Author Topic: PicturEngine: Some thoughts (Read 30842 times)

grafix04 · « **Reply #25 on:** December 05, 2012, 09:31 »

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on December 05, 2012, 08:42

Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 08:24
It's like trying to have a conversation with the cast of the Muppets, without the puppeteers in the room.

I like Jim Henson and his muppets.

Yeh so do I. But without the movement and the voices, they're just a bunch of stuffed toys.

I'm trying to decide which Character you'd be if you were a Muppet. I think I'll go with Animal

Is Miss Piggy here? I'd like her to slap me senseless so I too can't follow the conversation and just type for the sake of typing.

ClaridgeJ · « **Reply #26 on:** December 05, 2012, 09:47 »

Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 09:31

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on December 05, 2012, 08:42
Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 08:24
It's like trying to have a conversation with the cast of the Muppets, without the puppeteers in the room.

I like Jim Henson and his muppets.

Yeh so do I. But without the movement and the voices, they're just a bunch of stuffed toys.

I'm trying to decide which Character you'd be if you were a Muppet. I think I'll go with Animal Is Miss Piggy here? I'd like her to slap me senseless so I too can't follow the conversation and just type for the sake of typing.

Sue is miss Piggy and Kermit? well must be Mantis.

PicturEngine-JustinB · « **Reply #27 on:** December 05, 2012, 11:30 »

Several of you are getting the point of PicturEngine and seeing that the forest extends beyond the trees. It’s very difficult to start a “new” agency/platform (or whatever) without breaking through the critical mass barrier first. Before reaching critical mass, it’s not worth the time and money advertising (for 100 niche photographers or even 500,000 niche images) because the biggest “bang for the buck” in advertising is NOT niche, it’s general, its everyone, and it’s BIG! PicturEngine solves this critical mass problem, from day ONE. With PicturEngine there is no need to target advertising to a highly specific group or niche, such as home related or travel related buyers, as we do with my other two agencies. Every image buyer is a prospective client to use PicturEngine. PicturEngine just makes image buying easier. Many who are asking about our advertising/marketing plan need to remember we already have a sizable image buying client base (over 40k confirmed image buyers and growing daily) from our established agencies. Many of our image buyers do specialize in houses/home lifestyle or travel/scenic, however, most of our buyers work for advertising agencies and have multiple clients. We’ve been doing this long enough to know what effectively generates traffic and licenses images, and are also smart enough not to share our knowledge with potential competition (that is surely monitoring these forums).

PicturEngine is a brand, just as Google is a brand. We go to a search engine to find what we need. We are not “new,” as I personally come from the background of both creating and licensing stock, and know the holes that need to be filled. We have studied other platforms, where they succeed and where they have failed, and are bringing PicturEngine to the market with eyes wide open knowing what needs to be done to succeed.

The purpose of our recent push for the PicturEngine photographer platform is to get content onboard that is NOT currently at agencies, bringing our image buying audience truly unique content, right alongside the “same ol’ stuff” they can find repeatedly at agencies, but with duplicates removed to make the search faster, easier, and just better. Our advertising campaign will be unique and insightful, not only advertising for the same agencies people already use, but image buyers will regularly return to see what new and wonderful things our photographers and smaller agencies are adding to the mix.

The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes “cost effective” with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you don’t yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. Some of you mentioned image storage as a factor. Storing 1,000 10MB Jpegs at Rackspace is about a dollar ($1.00 USD) per month. For the speed and peace of mind, $1/ month is not a high price to pay.

One last point I want to clarify, PicturEngine is NOT an agency. I am posting on this forum because some microstock photographers showed an interest and registered for the platform early on. They were tired of the current direction of the microstock industry and decided to do something positive about it. That’s what PicturEngine is all about.

Sorry for the repeat post, some of these questions were asked on the other "main" thread "Check Out PicturEngine"

Best,
JB

Poncke · « **Reply #28 on:** December 05, 2012, 12:02 »

Quote from: PicturEngine-JustinB on December 05, 2012, 11:30

The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes “cost effective” with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you don’t yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. ...

