Quote from: Penguin on October 06, 2010, 13:46
Earlier you guys lost money because smaller number of images were sold during recession, now with this you will suffer even after recession when the better time comes - taking the base for the commission from the earlier year will mean this. And those of you who are saing reaching proper income means you should sell so many images that it really is not possible, are mainly right. The users are still buying less images than earlier, and they are buying smalle sizes than earlier; that means less credits, too.

I am discussing with users daily, 90 % of them are saying they will buy only microstock imagery, and I see that happening every day. And I am talking about professional users; ad.agencies, graphic designers, corporate users, magazines etc. So unfortunately I see no turn point back to old days when it was easy to sell multiple images with hundreds or thousands of dollars or euros.

But I still believe in image business and in microstock. Now it just means users are demanding better quality, better keywording, better collections - and personal service. So why don't you choose agencies that have local reps really serving users, marketing your images daily to all possible local users, updating their customer register actively, pushing your images - and honoring your images like they should be honored. Users are tired in just getting some marketing email from London or from some other place, and to be forced to wait for several days to get help or reply when they have some trouble.

Not another one of these posts 

Quote from: ichiro17 on October 06, 2010, 14:37

Quote from: Penguin on October 06, 2010, 13:46
Earlier you guys lost money because smaller number of images were sold during recession, now with this you will suffer even after recession when the better time comes - taking the base for the commission from the earlier year will mean this. And those of you who are saing reaching proper income means you should sell so many images that it really is not possible, are mainly right. The users are still buying less images than earlier, and they are buying smalle sizes than earlier; that means less credits, too.

I am discussing with users daily, 90 % of them are saying they will buy only microstock imagery, and I see that happening every day. And I am talking about professional users; ad.agencies, graphic designers, corporate users, magazines etc. So unfortunately I see no turn point back to old days when it was easy to sell multiple images with hundreds or thousands of dollars or euros.

But I still believe in image business and in microstock. Now it just means users are demanding better quality, better keywording, better collections - and personal service. So why don't you choose agencies that have local reps really serving users, marketing your images daily to all possible local users, updating their customer register actively, pushing your images - and honoring your images like they should be honored. Users are tired in just getting some marketing email from London or from some other place, and to be forced to wait for several days to get help or reply when they have some trouble.

Not another one of these posts 

The meaning was not to make you depressed but to take actions.

I guess users are not angry enough at Istock to stop uploading there....

Quote from: Penguin on October 06, 2010, 13:46

So why don't you choose agencies that have local reps really serving users, marketing your images daily to all possible local users, updating their customer register actively, pushing your images - and honoring your images like they should be honored.

Sorry, could you point me toward those microstock agencies that have local reps in my area to market my work?  I am on all the major micros and I am not aware that any of them offer this service...

I could be wrong but I think 123rf has area sales reps.

Quote from: MarkFGD on October 06, 2010, 17:03
I could be wrong but I think 123rf has area sales reps.

In what area? 

In a world wide market place what do you mean by local, local to me is Aberdeen, Scotland, with its Oil Industry and tourism. There must be many hundreds of 'locals' the same size, so an agency should have many hundreds of paid area sales reps?

What they do have though is many contributors personally interfacing on a daily basis with buyers, probably a contributory factor to the growth of this sector.

Quote from: Penguin on October 06, 2010, 15:10

Quote from: ichiro17 on October 06, 2010, 14:37

Quote from: Penguin on October 06, 2010, 13:46
Earlier you guys lost money because smaller number of images were sold during recession, now with this you will suffer even after recession when the better time comes - taking the base for the commission from the earlier year will mean this. And those of you who are saing reaching proper income means you should sell so many images that it really is not possible, are mainly right. The users are still buying less images than earlier, and they are buying smalle sizes than earlier; that means less credits, too.

I am discussing with users daily, 90 % of them are saying they will buy only microstock imagery, and I see that happening every day. And I am talking about professional users; ad.agencies, graphic designers, corporate users, magazines etc. So unfortunately I see no turn point back to old days when it was easy to sell multiple images with hundreds or thousands of dollars or euros.

But I still believe in image business and in microstock. Now it just means users are demanding better quality, better keywording, better collections - and personal service. So why don't you choose agencies that have local reps really serving users, marketing your images daily to all possible local users, updating their customer register actively, pushing your images - and honoring your images like they should be honored. Users are tired in just getting some marketing email from London or from some other place, and to be forced to wait for several days to get help or reply when they have some trouble.

Not another one of these posts 

The meaning was not to make you depressed but to take actions.

Sorry but for me the only actions I need to take are to get out and take more/better pics, make my portfolio better and increase my revenues that way.  Everyone speaks about going and taking action, yet they want everyone else to do it for them so they don't have to.  I'm not pretending to want action taken when I'm not going to do it myself. 

