MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Crestock.com => Topic started by: xst on July 01, 2010, 01:50
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If you try to log to crestock - there is new Membership Agreement, they ask you to agree.
One of the things - their address now in Toronto, Canada.
???
I still haven't got my payment requested 6 months ago :((
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Maybe this is a hint:
© 2010 Crestock Corporation. A Masterfile company. All rights reserved.
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They removed my portfolio for me but kept my account open, if they have new owners and increase subs commissions, I might use them again.
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So whats changed?
Nice of them to point out the changes... NOT!
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I still haven't got my payment requested 6 months ago :((
Indeed...
lets see what happens, better than no news at all I guess.
sharpshot: I still have my images on there, they have not been removed.
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I hope they improve their payment time, I just submitted for one yesterday. Last time it took months.
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I haven't try to log on yet, but they are reviewing again. I got an email last night, 90% approved. Just that I can't remember when I uploaded, but it must be about 2 or 3 months ago.
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Maybe this is a hint:
© 2010 Crestock Corporation. A Masterfile company. All rights reserved.
Both addresses of Crestock and Masterfile are identical, so I strongly believe that Crestock has been bought out from the guys in Norway.
So now we have a different management. That should hopefully speed up the process of payments.
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The big question is, who cares? I made a total of $21 in June on Crestock. If the company disappeared overnight and I never got that money, I wouldn't lose any sleep.
Maybe there's potential there and a new owner could make customers and contributors care again (I stopped uploading about 8 months ago), but in this crowded market, the odds are stacked against them.
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If you go to About page it is written that today they have been purchased by Masterfile.
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Interesting. I had my account deactivated 6 months ago but could easily have the images reactivated if things pick up.
Hope those who are active on Crestock will let the rest of us who are waiting in the wings know if sales and payouts improve. :)
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I haven't uploaded there for almost 1.5 year but I still got few sales once in a while. I never delete my accounts I just stop contributing.
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This is what they are saying in their blog.
I've always liked Crestock but they have damaged their reputation with contributors tremendously this past year. Hope they can win us back!
What the Crestock Acquisition Means to Contributing Artists
Posted Thursday, 1 July 2010 by Steve Pigeon in News
In a separate notice, we advised you that the assets of Crestock were acquired by Masterfile Corporation, a Canadian stock photo agency on July 1, 2010. Here is some additional information of interest to photographers and illustrators contributing images to Crestock...
To Crestock's Contributing Artists:
In a separate notice, we advised you that the assets of Crestock were acquired by Masterfile Corporation, a Canadian stock photo agency on July 1, 2010.
Here is some additional information of interest to photographers and illustrators contributing images to Crestock:
Masterfile is headquartered in Toronto with a European headquarters in Dusseldorf, sales offices in London, Milan & Paris and agents in over 100 other countries. The company is big enough to compete with the giants, but small enough to be responsive to all its stakeholders. There are 80 employees in Toronto and 24 in Europe. The Toronto office sells directly into the USA - in fact, only 10% of Masterfile's global sales are to Canadian clients.
The new Crestock Corporation. Crestock's founder, Geir Are Jensen in Norway, will continue to work with the company as a senior advisor. Gudmund Aarseth, in Scotland, who has been responsible for day-to-day operations since late 2009, will also continue with the business. He will transition back to his preferred role as a website design consultant for Crestock. We plan to add a number of people to the organization in the coming year to improve service levels and bring more global microstock experience to the company. Steve Pigeon, Masterfile's president and founder (that's me) will oversee the transition. Of course, we will be drawing on Masterfile's management experience and some pretty talented staff to help build a better Crestock.
What's in it for you?
1.Payouts. The first order of business will be to get all unpaid royalties (a.k.a. "commissions") paid to artists who have previously requested payouts. This process will be completed within two weeks. You can rest assured that payments will be regular and timely from now on.
2.Image backlog. Crestock currently has a considerable backlog of new images in the editing queue. We will get that cleared within two months. In the meantime, we are adding experienced image inspectors and editors to our team to handle larger volumes - so we will welcome your new image submissions and will move them through the process quickly.
3.Quick Response Time. Over the past year, Crestock operated with reduced staff which restricted their ability to respond to questions and problems. Effective immediately, you can expect a response to your e-mail inquiries within 24 hours (weekends not included).
What else can you expect to see from Crestock?
Advertising and promotion. Look for a lot more media buzz as we work with our ad agency and marketing staff to build Crestock's sales aggressively.
Globalization. We will expand Crestock into a multi-language, multiple currency business in the course of the coming year, in line with the capabilities of Masterfile.
Legal improvements. We have updated the general legal terms on the website, added a membership agreement and replaced the content upload agreement and the image licensing terms and conditions granted to clients for our mutual protection. We have also added new model and property releases to the site for your convenience (and legal protection).
The new Artist Image Upload Agreement is a fairly lengthy document compared to Crestock's old one, but it spells out exactly how we are going to work together and clearly defines your rights and ours. In my considerable experience at Masterfile, I've learned that good contracts make good friends. You will be required to read and accept the new agreement before you can upload any new images to Crestock but you can still request and receive a payout without approving the new agreement.
Crestock went through a rough patch over the past year and we appreciate that you hung in there with them. We think you'll see a considerable improvement under Masterfile's guidance, but talk is cheap: ultimately, your continued relationship with Crestock will depend solely on our ability to do a good job for you.
And that's our goal: We're going to give this company our best shot... so you can give us yours!
