MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Selling Stock Direct => Topic started by: photographyplus on June 17, 2014, 19:22
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Hi,
My photography company, coversplash, recently launched: coversplash.com. The mission of the company is to create the best products for photographers and we'll be releasing more products soon.
Please check the description below, visit the site, and consider joining! Highlights include beautifully designed and mobile-responsive sites, free hosting, 100% commission on all photos sold on personal site, a licensing agency, stock.coversplash.com, where photographers keep over 70% of their sale and set their license types and prices, a complete international e-commerce solution, an amazing print provider (CanvasPop), interest groups, and more. Please check it out at coversplash.com. Since launching, Coversplash is now home to more than 8,000 photographers from over 3,200 cities around the world.
Best, PhotographPlus
Coversplash aims to be the ideal photography platform online. Founded in April 2014, at its core, Coversplash is a fully-fledged portfolio solution for photographers, allowing photographers to easily manage their entire photography business with a customizable website. Secondarily, Coversplash includes several innovative social features, which allow photographers to effectively market their photography and gain feedback on their work. Notably, photographers are able to personally showcasing and document their work through an innovative “stories” feature. Lastly, Coversplash is the only licensing agency that allows photographers to control their entire work, including pricing and licensing types.
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I took a look at your site and I'm somewhat confused.
The site says that there are 120,000 photos uploaded, but other than a handful of newest, favorited and editor's choice, plus a couple of demonstration galleries, how do I look those photos?
None of the demos appeared to show anything for sale - is there somewhere we could see how you present work for sale and how searches operate? I couldn't find anywhere to search for anything.
I must be missing something, but I'm not seeing "the ideal photography platform online" just looking around from the link you gave.
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The one I saw said 'beta'.
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Hi Jo Ann,
The 120k photos can be seen and searched here: stock.coversplash.com. When you join and upload some photos, you can individually choose the prices and licenses. See an example portfolio here: henryjager.coversplash.com
Hope this helps and please let me know any other thoughts.
Best,
Photographyplus
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I looked at the stock.coversplash.com website. I can’t find descriptions of the licenses anywhere. For example, if I shop like I am a buyer, I can’t find the description of the licenses, even the standard license.
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@BD
You can see the terms and licenses here: coversplash.com/terms
We'll be adding additional ones in the near future.
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You expect a buyer to know what SCLA and ECLA stand for, and to click on these links?
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@Shady Sue,
We are continuing to simplify the buyer experience. The stock site is not being promoted yet--it's in beta and for photographers to see only. It's quite clear when the photographer uploads. In the near future, we will be adding more license types and allowing photographers to set custom terms and conditions. We encourage any feedback, so please respond here or email us at [email protected]
Best,
PhotographyPlus
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It is really difficult to find the standard and extended license agreements. There are no links on the image’s pages or when you are in a cart to check out which will take you to a description of the licenses.
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Can you sell any file types on the platform? Or is it limited to photo formats? I'm wondering about selling vector graphics.
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@BD,
We are aware of this and changing this soon, maybe as soon as tonight. It's still in Beta.
I should also add, if you want to buy a print, from a photographer's site, you can click on an individual photo here: henryjager.coversplash.com. You can click on the i button and then click buy print. We plan to add similar functionality to our marketplace.
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Thanks for your response. If I create one of the “free” websites will my images automatically be added for sale at stock.coversplash.com?
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"The world's most popular photography network "
Ok.
"Search keywords or image id's..."
Why did you use an apostrophe in "ids"? - of course, you probably meant "image id numbers" or something.
Clicking "about" or "team" doesn't take me anywhere.
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"The world's most popular photography network "
Ok.
"Search keywords or image id's..."
Why did you use an apostrophe in "ids"? - of course, you probably meant "image id numbers" or something.
Apostrophe for identifications 'of' images, as in cat's whiskers for whiskers 'of' the cat.
But I bet that wasn't what he meant.
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@BD,
Yes, your photos will automatically be entered into stock.coversplash.com. We will have an opt out feature in near future. Please let me know any other thoughts. We're trying to build a great product for photographers. We'll be releasing mobile iOS and android versions soon, amongst other products in the future.
Best.
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@Sean Locke Photography
The stock site was literally released today into Beta. There may still be a few bugs that we'll fix ASAP.
