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Topics - cybernesco
1
« on: October 09, 2015, 12:43 »
It has been a while since my last post, however, something weird happened to my site recently which might be of interest to the ones selling images from their own sites and at the same time I would welcome inputs from your theories.
I haven't added any photos on any sites including mine for over a year. Got busy in other stuff and sort of lost a bit the interest. Despite this, still getting $400-500 a month from approx 1200 images.
Since 2011, from my site I never got more than $5-6 every two months and according to Google Analytics never more than 4-10 unique visitors a day, however, recently, in the last 7-8 days this has jumped to an average of 60-80 unique visitors a day.
After further examination through Google Analytics, most of that traffic is from most of all the towns in Romania and they all appear to be from legit IP addresses. They all follow similar patterns to get to my site. Most of them google my name "denis pepin" and than click on one of my photos of a coyote directing them to my site landing on a secondary page called "Images in Action". Then, they click again on that coyote to see it bigger. Thereafter they flip to the next 2-3 images in that gallery an then exit.
For the last few days, this has been going on hundreds of times from diffrent towns, different computers, tablets, phones, browsers ect.. but mostly from Romania? The only differences in the pattern is the number of images being flipped after seeing that first coyote.
Of course no sales.
Not all googles from all countries can see that coyote on the first page when my name "denis pepin" is googled, however, google from Romania "google.ro" and a few other European countries can see it.
The big question is, how someone would know me and why someone would google "denis pepin" just to see a coyote. Why not just google "coyote"
Could it be fake traffic? Could it be that a small script took control of all those computers? But why someone else would do this without any benefit?
Maybe Leaf with all his experience or someone else could shed some light. I just love puzzles. Thanks
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« on: June 02, 2015, 18:10 »
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« on: May 30, 2013, 10:26 »
Just kidding...we do need models. I have 100 photos of my face out of 1360 images and usually I have various subject selling. However, this morning total surprise to see this...this is funny Denis 
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« on: January 17, 2013, 02:45 »
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« on: January 06, 2013, 14:29 »
Interestingly and surprisingly to me, if you google my username "cybernesco" you will get over 1,250,000 hits. With google.ca, the odd times it falls back to 160,000 hits, but less so with google.com.
Most of all links seem to be related to my photos and a minority to discussions I had in various forums. In 1999, I did coin the word, cybernesco, for the creation of a small personal website cybernesco.com. After a few months, in 2000, I got bored, deactivated the site and let the name registration expired.
It is only in 2005, that I started to use that word again not for a site but as my username for all photo sites and forums. Recently, I noticed that by googling "cybernesco" I'll get over a million hits. Upon this discovery, I decided to try and register the domain name again so that maybe its popularity could be used for something. Godaddy had the name listed as a premium name and wanted $250. Maybe it was registered by other sites before but was not too useful due to its attachment to photography and me.
I though about paying the $250, until I saw a deal with AEIOU.com. By buying their cheap hosting service for a year for $119., they were giving a premium domain name hosted by Godaddy.. So I went that route and got the name registered. Now, I am trying to figure out what to do with it. I already have my microstock site selling photos at denispepin.com which I already spent money and time to get going.
Maybe, cybernesco.com could be something as simple as some of my thoughts about photography followed by links of independent websites among some of us. Could the popularity of the name be sufficient to get traffic and use the site as a hub for independent websites?
Maybe I am all wrong about this? Maybe a million hits on a coined word nowadays mean nothing? Tell me what you think?
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« on: November 09, 2012, 13:42 »
As well as being a part-time microstock photographer, I am an instrumental pop music composer. Until January 15, 2013, I will be donating all proceeds from all downloads of my last release, "Just For You", to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Canada(CHEO). CHEO is a pediatric health and research center providing outstanding family-centered patient care, pioneering breakthrough research, and training the health care professionals of tomorrow. Although all proceeds will be given to CHEO, CHEO is a partner of the Children's Miracle Network which comprised more than 170 children's hospitals in North America. Therefore, when you help one hospital in doing their research, you are helping them all when discoveries are made and shared. "Just For You" can be previewed or purchased for $0.99 at iTunes , Amazon and cdbaby .   Check for my event posted on the CHEO Foundation website. Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Canada. Denis Pepin
7
« on: September 26, 2012, 23:03 »
I had written instrumental pop music years ago which never got played the way I wanted due to lack of resources and skills. However, recently, my interest in music got reignited after I found out how much music software has progressed since then. I was able to reproduce a tune I wrote down in 1989 just the way I wanted it just by using music software and various tones. In addition because of my commercial photography skills, I was able to create my own album artwork. This music piece , "Just for You", has a soft "easy listening" introduction going into an instrumental, pop style catchy and jazzy short tune with a strong active bass and a progressive drum line that goes from pop to marching band to pop. Here is the artwork: You can listen to all of it here: http://soundcloud.com/cybernesco/just-for-youOn the itunes store: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/just-for-you-single/id565927139Denis
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« on: April 17, 2012, 08:30 »
I was just wondering if it is the same for everybody else?
