Author Topic: Keep 100% of sales. No middlemen (graphpaperpress) (Read 10010 times)

stocked · « **Reply #25 on:** March 12, 2014, 08:11 »

Quote from: stockastic on March 11, 2014, 17:32

I haven't been able to get interested in Symbiostock because I get the feeling the developer is backing away from the project and there's no one to pick it up. So it may work today, but at some point in the future there could be big problems and no one to deal with them. I realize it's working fine for some people now but I'm afraid it might ultimately turn out to be an expensive (in terms of my time) dead end.

So if there's someone offering a comparable system, maybe not as good but with an assurance of future support and development...

this is not correct AFAIK he said he will it make compatible with every Wordpress update and that is enough for the time being because it is already a complete product!
Personally I'm quite happy the constant updates has come to a halt for a while so I can concentrate on marketing and fine-tuning my site plus upload more content. As I said the product is ready-to-go and will be updated if necessary because of new Wordpress versions. Just give it a go you will be impressed!

cathyslife · « **Reply #26 on:** March 12, 2014, 08:48 »

Back to the original topic (not symbiostock...plenty of other threads to discuss that). If it has been a while since you looked at GPP and sell media, you might want to take another look. There was just an update to the plugin a week or so ago, so i think improvements are being made. And i know they have been adding themes.

chromaco · « **Reply #27 on:** March 12, 2014, 09:50 »

Ok, I'm always looking into self hosting options. From what I can tell it's $79 a year for one theme and access to support ends after the first 12 months. If I want plugins it goes to $149 and if I want the whole package it is $399 (with this one I get live support). The themes look nice and that is considerably cheaper than what I paid for my custom site.

Cathy which program did you purchase? Also since I know zero coding and just a little bit of wordpress will I be able to do this on my own? What does access to support mean and how is that different from live support? Finally looks like I'm looking at another $99 to use the sell media plugin?

So for a website that I would consider functional for me I am looking at $498 for 1 year plus hosting and domain costs?

I'm all about information and $500 for a site is relatively cheap. I'm tempted to build one just to be able to compare sales between my custom site, Symbio, and this.

How are peoples sales using this program? Illustrators if you use this please let me know what you think.
I'm genuinely interested in answers to these questions.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #28 on:** March 12, 2014, 11:57 »

there is zenfolio for 140$ a year with unlimited storage and 90% of the sales

raw/psd/other storage for 8.5 cents/GB

you don't even need to buy a domain if you don't want

KimsCreativeHub · « **Reply #29 on:** March 12, 2014, 13:40 »

I have found all these replies helpful and informative, great topic!

My Very Best

KimsCreativeHub.com

Pixart · « **Reply #30 on:** March 12, 2014, 14:01 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on March 12, 2014, 11:57

there is zenfolio for 140$ a year with unlimited storage and 90% of the sales

raw/psd/other storage for 8.5 cents/GB

you don't even need to buy a domain if you don't want

The problem with using a U.S. based service like PS, Zen or Smugmug is the withholding taxes if you are not from the U.S. But anyone looking into this - please do make sure that is still a fact before it sways your decision - it was when I was last considering these sites about the same time the agencies started withholding. In most cases you earn real income from these sites, not royalties.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #31 on:** March 12, 2014, 14:05 »

Quote from: Pixart on March 12, 2014, 14:01

Quote from: luissantos84 on March 12, 2014, 11:57
there is zenfolio for 140$ a year with unlimited storage and 90% of the sales

raw/psd/other storage for 8.5 cents/GB

you don't even need to buy a domain if you don't want
The problem with using a U.S. based service like PS, Zen or Smugmug is the withholding taxes if you are not from the U.S. But anyone looking into this - please do make sure that is still a fact before it sways your decision - it was when I was last considering these sites about the same time the agencies started withholding. In most cases you earn real income from these sites, not royalties.

you have that in most agencies anyway and you don't have 90% "royalties", you can put the price you wish as well, again it comes down to attract buyers first...

Pilens · « **Reply #32 on:** March 12, 2014, 14:17 »

Quote from: chromaco on March 12, 2014, 09:50

Ok, I'm always looking into self hosting options. From what I can tell it's $79 a year for one theme and access to support ends after the first 12 months. If I want plugins it goes to $149 and if I want the whole package it is $399 (with this one I get live support). The themes look nice and that is considerably cheaper than what I paid for my custom site.

Cathy which program did you purchase? Also since I know zero coding and just a little bit of wordpress will I be able to do this on my own? What does access to support mean and how is that different from live support? Finally looks like I'm looking at another $99 to use the sell media plugin?

So for a website that I would consider functional for me I am looking at $498 for 1 year plus hosting and domain costs?

I'm all about information and $500 for a site is relatively cheap. I'm tempted to build one just to be able to compare sales between my custom site, Symbio, and this.

How are peoples sales using this program? Illustrators if you use this please let me know what you think.
I'm genuinely interested in answers to these questions.

WOW! I didn't know about that price tag

. While you are probably right that this is still relatively cheap it would be a deal breaker for me. So far, my sales barely justify the app. $300 I have/will put into my Symbiostock site to run it for 3 years. That includes everything: theme, paid plug-ins, hosting, domain.

