How are going you sales on Symbiostock in 2014?
Do you think that the registration procedure is an obstacle to sales?

My Simbio site is www.millionstock.com

2 sales, one S and one EL.

I've had several sales, one an EL, even though my site doesn't offer that option. The buyer got in touch with me through my Facebook page looking for an EL (a very honest buyer!).

A whole bunch of nothing.

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

Define successful.

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

I don't understand this comment. Why would you wish people to NOT have success? Especially with recent developments, with work being given away free? I would hope Symbiostock would be successful, so people would have other income options.

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

Guess you can go 'Exclusive' with iStock which we all know what a 'Success' they are...

Quote from: Ron on March 10, 2014, 16:28
Define successful.

$$$

Quote from: Goofy on March 10, 2014, 17:22

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

Guess you can go 'Exclusive' with iStock which we all know what a 'Success' they are...

Very "funny"..............end of conversation!

I usually do not speak out on someone  comments but your comment was quite rude and vey very ignorant. Many people put many hundreds of hours trying to something different and you in one stupid moment in your life try to destroy all of their hard work. Shame on you.

Quote from: shotupdave on March 10, 2014, 18:28


I usually do not speak out on someone  comments but your comment was quite rude and vey very ignorant. Many people put many hundreds of hours trying to something different and you in one stupid moment in your life try to destroy all of their hard work. Shame on you.

It didn't hurt my feelings. It's definitely not going to stop me from moving forward. I actually wrote what I wrote because it is true and it gives a fair perspective of how things are going. I think you want both the positive and negative stories.

Quote from: Shelma1 on March 10, 2014, 16:47

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

I don't understand this comment. Why would you wish people to NOT have success? Especially with recent developments, with work being given away free? I would hope Symbiostock would be successful, so people would have other income options.

My take was that the emphasis was on the know. as in it is good to know. It would also be good to know if it was highly successful.

Well I was going to leave this one alone but it seems like I have become the voice for Symbiostock. At least I am one of the ones with decent sales willing to speak up. My pms have exploded about this thread but none of these other guys are willing to show up on everyones radar. So here it goes. Illustrators typically do much better than photographers. It seems like it takes around 90-120 days for people to start seeing sales. Also if you just upload the same images as the micros and don't do any SEO or customization of your titles and content it will probably take longer. I put a lot of work into my sites and yes I see regular sales. Others are seeing regular sales too, including one person who just made a $700 custom request sale. There are at least 3 people besides me who average over 20 sales a month and one guy just told me his sales are in the 60-80 per month range. There are 170+ sites but only around 30 site owners communicate in the forums at all. Of these 30 I would guess around 5 have consistent sales.

If you are thinking about joining I would say this. Don't.... unless you actually intend to spend some time on your site and are really interested in a long term alternative to micro sites. Symbiostock is not a get rich quick type of thing. It is work but you are also in control and the payout is pretty good when sales do come.

You get what you put in. If you are looking for another place to dump your photos you are likely to be very disappointed. Cascoly does have a coop program started where he will handle almost all of this brain damage for you. I would recommend everyone should at least explore this program to determine if it is an option you might like.

We have an anonymous poll on the Symbiostock site and of the 54 people voting the results currently stand as follows:

Zero sales - 18
1-5 sales - 20
6-10 sales - 8
11-20 sales - 4
21-30 sales - 0
30+ sales - 4

Yes it's true that not everyone sees sales yet but some may be relatively new or not have too many images to offer. What encourages me is when I see the total voter number remain the same but the higher tiers grow as votes are updated. A lot of site owners don't come to the forum so it's hard to get the full picture when it's only reflecting a portion of the sites. 

I've seen one sale to date from my site but also don't expect much with less than 300 images. As best I can tell they found me via a google search. I remain encouraged that sales will grow as I add images and put more effort into SEO.

Quote from: chromaco on March 10, 2014, 19:41
It seems like it takes around 90-120 days for people to start seeing sales. Also if you just upload the same images as the micros and don't do any SEO or customization of your titles and content it will probably take longer.

That's interesting to know. I'm getting close to that range, so hopefully things pick up soon. I think I'm spoiled because my Ktools site started selling right away. I probably put a little more work into it, but not a ton more. My traffic is still garbage though, so I need to work on it. It's all on my to do list.

I'm not sure how many images you have right now but you are about due. Your original site might actually be working against you. That one has been around for a while and probably the gravity of that site is scooping up your organic search sales that would otherwise be coming to your Symbiostock site. Not many symbio site owners (probably none) have an existing site with 20K images already indexed. In my case symbio has equaled my custom site in sales. It took about 8 months but they are now about neck and neck. So in essence I have doubled my personal sales by adding a symbio site.

Has anyone signed up with the co-op program?  I'm considering doing so but am interested in some feedback before going ahead.

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

sorry to disappoint you but symbiostock IS a success..

I won't be giving away numbers but in the first 10 days of march I made more on symbiostock than the following agencies combined:

- depositphotos
- dreamstime
- envato
- fotolia
- bigstock
- canstock
- zazzle
- veer
- graphicleftovers
- stockfresh
- alamy
- yaymicro

yes! I pity you for your comment, and you deserve every bit of it..

Quote from: cidepix on March 10, 2014, 22:25

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

sorry to disappoint you but symbiostock IS a success..

