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Author Topic: The thing that bothers me with VideoBlocks.  (Read 15859 times)

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SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« on: August 06, 2016, 04:05 »
+6
Overall I like VideoBlocks. The 100% is obviously great, the $49 for HD is ok, and the site is pretty user friendly.

However, there's one thing that I really do hate about VideoBlocks, and that's the way they market their subscriptions. They'll send out non stop emails saying that there's a special offer of $99 (which is 90% off) for a year, and that you need to hurry as this offer will expire in two days or three days or whatever.

The thing is, the offer never expires. It just starts again as soon as the last one ends. I'd be very surprised if anybody has paid the $1000 a year that they're insinuating the subscription should cost. And if it is, always has been, and probably always will be $99, then surely it's not 90% off... as the regular price is $99?

Maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing, but it just feels like some kind of sleazy used car salesman tactic... or those shops that always have closing down sales but they never close down. I'm surprised they're not giving away a set of kitchen knives if you order today!

Although, they do have 'proper sales' form time to time when it's $49 or something. They should keep those, and do away with the constant bombarding of non-existent sale. It sounds cheap and it feels cheap and I'm sure it's not that appealing to professional organisations who could be potential buyers.

Surely presenting it as one, consistent, transparent, low price for a quality offering... is better than using the kind of sales tactics that appeal to customers of late night shopping channels and get rich quick schemes? "But wait! There's more..." 

Anyway, just wanted to get that out of my system. Peace out.


alno

« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2016, 05:37 »
+6
"People are idiots. They made a lot of stupid things: costumes for dogs, marketing managers and stuff like the iPhone, getting nothing but a sour aftertaste. If we'd worked to develop science, explore the Moon, Mars and Venus... who knows what the world would have been like? Humanity would be able to travel through space, but it chose consuming instead - drinking beer and watching soap operas".

Ray Bradbury

:)

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2016, 05:45 »
+1
It is probably also illegal, at least in Europe. But who's going to report them?

« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2016, 07:53 »
+4
What really bothers me is this 33% tax on all my sales: US and non US, unlike all other agencies. For me I get more with regular P5 sales (50%=39$) than those from VB (100%=33$), that's the real sadness

« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2016, 08:12 »
0
What really bothers me is this 33% tax on all my sales: US and non US, unlike all other agencies. For me I get more with regular P5 sales (50%=39$) than those from VB (100%=33$), that's the real sadness

Well, to be fair, Pond5 should be doing the tax thing too... Don't know why they aren't forced to already.

« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2016, 08:18 »
0
What really bothers me is this 33% tax on all my sales: US and non US, unlike all other agencies. For me I get more with regular P5 sales (50%=39$) than those from VB (100%=33$), that's the real sadness

Well, to be fair, Pond5 should be doing the tax thing too... Don't know why they aren't forced to already.

That's won't change things much for me if it will be on US sales only, like SS and Ft. On SS a little part of my sales is from US, the majority comes from Europe, Middle East than the rest of world.. I wouldn't mind P5 taxes on US sales if VB removes taxes on non US sales.. Last month was my BME on VB (25 sales!), so you can imagine my disappointment when I saw taxes numbers

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2016, 09:55 »
+1
Have you not filled out a W8 form?

« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2016, 15:06 »
0
Yes, fill out the W8. Now. They are required by US law to tax you until you do that. If you happen to live in the right country you will pay 0%. If not, just tax on US sales.

« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2016, 16:34 »
0
Have you not filled out a W8 form?

Yes, they don't give payout without that (I think that).. they have to take 33% from my country's residents, but I don't know why they do that with non US sales.. I've e-mailed them long ago and they told me that they don't know how SS and Ft manage taxes this way and that they have to do it this way.. sometimes I feel suspicious about VB, if they take that 33% it would be huge income for them

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2016, 18:14 »
+1
Doesn't sound right to me. That's not how it works on Envato, so one of them is definitely doing it wrong.

On Envato, if you don't fill in a W8, then it's assumed that you are a US tax payer and 28% is withheld from all of your earnings.

