MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => CanStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: cthoman on January 06, 2011, 22:10
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It's been a slow beginning to 2011, but Can Stock is kicking butt. I don't know what kind of new year's resolutions they made over there, but I like it. Keep up the good work CanStockPhoto! Anyone else?
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For the past few months, CanStockPhoto has been steadily performing better than BigStock. Now CanStockPhoto is easily my #5 site. My $19.80 downloads seemed to have stopped a few months back, but I get a steady stream of $.50 to $2.00 downloads to keep them in double digits almost every weekday.
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I wish. One or two big sales a month for the last six months have meant CanStockPhoto earned about as much in that time as in the previous four or five years but I'm still not getting steady sales on a daily basis.
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Cthoman ...
your illustrations are really great!
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I love CanStock. They perform almost as good as Dreamstime for me, and waaaaaay better than 123rf, BigStock, Veer and the rest.
As stockmarketer, I haven't had a $20+ download for a long time, but subscription sales have gone from making up 76% of all sales a year ago, to now 28% as I stated in another thread. The rest are PPD's ranging from $0.5-$5 and these are quite frequent.
I've also had "guest" sales for $7,5 but they seems to have stopped in June 2010. Wonder what happened to those?
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Very poor in my case. Even ClipDealer beats them. If it wasn't for the easy upload system, they would have got nothing from me.
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my sales at CanStockPhoto are low and random - but I only have 1/3 of my portfolio there and haven't done regular uploads. Perhaps need to start doing that.
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Cthoman ...
your illustrations are really great!
Thanks.
I guess my fast start over there this month is not a trend with everyone else. I must have just had a few real good days to begin the month. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the month goes.
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Yeah I'm with the majority it's running slow starting this month. December was awesome though. I'm less than $4.00 from reaching my first payout with them so just one nice $5.00 vector sale could make that happen. I've noticed with me either I get 4 or 5 in a day and then quiet for 7-9 days or it's just quiet. I'm happy with them though. Been with them about 5 months. I just need to find my creative drive again.
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0 sales this month (not usual) but I like them
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For the past few months, CanStockPhoto has been steadily performing better than BigStock. Now CanStockPhoto is easily my #5 site. My $19.80 downloads seemed to have stopped a few months back, but I get a steady stream of $.50 to $2.00 downloads to keep them in double digits almost every weekday.
This has been my experience as well. CanStockPhoto has been consistently outperforming all the mid tiers the last several months (usually by a lot). If they continue to grow, passing Fotolia is a distinct possibility.
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on par with BigStock. sometimes a bit better, sometimes a bit worse. Definitely not even close to the top tier :)
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My worst agency but that doesnt mean they are bad just that I dont think my type of photography is much in demand over there. Closing my account in the end of month.
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In terms of percentage of growth in sales in the last 6 months, CanStockPhoto has been by far the best site for me (I do vectors and submit to 8 sites).
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Slow as usual, just two subs this month.
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Averaging about 3 sales a month with a port of 320 images, they are currently my lowest earner, with an RPI of only $.02 per image/per month! ....so I should probably stop wasting time uploading. Knowing I'm only going to make 2 cents an image per month is not very motivating. They are just so darn easy to upload to though so I really want to see them succeed, I really hope they spend some money in advertising/marketing this year.
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Thanks for reminding me they existed! I just went to check, and had a pretty good amount ready to cash out. ;D
I would say they are in the Bigstock and 123rf category. Slow sales, but give it some time and it adds up...
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Thanks for reminding me they existed! I just went to check, and had a pretty good amount ready to cash out. ;D
I would say they are in the Bigstock and 123rf category. Slow sales, but give it some time and it adds up...
Well for me, they are blowing 123rf and Bigstock off. Just suscribed to them in early January. * easy upload, submitted 340 files there no rejects.
Made 50$ in one month. At 123 and BG I usually make 150$ a Year. Had some nice 5$ and 19.80$ sales already. If they keep up like that they might even surpass my Dreamstimes yearly income... Let's hope they will!
Go CS Go! :)
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Must say, I really dont get it???? why?, how? can you supply, upload, etc, month after month after month, spend all this time that could easily be time generating much more with the big ones and the end result is: 3 sales per month ???
I know everyone here hungers for money but this is ridiculous, its like being greedy for pennies, Scrooge business.
I mean its quite obvious the middle-tier aint ever, never gonna see themselves in the top-tier, its wishful thinking. The only one that can somehow come close is Bigstock, if they play their cards right, they have a much more professional approach and now with the partnership SS, they have a good chance.
