A little over two years ago we launched ClusterShot. We very openly called it an experiment. It was not only a technical experiment but an experiment for our company's cultural and economic models.
The experiment is coming to an end.
We, silverorange, have decided to shut ClusterShot down. This may not be a surprise to some of you; as you may have noticed, our zeal for the site quickly disappeared this summer. There are many reasons for this but the overarching theme is simply: it wasn't quite successful enough.
Right now our plan is:
- We are immediately going to be suspending pro-account sign ups, photo uploading (of all sorts), and new account creation.
- We are going to refund your money. What money will you get back? If you've signed up for a pro account within the last 2 months, you'll get it all back. If you signed up more than 2 months ago, we are going to pro-rate your account and give you back what you haven't used (i.e. If you bought a pro account for $20 USD and used it for six months you'll get $10.00 USD back).
- There is a 0% commission on all photos sold until we shut the site off. Go nuts.
- On February 21st, 2011 the remaining site functions will be turned off, and no more sales will be possible.
I hate this! I want to save ClusterShot!
Well, you are in luck. If you really, really want to save ClusterShot then please make us an offer. We are open to selling the entire site, brand, and system to someone who wants to take it to the next level1. No reasonable offer by a reasonable party will be refused.
There is a lot of technical investment in ClusterShot by one of the better web development firms out there. We have spent over two years working on ClusterShot and have done what we think are some pretty cool things with it.
Why would I buy ClusterShot?
Currently ClusterShot almost sells enough pro-accounts to cover hosting and technical fees. Over the past 6 months this has happened with virtually no input or energy from us. We strongly believe that with some effort and some smart marketing (things we just don't have the time to do), ClusterShot could be a great little business. The interest is there (we have new pro accounts being bought every day) and we believe it will just take a few driven people to take it to the next level.
If you are interested in buying ClusterShot please email slice@silverorange.com.
Thank You & We're Sorry
As this experiment comes to an end, we want to extend our thanks to everyone who played a role in shaping it. It's been a fun project and we are sad to see it go. To all of those who have come to rely on ClusterShot and whom this will inconvenience, we are very sorry.
Respectfully Yours,
The ClusterShot Team
1. We will not consider any offer that violates our current terms of service or privacy agreement with ClusterShot users.
Comments
Chris - January 21, 2011 1:32 pm
Thanks for being honest and upfront about your reasons for closing. Also very decent of you to refund the money. Ironically it was on the day I'd got round to organising my stuff properly.
Hopefully someone will pick up where you left off :)
All the best for the future!
Steve Parrott - January 21, 2011 2:42 pm
Only joined this week!..... just my luck. I did realise that Clustershot was something you guys pretty much maintained in your spare time. I think the concept was great, I think the site layout was great too. I think there is huge potential to someone that wants to take it over and build on it.
There is nothing like this out there to my knowledge, and surely clustershot fills an obvious hole in the market.
All the best - and should you manage to sell it, would you e-mail all current members?
Michael Gauthier - January 21, 2011 2:51 pm
Steve,
If we do find a buyer for ClusterShot we will definitely email current members.
Matthew - January 21, 2011 6:00 pm
Seems like the developers/designers behind this were talented but whoever was in charge of marketing/product obviously didn't put in very much effort.
Cienpies Design - January 21, 2011 6:33 pm
Thanks for your words and clear explanation.
Although we joined CS just a few weeks ago these are unexpected news.
Sometimes things are not definitely bad or good, perhaps CS project just need the opportunity to be analyzed and boosted in other terms, from other angles and with other eyes.
We colaborate with 15 images stock agencies and the first impression with your user interfase was nice and realy easy going. Even easier than with most of them.
Otherwise you don´t have a review process for the images which gives the buyers higher end quality assurance for the downloaded images.
My first thoughs are about big bussiness partners to acquire your company which have a great experience in stock market like Istockphoto, Shutterstock, Dreamstime or Fotolia.
All the best on your new commercial search. You deserve to find the right buyer!
Steve Gibson - January 21, 2011 8:17 pm
Cheers guys
I do hope someone takes you up on your offer of a buyout. I've found clustershot a quite useful service, and I'm sure that a few percent less commission would make something more profitable without upsetting too many photographers
Richard Lazzara - January 22, 2011 5:45 am
What a BUMMER, Obama sells Jets but I can't sell a few photos, life in America sucks, What a bunch of stupid people in America.
Todd - January 23, 2011 10:56 pm
Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun while it lasted. You're a good bunch of people, and we appreciate your honesty, and not being strung along any further. Dan, you've always been a good guy to deal with, and I hope you keep in touch on the social networks.
Why not sell the photo store setup as a script or something buyers can self-host? You guys might make some nice spare change from all of the development that went into clustershot. I'll miss this service, because now my only other options will probably be complicated, buggy, and a bear to work the kinks out. I don't think I'm going to be able to risk using another photo store system that isn't self hosted, because if a company decides to close up shop, that's just another "fun situation" to deal with.
What sucks the most is that like a ding dong, I hotlinked and hyperlinked my watermarked clustershot images into endless blog posts. Once the site is turned off... bye bye photos. Only thing I can do is save them and rehost, but that's so much work I get tired just thinking about it :)
jejndp - May 14, 2012 9:34 am
YG1f6R ffbhwbmblpyr, [url=http://yknixfedfjtb.com/]yknixfedfjtb[/url], [link=http://zlusvymmfxcl.com/]zlusvymmfxcl[/link], http://ardpavbjlkoz.com/