Right, thanks for letting us know now. I am glad I didnt sign up then with my 600 photos online. * thats vital information. I hope you also put that warning on the PE homepage.

fotoVoyager · « **Reply #29 on:** December 05, 2012, 12:10 »

Quote from: PicturEngine-JustinB on December 05, 2012, 11:30

Several of you are getting the point of PicturEngine and seeing that the forest extends beyond the trees. It’s very difficult to start a “new” agency/platform (or whatever) without breaking through the critical mass barrier first. Before reaching critical mass, it’s not worth the time and money advertising (for 100 niche photographers or even 500,000 niche images) because the biggest “bang for the buck” in advertising is NOT niche, it’s general, its everyone, and it’s BIG! PicturEngine solves this critical mass problem, from day ONE. With PicturEngine there is no need to target advertising to a highly specific group or niche, such as home related or travel related buyers, as we do with my other two agencies. Every image buyer is a prospective client to use PicturEngine. PicturEngine just makes image buying easier. Many who are asking about our advertising/marketing plan need to remember we already have a sizable image buying client base (over 40k confirmed image buyers and growing daily) from our established agencies. Many of our image buyers do specialize in houses/home lifestyle or travel/scenic, however, most of our buyers work for advertising agencies and have multiple clients. We’ve been doing this long enough to know what effectively generates traffic and licenses images, and are also smart enough not to share our knowledge with potential competition (that is surely monitoring these forums).

PicturEngine is a brand, just as Google is a brand. We go to a search engine to find what we need. We are not “new,” as I personally come from the background of both creating and licensing stock, and know the holes that need to be filled. We have studied other platforms, where they succeed and where they have failed, and are bringing PicturEngine to the market with eyes wide open knowing what needs to be done to succeed.

The purpose of our recent push for the PicturEngine photographer platform is to get content onboard that is NOT currently at agencies, bringing our image buying audience truly unique content, right alongside the “same ol’ stuff” they can find repeatedly at agencies, but with duplicates removed to make the search faster, easier, and just better. Our advertising campaign will be unique and insightful, not only advertising for the same agencies people already use, but image buyers will regularly return to see what new and wonderful things our photographers and smaller agencies are adding to the mix.

The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes “cost effective” with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you don’t yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. Some of you mentioned image storage as a factor. Storing 1,000 10MB Jpegs at Rackspace is about a dollar ($1.00 USD) per month. For the speed and peace of mind, $1/ month is not a high price to pay.

One last point I want to clarify, PicturEngine is NOT an agency. I am posting on this forum because some microstock photographers showed an interest and registered for the platform early on. They were tired of the current direction of the microstock industry and decided to do something positive about it. That’s what PicturEngine is all about.

Sorry for the repeat post, some of these questions were asked on the other "main" thread "Check Out PicturEngine"

Best,
JB

Good luck to you - I hope you pull it off and we can all benefit. It's certainly a positive step forward and we watch with interest!

luissantos84 · « **Reply #30 on:** December 05, 2012, 12:13 »

JB does that mean we need 1000 unique images to do 41$/month?

Poncke · « **Reply #31 on:** December 05, 2012, 12:19 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on December 05, 2012, 12:13

JB does that mean we need 1000 unique images to do 41$/month?

LOL. I am better off at SS and FT then

grafix04 · « **Reply #32 on:** December 05, 2012, 19:15 »

Quote from: PicturEngine-JustinB on December 05, 2012, 11:30

Several of you are getting the point of PicturEngine and seeing that the forest extends beyond the trees. It’s very difficult to start a “new” agency/platform (or whatever) without breaking through the critical mass barrier first. Before reaching critical mass, it’s not worth the time and money advertising (for 100 niche photographers or even 500,000 niche images) because the biggest “bang for the buck” in advertising is NOT niche, it’s general, its everyone, and it’s BIG! PicturEngine solves this critical mass problem, from day ONE. With PicturEngine there is no need to target advertising to a highly specific group or niche, such as home related or travel related buyers, as we do with my other two agencies. Every image buyer is a prospective client to use PicturEngine. PicturEngine just makes image buying easier. Many who are asking about our advertising/marketing plan need to remember we already have a sizable image buying client base (over 40k confirmed image buyers and growing daily) from our established agencies. Many of our image buyers do specialize in houses/home lifestyle or travel/scenic, however, most of our buyers work for advertising agencies and have multiple clients. We’ve been doing this long enough to know what effectively generates traffic and licenses images, and are also smart enough not to share our knowledge with potential competition (that is surely monitoring these forums).

