Yep... I didn't get that note, but I am getting rejections on images have sold well on other sites. I am also getting a lot of similar images rejections.

Well, I'm suspending my uploads until I see results.

I agree with both of you.  I did have a lot of confidence because they were part of a respected brand like Veer and I am no longer so confident.

And aremafoto, you are right about suspending uploading until they can get organized and prove they can deliver sales.

I probably should do the same and stop struggling to get images on a site has no sales record yet.

I probably should do the same and stop struggling to get images on a site has no sales record yet.

Exactly Lisa said. Even 123rf sells far more than VMP.

It's very sad to read these. As Lisa said, I was hoping that VMP would allow Corbis to better compete with Getty than the very poor effort that SV turned out to be. In fact, I was hoping it might help pick up the revenue lost due to no longer selling on photos.com & JUI. (Speaking of the latter, I recently had an EL-like sale on JUI for a size described as "SUPER". Is it really not an EL? Oops; very OT, sorry!)

OTOH, this does make it easier for me to be "patient" (from another thread). But I hope these problems are just growing pains, and something will be done to correct them ASAP.

I don't know if this has been answered yet in the forum - but does anyone know what goes on with the main portfolio view? When i find one of my images in search and click on my username i cannot see the rest of my portofolio anywhere, just a notice that i haven't published any portofolios yet

 

I'm having the same problem.  They are rejecting images that are in sets (same models) and my acceptance ratio is less than 50% (which is way low compared to every other site I am on).  I stopped uploading because I'm finding it to be a waste of my time. Lots of 'too similar' because they have the same model in them and 'not suitable for stock' rejections.

I never understand this 'too similar' rejection. Especially shots with the same model. I hear lots of designers say they prefer variations of the same model to enable them to run a theme through a design by using more than one shot.

Lisa, do they let you post a DVD like SV did?  That might be an easier way to get a big portfolio online.  

I totally agree Sharpshot.  I had asked Brian early on about sending in DVD's, but there was never any follow up about that.  Too bad, because it would enable them to select what they want re: similars without making the inconvenient upload process even more difficult for contributors.

Quote from: sharpshot on August 11, 2009, 17:15

Lisa, do they let you post a DVD like SV did?  That might be an easier way to get a big portfolio online.  

I totally agree Sharpshot.  I had asked Brian early on about sending in DVD's, but there was never any follow up about that.  Too bad, because it would enable them to select what they want re: similars without making the inconvenient upload process even more difficult for contributors.

They way they are rejecting similars right now means that if they'd received DVDs, they would take less images from a set LOL.

I actually asked Brian about sending a DVD, as I also have close to 5,000 images, but he said no.

My acceptance rate is 95% there. But most were transferred from SV. Maybe since I only upload 2 or 3 at a time lately I don't have so many rejections. Most of my rejections are for "lack of commercial appeal" even though all have sold okay on other sites. Just another example of the subjective nature of the beast.

I do not contribute to Veer but I do read the threads, did Veer not say they were looking for specific content and not just more of the same, so if you have 1000 live on another site and ready to upload it does not follow that they are suitable, Brian did publish a list of prefered content in one of the topics, it would be nice if the websites let suppliers know which categories were needed and which were over subscribed and getting the 'Not Required at this Time' rejections.

http://ideas.veer.com/group/marketplace/discussions/91

Quote

A smaller pool filled with higher-quality content means your content has a better chance to be noticed

David

I can appreciate their thinking here. But this is microstock, and unless people are willing to submit stuff they dont have elsewhere. Then Veer only end up with LESS OF THE SAME.

My feeling is they are trying to offer microstock to their existing customers only. Which is why it's important to them that this new content fits in with their existing style.
Anthony

My feeling is they are trying to offer microstock to their existing customers only. Which is why it's important to them that this new content fits in with their existing style.