Steve Pigeon, President
Crestock Corporation
3 Concorde Gate, 4th Floor
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3C 3N7
[email protected]
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Hopefully they will bring comissions to up from .25c
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It's an unusually drab way to enter the micro market for Masterfile. I guess it was cheap.
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In my opinion, after the way many of us have been treated, it will take a lot for them to get photographers to start uploading again.
I had two goes at Crestock. Both times, I had no more than 25 images accepted out of a pf of nearly 1000 images. I regarded it as an absolute insult! I pulled the pin for the second time about a year ago.
In my case, I won't be contributing to the site, again, unless they pay me to.
After the standard set by DP, Zoonar, and Veer, I'd be mad to waste my time doing it for nothing!
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Hopefully they will bring comissions to up from .25c
They will not.
In the new Artist Image Upload Agreement you have to agree with:
12.1.
Crestock will pay you a Royalty equal to:
12.1.1.
twenty percent (20%) of Licensing Fees collected by Crestock from its clients until one hundred (100) Accepted Images in aggregate have been licensed by clients (but not through subscriptions); then
12.1.2.
after one hundred (100) Accepted Images have been downloaded by clients pursuant to Section 12.1.1, the Royalty will increase to thirty percent (30%) of Licensing Fees collected by Crestock from its clients; and
12.1.3.
a fixed fee of twenty-five cents (US $0.25) for each Accepted Image downloaded through any subscription sold by Crestock.
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They must be crazy sticking with the $0.25, it was stopping people using crestock and gives me no motivation to use them again. Will they be selling images at higher prices, like canstock do with fotosearch? That might make it more worthwhile.
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Sounds good, but the low commissions will keep me from uploading nevertheless. Raising commissions from 30% to 40% (30% when you have less than 100 downloads) and subs to $0.3 would be a good start. And of course the agency would benefit from this as well as more people would contribute to them.
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Sounds good, but the low commissions will keep me from uploading nevertheless. Raising commissions from 30% to 40% (30% when you have less than 100 downloads) and subs to $0.3 would be a good start. And of course the agency would benefit from this as well as more people would contribute to them.
Subs for $0.30?
Are we in 2007?
They should at least be 0.35 or 0.40 for me to ever consider crestock again. I did that mistake once already. If I do it once again, it will not be called a mistake but stupidity!
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Sounds good, but the low commissions will keep me from uploading nevertheless. Raising commissions from 30% to 40% (30% when you have less than 100 downloads) and subs to $0.3 would be a good start. And of course the agency would benefit from this as well as more people would contribute to them.
Subs for $0.30?
Are we in 2007?
They should at least be 0.35 or 0.40 for me to ever consider crestock again. I did that mistake once already. If I do it once again, it will not be called a mistake but stupidity!
I wouldn't complain about that either ;) Realistically though, I don't think a raise in commissions is going to happen. Even though everyone knows they can afford it and would benefit from it.
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Well, I am pretty optimistic about Crestock's chances now. I just had my portfolio reactivated and Gudmund and Steve both could not have been nicer or more helpful. :)
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I'm curious if they are going to pay out to those who cancelled their accounts because they weren't paying out. Me for one.
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Well, I am pretty optimistic about Crestock's chances now. I just had my portfolio reactivated and Gudmund and Steve both could not have been nicer or more helpful. :)
Traitor! ;)
I had so much trouble leaving them (I even had to scorn them on a couple of forums before they finally reacted) I would rather swallow a living rattlesnake than do business with them again. Especially since the nitwits that ruined the site were recycled as "consultants". Old Wine into New Wineskins.
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Traitor! ;)
I had so much trouble leaving them (I even had to scorn them on a couple of forums before they finally reacted) I would rather swallow a living rattlesnake than do business with them again.
I guess I was fortunate. I had a very positive experience leaving. Although payouts were generally slow I did manage to get my last payout quickly and have my images deactivated without any difficulty.
I know what you mean though - I would rather not have to add sites to my lineup, but if I want to grow my income I have only a couple of options: add sites or increase output. Output is already about as much as I can handle as a one person operation, so that leaves adding outlets.
Adding Crestock back in is a no-brainer for me. They produced a steady, if modest, income for me. Add to that the very appealing fact that they already have most of my portfolio, so there isn't the chore of uploading to a new site, and it just seems like a smart move.
If anyone's interested I will be happy to report back how sales go. Hopefully the acquisition will breath new life into them :)
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I'm curious if they are going to pay out to those who cancelled their accounts because they weren't paying out. Me for one.
lol I doubt it (perhaps if they still have some records, but if they have deleted your account then there is no way)
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25 cent subs? No thanks.
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Do they still have Judge Ross (or whatever his name was) on there? I always thought that was such a juvenile thing - to publicly humiliate contributors in that way just for the purposes of... what? Amusement? Horrible. I never uploaded to Crestock because of that. Given others' experiences there I'm glad I didn't.
Lisa - I hope you get good results with the new regime. If you do - and if the judge is gone - I may consider uploading there also. Thank you for offering to keep us up to date on progress :)
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I've always liked Crestock and I reached a payout every month but was not very happy with the way things were going there this past year.
I have 3 payments still pending for several months now and was really loosing faith in them. I even stop uploading because of long pending times but last night I decided to take a chance and upload about 90 of my most recent images and today they were all approved and all were accepted. I feel a change coming and I think it will be a positive one! :)
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Just curious why people actively campaign against support for ThinkStock who pays 25 cent subs, yet are happy to support Crestock for the same 25 cents. Am I missing something here? ???
While I still have some of my images on Crestock (stopped uploading a long time ago) I will consider closing my account once I receive my long outstanding payment, unless of course they increase their commission. I do not support ThinkStock and neither will I Crestock for 25 cents.
