Get ready to sell stock photos

zacker

so WHEN can we start uploading stock to smug mug? any new info yet??

Andy

Simon King wrote:

caroline wrote:

I meant Andy's watermark yes, it used to be just text but he added a 'cross' too

How'd you do that Andy - how about a tutorial....?

Simon, not much to it, at 1600p wide image, text, and a few lines All saved as a transparent png. Why not post in finishing school and ask the question, okay?

Mark_S

zacker wrote:

so WHEN can we start uploading stock to smug mug? any new info yet??

bump? curious.....

beetle8

Perfect timing
The bump is perfect timing wise. I just became eligible for exclusive at iStock. I think I'll probably sign on unless something turns up here that sounds good.

So does anyone know if any progress has been made on this front?

Markjay

Status of stock photos on Smugmug?
Sorry but, I lost track of this and, in checking the post announcing that it was coming soon, I did not see any updates?

So please if you would, update me / us :-)

Thank you,
Markjay

Andy

Markjay wrote:

Sorry but, I lost track of this and, in checking the post announcing that it was coming soon, I did not see any updates?

So please if you would, update me / us :-)

Thank you,
Markjay

No update yet but stay tuned...

Photolistic

Has this happened yet? If so where do I go?

Andy

Photolistic wrote:

Has this happened yet? If so where do I go?

See my post just above yours

cardon

Vector Stock?
Most of the other stock photo agencies are also selling vector stock art, is that something that Smugmug is considering too?

Markjay

Stock page layout
Important question:

Will the stock sale option be set up where like most of the stock agencies online, have a front page with some "hot stock" or will the front page images rotate to give ALL stock sales pros a chance to have their work displayed / make it to the front page... so to speak?

Personally, I don't think it would be fair to simply use "popular photos" from Smugmug as the representative photos on a front page such as this. I've been a member of Smugmug for around 4 years now and, I'm just now starting to setup the recently added option of digital downloads....
why should I (or anyone else for that matter) be at a disadvantage, just because?

I know the images will be searchable... that's how stock photo sites work but, I can assure you, images on that front page are going to lead one to the photographers gallery of work and, everyone should have that chance.

This is really tricky business I'm talking about here, I know. You want everyone to have a chance to be on that front page but, you also want to balance that against the opportunity to show off the BEST looking images to entice buyers that this new stock option on Smugmug is worth a look.

Thank you for even making this option one that will be available!! I have to get going..... time to get a new Smugmug account going and, work on my Smugmug stock pages.

All the best,
Markjay

Baldy wrote:

Hello pros!

Many of you sell digital downloads and wonder how to get more exposure for your work.

We're not ready to go public with this news, but we knew you'd love advanced notice about a stock photo service we're working on (we hope this forum is a secret corner of the world).

We're going to provide an option for you to enable specific galleries for stock sales. When you do, any photo in those galleries that is for sale via digital download will be added to SmugMug's stock catalog.

We're planning to construct a page for finding stock photos that will be in some ways like our popular photos page. The stock photo page, however, will have a custom search engine just for stock.

We'd love to get your feedback so we can make sure we get this right at launch. And we hope you'll enable some great shots for digital downloads now so there is good content on day one. You can't enable galleries for stock sales yet, but that should be a quick job if you've already enabled photos for digital sales.

Timing: we believe we're a short number of weeks away but it's software...if we run into snags there could be delays.

Clear as mud?

Thanks!
Baldy

Markjay

Princing of stock photos
Will the Smugmug stock photos be priced by Smugmug as in microstock sites $1, $2, etc? or are the images going to be priced as we have them priced in our digital downloads area?

Thanks in advance for the reply.

Markjay

Markjay

Are we being quiet about this now?
I asked a question or two in this thread (the last few I think) and no replies?
Not complaining here, please. Just wondering if you are not answering for a specific reason like.... keeping things quiet before roll out?

So now what? I'm going to ask yet another question! :-)

When we have this stock photo smugmug homepage set up (meaning the sites home page) what will happen when a prospective buyer clicks on a photo he / she likes or wants to look into more?

Will it take them to the photographers gallery and open the photo for viewing?
Will it simply open the photo for viewing with purchasing details?

If you can't divulge yet or are not sure, I completely understand....
just smack me in the head once and I'll stop asking questions about this.

He he

Thanks once again for another fine "add on" of products and services, Smugmug!! We love you!

3n-out

I probably wrong about this. But I don't think they ever got this off the ground. Hopefully someone will chime in with more information.

zacker

yeah, whats up wit dis?
lol

I have been keeping one eye on this thread and its getting tired awaiting for some answers... personally, i think more attention should have been paid to the stock part of smuggy than to uploading videos.. that said, can a smugger at least confirm if this idea had bitten the dust or not? maybe close the thread if it has?
thanks!

greenpea

zacker wrote:

yeah, whats up wit dis?
lol

Yah, what ever happened to this Andy?

Andy

zacker wrote:

can a smugger at least confirm if this idea had bitten the dust or not?

It has not bitten the dust.

Markjay

In all fairness.....
You know, I'm VERY excited about the prospect of stock on Smugmug and thank you for offering this as a new venture for us aspiring photographers :-)

However, are you not making it very easy for us Smugmug loving photographers to prepare for such a great thing, by not giving out much detail about how this is going to work for us etc? I mean, what do you expect to do... "spring it on us" and have those who are wanting to "do it" start scrambling to get a gallery of photographs together?

I know there are LOADS of competitors out there in this market and, it is understandable to want to keep SOME details out of the viewing eyes of competitors but, you're going to have an unprepared group of photographers when it's announced and...... that's only going to delay the success of the offering, IMHO.

