MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => CanStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: Tim Markley on February 25, 2008, 22:18
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There are some big changes coming to the site. Check out the post by Duncun:
Several weeks ago I mentioned that we have some big changes coming soon. Several of them are still in the works and several are ready to be implemented this week.
3rd Party Licensing
We are opening up our library to outside authorized agencies. Put quite simply, we will be allowing other stock photography agencies and outside vendors to sell images on our behalf. Using our own API, these agencies will be able to gain full access to our library and search functions, and sell our images as if they were their own.
How it works:
1) All images will automatically be included in this program. However, photographers can choose to opt out completely, or exclude individual images.
2) Photographers will receive half of Can Stock Photo’s negotiated commission with the company. So say we negotiate a 75% commission with an agency. If an image sells for $2 through the agency – we will get $0.75 and you will get $0.75. The selling price and negotiated commission will depend on the individual agency.
3) You will retain complete control of your images. If you delete an image here, it will instantly be removed for sale from all distributers. We control all image files. All files are managed and served up directly from the CanStockPhoto servers.
4) You will be credited with sales instantly, as you are here.
5) All buyers must agree to our current licensing contracts, or equivalent. The same terms as we use here.
I expect this to become live sometime over the next month. We have a large agency onboard that will be carrying our entire library, however for the time being I can not reveal who it is. Other agencies can be added pending negotiations. This is great for photographers, as it allows you to market your images through other agencies – all from one spot. This will greatly increase the reach of your work.
Highly Tightened Submission Standards & Criteria
“Quality Over Quantity”
Starting very shortly we will be drastically changing how many images we accept, and what standards we hold them to. We will be only accepting the best of the best. For comparisons sake, our image standards will similar to some rights-managed agencies. We will be very selective and will only accept the highest quality images. All photos should appear to be shot in a professional environment, with professional equipment.
To allow a fair playing ground, we will be hiding the photographer’s name and status from our inspection screens. So image inspectors will be unaware of whose image they are evaluating – this will remove the risk of any accidental bias or favoritism. The images will be judged purely for their own quality.
Upload limits will be changed. Photographers with under a 50% approval rating will not be able to upload images. Other photographers may see large reductions in their upload limits. This is to encourage people to be selective in what they submit, instead of simply “dumping and running”.
Library Audit
Nobody likes audits, but sometimes they are necessary. Starting very soon we will be aggressively re-reviewing every image in our active collection. We will be removing all images that do not meet our updated submission standards. Images that have been online for a while and have no downloads and/or little views will be automatically deleted. Images that are of mediocre quality, plain, boring, or not original will all be deleted. We want to prune our library so we are left with only the highest quality images for our buyers.
Some photographers will not be affected, whereas others will see a large decrease in their portfolio. It all depends on the caliber of images you have online, as judged by our team (and software). We expect to remove 100-250k images. This is a business decision that will ultimately benefit the community as a whole.
New Keyword Handling
Starting very soon our system will only be ranking images based on the first 15 keywords listed. We have an ongoing problem of people abusing the system with keyword diarrhea. Some images are submitted with 50-75 keywords. This causes a mass dilution of the search results, and hurts everybody involved.
Please note this is not a “limit”. You can submit as many keywords as you want and do not have to do any special editing. However, our system will simply ignore every keyword after the 15th one. Although they will all remain in the image details, they will not all actively be used by our search engine.
Site Changes
Over the next little bit we will be making a number of site changes. All changes are designed to create a more buyer-friendly environment.
1) Front Page – we will be removing the statistics, announcements and discussion sections. Our forums will still be accessible from the link at the top of the site, but the main page will be updated to have more focus on the images.
2) Faster Search – we are completely re-tooling our search engine to provide much faster search results. We expect a 2-4x increase in search speed. We will also add more advanced search options.
3) Revised Site – we will be making some longer term changes to the site to further enhance its usability for buyers. This will involve more features in some areas, and redesigns in others.
Questions, comments?