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^^^Crestock do also sell PPD at higher prices but it is hard to justify uploading there and not using thinkstock. Most of my sales before I removed my portfolio were subs. I would only be interested if they do what canstock have done and sell images at much higher prices.
Perhaps people trying to make more money would be better off looking at alamy, getty, corbis and the other macro sites? Crestock was never in the big 6 and using another site that pays $0.25 for subs is just going to lose us money in the long term, as the bigger sites will have another excuse to cut our commissions.
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^^^Crestock do also sell PPD at higher prices.
Based on my sales at Crestock it is a subscription site only. The few PPD sales are so few and far apart that it is negligible. I know Crestock used the argument in the past that they pay 30% commission (based on PPD) and that PPD sales are increasing. That was of course just an attempt to divert attention from the low subscription commission that remained unchanged since their inception.
I think if Masterfile is really serious to make it in the Microstock market they will have to offer something more attractive to photographers than what is currently on offer on Crestock.
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I think if Masterfile is really serious to make it in the Microstock market they will have to offer something more attractive to photographers than what is currently on offer on Crestock.
The Crestock legacy is very negative with most contributers. I did find it amazing how many people kept submitting even though they rarely got paid. Crestock should have failed from the mass exodus.
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Just curious why people actively campaign against support for ThinkStock who pays 25 cent subs, yet are happy to support Crestock for the same 25 cents. Am I missing something here? ???
^^^Crestock do also sell PPD at higher prices
I assume that question was directed at me? If so, then Sharpshot had it right. The PPD offset the subscription prices. Checking my stats from when I was last active on Crestock (Nov - Dec 09) my average $/download was .50. Not stellar by any means, but acceptable. If TS offered an average royalty of .50/dl I would already be there. Heck, I would have been there if they had kept it at .30!
Obviously, I would be much happier if I could just upload to the top sites and maintain my income, but June was the third month in a row my income dropped significantly from the previous year.
I am going to do what I have to in order to increase my income and put my kid through college.
As for TS, I am still holding out on not putting images there, largely to support Shutterstock, but considering SS hasn't given us any kind of raise or reward in over two years, I may be forced to rethink that one too. :(
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Speaking about TS. Just checked the homepage and they're now selling 5-image packs at 60$ per pack. Anyone know what royalties to they pay on those? 25c? ;D
Sorry for hi-jacking.
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I can't answer for sharpshot but didn't think anyone was being singled out. It is a legitimate question. We seem to spin logic to suit our decisions rather than decide based on logic. I think you could make a case for TS being an arm of iStock. Using the same logic for Crestock having PPD sales, you could just as easily rationalize that TS is selling higher priced images on iStock, couldn't you?
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5-image packs at 60$ per pack. Anyone know what royalties to they pay on those? 25c? ;D
Exactly. It's a credit pack without paying contributors a decent percent. What is that, 2%?
This is what we all get for supporting subscription models. And here's yet another one.
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Based on my sales at Crestock it is a subscription site only. The few PPD sales are so few and far apart that it is negligible.
Same for me.
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Speaking about TS. Just checked the homepage and they're now selling 5-image packs at 60$ per pack. Anyone know what royalties to they pay on those? 25c? ;D
Here's the answer to that question from KKThompson's post here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=175321&page=1 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=175321&page=1)
"Many of you have expressed concerns about the image pack offerings on Thinkstock. Royalty rates will be 20% of the equivalent single image price in US dollars. (Image pack price / # of images * 20%). "
If my math is right that should work out to $2.40. Maybe if there are enough of those they could offset the .25 subs.
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hopefully when they have got things sorted out they will decide they need more contributors and increase commission rates as an incentive
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When I try to FTP to Crestock, I get this error: "[R1] 426 Data connection closed, cannot write file - disk full?"
Is everybody already uploading there after the new owner announcement?
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^^^ It might be that it can't cope with the 3 people that are now uploading there :) I am going to wait and see what has improved, if the old team are running it, are they going to make the same mistakes? I want to see some changes, starting with a higher subs commission to give us an incentive to use them. A subs opt out would also work for me.
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Speaking about TS. Just checked the homepage and they're now selling 5-image packs at 60$ per pack. Anyone know what royalties to they pay on those? 25c? ;D
Here's the answer to that question from KKThompson's post here:
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=175321&page=1[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=175321&page=1[/url])
"Many of you have expressed concerns about the image pack offerings on Thinkstock. Royalty rates will be 20% of the equivalent single image price in US dollars. (Image pack price / # of images * 20%). "
If my math is right that should work out to $2.40. Maybe if there are enough of those they could offset the .25 subs.
Thank you Lisa.
Hi-jack over.
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Well i had 22 images there waiting for keywording quite a few mounts now.
So i did it yesterday - very fast evaluation (1 day)....... 21 failed out of 22.
:-\Well ....no admin change yet.
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I have never uploaded to Crestock.
Thanks to this forum I was kept well informed about the problems.
I probably never will.
- 0.25 cent sub
- 20 % commission
- very long inspection times
- very low acceptance rate
- payouts take many many months
Come to think of it, they might even be crappier than ThinkStock. Not only they pay 0.25 cent per sub, but they don't pay it at all!
Lol, that puts them in a league of their own.
Why not upload to Flickr instead? No rejections :)
Very successful contributors, like Lisa, have had a more positive experience with Crestock.
My portfolio though is nowhere near hers. It won't open the same doors. I'm much more likely to be rejected and / or never paid.
For now I'm staying away.
