All You Can Stock - brand new royalty free stock agency

AllYouCanStock

« on: December 01, 2011, 05:54 »

#link

Hello Everybody,

I would like to draw your attention to a brand new stock agency: All You Can Stock.

http://allyoucanstock.com

We started from scratch in mid Summer this year having literally 0 contributors. Since then we grew to 40+ strong covering photo, illustration and art.

We offer free pricing, 75% royalty rate and stock ordering and full control. We showcase your artwork and advertise your private art exhibitions.

This site was established on the sole purpose to build a community of contemporary artists. Please visit us and join.

Thank you,

Zsolt

All You Can Stock team


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csproductions

« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2011, 07:05 »

#link

It's been a half hour since I registered, and I still haven't received my registration email.

EDIT: Got it. Logged in. We can only upload one file at a time?!?


« Last Edit: December 01, 2011, 08:38 by csproductions »	Ignore \| Logged

AllYouCanStock

« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2011, 08:27 »

#link

Hi csproductions,

Network provider experienced some outage ... best timing

please check your mail box the activation e-mail should be there by now.

Thank you for registering!

Zsolt

All You Can Stock team


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jsnover

Premium Member

« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2011, 12:15 »

#link

I thought I'd go take a look at your site and am had some trouble finding the content license agreement. I found it at the end of the Membership Agreement - probably not the best way to organize your agreements.

I read through the Membership Agreement and it seems to contradict the front page in that it says that AYCS gets a commission of 45% on sales. If the contributor gets 75% as the home page says, then the buyer gets to pay 120% of the price to keep everyone happy?

There's also language in the membership agreement that says that AYCS will send an invoice for their commission to the "User" - I assume the contributor - which suggests that the user somehow takes the payment directly? There's also talk of partial payments - that seems insane in the world of microstock. I don't want to be dealing with payments or the buyers - that's what one uses an agency for.

The call for offers is something other sites have tried before, but so far all these schemes haven't worked well. People can do work in response to a "call" but there's no requirement for anyone to pay for anything, so it often ends with both parties pretty ticked off.

The content license includes rights - unlimited press run, for example - that would normally be an extended license at other microstock sites. In light of those terms, prices would have to be much higher, which seems not to work well for buyers who might just want to purchase for web use. It appears that a license to print for resale (an extended license at most other sites) requires contacting AYCS "for separate license and pricing" - meaning it's handled as a one-off?

There's some truly bizarre stuff in there, including from 5.b/ The Licensor warrants that: "The image(s) will be free from defects in material and workmanship for 30 days from the date of license" Pixels will start deteriorating after 30 days? What exactly would a defect in material be for a digital image - these aren't slides?

You need to get someone who is fluent in English to go over the site; it's riddled with incorrect usage and that just doesn't look professional.

I think you need to be a bit more clear about what sort of marketing you're planning to do for the site and its content. 75% (or 55% or whatever it is) is meaningless if there are no sales. If you're expecting the contributor to promote their own work then be up front about that.

Doesn't seem ready for prime time to me.


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sharpshot

« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2011, 12:40 »

#link

Do buyers like us being able to set any price we want? Other sites have tried it and then went back to fixed prices. Buyers don't like finding what they want and then not being able to afford it. It seems like a good idea but it looks like it doesn't work.


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« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2011, 13:52 »

#link

Quote from: AllYouCanStock on December 01, 2011, 05:54

We started from scratch in mid Summer this year having literally 0 contributors. Since then we grew to 40+ strong covering photo, illustration and art.

40+ contributors and you've got a grand total of 828 files!!

I'm guessing the "We" is a 'Me' ?


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AllYouCanStock

« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2011, 17:30 »

#link

Hi jsnover,

Thank you very much for visiting the site and providing feedback.

Some of the issues you pointed out we fixed immediately.

Contributor gets 75% so the information is correct on the page, the typo got fixed in the agreement. Thank you for that. Also a separate license agreement document got created and posted.

We believe that stock ordering capability will optimize supply and demand.

As a brand new agency we need plenty of high quality photos first before launching any big campaign for attracting buyers.

We would be happy to see your photos on the site and get your feedback.

Thank you,

Zsolt

All You Can Stock team


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AllYouCanStock

« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2011, 17:38 »

#link

Hi sharpshot,

Currently only contributors can set the price. However it is not written in stone they can change the price any time, like in the real stock exchange.

Contributors have full control over their portfolio including the pricing.

Thank you,

Zsolt

All You Can Stock team


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cthoman

« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2011, 19:47 »

#link

Quote from: sharpshot on December 01, 2011, 12:40

I submit to several sites that allow you to set your own price, and it works just fine. Some have consistent sales and others don't. It really depends on the site (just like sites with fixed prices).


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franky242

« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2011, 04:17 »

#link

I registered and tried to upload several images - apparently the EXIF Date is not read and I am forced to re-enter keywords and description again in step 2. Anyone else having more success in regards of EXIF data - no way I am going to reenter that data on a new site!