Duncan
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i had such a bad experience with CanStock Photo, I will never submit there again. I don't trust them at all, but that's my opinion
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Well, at least they are still showing effort.
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Yeah, an effort by removing 100-250k images from it's library and not allowing photgraphers with < 50% upload approval to submit.
What a joke, maybe this would fly if Can Stock was making photographers any money, but in reality Can Stock photo is the laughing stock of the industry and barely makes any money at all
They truly suck and are bottom of the barrel
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This is pretty funny. I'm glad I never gave them a single upload. You would think "Big Changes" would entail an aggressive marketing campaign, a complete re-thinking of a failed business. Instead they announce a meaningless 3rd party agreement, and warn contributors they will restrict uploads, increase inspection standards, and delete their already accepted files.
Sounds great guys! And how will this increase anyone's sales?
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So if you submit your first two images, and one fails, you can't submit anymore? Sounds peculiar.
Once you get below the 50%, how do you get it back up to start submitting again?
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It is a bit early for an April's joke. Duncan will have to learn the hard way. You cannot impose the strictest selection criteria in the industry, cull images already accepted and prevent photographers from uploading, while at the same time pay the lowest royalty in the industry (0.25c per subscription download). This business model of extreme rejections and low royalties almost destroyed Crestock before they gained some sanity again. Oh well, I don't think the final demise of Canstock will be too much of a loss to most of us. We will just have to see how this plays out. Only time will tell if this 3rd party seller will make a significant difference.
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I will wait and see what this other site is and if there are any sales there. The upload is easy to canstock and I will upload more if sales improve.
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The 15-keyword limit is certainly innovative. Great move. Making the site buyer-oriented is great too. Forum links shouldn't be on the frontpage.
With exceptional image requirements, CanStockPhoto seems to do a remake of the Crestock strategy. You can, alas, not find enough people that want to sell their top work for 25 dollarcents. At least I won't anymore.
CanStockPhoto is heading for disaster; see this this blog article (http://www.microstockdiaries.com/when-do-you-give-up-on-a-slow-microstock-agency.html), especially the Alexa ratings tending to zero after begin 2006. The rather unwelcoming attitude of Duncan towards contributors doesn't help too. I still remember his warning on the CanStockPhoto forum that the accounts of critical forum posters would vanish suddenly.
In short, you can't set forth rules like a market leader if you're a market trailer.
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I can't get myself round to uploading anymore to CanStockPhoto.
Sales are just so low - it's not worth it!
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With exceptional image requirements, CanStockPhoto seems to do a remake of the Crestock strategy. You can, alas, not find enough people that want to sell their top work for 25 dollarcents. At least I won't anymore.
Ditto
I will wait and see what this other site is and if there are any sales there. The upload is easy to canstock and I will upload more if sales improve.
Easy upload ? Maybe, but what for? It's still waste of time.
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Oh dear, if ever there was a prime exmaple of crash and burn PR this is it. CanStockPhoto really seem to be pissing int the wind with this latest offering and it all seems litke too little too late.
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Duncan,
2 questions:
Does this new site support "subscriptions"? If so does this mean that we might be seeing 8 - 10 cent proceeds?
What if our portfolios are already on that site?
Thx
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There are some big changes coming to the site. Check out the post by Duncun:
Highly Tightened Submission Standards & Criteria
“Quality Over Quantity”
Starting very shortly we will be drastically changing how many images we accept, and what standards we hold them to.We will be only accepting the best of the best. For comparisons sake, our image standards will similar to some rights-managed agencies. We will be very selective and will only accept the highest quality images. All photos should appear to be shot in a professional environment, with professional equipment
Questions, comments?
Duncan
Rights managed standards for 0.75$ , only best of the best will be accepted.
O wait , don't forget subscriptions sales on site.
If so , then why are they not taking a turn with prices also and get closer to midstock waters ?
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Duncan,
2 questions:
Does this new site support "subscriptions"? If so does this mean that we might be seeing 8 - 10 cent proceeds?
What if our portfolios are already on that site?
