Earn More with the Latest Version of fotoQuote + PhotoShelter
PhotoShelter helps you generate revenue with easy ways to sell your images – from prints to downloads to licenses. Now, with the latest version of fotoQuote (already built right into your PhotoShelter account), you can unlock the potential to earn even more.
115 new licensing categories have been added to the fotoQuote rights-managed pricing calculator inside PhotoShelter!
fotoQuote is the industry standard in pricing for rights-managed licensing. Over time, as prices change and usage evolves, they’ve evolved too – and now, PhotoShelter members have access to more than a hundred new, modern ways to license your images online.
Here are just a few examples of the new licensing options:
- Licensing images for editorial use within mobile apps
- Use of images on mobile devices for advertising
- Editorial or corporate use of images on social media
- Images that could be sold for advertising within airport computer screens
- Licensing images for use in PDF files created by magazines for reprinted issues
- Images used for advertising purposes within software
Not sure if rights-managed licensing is right for you? Let’s break it down.
With rights-managed licensing, you are licensing your images based on how they will be used. This is the opposite of a royalty-free license, which allows a buyer to use the images they’ve licensed from you any way they like for life.
Our partnership with fotoQuote gives you the ability to license rights-managed images directly from your website, using the same type of pricing calculator found on photo agency sites. The calculator lets your client select how they want to use the image, where, for how long and more. If your client wants to use the image another time in another way, they would need to purchase a new license for the new usage.
Rights-managed sales have the potential to bring in much higher licensing fees than royalty-free. Plus, you’ll have more control over how and where your images can be used.
Ready to check out the new categories?
If you’re a PhotoShelter member with an active rights-managed pricing profile, a few things to be aware of:
- All of the new top level usage categories will be unchecked by default in your account. To enable them, head to your rights-managed pricing profile and select the new categories you’d like to include.
- If you previously had a top level usage category checked, any new subcategories are now checked, as well. Custom percentages will transfer to the new subcategories, too.
- If you previously had only some subcategories enabled under a usage category, any new subcategories will be left unchecked. You’ll need to expand each category in your pricing profile and decide which new subcategories you’d like to enable.
Head to our Support Center to see a list of all the newly added categories, plus learn more about how to set up for rights-managed licensing with PhotoShelter.
Not a PhotoShelter member? Get started today.
Thanks for this update Rachel. Unfortunately the prices produced by the Fotoquote system seem to bear no relationship with the real world market prices for stock photography. Or, to qualify that, to the overwhelming majority of stock photos sales. Their prices may still have some relevance to a tiny proportionate of truly world class exclusive imagery.
If only those prices were what actually clients were willing to send.
I would love to hear from Photoshelter photographers who can tell me that I am wrong and they are getting frequents sales at these prices through their Photoshelter website.
http://www.geographyphotos.com
Ian, that’s why we give the photographer the option to adjust those numbers on a percentage basis from within PhotoShelter.
Grover: That is not a good response. I totally agree with Ian that FotoQuote prices are way above what the market will bear, and have been for years. Yes, we can discount our prices from FotoQuote’s calculation (and I do), but that puts us in the position of making a Wild-assed Guess at what should be a genuinely competitive price. If FotoQuote are supposed to be the experts they should be producing realistic prices and not leaving it to us to guess what price might be acceptable in today’s market.
Charles, our job is to provide a service to photographers. Not to decide what your pricing should be. Through the percentage adjustments you can control the pricing of the RM grid yourself. That’s all we can do.
As you clearly stated, you think fotoQuote prices are too high, yet you don’t know what your prices should be. If you don’t know, how will we?
The problem seems to lie with fotoQuote, not with Photo Shelter. Why can’t fotoQuote’s pricing research yield real world results?
Grover, Yes, I agree, I do not need or want PhotoShelter to determine pricing amounts for RM. My primary reason for using RM over RF is I want to control both the usage and prices for particular usage. Maybe RM should actually be labeled Rights & Pricing Managed. For us, the Pricing Profiles have little value because my clients almost always want to deal directly with us to negotiate price and custom usage rights. What we need is an option in PhotoShelter that provides us a way to create a custom invoice, after we have negotiated rights and prices. Is there an option to do this or if not are there plans for such an option? Any suggestion appreciated.
