https://us.fotolia.com/p/201160780 Fakegraphic is username

I have managed to find 2 of my silhouette figures being sold by this thief. If you are a vector artist take a close look at some of this accounts portfolio and make sure this person isn't profiting off your hard work! I have a feeling this is just a collection of stolen work we need to be more vigilant about. I have contacted fotolia and hope this matter gets settled with this account banned.

What a fitting username too!

I have been getting rejections lately on my vectors I created from my own sketches. I provide proof of my sketches and they still say they need model releases or something like that. It's like they don't believe i can sketch that off my head. I majored in illustration and have taken hundreds of hours on life drawing which is to study the anatomy. Who can I contact? It's like they think they have a bunch of people that cant draw submitting there or something. Why isn't sketch enough proof?

It has been my experience that new files generally sell right off the bat once approved and put out in the database (vectors). It seems to me that with the sheer number of new images being accepted, it is very hard for new images to compete or even be seen.
I will give example. Last year i uploaded something to do with baseball right before baseball season started... it got bought a couple of times right away and then proceeded to pick up steam. It is in front page of search for baseball and has over 800 downloads getting anywhere from 1-6 downloads a day.
I do the same thing for football this year earlier. It got downloaded right away also. but after a download or 2 later, it has disappeared. I know this file will succeed if given the chance.
It seems the window of opportunity for your files to succeed has gotten a lot shorter. Am i the only one seeing this trend? Or is this a known thing for some time and I just realize it now because I only upload a couple of files a month and haven't noticed...
If this is the new normal, I probably would stop producing for the microstock market.

I've been following these threads closely with the intention of creating my own symbio site once other priorities are out of the way (i started a screen printing venture for one. I'm in nyc so if anyone needs screen printing services =) pm me...).

Lets say this really takes off and the agencies really take notice on its success. Is there a possibility of a company like GETTY swooping in and killing this thing by outright buying it off??? I'm not familiar with the "open source" project of this sort.

It's that extra kick to the face from Getty to its contributors because it seems to be only slow on the contributors side.
I guess its due to all the extra code stuffed into its programming? I dont really code but i can see some of it being something like this.

- Don't show contributor "A" portfolio from 8am-12pm mondays and wed when searched...
- Lets just say buyer bought this item for $5 when it was really bought for $7 code every 10th sale...
- every 25 sales, one is refunded for twice the amount
- contributor "B" made some posts on our forum that made us look dumb. so his search placement goes down by 50 image slots
- contributor "B" keeps making sense on the forums and is pointing out our greed. extra 10% off 50% of all his downloads dont report

I can keep going on but at least i had some fun 

As a new contributor on SS, i am not sure when to add a reference sketch/photo when uploading vectors.
istock was very strict when it came to this but on SS, they seem a lot more lenient when it comes to adding your sketch.

It seems like they don't require proof for submitting silhouettes.

I haven't been around here much lately. I have been focusing my efforts outside of micro and doing more freelance work. One of my areas I do is t shirt designs. I figured i design tees for other clients, might as well make some for myself. I have come up with my own site this week selling my own designs which i illustrated. During this process, I found out i sucked at making type shirts as i spent almost 10 hours custom drawing the words "Kings of Queens" on my elephant tee. It's a simple big cartel site which caters to independent labels. I chose this site for its easy templates and the shopping cart system. A more fuller website is on its way.

The styles of my shirts are slightly different as i am developing my brand. They are mainly targeted at the 18-25 yr old male urban market. I am hoping to make a print out on ladies tees. Any suggestion on which current design might work on women will be appreciated. Most of the designs are just designs but i plan to make more social commentary type tees like "the 11th hour". Its my take on human nature and our impact on earth. Future shirt ideas are about the 1 percent (1%), Monsanto [They remind me of the empire from star wars somehow], the banking cartel, and so forth.

I know it has nothing to do with micro but i wanted some valuable feedback from this community. I havent uploaded the FAQ page and i plan to upload a Lookbook page if i feel the need.

http://kingsthreads.com please hit the like button if you like the site as i have no shame in begging for like buttons!  Much appreciated

I have come up with discount codes for anyone that wants to make some money. These codes will last for about 3 months. They are 15% off entire order. Its basically going to be around $1.50 per shirt (other products are different rate) ordered so if you give out the code and someone uses that and orders 4 shirts, thats $6 in your pocket. I will figure out a way for you to track the amount of sales. The payout will happen once you hit $25. Then i will pay you thru paypal. Anyone interested can email me at [email protected]

http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?prev_sort_method=popular&gallery_id=146584&safesearch=1&images_per_page=100&thumb_size=small&prev_sort_method=newest&sort_method=popular&page=1

Just came across this design studios portfolio on SS and i have to say i am very impressed with the quality and a little worried. Its pretty obvious to me that there are numerous different artists work in this portfolio with over 360 pages on 100 image per page setting. The first 10 pages by popular setting are really great works and then you goto page 300 and the work is of a lower standard.

If its not legitimate, im more than worried about some type of scam going on here. Anyone familiar with this portfolio? Im really curious to know if an actual design studio would go through all this for subscription prices only on shutterstock. Wouldnt this design studio try to make money off its own designs outside shutterstock? Tried googling them and nothing comes up. very fishy indeed since some of these designs are spectacular and IMO command higher prices. But who cares if they are stolen bundled images and the thief wants a quick buck.

I can be totally wrong and a bunch of artists formed this group on SS working out of china or india where wages tend to be cheaper.

Im curious on how many views your new uploads are getting these days. Two vector illustrations that i uploaded two weeks ago have around 30 views each. These are in two different subject matter which in my experience is pretty popular subject matter. I have a pretty bad memory but i seem to remember image views would get into the hundreds after a week or so just last year even in the slow summer months. Im wondering if photos are experiencing the same decrease in views. lack of buyers, increased competition, best match, slider... too many variables to even try to stress over. just ranting 

It just seems like that has been the case with me anyways. Add to that the discontented buyers leaving with every new "collection" stuffed at the front. It really seems like Getty content before istock content now.

Excuse my ignorance if there is already something besides subscription plan. I cant possibly sell some of my files on istock for pennies for download on your site. Im sure there are many artists like me who will cancel istock exclusitivity if a higher pay as you go plan was introduced. step out of the all you can eat mentality and go with some fine dining on the side!!!

Up until late last year, i used to get the majority of my downloads 9-5pm eastern us time. Nowadays Im getting downloads at all hours  which means that the buyer market has been expanding into asia but i believe istock has lost a lot of US buyers. anyone else seeing a similiar trend?