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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Symbiostock => Symbiostock - General => Topic started by: cascoly on January 21, 2014, 18:48
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From the start, it's been suggested that there be a way for multiple artists to contribute to a single symbiostock site
trying to gauge the interest, for those who haven't yet started their own site, would you be interested in a site that allowed you to upload and maintain your own images, but that would otherwise handle all technical details, hosting, SEO, downloads, paypal, etc, etc?
such a setup would likely pay 90% of $ received to the artist (this would also open participation for those who cannot open their own paypal account)
in addition to new artists, those whi already have sym sites might also like to participate -- eg, someone whose sym site specializes in food, might find it a good place to sell travel, etc
ideas? suggestions?
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Building and maintaining a site is quite a bit of work. When you add hosting and managing payments I think a more equitable split is 70-30. This way the host won't lose interest and actually has a motivation to promote and build the site. I would be happy for a 70% commission if all I did was upload and collect payments.
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It is definitely worth investigating this idea. I have a hard time as well to imagine it can be feasible at 90% commission. Also, a single site for multiple artists would lose the SEO advantage that the Symbiostock network of multiple sites of single artists provides.
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After a few final revisions and bug fixes to the base theme, I'm going to be making a cloud system that is extremely fast. It will be slimmer on features, but offer more convenience -- plus have some fees associated with it. Sites will be deploy/upload within minutes.
As a whole, it will be compatible with the main network as well.
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It is definitely worth investigating this idea. I have a hard time as well to imagine it can be feasible at 90% commission. Also, a single site for multiple artists would lose the SEO advantage that the Symbiostock network of multiple sites of single artists provides.
i'm not suggesting putting all sym sites under one umbrella -- instead, this would be just another symbo site among the others. only difference would be there are multiple artists involved.
setting up the site & maintaining it is NOT a lot of work -- most of the work is in editing images. i'm interested I trying this not as a big income earner, but to grow the sym network, so i'd be looking to cover my costs --2% for paypal, $5/mo for hosting, etc and a low royalty rate could do that (if contributors wanted to pay more, that would be fine to, bt it isn't a major problem)
the 2 big issues are first (for Leo) - can it be done easily within the existing program) and B is this something people are interested in
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Definitely sounds interesting .. :)
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Maybe this could be a solution for the legal problems I'm facing now to start selling directly from my site as Belgian citizen.
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cascoly:
I admire your fortitude, but I think that your trying to bite off something that is extremely difficult.
Here are just a few questions that come off the top of my head:
How would backups be handled for the website? With a lot more images comes a lot more data and that would be more difficult to backup. If the website crashes and data is lost, I'm sure that people will be upset.
How would taxes be handled? Are 1099s going to be sent out to those that are participating? Does that mean that they need to send their personal info (such as social security number, home address, etc) to you? If so, how will that information be made secure (against hackers such as the Target fiasco)? Will you handle VAT for those in areas that require it?
How will images be sorted on the website (for the "Best Match")? I'm sure that everyone will want their images to show up first and nobody wants to be on page 53. How will you prevent the system from being gamed? For example, if the number of times an image is viewed is a part of the formula for "Best Match", then how will you prevent people from setting up programs that will add views to an image and thus improve their visibility?
Who will determine pricing? Will there be set pricing across the board across all images? Or will each individual artist set their own pricing?
Who will handle customer service? If a customer bought the wrong image or the wrong size, are you going to handle all of these requests?
Anyhow, those are just a FEW of the questions that you will need to think about.
Good luck in your venture.
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Its exactly the same as running an agency.
It is also going to be a legal nightmare.
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I liked the plan a few years ago before Leo created Sys. :) If you said 90% after expenses, I'd go for it, so the person managing and running it would make 10% of the total net profits. (not gross off the top, just the net profits) Hopefully that would be enough to pay them for their time.
So sales, minus hosting, minus software costs, minus any expenses for marketing, minus anything except pay for managing. And then the person(s) working the site, get 10% to divide for their work.
Unless you have another equally as fair plan. Like you run the site and take 20% of the gross and if all you get is rotten eggs because it's too expensive, well there we are. At least someone proved that an agency can't make it on only 20%. :D
If that's vague, that's YES. I'd much rather have a managed site for a small expense and much less headaches, and pay a fair commission. (like 20% which is what agents or managers take, consignment stores and many others.)
From the start, it's been suggested that there be a way for multiple artists to contribute to a single symbiostock site
trying to gauge the interest, for those who haven't yet started their own site, would you be interested in a site that allowed you to upload and maintain your own images, but that would otherwise handle all technical details, hosting, SEO, downloads, paypal, etc, etc?
such a setup would likely pay 90% of $ received to the artist (this would also open participation for those who cannot open their own paypal account)
in addition to new artists, those whi already have sym sites might also like to participate -- eg, someone whose sym site specializes in food, might find it a good place to sell travel, etc
ideas? suggestions?
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How would backups be handled for the website?...
How would taxes be handled? ....
How will images be sorted on the website (for the "Best Match")? ....
Who will determine pricing? ....
Who will handle customer service? ....
thanks for the questions....
some brief responses:
this will be the same as any other sym site -- so issues of backup, cust service are the same -- hosting with backup is easily available; searches are done the same as on any other sym site, or from the global searches. the co-op will appeal more to those with 1000 images or less -- more than that & most artists will probably prefer to run their own site.
sure gaming is possible, but I faced these issues as a computer games designer too; realistically, there won't be 50 pages of images for a keyword, so the effort to game won't be worth it.
the site will run in the US, under US tax laws, so VAT won't be an issue. 1099s would work as they do for any other royalty paying system
the first co-op wil set pricing, with some basic choices for licenses -- those who agree will join
the whole idea is to expand symbiostock to include those who might not want to run their own site at this time - it's not meant as a replacement stock agency.
steve