Sta.sh
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Jorvik Tales is still in alpha stage, the story you see now will not be the same story when it has been redrafted and proof-read by a number of people. In fact, I'm not sure I even want to call it Jorvik Tales. So, it has taken me well over a year to plan this: There will be three sequels to Jorvik Tales. I have an idea of what these are about but I'm not going to tell you yet, but be assured that it isn't the end 
and a free commission from me, pretty fucking awesome i know
You may only win FIVE times. 
oints: :bulletpink: Given to !DarkWarriorUmbreon
Ya ya I know! Some of you know about it now! Read completely to understand..
Now all the premium members can have a small widget like thing in your deviation to directly sell your contents. I know it looks cool to have that cool widget thing displayed in your deviation page. But is it really worth it? Think about it!
Perhaps you've clearly read what it says... 80% revenue shall be transferred to the the seller and rest goes to deviantART! So, why should a seller loose 20% of the revenue if he/she can sell the same content by other means and yet loose nothing? The seller might not loose but then the buyer looses if the seller doesn't.
Let me get into more details with some scenarios and example to make more sense....
-------------------------------------------------------
Example 1: I want to sell a journal Skin @ 1000pts
Now you may be excited to sell it using the new premium content platform. Right? So, what do you do? You quote 1000pts as the selling price for the Skin using the platfrom.
Now, lets assume someone purchases it and he/she is happy with the content that he/she receives.
On the seller side (i.e. me): I shall receive only 800 points. Why? 20% goes to deviantART remember?? So, 200pts goes to dA!!
Now that I understand the thing.I shall play it smart this time to receive the 1000pts. I shall now quote 1200pts instead of 1000pts for the skin that I had previously quoted.
-------------------------------------------------------
Example 2: I want to sell a journal Skin @ 1200pts
This time you are excited to use the new premium content platform to sell the skin again!! Lets see what happens this time...
Lets assume someone again purchases it and he/she is happy with the content that he/she receives.
On the seller side (i.e. me): I shall receive now receive 960 points. Why?
20% goes to deviantART remember?? So, 240pts goes to dA!!
-------------------------------------------------------
Now, you want to do your math really well!!! So, to receive 1000pts what price do you need to quote? Its simple...
You receive 80% of the price you quote for the premium content. So, that means you need the 80% to be equal to 1000pts. And, how to you calculate it? Its again very simple..
Let the price that you want to find out be "X". So, 80% of X = 1000pts in this case.
USE THIS FORMULA..
(80/100)*X=1000
Result, X=1250
So, you need to quote 1250 to get your selling price i.e. 1000.
What's the bottom line? The buyer always looses while purchasing something using this bullshit "new premium content platform"
It's just a technique to make people spend more money into deviantART my dear friends!!
So, If you want to buy something from someone then just contact him/her directly and purchase it from them. They can always send the files via email or sta.sh or any file sharing website, can't they? No one looses in this way!! Think again my friends! Think again!
You might say, what's wrong to pay 250pts for a platform that dA is providing. But think, 250pts was for only 1250. If a total worth of 12500000pts is the revenue per month, 250000 goes to dA's pocket. And that would be around 2500000/80 = $31250 USD is the money they will be making! By actually doing nothing!
Though, I've made some hard negative points for this new feature. There are some advantages too!
1) The seller may not be able to cheat the buyer. He/she may cheat by uploading a fake file for download. I don't know how dA is going to tackle that problem if someone does that.
2) You instantly get what you are paying for.
3) I saves times for both the buyer and seller for the transaction to happen
4) The widget looks actually good in the deviation page.
Regards,
Sid
Introducing the Premium Content Platform
DeviantART is proud to announce our Premium Content Platform
Providing the ability for content creators to become sellers and generate real earnings by making digital files of their high-quality work available for download. Sellers are able to set their own prices while retaining 80% of all revenue earned, and buyers are able to quickly get the things they want with the satisfaction of supporting the artists they love.
What is Premium Content?
The Premium Content Platform was built to represent high-quality content — the premier pieces in an artist's repertoire of work. We encourage the sale of everything from comics or stories for download, to high-res files like .PSDs, textures, tutorials, brush packs, and more!
Now all the premium members can have a small widget like thing in your deviation to directly sell your contents. I know it looks cool to have that cool widget thing displayed in your deviation page. But is it really worth it? Think about it!
Perhaps you've clearly read what it says... 80% revenue shall be transferred to the the seller and rest goes to deviantART! So, why should a seller loose 20% of the revenue if he/she can sell the same content by other means and yet loose nothing? The seller might not loose but then the buyer looses if the seller doesn't.
Let me get into more details with some scenarios and example to make more sense....
-------------------------------------------------------
Example 1: I want to sell a journal Skin @ 1000pts
Now you may be excited to sell it using the new premium content platform. Right? So, what do you do? You quote 1000pts as the selling price for the Skin using the platfrom.
