Author Topic: Big changes (Read 35867 times)

gborce · « **Reply #50 on:** March 07, 2008, 18:00 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on March 07, 2008, 17:35

No it deserves the Darwin Award.

that site is hilarious!!!!

jsnover · « **Reply #51 on:** March 07, 2008, 18:10 »

Quote from: lisafx on March 07, 2008, 09:57

I just received my first set of mass rejections on CanStockPhoto. Half my most recent batch rejected for exposure.

Lisa,

I realize everyone's fallible - you could have suddenly developed the inability to tell whether a shot was properly exposed - but the likelihood that half your images weren't properly exposed is exceedingly small.

I had told myself the "sales are picking up" tale over and over again since October 2004 when I started with CanStock, but as you can see I'm no longer there - I lost the faith already

As soon as my balance was over the $50 threshhold a few weeks ago I collected my payment and sitemailed Duncan to ask him to delete my portfolio (I wasn't going to do it one by one).

He kindly complied, but didn't ask why or seem to care one way or the other. 4 or 5 months ago he'd just ignored a site mail I sent him about subscription sales (after which I deleted my best sellers as half my sales at CanStock were subscriptions by then.

My honest opinion is that this latest tough love program will not solve their basic problems (perhaps if they'd done this before Fotolia, StockXpert and others took hold it might have). Their collection is small and not very good compared to the other micros. Their payouts are low, subscriptions are just huge discounts without the volume.

If you were a buyer, why would you buy credits at Canstock? Given the other places to spend your money, what would take you there?

madelaide · « **Reply #52 on:** March 07, 2008, 18:38 »

Quote from: jsnover on March 07, 2008, 18:10

If you were a buyer, why would you buy credits at Canstock? Given the other places to spend your money, what would take you there?

In fact I was reading their forum today and there was a post from a buyer (they exist!!!) and contributor:

Quote

Hey guys, look I'm a newbie at uploading photos to this site, but I've being an art director and Sr graphic designer for over 25 years and for a very long time have chosen CanStockPhoto as my source of stock photography, reason being the large selection of all kinds of images from the high end to the low, and I'll tell you, there has been more times that I can count that a design or a clients request for a design has being accomplished by a "NOT SO PROFESSIONAL PHOTO" of not so professional topic or setting.
So my thinking that the up-coming restriction for up loading photos of all kinds may be (HOPE NOT) the downfall of CanStockPhoto.

Regards,
Adelaide

lisafx · « **Reply #53 on:** March 07, 2008, 18:49 »

JoAnn, thanks for sharing that info. Am I correct in assuming Duncan removed your pics promptly?

I really don't want it to come to this, but for a site that used to accept everything to now be wholesale rejecting 50% of images that are accepted by other sites that have always had high standards seems sort of confused. They appear to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

DanP68 · « **Reply #54 on:** March 07, 2008, 19:31 »

If I were in charge of a struggling microstock outfit, I would be begging for the contributions of someone who has nearly 90,000 sales at iStockphoto. I can only surmise from their decisions that they feel they know better than sites like iStock, Shutterstock, Fotolia, and Dreamstime. The same sites that eat their lunch daily.

I am thankful I never decided to join CanStockPhoto. The heart ache would be too much to take. I cannot imagine remaining faithful to them for 3 or 4 years even when they showed no sign of ever turning the corner, just to have them turn on me at the end.

jsnover · « **Reply #55 on:** March 07, 2008, 20:36 »

Quote from: lisafx on March 07, 2008, 18:49

JoAnn, thanks for sharing that info. Am I correct in assuming Duncan removed your pics promptly?

You are. He sent back sitemail quickly saying that it'd have to wait until the evening to avoid unnecessary load on the servers and that I might want to remind him so he didn't forget. I sent him mail at the time he requested at a few hours later it was done.

I did wait until I'd received and banked my payment before doing this

Eco · « **Reply #56 on:** March 08, 2008, 01:32 »

I warned Duncan about this on the CanStockPhoto forums. Extreme rejections for absurd reasons, low sales and the lowest royalty payment in the MS industry will not ensure that CanStockPhoto end up with better quality images. It will ensure that they end up with no images as all the top contributors have left.

In his response Duncan assured me that they are "raising the floor", not "raising the bar" and that the top contributors with quality images will not be affected. Look what is happening now.