If you do fill in a W8, but without a tax ID number to benefit from any tax treaties, then you will have 30% withheld from all US sales, and nothing withheld from non-US sales.

If you fill in the W8 and include your foreign tax ID number, then you'll have nothing withheld from non-US sales, and US sales will be subject to an amount that depends on your countries tax treaty with the US. That might still be 30% or it could be as low as 0%.

So yeah, on Envato, if you've filled in the W8 then you won't have tax withheld on non-US sales. Based on the amount of info provided and preparation Envato did to get people ready for it, I'm going to assume that Envato are doing it correctly. Either way, they can't both be right, so one of them is withholding (or not withholding) taxes incorrectly.

« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2016, 06:55 »
0
So yeah, on Envato, if you've filled in the W8 then you won't have tax withheld on non-US sales. Based on the amount of info provided and preparation Envato did to get people ready for it, I'm going to assume that Envato are doing it correctly. Either way, they can't both be right, so one of them is withholding (or not withholding) taxes incorrectly.

Yes, all places I sell on that require W8 forms do it this way.

I pay $0 on VideoBlocks as it should be. By the way, @alijaber, how do you know what countries your VB sales are from?

« Reply #11 on: August 07, 2016, 07:59 »
+1
The business model is to get subscribers not to make video sales. That is where they make money and where they focus their advertising. Look at it as amazon prime for video. I am happy that the pricing is good for the artist and like it or not I think they have the best chance at the fastest growth.

« Reply #12 on: August 07, 2016, 09:48 »
0
The business model is to get subscribers not to make video sales. That is where they make money and where they focus their advertising. Look at it as amazon prime for video. I am happy that the pricing is good for the artist and like it or not I think they have the best chance at the fastest growth.

Yes, but I do think the 100% is not really doing us any favors. Why not take 10% and we get 90% so they at least have some reason to promote our clips???

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #13 on: August 07, 2016, 10:41 »
+1
The business model is to get subscribers not to make video sales. That is where they make money and where they focus their advertising. Look at it as amazon prime for video. I am happy that the pricing is good for the artist and like it or not I think they have the best chance at the fastest growth.

Their business model doesn't bother me, or where they focus their efforts when it comes to marketing, just the way they market it. I don't know how much amazon prime is, but I'm sure they don't say that the $20 a month (or however much it is), is 90% off the regular price... and this once in a lifetime offer, which is only for a select group of people because spaces are limited, will be ending by midnight so you need to act fast to lock in the price... when in reality it'll still be $20 a month tomorrow, and it will be $20 a month for the forseeable future.

It just feels cheap. And I don't mean cheap as in 'reasonably priced'.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2016, 11:25 »
+1
Aside from that, I love them with all my heart.

« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2016, 15:46 »
0
So yeah, on Envato, if you've filled in the W8 then you won't have tax withheld on non-US sales. Based on the amount of info provided and preparation Envato did to get people ready for it, I'm going to assume that Envato are doing it correctly. Either way, they can't both be right, so one of them is withholding (or not withholding) taxes incorrectly.

@alijaber, how do you know what countries your VB sales are from?

I don't know really, but after years of watching SS map, I know that my buyers are mostly EU and Middle eastern.. almost all my content is related to Middle Eastern countries and for sure it's impossible that all buyers on VB are from US, that's why I'm complaining from getting tax on all my sales there

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #16 on: August 07, 2016, 21:22 »
+3
I've never put too much stock in the map... my last couple of sales must have been from ships captains, pirates or oil rigs, as they're somewhere in the Atlantic.

« Reply #17 on: August 08, 2016, 01:42 »
0
I've never put too much stock in the map... my last couple of sales must have been from ships captains, pirates or oil rigs, as they're somewhere in the Atlantic.

Heheh... me too, but it's all about VB taxing everything

« Reply #18 on: August 08, 2016, 08:53 »
+2
The business model is to get subscribers not to make video sales. That is where they make money and where they focus their advertising. Look at it as amazon prime for video. I am happy that the pricing is good for the artist and like it or not I think they have the best chance at the fastest growth.