Thx
Its good to see some movement and ideas for going ahead, but whether they are in a position to do so will remain to be seen. personally they are not a big earner so if I get more sales then great, if it goes bad then it isn't big loss.
culling 100k-250k images from a 650k database doesn't seem the smartest move, and once someone falls to 49.9% thats it they're gone? I see losing a number of people from not a big pool while new standards are met / worked out etc. (but i do wonder how long before other sites bring in policies where people with consistantly low quality get cut off)
I agree with anon though, are we talking subscription sales too?
I really hope you can reorder keywords after an image is submitted :) (funny limit to 15 words, I reckon I have had their keyword suggester put in 15 keywords on some images :):)
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Its good to see some movement and ideas for going ahead, but whether they are in a position to do so will remain to be seen. personally they are not a big earner so if I get more sales then great, if it goes bad then it isn't big loss.
That's pretty much it. I've been riding the fence for months on this one. If it earns more and doesnt' get more difficult to upload to then I stick around. Otherwise, no loss.
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Hi folks, I'm a hellper dude on Canstock and would like to address some of the relevant questions that have been asked about our big changes.
So if you submit your first two images, and one fails, you can't submit anymore? Sounds peculiar.
Once you get below the 50%, how do you get it back up to start submitting again?
Good question Seren, actually when a new member joins they start with an 86% acceptance ratio, and after their first 20 images thier personal ratio kicks in based on those initial 20 reviews. LOL it would be pecurilar indeed if it were based on two images lol.
Duncan,
2 questions:
Does this new site support "subscriptions"? If so does this mean that we might be seeing 8 - 10 cent proceeds?
What if our portfolios are already on that site?
Thx
Hi anonymous, this question has been answered by Duncan in more detail on the CanStockPhoto forum, however, in short this new 3rd party program does not involve subscription sales models, just per image sales.
I suspect that the chances of your portfolio being on the other site are very slim, but may I request you ask this question directly to Duncan on the forums, on CanStockPhoto?
I believe FlemishDreams has asked about the order of keywords on the CanStockPhoto forum and Duncan is making sure the ordering is such that it is suitable to accommodate the many and varied requirements for keywords that are placed on photographers who submit to multiple sites.
and on another note: It perhaps would be best to ask questions directly on the CanStockPhoto forum about this, to avoid confusion and missed replies, as Duncan posted on the forum:
quote:
I think it is important that people relax a little and see how it turns out. For someone like yourself who already has very high quality images, I think the impact will be quite nominal. I would expect your images to do better, as they would not have to compete as hard for viewership against lower quality images. The people that will be mostly impacted are the ones that are doing this as a hobby or as a way to learn photography. There are a whole lot of photographers that you never hear about or see, but are uploading quite frequently that fit into that category. We’re not raising the bar, we’re raising the floor. Make sense? :endquote
Hope this clears up some of the questions and misconceptions about the forthcoming positive changes.
cheers
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Hi folks, I'm a hellper dude on Canstock
Wow. That gives me faith.
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Hi folks, I'm a hellper dude on Canstock
Wow. That gives me faith.
That's Bennym. :P
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Well, this cleans up any doubts I could have about trying CanStockPhoto.
About standards, I'd rather be submitting to RM agencies instead of wasting time with them.
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Hi folks, I'm a hellper dude on Canstock....
I believe FlemishDreams has asked about the order of keywords on the CanStockPhoto forum
Hey Bennym. ;)
Yap it was me but I can't change my nick on CanStockPhoto.
Let's leave the sales issue aside; I think Duncan can read Alexa too.
The 15 keyword thing, or keyword relevance is really a bold move that will benefit search efficiency. CanStockPhoto is now the second, after Fotolia. I have been hammering on this for almost 2 years. In a database of 3-5 million you end up with tens of result pages for most searches. CanStockPhoto is in the advantage here with a lean portfolio; so it can start from scratch.
I guess we'd better continue this at the CanStockPhoto forum.