PicturEngine is a brand, just as Google is a brand. We go to a search engine to find what we need. We are not “new,” as I personally come from the background of both creating and licensing stock, and know the holes that need to be filled. We have studied other platforms, where they succeed and where they have failed, and are bringing PicturEngine to the market with eyes wide open knowing what needs to be done to succeed.

The purpose of our recent push for the PicturEngine photographer platform is to get content onboard that is NOT currently at agencies, bringing our image buying audience truly unique content, right alongside the “same ol’ stuff” they can find repeatedly at agencies, but with duplicates removed to make the search faster, easier, and just better. Our advertising campaign will be unique and insightful, not only advertising for the same agencies people already use, but image buyers will regularly return to see what new and wonderful things our photographers and smaller agencies are adding to the mix.

The PicturEngine photographer platform is not for everyone, just as stock photography is not for everyone. Studying years of hard data tells us PicturEngine becomes “cost effective” with collections of over 1,000 unique images. If you don’t yet have 1,000 unique images in your portfolio or collection, keep us on your radar for when you do. Some of you mentioned image storage as a factor. Storing 1,000 10MB Jpegs at Rackspace is about a dollar ($1.00 USD) per month. For the speed and peace of mind, $1/ month is not a high price to pay.

One last point I want to clarify, PicturEngine is NOT an agency. I am posting on this forum because some microstock photographers showed an interest and registered for the platform early on. They were tired of the current direction of the microstock industry and decided to do something positive about it. That’s what PicturEngine is all about.

Sorry for the repeat post, some of these questions were asked on the other "main" thread "Check Out PicturEngine"

Best,
JB

Wait, what? This is a joke right? Let me get this straight. Not only do you want us to have 1,000 unique images, but you want them to be images that have not been uploaded to any microstock site. If that's the case, which I believe you've made clear it is, why are you wasting your time (and more importantly ours) with your ridiculous sales pitch on a forum where contributors discuss microstock agents?

I get you saying 'don’t bother if you don't have 1,000'. For $480, we probably need 10,000 on a new site just to even have a chance at recovering the cost or joining you. You say that you're not "new" and that you already have your 40K buyers confirmed and lined up waiting to use the site, blah blah blah. If you're so confident that you have the buyers, why don't you go live now? You're not an agent after all, you're a search engine. That means, aside from needing contributors to fund you, you don't need them to actually operate the site. You've already spent the money, so why not take the risk yourself instead of trying to pass it onto us and just go live? We don't know anything about you and the way you'll operate. For all we know, you might strike a deal with the agents and start making referral money that further reduces our cut at their sites. We don't know anything about you. Open your doors, operate for a while so we can judge you. I have 1,000 images that aren't on any microstock sites and I can tell you now, I will not put them on your site. Not now, not ever. They will remain unique on MY site, not yours. The advertising plan is the one I may be interested in the future IF you prove to me that your site works.

Justin, you're in the wrong forum, Pal. I suggest you stop wasting your time on MSG and target photographers who ONLY sell direct. Since that is the only content you want. I really don't know why you copied and pasted your post in here from the other thread. This thread clearly isn't about joining you. This thread is about keeping an eye on you and your performance and USING you to our advantage, without giving you a dime. This thread is about organizing the images we have at the agents we contract with, in a way that will direct buyers from your search engine to the site that we prefer. So please keep your useless sales pitch in the one thread. I say 'useless' because here you are annoying us with your marketing hype, when you don't even want our 'same ol' stuff on your site.