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AllYouCanStock

« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2011, 18:33 »

#link

Hi franky242,

Yes, reading of EXIF data is not yet available. Once it becomes available we will send you a notification.

Thank you for registering! We hope to see your photos on the site soon.

Thank you,

Zsolt

All You Can Stock team


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qwerty

« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2011, 19:23 »

#link

Quote from: AllYouCanStock on December 02, 2011, 18:33

To get contributors you need to ensure that you have ftp upload and direct and correct reading of metadata.
You will find that people don't have the time to manually do this for a site that's brand new.


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luissantos84

« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2011, 19:49 »

#link

no reading of IPTC data is just nuts, you guys need to see that out or I don't believe many will join, maybe not 1


« Last Edit: December 02, 2011, 19:59 by luissantos84 »	Ignore \| Logged

Suljo

« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2011, 21:55 »

#link

Alexa like that site. Bottom of the all bottoms...


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« Reply #14 on: December 03, 2011, 00:05 »

#link

Quote from: AllYouCanStock on December 02, 2011, 18:33

Yes, reading of EXIF data is not yet available. Once it becomes available we will send you a notification.

(1) Reading of IPTC (both base scheme and Adobe) is vital. (2) Also a model release library is vital. (3) Contacting Lee Torrens and buying his business guidelines for beginning stock sites is vital.

(3) Contact http://www.microstockdiaries.com/

(2) I have a full model/propery release module with user/admin interface needing 1 DB table but I can't put the demo in public since the test data are real models.

(1) Use this code: (I put it in public since all the OS forums are unaware of IPTC for microstock, it's all about galleries)
@Leaf: I hope it's OK to litter the forum with some code.

Code:

<?php
//========================================================================================
// IPTC extraction from JPG image
// -- images are in folder $ingestDirname, file name (*.jpg) is in $fileName
// -- returns true if the file is not a jpg image or has no IPTC; otherwise returns false
// -- if the file is OK:
// ---- returns $imgX, $imgY as image dimensions
// ---- returns $IPTC_title, $IPTC_description and $IPTC_keywords (array) as safe strings
// ---- returns $IPTC_diag_errors true if any missing IPTC, with corresponding variable error count incremented
// (c) Hugo Maes under a standard free GNU license - http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
//........................................................................................
$IPTC_title = ''; // define globals
$IPTC_description = '';
$IPTC_keywords = array();

function getIPTCfromImage ( $ingestDirname, $fileName, &$imgX, &$imgY,
&$IPTC_diag_errors, &$IPTC_diag_notitle, &$IPTC_diag_nodescription, &$IPTC_diag_nokeywords, &$IPTC_dupekeywords ) {
global $IPTC_title, $IPTC_description, $IPTC_keywords;
//.. Initialize ........................
$IPTC_diag_errors = false;
$IPTC_title = '';
$IPTC_description = '';
$IPTC_keywords = array();
//.. Get IPTC info array ...............
list ($imgX,$imgY) = getimagesize ($ingestDirname.$fileName,$info); // built-in PHP function
if (isset($info['APP13'])) {
$iptc = iptcparse ($info['APP13']); // built-in PHP function - http://php.net/manual/en/function.iptcparse.php
if (is_array($iptc)) {
$trtxt = " .,;?!&";
//.. Title .............................
$IPTC_title = (string)$iptc["2#005"][0];
$IPTC_title = stripslashes (strip_tags ($IPTC_title)); // sanitize user-supplied string
$IPTC_title = preg_replace ("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\-\&\']/", "", $IPTC_title);
$IPTC_title = trim ($IPTC_title, $trtxt);
if (strlen($IPTC_title) > 0) {
$IPTC_title[0] = strtoupper($IPTC_title[0]); // first letter title = upper case
} else { $IPTC_diag_notitle++; $IPTC_diag_errors = true; };
//$headline = trim($iptc["2#105"][0]); // you could look in the headline if object name title is missing
//.. Description .......................
$IPTC_description = (string)$iptc["2#120"][0];
$IPTC_description = stripslashes (strip_tags ($IPTC_description)); // sanitize user-supplied string
$IPTC_description = preg_replace ("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\,\'\&\?\*\+\=\"\;\!\.\-\_]/", "", $IPTC_description);
$IPTC_description = trim ($IPTC_description, $trtxt);
//$IPTC_description = str_replace('"',"“",str_replace("'","’",$IPTC_description)); // for users that used MS-Word; add chars in preg in that case
if (strlen($IPTC_description) < 1) { $IPTC_diag_nodescription++; $IPTC_diag_errors = true; };
//.. Keywords ..........................
$IPTC_keywords = $iptc["2#025"];
$IPTC_dupekeywords = array();
if (count($IPTC_keywords) > 0) {
foreach ($IPTC_keywords as $key => $value) {
$kwd = (string)$value;
$kwd = stripslashes (strip_tags ($kwd)); // sanitize user-supplied string
$kwd = preg_replace ("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s\_\'\-]/", "", $kwd); // if you allow compound keywords, leave the space (\s) and the hyphen (\-) in
$IPTC_keywords[$key] = trim ($IPTC_title, $trtxt);
};
$ta = array(); // eliminate duplicate keywords but keep a list in $IPTC_dupekeywords
foreach ($IPTC_keywords as $kwd) if (!in_array ($kwd, $ta)) $ta[] = $kwd; else $IPTC_dupekeywords[] = $kwd;
$IPTC_keywords = $ta;
} else { $IPTC_diag_nokeywords++; $IPTC_diag_errors = true; };
return false;
}; };
//.. No f*kcin IPTC ....................
return true;
};
?>