Im sorry guys we are already shoting for peanuts but I mean theres got to be a limit, surely?
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Must say, I really dont get it???? why?, how? can you supply, upload, etc, month after month after month, spend all this time that could easily be time generating much more with the big ones and the end result is: 3 sales per month ???
I know everyone here hungers for money but this is ridiculous, its like being greedy for pennies, Scrooge business.
I mean its quite obvious the middle-tier aint ever, never gonna see themselves in the top-tier, its wishful thinking. The only one that can somehow come close is Bigstock, if they play their cards right, they have a much more professional approach and now with the partnership SS, they have a good chance.
Im sorry guys we are already shoting for peanuts but I mean theres got to be a limit, surely?
Those may be your numbers, but other people's numbers are much different. I officially disbanded the big 4 of DT, FT, SS & IS. It is no more. My numbers are a free for all. So, submitting to new agencies isn't a waste of time for everyone. In fact, I find submitting new content to agencies that are fat and bloated is the bigger waste of time. I submitted around 1000 files to SS last year, and didn't see any growth. There's no firm rule for everyone on what is going to work best, so experimenting is usually a good idea.
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Must say, I really dont get it???? why?, how? can you supply, upload, etc, month after month after month, spend all this time that could easily be time generating much more with the big ones and the end result is: 3 sales per month ???
I know everyone here hungers for money but this is ridiculous, its like being greedy for pennies, Scrooge business.
I mean its quite obvious the middle-tier aint ever, never gonna see themselves in the top-tier, its wishful thinking. The only one that can somehow come close is Bigstock, if they play their cards right, they have a much more professional approach and now with the partnership SS, they have a good chance.
Im sorry guys we are already shoting for peanuts but I mean theres got to be a limit, surely?
Those may be your numbers, but other people's numbers are much different. I officially disbanded the big 4 of DT, FT, SS & IS. It is no more. My numbers are a free for all. So, submitting to new agencies isn't a waste of time for everyone. In fact, I find submitting new content to agencies that are fat and bloated is the bigger waste of time. I submitted around 1000 files to SS last year, and didn't see any growth. There's no firm rule for everyone on what is going to work best, so experimenting is usually a good idea.
Sure, fine, but Im thinking more in terms now of contributors whos ambition is to make stock-shooting a fulltime job, as a living that is. Then ofcourse you have to back the big guns cause thats where your revenue is, love or hate them, you know.
However, the weekend snapper, etc, well thats a diferant story, for many of them its a big buzz just to see their own shots in print or being used or even better, being sold.
You have to understand that Im looking at it strictly from a business point of view and without any preferances but like the post further up, he says he gets 3 sales/month and bloody hard work, well? then you really have to start asking yourself if youre flogging a dead horse, dont you?
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You have to understand that Im looking at it strictly from a business point of view and without any preferances but like the post further up, he says he gets 3 sales/month and bloody hard work, well? then you really have to start asking yourself if youre flogging a dead horse, dont you?
If you're doing this as a business, you should be exploiting every revenue opportunity, as long as the outlay of resources ends up being justified -- either by current profits or the reasonable expectation of future profits. I think it makes sense to upload to just about every agency (aside from the ones you have significant issues with, such as the recent iStock fiasco), except for those who are so new that they have zero track record.
If you're creating images that people actually want, and you're getting good sales at the biggest sites (SS, FT, DT and IS if you're still there), then you should absolutely be uploading to CanStockPhoto. They have a very easy uploading process and their sales are definitely growing. If you have a decent sized port there and you're seeing zero sales, my guess is that you're seeing very little sales at the big sites as well and you're probably not generating enough income to justify doing microstock period. Again, that's from a business perspective. If you're simply doing this for enjoyment, do whatever floats your boat.
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If you're doing this as a business, you should be exploiting every revenue opportunity, as long as the outlay of resources ends up being justified -- either by current profits or the reasonable expectation of future profits. I think it makes sense to upload to just about every agency (aside from the ones you have significant issues with, such as the recent iStock fiasco), except for those who are so new that they have zero track record.
If you're creating images that people actually want, and you're getting good sales at the biggest sites (SS, FT, DT and IS if you're still there), then you should absolutely be uploading to CanStockPhoto. They have a very easy uploading process and their sales are definitely growing. If you have a decent sized port there and you're seeing zero sales, my guess is that you're seeing very little sales at the big sites as well and you're probably not generating enough income to justify doing microstock period. Again, that's from a business perspective. If you're simply doing this for enjoyment, do whatever floats your boat.
