- Connected to the above, the free section has content from Wavebreak media (~14,200 images in WavebreakMediaMicro and wavebreak3), Rawpixel.com (over 10,000), Wirestock (~5,300), Gstudio (~4,000), Jeremy Bishop (~4,000), Good Studio (~3,000), Artinspiring (~4,000), Caia Image (~4,000), Jacob Lund (~7,000), Visual Generation (~4,000) Hero Images (~7,000), Morgan (111). This is all high quality content, largely indistinguishable from the paid content.

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on October 14, 2020, 10:59

- Connected to the above, the free section has content from Wavebreak media (~14,200 images in WavebreakMediaMicro and wavebreak3), Rawpixel.com (over 10,000), Wirestock (~5,300), Gstudio (~4,000), Jeremy Bishop (~4,000), Good Studio (~3,000), Artinspiring (~4,000), Caia Image (~4,000), Jacob Lund (~7,000), Visual Generation (~4,000) Hero Images (~7,000), Morgan (111). This is all high quality content, largely indistinguishable from the paid content.

I'm interested that are those very known microstock contributors paid to be included in the free collection? Or do they get even paid something for free downloads? As in general I think it would be very hard to get that much content from them to be offered for free and make a promise for possible better sales in somewhere future.

I understand the free concept very well. It has over two years that we made a customer survey which resulted that in Finland over 23% of the customers used primarily free image banks, over 57% used sometimes and only 20% said that they are not using free image banks. So in that light Stock agencies are in a real pressure for offering something free to get more visitors to their pages.

The free collection seems to be small. That's fine to me if it doesnt grow too much. Now please can you add a social media share button on images ? 

This is something Mat should answer. Buyout is the only way to eliminate negative contributor related consequences, ones like gnirtS below describes.

Something else to consider is Shutterstock do similar - a free trial.

Don't even start with Amazon Prime, free trial, that starts a subscription with, bait links and how that one traps people, over and over. 

Quote from: Firn on November 08, 2020, 12:18

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 08, 2020, 11:19

Don't even start with Amazon Prime, free trial, that starts a subscription with, bait links and how that one traps people, over and over. 

Huh? Adobe Prime is the most user-friendly easy-to-unsubscripe free trial I have ever come across. You just have to check a checkbox  and it will not be automatically prolonged. At least that's how it was 2 or 3 years ago.

Yes, I�ve found that part to be true, too. But I am a little disgusted with them...I have started watching a couple of shows, get thru one season, I�m hooked, then find out in order to watch more, you have to pay! I know why. Because they are, say, Showtime programs. So Prime gives you a �preview�, but they don�t make it clear upfront. Who knew you had to check thru episodes and seasons to see if that�s going to happen. I know now.

If I wanted to watch programs from Showtime, I�d subscribe. I pay for a Prime subscription. When I login to Prime, I expect all the programs to be available for free under my subscription.

Sounds like one or more of the stock sites are employing the same kind of �marketing.� I�m thinking of SS, where I read some say that after the free trial, they bill you even after you cancel.

Usually you just have to wait a bit longer - if they have one season of a series in their free prime collection, the newer ones will be added to the free collection at some point too, but it can take a while. I can live with that.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 10, 2020, 07:13

 If you mean Amazon Prime, the problem is, they put all kinds of bait ads and popups, that mask the fact that by getting a free trial, or free shipping on this order, you just signed up for a years account. And my experience hasn't been as simple as click and it's gone. I had to contact Amazon, when the bill came through on my credit card and explain, I didn't want Prime. Valerie also had the same.

Maybe it's different where you live and only the German version is (or was) so trial-friendly then? Because I used that trial and after I signed up I could go to my account settings right away and just uncheck a "extend prime membership" (don't remember the exact woding) button and that was it. Not a single cent was taken from my account. I was actually impressed with how easy it was, because with every other free trial I hav ever seen, it was always made very difficult to get out of it, but this was really as simple as it could get. I don't know how it is now, maybe it was changed.