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Doesn't look appealing to me. No thanks.
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@K2,
Anything more you want?
Does everyone like the stories feature? It's meant to be a new form of presenting photos and also a new form of photo-blogging.
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Can you sell any file types on the platform? Or is it limited to photo formats? I'm wondering about selling vector graphics.
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You're welcome to upload vector graphics. We're mainly focused on photos now, but if you're able to upload it, you're able to sell it on your personal site. In the future, we'll make a concerted effort to make sure these file types work.
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I'm a pretty big fan of new sites in general, but...
As above, you need to be very clear with buyers and photographers exactly what the terms of your licenses are. As you may have seen if you read these forums much, one of the biggest concerns people have (besides having our images being sold with very little income generated for us) is that sites often allow things like reselling, prints of very large runs etc with very little or no consideration for the person who actually created that image.
Also, you NEED some sort of watermarks on the preview thumbnails. They aren't a perfect solution but they are better than nothing at all (which is what I see now).
Fix it, be clear and fair on it and you may get people buying in.
Also, if the site doesn't generate sales pretty quickly then you will find interest dropping fast. Seems a new site every month promises great things. Few ever deliver.
Good luck with it. I'll be keeping an eye on it.
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@BD,
We are aware of this and changing this soon, maybe as soon as tonight. It's still in Beta.
I should also add, if you want to buy a print, from a photographer's site, you can click on an individual photo here: henryjager.coversplash.com. You can click on the i button and then click buy print. We plan to add similar functionality to our marketplace.
It was not clear to me that clicking the i button would allow me to buy prints. I believe your company gets some percentage of some of these sales? I don’t know if you would consider this functionality, but on the sites that are not e-commerce you could put a button that says something like “license image” that would take the buyer to that particular image on the stock.coversplash.com website. If I’m understanding correctly, the e-commerce sites get 100% of the sale and the free sites 70% (so your company would get 30% of these sales). I also noticed that the individual websites don’t have the option for someone to search and find an image. This would be a nice feature.
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the Free talk needs to get out of the site as well, you actually need to pay 7$ a month to get the 100% commission
We're about you, the photographer - and we're here to prove it. Free portfolios, 100% commission, and the best social photo sharing experience, period.
you guys opened close to 1 year ago and there isn't still IPTC, I am trying to update my profile and it doesn't save
trying (testing) to buy a print and it doesn't go anywhere, what a mess
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Have not tried the buying process, but the back-end (and even login page!) is not encrypted. Definitely do not recommend using this site from a WiFi hotspot/café. Also, do not use a password for this site that is used on another site.
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Have not tried the buying process, but the back-end (and even login page!) is not encrypted. Definitely do not recommend using this site from a WiFi hotspot/café. Also, do not use a password for this site that is used on another site.
all site is a joke, nothing works, now I am trying to change password and the update button doesn't go anywhere, can't get any worst than that...
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I knew they were something else before, photorankr
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@Sean Locke Photography
The stock site was literally released today into Beta. There may still be a few bugs that we'll fix ASAP.
So, your declaration that you are the "The world's most popular photography network " was a bug?
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We're working on some bugs still. Most large company websites have bugs and severe security issues, and we just released this into Beta, so please consider that.
Hope everyone enjoys the new site and considers joining. We're going to get to be the "the world's most popular photography network" eventually. We encourage feedback. So please respond or email us. We want to make a great experience for photographers on the web.
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We're working on some bugs still. Most large company websites have bugs and severe security issues, and we just released this into Beta, so please consider that.
Hope everyone enjoys the new site and considers joining. We're going to get to be the "the world's most popular photography network" eventually. We encourage feedback. So please respond or email us. We want to make a great experience for photographers on the web.
why have you left photorankr behind?
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Search is also very slow currently.
Probably it can't handle the 12 people that are currently viewing this topic and trying the site.
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@luissantos,
We got feedback from photographers after releasing portfolios late last year, and they simply wanted a platform like this, more of an e-commerce solution and less of a social network.
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Looks nice. I'll keep it bookmarked to see how it develops.
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@luissantos,
We got feedback from photographers after releasing portfolios late last year, and they simply wanted a platform like this, more of an e-commerce solution and less of a social network.
What feedback did you get about why they didn't like the existing solutions?