Hold on though. Wait a minute. Surely you don't expect us to risk $480 by joining you AND leave the agents that currently do put the food on the table. Surely that is not what you're asking. If that's what you're asking of us, then you're a real funny guy

sharpshot · « **Reply #33 on:** December 05, 2012, 19:28 »

I can't believe he means 1,000 images that aren't on other sites?

grafix04 · « **Reply #34 on:** December 05, 2012, 19:38 »

Huh, and here's another thought I just had. For all we know, this 'may' even be a scam. For all we know, there may never be any intention to go live but to collect money with the promise of doing so. For all we know, the site doesn't even work. For all we know PE could be set up to appear to be a search engine but it isn't. If it's a search engine, why is only 'picking' up corbis and deposit photos? Where's the rest of them? We don't know anything about Justin, PE or their other sites that they're supposedly connected with.

For all we know, the 90 day free trial period 'may' also be a scam. If anyone signed up, I suggest you log into your PayPal account, go to Profile, click on My Money and then look to see if there are any automated payments set up to pay PE the full amount annually after the 90 day free period. I've been caught out with hosting companies doing dodgy things like that. Please go and check. If there's something there, block it. Also read any fine print very carefully.

Mantis · « **Reply #35 on:** December 05, 2012, 19:47 »

Sorry PE, you lost me at hello.

cthoman · « **Reply #36 on:** December 05, 2012, 20:01 »

Quote from: sharpshot on December 05, 2012, 19:28

I can't believe he means 1,000 images that aren't on other sites?

Ideally, I think if you had that you would probably get the best results. It seems like an honest answer. Especially for their advertise only plan. The more competition (SS, IS, DT, etc.) you have for a particular image, the less likely you are to get it downloaded somewhere where you get 100% royalty (Ktools, PE, Photoshelter, Photodeck, etc.). I think most contributors should be holding images back for themselves.

cascoly · « **Reply #37 on:** December 05, 2012, 20:04 »

EVEN if we accept the highly questionable claims thatare being made, what happens at the end of the 90 day 'free' period when contributors decide to pull out -- what percentage of their 'unique' content will disappear?

cascoly · « **Reply #38 on:** December 05, 2012, 20:07 »

Quote from: cthoman on December 05, 2012, 20:01

Quote from: sharpshot on December 05, 2012, 19:28
I can't believe he means 1,000 images that aren't on other sites?

Ideally, I think if you had that you would probably get the best results. It seems like an honest answer. Especially for their advertise only plan. The more competition (SS, IS, DT, etc.) you have for a particular image, the less likely you are to get it downloaded somewhere where you get 100% royalty (Ktools, PE, Photoshelter, Photodeck, etc.). I think most contributors should be holding images back for themselves.

i STRONGLY encourage everyone to hold back from submitting their best images to SS, DT and the others, especially if they're similar to what i've submitted

stockmn · « **Reply #39 on:** December 05, 2012, 20:22 »

Jeez dude, why the hostility? Your questions below have been addressed already in this and other PE threads. If you don't like it, don't participate....it's just that simple.

Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 19:38

Huh, and here's another thought I just had. For all we know, this 'may' even be a scam. For all we know, there may never be any intention to go live but to collect money with the promise of doing so. For all we know, the site doesn't even work. For all we know PE could be set up to appear to be a search engine but it isn't. If it's a search engine, why is only 'picking' up corbis and deposit photos? Where's the rest of them? We don't know anything about Justin, PE or their other sites that they're supposedly connected with.

For all we know, the 90 day free trial period 'may' also be a scam. If anyone signed up, I suggest you log into your PayPal account, go to Profile, click on My Money and then look to see if there are any automated payments set up to pay PE the full amount annually after the 90 day free period. I've been caught out with hosting companies doing dodgy things like that. Please go and check. If there's something there, block it. Also read any fine print very carefully.

grafix04 · « **Reply #40 on:** December 05, 2012, 20:24 »

Quote from: cthoman on December 05, 2012, 20:01

Quote from: sharpshot on December 05, 2012, 19:28
I can't believe he means 1,000 images that aren't on other sites?

Ideally, I think if you had that you would probably get the best results. It seems like an honest answer. Especially for their advertise only plan. The more competition (SS, IS, DT, etc.) you have for a particular image, the less likely you are to get it downloaded somewhere where you get 100% royalty (Ktools, PE, Photoshelter, Photodeck, etc.). I think most contributors should be holding images back for themselves.

