Author Topic: Catalog Manager - New toys for the contributer (Read 12470 times)

leaf · « **on:** October 06, 2011, 14:59 »

Shutterstock just released a new toy for us, Catalog Manager

In short, it lets you create collections that you can share with buyers (and it automatically includes a referral link), watch your earnings on that set, or lets you easily edit image details from the set. nice.

and on their blog a little more news
http://buzz.shutterstock.com/new-catalog-manager

jm · « **Reply #1 on:** October 06, 2011, 16:04 »

Finally I can check earnings from vectors and photos separately.
It's great that there are the sites that put their effort into something useful instead of fighting with contributors.

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #2 on:** October 06, 2011, 16:16 »

It's a great tool, really!

I see a lot of possible uses:
1. to check earnings from a session, a trip;
2. to share earnings with a model (I know most photographers don't do that, but I don't usually do people photography and my only models are my friends, it's nice to share something with them);
3. to check total earnings from a category (e.g. architecture, food, ...)

Wish list:
- automatically add new pictures to a set based on a specific keyword

luissantos84 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 06, 2011, 17:01 »

really cool stuff, SS keep on surprising us

dirkr · « **Reply #4 on:** October 06, 2011, 17:12 »

Nice tool. Would be cool if published collections were searchable for buyers (maybe need to add a few keywords to a collection, then it would automatically show in a search for those).

MatHayward · « **Reply #5 on:** October 06, 2011, 17:33 »

This is so cool. I can't wait to play with it.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2011, 18:02 »

Quote from: MatHayward on October 06, 2011, 17:33

This is so cool. I can't wait to play with it.

I find the limit of five a good thing, or I may be caught up making sets until 2AM.

Is this cool? YES = Catalog Manager

I did, best sellers "top ten photos", Illustrations, Cars, Food and Drink. The interesting part was when I did the tracking and looked at where the income was coming from. Unfortunately having some ELs where one image sold once, kind of makes it look better than it is. While something with 100+ downloads doesn't earn as much income. But that's the way "most popular" works. Tracking earnings by sets is a nice idea.

Please SS make an exclusive RF artist agreement so I can give up on all the rest.

lthn · « **Reply #7 on:** October 06, 2011, 18:12 »

A bit buggy for me, a whole page worth of new uploads do not show in the manager. Also would be nice, and probably pretty simple to implement: earnings by model. A little app would easily sort it out from the attached model releases... or just sorting pics by model release, so we can make sets.

Anita Potter · « **Reply #8 on:** October 06, 2011, 18:15 »

You can track up to 5 sets on your stats page but you can make more sets for your port and can track them from the Catalog Manager.

I find that it works better in Firefox than IE unless you're in Firefox then ignore this sentence :p

Batman · « **Reply #9 on:** October 06, 2011, 20:29 »

Quote from: lthn on October 06, 2011, 18:12

A bit buggy for me, a whole page worth of new uploads do not show in the manager. Also would be nice, and probably pretty simple to implement: earnings by model. A little app would easily sort it out from the attached model releases... or just sorting pics by model release, so we can make sets.

Do you like anything.

Morphart · « **Reply #10 on:** October 06, 2011, 21:30 »

We can't deny Shutterstock is always one step ahead.

It seems so easy and intuitive to use, eager to start working with this!!

disorderly · « **Reply #11 on:** October 06, 2011, 22:04 »

It's a great start. I can see a bunch of enhancements, like filtering by model release so I can create per-shoot or per-model sets, and filtering just images that aren't in a set yet. But it gives me answers that would have taken a lot of work before. One more reason to like Shutterstock (other than the facts that they make me money and don't tick me off).

Ed · « **Reply #12 on:** October 06, 2011, 22:32 »

I saw this and my initial impression was "cool - I want to make a new catalog for each model I have so I can promote them in every situation that i've photographed them in"...and then I realized I'm limited to 5 options. I need to figure out how to best optimize the opportunity - I think some thinking is required over the weekend.

rinderart · « **Reply #13 on:** October 07, 2011, 00:22 »

Excellent.

disorderly · « **Reply #14 on:** October 07, 2011, 00:44 »

Quote from: Ed on October 06, 2011, 22:32

I saw this and my initial impression was "cool - I want to make a new catalog for each model I have so I can promote them in every situation that i've photographed them in"...and then I realized I'm limited to 5 options. I need to figure out how to best optimize the opportunity - I think some thinking is required over the weekend.

