MicrostockGroup

Here is the press release :

Zymmetrical.com, the first midstock digital art marketplace announces 70% royalty for all contributors.

October 9, 2007. New York, NY, For immediate release : Zymmetrical, the first and leading midstock digital art marktplace is now offering its past and present contributors an amazing 70% on their sales. Already ground breaking with the launch of its auto suggest search feature more than a year ago, Zymmetrical continues to innovate at a rapid pace. Contributors get to set there own prices on any art they submit to a marketplace visible in 8 different languages. The site itself is optimized to be the best friend of all the search engines worldwide, making it an unmistakable destination for anyone looking to purchase royalty free content.  With a wide offering of fonts, clips, graphic and photography, Zymmetrical has quickly become the number one resource center for visual professionals around the world. Its state of the art ranking system, Zyrank, paired with creative search algorithms allows anyone to quickly locate the right content for the job.  With prices fitting the budget conscious buyer while still allowing contributors to make a living, it is setting new standards in the industry. It can be found at http://www.zymmetrical.com

About Zymmetrical : Founded in 2006 by Keith Tuomi who already had found success with Flyerstarter.com, it is the first ever midstock digital visual art marketplace in the world. It offers, in 8 different languages, fonts, videos, graphics and photography. Contributors set their own price for their royalty free content and buyers can choose from a wide array of worldwide offering. Continuously updated with new content , it has quickly become an invaluable destination for the budget conscious unwilling to compromise with quality. Zymmetrical is based in Vancouver and has an office in New York.

Ah, yes...such fond sweet memories of that thread  .  Well, in fairness to them, they seem to be actually putting some serious work into their site, even though they still somewhat lack contributors.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  Perhaps their concept may be worth checking out.  Although I think at this point it's a gamble.  I believe it does say something for microstock that they're actually back here soliciting once again.  Maybe the quality of our work actually makes us worth courting??  Imagine that!

I might consider uploading if they paid me.  There are too many sites already and that previous thread puts me off.

Seriously, though, 1773 files is stunning. My portfolio is about half of theirs. I guess it just goes to show that sites like microstockgroup do make a difference. Has anyone here heard of them insulting contributors on other sites? Or was the original post a one-off?

Thanks- it's indeed much work.     

The image count is a work in progress but admittedly not the highest priority until recently - the system must work flawlessly before we fill 'er up. There's 110K on deck but they must be moved out gradually to avoid rocking the boat.       

Yes, but it isnt your office, is it? Its an open forum for everyone, read by hundreds of potential customers/contributors. Youre not just responding to me- youre responding to everyone here. Regardless of whos right and wrong- most people here associate your site with the agressive face you put on it.
A safe, AOL style response would be a good idea because it gives the facts without offending anyone. In this way, we would all learn to associate your site with bland, friendly professionalism, which is what will earn money. The fact that you cant take your aggression out of your official posts makes me think that you only have 1773 files because you spend your time insulting contributors.
Which would you upload your hard work to- the site of an aggressive person who spends half the time fighting people in forums, or the site of a bland AOL style announcer who politely states facts?

Everyone has to start somewhere, unless they can afford to buy an image base, remember Totally Photos.
I actually sold the first image I uploaded there while the rest were still awaiting approval.  And when I logged in yesterday my earnings had jumped from 50% to 70%.
I have had two small problems in the site, they are still beta, and each time I emailed support and received a personal and polite reply thanking me for making them aware of the problem, followed by another email when the problem had been taken care of.
I know I have only a handful of images up there right now, but that will soon be changing.

I'm not a contributor to Zymmetrical (I already work with 22 agencies that I'm having trouble keeping on top of) but I think this is a venture that may be worth your while and I may sign up within the next couple of months (mostly a function of having time to get established on another site).

Paul has the background to make this succeed - many don't research the people behind an agency and many don't read the TOS an agency puts out to their contributors.  This is something I insist on doing.

If you want to make this a relative comparison - Paul has been doing this for almost 20 years and he's been successful most of the time.  He's worked at Digital Railroad and helped them develop their business, he's built up an agency and sold it to Corbis, he's got a good track record.

Let's look at Fotolia - and the background of their CEO....who is also CURRENTLY CEO of Wixi.com, CURRENTLY CEO of Ziki.com, CURRENTLY CEO of Everyfeed.com and is currently a director of Reachdown Ventures - a venture capitalist firm (nothing to do with photography and no success record with stock agencies).

Let's look at US Photostock - run a by Russian economist who also sells advice on how to get rich quick playing the U.S. stock market (nothing to do with photography and no success record with stock agencies).

I say if you can, give them a chance - it may take some time but it could be worth your while - especially at a 70% commission.

Absolutely !!! everyone is welcomed.

That was a nice posting Paul. I'd still suggest hiring someone to do P.R. Keith's (zymmetricaldotcom) posting is a prime example of why such a hire is necessary. I can see you're "stubbornly obsessed with success", but it's not coming off in a good way. It's one thing if people were being rude in Keith's office, but this isn't Keith's office. It's an open forum where lively debate on all aspects of microstock occurs.

One question for you: Since you're a "midstock" site, do you offer rights-managed licenses or do you plan to do so in the future?

ZymmMan,

As I said, I signed up, but the images I saw looke dmore like artistic stuff than stock.  I am confused.

Regards,
Adelaide

Just a feedback on my experiences with the site. I keep getting errors for searches and lots of broken thumb image links. Is your site IE only? I use Firefox and I thought I remembered a previous comment that may have referred to this. Is so, tsk tsk.   I will refrain from my other technical experiences on the site for now given that they may be tainted by this very large, imo, issue. 

Others have mentioned the images on the site as being more art then stock which may be true, but I also saw some images that seemed to contradict that observation and their tag line on the front page. "The best in stock art online". I realize everyone has an opinion and it can be very subjective, but in my view a lot of the images I saw (right up front without searching) where of the snap shot variety. No offense to anyone, I just wonder how that mix is reconciled or if it needs to be-it makes me wonder.

Dear Altimages,

Welcome to the forum. Love your images by the way. Great website. You might be experiencing broken thumbnails for various reasons, some probably due to the fact that we are updating our content extremely fast and that your browser might not have had the time to cache them properly. It is irrelevant of which browser you are using. It is part of the growing pains of a site with a lot of new content posted regularly. Our engineers has been have been hard at work to solve this issue and it will disappear quite quickly.
I do not quite know what to say about the "error" in your searches as you do not give any details.
Finally, you give your opinion about the value of the content and we appreciate that. As you quite correctly say, it is only your opinion and there is nothing more subjective than that. We will only let the judges that really matter make the final call : the image buyers.
On a more general manner, please keep in mind that zymmetrical is still in its Beta version and that you will experience some bugs here and there. We are not hiding them nor pretend they do not exist. We do appreciate all your comments and input as we continue our thrive into making it perfect. We will hit some bumps, like all the other sites have done, before and after us, but will not stop until all are fixed.
However, with your help and your input, associated with the fabulous support and feedback we are getting from image buyers, we continue are commitment to excellence and perfection. Not only in functionalities but in performance. We have introduce a lot of features that are now being copied by our competitors and will also continue to prove our commitment with actions rather than long speeches.
What you will always see on zymmetrical is progress, innovation, sparks of genius, not only in its functionalities but in its content thanks to an ever growing membership that has the same passion for success then we do. We hope you will join us and reap all the benefits you well deserve.

Sincerely,

Paul Melcher