Thank you Paulie for your description and experience.

I also was with Photoshelter many years and left them. I have a similar thought of them like you described. I am now with Zenfolio but also not so happy. I went with them because the unlimited video but the clips get so compressed that they cannot be sold . I also find their site not intuitive neither the selling option so I will ditch them for sure.

I was thinking of Photodeck. Like their options, they seem quite fast. I though they were french. Yes they are a small company and the risk the close door is always there but as you say they seem committed as the post regular updates and improve their service. Also they don't take a cut of your sales like Photoshelter or zenfolio does.

You got me really intrigued with shopify. I know many people use it, and it seems it is the independent port for many small sellers. I thought it was much more complicate to sell many thousands of items (photos) there. Specially as I need RM because I am RF exclusive so selling as RF is not an option for me. I also thought that once you got all the extras and complements of shopify it would end much more expensive every month than Photodeck. Is this your experience?

Quote from: cobalt on July 07, 2022, 09:29

I am still trying to understand what is the advantage over using Photoshelter or Photodeck?

Photoshelter - I just dropped them after having a website for over ten years. I no longer have any confidence in their longevity. Long time ago they tried to launch an agency and abandoned it. Then they did a much advertised platform update (named Beam?) which seemed half baked. Then they shifted their business away from photographers/artists to chasing corporate clients with digital asset management. Then they went back to chasing photographers/artists so I'm not sure if DAM is still a core part of their business. Then a few years ago they made a highly promoted announcement of massive platform updates. During this time my sales went from okay to nothing. Their platform isn't overly customizable and the user interface is a cobbled together bandaged mishmash of UI designs from different time periods. Now they seem to only spend time on writing posts on their blog which I really dont care at all about. They just seem to be struggling to find their way as a business but that's only my perception.

Photodeck - My main website is with them and overall I'm happy. It's a small UK based company so there's always a concern with them deciding to exit the business. However, they post somewhat regular updates about new functionality they've added. Platform is highly customizable, SEO capabilities are reasonably good and I get decent traffic and regular sales. Performance is very fast and the user interface is well organized and intuitive but probably leaning a little more toward techie than the bubbly friendly UI of Shopify. The licensing options include prints, RF and RM. I totally customized the RM configuration to meet my needs. I get a mix of higher dollar RM licensing sales and print sales. They also have a handful of print integration partners for automated fulfillment. Overall a very nice website platform for artists who are a bit more into customizing.

Shopify - Just setting up my site now. I want a platform I dont need to worry about spending a ton of time on and then them going out of business. And I want more traffic and sales. My Photodeck site gets decent traffic but I seemed to have hit an SEO wall where I'm not able to increase traffic any further. As a test I did a bunch of Google searches to see which art websites showed up toward the front. After getting past the big sites, usually next up were independent artists with Shopify websites. The Shopify user interface is very slick and intuitive with a ton of apps you can add for SEO, customer live chat, stock licensing, and even fully automated POD fulfillment such as through Printful. With Printful, Printify and other POD apps, customers can place orders and you dont need to do anything. The Shopify order automatically goes to Printful and they print and ship.

Smgmug - Tried it for a while and didn't like the platform and had zero sales.

The only one I know of that has that requirement is iStock. From their help page for those considering going exclusive:

"Being Exclusive means that, for the file type(s) that you are Exclusive for, you agree that you cannot license any of that type of content on a royalty-free basis elsewhere. For example, if you are Exclusive for Photos, you can�t license any Photos with a competitor on a royalty-free basis, even for images that you�ve never submitted to iStock."

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 08, 2022, 20:32

Quote from: cobalt on July 07, 2022, 09:29

I am still trying to understand what is the advantage over using Photoshelter or Photodeck?

Photoshelter - I just dropped them after having a website for over ten years. I no longer have any confidence in their longevity. Long time ago they tried to launch an agency and abandoned it. Then they did a much advertised platform update (named Beam?) which seemed half baked. Then they shifted their business away from photographers/artists to chasing corporate clients with digital asset management. Then they went back to chasing photographers/artists so I'm not sure if DAM is still a core part of their business. Then a few years ago they made a highly promoted announcement of massive platform updates. During this time my sales went from okay to nothing. Their platform isn't overly customizable and the user interface is a cobbled together bandaged mishmash of UI designs from different time periods. Now they seem to only spend time on writing posts on their blog which I really dont care at all about. They just seem to be struggling to find their way as a business but that's only my perception.