I won't be giving away numbers but in the first 10 days of march I made more on symbiostock than the following agencies combined:

- depositphotos
- dreamstime
- envato
- fotolia
- bigstock
- canstock
- zazzle
- veer
- graphicleftovers
- stockfresh
- alamy
- yaymicro

yes! I pity you for your comment, and you deserve every bit of it..

Wow! That's encouraging news! Congrats!!

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 21:12

Quote from: chromaco on March 10, 2014, 19:41
It seems like it takes around 90-120 days for people to start seeing sales. Also if you just upload the same images as the micros and don't do any SEO or customization of your titles and content it will probably take longer.

That's interesting to know. I'm getting close to that range, so hopefully things pick up soon. I think I'm spoiled because my Ktools site started selling right away. I probably put a little more work into it, but not a ton more. My traffic is still garbage though, so I need to work on it. It's all on my to do list.

The only sale i made was in the first couple of months, before i even had all of my images online. Nothing after that.


Dont have an SY site now, but still have my own site. It still takes work.


Success = sales and money.


If you can work on your site full-time, if you know quite a bit about seo, if you can spend time on social media, if you have multiple sites you can all link together and you dont mind waiting a year or maybe more for a sale, then you might be successful.

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 18:43

Quote from: shotupdave on March 10, 2014, 18:28


I usually do not speak out on someone  comments but your comment was quite rude and vey very ignorant. Many people put many hundreds of hours trying to something different and you in one stupid moment in your life try to destroy all of their hard work. Shame on you.

It didn't hurt my feelings. It's definitely not going to stop me from moving forward. I actually wrote what I wrote because it is true and it gives a fair perspective of how things are going. I think you want both the positive and negative stories.

Typically only positive stories are allowed. And how can one persons opinion destroy a whole lot of work? I still dont get that attitude.

Quote from: cidepix on March 10, 2014, 22:25

Quote from: fritz on March 10, 2014, 16:27

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 15:14
A whole bunch of nothing.

Good to know that Symbiostock is not as successful story as it looks on the first sight.

sorry to disappoint you but symbiostock IS a success..

I won't be giving away numbers but in the first 10 days of march I made more on symbiostock than the following agencies combined:

- depositphotos
- dreamstime
- envato
- fotolia
- bigstock
- canstock
- zazzle
- veer
- graphicleftovers
- stockfresh
- alamy
- yaymicro

yes! I pity you for your comment, and you deserve every bit of it..

So, you had one big sale, or multiple sales?

I'm happy for you, but I think people are wondering are your results a rule or an exception. How was you Feb? And Jan? How are your averages?

Quote from: cathyslife stockphotos.com on March 11, 2014, 00:15

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 21:12

Quote from: chromaco on March 10, 2014, 19:41
It seems like it takes around 90-120 days for people to start seeing sales. Also if you just upload the same images as the micros and don't do any SEO or customization of your titles and content it will probably take longer.

That's interesting to know. I'm getting close to that range, so hopefully things pick up soon. I think I'm spoiled because my Ktools site started selling right away. I probably put a little more work into it, but not a ton more. My traffic is still garbage though, so I need to work on it. It's all on my to do list.

The only sale i made was in the first couple of months, before i even had all of my images online. Nothing after that.


Dont have an SY site now, but still have my own site. It still takes work.


Success = sales and money.


If you can work on your site full-time, if you know quite a bit about seo, if you can spend time on social media, if you have multiple sites you can all link together and you dont mind waiting a year or maybe more for a sale, then you might be successful.

I think the part in bold applies to any self-hosted site, not just Symbiostock, and anyone considering a self hosted site on any platform should take note. There is no magic wand - "build it and they will come" just doesn't apply.  As photographers whether it's assignment work, micro, self hosted or with an agency you need to put in the effort to build a strong portfolio and market yourself. 

Quote from: klsbear on March 11, 2014, 00:25

Quote from: cathyslife stockphotos.com on March 11, 2014, 00:15

Quote from: cthoman on March 10, 2014, 21:12

Quote from: chromaco on March 10, 2014, 19:41
It seems like it takes around 90-120 days for people to start seeing sales. Also if you just upload the same images as the micros and don't do any SEO or customization of your titles and content it will probably take longer.

That's interesting to know. I'm getting close to that range, so hopefully things pick up soon. I think I'm spoiled because my Ktools site started selling right away. I probably put a little more work into it, but not a ton more. My traffic is still garbage though, so I need to work on it. It's all on my to do list.

The only sale i made was in the first couple of months, before i even had all of my images online. Nothing after that.


Dont have an SY site now, but still have my own site. It still takes work.


Success = sales and money.


If you can work on your site full-time, if you know quite a bit about seo, if you can spend time on social media, if you have multiple sites you can all link together and you dont mind waiting a year or maybe more for a sale, then you might be successful.

I think the part in bold applies to any self-hosted site, not just Symbiostock, and anyone considering a self hosted site on any platform should take note. There is no magic wand - "build it and they will come" just doesn't apply.  As photographers whether it's assignment work, micro, self hosted or with an agency you need to put in the effort to build a strong portfolio and market yourself.

True. Although we may think their commissions are too high, the agencies use a lot of that money for marketing, which is how our work gets seen. With your own site you have to do your own marketing.