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Feedback I got from photographers was that they really wanted one ideal platform online for photographers. Why should photographers have to build their portfolio solution on one site, license their work on another, and socialize on another platform? Why can't they do it all on one platform, online? Why can’t photographers control their license types and price points?
In addition, the team is composed of four strong product-focused engineers. We’ve build some stunning portfolios, that we’ll only get better over time. Some photographers we’re really excited about SymbioStock. We’re actually even cheaper. For less than 10 dollars, we take care of all e-commerce and hosting. We’re the cheapest on the web. If you need a place just to display photos, that’s completely free.
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Feedback I got from photographers was that they really wanted one ideal platform online for photographers. Why should photographers have to build their portfolio solution on one site, license their work on another, and socialize on another platform? Why can't they do it all on one platform, online? Why can’t photographers control their license types and price points?
In addition, the team is composed of four strong product-focused engineers. We’ve build some stunning portfolios, that we’ll only get better over time. Some photographers we’re really excited about SymbioStock. We’re actually even cheaper. For less than 10 dollars, we take care of all e-commerce and hosting. We’re the cheapest on the web. If you need a place just to display photos, that’s completely free.
But it's not free if you want to make any money there, assuming you can muster up some buyers. Your original message was a bit misleading.
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To the OP: you started this topic, inviting prospective contributors to have a look. So I find the "it's just beta" comments a little defensive.
Your site is, IMO, not really ready for a public walk through, but given that you wanted us to look at the beta site, I'd suggest you just make a list of all the broken/missing/confusing things we found and use the feedback to your advantage.
http://stock.photorankr.com/terms.php (http://stock.photorankr.com/terms.php)
I found these terms while looking at the stock.coverspash.com link you pointed me to.
In addition to lots of references to photorankr, Campaign Tender, Success Fees (which I assume are obsolete), you have nonsense like the following:
" "Model Release" "Image Provider Award Amount" means a written release signed by or on behalf of any living person or the estate of a deceased person who is depicted in whole or in part in any photographs; "
and
""Award Amount" or "we" means the amount to be paid by the Campaign Tender Holder for an image or images, as the case may be, as specified in a Campaign; "
The word "we" means an amount of money??
The stock site has lots of images with no keywords (tags) at all and very few on lots that I looked it. You probably should consider requiring some keywords before images go live on the site. For example, the image on your home page (which I assume is Santorini) isn't clickable and I couldn't find it searching for Santorini or Greece. If I liked it and wanted to buy it, I think it'd be a good idea to make that easier.
Some images are free - confusingly with three sizes all priced at $0.00 - and some are priced high enough that I think buyers would walk. It's good that you can sort results by price, both high to low and low to high.
It's good to be concerned about photographers, but if you're going to try to license images, you also need to make the site appeal to buyers - otherwise, what's the point? Right now, I'm not seeing anything that isn't already on many other sites already, so what do you think will bring buyers to you? Are you hoping that your contributors will market the site or are you planning to do that? Are you exercising any control over what's uploaded - technical quality, editing or ...? I'm assuming that you aren't - just looking at the images already on the site.
Have you given any thought to how a free-for-all collection with poor keywording, poor search and no new features might make a place for itself among the many other sites that currently license images?
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If you need a place just to display photos, that’s completely free.
So is Flickr, which most people know about; and all the local / 'special interest' groups I'm in are there, so why would one move 'just to display photos'?
And what's in it for you if people use your site 'just to display photos'? (Mind you, I wonder the same about Flickr.)
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There's not even any indication on the image details pages what I would paying money for. It's just an image and some prices next to it.
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Guys,
The stock site has not been formally released to the public. We’re aware of the issues. You guys are the first to see it. The only reason I listed it, is b/c someone wanted to know where the 250k images were. We’re fixing all these issues ASAP.
Does anyone have any feedback on the photographer side? The portfolios? The network? Please let me know.
Best.
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Also,
If anyone wants a free site, for one year, (to take advantage of print provider and e-commerce solution), please PM me or email me at [email protected]. I will upgrade you directly.
Best.
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idea is great...but you guys should fix it :) i'll keep an eye on it..when is fixed i'll upload!