Denis
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« on: March 04, 2012, 18:50 »
I am totally happy!! after 3 1/2 months, I finally got my first sales from my own website. Four medium size photos, royalty-free standard license, $5. each for a total of $20. One coyote, one boat, Brienz Lake in Switzerland and one model posing, bought by someone in Atlanta. Although this is not much, I am getting the same feeling I had on my first download with SS in 2005. Denis denispepin.com
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« on: January 26, 2012, 23:48 »
As a promotional offer to attract eventual prospective buyers and for a short period of time, I am giving free downloads of 10 high resolution images. Limited usages of those free downloads are dictated by the Royalty-Free standard license terms as indicated on my website. Denis http://www.denispepin.com/-/galleries/free-image  
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« on: January 13, 2012, 13:39 »
Although I did not get a sale yet I am getting major improvement in Google search results position. I am getting first page position placement for the following keywords without quotes: eiffel tower, women shopping, women fashion, woman fashion, holding a sign, guy holding girl, thumbs up. So far I am getting first page placement just with one word querry with the following: expression, expressions, eiffel. Of course those placements can be very dynamic as it can fluctuate from first page to second or third within a few seconds Improvement is my main concern. As long there is improvement, there is hope. Denis EDIT: New findings after the fact: I just realized that those search results were skewed by the fact I was signed into my Google account when I made those tests. The search engine algorithn seems to take into consideration the site owner being signed-in. Once signed-out those seach results fall-out considerably. What a bummer! 
12
« on: January 06, 2012, 18:38 »
Id like to tell you about what I have learned so far building my site, SEO matters, advertizing it ect After 42 days online, I have not made one sale and so far I am averaging only 2-3 unique visitors a day (excluding myself of course). I did read a lot from many various sources throughout the internet. From what I can understand, although Google do some indexing soon after your site is online, it can take up to 6 months before it is fully indexed. It has been possible for me to see the Google indexation process through photodeck user interface. Firstly, after your site is online, within the next few days and hardly without any intervention from your part, Google proceed by indexing your main page, secondary pages and thereafter every single image. Every page and image within your site gets a link. For that process to take place and for Google to become aware of your site, the only needed thing is a link of your main page somewhere within Google billions indexed sites. For me by just putting a link on this site a few weeks ago was sufficient for Google to pick it up and index it. The next level of indexation gets a better look at the inner parts of your content and, presumably, that can take anywhere from a few weeks to 6 months after which the site should get a little boost in visitors. By that I mean, anything above 2-3 unique visitors a day. Of course, at that point, there are many other variables that would influence the number of visitors. In the next level of indexation, Google create an indexed link leading to a page containing all images for every single different keyword amongst all your images. Therefore for someone that has over a thousand images containing an average of 30-50 keywords per image while subtracting the similar ones, it should create many thousands of links just with the keywords. It is possible to see all those indexed links by simply using the Google command, site:, followed by your site main address. Therefore, in the Google field, without the quotes, you would apply the following syntax site:www.example.com and hit enter. In my case, with 1300 images, I have 2260 links indexed so far. I can see that so far, my main page, all secondary pages, all images and many keywords have been indexed. Still are many more keywords to be indexed, hence why it still could take up to 6 months. Regarding giving good jpg names, I know that some of you recommended to rename images so that they are better optimized for search engines. However one thing I have discovered having my site with photodeck, for each one of my image, the title within the image metadata is used as part of the name for an indexed link not the jpg file name. Within all the indexed links I did not find any link carrying my file name. Furthermore, if you check your own gallery at Shutterstock, you will see that each image link contain the title from the title in the metadata not the file name. The difference in the handling of the image name between Shutterstock and Photodeck is that Photodeck does not add the extension jpg at the end of the link name while Shutterstock does. In both cases, in addition of the image metadata title being added to the link, dashes are put in between each word. Those findings, in my situation, lead me to believe that changing my file names would be a waste of time for now. Furthermore, I presumed it would not be too hard to find a script or maybe make one that would change your jpg file names with the ones from your image metadata titles. I think most of us have created better metadata titles then the file names. Regarding advertising your site, this is the hard part. Obviously if you are going to make a site to sell images, you will want to tell people about it and this is the tricky part. Why? Because most people dont want to hear about it. I think this forum has been the most receptive when I introduced it few weeks ago. It is like living in your own world and talking to yourself as you look at the traffic of one two or three visitors a day. As I look at my spam folder getting filled with dozen of