Author Topic: 2017 Selling Direct, Personal Stores [updated] (Read 127951 times)

cathyslife · « **Reply #25 on:** December 28, 2016, 18:34 »

Quote from: cascoly on December 28, 2016, 18:21

Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 18:14
My comment was on point...you want it deleted just because you dont like what i said. Looks to me like you are the one that should be deleted, since all you did was call me names.

I disagree with the need to delete, but your knock against leo was gratuitous (besides being incorrect)

your other comments were redundant and served no positive purpose other than trying to re-ignite old flames

Your opinion. I have just as much right to express my opinion as anyone else. What I stated was fact...he has been here before talking about a great solution for direct selling. As far as redundant, is there someone else in this thread who talked about the real problem with selling direct? I dont see that.

cathyslife · « **Reply #26 on:** December 28, 2016, 18:37 »

Quote from: Leo on December 28, 2016, 18:30

Quote from: cascoly on December 28, 2016, 18:21
Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 18:14
My comment was on point...you want it deleted just because you dont like what i said. Looks to me like you are the one that should be deleted, since all you did was call me names.

I disagree with the need to delete, but your knock against leo was gratuitous (besides being incorrect)

your other comments were redundant and served no positive purpose other than trying to re-ignite old flames

She could have had her say at the outset, but she showed up when the thread got popular. Cathy, you will not be receiving any more replies from me for the duration of this.

Too bad you didnt take that course of action in post # 19 when you decided to resume your same old ways by calling me names instead of addressing my comment or just ignoring it.

stockmn · « **Reply #27 on:** December 29, 2016, 00:28 »

Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 16:29

...and there are other alternatives to selling direct already out there.

There are no cost effective ways to sell video directly which is primarily my interest. I've tried the few direct sell platforms that support video and they are very expensive and clunky. I love Leo's idea about using YouTube for previews. Built in promotion (YouTube videos rank very highly in google searches) and the cost of bandwidth from playing previews is eliminated. I'm interested!

Leo · « **Reply #28 on:** December 29, 2016, 00:41 »

Quote from: stockmn on December 29, 2016, 00:28

Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 16:29
...and there are other alternatives to selling direct already out there.

There are no cost effective ways to sell video directly which is primarily my interest. I've tried the few direct sell platforms that support video and they are very expensive and clunky. I love Leo's idea about using YouTube for previews. Built in promotion (YouTube videos rank very highly in google searches) and the cost of bandwidth from playing previews is eliminated. I'm interested!

I had checked into it and seems possible to use the youtube API (so the software does it for you, you don't have to upload/link yourself) https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos/insert

The downside of that youtube *might* be restricted in certain countries. I've heard that often in this forum. Is that still the case?

sharpshot · « **Reply #29 on:** December 29, 2016, 05:17 »

I don't see anything wrong with Cathy's first post on this thread, she is entitled to her opinion and shouldn't be called a troll for that. Leo requesting deletions is wrong, this is an open forum, I don't agree with someone selling something being able to delete posts that offer an opinion that's valid.

Leo · « **Reply #30 on:** December 29, 2016, 06:43 »

Its a go. I would like to thank those who had encouraged me to start this up again. I will be sure to give you something special.

I'll set up a youtube account special for updates on this and post videos instead of pictures.

-Leo

LesPalenik · « **Reply #31 on:** December 29, 2016, 17:26 »

Quote from: Leo on December 27, 2016, 06:07

Just to be clear, this will not attempt to be an agency or connect users (no co-ops) but rather a perfected sell-direct solution that keeps things simple and productive for artists. There will likely be a community for support and fun available right through the software, but that will not be a primary focus.

The community forum is quite important and I recall that in the heydays of Symbiostock, the forum was a great help in getting many members operational, and it also served as an effective recruitment tool for new members. There was a tremendous spirit and solidarity between the Symbiostockers (until the whole thing fell apart).

By the way, the very first and very simple Symbiostock forum platform was the best.

LesPalenik · « **Reply #32 on:** December 29, 2016, 17:32 »

Quote from: Leo on December 29, 2016, 00:41

There are no cost effective ways to sell video directly which is primarily my interest. I've tried the few direct sell platforms that support video and they are very expensive and clunky. I love Leo's idea about using YouTube for previews. Built in promotion (YouTube videos rank very highly in google searches) and the cost of bandwidth from playing previews is eliminated. I'm interested!