You can only have 5 on your tracking page, but you can have a lot more defined within the Catalog Manager. I'm thinking I'll define a whole bunch of sets and then change the five I track periodically based on which ones generate the most income.

ayzek · « **Reply #15 on:** October 07, 2011, 01:01 »

Really like that.
Also needs sets filter. images in sets should be sets color or thicked while you are looking whole catalog.

lthn · « **Reply #16 on:** October 07, 2011, 03:38 »

Quote from: Batman on October 06, 2011, 20:29

Quote from: lthn on October 06, 2011, 18:12
A bit buggy for me, a whole page worth of new uploads do not show in the manager. Also would be nice, and probably pretty simple to implement: earnings by model. A little app would easily sort it out from the attached model releases... or just sorting pics by model release, so we can make sets.

Do you like anything.

Why are you so negative? I do like this.

tiero · « **Reply #17 on:** October 07, 2011, 03:45 »

Quote from: Morphart on October 06, 2011, 21:30

We can't deny Shutterstock is always one step ahead.

It seems so easy and intuitive to use, eager to start working with this!!

+1

leaf · « **Reply #18 on:** October 07, 2011, 03:48 »

Quote from: lthn on October 07, 2011, 03:38

Quote from: Batman on October 06, 2011, 20:29
Quote from: lthn on October 06, 2011, 18:12
A bit buggy for me, a whole page worth of new uploads do not show in the manager. Also would be nice, and probably pretty simple to implement: earnings by model. A little app would easily sort it out from the attached model releases... or just sorting pics by model release, so we can make sets.

Do you like anything.

Why are you so negative? I do like this.

I agree, earnings by model sorting would be really great to have.

dreamstock · « **Reply #19 on:** October 07, 2011, 04:55 »

very nice! SS will be the industry leader in no time.

Sandralise · « **Reply #20 on:** October 07, 2011, 09:10 »

I like it a lot. Very useful to see which keywords are used for finding your images.
I actually like it just for the fact it shows what are your strongest selling images put in categories. I always suspected mine were Christmas and seasonal images! Guess that's why I always have a huge jump in sales from Sept to Dec.

Carl · « **Reply #21 on:** October 07, 2011, 09:22 »

This is one sweet piece of programming! I'm finding it very useful!

lirch · « **Reply #22 on:** October 07, 2011, 09:22 »

SS rules, as usual.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #23 on:** October 07, 2011, 10:02 »

Looks neat. I wish IS would get its act together.

cobalt · « **Reply #24 on:** October 07, 2011, 10:08 »

Yes, SS contributors get the world map, the catalog manager - I wish istock offered us tools like that.

I also wish istock came up with them first...

gostwyck · « **Reply #25 on:** October 07, 2011, 10:43 »

Quote from: cobalt on October 07, 2011, 10:08

Yes, SS contributors get the world map, the catalog manager - I wish istock offered us tools like that.

I also wish istock came up with them first...

That's because Istock spend all their time and (our) money giving holidays to inspectors and the 'in-crowd' in Milan, London, Tokyo, etc.

fujiko · « **Reply #26 on:** October 07, 2011, 10:47 »

Quote from: gostwyck on October 07, 2011, 10:43

Quote from: cobalt on October 07, 2011, 10:08
Yes, SS contributors get the world map, the catalog manager - I wish istock offered us tools like that.

I also wish istock came up with them first...

That's because Istock spend all their time and (our) money giving holidays to inspectors and the 'in-crowd' in Milan, London, Tokyo, etc.

Istock created F5! It is awesome! And worth of a royalty cut to pay for it!

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #27 on:** October 07, 2011, 11:40 »

@fujiko - I sincerely hope you're joking.

iStock is still struggling to answer a simple buyer question about whether a clipping path is included with all file sizes or just medium or up (or just the largest size). It's more the fact that they can't answer the question about how their own site works that I find so pitiful.

iStock help forum has people commenting that the search index hasn't updated - earlier this week I had a sale on an image that was approved earlier in the day. If SS can do that, why does iStock routinely take 48 hours or more to update theirs?

If it weren't for Sean's greasemonkey scripts, the iStock my uploads page would be unusable in its latest form.

iStock's software department is a complete shambles, but in addition, they do things like work on a Feast site, and supposedly on supporting PNGs (today's contact sheet had a "we really are still working on this" update for all those who figures that PNGs have gone the way of logos). Heaven knows what will eventually happen to Logos, and although we're forced into the PP there's no sign of independent content actually go there (they said it'd take to the end of the year).

iStock used to lead the way with new features (some of them like the forumeter too awful to continue) but that was when someone who gave a toss about the future of the business was running it (as opposed to the current owners who only care about how much money they can draw from it this year and next).

fujiko · « **Reply #28 on:** October 07, 2011, 12:01 »

Quote from: jsnover on October 07, 2011, 11:40

@fujiko - I sincerely hope you're joking.