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I'm not a member of Canstock, and I'm not sure if I ever visited their website, but here is my view:
What makes an agency good, from a contributing photographer's point of view? Good sales figures, is the answer, and nothing else. To have good sales figures an agency needs buyers, and photos to sell. The most important is good photos, and only good photos for sale. No professional buyer will want to browse through pages of crap looking for a decent photo. The agency will need to advertise, but that will be a futile exercise if those reading the add doesn't get decent photos to buy. An agency needs this to get decent sales, and will only be able to pay decent commission once they get good sales. I've never considered joining Canstock because they have a reputation for slow sales, but with this changes I may reconsider.
One thing that I find disturbing: I still remember his warning on the CanStockPhoto forum that the accounts of critical forum posters would vanish suddenly. I don't know the true context of this remark, but no photographer can afford to contribute to an agency that is not absolutely trustworthy. What do I do if I have an account with $50 or $100 that suddenly vanishes? I can't litigate in another continent for that amount. Duncan will have to give a very clear explanation to clear up this one.
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Hi CCk
Yeah that line comes back to haunt these forums quite a lot, its interesting how it transforms each time its reposted.
The fact behind that comment is this... when Duncan posted announcements of previous upgrades he requested input. At that time we were experiencing a rash of new memberships where people were joining simply to post non-constructive, negative spammish comments in the forums. So his warning was directed to those handful of people who at the time were creating a rather negative environment on the site.
Its not quite as feindish as it may sound.
and by the way contrary to popular perception, I am not Benny, I am Artmyth my profile is readily available on the site.
hope that helps to clear up some of the shadows...
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The focus seems to be higher rejection rates and cutting back on photographers. But CS rejects photos that are not only accepted on other sites but sell well there.
I think ultimately if there are buyers for an image then a site should sell them.
It seems like a poor business choice to annoy photographers, forgo revenue and in doing so fail to meet the needs of your customer base.
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New Keyword Handling
Starting very soon our system will only be ranking images based on the first 15 keywords listed. We have an ongoing problem of people abusing the system with keyword diarrhea. Some images are submitted with 50-75 keywords. This causes a mass dilution of the search results, and hurts everybody involved.
But CanStockPhoto keeps keywords alphabetically, how would they trim keywords in existing images? 15 is better than FT's 7, but it still few in many cases, especially as CanStockPhoto also does not take composed keywords, so as in a previous example "Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana Beach" become 5 keywords.
Regards,
Adelaide
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Hi folks, I'm a hellper dude on Canstock and would like to address some of the relevant questions that have been asked about our big changes.
thanks for signing in here Artmyth. It is good to have a voice from the site on board.
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But CanStockPhoto keeps keywords alphabetically, how would they trim keywords in existing images? 15 is better than FT's 7, but it still few in many cases, especially as CanStockPhoto also does not take composed keywords, so as in a previous example "Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana Beach" become 5 keywords.
Regards,
Adelaide
Actually currently the database does not impose an alphabetical order to keywords, they appear on the site in the same order you enter them whether read during upload or manually entered. And there are no plans or needs to change it so it is alphabetical
Good point about the phrases, I've let Duncan know about your concern and it will be considered.
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I guess they have started - I just received 100% rejections on my last batch. What a joke! I think I will save them some time culliing any more of my images and just cancel my account there.
EDIT - Just sent them a email to delete all my images and cancel my account
Good luck with all your .25 cent downloads!
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I'm surprised to see all the aggression against Canstock here. Although I agree that they behave strange sometimes, they do sell five times as much as LO for me. I don't upload at the moment, but I won't completely count them out either. Sales have actually been increasing lately.
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I'm surprised to see all the aggression against Canstock here.
No aggression against Canstock. More like me having a bad day. :-[
I also have to give them top marks as they contacted me almost immediately after I sent the request to cancel my account. I have always liked Canstock but I have never done very well there. I wish them the best of luck.
(edited cause I can't spell)
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The rather unwelcoming attitude of Duncan towards contributors doesn't help too. I still remember his warning on the CanStockPhoto forum that the accounts of critical forum posters would vanish suddenly.