I agree except that he's not referring to the advertising only plan (which isn't even set up for the most popular platforms). He is referring to the photographers platform with content directly uploaded to PE. If the site isn't a scam and does work, it could have potential. But giving him $480 for an unproven site is not worth the risk. This guy was operating a pornography site, wasn't it? Do you really trust him with your money? At this point I wouldn't even give him $10 until I see something working. He could take your $480 along with your images and sell them somewhere else, you don't know.

Even if it's all legit and the site does go live, it might be horrible and slow and nothing like we expected. His 40K supposed buyers that he has lined up might tell him to shove it. We can't even see how the site works yet he's in here banging his drum about how great it is saying 'Give us $480, you won't regret it'. Let us see it first. At this point, I don't even trust him or the site even for the advertising plan.

The idea behind PE is great. Until we see it in action, it's still just an idea - or something dogdy.

grafix04 · « **Reply #41 on:** December 05, 2012, 20:30 »

Quote from: stockmn on December 05, 2012, 20:22

Jeez dude, why the hostility? Your questions below have been addressed already in this and other PE threads. If you don't like it, don't participate....it's just that simple.

Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 19:38
Huh, and here's another thought I just had. For all we know, this 'may' even be a scam. For all we know, there may never be any intention to go live but to collect money with the promise of doing so. For all we know, the site doesn't even work. For all we know PE could be set up to appear to be a search engine but it isn't. If it's a search engine, why is only 'picking' up corbis and deposit photos? Where's the rest of them? We don't know anything about Justin, PE or their other sites that they're supposedly connected with.

For all we know, the 90 day free trial period 'may' also be a scam. If anyone signed up, I suggest you log into your PayPal account, go to Profile, click on My Money and then look to see if there are any automated payments set up to pay PE the full amount annually after the 90 day free period. I've been caught out with hosting companies doing dodgy things like that. Please go and check. If there's something there, block it. Also read any fine print very carefully.

Nothing hostile about my post. They are just thoughts about being cautious. And they are MY thoughts which is what this thread is about. If YOU don't like it, don't participate

And the 'questions' will not be addressed until the site goes live and I see with my own eyes how it works. And I don't care what he addresses. I'm not going to trust a guy operating a porn site asking me for $480 based on a promise. It has scam written all over it and it's his job to show us and prove it's not.

In the mean time, this thread is NOT about joining PE. It's about IF or WHEN it does go live and it's legit, to work with the agents that give us the best deal so that those images are indexed on the PE site (if it's legit).

gillian vann · « **Reply #42 on:** December 05, 2012, 22:48 »

perhaps we should ask them to provide us with a copy of their passport?

grafix04 · « **Reply #43 on:** December 05, 2012, 23:03 »

Quote from: vannphoto on December 05, 2012, 22:48

perhaps we should ask them to provide us with a copy of their passport?

Nah, you can pick up a fake one for $50 in most Asian countries

Veneratio · « **Reply #44 on:** December 06, 2012, 01:24 »

LOL, I am sooooo confused!!!

Let me get this straight in my head...

I choose which agency I upload to first as PE will index from there for the "unique" image it shows of mine.
PE will direct the buyer to that site so they can buy and I pick up the highest % commission as that was the site I chose to upload to first.

For example, if buyer wants to buy my image they found on PE and I selected Agent A because they pay 50%, then the buyer will buy through Agent A an I receive my 50%.

Assuming this is correct, this is where I am getting confused...so what I am receiving is 100% of the 50% that agency pays me anyway, all PE is doing is making sure the buyer buys from thhe agent I uploaded to first?

Assuming this is correct, that means I am paying PE $480 per year to ensure I get the 100% of the 50% I would have got had the buyer purchased from that agency anyway, so for $480 per year they direct buyers to my nominated agency?