Well said.
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You mean flooding the market, right, so if you upload to every single one of them, every little bit, exploring every avenue? when do you work? I mean surely you have to eat same as everybody else here or do you live in a country where you can survive on 3 sales/month, come on do me a favour, will ya?
Its exactly this attitude which have rendered agencies into having 10 million shots, totally clogged up wit say 80% of totally mediocre material, leaving a measly 20% worthwhile, its this attitude which makes us even read and write threads like this. To flood a market is the quickest way to destruction, didnt you know?
Still, read my above post, from a business perspective, for people who are trying to turn this into some sort of a living ( me? Im a fulltime freelance anyway), TIME, is money, big money and every business law in the world will tell you this and time well spent, is even better.
Hell, I dont care who submits to who, none of my business, just giving an opinion here and yes! CS, seam to be a very nice and userfriendly site but if I were to plonk down say only 300 of my best sellers, yes I would like to see quite a bit more in return for my time but, hey, thats me.
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You mean flooding the market, right, so if you upload to every single one of them, every little bit, exploring every avenue? when do you work? I mean surely you have to eat same as everybody else here or do you live in a country where you can survive on 3 sales/month, come on do me a favour, will ya?
I work a full time job and then spend about 2 hours on microstock a night. Uploading to CanStock takes about 30 seconds of those two hours. So far in the first 10 days of Feb, they earned me $143, or about 6.5% of my total microstock revenue for the past ten days. Yes, it's a small percent, but it's not chump change for spending an extra 30 seconds uploading each night. Oh, and now we're talking about flooding the market? Then we should all give up microstock completely if that's the overriding concern.
Its exactly this attitude which have rendered agencies into having 10 million shots, totally clogged up wit say 80% of totally mediocre material, leaving a measly 20% worthwhile, its this attitude which makes us even read and write threads like this. To flood a market is the quickest way to destruction, didnt you know?
I've countered with this argument before... do you buy anything from Amazon? Why would you? They have too much stuff! 99% of it is crap you don't want. Dumb argument, right? The fact is that Amazon is so successful BECAUSE they have SO MUCH STUFF. It helps that their prices are right and their search engine works well. Likewise, the ms agencies that are priced right and have good search engines will continue to do well no matter how much stuff they have to sell.
Still, read my above post, from a business perspective, for people who are trying to turn this into some sort of a living ( me? Im a fulltime freelance anyway), TIME, is money, big money and every business law in the world will tell you this and time well spent, is even better.
Again, see above... 30 seconds of extra uploading each night, which for me is feeding a daily sales rate of about $14 per day from CanStockPhoto. From a business perspective, would you say that is time well spent? Of course, many contributors don't see results like this... everyone's mileage will vary. But I'll go back to my argument from the other post... if you're seeing NO sales from CanStockPhoto, you're probably seeing LITTLE sales from the biggest agencies, and you should be questioning whether you should be doing microstock at all... again, from a business perspective.
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I think you have a valid point here,were only hurting ourselves. I've slowed down
uploading,and have stopped on some totally. My revenue is not where I was hoping .I've been with it for around five years with photos and graphics and it's evident my style of images are not popular. By flooding the sites with average images doesn't help our cause.
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lagareek seems to be very active in the forum lately. Time might be better spent uploading to CanStock. ;D
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You mean flooding the market, right, so if you upload to every single one of them, every little bit, exploring every avenue? when do you work? I mean surely you have to eat same as everybody else here or do you live in a country where you can survive on 3 sales/month, come on do me a favour, will ya?
I work a full time job and then spend about 2 hours on microstock a night. Uploading to CanStock takes about 30 seconds of those two hours. So far in the first 10 days of Feb, they earned me $143, or about 6.5% of my total microstock revenue for the past ten days. Yes, it's a small percent, but it's not chump change for spending an extra 30 seconds uploading each night. Oh, and now we're talking about flooding the market? Then we should all give up microstock completely if that's the overriding concern.
Its exactly this attitude which have rendered agencies into having 10 million shots, totally clogged up wit say 80% of totally mediocre material, leaving a measly 20% worthwhile, its this attitude which makes us even read and write threads like this. To flood a market is the quickest way to destruction, didnt you know?