I would be completely okay with this plan, except that they are not providing the same level of functionality  that their existing clients have grown accustomed to, such as being able to purchase vectors as jpeg files of various sizes, and the simple and absolutely necessary function of being able to put possible purchases into a lightbox. I'm absolutely flabbergasted by this and it has got to be discouraging sales. The last thing I'm going to want to do when narrowing down my selections is open up each image in a separate window and then write down the image numbers so that I will know how to find them in a couple of days when I get approval for the photo. That's just not going to be happening very often. Most designers do not have time for that, and will simply go where the buying process is efficient and makes sense.

I have been one of the biggest cheerleaders for VeerMP. I still believe they have the potential for great things. However with all of the pending problems, and things that seem like obvious necessities getting pushed back on their priority timeline, Lisa said it best...it's hard not to lose enthusiasm.

Thanks for the welcome Astrocady.    Sorry to come back with a gripe, lol. 

Abimages makes a really good point.  This is microstock.  It is a volume business.  The only way to justify the cost of production is to get as many ideas into one shoot as possible. 

I can appreciate they don't want dozens of nearly identical files from one shoot, but to reject all but a couple (different and varied) files from a shoot as similar is overkill. 

Their reviewing department doesn't seem to have adjusted their thinking from the macro model, where one or two great images from a shoot can pay for the shoot, to the micro one where volume is essential.

Not being a buyer I wasn't aware of all the site functionality issues from a buyers perspective.  The problems Whatalife brings up are very worrying.

Hopefully in time they will hit their stride both from a contributors and a buyers perspective.  Either that or they will become just another "also ran".   

It seems to me that they haven't grasped the idea about microstock. The four most successful agencies, SS, IS, DT and FT have one thing in common: huge diversity and as many themes as possible covered, and that also goes for marginal sellers. Buyers don't want to browse through several agencies to find what they're looking for. But even worse is that very many of the available photos aren't very impressive at all. As a buyer, it's a total no-go for me.

I was btw. rejected as a contributor a couple of weeks ago, with photos that are selling very well at other agencies (some of them hundreds of times). They may of course try to establish a "different" style, but unfortunately for them, the old rule still applies: "Nothing succeeds like success."

With the current development in microstock, which seems to be "bigger is better", I can't see why anybody would bother with yet another agency that seems destined to become a minor player, particularly when there are so many obstacles involved.

What really bugs me is how long it is taking them to get their website working right.  I am a php programmer and I know that adding a link to our portfolio is a simple, simple matter, and adding the ability to search our ports by views, downloads, etc is not rocket science either.

I thought this was the case, glad you have confirmed. I don't understand simple functionality taking so long to add.
I hope we see some progress (and sales) soon.

of course, that assumes the db was designed properly in the first place so that data could be collected easily

s

I could say "I told you". Everybody got so excited cause there is Corbis behind them and they used to be big players in old stock arena. Corbis proved with SV that they have no idea about microstock. They should snap something which is already up and running instead of reinventing a wheel again.

I think you need to go back and read those threads again. People weren't excited about Corbis, they were excited about Veer.  I think it is waaaaay too soon for you to be told-u-soing.

I agree, way too early to make a judgment.  My first payout was OK and I don't regret uploading to SV.  The worst case scenario is that I make more money and I can live with that.

I don't regret submitting to SV either, and I do indeed submit to a number of low performers, but I do so because it's easy. It's "Money for Nothing" so to say. When an agency creates obstacles to the contributors and there are lots of rejects, the least we should expect is some kind of plan, something that makes them unique and make them stand out from the rest. As it looks now, the only unique feature of Veer is that they have a smaller selection of the same old photos as all the other agencies.

In theory, that makes it easier for the buyers to find what they are looking for, but if that particular photo has been rejected, it's all in vain anyway. After the buyers have realised that, they will soon learn that it's more useful to search among the larger collections of the agencies with larger portfolios, or even a smaller agency who has a higher acceptance rate but fewer contributors. I sometimes buy from Scanstockphoto for that reason, because I can find images there that have apparently been rejected elsewhere.