Do you know about Getty Images? Let me tell you, they have a plan for frequent buyer called premium access agreement. they pay a monthly subscription to get say 100 images per month. ANY image in any category. The photographer gets usually 17.00- 35.00 per image NO MATTER THE USE if theirs is licensed. That means if you produced a 10k shoot Getty still gets to sell your stuff for 17 bux. Cheap stock images are just that. Getty recently got rid of RM I wonder why? Because it was a conflict of their own user agreement giving a client that licensed an RM image ‘exclusivity’. But every month I would get my statements showing huge conglomerates licensing my RM images for .17 up to 35.00…eg: “Microsoft $7.56 my cut for MSN.COM splash page.” Can you imagine. I would rather sell 1 image for proper usage than undercut the profession. So now I am learning to market myself. **ck Getty!
Thanks for sharing this, Andy. The photographers who do the best with RM sales are generally people who have their own specific niche, and have the ability to reach clients directly.
If a photographer is trying to license their images as RM, but they are similar to what’s already available as RF, then they shouldn’t be surprised when RF wins.
The message seems to have disappeared.
Yes, I appreciate that. Last time I did that I ended up on around 10% and it was still too high compared with real-world sales. This is all fine as long as Photoshelter don’t give potential customers the impression that these prices are what they might reasonably expect to get paid if they take out a Photoshelter subscription.
There is a kind of fantasy element to some of Photoshelter’s marketing. I just wish we could be discussing realities. I continue to pay my $500 a year because I find Photoshelter an invaluable service. I would hate to be without it. I am a big fan. I have been since 2005. But all this ‘sign up and you too can be a real pro and earn money from your hobby’ gets to me.
I like it , I will be on board.
I could I start?
How could I upload my new folders?
How could I delete some folders in my existing web?
Let me know , because I want to upload tomorrow.
Best,
Frantz Michaud Photography
Hi Frantz,
Our Technical Support team can definitely point you in the right direction here! You can find them at [email protected] and they’ll help you get squared away.
Thanks,
Rachel
Just to add that the support team at Photoshelter is wonderful!
A big thanks to all of you.
Ian, I (unfortunately) agree with you. Generating a revenue stream from stock media pretty much has ended. Ask a Getty photographer. That being said, it would really be beneficial if Photoshelter helped out somehow by compiling stock sales data and letting us see if any actual sales are made though Lattice, or individual users web pages, and what the market is currently paying. If the fotoQuote numbers are decades old, and now fictional, it would help to know that.
At one time ASMP surveyed the members for what the market’s fees were. They stopped it, not because of fear of the FTC or anti-competitive practices (publishing a survey is not restraint of trade), but because the prices kept dropping.
It would be a good service for the industry if someone were to give the photographers an idea of what the market is actually paying for stock photography.
Is it possible to invoice clients through Photoshelter? Not just invoice and sell stock images but invoice contract jobs?
Hi Janine,
We don’t currently offer this type of invoicing feature, but this item is on our roadmap and definitely something we plan to add in the future. For now, I’d love to connect you with someone from our Technical Support team to see if they might have any suggestions for workarounds. You can send them a note at [email protected], and I’ll let them know to be on the lookout for it!
Thanks so much,
Rachel
Thanks for the article. As a professional photographer for 3 decades I still use FotoQuote as a guideline and starting point for my stock photography pricing. I don’t buy into the argument it does not reflect real world market prices. It is the responsibility of the photographer to educate his clients on the value of the images for each specific use. And your responsibility to ask for a fair usage fee. If the client is not willing to pay, then the best answer you can respond with is “no thanks,” and turn away the business. As painful as that sounds, it is the best thing for yourself and the industry.
Fantastic news Richard and I’d love to see your images.
Well done.
Richard – thank you.
I haven’t checked out the new system but one thing I really missed rom the previous Fotoquote was to have more flexibility to offer bundled licence. For example, a one fee RM editorial only licence to try and bridge the gap with RF.
I have removed regular stock pricing because I think that the prices produced from the calculator deter potential clients from making contact.
Any chance of an edit function?
Can you explain what you mean by “edit function”?