He actually wrote that? My goodness, why would anybody choose to do business with someone that unprofessional.
That would have made for an interesting lawsuit. Can you imagine CanStockPhoto trying to explain to a court of law why they closed accounts without notice and kept the revenues because of "critical message board posting?" ::)
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Hi Dan
Yeah that line comes back to haunt these forums quite a lot, its interesting how it transforms each time its reposted.
The fact behind that comment is this... when Duncan posted announcements of previous upgrades he requested input. At that time we were experiencing a rash of new memberships where people were joining simply to post non-constructive, negative spammish comments in the forums. So his warning was directed to those handful of people who at the time were creating a rather negative environment on the site.
Its not quite as feindish as it may sound.
hope that helps to clear up some of the shadows...
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Actually - I quite like the CanStockPhoto website...pity that the sales are so low there.
And this: "For comparisons sake, our image standards will similar to some rights-managed agencies. We will be very selective and will only accept the highest quality images. All photos should appear to be shot in a professional environment, with professional equipment."
Not a problem with high quality requirements - but professional equipment and professional environment cost money - so if RM quality is expected, then RM prices would not be out of place either.
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Not a problem with high quality requirements - but professional equipment and professional environment cost money - so if RM quality is expected, then RM prices would not be out of place either.
Well said!
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I was planning on leaving CanStockPhoto after my next payout, and have already stopped uploading to them, so no big loss for me.
However, it really bothers me when sites decide to remove old, poor performing photos without at least giving them a chance to sell. IS developed its Dollar Bin, which I think is a great idea, but Fotolia and now CanStockPhoto have decided just to get rid of stuff. The problem I have with CanStockPhoto in particular doing this is they have never had many buyers to begin with, so it's almost like the photogs are being penalized for their lack of marketing.
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I had a change of heart and decided to withdraw my request. I may not upload anything new for a while but it seems silly for me to delete my port especially in light of the new changes. I should at least give it a chance.
(I am kicking myself for not thinking things through before posting.)
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Actually currently the database does not impose an alphabetical order to keywords, they appear on the site in the same order you enter them whether read during upload or manually entered. And there are no plans or needs to change it so it is alphabetical
Artmyth, you're right, I was making the confusion.
When looking at some images yesterday, I saw a different edition form for keywords - has it been there for a while? I was surprised, because I always clicked on the file edit link and not at the keywords edit link, so it looked new to me, and it needs inspector's agreement.
I saw in a couple of images (unfortunately I forgot which ones) that had duplicate keywords in the first ones, because of the splitting of composed keywords. As an example (though this was not actually the case), if I have "isolated on white" and "white background", the form shows "isolated, on, white, white, background", therefore it's "wasting" one of the precious 15 keywords with the two "white".
Does the search tool differentiate singular and plurals?
Regards,
Adelaide
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I have noticed sales at Canstock pick up the last few days. Wonder if the new association with the other website is already in the works?
I have been hanging in there with Canstock and am actually pleased to see the new higher standards and marketing push. I have always liked the site so I am rooting for them to succeed with their new strategy.
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Actually currently the database does not impose an alphabetical order to keywords, they appear on the site in the same order you enter them whether read during upload or manually entered. And there are no plans or needs to change it so it is alphabetical
Artmyth, you're right, I was making the confusion.
When looking at some images yesterday, I saw a different edition form for keywords - has it been there for a while? I was surprised, because I always clicked on the file edit link and not at the keywords edit link, so it looked new to me, and it needs inspector's agreement.
I saw in a couple of images (unfortunately I forgot which ones) that had duplicate keywords in the first ones, because of the splitting of composed keywords. As an example (though this was not actually the case), if I have "isolated on white" and "white background", the form shows "isolated, on, white, white, background", therefore it's "wasting" one of the precious 15 keywords with the two "white".
Does the search tool differentiate singular and plurals?