"Cream of the crop" as a competitive edge doesn't work in microstock (with a possible exception for iStock), since the contributors are basically the same everywhere, and it has been proven again and again. This business is not about selling Rolls Royce (which would have been rejected for copyright infringement anyway    ), but Toyota. And if if you sell Toyotas, the only way to stand out is to have a lot of different models. Toyota has that, and so has iStock. Veer doesn't, and it doesn't look as if they are going to.

It's like they are saying "Yes, we have Corolla, but we've decided that you only need the 1600 GL. You have to go elsewhere to order one of the 17 other models."

Okay, I'm done with Veer, at least for now.  Just looking over the last batch of reviews.  Lots of rejections, which is never pleasant.  But it's the tone of the rejections that leaves me cold:

"The subject matter is outside of Veer Marketplace's current needs. We're not against having scantily clad models on VMP but this set doesn't meet our standards. There is a bit of a soft core porn vibe rather than being about fashion, or body image, or beauty."

"The subject matter is outside of Veer Marketplace's current needs. awkward poses, bad clothing/style, the backgrounds don't help. for this kind of shoot a white background is generally more useful for designers."

"Other concerns. looks a bit unnatural and some of the poses are a bit off."

"Other concerns"

I'll leave what I have and see if I can improve on the sixty cents they've made me so far, but no more uploads.  No more model shots, anyway; obviously they have a clear idea of what they want, and I'm not delivering it.

Everyone was complaining that their notices were too vague and ambiguous. I guess they are trying to accommodate your need for detail.

Other concerns. Snowmobile brand needs to be removed and based on the remote location and situation, a model release may be necessary

Would be glad to receive detailed comments like that.

With my last submissions I only got 'other concerns' without further comment or 'underexposure'/'overexposure' for pictures with histograms that looked perfectly ok to me.

Not really helpful for understanding what Veer wants.

Very mixed feelings about Veer so far.

Frustrated with the randomness of reviews.  (Batch of 30 will sail through with no problem, next batch all rejected for not being suitable for their needs -- though same subject matter and style as previous batch!)

But encouraged by sales so far... $27 in sales, 21 downloads, from 418 images online.  Better than Crestock for me by far.  Hoping it gets even better as they start promoting it more and their buyers realize the Marketplace exists.

I haven't problem with approvals but with sales, yes! 

how do you know how many $$ you have?  did you look at each and every image and add them up?

I was waiting for the sales stat page to go live, but lost patience.  It took about ten minutes to go through each page and jot down the sales... I have 21 pages total.  Annoying, but since I was pleased with the results, I guess it was worth it.  But I certainly won't be doing it again anytime soon.

I've been checking my (lack of) sales every morning.  Bringing up the Approved pages, I do a search for "$0.00".  Safari gives me a match count, so I go through each page and note any page with fewer than 20 matches.  Takes less than a minute.

My 400+ images from SV have been online for only about a week or so. 0 sales so far, but I'm still hopeful.

Somewhat troubling is that SV butchered many of my keywords. For example, I have an image of the Swiss Alps that includes none of these keywords: Alps, Swiss, Switzerland, mountain(s). So until we have the ability to edit our keywords, I'm afraid at least some of my images (I haven't checked many) won't be easily findable.

You should contact support about the keywords. Loads of contributors keywords were discomboobulated in the transfer from SV and was apparently fixed http://www.microstockgroup.com/veer-marketplace/update-on-keywording-issues-on-transferred-content/.

Thank you for that. It led me to read more about VMP's keywording, and that allowed me to figure out that my image can be found by doing a search on Swiss Alps, despite not having either word as a keyword!

It seems VMP's CV is more powerful than I imagined. I'm not sure how it manages to do that, but I shan't complain.