I've countered with this argument before... do you buy anything from Amazon? Why would you? They have too much stuff! 99% of it is crap you don't want. Dumb argument, right? The fact is that Amazon is so successful BECAUSE they have SO MUCH STUFF. It helps that their prices are right and their search engine works well. Likewise, the ms agencies that are priced right and have good search engines will continue to do well no matter how much stuff they have to sell.
Still, read my above post, from a business perspective, for people who are trying to turn this into some sort of a living ( me? Im a fulltime freelance anyway), TIME, is money, big money and every business law in the world will tell you this and time well spent, is even better.
Again, see above... 30 seconds of extra uploading each night, which for me is feeding a daily sales rate of about $14 per day from CanStockPhoto. From a business perspective, would you say that is time well spent? Of course, many contributors don't see results like this... everyone's mileage will vary. But I'll go back to my argument from the other post... if you're seeing NO sales from CanStockPhoto, you're probably seeing LITTLE sales from the biggest agencies, and you should be questioning whether you should be doing microstock at all... again, from a business perspective.
Hey! I like it! youre having jokes, arent you? well for starters I been with Getty-RM, since 93. Im an Istock-Diamond with 40000 sales and just as many at SS and close even with FT. My DAILY quota of sales is somewhere around 250-300/ per DAY, that is.
Yep! I think I know the Micro, RM and RF.
Im not telling you this out of boast or anything but perhaps now you understand why Im questioning the formula of uploading to every tom,dick,harry available?
best. Christian
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I think you have a valid point here,were only hurting ourselves. I've slowed down
uploading,and have stopped on some totally. My revenue is not where I was hoping .I've been with it for around five years with photos and graphics and it's evident my style of images are not popular. By flooding the sites with average images doesn't help our cause.
The whole "flooding the market" issue is masking a bigger problem. I think by "flooding the market" people generally mean, "uploading more of the same stuff that's already out there." If that's really what we're talking about then, YES, BY ALL MEANS, EVERYONE PLEASE STOP DOING THE SAME OLD STUFF!
My argument is that if we're all truly generating unique, original work... covering subject matter that has not been done to death a million times over... then, the more the better. But if you're just adding unneeded images on top of mountains of other unneeded images, then no one will benefit from that.
Everyone should take a breather, look at what's in your upload folders today, and stop and ask yourself... "Does this stand out? Is it depticting underrepresented subject matter? Does it have a unique style? Why would a buyer choose this over millions of others out there?" If you don't have quick, confident answers to these questions, you're doing something wrong.
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Christian (lagereek),
While I am sorry to hear you have not been seeking the ROI that you’re expecting, it is important to keep in mind that you only have 180 images on our site, which have only been uploaded over the last few months. This of course is a relatively small and young portfolio, which traditionally makes the prospect of instant and high returns unlikely. The most successful users are ones who are continually adding fresh images to their portfolios – which is true for all agencies.
As others have attested in this thread, we have an extremely fast submission and approval system, to make uploading as painless and efficient as possible. While you are unlikely to make the same returns with us as with some in the “Top 4”, you will also spend much less time submitting to us than with others. We recently had an ex-iStock exclusive who uploaded and submitted her entire portfolio to us of 3,500 images and had everything submitted AND approved within an afternoon.
Ultimately of course you have to make your own decisions. Submitting with us is fast and efficient, with our sales growing very strongly (as many have noted). But ultimately if you require immediate “Top 4” returns, then you should stick to them. Others have determined it makes easy business sense for them to submit with us, but you have to make your own decisions for what’s right for you.
Regards,
Duncan
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Hey! I like it! youre having jokes, arent you? well for starters I been with Getty-RM, since 93. Im an Istock-Diamond with 40000 sales and just as many at SS and close even with FT. My DAILY quota of sales is somewhere around 250-300/ per DAY, that is.
Yep! I think I know the Micro, RM and RF.
Im not telling you this out of boast or anything but perhaps now you understand why Im questioning the formula of uploading to every tom,dick,harry available?
best. Christian
Clearly you know your way around this business, but since you're completely anonymous on the forum, that's been impossible to tell until now. (Of course, I maintain anonymity as well, so I can't fault you there.)
Ultimately I agree that it makes sense not to upload to every Tom, Dick and Harry. For instance, I no longer send to Crestock and Veer, because for me the sales are too small and sporadic to justify. But I'm always quick to defend CanStock because I see them as on the same level as BigStock and 123. Not huge sales but quick and easy uploads with moderate payoffs... more than enough sales to justify a few extra minutes of uploading each night.