What CanStockPhoto should have done is increase their payment to contributors (in line with recent increases of all the other major sites), then secure more sales through this 3rd pary partnership and only then tighten up quality standards within realistic limits. Their current approach can only have one outcome - the final demise of CanStockPhoto.

rene · « **Reply #57 on:** March 08, 2008, 03:13 »

Highest quality, lowest earninigs and no sales. Why people wasting time at Canstock and Crestock ?

DanP68 · « **Reply #58 on:** March 08, 2008, 14:16 »

Quote from: rene on March 08, 2008, 03:13

Highest quality, lowest earninigs and no sales. Why people wasting time at Canstock and Crestock ?

Exactly. And if this 3rd-party is the key to generating a lot more sales for Canstock, then what is the advantage of being in Canstock in the first place? Just join the 3rd-party stock site and get paid directly by them, without having a portion siphoned off. If it is indeed a RM outfit as some have surmised from the sudden huge increase in standards, then don't you want to be paid RM prices?

hospitalera · « **Reply #59 on:** March 08, 2008, 17:26 »

I started already to delete my portfolio at CanStockPhoto - time to accomplish the task, excuse me, I will be occupied in the near future, SY

Suljo · « **Reply #60 on:** March 08, 2008, 19:41 »

I change my living place and on the new one I am without ADSL for two months only with old Dial up connection so I dont looking whats going on with CanStockPhoto and other low sellers.
So I stopped upload to them, and after this thread I will be lazy to try to upload to them anything.
Maybe I will visit they site when I will bee in pension if they will be exist at that time to withdraw my 200 or 300 bucks for my new silver walking stick with giroscope and GPS or Jetpack.

sharpshot · « **Reply #61 on:** March 09, 2008, 03:55 »

Quote from: rene on March 08, 2008, 03:13

Highest quality, lowest earninigs and no sales. Why people wasting time at Canstock and Crestock ?

I haven't been there long but I don't think Crestock is a waste of time. They spend lots on advertising and there are good sales there.

Phil · « **Reply #62 on:** March 09, 2008, 07:57 »

Quote from: gborce on March 07, 2008, 18:00

Quote from: FlemishDreams on March 07, 2008, 17:35
No it deserves the Darwin Award.

that site is hilarious!!!!

there goes 3 hours when I am supposed to keywording, oh well it was more enjoyable

hmm, but so is taking photos, photoshop, doing the dishes... anyway it was good, gee there is some sad and not real bright people in the world (or was).

Phil

travelstock · « **Reply #63 on:** March 09, 2008, 09:52 »

I had started deleting some time ago but got sick of it. I just finished spending the $7 worth of credits that I'd earned there over the 2 years where I had photos online and have now requested to have my portfolio deleted - couldn't be bothered wasting more time deleting one by one.

I'm just glad that I got sick of the site early on and didn't waste too much time on it.

travelstock · « **Reply #64 on:** March 10, 2008, 16:27 »

Quote from: holgs on March 09, 2008, 09:52

I had started deleting some time ago but got sick of it. I just finished spending the $7 worth of credits that I'd earned there over the 2 years where I had photos online and have now requested to have my portfolio deleted - couldn't be bothered wasting more time deleting one by one.

I'm just glad that I got sick of the site early on and didn't waste too much time on it.

Ok account has been canceled and is now offline...

kgtoh · « **Reply #65 on:** March 12, 2008, 04:14 »

Yes. If I fall below 50%, I will carefully, 1 upload per day, slowly nurse my ratio back up, for the privilege of uploading more photos to Canstock.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Quote from: SStevenson on March 07, 2008, 17:31

Actually I answered it in the thread about upload limits.

For the time being we are allowing a 1/day limit for people below 50%. This is subject to change, but gives them the opportunity to carefully raise their rating back up.

dbvirago · « **Reply #66 on:** March 12, 2008, 05:18 »

Don't think I will be there long enough to fall that far, even with the mass rejections. Last batch of 5 was 100% rejected, even though 3 of them were 100% accepted on the other 8 sites.

But speaking of percentages, Canstock has conistently performed in the 1-2% range of my income. The first month it falls below 1%, (and this may be the one) they are gone.

I've always cut them some slack because, they were my first agency and sale, it is extremely easy to upload, and I've taken advantage of the keyword helper, but with my accpetance rating falling from 90% to 20%, and income not increasing one nickel, I can't imagine why I am still bothering.