So in effect, All You Can Stock, who pay 70% I believe, should become a top agency as a lot of contributors will nominate them and upload to them first to get the indexing? But what happens with that agency? They get all this traffic they were not expecting and can't cope - servers fail, review times are into weeks, etc, etc. So now I am paying $480 to PE for crashing the site I uploaded to first and making review times too long which in turn means I am not uploading to the other sites until my nominated agency reviews my images, which means my images are not showing on PE in the first place.

As a smaller agency paying a higher commission to contributors, I personally would contact PE and offer to make a deal whereby I increase commission rates to make sure I am the nominated agent for most contributors and when all the sales come through I pay PE a referral commmission. No cost to me as thhe agent as I can now scrap my advertising budget and plan as PE doesit all for me for nothing.

I assume I am wrong here somewhere, or everywhere, but I am struggling with this whole concept.

grafix04 · « **Reply #45 on:** December 06, 2012, 02:07 »

Quote from: Veneratio on December 06, 2012, 01:24

LOL, I am sooooo confused!!!

Let me get this straight in my head...

I choose which agency I upload to first as PE will index from there for the "unique" image it shows of mine.
PE will direct the buyer to that site so they can buy and I pick up the highest % commission as that was the site I chose to upload to first.

For example, if buyer wants to buy my image they found on PE and I selected Agent A because they pay 50%, then the buyer will buy through Agent A an I receive my 50%.

Assuming this is correct, this is where I am getting confused...so what I am receiving is 100% of the 50% that agency pays me anyway, all PE is doing is making sure the buyer buys from thhe agent I uploaded to first?

Assuming this is correct, that means I am paying PE $480 per year to ensure I get the 100% of the 50% I would have got had the buyer purchased from that agency anyway, so for $480 per year they direct buyers to my nominated agency?

So in effect, All You Can Stock, who pay 70% I believe, should become a top agency as a lot of contributors will nominate them and upload to them first to get the indexing? But what happens with that agency? They get all this traffic they were not expecting and can't cope - servers fail, review times are into weeks, etc, etc. So now I am paying $480 to PE for crashing the site I uploaded to first and making review times too long which in turn means I am not uploading to the other sites until my nominated agency reviews my images, which means my images are not showing on PE in the first place.

As a smaller agency paying a higher commission to contributors, I personally would contact PE and offer to make a deal whereby I increase commission rates to make sure I am the nominated agent for most contributors and when all the sales come through I pay PE a referral commmission. No cost to me as thhe agent as I can now scrap my advertising budget and plan as PE doesit all for me for nothing.

I assume I am wrong here somewhere, or everywhere, but I am struggling with this whole concept.

Yes, you're a bit off track. Let me outline it for you.

Think of PE as just a search engine for the moment. They’re just like Google images, except they only display stock images without any duplicates. The single image that is indexed is the one that you upload to one of the agents first – according to them. You don’t pay anything for this. They are a search engine and will display all stock images regardless of us signing up. That’s the search engine bit.

Now on top of that, for a fee, they provide us two additional options. This is what their sales pitch is about.

The first option is the 'advertising only' plan which is $10 per month - $120 per year upfront. This is for those photographers who sell direct on their own website. With this option, the image that is indexed on PE is the one from your site and all microstock sites are ignored. The buyer is directed to your site, and they purchase the image from there. You get paid 100% of what you would normally be paid from your website. The $120 is just an advertising cost. This is the plan I'm interested in but only if I see that the site is legit and working properly. They don’t even have ktools up and running along with some other popular sites – like Smugmug I think.

The second option is the Photographers platform which costs $40 per month - $480 per year upfront, plus some storage costs which are minimal. This is what the 90 day free ~~period~~ offer was about (which has passed). This is for photographers who don’t have their own website and want to upload their images directly to PE who host them with a third party. With this option, you received 100% and the transaction is handled by PE. This could have potential if the site is working, if you have a large portfolio and if the site becomes popular with buyers. This is the biggest risk of course. It's quite possible you won’t recover the $480 plus if the site folds, you're left out in the cold.