I had checked into it and seems possible to use the youtube API (so the software does it for you, you don't have to upload/link yourself) https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos/insert

The downside of that youtube *might* be restricted in certain countries. I've heard that often in this forum. Is that still the case?

Some countries, like China, ban youtube and vimeo altogether.
Others countries, i.e. Germany, censor certain American (and maybe other) video+audio productions. I don't know if the censorship applies also to other items.

Leo · « **Reply #33 on:** December 29, 2016, 17:50 »

Quote from: LesPalenik on December 29, 2016, 17:26

Quote from: Leo on December 27, 2016, 06:07
Just to be clear, this will not attempt to be an agency or connect users (no co-ops) but rather a perfected sell-direct solution that keeps things simple and productive for artists. There will likely be a community for support and fun available right through the software, but that will not be a primary focus.

The community forum is quite important and I recall that in the heydays of Symbiostock, the forum was a great help in getting many members operational, and it also served as an effective recruitment tool for new members. There was a tremendous spirit and solidarity between the Symbiostockers (until the whole thing fell apart).

By the way, the very first and very simple Symbiostock forum platform was the best.

It would be nice to reclaim that happy and creative spirit that drove the early part of that project.

Your observations are good, and I think having something very simple and very straightforward platform will probably serve a foundation for a happy group of users. Call it silly, but a quiet tech support and a loud off-topic-area would probably be the ultimate achievement

.

cascoly · « **Reply #34 on:** December 29, 2016, 19:44 »

Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 18:34

Quote from: cascoly on December 28, 2016, 18:21
Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 18:14
My comment was on point...you want it deleted just because you dont like what i said. Looks to me like you are the one that should be deleted, since all you did was call me names.

I disagree with the need to delete, but your knock against leo was gratuitous (besides being incorrect)

your other comments were redundant and served no positive purpose other than trying to re-ignite old flames

Your opinion. I have just as much right to express my opinion as anyone else. What I stated was fact...he has been here before talking about a great solution for direct selling. As far as redundant, is there someone else in this thread who talked about the real problem with selling direct? I dont see that.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/selling-direct/creating-your-own-stock-agency-software-question/msg474266/?topicseen#new

where such topics were recently discussed
and

http://www.microstockgroup.com/selling-direct/best-platform-to-sell-direct/msg474275/?topicseen#new

where YOU made your usual derogatory comments just days ago, with no contribution -- you're entitled to your opinion but for years now it's the same old anti-leo diatribes - -- BASTA!

cathyslife · « **Reply #35 on:** December 29, 2016, 20:08 »

Quote from: cascoly on December 29, 2016, 19:44

Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 18:34
Quote from: cascoly on December 28, 2016, 18:21
Quote from: cathyslife on December 28, 2016, 18:14
My comment was on point...you want it deleted just because you dont like what i said. Looks to me like you are the one that should be deleted, since all you did was call me names.

I disagree with the need to delete, but your knock against leo was gratuitous (besides being incorrect)

your other comments were redundant and served no positive purpose other than trying to re-ignite old flames

Your opinion. I have just as much right to express my opinion as anyone else. What I stated was fact...he has been here before talking about a great solution for direct selling. As far as redundant, is there someone else in this thread who talked about the real problem with selling direct? I dont see that.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/selling-direct/creating-your-own-stock-agency-software-question/msg474266/?topicseen#new

where such topics were recently discussed
and

http://www.microstockgroup.com/selling-direct/best-platform-to-sell-direct/msg474275/?topicseen#new

where YOU made your usual derogatory comments just days ago, with no contribution -- you're entitled to your opinion but for years now it's the same old anti-leo diatribes - -- BASTA! i

OMG are you angry or what! But it makes perfect sense that you would be the biggest Leo fanboy since you are one of those who benefitted most from the whole fiasco.

There is an ignore button...if you dont like what i say...use it for gosh sakes! LOL!

cathyslife · « **Reply #36 on:** December 29, 2016, 20:13 »

As far as your first link, I never even made a comment, so not sure what your point is. How can i be redundant when i made no comment?