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Its time to reduce everthing lower than third....
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- very low acceptance rate
and quite random too
hope that changes with new reviewers, as it bothers me more than $.25 subs: strict criteria -such as IS- are acceptable, random rejections not; and they should remove that ridiculous pop-up message asking are we sure to submit because they're the best
regarding late payments, the new management said they will pay on time, why shouldn't we believe them? we'll find out very soon after all.
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For those established contributors (to any of the agencies) who decide not to upload images, there are thousands to replace them. If you produce a large volume of images or only a few, your images are a drop in the bucket as new photogs are joining every site daily. If there are reasons you won't contribute to any particular site they should be of your choosing and you should stick to your guns because it makes no difference on the other end - an agency won't come knocking at your door asking you to reconsider. As long as they can make money they set the rules. We can hope for change but there are too many factors out of our control. Bottom line, in the past 5 years technology has changed the photography market, but has also enlarged that market for those who take advantage of it. Many are doing just that.
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Absolutely right.
Keep in mind that agencies make money only as long as photographers keep on uploading.
And you're right. They do.
I firmly believe many, many would upload for even less than 0.25 cent.
Regarding Crestock, 0.25 cent payment is far from being their only problem.
There are other things, in my view just as important, that they need to fix first.
Hopefully in time they will, but right now I'm not good enough for them.
Good luck to the new management!
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I firmly believe many, many would upload for even less than 0.25 cent.
Given some think free is just fine I'd say you're right. And yes the idea that anything is better than nothing is prevalent. So why not 20 cents or 15 cents? After all I;m sure there will be just that many more downloads to make up for the loss of income???
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question on crestock
Will we see a commission increase to bring it more in line with other agencies? (especially the subscriptions)
By stevepigeon on Monday, 5 July 2010 2:16 PM
No plan to revise the commission rate at this juncture. However, I will say that our subscription rate is pretty much industry standard when compared to the major players in subscription.
Steve Pigeon, President - Crestock Corporation
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question on crestock
Will we see a commission increase to bring it more in line with other agencies? (especially the subscriptions)
By stevepigeon on Monday, 5 July 2010 2:16 PM
No plan to revise the commission rate at this juncture. However, I will say that our subscription rate is pretty much industry standard when compared to the major players in subscription.
Steve Pigeon, President - Crestock Corporation
Note to Steve Pigeon,
Huh??? Have another look. This sorts of statement just make you look dumb or arrogant.
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i suppose, people accept $0.25 at TS, why should they pay any more?
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Yep. It's the industry standard rate at which most contributors say "No thanks."
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To Steve or whomever makes the decisions:
A reward or levels system such as Shutterstock or Dreamstime would certainly be an enticement AND a show of good faith on your part.
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Such a shame they haven't looked at how much the other sites pay. $0.25 is disgraceful for a site that sells mainly subs and has low sales volume. I really can't be bothered reactivating my account if they are going to be the same as they were before. Why would I want buyers to go there instead of the sites that pay me much more?
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Come on Crestock you can do better than this!
pay us to upload for a start :)
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Crrestock? Again 25c? Industry standard?
WOW!
What a bunch of stupid words and numbers ;-) Industry standard for me is about 35c average on 15 agencies...
I don't upload to those who are paying less than 30c...
Well... I will upload to Crestock and accept that 25c IF Crestock pays me $1 per upload (rejected images included).
How about that?
Masterfile, you will fail on this!
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I think this sums it up for me why I don't submit to Crestock.
One of the highest sellers in Microstock averages 1.36 sales per photo
Yuri_Arcurs
Denmark
Images approved: 25921
Images sold: 35252
I don't know what the average RPD at Crestock is , $0.50 ?
for my portfolio which is smaller in size and saleability it doesn't look like it would be worth uploading there.
That coupled with Crestock previous history of random rejections, slow review and worst slow payments the new owners will need to come up with something special to get me interested.
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That coupled with Crestock previous history of random rejections, slow review and worst slow payments the new owners will need to come up with something special to get me interested.
Yeah they were pretty awful. I was always surprised to see the amount of people clambering to be apart of Crestock. I uploaded for a very brief time, but it was a no brainer to stop uploading after they rejected the second batch I sent them, really good sellers too. I know some of you have jumped straight back in. Given slow sales there, might be worth waiting to see if Masterfile can get them into shape a bit first.
I've posed the question in my blog "Is it time to give Crestock another try?" Have a look , you might find it interesting.
http://www.microstockposts.com/is-it-time-to-give-crestock-another-try/ (http://www.microstockposts.com/is-it-time-to-give-crestock-another-try/)
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Maybe if every one waited they would pay to upload, then everyone who rushed to get their ports back on track will be wishing they had waited. Personally I don't know if I want to go through the trouble of uploading to another dead site. I tried them when they first started and after the ridiculous rejects I left. Maybe if they make their way to be a better more productive site...I might reconsider, but for the time being I'll sit and watch.
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0,25 or 1.000... start paying what is pending and then we can talk...!
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[/quoted from the new members agreement :
3.
Copyright
All Content is the property and copyright of Crestock and/or its licensors. [/quoeted]
if I agree with the terms does that mean they will retain the copyright even if I remove my images from the site. and what if I don't agree with the new TOS would I still be able to get my money which I requested a month ago. (the site won't allow you to sign in without agreeing with the terms) to be honest I don't want to carry on with crestock and I am surprised why would anyone wanted to buy it in the first place. I uploaded there long time ago and stopped shortly after that
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New owner could mean solving past problems. The 2 month review time short-term doesn't look promising but it sounds like they understand that that was one of the old owners' problems that had to be fixed. I had never uploaded there before what with all the negative vibes reported here. So I'll consider them a future possibility...when and if the kind folks here give them a thumbs up. Right now they're in the Yay/Veer nether-land. Their PR stuff is pretty well written. But then again it reminds me a lot of the early days of Lucky Oliver. Don't remember Lucky Oliver? You are indeed the lucky one.