Sorry – I meant on this blog to correct typos.
eg) ‘missed rom’
Terry has summed it up exactly. FotoQuote touts itself as calculating real-market prices. They presumably have more resources for surveying the market than I do. If they are out of touch with the prevailing market their service is of questionable value. Regardless of what we think our own images are worth, if we are also out of touch we will not be able to sell. We need a guide, a reference point, that is realistic.
I’ve been with PhotoShelter for nine years and, for the most part, I’m satisfied with its services and e-commerce functionality. Interestingly, the complaints people raise about FotoQuote today are similar to the complaints that were made when I joined in 2012. I’ve always interpreted FotoQuote’s calculations as a guide or recommendation, not an absolute figure that guarantees a sale. My observations are that customers and/or clients want as much as they can get for as little as humanly possible, so even if and when photographers readjust their licensing fees, there’s no guarantee of whether your pricing method is in sync with the market value. There’s so much trial and error involved.
Everyone’s situation appears to be relative, based on the many comments I’ve read here and in other articles. If you’re just starting out, you may heavily rely on FotoQuote as a guide for licensing fees. (I stress the word “guide”). If you’re a professional photographer whose livelihood depends on the income from your photography, you’re likely going to markup your fees — again, using FotoQuote as a guide and not a standard. If you’re a very well-known or famous photographer whose constantly in the demand, FotoQuote’s estimations may be considered humorous or “cute”. The point is — FotoQuote is a guide. If you feel that it’s out of touch with reality or real market value, then it’s incumbent upon you, yourself, to reassess your pricing and fees. There’s not much FotoQuote or PhotoShelter can do to aid us in that regard.
To be sure, it’s disappointing is that, even after almost a decade, the observations are still the same about FotoQuote, but I do not take their calculations and recommendations too seriously. I determine the fees and prices for my own work, ultimately. If FotoQuote’s estimations are off or suspect to PhotoShelter members, I understand the need for further investigation, but I do not believe it’s a subpar service. It’s just a benchmarking guide, from which we use or own observations to measure accuracy in terms of generating sales.
I’m very confident in my own pricing structure and license fees based on FotoQuote’s estimations. What I find, however, is that several customers and clients do not want to pay the fee for any number of reasons (i.e. limited budget, misguided assumptions on photography as a service/product, corporate frugality, or idiocy). From there, you can either decide to negotiate, or walk away from whatever low-ball offer they want to make for your hard work. My serious customers don’t even question my pricing. They just pay the fee and I’m informed via email the next day. (Yes, this does happen — not as frequently as I would like, but if we want to talk about reality — customers only need to shop around for a few minutes before getting maximum quality images for a very cheap sum or less, thanks to photographers who low-ball themselves, believing that just because they haven’t made a sale, therefore something must be wrong with FotoQuote).
What’s the expression we use for people who don’t like to read long messages? “TLDR”?
TLDR: I don’t think FotoQuote is the problem or responsible for the issues within our PhotoShelter sites. Cheap customers and clients who do not wish to pay the proper license fees are the problem, year after year. You could reduce or mark down your fees for licenses, and you’d still get complaints, even when you believe your fees are reasonable.
I’m glad for the added price profiles, but I agree with many that FotoQuote is a place to start negotiations from and if it seems too high or low you can adjust the profiles! Most people contact me instead of using it, that is if they contact me at all in this economy.
I too am glad for the added pricing profiles. I would like to see PhotoShelter and Fotoquote add a feature where Buyers can make an offer on what the Photographer quotes and then the Photographer can accept and move the sale along via the platform, have it produce an online contract which parties can docusign vs the Buyer contacting directly via email.
Be a very good idea to bring your website from the dark ages to the modern world!
ba it would be a very cool thing to have a homepage at some point haha. you know like other websites.
https://kateyjanephotography.photoshelter.com/
How about the ability to just add your own flat rate prices with simplified criteria and not labelled as either personal or royalty free?
Does FotoQuote still exist/work? I need to use it this weekend but I downloaded 7 and updated to the latest mac OS and it still doesnt work.
Hi there,
I’d like to put you in touch with our Technical Support team on this. You can send them a note at [email protected]. If you’re a PhotoShelter member using fotoQuote with your PhotoShelter account/website, you won’t need to download anything; the fotoQuote update referenced here happened automatically. But our team can point you in the right direction to help get this sorted!
Thanks so much,
Rachel