Second link...again, I have every right to make a comment as you or anybody else, whether you think it is derogatory or not. Take a look...some of my comments others agree with, so there you go.

As far as basta goes, NO! Certainly not because YOU are telling me! LOL!

charged · « **Reply #37 on:** December 29, 2016, 20:31 »

My thoughts on direct selling is that it is business model not likely to succeed, or rather not generate enough sales for it to have been worth anyone's time. From reading various threads over the years here, I think that has turned out to be the case. Think about it from the customer's point of view. I used to buy stock photos for work, so I once thought like a customer. How am I going to spend the least amount of time searching for the best possible image for myself or my client? I'm going to go a mega big site like shutterstock or istockphoto or adobestock, or gettyimages because I know that is where I'll spend the least amount of time getting the right image for my project. Can you imagine the nightmare it would be if I had to remember 500 individual photographer's websites and go to each one by one and do my search in the hopes they might have something suitable? The latter just isn't going to happen. Say you get an individual website up to sell photos. How are you going to let the hundreds of thousands of graphic designers know you exist? Will you be spending tens of thousands of dollars on Google adwords? You guys are trying to solve a problem that exist for you, but does not exist for the customer.

Leo · « **Reply #38 on:** December 29, 2016, 20:32 »

@cascoly what is your opinion of the inter-site search network that we all had? Hindsite is 20/20, I'm curious what you think.

I didn't intend to carry on anything like that in this endeavor, but still I'm curious. You had contributed very well to it.

Leo · « **Reply #39 on:** December 29, 2016, 20:44 »

Quote from: charged on December 29, 2016, 20:31

My thoughts on direct selling is that it is business model not likely to succeed ....

For brevity I shortened the quote, but I'm replying to the whole of what you said.

You are correct on everything. Intentions and expectations are more the issue. I no longer look at my website as a solution to any greater problem -- I just like having it. I built my more recent one to do infinite-autopilot (and I junked wordpress forever!). So what happens now is the occasional $10 sale with no effort on my part. The customer gets a quick download and moves on. So the time to effort ratio is good, although I often joke that my website is a vending machine or graveyard. Either way its still being productive without attention from me.

LDV81 · « **Reply #40 on:** December 29, 2016, 20:59 »

Quote from: charged on December 29, 2016, 20:31

My thoughts on direct selling is that it is business model not likely to succeed, or rather not generate enough sales for it to have been worth anyone's time. From reading various threads over the years here, I think that has turned out to be the case. Think about it from the customer's point of view. I used to buy stock photos for work, so I once thought like a customer. How am I going to spend the least amount of time searching for the best possible image for myself or my client? I'm going to go a mega big site like shutterstock or istockphoto or adobestock, or gettyimages because I know that is where I'll spend the least amount of time getting the right image for my project. Can you imagine the nightmare it would be if I had to remember 500 individual photographer's websites and go to each one by one and do my search in the hopes they might have something suitable? The latter just isn't going to happen. Say you get an individual website up to sell photos. How are you going to let the hundreds of thousands of graphic designers know you exist? Will you be spending tens of thousands of dollars on Google adwords? You guys are trying to solve a problem that exist for you, but does not exist for the customer.

SAD BUT TRUE. Not much to add.

cascoly · « **Reply #41 on:** December 29, 2016, 21:35 »

Quote from: cathyslife

...,. you would be the biggest Leo fanboy since you are one of those who benefitted most from the whole fiasco.

this is SLANDER -- you have nothing with which to back up this absurd claim -- let us know when you return from the trump-fake-news-whingers universe (or better, don't bother)

cascoly · « **Reply #42 on:** December 29, 2016, 21:41 »

Quote from: Leo on December 29, 2016, 20:32

@cascoly what is your opinion of the inter-site search network that we all had? Hindsite is 20/20, I'm curious what you think.

I didn't intend to carry on anything like that in this endeavor, but still I'm curious. You had contributed very well to it.

I thought it was a great feature, and it did well in google analytics wrt views -- for me, it didn't generate many sales, no idea if others benefited, but it was so simple (& fun) to set up & run that it made sense to pursue it. for me the consolidated (anonymous) aggregation of keywords, etc was also helpful

as I wrote earlier, I think the biggest problem is google image search where my images from 123,ss et al get higher rankings than my sym images

farbled · « **Reply #43 on:** December 29, 2016, 22:31 »

I missed this thread! I'm in Leo. FYI my GRFX site is still working perfectly from the get go.