Yes, I was joking.

Quote

iStock help forum has people commenting that the search index hasn't updated - earlier this week I had a sale on an image that was approved earlier in the day. If SS can do that, why does iStock routinely take 48 hours or more to update theirs?

I believe that the explanation is that their system is so much more complicated than SS because of their many fine tunes, adjustments and modifications to bias the site to the content they want to sell that it's now a huge elephant in a glassware store. Too many conflicting interests and biases that make a mess of the site's code.
I also believe that they create new sites because of this. It's more efficient to create something new rather than try to clean the trunk of the elephant without breaking anything.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #29 on:** October 07, 2011, 12:03 »

Quote from: cobalt on October 07, 2011, 10:08

Yes, SS contributors get the world map, the catalog manager - I wish istock offered us tools like that.

I also wish istock came up with them first...

I think the time when iStock was innovative are firmly in the past now - except, perhaps, for what goes on on the accounting side.

NancyCWalker · « **Reply #30 on:** October 07, 2011, 14:54 »

Love the new catalog manager. So simple to use, and it's two clicks to publish on Twitter and Facebook with a referral link.

Morphart · « **Reply #31 on:** October 07, 2011, 15:32 »

Quote from: Ed on October 06, 2011, 22:32

I saw this and my initial impression was "cool - I want to make a new catalog for each model I have so I can promote them in every situation that i've photographed them in"...and then I realized I'm limited to 5 options. I need to figure out how to best optimize the opportunity - I think some thinking is required over the weekend.

You are limited to 5? I don't think so I think you can ''promote'' any number of catalog, but you are only limited to 5 in viewing the earning in your Dashboard?

Carl · « **Reply #32 on:** October 07, 2011, 22:33 »

I'm not sure what referring to by "option." If you mean "sets," I have 17, most of which contain shots of a particular model, and all of which have been published.

gaja · « **Reply #33 on:** October 08, 2011, 08:01 »

Very useful toy. I would have preferred that the values listed were "total earned", RPI and RPD. I know I can calculate them myself, but it would make it easier to see what kind of shoot was more profitable, without doing math.

cthoman · « **Reply #34 on:** October 08, 2011, 11:18 »

Nice set of tools. I don't see using it very much, but interesting idea.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #35 on:** October 08, 2011, 11:25 »

I like the tool, although I'd love to see some more refinements. They did a great job putting this together, and I do hope they'll keep improving it.

So if I create a set with images selected, it puts them in the set automatically. That's good, but Lightroom has a great feature with a checkbox for including the selected images - in case the selection and set have nothing to do with one another.

I'd love to have the catalog sortable by sales volume, $$, date so I can see if there's one star image or a bunch of good performers. You can click on the gallery stats and get a new window, but that's not sortable by earnings, only by downloads and date; it's also impossible to see most sets in their entirety in the gallery stats view as each entry takes up a ton of space. Nothing like as nice as the newer catalog set window.

I'd like to see icons in the corner (again like Lightroom) for images that are in a set and if you click & hold on that it tells you which set. You might not want to have an image in multiple sets and seeing that you'd already put the image somewhere would be helpful.

I guess the biggie is I'd like any image that is in a set to have a link on the page the customer sees to the rest of the set. It's not what the tool was designed for, but I think it'd work well to show buyers related images (without the stats obviously).

pancaketom · « **Reply #36 on:** October 08, 2011, 12:09 »

I agree w/ jsnover - a good tool but a few refinements would help even more. I'd like to be able to sort by $ and not just dl #s (for all the darkroom stuff).

I like the idea of something on an image page that says "this image is in the X lightbox - click here to see that lightbox". Maybe only for lightboxes you select to be linked lightboxes, that way if you set up a lightbox to show somebody something it won't necessarily show up this way unless you want it to.

Carl · « **Reply #37 on:** October 08, 2011, 18:49 »

I don't see my latest batch, approved on Oct 4, in the catalog manager. Hmmmmmm.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #38 on:** October 10, 2011, 07:18 »

Quote from: csproductions on October 08, 2011, 18:49

I don't see my latest batch, approved on Oct 4, in the catalog manager. Hmmmmmm.

That was my next stop, mine aren't showing up either, (in catalog manager) but when I go to the regular buyers site, a search by keywords, they are for sale. Same problem with newly accepted files, disappearing from our own section. I hope they get that fixed soon. It doesn't seem to hurt anything but it is disconcerting.

I was out of town for the weekend. Everything is now available in all areas and the new files are added to the Catalog for tracking.

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Author Topic: Catalog Manager - New toys for the contributer (Read 12470 times)

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