Just got the review info for the last of my port to be uploaded to veer.  It seems that every batch had more and more rejections, with this last on being the worst.

On the plus side, these rejections were more detailed -- not the canned ones I always got before.  But like Disorderly's, they were on the rude side.  Better than uninformative canned responses, but it sure came through loud and clear that the reviewer was displeased.  Not sure if it was my pictures or the job in general that caused his displeasure, but if other are seeing similar comments, it must be the job.

I said I was going to stop uploading, but thought I'd try a few more.  After all, I'm up to three sales and $4.10!  But my latest rejections aren't exactly encouraging.  Guess I encountered the fashion police:

Other concerns. Out of style, clothing, hair, background

I guess only the au courant need apply.  Wonder what they'd have done if I submitted something truly vintage

I guess only the au courant need apply.  Wonder what they'd have done if I submitted something truly vintage

Don't feel alone.  They don't want any pics with my two year old laptop either.  Apparently I need to update my laptop every year.  Kind of expensive for a prop since I do all my actual work on a desk top computer...

strangely snapvillage did better for me than veer so far.

Looks like my images are gone now  .  Maybe posting here works?  No email from Veer saying they deleted them though.

strangely snapvillage did better for me than veer so far.

ditto

My enthusiasm is renewed. I made my first $1.05 today. Yay!

Quote from: dirkr on September 02, 2009, 02:36

There is my new business idea: Produce fake Laptops to sell them to microstock photographers as props... You can even buy a subscription: Get the newest fancy looking model every month ...

There are a couple places that make this stuff for retail furniture places like Ikea.. still al little pricey though

http://www.propsbyidm.com/

There are quite a few prop companies about, but keeping up to date is a tough thing. It's too bad this company http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/13/desktop-factory-hits-the-dead-pool/ went under.  Imagine having a desktop printer where you could create any small to medium size object you can whip up an Autocad model for.   Ok, you might need to have some fancy model paints to make things look accurate..  but hey, press enter and you could have a fake PDA, that you don't have to worry about the models dropping or accidentally keeping.

Congrats, but when you expect payout!?

Well, at this rate, maybe next year? 

Got my first download yesterday - $3.50.

I've only got 79 images online so I wasn't expecting huge returns but I also expected a smaller collection to equate to higher views per image (due to less competition) compared to the same images on iStock, but it's not really panning out that way.

Even with my images lost in a far larger pool of images at iStock the views per image are way higher - which I guess is an indication of their much greater site traffic.

Quote from: Freedom on September 09, 2009, 20:23

When are they going to send over the money left in old Snapvillage account?

bump...I second that emotion

As mentioned before, final SnapVillage payments will be sent to your PayPal account on the 15th. This will included any accrued remaining royalties.

Best,

 - Brian

Quote from: dirkr on September 02, 2009, 02:36

There is my new business idea: Produce fake Laptops to sell them to microstock photographers as props... You can even buy a subscription: Get the newest fancy looking model every month ...

There are a couple places that make this stuff for retail furniture places like Ikea.. still al little pricey though

http://www.propsbyidm.com/

This is a great  solution.But, this laptop they have, could it be rejected by Marketplace? Does it look out of date? I have no idea, all laptops look the same to me. Especially from the back.

Thanks Lisa for this information.

yeah I haven't even considered signing up to veer yet .. just waiting to see how many complaints there about rejections and lack of sales 

I quit there. Not too many rejects but the wrong rejects: accepting B and crap, refusing A and good sellers. The upload process takes too long if you try to disambiguate seriously and follow their kwd suggestions.
After flipping Hamburgers for a day in Europe, I would have 80 euro in my pocket. Spend that time on Veer uploads and I would have 2$ per day. Moreover, I tend to avoid sites that do payout in dollars lately. The dollar is dead and everybody in the worlds wants to get rid of it before Obama runs out of paper to print his treasury bonds. If Veer cleaned out and streamlined its reviewers, in a year or so, let's see.