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Hey! I like it! youre having jokes, arent you? well for starters I been with Getty-RM, since 93. Im an Istock-Diamond with 40000 sales and just as many at SS and close even with FT. My DAILY quota of sales is somewhere around 250-300/ per DAY, that is.
Yep! I think I know the Micro, RM and RF.
Im not telling you this out of boast or anything but perhaps now you understand why Im questioning the formula of uploading to every tom,dick,harry available?
best. Christian
Your post still doesn't make much sense to me. If you do well at all those, then you will probably do well at CanStockPhoto. And CanStockPhoto probably pays better than those three agencies.
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Well good then we agree on a few points, Im signed up with CS myself and I will plod on there ofcourse but you know, when Ive reached lets say around 300 uploads and I know that the images in question are bona-fide good sellers, well? then I also want to see a return accordingly.
best. Christian
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Hey! I like it! youre having jokes, arent you? well for starters I been with Getty-RM, since 93. Im an Istock-Diamond with 40000 sales and just as many at SS and close even with FT. My DAILY quota of sales is somewhere around 250-300/ per DAY, that is.
Yep! I think I know the Micro, RM and RF.
Im not telling you this out of boast or anything but perhaps now you understand why Im questioning the formula of uploading to every tom,dick,harry available?
best. Christian
Your post still doesn't make much sense to me. If you do well at all those, then you will probably do well at CanStockPhoto. And CanStockPhoto probably pays better than those three agencies.
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yes well, that remians to be seen doesnt it.
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Ultimately I agree that it makes sense not to upload to every Tom, Dick and Harry. For instance, I no longer send to Crestock and Veer, because for me the sales are too small and sporadic to justify. But I'm always quick to defend CanStock because I see them as on the same level as BigStock and 123. Not huge sales but quick and easy uploads with moderate payoffs... more than enough sales to justify a few extra minutes of uploading each night.
Completely agree. Canstock is not "every Tom, Dick, and Harry". They have been in the microstock business since, I believe, 2004. One of the first sites.
Sales there had stagnated a couple of years ago, and I almost dropped them, but stuck around because of the easy upload and great customer service. Now I am extremely glad I did. Sales have increased a lot since bought by Fotosearch, and many of those sales are in the $20 range. I make as much there as 123RF and Alamy, and close to what I make at Bigstock.
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Ultimately I agree that it makes sense not to upload to every Tom, Dick and Harry. For instance, I no longer send to Crestock and Veer, because for me the sales are too small and sporadic to justify. But I'm always quick to defend CanStock because I see them as on the same level as BigStock and 123. Not huge sales but quick and easy uploads with moderate payoffs... more than enough sales to justify a few extra minutes of uploading each night.
Completely agree. Canstock is not "every Tom, Dick, and Harry". They have been in the microstock business since, I believe, 2004. One of the first sites.
Sales there had stagnated a couple of years ago, and I almost dropped them, but stuck around because of the easy upload and great customer service. Now I am extremely glad I did. Sales have increased a lot since bought by Fotosearch, and many of those sales are in the $20 range. I make as much there as 123RF and Alamy, and close to what I make at Bigstock.
I know Lisa! CS, is not anyone and they have been around for some time but I was sort of talking in general, not really having anyone in the middle tier in mind but in general.
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Well good then we agree on a few points, Im signed up with CS myself and I will plod on there ofcourse but you know, when Ive reached lets say around 300 uploads and I know that the images in question are bona-fide good sellers, well? then I also want to see a return accordingly.
Glad to hear you are going to hang in there. I know the type of images you do, and you have some of the best, and often only, images of the type of industrial niches that you cover. What may be happening is that, since Canstock didn't HAVE that type of subject matter before, buyers weren't conditioned to shop for it there.
Now that your images are available there, I think you will see the market for your niches grow on Canstock. It may just take awhile for buyers to realize they are there. :)
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I've been with CS the last time since 7/10,almost 1000 images and one pay out . I'm going to stay with them and see if it does pick up as the economy get better.
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Well good then we agree on a few points, Im signed up with CS myself and I will plod on there ofcourse but you know, when Ive reached lets say around 300 uploads and I know that the images in question are bona-fide good sellers, well? then I also want to see a return accordingly.
Glad to hear you are going to hang in there. I know the type of images you do, and you have some of the best, and often only, images of the type of industrial niches that you cover. What may be happening is that, since Canstock didn't HAVE that type of subject matter before, buyers weren't conditioned to shop for it there.