Leo · « **Reply #44 on:** December 29, 2016, 22:37 »

Quote from: farbled on December 29, 2016, 22:31

I missed this thread! I'm in Leo. FYI my GRFX site is still working perfectly from the get go.

That is good to know! Very good to know! I never really got complaints from that, other than the fact I took it off wordpress's plugin network.

Quote from: LDV81 on December 29, 2016, 20:59

Quote from: charged on December 29, 2016, 20:31
My thoughts on direct selling is that it is business model not likely to succeed...
SAD BUT TRUE. Not much to add.

I might have to simplify it a bit and just say it:
I'm talking to people who just want to have a website that sells (or can sell) images.

The second main statement I've been making:
I want to simplify and speed this process considerably.

But again, I agree! You'd have to be a special case (these days) to make bank selling independent these days. Hopefully this clarification will help.

Think "Vending machine"

farbled · « **Reply #45 on:** December 29, 2016, 22:53 »

My ideal site is the same as it was in the beginning. I would love to have one site with three or six or ten like minded shooters with complementary portfolios (size, skill level, complementary subjects) and end up with something with about 100K or so bankable images under one roof. We'd all self market our respective niches and go from there.

Leo · « **Reply #46 on:** December 29, 2016, 22:59 »

Another person mentioned that in this thread as well. Multiple submitters. Would that sort of thing be used often?

LesPalenik · « **Reply #47 on:** December 30, 2016, 03:02 »

It might be a good idea to split this thread into two - one constructive and optimistic, and the other one critical and reminiscing about all previously failed projects. But no intermixing allowed! (unless you walk the full El Camino de Santiago trail to do a proper soul searching before switching to the other camp). We could even call them Yes and No groups. Or "We Can" and "No way Jose".

I have a hunch which of the two threads would be more fun and live longer, but I'd been known to bet on a wrong horse before. Paradoxically, so did over 60 millions of other optimistists very recently.

cathyslife · « **Reply #48 on:** December 30, 2016, 03:40 »

Quote from: cascoly on December 29, 2016, 21:35

Quote from: cathyslife

...,. you would be the biggest Leo fanboy since you are one of those who benefitted most from the whole fiasco.

this is SLANDER -- you have nothing with which to back up this absurd claim -- let us know when you return from the trump-fake-news-whingers universe (or better, don't bother)

Slander...my backup is what you said yourself a couple of posts back..."it did well in google analytics".
You guys are too funny! When all else fails with staying on topic and being professional, start bullying and name calling.

Leo · « **Reply #49 on:** December 30, 2016, 04:26 »

Quote from: LesPalenik on December 30, 2016, 03:02

It might be a good idea to split this thread into two - one constructive and optimistic, and the other one critical and reminiscing about all previously failed projects. But no intermixing allowed! (unless you walk the full El Camino de Santiago trail to do a proper soul searching before switching to the other camp). We could even call them Yes and No groups. Or "We Can" and "No way Jose".

I have a hunch which of the two threads would be more fun and live longer, but I'd been known to bet on a wrong horse before. Paradoxically, so did over 60 millions of other optimistists very recently.

At first I thought you were joking, but this thing has gotten so bad it might be a good idea. If nothing else, a start-over with some opening text explaining that this is a simple program I'm creating (not a save-the-industry-scheme, not an everyone-make-me-rich scheme, etc). Maybe if we pre-address the troll-able accuse-able stuff ahead of time the only people commenting will be people genuinely interested? I think people have trained themselves to overanalyze these things to the point that a simple image-watermarker and website-uploader is considered a weapon of the antichrist.

I don't want to overwhelm MSG though.

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Author Topic: 2017 Selling Direct, Personal Stores [updated] (Read 127951 times)

cathyslife

cathyslife

stockmn

Leo

sharpshot

Leo

LesPalenik

LesPalenik

Leo

cascoly

cathyslife

cathyslife

charged

Leo

Leo

LDV81

cascoly

cascoly

farbled

Leo

farbled

Leo

LesPalenik

cathyslife

Leo

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