SEO better Plugins, no fees no update issues, open source.
I like wordpress and use it a lot..
The downside with wordpress is that it is not a specialised photostore, so it lacks many features.. Like "multiple uploads" which is very important..
@madelaide and ppdd, thank you guys!
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The only issue I see is that previews take a long time to load the first time you look at them. Looks great otherwise. Good job!
I should be putting mine up soon, if I even stop procrastinating.
All previews are basically instant for me, even the first time, FWIW
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Love it, very professional looking.
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Thanks!
Your site looks pretty good too.. Did you have to make a lot of customizations or does Ktools actually look better now? Because It didn't look that clean and decent last time I checked their demo a year ago..
Yeah, lot's of customization. I have the same problem though with upgrades affecting any custom work. So, they'd have to add some great features to get me to upgrade.
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It's standalone software: [url]http://cmsaccount.com/photostore/overview/[/url] ([url]http://cmsaccount.com/photostore/overview/[/url])
Which version did you get? Lite? Full? Add-ons?
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Thanks!
Your site looks pretty good too.. Did you have to make a lot of customizations or does Ktools actually look better now? Because It didn't look that clean and decent last time I checked their demo a year ago..
Yeah, lot's of customization. I have the same problem though with upgrades affecting any custom work. So, they'd have to add some great features to get me to upgrade.
Better not to upgrade I guess, unless they have some irresistible new features :)
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It's standalone software: [url]http://cmsaccount.com/photostore/overview/[/url] ([url]http://cmsaccount.com/photostore/overview/[/url])
Which version did you get? Lite? Full? Add-ons?
Wow! I didn't know they started offering different versions..
When I got it last year, they had only 1 version and it was the FULL one with all the add ons... (at least that's how I remember it)
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I like what you've done! The site is simple, clean and easy for the buyer to use. :)
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do you need a lot of technical knowledge to set it up? wonder how difficult to set up a site using something like ktools or CMS..
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do you need a lot of technical knowledge to set it up? wonder how difficult to set up a site using something like ktools or CMS..
I don't think you need to be a web design pro to set up a site using CMS account, but some knowledge is certainly necessary. It's not going to be easy if you have no knowledge at all.
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I like the site, I'm just not sure if it will pay for me to make my own. I really want to see one of these software providers taking more steps to make these sites interesting for buyers. What I think they need is a way for contributors to pool their images in to a bigger collection and have a universal buying system. I don't think buyers having to search and buy from all these individual sites is a good solution.
Perhaps they could let buyers select all the portfolios they want and search within them? I think that would be something that the current sites don't offer and would be a reason for buyers to take a look.
I'm sure there's lots of other things that could be done to make having our own sites appeal to buyers. I just can't get motivated to do all the work at the moment but if the software developers make some improvements, I'll be interested.
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What I think they need is a way for contributors to pool their images in to a bigger collection and have a universal buying system.
I believe that was called Clustershot. I assume they'll reopen at some point. They never offered vectors though.
Looks like Avid Images does that too. I don't think they offer vectors either though.
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I don't think this would be anything like Clustershot because that wasn't much different to all the other sites, hosting our images for us. The difference with them was that we paid a small fee and they gave us most of the selling price. They found that it didn't work for them and sold the site. If we're hosting our own sites, there should be much less expense for a search and payment site. If the search and payment site folded, we would still have our own sites. This makes a difference because I want something permanent to link to, it's not good when you set up lots of links to images and then the site closes. I don't want to set up links to sites that pay low commissions and it would of been a waste of time doing it with Clustershot.
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Looks great, cidepix.
I did some customizations, but not many. To do so with Ktools, you have to have some knowledge of php. Let's just say I have a lot more knowledge of php now, than I did when I started. :)