Regards,
Adelaide
Hi Adelaide, Yes the keyword Edit Tool has been there for quite a long time, at first guess almost a year now. We have a few dedicated photographers and buyers who often suggest additions and catch unrelated keywords.
In regards to your specific questions about the search, at this point I cant answer specifically becuase Ducan is currently testing the new search and it is a work in progress as we discuss this. I will forward your questions to him, so he can take them into consideration in his development.
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As on long time member of canstock I hope these changes work.
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Canstock are laughable, they just rejected a photo that had been accepted by IS, DT, FT, 123, LO
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Ah ah me too they reject all my pics:) I stop uploading there not a big loss anyway
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about 50% rejected from last batch, mostly for keywords. And of course like shutterstock they dont bother to tell you what keywords. Think I'll turn off their keyword suggester.
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Hi folks, I'm a hellper dude on Canstock
Wow. That gives me faith.
lmao... no kidding.
I'm surprised Duncan isn't demanding exclusivity now too.
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Mass rejections on par with SX and a slower loading site. Combined with no sales, I don't think it can get much better.
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I just received my first set of mass rejections on CanStockPhoto. Half my most recent batch rejected for exposure. Nobody else saw an exposure problem with these images, and I didn't see it when I developed the RAW files on my calibrated monitor either. Still don't see it, in fact.
Sales there are picking up a bit, but they have a long way to go. If my acceptance rate falls to where they suspend my uploading that will be the day I finally give up on them and remove my images.
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I am surprised that more people are not upset with the 50% acceptance rule.
Lets drive the conclusions home:
1. You have a portfolio of lets say a 100 images, some sales, some money in your account and about 65% acceptance rate
2. You continue uploading, but most of your images are rejected and your acceptance rate falls to 49%
3. Now you are blocked from further uploading. Do you understand what this means? There is NO WAY to raise your acceptance rate without more uploading and you have just been banned (forever?) from further uploading.
4. Now your 100 pics online are locked in forever, your $40 in pending payout money are blocked forever, and all you can do is hope that the pics you've got online will one day bring you enough money for minimal payout, but you are practically banned from EVER uploading to the site again (unless you open another account)
Am I the only one who thinks this is outrageous????
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The power of the internet. Simply look at the earnings breakdowns from larger portfolios reported each month on this message board. Most people list CanStockPhoto at 0% of earnings, some at 1%. And now they are rejecting Lisa's images? Good luck with this "plan" CanStockPhoto.
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I am surprised that more people are not upset with the 50% acceptance rule.
Lets drive the conclusions home:
1. You have a portfolio of lets say a 100 images, some sales, some money in your account and about 65% acceptance rate
2. You continue uploading, but most of your images are rejected and your acceptance rate falls to 49%
3. Now you are blocked from further uploading. Do you understand what this means? There is NO WAY to raise your acceptance rate without more uploading and you have just been banned (forever?) from further uploading.
4. Now your 100 pics online are locked in forever, your $40 in pending payout money are blocked forever, and all you can do is hope that the pics you've got online will one day bring you enough money for minimal payout, but you are practically banned from EVER uploading to the site again (unless you open another account)
Am I the only one who thinks this is outrageous????
The following was posted on CanStockPhoto's forum today:
Just one thing I don't get. If someone does go below 50% rating, are they effectively barred forever from uploading, it's not made clear. So once they go under the 50% they might as well leave, is that what it's saying?
How will it work? How can they get back to uploading?
It seems this question is still waiting for an answer. I'm sure there are several that would like to hear this answer. Duncan???????
RESPONSE FROM DUNCAN: March 7, 2008:
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.
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Duncan
CanStockPhoto Admin
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I am surprised that more people are not upset with the 50% acceptance rule.
Why be upset? The bottom line is that CanStockPhoto is slowly and consisently going down the drains if you look at the 3-yr Alexa graph. Too bad.
3. Now you are blocked from further uploading. Do you understand what this means? There is NO WAY to raise your acceptance rate without more uploading and you have just been banned (forever?) from further uploading.
