MicrostockGroup

Hi fellow photographers,

we are especially searching artists who already have a good portfolio in terms of quality and size.

Highlights:
- We are a Finnish Royalty-Free agency
- Midstock pricing model
- Non-Exclusive contract
- We pay for 35% for single license downloads
- No fees. Totally free joining but limited

We can offer the easiest way of submitting work to us and therefore good profits for the work. Photographer have to just send English keyworded photos using ftp or in dvd media.

At least a minimum of 1000 photos for initial submission and if vector artist a minimum of 100 vectors. Of course we accept also 3D art and artist can have mixed portfolio. Commissions are paid through PayPal or Moneybookers.

If you are interested to read more about us, visit our page:
http://www.rodeostudio.fi/photographers/

Regards,

Juha Tuomi
CEO
Credinet Ltd
VAT FI09801445
Finland

The limit of 1,000 is also very forbidding. No info about their customer's base. Do they accept Editorial RF too?
I had to duck out of Photoshelter because they don't want isolated studio models but real people. It's not clear what Rodeo wants...

With a rank of  4,103,115 on Alexa, even my own personal site ranks higher at 600,000 or so.
Compare with Zymmetrical at rank 153,000, Snapvillage at 171,000, Albumo at 72,000 and FeaturePics at 37,000. [ShutterStock has 2,000, Dreamstime has 2,300].

Thank you for interest and very good questions. My intention was just to raise some interest about us and then who thinks that meet those requirements we have set asks directly more by email. We have some key points why to join us, one is that its totally free and you don't have to play with the website to get your portfolio on-line, just uploading English keyworded files with the ftp or in dvd, simple as that. Our contract also doesn't tie you up for years and its non-exclusive.

I cant yet publish the renewed site, which is naturally much better than current Kuvakori, which has been online for 5years and has a very solid customer database. That is also why we limit intake of new artists, that everyone has better chance to get decent profits for their portfolio.

We accept only model released RF, we don't have editorial collection. We have already made contracts with some known stockphotographers. We accept isolated studioshots. Kuvakori has now winter-sale going why the prices are cheaper. There isn't option to buy photo as digital usage, that will be possible in Rodeo.

Yes, we have categories, customer survey told us that those just have to be there.

Today it is hard to convince photographers and new stockagencies pops up like every month. Our requirements are also very different compared to others but  we ain't looking for thousands to join. We try to make those few happy. We also looking mostly for photographers and artists who does this for fulltime or part time work, in that perspective requirements are easy to meet.

I just hope no one judges before asking more details from me. Thanks!

Excellent questions!

We are 5 years old agency and our sales volumes are very comparable to our Finnish competitor Plugi. Though our strategy is different as we are also accepting foreign photographers and joining is free of charge but just limited. That way we can better handle our growth and maximize the profits for the active photographers. At this point when we aren't starting from scratch the volume ain't only point what counts. Sales are divided by the number of photographers and our number are very very small compared to our competitors, that is our strength which also means that individual photographer gets the best possible exposure for their portfolio. Not to mention how easy the submitting process is.

We accept images either English or Finnish keywords. We have a translation engine so clients can make the decision by themselves what language to use.

We aren't involved in any ranking lists. At least we aren't aware of any of them.

I will join you if you pay me initial 2000 euros in advance. I have 2500 images to upload.

www.dinostock.com


lol. hhh

We signed with Rodeo a few months ago and just received first sales report for March. Very pleased with results considering minimal marketing efforts! As perspective, there can be a good return from regional distributors. Given the choice, many clients sometimes prefer to interact with a "local" company with localized keywords.

Here's our revised March/Q1 chart showing where Rodeo falls in the revenue mix:



Of course, each photographer should make their own decisions- this is not an endorsement, just my perspective on supporting the concept of a local neighborhood store.

Hello fellow artists,

Time to Rodeo update again . Rodeo had a great last year, total growth of over 100% in year 2008, for three years in a row. Rodeo will be 6 years old stock agency this month and we are full of energy and motivation to develop the business further.

Rodeo shortly:
- Royalty free photos
- Price for multimedia usage 15 Eur, hires images 40 Eur
- 35% commission for single license sales
- 5% commissions for referral sales
- Over 100.000 photos on line
- Only 49 photographers around the world
- Our business is dedicated to Finnish markets at the moment

Want to join our team?
We are constantly searching for new artists. Who other agency could offer such a great exposure for their images. We don't have millions of photos and 100.000 photographers on line. We are picky but we believe that taking all in would really hurt all our photographers earnings, we grow the amount of photographers carefully with the growth of the total business.

