Pixmac Blog

There are always some photographers  who are not quite satisfied with their microstock agency. The same thing seems to be happening at Apple App Store. Why does that happen? How to avoid it or fix it? After almost a year of Pixmac  service  being up and running, I’ll try to find answers.

First things first. Be sure I want to have Pixmac as a social responsible company. We are nothing like a bank or large burger chain that seems like a black box that just takes your money and does nothing with it. No! Not when I’m here. Sure, the company has to generate revenue, sure it must satisfy its investors. But why  push it to the edge? Why to cut affiliate programs in half, when the company believes it will be no pain?

I went over several threads at Microstock Group and found out that there is always people posting that some (in fact any) agency is the worst and they will delete their portfolio right away. Usually the agency owner doesn’t even read it and if they do they propably don’t take it seriously. I think that this is not the right way for our users(customers?). We’re all on a same boat, we’re here to help people that need pictures and we’re here to feed ourselves – together. So, let’s talk about the pain and find a cure!

Pixmac after a year of service

Pixmac is still a newcomer to microstock. Since our start in September 2008, we have had a few bumps in the road, and we’ve made some mistakes. We’re learning from them.  But I am proud to report that we made a huge jump forward since  Pixmac was started. But believe me, we have always kept our customers in mind every step of the way.

Good news

I’m really proud to sum up what we’ve achieved in last 11 months. And I’m looking forward what we can do in the future. There will be some challenging times ahead, but I am confident that I and the Pixmac team will be ready to face them.

Better sales every month

We are still growing! No matter in what season, no matter during a time of  crisis, and  no matter if CEO is on honeymoon! Pixmac proves that fast and user-friendly interface is the right choice for serving your needs. Tell your friends, tell your family, spread the word over Twitter and Facebook! There is still place for some more figures in the gross sales number. We do banners, promos, articles, contests to attract buyers. But it’s the word of mouth that makes the difference.

Low subscription prices

We know that  trying to beat the competitors with a rock bottom price was not the right choice. So we took down the advertisement on that in the first place. We pushed the prices of subscription to a  higher  rate. Still, we know it is not ideal. But trust me, there are some bright new ideas in the oven already.

Nice revenues from bonus credits

When we’re giving bonus credits to contests or on any other occasions, we have to set their price somehow. We used the subscription prices as a measure before. But I thought it’s time to reward you when  you spend time uploading to Pixmac. So now we’ve set the price of a bonus credit to $0,9 (as same as in the $500 credit pack). So you should get noticeably more if some user comes to your portfolio to buy a picture.

Slow/bad approving process

Fixed already, but worth noting. In the early months there was a lot to fix. Even when we came up with the idea to pay you for just uploading  as your first agency. Now it should be faster (matter of hours to few days) more positive and easier to use. We’ve also added a dispute option to the process. So you can always complain if some of your recent uploads were not approved and we will get back to you as fast as possible.

Lock-in time

If anybody remembers this. We started with 2 year lock-in. But, in February 2009, we’ve changed this to 1 year after a discussion with photographers. Sure it can be less and it will be. It just needs time to convince the owners, that they will not loose anything if they open the system a bit. Believe me, I am looking for a way to satisfy both sides.

Sliding commision without explanation

This is our fault. I’ve explained this issue on Microstock Group, so I’ll do the same here. Basically it’s about splitting the earned money into a few parts. First is the photographer, then from the rest something goes to affiliate and rest to Pixmac. Sure, the time of registration matters, because the options change as time goes by, so if you’ve registered today, your contract is the same for a lifetime unless you request a change (if the offer becomes better than what you have).

More features for buyers

We want the users to be happy, that is our way to satisfy photographers in the long term. For example, our latest great feature is  the similarity search. Even now we’re still working on improving, every result as an icon, which finds similar images. The user  doesn’t even have to know the keywords! Another  thing  worth mentioning is the eg. Facebook App that shows your stats to others;  A widget that can be used in several ways to promote your portfolio or any theme etc.

New languages and local people in team

This is my personal favorite. Pixmac has been translated into 6 languages already: English, German, Russian, Czech, Spanish and Finnish. Dutch, Italian, Brasilian Portugese, French and Polish are in the progress these days. And not just that! We have people in those regions that take care about the customers, preparing marketing strategies and are in everyday contact with  our headquarters in Prague.

Upcoming partnerships

We’re doing a lot in this field. Stay tuned and we hope you’ll be impressed. Pixmac should be much more than just another microstock site. I’m doing my best and the rest of the team  is too. By the way, have you tried Ginipic tool?

Yes, we can do more. And we will. Vitezslav “Zager” Valka, CEO of Pixmac