Wrong. Duncan just explained on the CanStockPhoto forum that you are still allowed 1 shot per day. You should then upload your very best shots so you can improve your acceptance rate slowly and ::) taste :P the incredible privilege to sell your crême de la crême masterpieces every millenium for a whopping 25 dollarcents.
4. Now your 100 pics online are locked in forever your $40 in pending payout money are blocked forever
No you can cancel your account. Buy some credits first, and then buy your own shots to kick you over the payout treshold.
Am I the only one who thinks this is outrageous????
No it deserves the Darwin Award (http://www.darwinawards.com/). ::)
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No it deserves the Darwin Award ([url]http://www.darwinawards.com/[/url]). ::)
that site is hilarious!!!!
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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?
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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:
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
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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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.
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Highest quality, lowest earninigs and no sales. Why people wasting time at Canstock and Crestock ? :o
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Highest quality, lowest earninigs and no sales. Why people wasting time at Canstock and Crestock ? :o
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?
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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
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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.
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Highest quality, lowest earninigs and no sales. Why people wasting time at Canstock and Crestock ? :o
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.
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No it deserves the Darwin Award ([url]http://www.darwinawards.com/[/url]). ::)
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
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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.
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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...
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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
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Well Lev, I've already told you how much I admire your work. If it isn't good enough for Canstock, then nothing is.
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believe me or not, i"ve got batch rejected on Canstock.
This sounds to get crazier all the time.
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 (http://flemishdreams.com/tag), 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.
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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.
and 15 keywords is a total joke.
anybody here edit keywords specially for them? leaving only 15? ;]
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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.
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It sounds more like Jack Nicholson running amok through the Overlook with an ax.
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Hi Hatman
Just to add a bit of reality to this before it veers off on a course of complete exaggeration and inflated speculation...
whole batches were not rejected from these photographers.. In the case of LisaFX, 8 images have been rejected since the Feb 25th announcement - a number of them for overexposure. 128 images were approved. This is a 4.6 percent rejection ratio.
In the case of Lev, 6 images were rejected in error. We have since contacted him after being made aware of the issue. That was our fault.
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.
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I only have so much time each week to upload to all these sites and it doesn't seem worth spending time editing keywords with canstock at the moment. I do it with fotolia but there are good sales there. Perhaps if sales pick up with cansotck I will resume uploading.
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I noticed the latest Member is Duncan_CSP ...
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(deleted)
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Just to add a bit of reality to this before it veers off on a course of complete exaggeration and inflated speculation...
It's always good to hear both sides of the story. If not, that's how urban legends spring to life ;-)
To Hatman: no, you don't have to keyword for CanStockPhoto separately. You priority-tag your keywords already for Fotolia (7), I guess, so just make it the first 15 for CanStockPhoto or 20 for Zymmetrical. More sites will include keyword-relevance sooner or later in their search engine since searches will break down (resulting in tens of pages per search) on sites with 2,000,000+ images.
Another pre-emptive tactic for the photographer might be to enter the image's keywords in the IPTC metadata in order of relevance. At first sight, this tactic is rather overkill since agencies rank the tags alphabetically for now. The issue remains however that some tags are more essential than others. With a glass with pouring Champaign can the metaphor waterfall be associated, but with an image of a real waterfall, the meta tag waterfall is more relevant. Glass is more relevant for the first image.
(I hate to quote myself (http://flemishdreams.com/index.php?view=article&catid=42%3Abusinessside&id=19%3Akeywordstrategy&option=com_content&Itemid=50) ;) )
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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 ([url]http://flemishdreams.com/tag[/url]), I'm always safe, on Fotolia with 7 and on SS with 50.
i keyword for fotolia too, they are my nr. 2 seller and getting closer and closer to nr. 1. they sell me for 5 times more in EVERY DAY than Canstock does in a month now. so it's worth bothering. but i will not bother to select 15 words specially for stock that doesn't sell. reminds me Galastock policy. anybody remember Galastock? i wonder if ANY top performer changes keywords specially for canstock?
