Author Topic: Distribution Tools - Upload When You Like? (Read 2856 times)

Sean Locke Photography · « **on:** March 18, 2013, 15:12 »

So, planning for the future here...

Do any of these distribution tools - lightburner, etc. allow you to prep all the files you like and then send them (and track what went where) to whatever places you like?

Thx!

jefftakespics2 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 18, 2013, 15:27 »

I've used Lightburner. Great when it works, not so great when it doesn't. Last time I used it uploading to six agencies I received a report back that is had successfully uploaded to each site. The photos never arrived at two of them. It's entirely possible there was a problem at the receiving end -- who knows, but I've decided it's simpler in the end to just upload individually (at least for now).

Anyka · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2013, 15:45 »

Same here. I use Lightburner, and most of the time it really saves time and bandwidth. It works well for Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Depositphotos, (Istock) and Graphicleftovers. Most of the time it does not work well for Fotolia, Canstock and 123rf.
It does not let you track what went were. You do receive an email as soon as everything is sent, but that does not mean it actually did arrive, you have to check that for yourself.
I always delete my photos there after distributing to all agencies, but it is supposed to track sales too (I don't use that feature).

Oldhand · « **Reply #3 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:31 »

Not found one that's reliable for the spec you would want!

rubyroo · « **Reply #4 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:34 »

There's this bloke called Sean Locke... he tends to see where the current systems fall short, then he goes off and codes wonderful things to fill the gaps. Give him time... I think he just needs to get his bearings, then he'll be right on to it...

stocked · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:42 »

Stocksubmitter is great but require Windows so a Mac User needs Parallel.
Picworkflow is web-based but doesn't have a submit feature.
In any case I would use a tool like these they are a great help and worth the money!

Sadstock · « **Reply #6 on:** March 18, 2013, 16:53 »

I also had trouble with lightburner uploads getting lost or being uploaded twice. It has been awhile since I've used it, so maybe it is better. I don't pay anything for bandwidth, so there is no savings for me there.

I found I liked the simplicity of uploading to an individual site one by one to make sure I'm working as best as I can with that sites system/requirements/unique site "features"/quirks.

Amanda_K · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2013, 17:23 »

Actually I've just started using Picworkflow and it does submit the images, but on certain sites you may need to check your unfinished uploads section to make any final adjustments/check off terms boxes etc. I absolutely love it so far and have been kicking myself for not giving it a try sooner. Not free but super cheap when I look at the trade off of time spent uploading vs time spent creating new images. Also has a keyword suggestion tool built right in now.

You can also set acceptance status of the images at each agency if you want, this might be a bit time consuming for some but if you want a record of what image is where it's probably easier than manually tracking it in Excel or similar.

steheap · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2013, 17:42 »

Well, I'm a happy Lightburner user. I changed some of the distribution channels from the default web-based ones into FTPs (you can add any number of FTP distro channels), and 95% of the time it works fine. One upload to Lightburner results in 20 uploads to my stock sites. If I see in the email report that there has been an issue, then I find that changing that site to FTP works fine from then on.

They delete the large file after 4 days and only keep a thumbnail (so not sure what the objective is of deleting files) and each file on their site has an info page that shows when it was uploaded and to which sites. So, yes, you do get a record of what went there. It is an image by image thing though, not a tabular record.

I've found the owner to be very helpful (I think the idea of the email came from a discussion I had with him about the issues of not knowing if files had been distributed). I'm sure he would be interested in developing some more functions if there is a good demand for it - eg a table showing distro of files, for instance.

As far as I can tell, the site if funded by people signing up for new stock agencies using a referral link (which makes sense if you don't already use that agency)

Steve

GO Software · « **Reply #9 on:** April 03, 2013, 04:52 »

Maybe this might be a solution for some of you...

I want to interest you in a FREE software application developed along with newbielink:http://www.mymicrostock.net [nonactive], for helping microstockers to upload their stuff to all the agencies the easy way. We would love if you could (and want) give it a try yourself and (only if you like it) consider talking about it through your website, facebook page or whatever any other via you might want to think is the right way. Here are some tips about the application, plus the link to learn more about it: newbielink:http://www.mymicrostock.net/descargas/go-stock-english [nonactive]

We would also be really happy if you could give us some feedback.

Features:
100% FREE
YOUR PASSWORDS ARE STORED ONLY LOCAL
PORTABLE, NO INSTALATION REQUIRED
UPLOAD TO ALL AGENCIES ON A SINGLE ACTION
DRAG & DROP
WORKS OVER MAC & PC
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SUPPORTS JPG, EPS, TIFF, AVI, MPEG, MOV & ZIP