Author Topic: Worth continuing? (Read 9220 times)

IRCrockett · « **on:** July 12, 2006, 19:52 »

Is anyone having success with canstock? I know I haven't had images there very long but I've not even had a nibble. With the exception of Image Vortex which I gave up on every other site I'm on has produced sales.

CJPhoto · « **Reply #1 on:** July 13, 2006, 01:38 »

I have given up on image vortex (not sure what there market is but it does not seem to be my photos).

Every time I give up on Canstock, I get a sale, Not worth continuing but I stay there just in case. I hve stopped uploading though as I wait for the sales to come in. If I dont get a least a sale a month and expect a payout a year, I dont think it is worht it.

leaf · « **Reply #2 on:** July 13, 2006, 04:32 »

canstock sales are pretty meager. I still have my images there but don't expect a payout any time soon. If you have better things to do, i wouldn't advise uploading. If you have the images ready to upload and are bored one day.. it woulnd't hurt.

madelaide · « **Reply #3 on:** July 13, 2006, 17:02 »

After one sale in April (I've been there since March), only recently I sold images, and 4 of them. I felt lucky.

But yes, it's very slow despite its not small portfolio.

Regards,
Adelaide

IRCrockett · « **Reply #4 on:** August 12, 2006, 01:02 »

Well, tonight I got my first sale at canstock. Got so used to seeing a zero there I almost missed it. At one download every four months I think dumping it sounds about right.

Wisent · « **Reply #5 on:** August 12, 2006, 06:44 »

i've been there about 2weeks with a very small portfolio (6) and sold my first yesterday night.

phildate · « **Reply #6 on:** August 12, 2006, 07:57 »

Yesterday was obviously a good day on CS. I had over 20 downloads (mostly subscription but I'm not complaining)!

kacper · « **Reply #7 on:** August 12, 2006, 08:46 »

Yeah Phil

With your portfolio you'd get sales anywhere. I guess that's just the point. If your folio is GOOD enough and BIG enough you'll get a few sales anywhere. I'm still uploading to CS as all my files are EXIF'ed and it's really not much extra effort, but in terms of sales it's rather meager. From a few to couple dozen sales a month... Almost at a payout level, but not even that after half a year... It's not fallen behing every other agency I upload to with the exception of the newest one (Lucky Oliver) where I just uploaded my first files.

phildate · « **Reply #8 on:** August 12, 2006, 08:56 »

If you have time, I think it is still worth continuing to upload to CanStock. However, if time is at a premium then you have to decide if uploading to CS is the best use of the time available. I find that I cannot always be shooting and it does not take long to upload to CS, especially with their new uploader. Maybe if everyone keeps uploading it will survive. As soon as the community see it as a dead dog, then that's what's gonna happen.

kacper · « **Reply #9 on:** August 12, 2006, 09:27 »

I think what will help instead of everyone uploading there is more designers buying photos, eh?

Boylet · « **Reply #10 on:** August 14, 2006, 10:08 »

Speaking of continuing.... is it just me or the site is currently down???

leaf · « **Reply #11 on:** August 14, 2006, 10:20 »

yep, it's down for me too

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #12 on:** August 14, 2006, 12:32 »

It's back up now.

rinderart · « **Reply #13 on:** August 30, 2006, 23:24 »

Hi guys, laurin Rinder Here and just joined this group. I joined because it seems I, and we, can talk freely without fear of being banned or accused of something horrible and brusing someones ego at Canstock.. I have 2700 posts on SS, Done tons of interviews and magazine articles published about this business because, I've done it for over 35 years. This post is specific about Canstock, Many more posts to come about other sites. I've been with them for well over a year. 800 images as of today, I have made $173.00. !!Thats a total for 14 months. Something is horribly wrong at this site and by the looks of hundreds of posts all over the internet regarding RF stock , I am not alone in this observation. I have long term friends with a lot more than my meager 800 that confirm this same conclusion. This site will not it seems, get there poo together. I have just cashed out my last $50.00 and am closing my account. I left $26.00 and told admin to keep it and apply it to the non-exsistent AD budjet. My advice , Dont waste your time. My loyalities are with you , The artists that do the work, long nights uploading on a chance All these wannabes will do the right thing and work for us. I make $150.00 every 3 days at SS with the exact same images. My review is a heavy HANDS DOWN on Canstock. Just keeping it Real my friends and I'll never steer You wrong.

leaf > edited for legal alligations

Greg Boiarsky · « **Reply #14 on:** August 30, 2006, 23:39 »

Hey, Laurin. Welcome to Microstock Group, where the inmates run the asylum. We've been waiting for you. Bwah hah hah.