Now that your images are available there, I think you will see the market for your niches grow on Canstock. It may just take awhile for buyers to realize they are there. :)
Well if you say so Lisa! then I trust its a great place or else you would never say it. Oh well, thats exactly what we need here, some other places climbing the ladder, makes a hell of a change to the same old ones.
all the best.
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Christian (lagereek),
While I am sorry to hear you have not been seeking the ROI that you’re expecting, it is important to keep in mind that you only have 180 images on our site, which have only been uploaded over the last few months. This of course is a relatively small and young portfolio, which traditionally makes the prospect of instant and high returns unlikely. The most successful users are ones who are continually adding fresh images to their portfolios – which is true for all agencies.
As others have attested in this thread, we have an extremely fast submission and approval system, to make uploading as painless and efficient as possible. While you are unlikely to make the same returns with us as with some in the “Top 4”, you will also spend much less time submitting to us than with others. We recently had an ex-iStock exclusive who uploaded and submitted her entire portfolio to us of 3,500 images and had everything submitted AND approved within an afternoon.
Ultimately of course you have to make your own decisions. Submitting with us is fast and efficient, with our sales growing very strongly (as many have noted). But ultimately if you require immediate “Top 4” returns, then you should stick to them. Others have determined it makes easy business sense for them to submit with us, but you have to make your own decisions for what’s right for you.
Regards,
Duncan
Hi Duncan!
Oh I will carry on uploading, dont worry, Im not quitting. Just want to say that Im actually talking in general here, not really aiming this towards any agency in the middle-tier, might be because the OP mentioned CS, thats probably why?
Your editing of shots is astounding, couldnt be better, fast efficient, simply the easiest around. Your reviewers also know their stuff, I can tell by the few rejects coming back and let me tell you: good reviewing is like a fresh breath around here.
Might also be what Lisa said, takes a while before people realize that my kind of stuff is available at CS, never thought abot that actually but they will in time.
take care Christian
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Must say, I really dont get it???? why?, how? can you supply, upload, etc, month after month after month, spend all this time that could easily be time generating much more with the big ones and the end result is: 3 sales per month ???
I know everyone here hungers for money but this is ridiculous, its like being greedy for pennies, Scrooge business.
I mean its quite obvious the middle-tier aint ever, never gonna see themselves in the top-tier, its wishful thinking. The only one that can somehow come close is Bigstock, if they play their cards right, they have a much more professional approach and now with the partnership SS, they have a good chance.
Im sorry guys we are already shoting for peanuts but I mean theres got to be a limit, surely?
That's not all of us make 3 download per month there. That's not my case with the same portfolio over there, and it sure is worth my time. You must not know Canstock if you talk this way. Uploading to them is the EASIEST submission site. You upload via FTP, go to their submit area, check select all, submit all (unless you didn't get the keywords and descriptions in your files... which that would be waste of time).
In 5 minutes after upload, I have all my 340 image portfolion on their site, with a nice welcome of 15 downloads and 50$ in month. Of course that's 1/3 or 1/4 of what Shutterstock generates for me, but still is better than some Dreamstime or Fotolia months for me.
Don't miss the big 4, but don't spit on the new one who is coming to the market, that will be your loss. 5 minutes for 50$? That's well paid for me. In a year it will be 10 minutes worth of submission time for 1000$.
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Well good then we agree on a few points, Im signed up with CS myself and I will plod on there ofcourse but you know, when Ive reached lets say around 300 uploads and I know that the images in question are bona-fide good sellers, well? then I also want to see a return accordingly.
Glad to hear you are going to hang in there. I know the type of images you do, and you have some of the best, and often only, images of the type of industrial niches that you cover. What may be happening is that, since Canstock didn't HAVE that type of subject matter before, buyers weren't conditioned to shop for it there.
Now that your images are available there, I think you will see the market for your niches grow on Canstock. It may just take awhile for buyers to realize they are there. :)
I agree with Lisa, I have had some good sized sales there trhough fotosearch and they are getting more active on regular sales as well.. Upload is one of the better systems I have dealt with as well, and is quick.. Other sites could learn from their upload process to make contributors more willing to suply them with pics..
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As I explained to Duncan, my postings was not aimed at any agency in the middle tier but just in general, it just so happend that the OPs headline included CS. Youre right ofcourse, their editing and speed is amazing.
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I work a full time job and then spend about 2 hours on microstock a night. Uploading to CanStock takes about 30 seconds of those two hours. So far in the first 10 days of Feb, they earned me $143, or about 6.5% of my total microstock revenue for the past ten days. Yes, it's a small percent, but it's not chump change for spending an extra 30 seconds uploading each night. Oh, and now we're talking about flooding the market? Then we should all give up microstock completely if that's the overriding concern.
