One more question regarding illustrations. I understand that at this point in time EPS files cannot be uploaded. But what about the converted, JPEG files? Are they OK to upload? Do you need such files?

Good question, I should have pointed that out as well. YES, you can save your Vectors as JPG file as upload and sell those. We encourage that sort of use and have many doing it now.

RacePhoto: Thank you for that support, much appreciated. I'm not taking anything here as people picking on us but rather that it's general fear of the unknown. I think it's a combination of us being "new" to them along with the fact that we operate a little different than what everyone is used to in the world of stock. New and different usually has that reaction and I am glad that people at least get their concerns listed where we can go over them and (hopefully) put them to rest.

Still, I appreciate your support there and have had private messages and emails from people here basically saying what you have said as well and that they are very happy with our direction. From what I see, the number speak for themselves and we are getting tons of contributors and many via the referral links on this site and others. So, thank you all!

I hope you will give us a try HermanM!

Hopefully we can sort the ITIN issue out in a few weeks. In the mean time, you can sell without having the tax stuff sorted out. Worse case, if you wanted to be paid without waiting, you could even accept the 30% tax rate without needing any ITIN and that 30% is only on USA orders. But, hopefully will know more soon on that.

Both Editorial and RF is accepted on our site as well just in case anyone else was wondering.

Hi,
for the past 2 days I tormented myself trying to decide which referral link to use. In the end I couldn't decide between Adeptris and RacePhoto. Thank you both for your helpful posts, hopefully there will be other times in the future.

For other newbies or interested artists - I registered 6 hours ago and this is how it went:
Registration process takes less than a minute and it's the quickest around.

Upload system - you need to install a dedicated plug in but it only takes a few seconds and it's the best I've seen so far. It's fast, live, and very visual. I'm impressed.

Editing files - uploaded files are called 'objects' and need to be 'created'. All keywords are imported; you only need to choose categories, but they're not many and it's easy.
All files can be edited/deleted at any time.

Inspection times - once 'created' files go live instantly, straight up on the home page. I think they're marked 'Editorial Only' until they pass inspection. Again, this only takes minutes.

Paypal payments are automated, sent monthly with no minimum balance requirements.

Commission is 60 per cent and makes me feel valued.

Views on 25 files, 6 hours online, 127!

Stats and reports - all sorts, instantly generated.

Everything about the upload process is easy, fast and runs like clockwork.
Well done Matt, I'm impressed!

2 Suggestions - larger preview thumbnails? Community forum?
And one quesion - what kind of files are 3D artists mostly looking for?
People? Objects? Isolations? Textures? Cars and weapons? (your blog)
 
Tell us what to shoot or draw and let's try to make some money,
Best wishes,

I picked up another sale yesterday so that is 7 sales in the calendar month, my commission from them is $38.40, so there are customers willing to spend $4 - $12, the images are 3 people, 3 animals and 1 wooden toy, the people shots were, a bored girl, a boy in a russian hat, and a girl on a mobile, animals two big cats and a horses head, the toy a wooden train.

I think that not having to buy a credit or a subscription package that is the key to these sales and any future success I hope they get, I do not have to pre-pay or buy a package when shopping in the high street, so why do I have to do this for image purchases, as a buyer I do not like having to overspend when I want one product.

David 

Took the plunge last night, 15 pics up and 40+views during the night! Now, that is something... I can wait for the ITIN thing to be sorted out, I will keep uploading from now on... The only hassle is the 25 photo limit at a time, but it is sooooo easy to do that I can live with that.  Good site you've got going there.

I am going to try and answer what I can in order that I see it here...

1. We do have a review process, but we aren't as strict as some other sites.  In fact, I've already heard from some members that images they submitted to us and sold through us were rejected by other agencies. It's entirely possible we will be more strict as time goes on but right now we are just looking for good images and rejecting anything that we think is sub-par.

2. Our upload software will use Active X controls if you run IE or Java for all other browsers.

3. All images are set to Editorial Only when added, we then review and upgrade to RF or RF with release as needed. We have two reviewers who do this all day long and 2 more than jump in during heavy times. You can read about our process at: http://www.the3dstudio.com/help.aspx?id_help=20 and this is what Eireann has mentioned as well....thank you for the kind comments as well!

4. Larger thumbnails are likely something you will see in the future from us once we re-work some other areas but this is a common request and one I can't argue with.

5. The 3D folks usually buy 3D models but a small portion buy stock images for backgrounds in their 3D work and some will buy isolated objects/people as well. We are starting to get more of a non-3D stock audience and that's what we are working on building up over the next 3-6 months as we build our available library up. As we get more data on what sells and what is requested I will be posting this in my blog as well and we will have new reports that everyone can pull up.

6. If you view your order product it will count a view, probably something we could fix easily but we are trying to keep views to be just that...views. If you view your product twice it counts 2 views. The idea is that we have enough traffic and will be getting much more that you really can't skew the results unless you wanted to refresh your product all day long.

7. One of the biggest keys to our system being a success (we think) will be the lack of a credit system. I know many people are used to credits and have learned to accept them, but I find that system flawed. I also think $1 pictures are too cheap for the work that goes into them and thus our idea was born. Oh, and somebody asked, we started this out of both buyer and seller demand...literally being requested weekly for years and if one person takes the time to make a request there are 100-1000 more just like them not taking the time to do so. At least that's my opinion. It also just seemed liked a natural extension of what we do already.

8. Sorry for anyone who hit the 25 upload limit...that will be changed by tomorrow...it's actually just some old settings from our preview system. It will actually let you upload more than 25 now, but if you have more than 25 left in your queue it won't let you upload more in some cases. Will be fixed soon

Wow...hope I covered everything in that one! As always, we really appreciate the support of our early adopters and as we grow this part of our site I think we can all benefit nicely from it.

You bet, any time...I like the challenge of trying to keep up with you all

Ok, I thought I give it a try...
Uploaded about 180 since yesterday night, already close to 1000 views. That's impressive, let's hope that sales will be impressive too.

one more thing I stumbled across: Your regular licence has some restrictions (print run less than 500K, no items for resale) which is good, but I can't see any kind of extended licence allowing these things. Are you planning on introducing ELs or did I just miss them?

You didn't miss anything, there is no EL just yet. We are planning this for a future release as well as we are still researching the options of that (so we are open to feedback if anyone wants to comment there). We are a few months out from this and, as we always do, we will keep everyone update on our site, via a newsletter, and I will try to keep a post here updated as well if I can.

Well, if nobody else post a referral link, then here is my affiliate link http://www.the3dstudio.com/?id_affiliate=467960

you�re the lucky one, just signed up through your referral code