Quote from: rinderart on August 30, 2006, 23:24

Hi guys, laurin Rinder Here and just joined this group. I joined because it seems I, and we, can talk freely without fear of being banned or accused of something horrible and brusing someones ego at Canstock.. I have 2700 posts on SS, Done tons of interviews and magazine articles published about this business because, I've done it for over 35 years. This post is specific about Canstock, Many more posts to come about other sites. I've been with them for well over a year. 800 images as of today, I have made $173.00. !!Thats a total for 14 months. Something is horribly wrong at this site and by the looks of hundreds of posts all over the internet regarding RF stock , I am not alone in this observation. I have long term friends with a lot more than my meager 800 that confirm this same conclusion. This site will not it seems, get there poo together. I have just cashed out my last $50.00 and am closing my account. I left $26.00 and told admin to keep it and apply it to the non-exsistent AD budjet. My advice , Dont waste your time. My loyalities are with you , The artists that do the work, long nights uploading on a chance All these wannabes will do the right thing and work for us. In conclusion, If I were rich, I would hire an attorney in canada and do an audit. I make $150.00 every 3 days at SS with the exact same images. Something very fishy going on. My review is a heavy HANDS DOWN on Canstock. Just keeping it Real my friends and I'll never steer You wrong.

madelaide · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2006, 17:44 »

Hi Laurin,

I had my debates at CanStockPhoto without being heard. I see two big problems.

First, the marketing seems to be low, because images get very few views. And I do emphasize the VERY FEW. If you compare it to new sites, views are extremelly low in my portfolio. But even at more competitive sites, in which my small portfolio looks even smaller, the dlds per photo are uncomparably higher.

The second problem is a tiny detail that already fooled me and a colleague, so I wonder how many first-time visitors had the same problem. If you don't read the names in the search tool fields, you have a tendency to type your keywords in the "exclude these words" box because it's empty, so you get everything EXCEPT your searched keywords! I think the simple search, and not the advanced search, should be presented by default.

The site manager is kind, but from some things written in the forum in the past, it seems the site is not a full-time business for him, although he dedicates a lot of time to it. Unfortunately, I agree that the site will get nowhere if they don't change something, but I don't know if we should suspect of some unfair business behind the scenes.

And let's not forget the miserable 20c subscription sales...

Regards,
Adelaide

gvictoria · « **Reply #16 on:** September 08, 2006, 19:58 »

Quote from: rinderart on August 30, 2006, 23:24

Hi guys, laurin Rinder Here and just joined this group. I joined because it seems I, and we, can talk freely without fear of being banned or accused of something horrible and brusing someones ego at Canstock.. I have 2700 posts on SS, Done tons of interviews and magazine articles published about this business because, I've done it for over 35 years. This post is specific about Canstock, Many more posts to come about other sites. I've been with them for well over a year. 800 images as of today, I have made $173.00. !!Thats a total for 14 months. Something is horribly wrong at this site and by the looks of hundreds of posts all over the internet regarding RF stock , I am not alone in this observation. I have long term friends with a lot more than my meager 800 that confirm this same conclusion. This site will not it seems, get there poo together. I have just cashed out my last $50.00 and am closing my account. I left $26.00 and told admin to keep it and apply it to the non-exsistent AD budjet. My advice , Dont waste your time. My loyalities are with you , The artists that do the work, long nights uploading on a chance All these wannabes will do the right thing and work for us. I make $150.00 every 3 days at SS with the exact same images. My review is a heavy HANDS DOWN on Canstock. Just keeping it Real my friends and I'll never steer You wrong.

Ouch ... a little harsh don't you think.. there are some people who are making money there and i personally don't think it's fair to be blurting out such insinuations without proof... Rinder.. i admire you as a photographer....... You didn't like CanStockPhoto so you left... but to send out such personal nasty attacks on something is just tasteless in my opinion.. professional photographer or not .. there i still something called 'being considerate'

Pichunter · « **Reply #17 on:** September 08, 2006, 21:53 »

Why not continue, it's another store front that cost's you nothing on an ongoing basis, I have had 2 payouts from them. Ok they are not SS or iS in volume, but then again I don't make a $150 every 3 days at SS.

