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Poll

How do you sell your stock images direct?

Ktools store
9 (8.3%)
avidimages
3 (2.8%)
photoshelter
7 (6.4%)
clustershot
7 (6.4%)
something else...
23 (21.1%)
I don't and don't see the point
10 (9.2%)
I wish I did
50 (45.9%)

Total Members Voted: 98

Author Topic: Places and ways to sell your images direct  (Read 33219 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

« Reply #25 on: May 17, 2011, 12:44 »
0
Interesting story, Jeff. Thanks for sharing it. It makes me wish I was an event photographer. Actually, I take that back. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy that.  ;D

 :D, that is why my wife and I no longer do wedding photography. Couple years ago we did over 30 weddings all during the "wedding season" and after that we no longer wanted to do it. Nothing ever went bad or anything like that, but just the overall experience turned us away from doing it any more. That is a whole different topic  ;D


helix7

« Reply #26 on: May 17, 2011, 16:01 »
0
I use e-junkie to handle sales logistics, and a custom-built website houses the whole thing. http://www.emberstock.com

I just recently moved everything to that new domain, which more appropriately matches my design business name and web domain.

It works for the small number of items I have there, although I hope to grow the store to around 20 items in the next few months, and for selling individual photos it wouldn't work. But for what I'm doing, I like this solution best. It's a work in progress, also. A little sparse on content and SEO, but it should be more complete in a few weeks.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2011, 16:03 by helix7 »

lisafx

« Reply #27 on: May 17, 2011, 17:07 »
0
Site looks great so far, Mike!  The landing page displays your graphics nicely, and pricing is clear and unambiguous. 

First time I have seen the pricing displayed that way on any site - you can sort of pick your price right away and begin exploring.  Good way to avoid surprising or confusing your buyers.  You vector guys have a lot more flexibility in the ways you can present your product, I think, than we photo people. 

BTW, your new avatar really threw me off.  Looks good, but will take some getting used to.  You've been that helix shape for quite a few years!

helix7

« Reply #28 on: May 17, 2011, 20:39 »
0
Thanks, Lisa. It does seem like with vectors there are a few more options with how you can sell them. I think packaging photos together like I'm doing with my vectors could work, though. Sort of like what Getty and some other companies do with image CDs. Put together 50 or so images in a group based on a theme and sell them that way. Not sure it would work, but it could be interesting.

What really drew me to packaging images like this was just that I didn't want to offer exactly the same thing I offer on agency websites. At least with these packs I am sort of rebranding the product and it looks different. It's also a better value for the buyer as opposed to buying single images at the agencies, and my intended price point will put more money in my pocket for each sale. I'm not at my intended pricing yet, and I'm launching with lower prices to try and generate some traffic.

Yeah, the new avatar feels a bit strange. I need to get used to it also. :) But it seemed like it was time. Launching the new website, getting back into stock after 6 months off, etc.

« Reply #29 on: May 17, 2011, 22:11 »
0
I use e-junkie to handle sales logistics, and a custom-built website houses the whole thing. http://www.emberstock.com


Im digging the site! good luck with your venture and keep us updated on your success! I plan to do that in a year or two with my vectors.

RacePhoto

« Reply #30 on: May 18, 2011, 02:37 »
0
I use e-junkie to handle sales logistics, and a custom-built website houses the whole thing. http://www.emberstock.com


Im digging the site! good luck with your venture and keep us updated on your success! I plan to do that in a year or two with my vectors.


Me Too, nice looking site and just what it should be, fast and up front, says everything about itself on the front page. Good grab.

« Reply #31 on: May 18, 2011, 09:50 »
0
Thanks, Lisa. It does seem like with vectors there are a few more options with how you can sell them. I think packaging photos together like I'm doing with my vectors could work, though. Sort of like what Getty and some other companies do with image CDs. Put together 50 or so images in a group based on a theme and sell them that way. Not sure it would work, but it could be interesting.

