bad: not a single sale; but I only started one month ago - too soon to tell

I am selling (well, trying to) almost directly, with photoshelter

the positive thing is that - while getting ready - I went through my whole port choosing only the best pictures and improving keywording; now I have a perfect selection, already online and ready to ftp with a single click to the next big site which will pop up - not that I see any at present

Things have been solid. My site turns one next month, and I've had a handful of sales every month. It doesn't take too many though to put together a decent month. Traffic is slowly picking up, but I need to do more promotion as well. Overall, I'm happy with the decision to open it. It's been a lot of work, but I'm excited about the future of it.

Nice site! Clean, simple, love it - bookmarked and next time I need an illustration I'll be sure to visit.

Great! Thanks. Just let me know if you need any help finding anything or have any questions.

8 months on a Smugmug without any sale... For now I am in deep minus...
Probably I will wait end of this year and ....

I'm on Photoshelter with a couple hundred images as RM and/or print. Some of it is regional stuff that would never sell on a stock site and some is typical stock. I've had quite a few inquiries and several sales that have more than paid for the service. Plus I get most of the money and at a higher sale amount.

But, I've also spent a lot of time on SEO. And I, along with a lot of other Photoshelter users, just took a massive traffic hit from what looks like the recent Google Panda algorithm update. With your own site you're still at the mercy of search engine changes.

So, it's definitely showing potential. And while I like Photoshelter I'm looking into independent platforms like Ktools where I get 100% of revenue and have total control of my content to backup and move the entire system to a different host if necessary. With Photoshelter, if they go out of business you're back to square one with everything including your search engine placement.

 

I have only had a handful of sales so far, after several months online.  At the rate I'm going it will be a decade or better before I recover my costs

If I had it to do over again, I would go with Photoshelter, rather than start from scratch with Ktools.  I would have saved a lot of money, and had the advantage of being searchable across the PS website. 

Even so, I am glad I started my site.  I view this as a long term investment, rather than a short term moneymaker. 

Hi Lisa!

At photoshelter do you use your own webbsite or do they create one? 

best.

As I understand it, you use Photoshelter's templates to set up your site on their servers.  I don't know if you can migrate an existing site to PS though, after it's built. 

Someone who is on PS could probably chime in here with more useful info...

Yes, it's their servers and their backend commerce system. You can either use one of their templates or you can create/use your own design with your own website address. Only the more expensive plans allow total customization. Base plan only includes a basic template and their website address like yoursite.photoshelter.com. But even the base plan functionality is pretty slick.

Quite well actually, several sales a month, better than expected provided we didn't really do much advertising. Since you don't give a lion's share of image price to the agency, you don't need that many sales. We started February this year and so far are "in the black". I wouldn't call it real profit, but site definitely pays for itself, and I also find it very useful to point people to when they ask me about my work.

I've made my initial investment back, so it wasn't a complete bust.

I like Photoshelter. I've sold some stock and use it all the time to get clients and share photos with them. I just used one of their templates and it's been working well for me.
I have two web addresses that point there and they were inexpensive to buy through godaddy.com. And I haven't done any marketing or advertising yet.
You have many templates to choose from and can customize them as much or as little as you want. As long as you have a paid account (not just the most expensive one), I believe that it's completely customizable, and even without the pro account you can have your own web address, sell prints, RM and RF licenses and other items directly.
I haven't done any advertising and was getting a lot of traffic until the latest Google change, (still getting traffic from all over the world, just not as much). I believe PS is working on figuring out how to overcome the latest issues. They also have free webinars on SEO, customization, what buyers want, etc. - very helpful. And you can talk to a real person there too.
And you can use it to back up files - even RAW files. You can have private and public galleries, and you can put your best photos in your gallery and set it up so people can search those galleries and everything else you want to license from your site (even photos that aren't featured in a gallery). They have the architecture set up for print, RM and RF sales - all the back end you'd have to build if you had your own site.
You can see my site here www.campyphotos.com
And if you sign up, please consider using this link: http://www.photoshelter.com/referral/MA2CA7TC7J Thanks!
Check it out and I think you might find it's a good solution.
Feel free to ask other questions via the board or PM
-Marianne

it seems not much people talking about photodeck, www.photodeck.com

it is similar to photoshelter in some ways, but there is no commission charge for sales and i like the clean and cool interface.

here is a code, if you use it u got 50% discount. It got RM price algorithm and you can simply choose RF license template.

YG@UNMKGW

it seems not much people talking about photodeck, www.photodeck.com

it is similar to photoshelter in some ways, but there is no commission charge for sales and i like the clean and cool interface.

here is a code, if you use it u got 50% discount. It got RM price algorithm and you can simply choose RF license template.

YG@UNMKGW

Do they offer FTP out?
Beside potential sales, at least it's useful to upload entire port in no time to new sites.
Photoshelter has it, although excess bandwidth is a bit expensive.

photodeck do has ftp, and the images with right 'title' keywords are picking up by google images..

It is a stable site, and if you have direct customers then it is perfect, since no commission charge for any sale, you can just ask your customer to browse your site..

the coupon code 50% discount of first month..
YG@UNMKGW

or just simply try for free for 7 days?, but you will lose the discount..

Quote from: mtkang on November 02, 2011, 22:12

it seems not much people talking about photodeck, www.photodeck.com

it is similar to photoshelter in some ways, but there is no commission charge for sales and i like the clean and cool interface.

here is a code, if you use it u got 50% discount. It got RM price algorithm and you can simply choose RF license template.

YG@UNMKGW

Do they offer FTP out?
Beside potential sales, at least it's useful to upload entire port in no time to new sites.
Photoshelter has it, although excess bandwidth is a bit expensive.

hi cthoman,

it is jpg and i think video files only. The owner is always answering your questions through email.

Quote from: mtkang on December 06, 2011, 10:43

photodeck do has ftp, and the images with right 'title' keywords are picking up by google images..

It is a stable site, and if you have direct customers then it is perfect, since no commission charge for any sale, you can just ask your customer to browse your site..

the coupon code 50% discount of first month..
YG@UNMKGW

or just simply try for free for 7 days?, but you will lose the discount..

Do they allow vectors or is it just jpegs?