Canstock has a nice feel about the site, the people are kind & giving, any new RF contributor can learn a lot about the business as a first contact with stock photography, (I did). Canstock accepts a lot of your images and frankly gave me the confidence to try SS & iS plus all the others, so I won't be pulling the plug on them any time soon.

smitea · « **Reply #18 on:** September 08, 2006, 22:12 »

sorry i agree with pichunter and gvictoria ......besides i know of a few other sites that dont bring in the sales as fast as well, also keep in mine most people that upload are already uploading to other sites so whats the problem with gettin them to sites that dont create great revenue......money is money!....personaly i think canstock is a great site with a great feel and very friendly.....

berryspun · « **Reply #19 on:** September 08, 2006, 22:23 »

I'll definitely continue, hoping that the sales will catch up

Boylet · « **Reply #20 on:** September 09, 2006, 05:01 »

Quote from: berryspun on September 08, 2006, 22:23

I'll definitely continue, hoping that the sales will catch up

Yeah me too... I think I heard some saying that each stock agency has its own market... maybe canstock has it's own small market that may be worth showing our portfolios. Besides, not all our photos are accepted on the major league sites. It wouldn't hurt if it got posted on a slow site such as canstock and even galastock. At least we know that canstock had made some payments to photographers giving us a confidence that, even though the site is slow, it is still legit. Although, I can't argue in the "waste of time" concept. Each to his own bandwidth and available time. Nobody can determine that other than ourselves.

Cheers.

fintastique · « **Reply #21 on:** September 11, 2006, 11:55 »

Regarding Can Stock my feelings are if you have limited uploading time not the best place to upload to but if you have photos there after the work of uploading and categorizing you might as well leave them there for a few months until after Christmas. OK 20c is poor for subscription but the regular and Guest downloads have respectable payouts.

I get the feeling that with some of these sites that the creators had the "Field of Dreams" menality "if you build it they will come" unfortunately to some sites a lot more photographers than designers turn up.

A pity that more sites don't adopt FT no minimum payout (but $1 surcharge for less than $50) or SPM no minimum but every three months.

Boylet · « **Reply #22 on:** September 11, 2006, 21:56 »

Speaking of Canstock, they are currently looking for Inspectors.

http://www.canstockphoto.com/employment.php

Hope they find a new ones to improve their pending queue... 14 days is a very long wait.

ancientimages · « **Reply #23 on:** September 14, 2006, 08:37 »

Canstock has experienced steady growth since its birth. I've been there since almost the first day and I truly enjoy the community. I don't know why folks seem so intent on bashing this site. It seems the same as having a gallery display your prints and then you standing out front with a picket sign saying the gallery sucks - keep away as the buyers start to come in. What kind of marketing ploy is that??

Once you have spent the time to upload and keyword your images, your portfolio is like a savings account. I've sold pictures in the last couple of weeks that I uploaded the first week Canstock was in existence. I don't expect that to change 5 years from now. I think those same pictures will sell again and again. What does it cost me to leave them there? Nothing. If you think it's not worth your time to continue to upload, take a break, you might change your mind later. Does that cost you anything? No.

The review time is long right now; however, Canstock is advertising for new inspectors, and the help is needed. The number of photographers and the number of submitted photos has increased tremendously the last few months (not an indication, by the way, of a site going under). And the inspectors are working hard. If you ever have submitted to RM markets, by the way, the wait time is months, not weeks, and six months is not unusual.

In order to provide a good product for the designer, each photo is reviewed at 100%. That takes a bit of time. A lot of submitters view photos at full screen size, but not at 100% (full pixels). There is sometimes a big difference. The review process is not geared to rejection. There is also no penalty for resubmission. If there is a problem, it is noted. Most problems (not all of course) can be remedied with a better result for both the buyer and the photographer.

There is also ample opportunity to suggest improvement ideas to the administrator. Not all are adopted immediately, but I have seen a number of improvements over the lifespan of the site, and many, if not most, are responses to member's suggestions. The site looks very different today than it did when it started in 2004.

Am I exclusive to Canstock? No, I'm not, nor will I probably ever be. Wide exposure brings more sales because of the myriad of markets out there. Am I going to leave Canstock? No. I'm making money there. In fact, today I'm picking up my new camera - purchased predominantly from Canstock earnings. (Second big purchase in these two years - the first was my very first "L" lens). I'm looking forward to bigger and better rewards in the future. Is it worth continuing? Absolutely!

CJPhoto · « **Reply #24 on:** September 20, 2006, 04:59 »

I just had a quick look at their forums. There photag (member since july 05) with the 10 highest sales (with 1800 pics on line) has just made 1000 sales.

With an average price of say 0.75, it took them a year to earn $750.

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Author Topic: Worth continuing? (Read 9220 times)

IRCrockett

CJPhoto

leaf

madelaide

IRCrockett

Wisent

phildate

kacper

phildate

kacper

Boylet

leaf

Greg Boiarsky

rinderart

Greg Boiarsky

madelaide

gvictoria

Pichunter

smitea

berryspun

Boylet

fintastique

Boylet

ancientimages

CJPhoto

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