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... But then again it reminds me a lot of the early days of Lucky Oliver. Don't remember Lucky Oliver? You are indeed the lucky one.
i remember them. those were the good times... no? ;)
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[/quoted from the new members agreement :
3.
Copyright
All Content is the property and copyright of Crestock and/or its licensors. [/quoeted]
if I agree with the terms does that mean they will retain the copyright even if I remove my images from the site. and what if I don't agree with the new TOS would I still be able to get my money which I requested a month ago. (the site won't allow you to sign in without agreeing with the terms) to be honest I don't want to carry on with crestock and I am surprised why would anyone wanted to buy it in the first place. I uploaded there long time ago and stopped shortly after that
Doesn't that mean they retain copyright??? Unless I'm misunderstanding. You should never give up the copyright to your images. Has anyone here actually read the new member agreement before they agreed to it?
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[/quoted from the new members agreement :
3.
Copyright
All Content is the property and copyright of Crestock and/or its licensors.
Doesn't that mean they retain copyright??? Unless I'm misunderstanding. You should never give up the copyright to your images. Has anyone here actually read the new member agreement before they agreed to it?
I'm not a lawyer, but I'd read that as including us as the licensors of images to Crestock. It says that all the content belongs either to Crestock or to the individuals who license content to them. It's a reminder that somebody owns what's on the site, and it's not public domain/free for the taking.
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[/quoted from the new members agreement :
3.
Copyright
All Content is the property and copyright of Crestock and/or its licensors.
Doesn't that mean they retain copyright??? Unless I'm misunderstanding. You should never give up the copyright to your images. Has anyone here actually read the new member agreement before they agreed to it?
I'm not a lawyer, but I'd read that as including us as the licensors of images to Crestock. It says that all the content belongs either to Crestock or to the individuals who license content to them. It's a reminder that somebody owns what's on the site, and it's not public domain/free for the taking.
That makes more sense. I don't know exactly what it says because I gave up on them a long time ago so I don't have access to the contributor agreement. I was just looking at what Stokfoto had quoted and that just didn't sound right.
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I think those terms (also referring to the wbesite) are in other sites' agreements
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So did anybody get paid since the new owners took over? I'm still waiting for my payment. Didn't they say everybody would get paid within two weeks (counting from July 1st) ?
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I believe we should expect payouts within a few days. Hopefully!
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I requested payment on July 1st. It arrived moments ago. That makes a nice change from the Crestock of old. Now if they could do some reviewing, and maybe make a few more sales; those would be nice too.
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I received my payout today too. Minus 25c. Oh well.
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got mine as well, a sign of progress.
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any good signs of crestock, i got whole batch rejected there after a 2-3 month reviewing time, then i read their forum, all floats with cursing and asking for payment...so i stop trying.
now it got new owner, what they are going to do to woo contributors back? any new things? i saw there is a $5 for contributing a free image?
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I expect big changes, since Masterfile is one of the top macro stock agencies. But, who knows. Corbies is the big one and look what happened to SnapVillage and now Veer still struggling.
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I browse through crestock, look like they just finish their first task..paying all outstanding payment to contributors, and start their second task, clearing all the backlog files waiting to be reviewed.
I think i will just wait after they had finished all the 'mess' left by the previous owner.. hopefully something like veer that paid for uploading!
I expect big changes, since Masterfile is one of the top macro stock agencies. But, who knows. Corbies is the big one and look what happened to SnapVillage and now Veer still struggling.
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I expect big changes, since Masterfile is one of the top macro stock agencies. But, who knows. Corbies is the big one and look what happened to SnapVillage and now Veer still struggling.
At least they are cleaning up the mess, since it was quite obvious that Crestock was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Well the macros obviously all want a micro leg now, since their macro income certainly must be fading away slowly. The issue is here that they have to fight against 4 giants that control the market with 7-12 million images in their collections. Whatever they can offer, it will be 10 times less and exactly the same content. So what could be their USP?
If the dust is settled there (it might take a while) I would consider uploading but only if they pay to upload. Veer has set the mark. I'm not going to waste time uploading any more to unproven sites that have a high risk of failure.
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Yeah, in lieu of what I thought might be an opportunity to grow my portfolio, I submitted a batch of 110 images.
You know, I always thought iStock to be my most critical reviewer. The hardest to get accepted, and the poorest acceptance ratio.
And that's fine - there's usually *some* reason to it.
But Crestock.. Woah...
Things HAVE changed. For sure.
My review was completed within AN HOUR after submission.
The problem: they accepted 10 of the 110 images :(
That's just plain insulting.
Crestock is all about quality. Ok, fine... but check to the right and see where they rank..
Oh, "low earners"...
I don't see iStock doing too badly with their images, and with just a few of my pics online so far, it's already competing against my regular SS sales where my port is a meagre 200 odd images.
But Crestock is just plain anal.
I think I should consider canning my account there.
That's just ridiculous.
I'd like to see what has really changed, other than the turnaround time.
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Things HAVE changed. For sure. My review was completed within AN HOUR after submission.
The problem: they accepted 10 of the 110 images :(
Thanks for the info. They are still the same then. No use considering uploading there. The same disease as all these new sites like Fresh, Veer. Too selective and ignorant reviewers as to what sells. It's an omen: they won't make it.