This is spot on. For sales to go up for us, the number of customers have to go up exponentially. The largest the subscription collection gets the less customers will need to go into the big collection to find what they need.  Theoretically, sales should become more scarce over time. VB isn't making customers happy when they pay monthly and then have to pay again for additional content.

« Reply #19 on: August 08, 2016, 08:59 »
0
VB isn't making customers happy when they pay monthly and then have to pay again for additional content.

Well, technically, the subscription fee doesn't just mean access to free clips. It also means $30 off HD clips and $130 off 4k clips in the marketplace.

I still think they should charge us 10% though to want to market our clips.

stockVid

« Reply #20 on: August 08, 2016, 09:51 »
0

I still think they should charge us 10% though to want to market our clips.

They are not selling clips. They are selling subscriptions.

« Reply #21 on: August 08, 2016, 10:35 »
0
They are not selling clips. They are selling subscriptions.

But they sure are paying a lot for hosting and traffic for the marketplace.

That's my point. They SHOULD also be selling clips. I'd be more than happy with 90%. It's nice in the short run to get 100% but in the long run it isn't so sweet... They need to care about the marketplace section for the good of the marketplace contributors.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2016, 10:40 by increasingdifficulty »

stockVid

« Reply #22 on: August 08, 2016, 12:38 »
0
They are not selling clips. They are selling subscriptions.

But they sure are paying a lot for hosting and traffic for the marketplace.

That's my point. They SHOULD also be selling clips. I'd be more than happy with 90%. It's nice in the short run to get 100% but in the long run it isn't so sweet... They need to care about the marketplace section for the good of the marketplace contributors.

They do not need to promote clips. The best clips will eventually be 'absorbed' into the marketplace.

Your job as a contributor is to continually produce good original work.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #23 on: August 08, 2016, 19:13 »
+1

I still think they should charge us 10% though to want to market our clips.

They are not selling clips. They are selling subscriptions.

I see what you're getting at, but they most definitely are selling clips! If somebody was looking to get some stock photos and your advice was "you should try Shutterstock or Fotolia".... if those guys put their commission percentage up to 100% and changed focus a bit, then you wouldn't then be saying "don't got to Shutterstock or Fotolia as they don't sell stock photos."

I'd also be happy to get 90%. I wouldn't really expect them to change anything for that either... just so they don't lose interest in that side of things over time, as costs and time are increasing while revenue stays at zero. I'd be fine with 75% if they wanted to stick the extra into marketing as well.


« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2016, 22:15 »
+1
Overall I like VideoBlocks. The 100% is obviously great, the $49 for HD is ok, and the site is pretty user friendly.

However, there's one thing that I really do hate about VideoBlocks, and that's the way they market their subscriptions. They'll send out non stop emails saying that there's a special offer of $99 (which is 90% off) for a year, and that you need to hurry as this offer will expire in two days or three days or whatever.

The thing is, the offer never expires. It just starts again as soon as the last one ends. I'd be very surprised if anybody has paid the $1000 a year that they're insinuating the subscription should cost. And if it is, always has been, and probably always will be $99, then surely it's not 90% off... as the regular price is $99?

Maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing, but it just feels like some kind of sleazy used car salesman tactic... or those shops that always have closing down sales but they never close down. I'm surprised they're not giving away a set of kitchen knives if you order today!

Although, they do have 'proper sales' form time to time when it's $49 or something. They should keep those, and do away with the constant bombarding of non-existent sale. It sounds cheap and it feels cheap and I'm sure it's not that appealing to professional organisations who could be potential buyers.

Surely presenting it as one, consistent, transparent, low price for a quality offering... is better than using the kind of sales tactics that appeal to customers of late night shopping channels and get rich quick schemes? "But wait! There's more..." 

Anyway, just wanted to get that out of my system. Peace out.

They heard you, it's now 84% off and 149$ per year


 

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