Hi all,

Long time no see. Hope you well.
We decide to give a little change on SIM about the price setting. At this time we have 6 different price systems for you to choose, we are planning to change it to customized, which means you could totally set your own price, from $0 to $99999.99, you could set same price on all size or you could set price on different size. It�s all depend on you.

For the images have already online, we will keep the price you chose for, but yes, you could change it at anytime you want.

We will inform everyone contributor by email when the change is completed.

What do you think about this change? Is there any other changes you hope us to make? Please let me know. Or mail to [email protected]

Nice day or nighty night!

Best,
Jojo

What is prompting this change? Is it to get lure contributors?  By pricing images as high as $100,000 you price yourself out of anything.  It sounds like SIM is trying to implement a catch all strategy with no real strategy.  Why would you want images on your site that if priced at 100k would never sell? This isn't realistic in terms of pricing structure. Yes we want agencies who allow & support pricing freedom (free trade) but to be better structure around pricing, license types, etc make far better sense. You MUST have a differentiator in your strategy. You are posting this on a micro stock forum where most of our agencies sell for peanuts. You have to compete with that. The same images on SS for $20 gets priced on SIM for $5,000. How on earth are you going to hook customers into spending that much on the same image they can get on SS?  Pond 5 has a similar pricing scheme and I rarely sell images there and those images are all priced to compete with MS.  Your prices will be all over the place,  like at P5, and photographers begin internal wars on pricing by lowering their prices, so content is low to high, no consistency or logic for the customer. 

My point is....with scattered, inconsistent pricing, what is your hook for attracting & retaining customers? Just by adding a P5 like pricing platform will not improve your revenue if you have no buyers. It might bring in more photographers in hopes of a new revenue stream, but that's about it. 

You need to have:

1. A purpose
2. Fill a gap/a plan
3. Targeted customer segments
4. A hook
5. Constant, fluid marketing campaign
6. Great communication with customers & contributors
7. A pricing structure that is clear, competitive and easy for the customer to understand
8. Licenses that are clear and benefit both the contributor & customer.
9. TOS that are fair and not intended as hidden ways to screw artists

Honestly, to me, your original post awhile back sounded like you guys don't have a real, honest grasp on a business plan. I am supportive of some start ups who have a clear plan, communicate that to the artists and are fair trade.  Just changing pricing to catch-all does not solve those other challenges.