Wow, you must be the CEO there ;)
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I joined CanStockPhoto on August 12, 2009, and I now have 748 files in my portfolio. To date, I've had file sales - two video clips and three photos. Certainly nothing to write home about, but I plan to stay with them because I see potential there. Also because uploading is so easy and fast (time is money) and because they seem to be photographer-friendly (low rejection rate). The only issue I have is that the last batch of video clips I submitted simply disappeared. They're not in the pending que, nor do they show up as rejected. They're just gone. If they show up, I'll submit more. Meanwhile, I'll upload more photos.
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The only issue I have is that the last batch of video clips I submitted simply disappeared. They're not in the pending que, nor do they show up as rejected.
Hmm that's strange - I checked your account and didn't see any video uploads since Jan 3rd. Could you kindly open a support ticket so we can get some more information from you?
Thanks,
Duncan
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this site sounds like good as every said it.but i dont like my files will be locked for a period like some agency did,so if the canstock lock files ?and how to upload vector to tere? thanKs^^
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sobm,
We have no lock-in period - you could upload your photos today and then delete them again all tomorrow.
For vectors, simply upload your individual EPS files - they do not need to be zipped or be uploaded with JPG versions. We will automatically generate all thumbnails directly from your EPS, and will offer JPG purchase options that are again generated directly from the original file.
Duncan
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Christian, are you seriously complaining about people uploading to Canstock when you only have 180 images there? How can possibly base an opinion on their performance with that small of an exposure?
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You mean flooding the market, right, so if you upload to every single one of them, every little bit, exploring every avenue? when do you work? I mean surely you have to eat same as everybody else here or do you live in a country where you can survive on 3 sales/month, come on do me a favour, will ya?
Its exactly this attitude which have rendered agencies into having 10 million shots, totally clogged up wit say 80% of totally mediocre material, leaving a measly 20% worthwhile, its this attitude which makes us even read and write threads like this. To flood a market is the quickest way to destruction, didnt you know?
Still, read my above post, from a business perspective, for people who are trying to turn this into some sort of a living ( me? Im a fulltime freelance anyway), TIME, is money, big money and every business law in the world will tell you this and time well spent, is even better.
Hell, I dont care who submits to who, none of my business, just giving an opinion here and yes! CanStock, seam to be a very nice and userfriendly site but if I were to plonk down say only 300 of my best sellers, yes I would like to see quite a bit more in return for my time but, hey, thats me.
Time is indeed money. And I think you are correct that some agencies aren't worth bothering with. However, theoretically once you have put in x-amount of time uploading your images to a site that will be around for say 5-10 years, you shouldn't have to do any more work on a given image. So once you have recouped the 5-10 seconds of time it took you to upload a particular image in Canstock, all the rest is potential profit...forever (theoretically of course).
Which means you have to choose wisely, and I think Canstock has enough big names behind it, that potential long-term return for my images is better than the time I put in. Particularly given their very easy upload system. Same reason I bothered with 123rf.
If you have never done alot of reading on the Long Tail concept, its worth looking at. It applies somewhat to this situation, and is one of the reasons Amazon in conjunction with its Kindle and POD businesses is so profitable.
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i just started uploading to canstock aswell - fast review times! lets give the little guys a break and give the tight fisted agencies a kick up the butt for slashing earnings!
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To prove my point above, I just got an $8.00 sale for a small image on Canstock, because of their relationship with Fotosearch, and I didn't have to lift a finger, other than the 10 seconds it took me to process the image that sold. That's not to suggest its all roses at Canstock, but its clear I will more than make back my effort in uploading there.
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To prove my point above, I just got an $8.00 sale for a small image on Canstock, because of their relationship with Fotosearch, and I didn't have to lift a finger, other than the 10 seconds it took me to process the image that sold. That's not to suggest its all roses at Canstock, but its clear I will more than make back my effort in uploading there.
Yep, made 80$ this month with only a 10 min worth of time to send all my images in at mid January. I think they are really going up in the right track. It also shows in the Poll, they are up right below the big 4.
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Must say, I really dont get it???? why?, how? can you supply, upload, etc, month after month after month, spend all this time that could easily be time generating much more with the big ones and the end result is: 3 sales per month ???
I know everyone here hungers for money but this is ridiculous, its like being greedy for pennies, Scrooge business.