We have now made slight changes to our recruiting requirements. It is now a minimum of 500 photos to join but if you're really talented and active stock artist, please fill up the application and give us a portfolio link and we think about it. All and all, we're looking for active artists, that is the only way to get good sales a year after a year.

Check our application and agreement page and let us do the selling for you
http://www.rodeostudio.fi/photographers/registration/contract.htm

Don't forget our website (Only Finnish language):
http://www.rodeo.fi

Don't hesitate to ask more about us > please send a email to me > address is located in the application page.

Best regards,
Juha Tuomi
CEO
Stock agency Rodeo Ltd
PL 61, 00661 Helsinki
Finland

VAT registered company FI09801445

Steady sales and building nicely.  Around 70 euros in my best month with 350 photos uploaded so far.

They have a referral scheme so I would be grateful if anyone joining mentions that Stephen Rees referred them in the box at the bottom of the form. http://www.rodeostudio.fi/photographers/registration/contract.htm

I did have a problem with my keywords not being read.  It wasn't working when my keywords were separated by commas.  If they accept you, I would recommend uploading a small batch first to make sure they are OK.

My finnish is a bit rusty, so please help me understand :  I can see 2 prices for each image :  40 and 15 euros.  And Rodeo would pay 35% ?  So artists would earn about 15 or 5 euros per image sold ?

Another question :  if a photographer sends a dvd with 1000 keyworded images (keywords embedded in IPTC I presume) - how long will it take for these 1000 photos to appear for sale on the website?  Will they first appear on Kuvakori and then be transferred to Rodeo, or will they only appear on Rodeo by the end of February?

I also read that "you will take care of the rest".  Does that mean the photographer does not have to do any processing, like choosing categories or so?

Last one (at least for now  ) :  what kind of photos are you looking for in the first place?  (or, if the answer is "all kinds of photos" :  what kind of photos are you NOT looking for?).

It'll be quite weird to work with a site where you cannot check your sales ...

Might be tempted - IF they adjust the payment model slightly....

Say...  35% for the agency - and 65% for the contributor 

Great to see that there is so many artists interested about smaller agencies too.

Here comes some clarification about our workflow. Photographer can either send photos/vectors in dvd or transfer by using ftp. Photos must have keywords in metadata. Model releases can be uploaded separately. Our editors makes all work from that on. We want to make it easy for photographers to submit. Some times we are able to review photos very quickly and occasionally it might take even few weeks, depending on the season. Anyway it can take several weeks to generate sales depending on the content of portfolio. It can take time that customers adapt that certain specialities are found. Usually business, family and senior categories are most searched among very good concept photos. Those generate sales very quickly.

Price for the hires photo is 40Eur so photographer gets 14Eur for single download sale and 11.20Eur for credit download.
Price for lores photo is 15Eur so photographer gets 5.25Eur for single download sale and 4,2Eur for credit download.

Credit download commission is lower since customer gets discount of the package prices. Those are mostly used by high volume customers.

Referral gets 5% from each of referred photographers sales price. If photographer sells photos for 1000Eur per month, referral gets 5% of that. Not 5% from the photographers commission.

To Fljac (and others too): As a stock photographer my self too I understand very well the both sides and yes it is also tempting for an agency to give outstanding commission rates to collect quickly thousands of photographers but to be honest, marketing, developing and paying salaries ain't easy part either. If it would, there would be thousands of more agencies around the world but that is just general discussion about making business. Every agency has its own strategy.

To Anyka (and others too): Kuvakori was our old name. After we developed totally new system we changed our name to Rodeo, company itself haven't changed beside that name. We are general agency with a wide range of customers but first what comes to my mind is that we have a big hole in food photos and good concept photos of all kind. We send very detailed monthly sales reports by email. You see thumbnail, download date, sales price and commission. You can even see all referral sales and their prices with thumbnails. We have started also a monthly photographer newsletter were we share some search statistics of previous month in Rodeo.

Great questions and discussion and thanks to our photographers about sharing information to others fairly. We like to make transparent business and be trustworthy to our photographers and customers.

Got my first payout already, from February, however did not got a sales report this month. Anybody else didn't get one? Is it because I had no sales or is it delayed?

Sales reports are sent only if sales are occurred. Commissions are also paid monthly so in case sales report are caught in spam filter or lost somehow, you will see the payment in the Paypal or Moneybookers and ask for us sending sales report again.