According to duncan on the site forum, the '3rd party' hasn't come on board yet. Like someone else said, it would have made more sense to see if this increased sales, thereby showing the strategy was working before you began cutting off the hands that feed you.

null · « **Reply #67 on:** March 12, 2008, 05:26 »

Quote from: dbvirago on March 12, 2008, 05:18

Last batch of 5 was 100% rejected, even though 3 of them were 100% accepted on the other 8 sites.

If big guns like Lisafx and DBvirago get a majority of rejections on CanStockPhoto, I won't even try any more.
I used to have 3-4 sales on CanStockPhoto till January. Suddenly all sales stopped, for almost 2 months now. I'm hovering 1.70$ before payout. Would they block sales then to keep the loan contributors are making? Am I paranoid?

Whatever, if somebody would leave CanStockPhoto with credits left, it would be nice to buy one of my shots so I finally get over that payout limit.

dbvirago · « **Reply #68 on:** March 12, 2008, 09:25 »

Doh! Don't put me in the big gun category LOL. No, I won't leave with money on the table. If Duncan won't pay me what he owes, I can hang on until I hit $50 again. I'll just stop uploading if this new 3rd party doesn't kick in soon.

Lev · « **Reply #69 on:** March 12, 2008, 21:39 »

believe me or not, i"ve got batch rejected on Canstock.

i most likely gonna leave Canstock if it will not be sorted out. i mean, they sell me for $50 a month and i must deal with hi-quality pictures rejected?

and 15 keywords is a total joke.
anybody here edit keywords specially for them? leaving only 15? ;]

update. i checked my statistics. actually they sell me for less than $20 a month this year. and March is nearly zero with 3 sales and 2-3 bucks so far.

DanP68 · « **Reply #70 on:** March 12, 2008, 22:21 »

Well Lev, I've already told you how much I admire your work. If it isn't good enough for Canstock, then nothing is.

null · « **Reply #71 on:** March 12, 2008, 22:26 »

Quote from: dolgachov on March 12, 2008, 21:39

believe me or not, i"ve got batch rejected on Canstock.

This sounds to get crazier all the time.

Quote from: dolgachov on March 12, 2008, 21:39

and 15 keywords is a total joke.
anybody here edit keywords specially for them? leaving only 15?

Yes I keyword for Fotolia. My vital kwds are in the first 7 and the essentials in the first 15. Anything beyond are synonyms and circumstantial. By ranking kwds in order of importance, I'm always safe, on Fotolia with 7 and on SS with 50.

Update. Just got catapulted way beyond pay-out limit by some regular sales. I could leave in grace now, but I have this weak spot for loner Duncan. This young guy did an incredible thing on his own, years ago. CanStockPhoto is still a very slick site. It doesn't harm to leave shots there. Just pause upload till they got their senses back. CanStockPhoto has always been very innovative in programming. I think the keyword-relevance thing is a major step forward in search algorithms and customer comfort.

Artmyth · « **Reply #72 on:** March 12, 2008, 22:52 »

Hi, Id just like to clarify one point: - There is no limit to the number of keywords in the new search engine you can include as many as you want. The search engine selects the first 15 unique keywords from your keyword entries.

Quote from: dolgachov on March 12, 2008, 21:39

and 15 keywords is a total joke.
anybody here edit keywords specially for them? leaving only 15? ;]

hatman12 · « **Reply #73 on:** March 13, 2008, 01:55 »

Hmmm.... that looks and sounds like a 15 word limit to me.

Ley me see if I've got this straight - this agency is rejecting whole batches of stuff from Lisafx and Lev Dolgachov who are two of the most successful stock photographers in the world.

They appear to have few customers and yet preach the 'holier than thou' stuff as if they are something of a leader in the industry.

Sounds to me as though someone has escaped from the cuckoo's nest.

DanP68 · « **Reply #74 on:** March 13, 2008, 02:12 »

It sounds more like Jack Nicholson running amok through the Overlook with an ax.

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Author Topic: Big changes (Read 35867 times)

gborce

jsnover

madelaide

lisafx

DanP68

jsnover

Eco

rene

DanP68

hospitalera

Suljo

sharpshot

Phil

travelstock

travelstock

kgtoh

dbvirago

null

dbvirago

Lev

DanP68

null

Artmyth

hatman12

DanP68

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