Of course, I am looking forward to getting enough sales that I can justify spending $500 on a second site just to see how it works out

.

chromaco · « **Reply #33 on:** March 12, 2014, 14:28 »

My information may not be right. That is how I interpreted the info on their website but I am waiting for someone to confirm my conclusions. I think you can get away with around $250 but I'm not sure what you do or don't get in that package. I assumed I would want everything so I opted for the entire package. Also I am really interested to know what happens after 12 months.

cathyslife · « **Reply #34 on:** March 12, 2014, 16:27 »

I did not spend near what you are saying Chromaco...

photocrati photography theme - $79
http://www.photocrati.com/simple-pricing/

Sell media plugin, free:
http://graphpaperpress.com/plugins/sell-media/

watermark plugin - $29
http://graphpaperpress.com/?download=watermark

magnifier plugin - $10
http://graphpaperpress.com/?download=magnifier

I wanted the advanced search, but not necessary - $29:
http://graphpaperpress.com/?download=advanced-searc

and heres a plugin for anyone who uses photoshelter
http://graphpaperpress.com/plugins/photoshelter-official-plugin/

I think I had a coupon for a discount for the theme, but even if not, I didnt spend much more than I spent on SY.

I did not use a graphpaperpress theme or buy a package. I went a la carte. It wasnt any more difficult for me to build than SY was.

It's just another option. If you think networking is the way to go, try SY. I found it was useless and I always hated having the multiple moving slideshows (sometimes 8 or 10 or more) on my search pages. I have found the support for GPP to be good. Not sure what happens after a year...I am only a couple of months into it. I even had some customizing done for a very fair price.

Quote

Ok, I'm always looking into self hosting options. From what I can tell it's $79 a year for one theme and access to support ends after the first 12 months. If I want plugins it goes to $149 and if I want the whole package it is $399 (with this one I get live support). The themes look nice and that is considerably cheaper than what I paid for my custom site.

Actually there are some free themes. Go here to see for yourself:
http://graphpaperpress.com/themes/onesie/#buy-theme

The higher prices include 49 themes, support and plugins depending on what you get. Go look around their site, you can get a better idea.

chromaco · « **Reply #35 on:** March 12, 2014, 16:48 »

Thank you, So about $160 then. I'll have to find out if generic WP sliders and plugins work with these themes. Also what happens with the support after 12 months is very important to me because I really don't know anything about coding. I'll spend some more time on their site.
I would hate to spend $160 and find out I wasn't savvy enough.

If I feel like I'm not wasting my time I will probably try this out. I am always looking for options other than sub sites. Break even would require around 1 sale a month. I assume you feel like this is possible for you to achieve.

Does anyone else have any feedback about these options?

FWIW- I think the Symbiostock network benefits aren't necessarily working as far as referring sales but I do absolutely think they help with my SEO. Also I really like that there is a community behind me if something goes awry.

cathyslife · « **Reply #36 on:** March 12, 2014, 17:41 »

Quote from: chromaco on March 12, 2014, 16:48

snip
FWIW- I think the Symbiostock network benefits aren't necessarily working as far as referring sales but I do absolutely think they help with my SEO. Also I really like that there is a community behind me if something goes awry.

I agree to all of those.

Ed · « **Reply #37 on:** March 13, 2014, 13:04 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on March 12, 2014, 11:57

there is zenfolio for 140$ a year with unlimited storage and 90% of the sales

raw/psd/other storage for 8.5 cents/GB

you don't even need to buy a domain if you don't want

I was on Zenfolio for two years prior to moving to Photoshelter. They had great service and I liked the support I received when I needed it.

The reason I left is because I wanted to license stock - they weren't really set up to do that. You could set prices for Royalty Free images and manipulate the system with multiple price structures but there really wasn't a solution for selling rights managed. Photoshelter is integrated with PhotoQuote - much more user friendly. Photoshelter also allows you to upload to your site, then FTP images out (FTP occuring from their server) which is an AWESOME feature if you work with agents that receive images via FTP.

When I looked at Graph Paper Press integrated with Photoshelter, it was because I really liked the look and feel of Gavin Gough's website. My experience was not that great.

Pilens · « **Reply #38 on:** March 13, 2014, 14:52 »

I have been with Photoshelter prior to Symbiostock. It wasn't worth the $300+ per year at all. I liked the PhotoQuote RM feature, though. I hope something like this will be available as a plugin for Symbiostock as well at some point.

Does Graph Paper Press have some sort of automatic RM options pricing?

The FTP feature was nice but self-hosting allows you to do the same via SSH script. I use that all the time from my Blue Host shared server and find it more reliable than the sometimes buggy (?) Photoshelter feature. If anyone wants to try, I've explained the details here: http://www.microstockgroup.com/microstock-services/lightburner-is-paid-now%28/msg322403/#msg322403.

Millionstock.com · « **Reply #39 on:** March 14, 2014, 08:06 »

I'm happy with my Symbiostock site

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Keep 100% of sales. No middlemen (graphpaperpress) (Read 10010 times)

stocked

cathyslife

chromaco

luissantos84

KimsCreativeHub

Pixart

luissantos84

Pilens

chromaco

cathyslife

chromaco

cathyslife

Ed

Pilens

Millionstock.com

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