Anyone know anything about this site - imageopolis.com?

Looks like its a photo sharing site that runs like its a non-profit with a donate button.  They just started setting up a gallery on FAA and I was wondering if the participants even know they are selling their photos.

FAA's new licensing site "licensing.pixels.com" has been officially launched (not to be confused with plain old pixels.com which sells phone cases and art or the original flavor fineartamerica.com which sells art but not phone cases or licensing).

http://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/imagelicensingprogram.html

Time to add FAA to the list of stock sites?

According to the latest email promotion from Veer, they have decided that the more "traditional" stock that has been around for a while - white backgrounds, smiley happy people is now "Bad Stock" according to them and their new direction.

This is all well and good.  Yuri might not like his work considered bad stock but it gives a site like Veer a way to differentiate themselves from the pack.

Personally I like the idea of creating more creative and less "bad stock" type of images.  If some does produce they type of images Veer is looking for it then comes down to whether or not to trust that agency with these images and deciding where to put such images to get the best return.

If an agency like Veer is going to become a boutique agency then they should be charging for it and rewarding the contributors accordingly.

I haven't uploaded anything to Veer in a long time after initially starting a port there because lack of sales.  I've seen promotions to buyers but not to contributors.  You'd think they offer some incentives for contributors to upload more interesting and unique work.

This sound innovative:

"The music, film and image industry faced a new reality when the world became digital. Content became digital, and people got used to digital content being free. While the music and film industry have taken steps to stop illegal use and increase their revenue by offering a better alternative, we still haven?t seen any effective steps being made in the image industry.
 
It?s estimated that 85% of all images used online are being used without a license. So what to do? Getty has chosen to stay out of it, as long as the users don?t make money on the content. At YAY we want to try a different approach. We want to create an online solution for online image users. We?ve looked at other industries that have managed to turn non-paying customers into paying customers, and we hope to achieve the same.   
 
Therefore we are releasing our new product for online users: YAY Streaming.
 
YAY Streaming will give users a link, instead of a file, to use on their online sites. They will also get the option to edit the image and add filters directly in their browsers.  The image will be app. 600 pixels on the largest side. On the new site users will experience the latest in search technology with a cutting edge similar image search from Pixolution. The search will help users to not only to find the right image, but also help the creative process ? and it will give a better exposure of the entire image base. Our target audience for streaming is professional bloggers, small businesses, and small websites.
 
With a streaming model we?re able to cut the prices, host the images ourselves ? and maintain control over how and where the images are used. The web subscription will not include downloads - only online streaming. Users can upgrade their subscription to larger sizes, and they can also choose to include downloads. 
 
We?ve looked into other streaming products, such as Netflix and Spotify, and we?ve set the price point accordingly, at $9.90.  This is low compared to other image products on the market today, but it?s not meant to compete with other high-res subscriptions ? it?s to open up a new market. Ideally we would?ve chosen a higher price, but taking into consideration the result from our initial customer survey, and looking at the prices of other consumer services, such as free blogs and Netflix for only $7.99, we found it difficult to set the price any higher than $9.90. We?re trying to convert non-paying customers into paying customers, and the key to earnings is volume. If we together can change the attitude of online image use to a paying model, there is a potential for a new dawn for microstock images."

Ok, back from vacation in Yellowstone.  Beefing up my Symbiostock site - www.dogfordstudios.com with 500 plus images at this point.  Blogging, linking, SEOing away.

One new idea for marketing that I've put into place is offering a few free images.  So far I just have one offered and its 72 dpi and limited to small size AND it has my URL on it.

My thinking is that it would give an interested party a way to test out my site without spending any money.

If anyone wants to test it out here is the link:   http://www.dogfordstudios.com/image-type/free-stock-photos-images/

Cheers!

"Enjoy free photos? Consider contributing some of yours for others"

Freerangestock.com offers the lowest commissions yet in the world of microstock - "0"

Upload your images to be given away for the chance at sharing in advertising revenue.  I think this is the new low until they charge a fee for giving away photos.