Is anybody else seeing strange sales today? I've sold 4 really old images with hardly any sales and it doesn't seem to be one buyer that has gone through my portfolio as they were bought at different times of the day.

Quote from: fotografer on October 06, 2010, 19:34
Is anybody else seeing strange sales today? I've sold 4 really old images with hardly any sales and it doesn't seem to be one buyer that has gone through my portfolio as they were bought at different times of the day.

it's been like that for me the last few days.  There must have been a Best Match shake up or it could just be the October increase that I tend to see every year.  Not sure why, but October is generally good for me and then things drop off after that (I dont have a lot of winter holiday stuff).

Quote from: jamirae on October 06, 2010, 19:40

Quote from: fotografer on October 06, 2010, 19:34
Is anybody else seeing strange sales today? I've sold 4 really old images with hardly any sales and it doesn't seem to be one buyer that has gone through my portfolio as they were bought at different times of the day.

it's been like that for me the last few days.  There must have been a Best Match shake up or it could just be the October increase that I tend to see every year.  Not sure why, but October is generally good for me and then things drop off after that (I dont have a lot of winter holiday stuff).

Best match always gets blamed (or credited?), people are just using up their credits before the year ends.  I just sold a two year old photo of a fish dinner. No complaints, I'll take the money, but this isn't a great inspired shot.

Quote from: ichiro17 on October 06, 2010, 18:52

Sorry but for me the only actions I need to take are to get out and take more/better pics, make my portfolio better and increase my revenues that way.  Everyone speaks about going and taking action, yet they want everyone else to do it for them so they don't have to.  I'm not pretending to want action taken when I'm not going to do it myself. 

^^ Agree! 

I feel my time is more productively spent shooting too.  I pay my representatives 50-80% to take action for me.  Seems like for that hefty rate they should be counted on to do it!

Quote from: lisafx on October 06, 2010, 20:56

Quote from: ichiro17 on October 06, 2010, 18:52

Sorry but for me the only actions I need to take are to get out and take more/better pics, make my portfolio better and increase my revenues that way.  Everyone speaks about going and taking action, yet they want everyone else to do it for them so they don't have to.  I'm not pretending to want action taken when I'm not going to do it myself. 

^^ Agree! 

I feel my time is more productively spent shooting too.  I pay my representatives 50-80% to take action for me.  Seems like for that hefty rate they should be counted on to do it!

and soon it will be 50-85% for alot of people

Quote from: lisafx on October 06, 2010, 16:55

Quote from: Penguin on October 06, 2010, 13:46

So why don't you choose agencies that have local reps really serving users, marketing your images daily to all possible local users, updating their customer register actively, pushing your images - and honoring your images like they should be honored.

Sorry, could you point me toward those microstock agencies that have local reps in my area to market my work?  I am on all the major micros and I am not aware that any of them offer this service...

There is one microstock agency, which is not only microstock agency but has also so called traditional RF collection, which means photographer can upload both microstock and more expensive RF imagery into database. That is Pixmac. It has been working around 2 years but the people behind the agency are from image business and have had big professional agency for over 10 years. For example Corbis and Science Photo Library are now selling through them. I have my own collection there, too, and get 50 % from the sales, no matter if 1 or 1000 images are sold, same commission. They are selling DT, FT, Colossus, Moodboard, their own collection, Yuri Arcurs directly and many more, and it looks like new collections are coming in all the time. In Cepic I learned they have local offices worldwide (USA, France, Germany, UK, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, China, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Russia etc); local office means privately owned companies runned by people who have professional background, know their market areas and know the professional customers, make active marketing, have the website in local language, give personal service to users. They also launched this one-stop-shopping system which allows users to buy single images with higher pricing and not only credit packs. In Cepic it was said they are the only agency really making SEO, too.

Quote from: lisafx on October 06, 2010, 17:05

Quote from: MarkFGD on October 06, 2010, 17:03
I could be wrong but I think 123rf has area sales reps.

In what area? 

Not according to what I know

Quote from: Penguin on October 07, 2010, 05:36
There is one microstock agency, which is not only microstock agency but has also so called traditional RF collection, which means photographer can upload both microstock and more expensive RF imagery into database. That is Pixmac. It has been working around 2 years but the people behind the agency are from image business and have had big professional agency for over 10 years. For example Corbis and Science Photo Library are now selling through them. I have my own collection there, too, and get 50 % from the sales, no matter if 1 or 1000 images are sold, same commission. They are selling DT, FT, Colossus, Moodboard, their own collection, Yuri Arcurs directly and many more, and it looks like new collections are coming in all the time. In Cepic I learned they have local offices worldwide (USA, France, Germany, UK, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, China, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Russia etc); local office means privately owned companies runned by people who have professional background, know their market areas and know the professional customers, make active marketing, have the website in local language, give personal service to users. They also launched this one-stop-shopping system which allows users to buy single images with higher pricing and not only credit packs. In Cepic it was said they are the only agency really making SEO, too.