I mean its quite obvious the middle-tier aint ever, never gonna see themselves in the top-tier, its wishful thinking. The only one that can somehow come close is Bigstock, if they play their cards right, they have a much more professional approach and now with the partnership Shutterstock, they have a good chance.
Im sorry guys we are already shoting for peanuts but I mean theres got to be a limit, surely?
Canstock surpassed Dreamstime for me last month with just regular sales, and it had been slowly building up to that point before that. So it was my fourth best earner for February, would you call that a waste of time ?
Bigstock is much worse for me. Different agencies work better for different people.
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Where are sales of 27$ or more!?
Canstock felt on my sixth place, same like in poll results...
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Must say, I really dont get it???? why?, how? can you supply, upload, etc, month after month after month, spend all this time that could easily be time generating much more with the big ones and the end result is: 3 sales per month ???
I know everyone here hungers for money but this is ridiculous, its like being greedy for pennies, Scrooge business.
I mean its quite obvious the middle-tier aint ever, never gonna see themselves in the top-tier, its wishful thinking. The only one that can somehow come close is Bigstock, if they play their cards right, they have a much more professional approach and now with the partnership Shutterstock, they have a good chance.
Im sorry guys we are already shoting for peanuts but I mean theres got to be a limit, surely?
Canstock surpassed Dreamstime for me last month with just regular sales, and it had been slowly building up to that point before that. So it was my fourth best earner for February, would you call that a waste of time ?
Bigstock is much worse for me. Different agencies work better for different people.
Man, your vectors are welcome in everywhere.I see you got good sales even in such little Portfolio,very cool!!
Could you tell me how to do that..I mean good sales just depond on little Portfolio!!
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I like the occasional decent sale they get from fotosearch but the sub prices are still one of the lowest at 25 cents....that has really got to go up to a minimum of 33 cents to be more in tune with other sites like shutterstock. Really an easy site to upload to and fast review times. My only complaint is extremely low sub commissions, I just can't bring myself to be okay with getting 25 cents in return for allowing someone to use my image royalty-free, if that went up I would recommend them as my number one favorite site.
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I like the occasional decent sale they get from fotosearch but the sub prices are still one of the lowest at 25 cents....that has really got to go up to a minimum of 33 cents to be more in tune with other sites like shutterstock. Really an easy site to upload to and fast review times. My only complaint is extremely low sub commissions, I just can't bring myself to be okay with getting 25 cents in return for allowing someone to use my image royalty-free, if that went up I would recommend them as my number one favorite site.
Well for me, I only have a few 25 cents and a LOT of 5$ and some 19.80$. I don't mind selling a few for 25 cents when I can get that much return for other downloads. 25 cents is what you get when starting at Shutterstock (but of course Shutter generates a lot more sales also).
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Canstock definitely sold itself today as a place I will be uploading more to in the future. Just got one of those 19.80 (medium size) sales from Fotosearch. If this keeps up it will knock Dreamstime down to #5 on my list.
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Canstock definitely sold itself today as a place I will be uploading more to in the future. Just got one of those 19.80 (medium size) sales from Fotosearch. If this keeps up it will knock Dreamstime down to #5 on my list.
Yes a 19.80$ sale commission definetly put a smile on our faces :)
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Canstock definitely sold itself today as a place I will be uploading more to in the future. Just got one of those 19.80 (medium size) sales from Fotosearch. If this keeps up it will knock Dreamstime down to #5 on my list.
Yes a 19.80$ sale commission definetly put a smile on our faces :)
Just so you're all aware (cause I wasn't) the $19.90 fotosearch sales are actually sales for extended licences. It's not a normal Rf licence. I only became aware of this when I disabled ELs and got an automated message telling me that I won't receive income from Fotosearch if I don't allow ELs.
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I didn't realize they were EL sales. So that is actually a really low price compared to other sites.
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I don't get one of those big sales for six months now. All I get are basically subs and a credit sales here and there. :(
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I didn't realize they were EL sales. So that is actually a really low price compared to other sites.
Yeah, if you select an image and add it to your cart, you'll see it says "enhanced licence". The prices aren't too bad for ELs if you read the terms. I initially removed ELs because I didn't want anyone using my images on PODs (because I do) but Fotosearch doesn't allow that anyway so I went back and allowed ELs again. The ELs on Fotolio are about five times less the price of that at Fotosearch and Fotolia don't have the same restrictions.
Regardless, though, I'm pretty happy with Canstock and they're a fair agent.
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great site,I hope you keep doing this and happy to work with you too ;)