Stock Wars

I have uploaded a little to a few other sites, but I have been selling a lot here recently on P5.And I know other people who upload to every stock site there is ...you know who you are ;)

But I wonder if it isn't better to upload to one site,,, or to 'diversify' to other sites. Logically if you upload to more sites you get more exposure...

On the other hand, maybe there is something to be said for having all your work in one consolidated location...It is better for repeat business, integration, etc.

I have been selling a lot here (like everyday), and I wonder if I had all my same work on istock wouldn't I be competing with myself (and at a lower pay rate.) ...Even though I would like to gain more exposure, I am assisting pond5's enemy in the war of stock footage if I upload to istock.


What do you all think..

Diversification
or
Consolidation

I sure don't like 20%. For me it doesn't make sense to compete with yourself as a lower payout. Many do because they have been around longer and have higher volume. P5 has made great improvements in volume so hopefully that will not be an issue in the future. It's all about marketing. As is so true yesterday and today in the business world ... location ... location ... location. Ya got to market in the right locations.

Don

The thing is , The people I know who are buyers will go to several sites to look for clips that they like. They shop around,,, so they will visit istock, ss, p5 or whatever, so if an artist posts to all of those sites the buyer might just pick the cheapest version, and therefore the artist ends up competeing with himself..and doesn't really increase his exposure because the buyer looks at all the stock sites anyway.....on the other hand, artists who do post to a lot of sites seem to make a lot.

I have been wrestling with this same issue...

If I upload something and it sells on another site for $50 and all I get is $10. And I upload it here, price it at $40 and get double, what's the point of putting it up at the other site?

Other issues I've run into are, uploads are CONSIDERABLY slower on other sites, so the time it takes to even get stuff to them can be two or three times. A couple of sites I've been testing are a week or more behind in getting approvals. Not to mention, on one site I uploaded something that has sold here multiple times and they rejected it as "unsellable" and that's all they'd tell me.

Then there is the whole process of getting something online. Here you have templates you can use for common types of footage, just make a few changes to keywords and such and submit. But the procedures and hoops you have to jump through elsewhere... They are just NOT artist friendly.

As I mentioned in a prior thread, P5 hit on something that for some strange reason the other sites just don't understand. And, with artists anyway, they are building a HUGE loyalty.

I got a few items approved on a few other sites, but my current plan is to just let them sit and not bother with them any more (with maybe one exception). Instead, I am on a personal mission to make sure that everyone who purchases stock footage KNOWS about Pond5. I figure that would be a HECK of a lot easier than trying to maintain portfolios on multiple sites.

Also, remember that if your stuff is good, and you post exclusively here then you will contribute to "driving more traffic" here since this is your home base. I know of another artist here (perhaps he'll speak up) that has notified his repeat customers that have contacted him that he'll no longer be uploading new material to IS. All his new material will be exclusive here. He's also priced his stuff so that it's a little cheaper here, but with higher commissions he makes more.

This is no critique to P5. This place here is great and due to their friendly collaboration with both submitters and buyers and their dedication to video I am sure they will become one of the biggest if not the biggest player in this field. Maybe some day they will even go beyond pure stock selling and market scripts, tutorials, rf music, fully edited videos... Who knows?

But, as for now, there are still many customers out there who know about the "big boys" but not yet about P5, especially customers from the PAL world. That´s logical considering that they are running multilanguage sites with millions of photos and millions of customers. I can easily tell it because I am selling more over there, despite of having the same clips here and charging in almost every case considerably less at P5 (partly due to the generous commision here and partly due to my personal convictions).

Again, no critique at all. A goal to go for. Lots of greaty stuff here. Spread out the word (and call Universal)!

The handful of clips I am shooting right now will continue to be non exclusive but available here at P5 as soon as they are shot and accepted, and as long as the comission is more generous they will always be quite a bit "cheaper" (uuuuh, the bad word... but, no need to beat about the bush :).

Good luck all,
Stefan

We all agree that P5's achilles heal is lack of exposure. I think that is why we need to all do our best to get the word out.

And I mentioned previously there is one site where I might go ahead and keep up a portfoilio. And that's because the site is in Europe and from what info I'm gathering, a lot of Europeans use it almost exclusively because of the site's multi-language support.

There are some other things I think are more important right now, but I hope P5's "to do" list includes support for multiple languages.

Personally, I did try the exclusive thing for a few months when I first got started in video. My photographs were already all over the place so there wasn't anyway of going exclusive for those.

It didn't work as I found the old adage of all your eggs in one basket was true.
As it happened the site started having some FTP problems and staying online and I wasn't making the sales I had hoped.
And the biggest part is restricting my income to one percentage of sales instead of many.
Some sites don't pay as much as here, we all know that but all those percentages add up in the end.

Just my 3 1/2 cents.
Jake

The problem with having clips on multiple sites is it also is somewhat prohibitive to certain personal marketing tactics that I employ, such as integration etc. I also know that I am getting repeat business from certain buyers on here, so I create a following that is localized to p5. and with the speed of reviews, and the fact that I hate keywording, I would rather make more clips than uploading to other sites.

SO I think Ill mostly be monogamous to pond5, Ill make Pond5 my "wife" and SS can be my "mistress," with whom I do things with I cant do here (like selling CG images) lol

In terms of investing, diversification is considered a smart strategy (for the average investor) becuase it is a way of limiting loss by not putting all his eggs in one basket.... However, sometimes in the business world, diversification is considered a losing strategy, and often times you are better off putting all your eggs in one basket even though it may sound risky,,, it really isn't that risky, so long as you make your basket out of steel.

AND in a couple years Getty will buy all the footage places we use and we'll all be back at one place and one copy of each footage and Tom & Marcus and Team will be multi-millionaires and remember Tom .... ya'll promised to share with me ;)

Don

Wife...mistress??? Mark you make stock sound so sexual. Maybe I have to think like you :-)

Actually you and Don make valid points. Look at Starbucks, they have so many stores that there closing 600 of them because they are competing for business with each other.

Jake