emails everyday which I have to filter out to make sure that I dont delete an important email, I do understand the dilemma. Two weeks ago I got banned from another forum for spamming. I introduce myself and put up a link in the advertize your website group but got very negative comments and eventually got banned while trying to defend myself. I am a little more cautious now. I had more success writing to people that already had my images for which many responded with positive comments while some even put up links on their sites. Many lost the knowledge of how my images were acquired and even one said that she had picked it up from Google Images and did not know it was copyrighted. For the latter, I did explain to her that she was infringing copyright laws, gave her links on the subject and in exchange for her understanding I indicated to her that she could keep the image in place as long as she give me credit and a link to my site, which she agreed. Her site was only serving her small town selling used itemsnothing too fancy. I found many of my images as facebook avatars which gave me great opportunities to introduce myself on their walls thanking them for using my images while leaving links. This is truly difficult to get trusted and get that first sale but what I have learned is, whether a website is to be successful or not, it does take the time to find out. Denis denispepin.com
13
« on: December 23, 2011, 13:45 »
Until the end of January 2012, I am giving free downloads of my Eiffel Tower image. Limited usage of those free downloads is dictated by the Royalty-Free standard and editorial license terms as indicated on my website. It is a 12.2 MP file. denispepin.com
14
« on: December 14, 2011, 14:19 »
I just created a page on my website called "Images In Action". Basically it is a showcase of my images that have been popular with many commercial websites. Each image is followed by several links leading to those sites using it. There will be hundreds more links to come. I called those images "foolproof" because of their "proven" popularity and therefore have those images linked to a buy area if visitors wish to buy such images. http://denispepin.com/in-actionAs well I did create a "Make Money" page where anyone with an email address and a PayPal account can make 30% commission by simply referring buyers to my site with a code. http://denispepin.com/make-money
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« on: December 11, 2011, 13:54 »
As most of you are aware, good, concise, precise keywording has always been a strong factor in getting your images found by image buyers. As I am still a recent stock photo website owner with no prior experience in promoting and marketing one, I quickly realized the importance of having all of my images well tagged with proper keywords. I have discovered that it is much more important when it is your own website. At the early stage of an image website, Google index all your gallery titles and image keywords. Needless to say Google is your best friend to have if your image keywords and gallery titles are well thoughout. If an image buyer search from the google search engine instead of an image agency, your site keywords will compete with all other similar keywords under the "Google ranking system". It is the same principle as competing with similar keywords within an agency, but the big difference is you are competing under Google algorithm not an agency own brand of algorithm. Interestingly, I did a few Google searches of my images to see how my website ranked amongst others. Obviously I needed to be fairly descriptive in my keywords and included my name denis pepin to have results readily available. Firstly I searched the following keywords: denis pepin toronto building photos. Not surprisingly, the resulting first line is a Shutterstock link leading to my Toronto buildings, the next one is leading to depositphotos and the next one after, to my site page where some of those buildings are located at denispepin.com. The next lines after that are Fotolia, Veer, 123RF etc. all leading to those same buildings with the same keywords. My site came in third while other big agencies fall behind. Of course hardly anybody will search images with my name attached, and obviously my photos will not come up first without it, but it does show that Google does a good job at finding your own site specific images if they have proper keywords. I believe that once all the basics of having a beautiful image site is met, getting better Google ranking with less keywords to type in the search field can only come with a promotional strategy and time. Denis http://denispepin.com
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« on: December 03, 2011, 20:14 »
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« on: November 24, 2011, 21:34 »
I recently setup my website through photodeck.com. That was a piece of cake to setup. All the setup tools are so intuitive and well thoughout that it made the experience a very pleasant one. 14 days free and $9.99 a month thereafter for the basic package which will probably be sufficient for me for sometime to come. It is at his most basic setup for the moment but it has all the necessary components to make sales happened if I can get some traffic to come my way. I will eventually make it a bit nicer. I used smugmug for sometime, although it is not directed at the same crowd, I found photodeck far more intuitive and easier to work with. Here it is: http://denispepin.com
18
« on: March 24, 2011, 11:39 »
Totally Free local and long distance calls. This is no gimmick, nothing hidden, no contract and absolutly not intrusive. Unlike Skype, the telephone feature on KNCTR is completely free to the consumer allowing them to make FREE local and long distance calls to mobile phones and land lines from their PC based computers. go to http://www.knctr.comI tried this last night and it is flawless. I think everybody should try this, however I think for the moment it only works in US and Canada.