Now, lets assume someone purchases it and he/she is happy with the content that he/she receives.
On the seller side (i.e. me): I shall receive only 800 points. Why? 20% goes to deviantART remember?? So, 200pts goes to dA!!
Now that I understand the thing.I shall play it smart this time to receive the 1000pts. I shall now quote 1200pts instead of 1000pts for the skin that I had previously quoted.
-------------------------------------------------------
Example 2: I want to sell a journal Skin @ 1200pts
This time you are excited to use the new premium content platform to sell the skin again!! Lets see what happens this time...
Lets assume someone again purchases it and he/she is happy with the content that he/she receives.
On the seller side (i.e. me): I shall receive now receive 960 points. Why?
20% goes to deviantART remember?? So, 240pts goes to dA!!-------------------------------------------------------
Now, you want to do your math really well!!! So, to receive 1000pts what price do you need to quote? Its simple...
You receive 80% of the price you quote for the premium content. So, that means you need the 80% to be equal to 1000pts. And, how to you calculate it? Its again very simple..
Let the price that you want to find out be "X". So, 80% of X = 1000pts in this case.
USE THIS FORMULA..
(80/100)*X=1000
Result, X=1250
So, you need to quote 1250 to get your selling price i.e. 1000.
What's the bottom line? The buyer always looses while purchasing something using this bullshit "new premium content platform"
It's just a technique to make people spend more money into deviantART my dear friends!!
So, If you want to buy something from someone then just contact him/her directly and purchase it from them. They can always send the files via email or sta.sh or any file sharing website, can't they? No one looses in this way!! Think again my friends! Think again!
You might say, what's wrong to pay 250pts for a platform that dA is providing. But think, 250pts was for only 1250. If a total worth of 12500000pts is the revenue per month, 250000 goes to dA's pocket. And that would be around 2500000/80 = $31250 USD is the money they will be making! By actually doing nothing!
Though, I've made some hard negative points for this new feature. There are some advantages too!
1) The seller may not be able to cheat the buyer. He/she may cheat by uploading a fake file for download. I don't know how dA is going to tackle that problem if someone does that.
2) You instantly get what you are paying for.
3) I saves times for both the buyer and seller for the transaction to happen
4) The widget looks actually good in the deviation page.
Regards,
Sid
P.S. Comments are most welcome!
1. It's very easy to promote your work here, specially because almost all the promotion services are free. From what I'm guessing you can add premium content to groups like normal deviantations, which means there's more chance that your product will be seen an purchased.
2. Though it is possible to do it yourself and save the 20%, it's not as convenient for the buyer in most cases. With the premium content service, they can receive the content instantly without going to another site or having to wait for you to send it to them in the mail (in the case of a comic book, for example). This makes them want the product more since it is easier to get... And most likely cheaper (no shipping fees, ect.).
3. Also, think about the points system. There are a lot of people on here who have points, but don't necessarily have paypal accounts, credit cards or even money of their own. Those people can earn points through point commissions or donations and then be able to spend them on premium content (which means even more customers).
As it has been mentioned before, lots of other selling services ask for commissions. It's not uncommon. It's a good price for convenience in my opinion, and personally I think that it could help artist sell more content than they would on their own. Quantity of sales for a lower price can often make more that few sales for a higher price.
Sorry, long post. Just wanted to express my feelings on the topic and get your opinion
Here, there is a trade-off between convenience and cost. There are certainly major advantages including the points that you've mentioned but there are some major disadvantages too. You may read my latest post on PCP and also the comments along with the response from other people there.
So yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm right about it now. I believe the 20% comes from the buyer's pocket, not the seller's. Could still be wrong though, I suck with math related stuff...
20% shall come from the buyer only if the seller is playing smart while selling this content (as I've explained in my journal). But you can see it from another perspective too. If the seller isn't playing smart and just quoting a price that he/she is willing to quote and is also ready to give up 20% to dA, its the buyer that would be paying the 20%. So, one way or the other the buyer is ending up paying an extra amount.
When you buy points 80pts=$1, but on the platform 100pts=$1. So let's say I want to make $1 on a download. I would go to the platform and set the price to be $1, which on the platform is equal to 100pts. But the purchaser, when buying points, could only get 80pts for $1. So to buy my download, they would (theoretically) have to buy $1.25 worth of points to have 100 points to spend on my download. Thus, the 20% loss comes from them, not from me. This is backed up by the fact that, from the one download I sold, made the whole 50cents I charged. Albeit, I haven't withdrawn the funds to paypal yet (since I haven't reached the five dollar minimum), but I don't think the 20% would be taken off then.
So, yeah. That's my logic. We shall see how it pans out if I ever reach that $5 minimum to withdraw the funds to paypal...XD
(pretty pointless comment, i know)