Does a $5 FeaturePics Photos belong at IS or SS or etc?

ca2hill · #1 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 02:33 PM

Hi All,

I've been reading this forum periodically for a couple months now and been doing the microstock thing for about 6 months and I'm starting to get a better handle on alot of it.

However, I'm not sure how to handle the following situation. If I place a photo with FeaturePics and determine the price should be $5 then I should probably remove it from other stock sites, since a buyer could go and get it for cheaper at the other sites? I realize that some buyers probably just stick to one site and wouldn't know they could get for cheaper and or won't go bargain hunting.

So I'm wondering how you folks handle this type of situation?

I guess the bigger question is do you put all your RF photos everywhere (that they are accepted) or do you remove pics from lower pay sites in attempt to raise your earnings from an image?

Anybody with any ideas or suggestions... I'd love to hear them.

Thanks,
Chris

Gracey · #2 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 02:59 PM

I don't generally remove images from lower paying sites. For Shutterstock the big thing is the subscription sales, for FeaturePics people can buy individual images without buying a subscription. The business models are different, so it doesn't make sense to remove images from SS just because you can get more at FP if you make a sale there. You might only make that bigger sale once or twice at FP, but a dozen times or more at SS.

Some images I have a FP or Totally Photos I don't submit to SS, for a couple of reasons: on SS they might see little or no downloads because of the type of image they are (SS might peg them as "not stock"). Some images I shoot specifically for SS and they aren't on all the sites I submit too; the same goes for Feature Pics.

I don't think that is everyone's way - many submit to all their sites and see which sites will take what.

I think it is likely a personal choice.

thesupe87 · #3 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:10 PM

spread it out - Shutterstock might be only .25 cents, but they have way more users and you get way more sales. Spread your junk out across as many sites as you can, and you'll get the most profits

ca2hill · #4 (**permalink**) 06-29-2006, 03:59 PM

Thanks for the replies.

I have not removed an image from any site as of yet, but I have read that some people do if the inital sales are high enough. I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon.

As for submission strategy, the spread out method has been mine. Which is why I wondered if others cherry-pick where certain images go, in order maximize earnings from an image and not waste time. Eventually, I would like to take more of Gracey's approach. I guess I just need to shoot more, submit more, read more and hopefully learn more.

thesupe87 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-30-2006, 01:25 AM

Think of it this way. A store pays the same amount to the wholoesaler to buy a can of Delmonte peas, as the store brand peas. The delMonte brand peas cost .75 a can, while the store brand costs only .35 a can. Either way, the store is still selling peas.

I honestly think people wouldn't want to price-shop to find your same stock photo on the cheapest site possible...designers are busy people, and we just don't have the time with tight deadlines on projects to do such a thing. If you find the perfect image - just what you need, out of a database of 800,000 images...how easy is it going to be to find it on the next guy's site, that has another 800,000 images - some same, some different?

tyke · #6 (**permalink**) 06-30-2006, 12:38 PM

Gracey and Supe make some very salient points ,as ever.

But i think we can all agree we are missing the main issue here,why aren't the designers finding more of my images ?

thesupe87 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-30-2006, 03:35 PM

haha!! good one tyke :lol: those crazy designers

Batman2000 · #8 (**permalink**) 06-30-2006, 11:00 PM

Designers time is more valuable than the couple of bucks they could save from shopping around for the cheapest photo.

smphoto · #9 (**permalink**) 07-02-2006, 05:32 PM

A little off topic, but what types of photos are selling for you at FP? And at what prices? Are you guys getting a nice monthly download or is it pretty slow there? I only have a very small handful of images there at the moment.

thesupe87 · #10 (**permalink**) 07-02-2006, 07:14 PM

It's been very slow for me, but then again the majority of my stuff is photoshop backgrounds. I have a lot of photos also, and everything is priced pretty close to .99cents, and I still haven't had many sales - it'll pick up eventually, I'm sure.