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Things HAVE changed. For sure. My review was completed within AN HOUR after submission.
The problem: they accepted 10 of the 110 images :(
Thanks for the info. They are still the same then. No use considering uploading there. The same disease as all these new sites like Fresh, Veer. Too selective and ignorant reviewers as to what sells. It's an omen: they won't make it.
i also gave it shot with crestock about 1 1/2 years ago. uploaded approx. 20 pics - don't remember exact number anymore. anyway, none of those pics ever got rejected on any other site. crestock accepted only 2 of them. so, where is the point of wasting time as long as they don't accept 90% of our (small player's) pics and offer us an rpd of probably far less than usd 0.50 + of course being a low earner (not even in the top 10).... ???
hehe - by the way, i just logged in to my account after more than 1 year. i got 1 sale and a balance of +25 cents ;D
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Well, I am pretty optimistic about Crestock's chances now. I just had my portfolio reactivated and Gudmund and Steve both could not have been nicer or more helpful. :)
Traitor! ;)
I had so much trouble leaving them (I even had to scorn them on a couple of forums before they finally reacted) I would rather swallow a living rattlesnake than do business with them again. Especially since the nitwits that ruined the site were recycled as "consultants". Old Wine into New Wineskins.
:D
Maybe bit off topic, but is really a big temptation for new people to join too many. I think I learn my lesson and now only stay with Shutterstock, Istock and maybe Dreamstime because Dreamstime old stuff sell better than new stuff.
Only now my problem, and I want to ask you all, what you do with your dead stuff in the other dead duck agencies? You delete work? Is too much work ?.
What do you do youself ? You leave the old mouldy stuff and hope everyone forget them, or you actually go in to delete account? Thank you .
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is really a big temptation for new people to join too many. I think I learn my lesson
so true! made this error as well; and probably did recently again although I'm not a newbie anymore: shame on me
what you do with your dead stuff in the other dead duck agencies? You delete work? Is too much work ?
I usually leave pictures there. Stop uploading and try not to check for sales too often. But some sites with 0 sales/months really make me want to go there and delete the account - I try to resist. Sometimes miracles happen: I was on the point of cancelling my Canstock account, then they joined fotosearch and now some sales happen. Glad I didn't.
I appreciated Crestock new owners' good start by paying debts and by announcing things on forums and replying to questions. Now if only they could improve reviews - strict criteria ok, but no random rejections please - I may regain faith in them. Will wait and see.
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Maybe bit off topic, but is really a big temptation for new people to join too many. I think I learn my lesson and now only stay with Shutterstock, Istock and maybe Dreamstime because Dreamstime old stuff sell better than new stuff.
Only now my problem, and I want to ask you all, what you do with your dead stuff in the other dead duck agencies? You delete work? Is too much work ?.
Well it's a temptation and I plead guilty. I must have wasted days uploading on sites that never made it. The problem is a bit that you really don't know in advance. An upload fee certainly makes it worth its time. If a site treats you fair this way, no reason to leave them later, even if they don't sell a lot. I count Depositphotos in that group, and also Veer and Zoonar. If it's really too much work, you can just stop uploading for a while, but keep your port.
There are sites that don't sell much but that you want keep supporting out of sympathy. I count Canstockphoto amongst them. It was the first site that accepted me 5 years ago and it always has been the best programmed site around, thanks to the vision of Duncan. I always liked his style, and although he wasn't always the best communicator, he always has been the best "nerd". ;) Even now, CanStockPhoto has the best upload and MRF attach module around. I think Artemis here on the forum is reviewing on CanStockPhoto (unless it's another Artemis).
Crestock can redevelop into a good site after some time, when they get rid of their past, and slowly decommission the people that ran it into bankruptcy. The site is programmed well and it has some great resources online. As the new owners slowly get hold of things there, they might breath a second life into Crestock, but they are pretty late in the game. Perhaps we will see a sortof Cash 4 Dash campaign later this year or next year when they see their collection stagnant, and that's perhaps the time to start uploading. I always saved loads of money waiting for the right sales season. :P
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I've not joined Crestock mainly due to the negative feedback here over many years.
I agree that I wouldn't spend another second either deleting or adding to a portfolio on a dud site. Miracles do happen. Well, maybe not in this business. But you can have hope. That takes zero time.
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After not uploading anything at Crestock for perhaps over a year, I decided to give it a go again with the new owners. About 5 weeks ago I upoaded a batch, and today got the result, everything rejected for the reason: "•As Crestock grows, we are tightening the acceptance of simplistic images that are somewhat easy for our buyers to create themselves. Thanks, Crestock." All the images were accepted by iS, SS, DT, FT and others.
I had another look at my photos: For the buyer to create that "simplistic image" he will just have to hire a professional photographer, get the neccesary props, travel to the location, pay for the use of the location, and for perhaps a couple of thousand dollars he can create the image himself.
My verdict: The newly owned Crestock is not worth the trouble.
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For a site that delayed payouts for months and pays the lowest subs commissions for most of their sales, I still can't be bothered reactivating my portfolio. If they want the best quality, why pay only $0.25? I know they have higher PPD commissions but there weren't many of them. There just isn't an incentive to use them at the moment.
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There are sites that don't sell much but that you want keep supporting out of sympathy. I count Canstockphoto amongst them. It was the first site that accepted me 5 years ago and it always has been the best programmed site around, thanks to the vision of Duncan. I always liked his style, and although he wasn't always the best communicator, he always has been the best "nerd". ;) Even now, CanStockPhoto has the best upload and MRF attach module around. I think Artemis here on the forum is reviewing on CanStockPhoto (unless it's another Artemis).