What really drew me to packaging images like this was just that I didn't want to offer exactly the same thing I offer on agency websites. At least with these packs I am sort of rebranding the product and it looks different. It's also a better value for the buyer as opposed to buying single images at the agencies, and my intended price point will put more money in my pocket for each sale. I'm not at my intended pricing yet, and I'm launching with lower prices to try and generate some traffic.

Yeah, the new avatar feels a bit strange. I need to get used to it also. :) But it seemed like it was time. Launching the new website, getting back into stock after 6 months off, etc.

The site looks good. Yeah, I agree. Offering things that the other agencies don't is a good idea.

« Reply #32 on: May 18, 2011, 11:57 »
0
I agree and it looks really nice.  I'd like to do that with mine one of these days but licensing options throw me off a bit.  How did you come up with your license agreement?

helix7

« Reply #33 on: May 18, 2011, 13:43 »
0
I agree and it looks really nice.  I'd like to do that with mine one of these days but licensing options throw me off a bit.  How did you come up with your license agreement?

It's just a standard RF license. Basically I read through some licenses at various microstock agencies and sort of pieced mine together from that. At least in terms of the language used. The actual terms of sale are my own, and while they generally coincide with the usual RF terms I tried to write mine to be a little more understandable. I used some specific examples (you can't use my images on anything for sale at CafePress or Zazzle), and tried to make it more easily understood. I think mine is also a lot shorter than most. I doubt very many people actually read these things anyway, so I figured I wouldn't make the document look too intimidating, if at all possible. It's still a long read, but not as bad as most microstock RF license agreements.   

« Reply #34 on: May 18, 2011, 14:03 »
0
Thanks for clarifying that for me.  I wasn't sure if it was something standard on the ejunkie site that you could change.  I just need to figure out how I'm going to do it all on my own site.  Prolly have to sit down with a notebook and plan it all out.

Thanks again :)

Microbius

« Reply #35 on: August 03, 2011, 03:39 »
0
another one: stockmediaengine.com
Sounds like they bill on bandwidth usage?

TheSmilingAssassin

    This user is banned.
« Reply #36 on: August 03, 2011, 07:51 »
0
another one: stockmediaengine.com
Sounds like they bill on bandwidth usage?


Not just bandwidth...


[/quote]Pricing depends on your needs. With StockMediaEngine, you only pay for the resources you use. As your business grows, you can easily scale up your resources. You can set a limit for the resources your system will use. And you can set a monthly fee limit.

These are the factors that will determine the fee:
Edition
Hits per month
Active users per month
Uploads per month
Amount of content
Bandwidth per month

We send you a bill each month with full details on the resources you have used, and you prepay for the following month based on this usage. At the end of the month we then calculate the difference and bill or refund you accordingly. Payment is expected within 2 months of the date of billing.

So that you have a guide, we can estimate your monthly fee based on your needs. If you would like this estimate, please fill out the following details and we will contact you with the details.[/quote]

http://stockmediaengine.com/pricing/

There's no real indication at all unless someone asks for a quote.

« Reply #37 on: August 03, 2011, 22:13 »
0
another one: stockmediaengine.com
Sounds like they bill on bandwidth usage?

Maybe it's me, but I was having trouble finding any concrete details on the site. I'm curious though, so I'll have to fire off a contact form.

« Reply #38 on: August 03, 2011, 22:33 »
0
I think I contacted them a while ago and I got back a version of "we're redoing our script so we have nothing to offer right now."

But I could be misremembering that.

Microbius

« Reply #39 on: August 04, 2011, 02:29 »
0
It is very odd that you don't even get a ballpark figure on the site.

« Reply #40 on: August 04, 2011, 10:58 »
0
Looking back in my email, I did request a demo from them recently, and here's what I got back:

Hi,

I must apologize. We cannot provide you with Stock Media Engine demo for now.
The reason is that we have started major rewrite of our software and there is still no demonstrable version of it.

Nevertheless we can dive into discussion about what you need and what we'll be able to help you with.

Regards,

Ivan.


So nothing to see.

« Reply #41 on: August 04, 2011, 11:24 »
0
Looking back in my email, I did request a demo from them recently, and here's what I got back:

Hi,

I must apologize. We cannot provide you with Stock Media Engine demo for now.
The reason is that we have started major rewrite of our software and there is still no demonstrable version of it.

