In December I started a thread about how maybe the ship was sailing for SF, and the opportunity to break into the market may have begun to pass.

Less than half a year later, I'm looking at the possibility of making a full payout ($50) within the span of a single month. Surely nothing to get all excited about yet, but it's progress.

Alongside this change, we're talking about the SS IPO, Fotolia selling a stake in the company, the downward spiral of iStock, and the rest of the generally-bad news of the microstock business. Even things at the usually great SS seem to be going in the other direction for some. I'm reading reports of down earnings, search change problems, etc.

And the general consensus is that we can't do much about any of this.

I suggested in another thread that the only way to change the course of things in this business would be through the emergence of a company that has the full support of the microstock community. I have an idea in mind of what the perfect microstock company would look like, but since I lack the millions of dollars required to start such a company, I'd like to suggest that we all consider throwing some additional support behind StockFresh.

Here's the idea:

SF is one of the few companies around that believes in fair compensation for contributors along side fair and understandable pricing for buyers. Best of both worlds, in my opinion. For those not currently contributing to SF, it's a 50% minimum royalty rate on single-image sales, with prices ranging from 1 to 20 credits, and credit prices being $1 or less. Discounts are absorbed by the company, not the contributors. Subscriptions pay out $0.35 per sale. Not quite as good as the $0.38 SS pays, but not bad either.

I think SF has the potential to be a game-changing company. In some ways, I think their faults actually work in their favor. The most common criticisms of SF are the slow progress and growth, and the bitterness some contributors feel over the whole StockXpert purchase and dismantling. The slow growth is frustrating, for sure. But the benefit of it is that SF doesn't have investors to answer to. There's no big marketing budget because there are no investors injecting funds into the company and looking to pull out a profit in a few years. And the StockXpert issue is a non-issue, I think. I get the impression that Peter and the team didn't want to see StockXpert go down the way it did any more than we did, and they probably wouldn't take SF down the same road.

There's also an issue of application review times, which is understandably frustrating but I'm hoping that SF staff can address this problem soon. More on this at the end of this post.

On the plus side, I think SF is the most promising company around today. Look at the alternatives. SS has an extremely uncertain future. The istock business model is so screwed up I doubt they'll ever make a come-back. DT, FT, who knows. But I don't see any reason to expect any growth there. From the middle-tier and low-tier companies, there are a few bright lights but no real stand-outs.

In a business where the list of companies you'd rather not support is far longer than the list of companies you like, it's easy to get caught up in the negatives. Let's face it: most of what we discuss in here is bad news. I think it's time we put a little of our community strength to good use and get behind a company that is trying to do things right, even if they're going about it in an unconventional way.

We're always talking about what other companies do wrong. SF is doing a lot right. Good business model, good rates, good prices, no investors. That's what we always hope for, right? So why aren't we all uploading everything we've got and screaming at people to buy there?

I know it's an investment of time, at a company that might not show a return for a while. But maybe "a while" can be closer than we think. In a forum post at SF, Peter mentioned that he expects the company to be profitable within a year. That's impressive for a microstock company. Earnings are slowly picking up. I'm hoping for my second payout within a few weeks. I think my effort has been covered at SF, the time I've put in so far has resulted in some earnings that at least make the couple hours of uploading worthwhile. And frankly, at this point what do we have to lose? I'm not seeing any better options anywhere else.

So to the point of my overly-dramatic thread title... I'd like to suggest a collective "call to arms" and community effort to throw some more support behind StockFresh. How do we do this, you might ask?

Here's what I suggest:

1. If you're not already uploading to StockFresh, do it. If you're already uploading, upload your full portfolio.

2. Tell people about SF. I talk to buyers all the time. I know I can influence some of them to try other sites, especially those coming from istock and being tired of the high prices. When people ask about alternatives, SF should be one of them. It might not be right for every buyer yet, as the collection is fairly small, but it's worth a try.

3. Promote online. I put most of my recent work in a flickr account, watermarked of course, and in the description I link to the corresponding image page at SF. I then promote those flickr images in flickr groups, and most of the time I can get an image a couple hundred views within a few weeks. I noticed an immediate increase in views and sales at SF when I started doing this a few months ago, and I'm sure it helps.

Beyond flickr, use whatever means you have to spread the word. SF is one of the few sites that can legitimately be called a "fair trade" site, and more contributors should know about that and why it's important. Blog about it, post on facebook, twitter, etc.

A small request to StockFresh staff

Hopefully Peter or someone from SF will read this. And hopefully they'll be inspired by what I hope will be more support behind this idea in the form of encouraging posts. But I couldn't ask all of this of the community without asking for a little help from SF as well.

There are people who want to support SF, but haven't had the chance. Or people who have tried and gave up. You guys need to get the applications review issue fixed. If somehow SF doesn't work out, it will be the worst way to go down if the reason ends up being that you didn't get enough contributor support, and too many contributors were left at the door wanting to get in but unable to simply because of the lack of ability to adequately review applications. And I'm not saying that you should let everyone in. I'm sure there will always be some applications that should rightfully be refused. But there have been some talented folks left hanging with applications going unreviewed for months at a time. We've got to get that handled somehow.

So that's the idea. Let me know what you think. I'm open to criticism. If you think SF is the worst company to get behind, I'm all ears. This is just my opinion, and SF is where I personally feel compelled to focus my efforts in terms of small start-up companies. I hope many of you will consider doing the same. It's so easy to get caught up in the negatives of this business and to think that we can't do anything to change the trajectory of microstock. I truly believe that the right company can be the game-changer, though, and maybe SF could become that company. They're not perfect, but they've got a lot going for them. I'd like to see SF in that Top Tier list, and I think that collectively we can help make that happen.

So why aren't we all uploading everything we've got and screaming at people to buy there?