Photodeck - My main website is with them and overall I'm happy. It's a small UK based company so there's always a concern with them deciding to exit the business. However, they post somewhat regular updates about new functionality they've added. Platform is highly customizable, SEO capabilities are reasonably good and I get decent traffic and regular sales. Performance is very fast and the user interface is well organized and intuitive but probably leaning a little more toward techie than the bubbly friendly UI of Shopify. The licensing options include prints, RF and RM. I totally customized the RM configuration to meet my needs. I get a mix of higher dollar RM licensing sales and print sales. They also have a handful of print integration partners for automated fulfillment. Overall a very nice website platform for artists who are a bit more into customizing.

Shopify - Just setting up my site now. I want a platform I dont need to worry about spending a ton of time on and then them going out of business. And I want more traffic and sales. My Photodeck site gets decent traffic but I seemed to have hit an SEO wall where I'm not able to increase traffic any further. As a test I did a bunch of Google searches to see which art websites showed up toward the front. After getting past the big sites, usually next up were independent artists with Shopify websites. The Shopify user interface is very slick and intuitive with a ton of apps you can add for SEO, customer live chat, stock licensing, and even fully automated POD fulfillment such as through Printful. With Printful, Printify and other POD apps, customers can place orders and you dont need to do anything. The Shopify order automatically goes to Printful and they print and ship.

Smgmug - Tried it for a while and didn't like the platform and had zero sales.

Thank you Paulie for your description and experience.

I also was with Photoshelter many years and left them. I have a similar thought of them like you described. I am now with Zenfolio but also not so happy. I went with them because the unlimited video but the clips get so compressed that they cannot be sold . I also find their site not intuitive neither the selling option so I will ditch them for sure.

I was thinking of Photodeck. Like their options, they seem quite fast. I though they were french. Yes they are a small company and the risk the close door is always there but as you say they seem committed as the post regular updates and improve their service. Also they don't take a cut of your sales like Photoshelter or zenfolio does.

You got me really intrigued with shopify. I know many people use it, and it seems it is the independent port for many small sellers. I thought it was much more complicate to sell many thousands of items (photos) there. Specially as I need RM because I am RF exclusive so selling as RF is not an option for me. I also thought that once you got all the extras and complements of shopify it would end much more expensive every month than Photodeck. Is this your experience?

Yes Shopify has a lot of possibilities for extra costs. There are free apps that have upgrade options that have a cost. Then there are apps that don't offer a free version. Adding a bunch of fee based apps can increase costs a lot. But, the apps can add a lot of value where Photodeck doesn't really offer apps. There are apps for everything. Live chat, SEO, email marketing, and a lot more.

Here's the app store https://apps.shopify.com/
Here's an overview of selling stock photos on Shopify https://www.shopify.com/sell/photography

Thank you very much. Yes I was making a quick calculation Shopify + Pixify plus other compliments and it quickly turned to 120$ every month. too much for me. I think that Photodeck looks better for me at the moment but with a good amount of sales Shopify might be well worth it if a better SEO brings a higher number of high RM sales.

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on August 30, 2022, 07:04

Here's the app store https://apps.shopify.com/
Here's an overview of selling stock photos on Shopify https://www.shopify.com/sell/photography

basic shopify + pixify as $29 x 2 and is all i'm starting with.  - what other apps were you considering?

39.44Shopify (paid yaerly) By law I need to collect VAT if sales happen in Spain. It does not have this option in the basic account+ Pixify 39$ (without videos) with video it would be 99$+ SEO Optimizer 30$ Free Trust Badge Free +Outfy 15$ This are the ones I was looking for.

Quote from: cascoly on August 31, 2022, 12:45

basic shopify + pixify as $29 x 2 and is all i'm starting with.  - what other apps were you considering?

thanks - i wasn't considering video costs, but agree that certainly makes a difference.

 a  minor point is additional SEO optimizer likely isn't necessary as google analytics, tags & indexing can be done within shopify

Hi guys!

I'm only seeing this discussion about Pixify now. We started the Pixify project out of need - as I was looking for a solution to sell my content directly. I don't believe any other platform offers photographers with a fully customizable platform where no one takes a cut off your sales.

Pixify is precisely that, and I don't think it compares to existing platforms. We've chosen to piggyback on a solid e-commerce engine that keeps getting better. It's a platform where you can start small and you can grow big as there are endless possibilities for designing and customizing your store.

If there's interest here on the forum, I'd be happy to host a demo + Q&A session. Let me know!