Anybody else experiencing a boost in sales at 123RF? Having a BME so far.

123RF are doing well for me too lately.

Last month a BME. This month will be even better, helped with a $50 commission on an editorial EL. I like the direction 123RF is going....up. :-)

It's absolutely dead here !!!!!!! 

Hope it changes ! 

Last month a BME. This month will be even better, helped with a $50 commission on an editorial EL. I like the direction 123RF is going....up. :-)

Mileage may vary. My last batch was rejected 80% at 123RF, accepted 100% at iStock. I won't be the quality then. As to editorial (my specialty lately, but not in micro) they accepted all. I just feel they are not worth it any more. I deleted my editorial and stopped uploading the rest. They are a candidate for port removal after being 5 years with them. WME. 8.42$ in May, hahahaha. But, mileage may vary. Good luck with them.

Last month a BME. This month will be even better, helped with a $50 commission on an editorial EL. I like the direction 123RF is going....up. :-)

that sounds great. can you elaborate more on your editorial EL? is it part of their new editorial collection?

sales popped a bit, but 123 has been dead so long it may just be gas

s

Care to elaborate on the "Big changes?"

Care to elaborate on the "Big changes?"

Ellen Boughn hinted at it, and also Yuri Arcurs. The next big change will be free.
Think of all the exposure you will get!  

Hi All,

 Met with them here at Cepic. They seem to understand what they are doing and there are some big changes in Micro coming down the road. Every major agency seems to be following. Looking forward to strong growth in micro over the next couple of years.

Best,
Jonathan

Please can you explain what do you think under "strong growth in micro"....
Regards

Free can be fine but in that case I want the traffic myself.

Bingo. If this is indeed the path we are headed, I'll no longer contribute to any micro websites. My efforts will be focused on my own sites and getting as much traffic of my own as I can.

There are a steady stream of hints at the moment, but nothing concrete anyone has been also to expand upon.

You won't hear much from both gurus since there is money involved. Nobody offers business plans for free. But there is some deep truth in think of all the exposure you will get. No stock site will tell you what its basic business plan is.  Keeping contributors happy with a feelgood forum is one of the tactics, and telling that free images on the site are good for everybody. Yeah right. Even ShutterStock will start a "free" site to tap that resource, and would STX ever have taken off without the free twin site?

Free is about the most mesmerizing keyword on Google. A working model rests on several pillars, and one can be to offer second-grade image content for free, along with paying prime image content and text info. Another pillar is selected ads, without becoming a linkfarm, what Google hates. Then there are referrals, but make it look more like a product placement than like a blunt hook.

Most of all, Google likes text content. The bots can't even see images, only text. I have thousands of editorials that will not fly on micro, but I have a nice story to tell with it, along with valuable info about local travel, prices, dos and don'ts. I'm not going to waste that content on crowd-sourcing sites like Virtualtourist, although I can trow them some bones to drive traffic to myself. Along with that content, I can do a quick edit on technically sub-par images and resize them to 1000px so it looks good enough. All that content is free. My port on microstock will never be free, of course.
It all takes some basic SEO in designing your site. I just had a look on Google (fresh browser) for stock photo waterfalls business nature, and lo and belo, I'm on page #1 position 6 just under the big guys (agencies).

I made one very bad mistake, in hindsight, when I had a slashdotted blog years ago (about the fusion area between tech, politics and society) with up till 6,000 unique visitors per day. The mistake was to put it on the free Blogger platform, and suddenly my blog was overwhelmed with ads and popups from blogger itself and I never saw a cent - of course. I won't let others reap the rewards of my work any more.

A hint from Ellen's blog about the past New Media Conference in Dublin:

A sad but true fact is that many photographers will leave professional photography behind and seek new challenges over the next months and years. Some will go completely broke while they wait for the business to return to previous levels. But others, and I hope you are one of them, will discover how they can use their skill and expertise in a related field. (I don�t think salvation for most lies in transitioning to video.)

Mine are up too ... !

I have been donating a few images a month there which I think is helping, but there is really no way to know.  As long as sales are up, I am happy.