Saturday, August 2, 2008

Cutcaster Year-end Goal - Your Help Needed

100k Images. It's a nice round number and a lofty goal to set from where we are. In the spirit of openness, I want you all to know by the end of 2008, we are aiming to have at least 100,000 quality images on Cutcaster. We don't mind sharing and being very open about our Goals. Today, I am proud to say that we have over 29,000 unique and quality images and over 4500 video clips which are not on the live site but will be very soon. Already, we have had numerous sales which is due to the high quality of our contributors images. I AM ECSTATIC and so should you be, as you are the reason for this early success. If you haven't had a sale yet, keep your chin up because we are still young. We are moving in the right direction and I can feel the momentum building. Thank you all very much for your contributions and support of Cutcaster.

So our Goal:

With Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. left in the 2008, we have to average around 14,200 accepted images a month. This should be doable.

What you can do?
1. Keep the uploads coming and let me know if there are files you want to get on the homepage. I'm all about getting you as many views as possible and publicizing your work. We are about to add a "similar image" feature on the media details page which will help get you more views as well. Here is some extra help you can use when uploading your images or photos to Cutcaster and I have extra directions for using the different FTP clients. Just email upload AT cutcaster DOT com.

2. Very important. We need people's help recruiting other photographers, graphic designers, illustrators and potential buyers who can join our community and benefit from our new platform. Here are details on the Cutcaster referral program.

Please use your referral links and the "invite a friend" capabilities. We promise to make you look good and you can make some money at the same time. Some of you are already benefiting from referring people who have had sales or had buyers purchase other members' files. Referring people can be done through your studio under the Referral tab, using the link next to the settings and logout button, on the left hand side of your studio page at the way bottom of the page or by word of mouth. If you know of other ways we can get the word out and give you guys credit for it, please let us know.


This is our Goal. I am making this public for everyone to see because this is yours future as much as it is Cutcaster's. Let's see the strength of our community to get things done. I think this is very possible with everyones' help and look forward to seeing how we do at the end of 08.

Let's play a little game below.

1. What do you think Cutcaster will have in terms of total files uploaded at the end of the year? Post your answer in the comments below. One answer per person.

The 2 people who get the closest to the final number at the end of the year will receive a LIMITED edition Cutcaster T-shirt for founding members. Check it out here.

6 comments:

  1. 129,273 files. thecarlinco

    ReplyDelete
  2. I apologize by advance for mistakes, English is not my primary language...

    After few years on different microstocks (main : fotolia, istock, dreamstime and some tests on Bigstock,Stockxpert,123rf,snapvillage, features, etc...) I am not for large databases...

    When the database grow, to find something for a customer become harder and harder. Relatively to the price of the photo, It means that the time of research become too important .
    For Contributors, review times are longer and longer, reviewers don't easily accept photos that are better than the first one of the same type uploaded in the database.
    So the entire system is unable to evolve. New talented contributors have difficulties to apply their work, old ones decrease their new submissions.
    So what’s happens ?
    Contributors provide their stuff on few sites in a non exclusive way. The same pics are found everywhere. The best site is the one with the lower price.

    So I sincerely think that the number of photos is not the main parameter for the success of a stock site.
    It seems more important to put accent on :
    - Qualities of photos
    - Speed and possibilities of search
    - Good display with useful zoom
    - Exclusivity is important to provide something different from everywhere.
    - True communication between the Site, contributors and customers.

    For the price, I think Cutcaster propose the right system because the deal is possible between customer and contributor.

    Serge

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am going to go with 105,000. Moonb007

    ReplyDelete
  4. by my scientific calculation (!!!!!), I estimate the year end total to be 106,321. :) b

    ReplyDelete
  5. My guess is 104, 538. aladytraveler

    ReplyDelete

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