Eep? If there's a reviewer called Artemis its definitely not me. I have no relations with Canstock or Crestock, i don't upload there and dont think i've ever had their site open. :)
The only "small" ones i contribute to are Veer and BigStock (gave Vivozoom a chance too but that one's a lesson learned as well)
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"•As Crestock grows, we are tightening the acceptance of simplistic images that are somewhat easy for our buyers to create themselves.
This is the weirdest rejection reason I ever heard. Isn't that what stock is about? A buyer doesn't want to shoot "simplistic" images himself since that would cost him much more than buy them on stock for a few bucks.
@Artemis: my mistake.
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The site improved in some areas with the new management, but regarding rejections, they're still too random - which is different from picky. They risk being the weirdest instead of "the best".
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My sales just stopped there after it's been acquired. It's really weird. I used to make at least a 100 bucks a months there, now it's the middle of the month and my earnings are about 8 dollars!:) I wonder if they disconnected my port from a search engine or something like that...
Regarding rejection reason stating the image is too "simplistic". Wow. That's really stupid. Did Masterfile come up with that one? I don't remember Crestock having one of those. In any case, all points to Crestock going down in flames...
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My sales just stopped there after it's been acquired. It's really weird. I used to make at least a 100 bucks a months there, now it's the middle of the month and my earnings are about 8 dollars!:) I wonder if they disconnected my port from a search engine or something like that...
Regarding rejection reason stating the image is too "simplistic". Wow. That's really stupid. Did Masterfile come up with that one? I don't remember Crestock having one of those. In any case, all points to Crestock going down in flames...
My sales stopped even before the takeover. Since 1st of April this year I've had one single sale at CS!
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My sales stopped even before the takeover. Since 1st of April this year I've had one single sale at CS!
Yes but Elena is a stock celebrity. She can fill a stock house on her own. ;) So what she reports is very significant.
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Quote from: CCK on August 14, 2010, 00:04
"•As Crestock grows, we are tightening the acceptance of simplistic images that are somewhat easy for our buyers to create themselves.
I too decided to give them another shot - I had stopped uploading for 9 months until they actually made my first payment. I was hopeful that the review standards would become more coherent. So, as an experiment, I submitted 25 images (all with high rate of acceptance at other microstocks) about 3 weeks ago. All 25 were rejected today due to:
•Due to a large number of submissions of this nature we can only accept those of superior quality.
I've asked for clarification and am waiting for a response. But, in short, their review strategy appears to be to reject the entire backlog. So, for me, not worth the bother until I hear that they are changing policies or they make a bounty offer for new submissions.
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I too decided to give them another shot - I had stopped uploading for 9 months until they actually made my first payment. I was hopeful that the review standards would become more coherent. So, as an experiment, I submitted 25 images (all with high rate of acceptance at other microstocks) about 3 weeks ago. All 25 were rejected today due to:
•Due to a large number of submissions of this nature we can only accept those of superior quality.
I've asked for clarification and am waiting for a response. But, in short, their review strategy appears to be to reject the entire backlog. So, for me, not worth the bother until I hear that they are changing policies or they make a bounty offer for new submissions.
Hee-heeee.... They are selling images for 25 cents a shot and want "superior quality".... Wonder what are they smoking there... From what I heard about Masterfile they are a bunch of stuckup snobs - well, good luck to them losing money on their recent purchase;-)
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In a HOLDING PATTERN with Crestock. Waiting to see what, if anything, Masterfile does to regain the reputation hugely tarnished by the old owners.
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In a HOLDING PATTERN with Crestock. Waiting to see what, if anything, Masterfile does to regain the reputation hugely tarnished by the old owners.
I wouldn't hold my breath:)
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... their review strategy appears to be to reject the entire backlog. ...
Does not seem to be the case. They reviewed my 40 images, 12 got through, rest rejected. So they are likely looking at the images. Anyway, by far the worst acceptance ration...
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As followup, I heard back from the review team. (Quick response by the way - within 24 hours). Upon re-examining my submissions, she accepted 4 of the 25 photos that I had submitted. And separately, the reviewer noted that they should have provided different explanations. And, she was going to have a followup discussion with the original reviewer. So, much better customer service even if the payout is still the lowest.
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But if they hardly accept anything and pay mostly the lowest subs commissions in the market, why are people still supporting them? Wouldn't we all be better off if their buyers went to sites where we have much bigger portfolios and they pay us higher commissions?
I just don't understand why people continue to use a site that is so bad for contributors. It must make the other subs sites wonder why they are paying us so much and stop them increasing commissions. We end up losing even more money buy accepting such a bad deal.
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Reading this thread that Crestock didn't change its habitual weird rejection policy at all, I wonder about the same. When Thinkstock came up with its 0.25$ commissions, there seemed to be a consensus not to upload there. Yet they (or at least some) are (re-)considering Crestock with... 0.25$ commissions. ::)
I mean, it's probably OK for the big guys (and gals) that can have significant earnings by the mere size and quality of their port (on condition it's accepted), but not so for us regulars with 1K images or less. At least the wise Elena won't hold her breath... :P
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^^^ Ok. You are right guys. I bumped my portfolio there from 27 to 39 images via the last attempt. And I won't be uploading anymore unless they raise the commission.
