How's Sales in Sept and Nov?

Well September looked much better. A constant increase in sales each month for a few months. Then comes November .... NOTHING! How's ya'lls sales in sept and Nov so far? Let's wish for better times ;)
Don

Previous months sales had increased.
This past month my sales are very low.
Gmanvideo

Although having worked in TV a long time, I am relatively new to micro stock. I decided to put the same clips on 2 sites and see how it went. So far the other site is doing better financially. I am not keen on the idea of exclusivity but maintaining 2 sites, keywords and the like is a quite lot of work, which possibly makes me think that having all your clips in one basket is not such a bad idea. I am not sure who is behind pond5 but my guess is that it's the 2 guys in an office routine. They have a great product here, which they seem to know how to operate technically and with the future of web video in all it's guises, leads me to think that future could be bright. The problem for me with Pond5 is marketing and user perception. The site to me does seem to have a user controlled feel to it. This idea of your place to market your clips is great but it's a bit of a lazy idea from it's creators. How often have we seen the idea of, build a web site and the money will just role in, idea fall flat on it's face. Remember you are not just providing me with a nice web interface and some storage, you are providing me with a service. I would like to feel like you are my "agent", someone who understands the business and will look after both my interests and your own. Not much emphasis here seems to be put on quality control, legal clearance etc. Not that the clip quality is not good here, it's one of the things that attracted me to the service but I do see clips here that I worry about from a clearance point of view. I would wonder what a buyers perception of the site is? What I am trying to say is that don't forget this is a business. I understand that with web businesses like this if your technical backbone is not strong, huge problems can bite you further down the line but get the balance right, without buyers you have no revenue without sellers you have no product. It's a strange business, one that I am sure you would have problems explaining to a bank manager but it does seem to work but make it a business not just a great web site. I hope I have been constructive in my comments and I do sincerely wish Tom, the Pond5 team and all it's contributors, including me, all the very best. It's good to know that someone is brave enough to take on the big boys in the market.

I had 3 sales in October and none so far in november.

I have to agree that this site feels a bit 'abandoned'. There has been so many promises of automatically generated resolutions, taking the site out of beta and adding features, etc, but in the end nothing happens.

If anything just get rid of the 'beta' under the logo.

Sales in general have been pretty good this month guys. There is an ebb and flow to the business, obviously. And for the moment it might seem a little quiet as we ramp things up in preperation for the 1.0 - at which point we'll definitely be removing the 'beta', and making lot more substantial improvements too :) But some significant changes are in process, both in terms of site functionality and in our "real world" operations.

Edgenumbers, thanks for your comments, you're right of course that this is a business and needs to be taken as such. We're doing just that. Clearances are important, and we're very careful about what comes in and how it gets labelled for end use. Keep in mind that we also have news and editorial footage, which is not cleared for commercial usage but is legal and useful for news/documentary type productions. On the quality end, we're also pretty careful about what passes review. We're going to be doing a "spring cleaning" to clear out material which is not suitable for stock (there's not a lot of it, but admitedlly there is some), and we're also going to be tightening up our review standards to keep the quality level going up.

We are a small team, but we're ramping things up on that end too. We just brought in a new director of marketing, Dana Tower, who managed marketing and business dev at Getty and Corbis (we'll be making a more official announcement about this in the coming days). Dana's an amazing guy who really understands the world of footage licensing, and his skillset complements our team perfectly. This is a great step for us and for all the artists we represent.

Also, we're in the process of shifting our base of operations from Portland, Oregon to New York, which will put us in the heart of the media world and give us more direct contact with buyers and sellers. A new office, new people, lots of partnerships in the works and other developments which will move us to the next level - and generate more sales for you guys.

So bear with us as we make the transition, keep on pushing us on the quality and functionality side, and let's continue to make this a great site. Thanks.

-Tom

Great to get the feedback from artists and especially from Tom. Hiring the right people can be expensive and risky but is an absolute requirement. The last business I was involved with, I owned five 240 seat restaurants in Texas and New Mexico. They were franchise operations. Their problem that cost a lot of franchisee their business was indeed the lack of ability, skill, knowledge and honesty of the franchisor and his front office. They always cut their expenses, hired the second rate marketing and always bargained to get the lowest bid in marketing and operations. Yes indeed they make lots of money at the expense of the average Joe franchisee.
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Moving to be next to the big boys, hiring industry leaders from the big boys and moving into a full business and out of the closet is a great move. Remember it really does take money to make money. Only the lucky make money without personel and cash investement.
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The preview of clips during keywording and layout of P5 is great, with site improvements it will be beyond outstanding. Biggest issue is review times must be shortened significantly. A goal of 48 hours max must be reached with 75% of all clips reviewed in less than 24 hours. This allows the artist to test a clip to see if it meets the needs of P5 without uploading 50 clips and then being told that there is problems with releases or quality. (Tom, remember my previous e-mail to you ;) ?).
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So for me, faster approvals, a better breakdown of formats that are selling (xx# of HD, xx# of SD, xx# of editorial, xx# number of digital computer generated, etc, etc on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
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Well done and REALLY looking forward to the BIG BANG ;).
Don