Do you work for them?

Quote from: RT on October 07, 2010, 07:09

Quote from: Penguin on October 07, 2010, 05:36
There is one microstock agency, which is not only microstock agency but has also so called traditional RF collection, which means photographer can upload both microstock and more expensive RF imagery into database. That is Pixmac. It has been working around 2 years but the people behind the agency are from image business and have had big professional agency for over 10 years. For example Corbis and Science Photo Library are now selling through them. I have my own collection there, too, and get 50 % from the sales, no matter if 1 or 1000 images are sold, same commission. They are selling DT, FT, Colossus, Moodboard, their own collection, Yuri Arcurs directly and many more, and it looks like new collections are coming in all the time. In Cepic I learned they have local offices worldwide (USA, France, Germany, UK, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, China, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Russia etc); local office means privately owned companies runned by people who have professional background, know their market areas and know the professional customers, make active marketing, have the website in local language, give personal service to users. They also launched this one-stop-shopping system which allows users to buy single images with higher pricing and not only credit packs. In Cepic it was said they are the only agency really making SEO, too.

Do you work for them?

I will soon. Why? Because I am happy with what they have done with my own images, because I have long past in image business, in selling and representing both the biggest news and stock agencies and private photographers, and based on my knowledge in that I am impressed about the way they are doing the business: putting together the best parts of traditional and microstock, having local offices with professional people, local language websites and local language customer service, not just big database and big bosses or staff who do not have personal contact with users or who do not know the customers, needs and culture in different market areas, because I know the owners are highly professional image industry professionals who honor images and photographers, and I can trust in them So yes, I will start pushing them and the photographers in their selection. With big heart for photography.

Quote from: Penguin on October 07, 2010, 07:44

Quote from: RT on October 07, 2010, 07:09Do you work for them?

I will soon. Why?

Because you delivered an excellent sales pep talk.  
Pixmac had a very bumpy ride but you can't deny a passion for their business.
But seriously, can you upload to Pixmac directly when your port is already on DT and FT?
Your remark about Arcurs suggested that, as he is literally everywhere.
If so, this is a change of policy and that would change things. It's easy to send them a DVD but how do they handle duplicated content on FT and DT?

Quote from: FD-regular on October 07, 2010, 10:12

Quote from: Penguin on October 07, 2010, 07:44

Quote from: RT on October 07, 2010, 07:09Do you work for them?

I will soon. Why?

Because you delivered an excellent sales pep talk.  
Pixmac had a very bumpy ride but you can't deny a passion for their business.
But seriously, can you upload to Pixmac directly when your port is already on DT and FT?
Your remark about Arcurs suggested that, as he is literally everywhere.
If so, this is a change of policy and that would change things. It's easy to send them a DVD but how do they handle duplicated content on FT and DT?

You can ask them if they're interested in your collection. I've seen somewhere that they have a duplicity system that detects what's a duplicate and what's unique pic. For Yuri it seems they simply don't take his imagery from any other source

A duplicity system?  I thought that was a trait of a different agency altogether  

Quote from: rubyroo on October 07, 2010, 11:31
A duplicity system?  I thought that was a trait of a different agency altogether  

Yep, stupid word used, sorry, I should know english better. Anyway, what I meant was a system which can track similar images away. And that photographers can sell their pix through multiple channels, no demand of being exclusively there, and at the same time have direct relationship with Pixmac.

I am already on Pixmac via FT and DT.  It's impossible AFAIK to tell when sales come from there, but I assume I am getting my correct commissions from these sites via their partner program.  Of course I would love to get the 50% commission instead, but not sure that's possible in my situation.

Anyway, I have heard very good things from people who have dealt with Pixmac directly.  I wish you all success in your new job with them. 

However, I would not stop uploading to the other sites either, even if they don't have sales reps pounding the pavement.  I get a majority of my earnings from the top 4 micros, and it would be suicidal to dump them in favor of only working with Pixmac or any other one site. 

Quote from: lisafx on October 07, 2010, 14:47I am already on Pixmac via FT and DT.  It's impossible AFAIK to tell when sales come from there, but I assume I am getting my correct commissions from these sites via their partner program.  Of course I would love to get the 50% commission instead, but not sure that's possible in my situation.

That's what I was hinting at. Those 3d party sales on FT and DT have to pass an extra middle man. Why not negotiate with Pixmac directly since they apparently can block out the dupes. They even don't have to resort to image recognition technology: they can just filter on the user name.

Wow. It's getting even worse over at iStock with the censoring. And look who the new user/forum moderator is that snipped the links for the "Setting the Table" search. "iStock Collections"?

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=262721&page=1

As Sean pointed out in the IS thread, this is really creepy

http://bit.ly/bUEiS5

The first pages are literally polluted by irrelevant higher priced Agency and Vetta stuff.