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I submitted a request to remove my account and got a long letter back supposedly from the CEO, asking me to keep my images there and give them a chance. I wrote back that I would be willing to keep the few images that they had there for a while, and see what happened, but if the same inspection team was in place, i would not be uploading any new images. I got a reply back from the same guy a few hours later saying that the same reviewers will still be reviewing, and defending the prior reviews. They went so far as to say that i had a better acceptance rate than most. Since I had only sent images that had been approved all all the other sites, this sounds more like an acceptance rate that leads the review process, not the other way around.
I think these guys must have no idea what a damaged and hated brand name crestock is by the contributors.
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I got a reply back from the same guy a few hours later saying that the same reviewers will still be reviewing, and defending the prior reviews.
...
I think these guys must have no idea what a damaged and hated brand name crestock is by the contributors.
They deserve a nomination for the Darwin Awards (http://www.darwinawards.com/). :P
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I got a reply back from the same guy a few hours later saying that the same reviewers will still be reviewing, and defending the prior reviews.
...
I think these guys must have no idea what a damaged and hated brand name crestock is by the contributors.
They deserve a nomination for the Darwin Awards ([url]http://www.darwinawards.com/[/url]). :P
How do you find this stuff? You've got too much time on your hands! :D
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How do you find this stuff? You've got too much time on your hands! :D
Not really. I just have a terrible memory for good things. ;D
And most important, I don't have a TV, the worst timesucker of all.
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I don't hate Crestock at all. They have been a good little earner for me. I think I've only had like a couple of rejections from them.
I can understand why they are disliked by people getting more rejections, but I also understand why they are trying to keep the collection focused, as one of the main buyer complaints is the amount of stuff they need to trawl through to find what they want.
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I don't hate Crestock at all. They have been a good little earner for me. I think I've only had like a couple of rejections from them.
I can understand why they are disliked by people getting more rejections, but I also understand why they are trying to keep the collection focused, as one of the main buyer complaints is the amount of stuff they need to trawl through to find what they want.
..but still something is definitely wrong about their rejections. i got acceptance rates between 85 and 95% on the 9 sites i am uploading to. but when i tried crestock with a couple of my pics that were accepted everywhere they rejected approximately 90%. that was almost 2 years ago. and i never uploaded there anymore...
together with their (non-)importance on the microstock market and the commissions they were paying (if they finally paid) i found them extremely arrogant and not worth to work with.
so i guess as long as the new owners don't want to change a few things to the better of the contributors i wouldn't bet anything on their success also in the future ::)
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The only thing that really improved to Crestock is their review time, considerably shorter than 1-2 years ago. I started to upload a few images recently just to test the waters but their random rejections are still the same. Not worth (yet?)!
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Now they seem to have a new logo (?)
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Now they seem to have a new logo (?)
Yes and pretty ugly one (in my opinion).
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+1 yep pretty ugly ;D
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I just came here to mention their logo! I liked their old one! The new one is so amateur-like!
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They just managed to came up with one of the worst logos of microstock industry... ever!
It is so ugly, words can't describe it!
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Wow... that logo... I'm stunned (and not in a good way).
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Wow... that logo... I'm stunned (and not in a good way).
Be nice so people like me don't have to go look to see what this is all about. :D
(http://www.crestock.com/App_Themes/Standard/images/frontpage/logo2010.png)
Wasn't Snap Village the orange site? Maybe it just for Halloween? ;)
Personal ban on other comments, I try to avoid anything about a site I don't belong to or have left. I never joined Cre Stock. In fact until now I thought it would have been pronounced Cres Stock. Maybe the new logo is addressing that name thing? What is a CRE?
(http://www.crestock.com/uploads/logo_wall.jpg)
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I havent looked around crestock in ages and was bored at work :) did find some interesting things
quote from changes for contributing artists
Pricing for vector images and subscriptions
By stevepigeon on Tuesday, 21 September 2010 4:41 PM
In response to the "guest" query on Sep 18, we are reviewing all the pricing on Crestock and, among other things, have determined to increase the price for vector files. This should take effect within a few weeks as we are making a number of changes to the website.
Additionally, we are looking at subscriptions both in terms of the prices charged to clients and the royalties paid to contributors.
Steve Pigeon, Chariman - Crestock Corporation, Toronto
a change in subs would be nice hopefully make it worthwhile to start uploading again and although it was rare that I got the mass rejections when I was uploading there
from their forum
As you probably already know but just in case you are unaware, Crestock was purchased by Masterfile Corporation on July 1, 2010. Please review the following announcements from the Crestock blog.
The new management is currently reviewing the editing protocol and the rejection reasons that the previous owners were using. The editing team was recently instructed to stop using the rejection reason you pointed out and others that we find unsuitable. We hope to make many improvements to the editing process in the near future. The images you have pointed out are images that were rejected in 2009.
Susan Morissette - Crestock Content Management
although Steve Pigeon does say at a couple of points 'our standards are high and we intend to keep them that way'.
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What is a CRE?
Short for CREative - but I think I read it somewhere on their forums, doesn't make a lot of sense at first sight
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..Additionally, we are looking at subscriptions both in terms of the prices charged to clients and the royalties paid to contributors.
I'm still waiting for them to raise subs commissions. It doesn't take a genius to work out that $0.25 for a site with low sales and high rejections isn't enough. It would be so nice to re-activate my portfolio and get some sales going there but until they raise subs commissions, I would much rather subs buyers went elsewhere.
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i only got subs sales that is $0.25, they email me i got a sale everytime, and so excited to know it is $0.25.
anyone got better experience like getting credits sale?
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I sold a few images by credits. But there are 3 or 4 images maximum. The 20% commission they pay us is waaaay too low.