I hope this at the very least sparks a reply from one of the Smugmug Heroes? Preferably one of the SUPER heroes

Andy wrote:

It has not bitten the dust.

greenpea

Markjay wrote:

However, are you not making it very easy for us Smugmug loving photographers to prepare for such a great thing, by not giving out much detail about how this is going to work for us etc? I mean, what do you expect to do... "spring it on us" and have those who are wanting to "do it" start scrambling to get a gallery of photographs together?

To follow along with that same sentiment: how about at least giving us some some suggestions about how best to start preparing. Obviously our images should be well labeled and key-worded, geocoded, and images shoud be set with pricing for for digital download, are there any other suggestions that can be provided?

xris

Hey folks The cake ain't cooked 'till its cooked!! How can they tell us what they're doing when they don't yet know themselves? I'm sure SM will let us know what's up just a soon as they can, so why make it more painful then it need be?

I, for one, am very happy SM gave us any advanced notice at all and I'd like them to keep up the practice.

In the mean time I suggest greenpea has the right idea.

Patience grasshopper...

S. Horton

I think they'll figure it out.

They know about PhotoShelter et al.

I'd rather they take their time, really nail it, than enter half-baked.

Matthew Saville

I'm also hoping that this feature doesn't sneak up on me. I REALLY need to go through my nature galleries and organize / keyword things a lot better before Smugstock is debuted, and I do NOT have the time to do that right now...

=Matt=

Looking forward do setting my own prices instead of getting $0.25 per download, though. Stock photography used to be a real career for some photographers, but I sorta ruled it for ME out when I realized what the micro stock industry was doing to the business...

Maybe I can't make a career out of Smugmug stock, but I'd like to at least make some spare change every month!

Andy

greenpea wrote:

To follow along with that same sentiment: how about at least giving us some some suggestions about how best to start preparing. Obviously our images should be well labeled and key-worded, geocoded, and images shoud be set with pricing for for digital download, are there any other suggestions that can be provided?

That's exactly what to do

tomsimages.com

Sooner the better!
I sure hope this is coming along sometime reasonably soon as this "watch for it" thread started last May.
I can't think of a better service you could offer us and I'd really like to do stock with Smugmug instead of going somewhere else.

Once the stock is up & running you can work on being certain we can sell greeting cards from our galleries to someone other than ourselves before next Christmas.

Can you throw in world peace while you're at it too? ;-)

THANKS!!
Tom

Itsme

when will be able to sell stock ? ANY ETA on this ?
When will be able to sell Rights managed stock photos ? It's been almost a year since this was announced and I and others are anxious to jump in. I have not opened a SM acct as this would be what I want to use it for. I know there are a few other services like that but for some reason or another they won't fit our needs since they can't read IPTC info and all images would have to be keyworded one at a time.

Any word if and when we can sell RM stock here ?

itsme

Itsme

Once a photo has been sold as RF or especially macro it can NEVER be sold as a rights managed image. That's pretty much 'The Law' in the business of stoc. I've been in it a long time..more than 20 years..

It's a good idea to do your homework on the business and legal end of stock photography before jumping in.

best,
itsme

Matthew Saville wrote:

I'm also hoping that this feature doesn't sneak up on me. I REALLY need to go through my nature galleries and organize / keyword things a lot better before Smugstock is debuted, and I do NOT have the time to do that right now...

=Matt=

Looking forward do setting my own prices instead of getting $0.25 per download, though. Stock photography used to be a real career for some photographers, but I sorta ruled it for ME out when I realized what the micro stock industry was doing to the business...

Maybe I can't make a career out of Smugmug stock, but I'd like to at least make some spare change every month!

beetle8

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Matthew Saville
I'm also hoping that this feature doesn't sneak up on me. I REALLY need to go through my nature galleries and organize / keyword things a lot better before Smugstock is debuted, and I do NOT have the time to do that right now...

=Matt=

Looking forward do setting my own prices instead of getting $0.25 per download, though. Stock photography used to be a real career for some photographers, but I sorta ruled it for ME out when I realized what the micro stock industry was doing to the business...

Maybe I can't make a career out of Smugmug stock, but I'd like to at least make some spare change every month!
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

People said the same thing about digital photography, "it's ruining the industry"
micro stock is just another evolvement, without it there would be a lot of small designers who would not be able to do what they do.
Also there are plenty of people making a decent amount of money at it.
You complain about .25c per DL then You say you'd like to make spare change every month.

I Simonius

beetle8 wrote:

People said the same thing about digital photography, "it's ruining the industry"
micro stock is just another evolvement, without it there would be a lot of small designers who would not be able to do what they do.
Also there are plenty of people making a decent amount of money at it.
You complain about .25c per DL then You say you'd like to make spare change every month.

Sounds like 'ItsMe 'knows what he's talking about - I'll go with his(?) advice

Montec

I Simonius wrote:

Sounds like 'ItsMe 'knows what he's talking about - I'll go with his(?) advice

Check out the forums over on iStock...there are many, many posters there with over 100,000 images sold per year and they are doing much better than .25 cents per image.

beetle8

the product (micro stock) exists for a reason, people are sucessfull on both sides of it.
There seems to be a misunderstanding here that micro stock means poor quality photography, and that better photography will produce higher price tags. The first part of that is incorect therefore so is the second part.
Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by I Simonius
Sounds like 'ItsMe 'knows what he's talking about - I'll go with his(?) advice<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/mwink.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The advice to know what your getting into? That's always good advice.

I am a contributor at iStock, there are a lot of great photographers creating a lot of great work, and making a lot of great money.

I Simonius

beetle8 wrote:

There seems to be a misunderstanding here that micro stock means poor quality photography, and that better photography will produce higher price tags. The first part of that is incorect therefore so is the second part.
.

Sure - I had made that assumption