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« on: November 04, 2010, 15:41 »
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« on: February 19, 2010, 14:25 »
The following is the latest from Chad regarding Purchase incentives and commission structure: Hi everyone, We have been carefully monitoring sales since the new bundle pricing was implemented earlier this month. We're very pleased with the results and would like to provide you with the following update. As a backgrounder, all of you know that Fotolia's previous credit pricing ranged from $0.75 to $1, depending on the amount of credits purchased. On average, customers purchased credits at a rate of $0.94 each. Fotolia paid contributors as if those credits were purchased at $1, regardless. In February, the new credit bundles were created to incentivize customers towards buying larger bundles. If we succeeded, that would mean a larger number of credits in the system, benefiting contributors by way of increased downloads. Even though we're only several weeks into the change, we're proud to report some initial success. On average, we're awarding 20% in bonus credits. Thus, we will continue to pay contributors commissions based on $1 credits. We also saw a dramatic increase in the number of credits awarded. In fact, it jumped from 6% in January to 20% in February to date. Without calculating the effects of Fotolia's natural growth rate, that means we introduced an additional 14% in credits into Fotolia's ecosystem. This additional growth in the system, along with our natural viral growth and our aggressive sales and marketing program will translate into continued success for all contributors in Fotolia's family. We thank you for your continued support. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and report back to you with any changes. Fotolia management http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25258&p=5 Denis
21
« on: January 06, 2010, 15:35 »
06/01/2010 21:29 ModeratorWE WANT OUR W7 LETTERHi All, good news, as it stands right now, no ITIN will be needed for treaty to apply, therefor the W8ben form will be sufficient for the treaty to apply, so the vast majority should have a 0% or a very low withholding rate. Just submit your W8 forms correctly and wait for validation. Once your W8 form has been validated, you'll be done. A refund for the taken taxes so far will apply to each account within the next few days. we will soon make an official announcement. Check blog and forums later on. I hope you are all happy campers now Daniela Director, Fotolia United Kingdom http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=24454Denis  
22
« on: November 12, 2009, 15:45 »
I have been with StockXpert since the beginning and they always paid through paypal within a couple of days, sometimes within a couple hours. Not this time, the request for payment was sent Nov 3, it is almost 9 complete days now and nothing yet. I did send an email to support 18 hours ago and no reply yet. At the moment, I am just mildly concerned and just wondering if this has become the norm? Anybody else out there taking that long? Thanks for responding. Denis
23
« on: August 01, 2009, 13:45 »
This message is directed to Marksout regarding his topic "Sad day for photographers"
I am a 53 years old security guard doing a mixture of night and day shifts in a government building. 4 years ago I knew nothing about photography. Microstock has given me $41,000.00 since then and I am still growing. I will not stop until I make enought to get out of my regular boring job. I don't care what anybody says, this is definetly the best opportunity that has ever happened to me. I guess this is what freedom is all about.
Denis
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« on: July 14, 2009, 12:48 »
Does anyone has practical knowledge about Alamy additional revenue opportunities? Under that heading, there are three different ways that your images can be bought in addition to Alamy's regular sales which are: 1- Novel Use 2- Distribution 3- UK Newspaper Scheme.
After reading the provided info under each one, I am skeptical about opting in. If I opt in all of them, would that increase my total revenue coming from Alamy, or will it decrease if buyers find a cheaper way by going through those schemes instead? Anyone has " before and after" experiences regarding those three options.
Thank you for reading this
Denis
25
« on: February 11, 2009, 16:09 »
I guys, I recently received the following email and just need your opinion. Should I ask for money? Should they buy it through Istock? Is the publicity generated would be worthwhile not to ask for a fee? Anybody here familiar with Photoshop Creative magazine? Thank you this is really appreciated. " Hi Denis,
Hope you are well. Great collection of images by the way, we're particularly interested in one of your blonde models (see attached), which we've seen both on iStock and you
personal website.
I'm the editor of Photoshop Creative magazine, which teaches readers how to use Photoshop with a range of tutorials.
We're planning a tutorial on how to use the background eraser tool in Photoshop - using your photograph as the starting image. Ideally we'd love to put this image on the accompanying disc so that readers can attempt the tutorial for themselves. Would you grant us permission for us to use this image (a small low-res version is fine) in this way in the UK and foreign version of the magazine? We've done this before with other iStock photographers and get permission from Megan at iStock too. Obviously we'll credit you and publish your istock link (or your personal website link - whatever you prefer) and post you a copy of the magazine too.
Let me know if this is okay with you?
Best wishes
Rosie : )
Rosie Tanner
Editor
Photoshop Creative
Imagine Publishing Ltd
Richmond House
33 Richmond Hill
Bournemouth
BH2 6EZ
( (01202) 586275
+ [email protected]
www.photoshopcreative.co.uk
www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
www.imagineshop.co.uk
ImaginePodcasts.com
Imagine Publishing Ltd, Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6EZ
Registered company 5374037 (England): VAT No 864 6042 18
Directors: Damian Butt, Steven Boyd, Mark Kendrick, Harry Dhand, Andrew Hartley, Sam Watkinson
" The photo in question can be seen through the following link: http://www.usefulimage.com/gallery/4245759#253688903_ybUkRDenis
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