Author Topic: PhotoDune in Open Beta (Read 39326 times)

RacePhoto · « **Reply #100 on:** August 13, 2011, 16:20 »

Quote from: sharpshot on August 12, 2011, 03:05

It's interesting that so many top contributors will accept 25% commissions, low prices and very low EL prices from a low selling site. I can understand why others then join them. It just fills me with fear for the future of microstock. Perhaps I should just give up and upload to every site, ignoring what they pay but I find that very hard to do. I tried uploading again to istock but I have this voice screaming in my head, "they only pay you 17%, you muppet".

It's the volume sales and there are people that would take 10% if a site offered it, because every site added, means more income. No real work, just hit upload and send your 4000 photos to another place.

This is the race to the bottom and the perfect example of competing with oneself. All the way into the eventual end when there are 100 sites all selling the same images and paying very little, so only the high volume sellers can make enough income to make it worthwhile. Everyone else will be drivin out of the market.

Kind of like all the big box stores and mega franchises that drove all the little guys out of business.

The big suppliers are the big contributors and the agencies are their marketing arm and what's left is occasional sale and the bare minimum for the rest of us. We represent the small stores, being put out of business by the big photo factories and contributors. Better take another look, those people are NOT our friends. They are killing the business just as much as the agencies are, but cutting prices and commissions. The contributors do it, but joining ever agency that comes along for whatever money they can grab.

CD123 · « **Reply #101 on:** August 13, 2011, 16:48 »

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #102 on:** August 13, 2011, 17:12 »

"The contributors do it, but joining ever agency that comes along for whatever money they can grab."

Amen, brother!

qwerty · « **Reply #103 on:** August 13, 2011, 17:53 »

Quote from: sjlocke on August 13, 2011, 17:12

"The contributors do it, but joining ever agency that comes along for whatever money they can grab."

Amen, brother!

Yeap we should I ditch microstock and join Getty RM only

RacePhoto · « **Reply #104 on:** August 14, 2011, 20:55 »

Quote from: qwerty on August 13, 2011, 17:53

Quote from: sjlocke on August 13, 2011, 17:12
"The contributors do it, but joining ever agency that comes along for whatever money they can grab."

Amen, brother!

Yeap we should I ditch microstock and join Getty RM only

Not my point. There are different ways to work the market. Photos are different than illustrations and graphics. This is for photos.

1) Shotgun: If there are 50 "Low Earners" agencies and someone makes $10 a month at them, with a huge portfolio, that's $120 a year * 50 = $6000 for doing nothing more than just uploading to everyplace. That's a fair plan and works for some people.

2) Cherry Picking: Others will take the top five or six and work them for what it's worth, banking on the highest return for their effort. (I'm not going to argue time and return for smaller portfolios, where someone makes $10-$50 a year, it's not worth my time, in My Opinion...)

3) Optimum Return: IS and SS, don't bother with the smaller sites that hardly bring in income for someone with under 500 photos. Two places make the most money, it's that simple. Even the people who work 10 or 20 agencies will show in their percentages that SS and IS are consistent earners and either one brings in more than #3-6 added together.

4) Exclusive: Works fine, one place, one direction, know your buyers and market, you don't compete with yourself and you know who's distributing your images if there are any legal issues. Many reasons why it's a good plan with fewer headaches and less stress.

Everyone has to decide what they think is best and what works best for the time and efforts. There's no one right answer. But people with 10,000 photos who upload to 50 sites and will upload to anyone else that comes along, are not helping everyone else with the other ways of selling. 2-3-4 do not cannibalize each other and don't impact each other in a negative manner.

ps I'm virtually #3, IS/PP + StockXpert/ThinkStock which is one agency, and SS/BigStock which is the other.

Andrey Popov · « **Reply #105 on:** August 28, 2011, 15:58 »

Trying to upload my portfolio, but "processing" is killing me. 20 files took 3+ hours to process. After that uploaded 144 files and it's processing for 4 days already!

How uploading is working for you? Is there is a way to avoid painfully slow processing?

Microbius · « **Reply #107 on:** August 30, 2011, 04:35 »

All those using Yuri as a guide for where to upload need to take a look at their own portfolios and think about their strategy.
Yuri knows that a certain big chunk of his portfolio will date quickly, look at business photos from the nineties, you may think today's suits etc. are timeless, but in a couple of years we'll be laughing at the fashion faux pas.
It doesn't seem like he uploads everything everywhere, it's probably just that he has realized he needs to squeeze every available bit out of the stuff with the approaching end of shelf life out everywhere he can while he can. Squeezing the end of that long tail.
Also bear in mind that he has been seeing diminishing returns for a while, he may be prioritizing non direct revenue streams, while getting the brand as known as possible by spreading it about regardless.
What makes sense for these guys won't necessarily make sense for the rest of us, so think very hard before uploading to any new sites with terms and prices as bad as PhotoDune has. If you are looking for some low earners how about supporting the ones that have better terms?