« Last Edit: December 03, 2011, 00:22 by AttilaTheNun »	Ignore \| Logged

AllYouCanStock

« Reply #15 on: December 05, 2011, 14:17 »

#link

Thank you All for all the feedback on EXIF and IPTC! It works now, we are reading the data!

Please start uploading.

Thank you,

Zsolt

All You Can Stock team


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sharpshot

« Reply #16 on: December 05, 2011, 14:52 »

#link

I need a lot more to convince me to start uploading. Why is your site going to do better than the hundreds of others that aren't making any money? I have uploaded my portfolio to a few sites that pay good commissions and let us set prices but they have either closed or have very few sales. I can't understand why people are still opening new sites, unless they can come up with innovations that haven't failed many times in the past. There's already far too many sites selling the same images. The only ones that have had success in recent years have invested lots of money. Just look at all the failures in the earnings poll, that's only a fraction of those that have started since 2005 and have failed to generate sales.


« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 14:55 by sharpshot »	Ignore \| Logged

cthoman

« Reply #17 on: December 05, 2011, 15:25 »

#link

Quote from: sharpshot on December 05, 2011, 14:52

I'd say the demand is still there for new sites. I think Photodune showed just how easy it is to sneak in and compete. Until someone comes up with a site that is so incredible that it makes you wonder why you are bothering with the rest, there will be room for new sites. I'm still holding out hope for that, but I'm not sure it's very close to happening.


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StockCube

« Reply #18 on: December 05, 2011, 15:30 »

#link

Hmm, no thanks.
StockFresh was way more professional and well-supported when it launched and it has gone nowhere without a decent marketing budget. I wish you luck as I think you are going to need it.


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csproductions

« Reply #19 on: December 05, 2011, 17:22 »

#link

Only one file upload at a time; no FTP; and no organized model release function. A new release must be uploaded with each photo, even if the photos are of the same model. Very time consuming, and certainly not worth it unless they've found a way to seriously outperform other sites. Hopefully I'll be able to make a few bucks before it goes under.

EDIT: I'm seriously rethinking this. For the second time in the last five days, I've received a $9.00 deposit into my PayPal account. At first, I thought it must be a mistake, and I'll get a message telling me that it's been refunded or something. I noticed that I also had a sale for $9.00 at AYCS, but I didn't make the connection. The second time was a short while ago, so I checked my AYCS portfolio, and sure enough - another $9.00. Apparently, my money from each sale is deposited into my PayPal account immediately. No waiting for the 15th of next year!!! (I'm being somewhat facetious - it's not a typo.) So if they're gonna deposit the money from each sale immediately into my PayPal account, you can bet that I'm gonna upload like a wild man! Well, as wild as I can get uploading one file at a time. Tongue

So I've made $18 from two sales in the last week. With my latest uploads today, I have a grand total of 22 items in my portfolio. Can any other site claim that kind of activity? Shocked


« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 18:23 by csproductions »	Ignore \| Logged

jsnover

Premium Member

« Reply #20 on: December 05, 2011, 18:22 »

#link

I think their model is that you now need to pay them their commission from the $9 you received, so you owe them $2.25 x 2 if you received two $9 sales. I don't know what time period you have to pay them.

If I have their business model right (and that was based on one quick read of the membership agreement) if a buyer demands a refund, I think it would be from you for the whole $9 and then you'd have to chase up AYCS to retrieve the commissions you paid them that they now weren't owed. You really want to delve into the details of how this works before you get too thrilled about a couple of sales.


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csproductions

« Reply #21 on: December 05, 2011, 18:25 »

#link

The retail price was $12.00. I'm figuring that their share is the $3.00 difference, yes?


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jsnover

Premium Member

« Reply #22 on: December 05, 2011, 18:28 »

#link

That certainly sounds like it.If that's the case I don't understand the wording around invoicing for commissions in the membership agreement. But then I read the version that said their commission was 45% and they acknowledged that wasn't correct an changed it, so perhaps they've sensibly decided to deduct their commission at source.


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csproductions

« Reply #23 on: December 05, 2011, 18:33 »

#link

Well, the math works. It says on the site that contributors earn 75%, which on a $12 retail price would indeed be $9.00. This is even better than SS! I get daily sales there, but it takes a while at 33 cents per sale to get to $18.