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The collective isn't dead just moving. I have a new domain and Leo is going to transfer it for me. Ill keep you all in the loop. Hopefully it will be up and kicking in about a week. Thanks for your patience.
If it were paying for something that led to sales, $120 a year wouldn't be an issue. But that wasn't the requestThe request was for money for new (and different) software - not for fixes to what we already had. There was no way to tie the expenditure to even one additional saleAs far as sales, I have made about $115 since last September with no signs that things are ramping upI'd pay for marketing; I'd pay for fixes and improvements to what I have (which I worked very hard on); I have already paid for the premium plugin, CleanTheme and SYxtraIt's just not true or fair to say that the community screamed in outrage over a proposed fee. There was no discussion allowed and after 11 votes - 11 out of 180 sites - Leo closed up and shut things downThis isn't the first time there has been a blow up. Each one has made it harder for people to have confidence in the longer term prospects. I expect that factored in to site owners' thinking tooIt should be noted that Sean Locke has a much viewed blog and a well known brand name. His sales do not surprise me but most of us are not in that situationBottom line is that yet another new software direction with no marketing didn't look like a good bet to me. The $120 didn't help but it wasn't the main sticking point (for me)
Multiple times in the last six months I have proposed various ideas to help make this program viable for Leo. Many of them were very reasonable and nearly all of them wound up killing the thread. The ones that didn't turned into "what about me" comments.
Symbiostock has run it's course and no one/everyone is to blame. Hopefully people have been paying attention and have learned from the mistakes. If so the next idea will be better and we will all benefit.
Quote from: chromaco on July 06, 2014, 07:53Symbiostock has run it's course and no one/everyone is to blame. Hopefully people have been paying attention and have learned from the mistakes. If so the next idea will be better and we will all benefit.Call me crazy, I take ownership of that, but I don't think it has even begun to run it's course. It's had it's rug jerked from under it. SymbioStock is NOT a failure. It is just not yet matured. It may never now because of decisions taken that affect all of us, but that we are powerless to change.The mistake was in thinking that SymbioStock was going to compete with iAnySite. It could not ever do so. It could, however, give you your own power back. I finally got my own site. I haven't made money, but I have my wish fulfilled. In the future, when I have the time to spare, I am going back to grow my site that has been dormant for a while now.Jo
one problem has been solved -- i'll be hosting the forums once I work with leo to get everything transferred. so we'll have all the tutorials and faqs that many have contributed to over the last year.
a major problem is still getting the right people to the sites -- we mostly rely on google et al to be found -- but that means many people will find us when they search for 'elephants' -- but they are interested in info about elephants, not in buying images of elephants. image buyers are still more likely to find the agencies first.
In my view the buyer wants an "agency feeling" with a large selection not many sites in a network. The things have to be simple for buyers...
Quote from: cascoly on July 06, 2014, 13:05one problem has been solved -- i'll be hosting the forums once I work with leo to get everything transferred. so we'll have all the tutorials and faqs that many have contributed to over the last year.Oh, and I know you don't hear it very often, thanks for your contribution to SymbioStock.Jo
Well said! Leo's work made me move forward with a web site that has been a cost factor to me for years buut now I can make sales from there if a client so wishes. I am forever grateful. I dont think symbio is dead .... I just think it is moving into its next evolutionary process.Thank you so much Leo for your work and Steve for taking up the baton!
I was just reading on another forum about a buyer who is annoyed to have to sign in to the site at all. They don't want an account anywhere, not even at an agency site where they do most of their buying. They just want to pay and go. I personally think that's sort of silly (having an account saves time, helps track purchases, etc), but I think it speaks loudly to some buyer sentiment. If having one single account is a hassle to some buyers, having an account at every Symbiostock site they want to buy from is a non-starter. They won't do it. Symbiostock never stood a chance unless the lack of a single point of entry to the network was resolved somehow.
Stocksy launched about the same time as the Symbiostock software. Look at the difference.
Quote from: R2D2 on July 06, 2014, 15:04In my view the buyer wants an "agency feeling" with a large selection not many sites in a network. The things have to be simple for buyers........If having one single account is a hassle to some buyers, having an account at every Symbiostock site they want to buy from is a non-starter. They won't do it. Symbiostock never stood a chance unless the lack of a single point of entry to the network was resolved somehow.
Quote from: EmberMike on July 06, 2014, 17:42Quote from: R2D2 on July 06, 2014, 15:04In my view the buyer wants an "agency feeling" with a large selection not many sites in a network. The things have to be simple for buyers........If having one single account is a hassle to some buyers, having an account at every Symbiostock site they want to buy from is a non-starter. They won't do it. Symbiostock never stood a chance unless the lack of a single point of entry to the network was resolved somehow.there are a coupla approaches that might work:1. when a new user registers give them a chance to register with the other sites at the same time (or to choose which sites to register with)2. have an option that would automatically add the person as a new user to all the other sites3. create a central depository were people just sign in once, then on the login screen have an option to use that instead of the individual site loginother considerations: privacy issues, security of passwords, different treatment of 'spam' on individual sites, etc