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And your Nr.1 seller is....?
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whole batches were not rejected from these photographers.. In the case of LisaFX, 8 images have been rejected since the Feb 25th announcement - a number of them for overexposure.
I can't speak for anyone else's experience, but in my case the 8 images that were rejected were NOT overexposed, according to my monitor, nor according to any other stock site. In fact they were exposed exactly the same as the half of that same batch that were accepted.
It is definitely cause for concern when a site with CanStockPhoto's low sales announces they are "raising their standards" and suddenly artists who have never had rejection problems anywhere begin getting high numbers of rejections.
Many of the top sellers have stopped uploading there over the past year or so. Arbitrary rejections are not the way to show appreciation for those who have hung in there out of loyalty.
And FWIW I just had two large batches of approvals which has bumped my approval rating there. When I originally posted in this thread about the rejecting of half of a submitted batch that was an accurate characterization.
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In response to the ArtMyth just scroll over to the right of the page. Each of the 6 top sites had increased earnings for contributors last month, as had two of the 3 up and coming sites. And you got overtaken by Snapvillage, which is in beta and only went international for sales this month. . .
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Guys, I think you are reading all these changes wrong. They are not just business decisions, but - my diagnosis - business decisions dictated by IT side (sure, nobody will ever admit this)
Translation from a professional point of view (not stock photo, where I am brand new)
"Sorry, guys. We just had hit our scalability limit. We thought we were linear, but it appeared that we are exponential (sorry for a lingo). We _cannot_ afford any more photos, especially taking in account our new contracts. Our site will just fail.
The main bottleneck is our search, so the only way to S-O-A-s (other than to stop the growth) is to limit the multiplication factor - keywords. But, to be safe, we'd better do both.
We've developed an excellent software, and the fact that it does not scale is an act of God. All other sites are probably using some infernal knowledge. Hiring new specialists will not help, as we are the best of the crop, and, BTW, costs $$$$".
This is not a pure speculation, key points were verified by looking at the site behavior from the same professional point of view.
Do not take me wrong, I really like CanStockPhoto, it is a big pleasure to upload there (though not a pleasure to get close to $0 back), but...
Uncle Gene,
digging his own CanStockPhoto future grave
P.S. to Duncan:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0672326140 - very useful, especially if read open-minded
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In case someone hasn't seen this yet, there is a poll going on about the way the search tool should consider keywords. Voting closes on March 19th.
http://www.canstockphoto.com/search_vote.php
Regards,
Adelaide
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Strange thing: my sales at Canstock are increasing while subs are going down. I've had almost as much sales there so far this year as on LO since I started November 2006. That doesn't account for much, but money is money, and if this continues, I'm looking at another payout soon. maybe I should start uploading again :D
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I voted for the first option, as the others require working on my keywords and I wont do that for a low paying site. Can't think why people vote for the options that mean spending more time ordering keywords, that makes no sense to me. If they were likely to make me lots of money it would be different.
38.5% 1) Select and Order Images by All Listed Keywords
18.3% 2) Select and Order by First 15 Keywords
43.1% 3) Select from All Keywords - First 15 to Assist Ranking
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many people allready have their keywords sorted in order of importance (to comply with fotolia) so if canstock used the first 15 words as the most imporant, then the rest just as additional words it would probably suite quite a few people - and wouldn't be any extra work.
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Strange thing: my sales at Canstock are increasing while subs are going down. I've had almost as much sales there so far this year as on LO since I started November 2006. That doesn't account for much, but money is money, and if this continues, I'm looking at another payout soon. maybe I should start uploading again :D
I'm experiencing the same thing recently.
diego
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many people allready have their keywords sorted in order of importance (to comply with fotolia) so if canstock used the first 15 words as the most imporant, then the rest just as additional words it would probably suite quite a few people - and wouldn't be any extra work.
Exactly. I've been using relevance even before joining microstock, as in SP the order is also important.
Regards,
Adelaide