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Does anyone have any thoughts about the stories feature? This feature will hopefully be the best way for photographers to blog about their work online
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http://www.prweb.com/releases/coversplash/2014/prweb11965684.htm (http://www.prweb.com/releases/coversplash/2014/prweb11965684.htm)
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"1. Your Own Website, Free Forever
When interviewed, coversplash co-founder Joe Laresca stated, “We want to do what’s right for the photographer, and not just squeeze every penny out of them like most sites do. That's why we chose to give every photographer their own free website, forever.""
Nothing is 'forever'.
How did you go from beta-not-ready-for-the-public, to ready for press release in a week?
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Strange, I randomly chose few images from different portfolios I could download them all by clicking on "download raw". All is free here?
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I just tried that with a nice landscape from Yves Gagnon - a 4000 x 3000 pixel unwatermarked image was downloaded at a very high quality level - the image was about 5M as a JPEG.
Interesting approach to a photography website...
Steve
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There are still reasons why I wouldn’t upload my images there yet, but I think they have been listening to the stock photographers posting here. I appreciate this. I noticed they got rid of the i button and have made things more intuitive for buyers. “Buy print” is now right next to each image instead of being hidden.
I also don’t understand the “Download Raw.” I don’t want people downloading my image unless they have licensed it. Why would they license it if they can download it for free? Unfortunately, most people would just steal it. Can this be disabled?
I am still waiting for some of the other changes, such as links next to the images to descriptions of the royalty free standard license, watermark options, etc. I think without such things they will have trouble getting stock photographers to upload to their site.
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I also don’t understand the “Download Raw.” I don’t want people downloading my image unless they have licensed it. Why would they license it if they can download it for free? Unfortunately, most people would just steal it. Can this be disabled?
This has been removed. The email check failed inadvertently.
@BD, please let us know any other changes. We encourage your feedback. We are in the process of adding the license descriptions.
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I still don't know what the site is for. I go here:
http://stock.coversplash.com/photo/136830/No+Fishing+Today (http://stock.coversplash.com/photo/136830/No+Fishing+Today)
What am I buying? Am I licensing an image, am I buying a print? Am I buying a screensaver? Where's these portfolio pages? I click on the top left logo and go to: http://stock.photorankr.com/index.php (http://stock.photorankr.com/index.php)
Wow, look at this non-watermarked image at more than 1000x1000: https://photorankr.com/userphotos/alyssaff37f91f90a37de76900dc562cfb77f6.jpg (https://photorankr.com/userphotos/alyssaff37f91f90a37de76900dc562cfb77f6.jpg) Here's a big flower: https://d21z1jiwri71d0.cloudfront.net/userphotos/rose2e1ffd9a03830ab24da537107bd914ba6.jpg (https://d21z1jiwri71d0.cloudfront.net/userphotos/rose2e1ffd9a03830ab24da537107bd914ba6.jpg)
I just don't get it. Looks like a scattershot approach at something, but I'm not sure what. Kind of like a prettier flickr, I guess.
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Our mission is quite simply to create the most beautiful outlet to promote, share, and sell as a photographer. Flickr doesn't do e-commerce at all, personal sites, or licensing. We have all this on one platform on the web for photographers.
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I also don’t understand the “Download Raw.” I don’t want people downloading my image unless they have licensed it. Why would they license it if they can download it for free? Unfortunately, most people would just steal it. Can this be disabled?
This has been removed. The email check failed inadvertently.
@BD, please let us know any other changes. We encourage your feedback. We are in the process of adding the license descriptions.
I sent you a personal message with feedback. Thank you for asking!
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I tried some of my usual searches.
Scotland shows the sort of models I see on and off on MM.
Blue Whale (no quotes) shows random blue stuff, no reference to whales.
"Blue Whale" shows what most other sites show on a search for blue whale without quotes, i.e. any random whale or whale shark with blue water/sky/whatever.
More generally, once you have made a search, e.g. apple, and are on a page with apples, there is another search box on the top of the page, which doesn't seem to work, either for initiating a new search, or for moderating the search you're on.
Honestly, the single best thing a new site could offer is an excellent search engine from the outset - it will never be done retrospectively.
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We're working on adding some advanced computer vision technology to our search, ShadySue. I'll let you know when it's released.
Any other questions? Please let me know! We appreciate your feedback and I'll update everyone, when we make some of the changes mentioned.