Mostphotos launches subscription packages
Until now Mostphotos has offered one way to buy photos and that has been single purchases via credit-card.
We have seen that most of our customers are one time visitors dropping in via search engines such as Google. They are obviously looking for a certain specific image and we have luckily hit on their search result. That is excellent and that is why we constantly are working on our SEO (search engine optimizations). For instance we have a big translation project going on. It’s about making all the images searchable on multi languages and site translations so we can present a very local appearance when buyers visit Mostphotos. This is all part of the SEO projects that we have ongoing.
But we have seen that it’s hard to keep hold on the customers dropping in via Google. It has been difficult for us to turn them to regulars and that is mainly because of the pricing. Most comments we have been getting is “why become a regular at Mostphotos when I can get much cheaper images on other sites”.
That is why we decided to add two new features. We have during the past month worked on improving the e-commerce and finally we have a system that supports sales of web resolution images and subscriptions.
Mostphotos now offers two ways of buying photos:
1) As logged in customer via subscription, credit card or invoice. For returning customers
2) As logged out customer (quick buy) via credit card, no registration. For one time customers dropping in via Google.
If we look closer at the fact of “Why choose us” we will see that it is mostly because we have images that buyers can't find else where. As a consequence of our democratic approach, we have been selling images that wouldn't make the review on most stock-agencies out there. This business model gives us therefore an everyday challenge with our automated sorting and rating algorithms. That is the uniqueness of the site.
Subscription commission
Subscription price / amount of sold images * 50% commission
For example if a buyer buys a subscription for 200€ / month.
During his first month he downloads 10 images from 10 different photographers.
The commission to each photographer will then be:
200€ / 10 images * 50% commission
That is 10€ to each photographer.
The commission is in other words an amount that is affected by the number of pictures the purchaser downloads during the subscription month.
The subscription will go on every month and automatically debit the purchasers bank account.
Our marketing research shows that customers in general uses subscriptions less for every month that goes by. In the beginning they are eager but in a rather short time the availability calms them down. The human psychology works like this.
We have to look at the majority and the typical customer, those who pay 200€/month for a subscription are mostly professionals. They don't even have the time to log in every single day to randomly download images.
Those who download eagerly in a beginning will soon realize that they can't organize all the images that they download (it's not searchable in any way and meta descriptions wont follow). It is much easier to log in to Mostphotos, search and find what you are looking for.
Subscription is not for us something that is written in the stones and for ever. But now that our system supports subscriptions, it is a smart move to try it out.
We believe it will work and will give us the strength to attract more frequent buyers.
Time will tell how it will go with this.
Option out
The subscription plans are something we just put online. No fuzz or marketing has been made yet.
We believe that subscription plans are necessary to be able to turn one time customers to regulars. But for those who don't want to be a part of our subscription ventures there is an option out setting.
The setting can be found in the Settings → Site → Subscription plans.
When you opt out, your images will be excluded and will not be available for sale via subscriptions.
If a customer has bought subscription he wont even be able to see your images when he is logged in, because you have excluded them. We don't want to confuse the buyers with "you can download this but not that". When the buyer buys a subscription we'll only show the images available on subscription.
The customers can buy your images via credit card when they are logged out. Just like the way it used to be. Excluding your images from the subscription means that your target customers will mainly be one time customers, dropping in via Google.
You will definitely make a higher revenue on Mostphotos if you are a part of the subscriptions. Because that way you will target two type of customers, single buyers and regular customers.
If you have any thoughts or comments you are welcome to drop us a line in the Subscription thread
Regards
Arian