Nevertheless we can dive into discussion about what you need and what we'll be able to help you with.

Regards,

Ivan.

So nothing to see.

You'd think with the testimonials, they'd at least have a site or two to see their stuff in action.

Microbius

« Reply #42 on: August 04, 2011, 15:05 »
0
Starting to look very odd. You'd think at least they could point you to a site that utilizes their software.

« Reply #43 on: October 05, 2011, 00:07 »
0
Hi everybody,

Now it's my turn to share something, not just silently read  :)

I tried to setup my site on Photoshelter (PS) with sales possibilities as a first priority. It was rather expensive - 29$/month - but I decided to try it for a while. So, site is working for two month. It contains my selected galleries of RF images, you may check it at newbielink:http://www.SergeyOrlovPhoto.com [nonactive]. So, here are some positives and negatives I have so far.

Negatives:
- (Very important). The structure of PS allows for you to use your own domain, but only at the home page and some other high-level pages. Every photo, every internal page has it's own, Photoshelter-related address, like SergeyOrlovPhoto.photoshelter.com. So, all the efforts I spent for SEO, it seems that I promote PS domain, but not my own! There is an explanation for that from the PS Team, but it gives me nothing when I compare it with another photo-hosting sites like Zenfolio with own domain direct links to everything except for shopping cart.

- (Roadblock for me, but it doesn't directly related to PS). I live in Russia, and PayPal doesn't allow us to receive money in any kind. Period. Another payment option - merchant account - requires some monthly paiment, which is not really an option. PS doesn't allow and have no plans to implement another payment providers like MoneyBookers, for example. (By the way, MB rebranded to Skrill, do you know?).

- Well, cost. The most expensive in the category.

Positives:
- Simple, straightforward process of setting up everything. I finished the site during less than one week.

- Really nice looking initial templates.

- Great responsible support.

Well, maybe my opinion about PS is little biased because of mentioned negatives, but the overall conclusion I have so far that PS is the most advertised and expensive photohosting... which hardly help me to sell images direct. I will look forward for another solutions. Hope this post will help to someone else.

« Reply #44 on: October 05, 2011, 06:07 »
0
I just got my little stock photo site up
http://stock.simplefoto.com

I decided to go with photodeck.  I like their back end quite a bit and they make it quite easy to edit how your site looks.  They even have a wordpress template exporter if you want to try and make your blog and sales sites look similar.  They also apparently don't have the URL problems that serg269 mentioned PhotoShelter has.

Pricing is pretty on par with PhotoShelter, except one advantage (one of the deciding factors for me) was they take 0% commission on sales, you just pay your monthly fees.  Still, $30/month is plenty for the medium priced package.... I guess I'll see if I can manage to drum up any sales there.

« Reply #45 on: October 05, 2011, 06:32 »
0
... hey, I just had a little sale.  Is someone toying with me??? :)

michealo

« Reply #46 on: October 05, 2011, 07:25 »
0
Do these services have a standard license for RF images or are you creating your own?

« Reply #47 on: October 05, 2011, 07:31 »
0
Do these services have a standard license for RF images or are you creating your own?

You can set the licensing details to whatever you want (RF, RM or something you make up yourself :)), they also have a default license that you can just click and apply.

« Reply #48 on: October 05, 2011, 07:39 »
0
I just got my little stock photo site up
http://stock.simplefoto.com


Leaf, I can see a display bug on your site using Chrome (13.0.782) : the roll-over previews of all your images appear as a vertical slice (crop) of the intended preview. I tried with IE and Firefox, the previews are displayed correctly. Just wanted to let you know so that you can try it by yourself and eventually contact Photodeck. If you can't reproduce the problem and need a screenshot, let me know.
Erick

« Reply #49 on: October 05, 2011, 08:13 »
0
The site looks good.  I just don't like the thought that if I was selling $25 a month, I would be losing $5 a month and all the time spent doing the site.  If these sites could make $100 a month, it would be more worthwhile but I don't see people achieving that on a regular basis.


 

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