Probably because everyone figures they'll just get screwed by them eventually too?

Quote from: helix7 on May 17, 2012, 08:29

So why aren't we all uploading everything we've got and screaming at people to buy there?

Probably because everyone figures they'll just get screwed by them eventually too?

Everyone got screwed by Jupiter and Getty. StockXpert was sold to Jupiter. At that point, they had no say in where the site ended up, and my understanding is that the StockXpert team believed the site would remain intact and operational under Jupiter. It wasn't until Getty got their hands on it that it fell apart.

I thought the owners had a big lump of cash that they got from StockXpert. If they don't believe enough in the new site to spend on marketing, why should I? Rhetorical question, really; support them if you like but with their current performance I can find better things to do with the time.

I thought the owners had a big lump of cash that they got from StockXpert. If they don't believe enough in the new site to spend on marketing, why should I? Rhetorical question, really; support them if you like but with their current performance I can find better things to do with the time.

Like what? Hang out in the forums and complain about all the negatives in this business? And I'm not directing that at you specifically. I'm as guilty of that as anyone. Start a thread about something istock is doing wrong and I'm there.

I'm just saying, it's easy to sit around and chat about everything going wrong in microstock these days, and no doubt I'm a part of that as well. As a change of pace, though, I think it might be worthwhile to put a little time into something potentially positive. Even if it's a long shot, it's time better spent than time in here talking about everything going wrong and how we can't do much about it. This is something we can do, and it might have a positive impact on us and on the business.

It's impressive that you're seeing good results at StockFresh.  I'm not; I've made a grand total of fifty cents this month, and haven't had a payout there in almost a year.  StockFresh ranks at #14 for me over the last year, behind even Crestock.  I see no sign of life to justify uploading, and doubt any promoting I could do would make any difference at all.

If we want to protect _our_ market immediate Profit is not the only reason to upload to a Agency. Strengthening competition is another one e.g.. With every upload you may not get immdiate Cash return but you balance out a bit the power of the big ones and thus their ability to dominate and dictate the conditions of the market.

Beyond that, I get regulary sales there....

I'm already in there with my full port, and will continue to be patient.  I still hope for good things with Stockfresh.  It would be good to see Peter drop in and give us an update, as he used to.

I didn't know about the application approval issues.  That certainly sounds like a bit of a disincentive for new arrivals.  I'm rather surprised to hear it as their review process is incredibly fast.  My last submission there was sent through about 10 seconds before I uploaded to Canstock, and Stockfresh had accepted my image before the Canstock one had completed uploading(!)

So why aren't we all uploading everything we've got and screaming at people to buy there?

My reason would be that I think prices and RPD are lower there than what I look for in an ideal agency. Also, they have subscriptions. I would say places like GL, Cutcaster, Drawshop or Toon Vectors are closer.

Quote from: borg on May 17, 2012, 09:19

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on May 17, 2012, 08:47

But it's hardly a start-up, is it? Hasn't it been hanging around for  years not achieving anything? And aren't the people behind it the guys from StockXpert, who sold up that site when it was starting to make money? It looks to me like a way of putting a lot of effort into going nowhere.

Exactly!

"Exactly" to which part? Lack of activity or the fact that StockXpert guys are behind SF? Just wondering which part of that keeps you away from the site, or if it's both points.

I'd say "exactly" to all of it.  They've been operational for two years, and they're still a drop in the ocean.  They sold out once before, screwing us in the process.  Didn't they promise a marketing push when their collection reached critical mass?  Whatever happened to that?

It may be too late for a new entrant to make big money, for themselves or for their artists.  But whether or not that's true, I don't see any sign that StockFresh will become a major player.

...I appreciate your initiative, but with such pitiful results so far, I'm not as enthusiastic about them as you are. I'm not removing my portfolio - it'd be nice to live long enough to get a payout - but that's as far as I go unless I see some sales.

I understand the concern about the lack of sales, but I'm suggesting that we do something here that isn't motivated strictly by what's on the table right now. This is a bet on potential. If sales alone are what will motivate people to upload, I get it. But I'm hoping that maybe we can take a shot at something unconventional and throw some support behind an unproven company.

I don't view SF as just another random wannabe microstock agency. This is, in my opinion, the only company around today with a real chance of growing into something big. And with all of the reasons to be frustrated with microstock in general today, I was hoping that maybe more people would want to get behind something that could be good, even if there's very little going on right now in terms of earnings. It's a leap of faith, for sure. But why not... in the current microstock climate, I see no reason to solely focus on the negative and not take a chance on something crazy like this. Even if it doesn't work out, at least we're trying something to change the always-bad-news trend going on here.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone thinks there is a better way to focus our collective efforts for some positive change. I just view SF as possibly the best opportunity to do this.

I wonder if they lost all client contacts/database whatever...

Sorry, not a chance!...they sold out once and personally I'm not going to give them a chance to do it again, not with my pennies at least. Good luck.

Quote from: jsnover on May 17, 2012, 09:30

...I appreciate your initiative, but with such pitiful results so far, I'm not as enthusiastic about them as you are. I'm not removing my portfolio - it'd be nice to live long enough to get a payout - but that's as far as I go unless I see some sales.

I understand the concern about the lack of sales, but I'm suggesting that we do something here that isn't motivated strictly by what's on the table right now. This is a bet on potential. ...

Fair enough, but what is the owner doing to promote, market and build the site? I heard that with enough images there'd be a marketing campaign, and since then calls for patience. Perhaps he is doing something, but there's no newsletter to contributors or blog where that's been communicated to us (if there is anything).

I could be persuaded to overlook past poor performance, and possibly the sale to Jupiter of StockXpert as well,  if there were some sort of push from the owner, but as far as I can see nothing at all is happening their end. If he doesn't care, what good could we do that would overcome that?