So I started this thread to say - hey, forget about options one and two for now, especially option two. For those of us who aren't willing to throw away $480 or $120 on an unproven site and want to wait around to see what happens, lets ignore the sales pitch and focus on their primary service, which is to operate as a search engine. If we direct buyers to the site we prefer, then the micros might stop treating us poorly and start * up to begging us to upload to their site first. They might stop lowering our commissions. They might even raise them if we play this right - provided PE works out of course. It won’t cost us a cent and we can still upload to the rest of the sites if we want – we just have to wait a little bit before we upload to the rest.

I thought about All You Can Stock, but have you used the site? It’s crap. I'’s very slow and very glitchy right now. That's not the one I will be choosing first but I might choose a few images just to test ~~to test~~ things out. What I definitely won't do, is upload to sites like DP first (I've dropped them anyway). Anyone with a low RPD should be left last. They'll still get the images but they won't benefit from PE and if PE does ~~because~~ become a huge success, in the long term, this strategy will hurt the greedy sites and they might sweeten the deal with us.

Edited to fix errors.

emblem · « **Reply #46 on:** December 06, 2012, 04:17 »

Quote

Yes, you're a bit off track. Let me outline it for you.

This the best explanation so far....

sharpshot · « **Reply #47 on:** December 06, 2012, 05:47 »

Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 19:38

...If anyone signed up, I suggest you log into your PayPal account, go to Profile, click on My Money and then look to see if there are any automated payments set up to pay PE the full amount annually after the 90 day free period....

That was made quite clear when I signed up. There's an automated payment to PE for $480 after 90 days. There's nothing sneaky about it. I presume that could be reversed by Paypal, if someone forgot to cancel it or was unable to access their Paypal account?

My big concern is that the search was supposed to be going live months ago. I can't remember the exact words used but I thought it was going to be live at least 6 months ago. So I'm not seeing a reason to use the free trial, unless I'm given 90 days after the site goes live.

I do have other concerns but until the search is live, they aren't worth thinking about.

Veneratio · « **Reply #48 on:** December 06, 2012, 05:59 »

Thamnks Grafix, great explanation, now I understand, appreciate you taking the time to reply.

grafix04 · « **Reply #49 on:** December 06, 2012, 06:51 »

Veneratio, no problem.

Quote from: sharpshot on December 06, 2012, 05:47

Quote from: grafix04 on December 05, 2012, 19:38
...If anyone signed up, I suggest you log into your PayPal account, go to Profile, click on My Money and then look to see if there are any automated payments set up to pay PE the full amount annually after the 90 day free period....
That was made quite clear when I signed up. There's an automated payment to PE for $480 after 90 days. There's nothing sneaky about it. I presume that could be reversed by Paypal, if someone forgot to cancel it or was unable to access their Paypal account?

My big concern is that the search was supposed to be going live months ago. I can't remember the exact words used but I thought it was going to be live at least 6 months ago. So I'm not seeing a reason to use the free trial, unless I'm given 90 days after the site goes live.

I do have other concerns but until the search is live, they aren't worth thinking about.

Sheesh, I'm glad I brought it up. What slimebags!

Sharpshot, unless you're happy to go ahead with them after the free trail period, your main concern right now should be that $480 automated payment that you agreed to. It is sneaky. PayPal won't reverse it, you need to block it both on the PE site somewhere AND on PayPal. This is how they get you. When the time comes the funds will be paid to them. Even if you don't have enough funds in your PayPal account, PayPal will automatically draw it from your linked account. They won't ask you about it because you've already agreed to it. You'll be notified AFTER it's done and you won't be able to get that money back because you agreed to it. If you cancel the automatic payment on PayPal and don't turn it off somewhere on the PE site, they'll still issue the invoice and you'll have to pay it. If you don't, you could have debt collectors after you like 1and1[dot]com do to people over a lousy $10. It's bad practice but many dodgy sites do it. I've been caught out once, never again.

Just go to PE and see if you can find somewhere that you can turn off the automatic payment. Take a screenshot of it because some of them like 1and1 turn it back on.

Then on PayPal do this:

click on 'Profile'
click on 'My Money' on the left
click on 'update' on 'My pre-approved payments'
click on 'PicturEngine' or whatever it's called
next to 'Status' click 'Cancel'

Thank me later when all the stories come flooding in about people being ripped off $480 - sneakily but unfortunately legally.

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