Don't worry. The laundry tip is the most useful thing I've heard all year.

.

I love to iron. I find it relaxing. I do it while watching TV.

How weird does that make me?

I love to iron. I find it relaxing. I do it while watching TV.

How weird does that make me?

It's only weird if you are doing it naked too.

@Laundry Chit Chatters. This thread's been taken to the cleaners.

"Sorry to snip, but are you kidding? There's stock images in use everywhere in Germany, and I'm sure someone can correct me but its the biggest market outside the US for stock images. Mostly buyers are using Fotolia, but stock images are everywhere."

Stock images are in use everywhere when designers do the job. And obviously all the large advertising campaigns that you see are done by designers.

I am talking about small to medium businesses that make the backbone of the German economy. Again many of them will hire a designer, for instance when they do a website or have a large project.

But they rarely use a stock site directly - for instance when they do their routine power point presentations, small newsletter etc...I used to work on up to 12 trade shows a year that had mostly small businesses. All the small electricians, restaurants, pubs, clothes shops, doctors. All these people can use images. And of course all the machine and engineering related companies that noone has ever heard of but that are essentiel to German success in export.

But they are usually too stingy to hire a photographer so either they take their own pictures or just use text.

Small - medium businesses carry 70% of our economy, so that is a huge market to approach.

Like you say the designers seem to favor fotolia, at least that is the most common name I encounter if the webdesigners lists the image credits.

So over here istock can grow two ways: reach out direct to the smaller businesses and take away fotolias market share.

Germans are "do it yourself" people, paying for a designers work hour is considered expensive by many. So will enjoy working with a stock site if someone shows them how to use it.

I�ve been showing people how to use istock for years. Unfortuantely when best match was dominated by V/A without a price filter, even my own friends opened accounts on fotolia.

On some searches V/A was 70% of the first 200 images, especially for people who don�t use stock every day it appeared like istock had dramatically increased their prices.

So whatever market share istock has now, they can still grow for many years to come.

Sorry for disturbing the discussion by talking about stock :-)

I�ll definetly try the 8 minute dryer tip if it ever stops raining this summer..

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum and I just noticed this thread about a "Big Change at IS". Is iStock opening up a laundry service?

 

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this forum and I just noticed this thread about a "Big Change at IS". Is iStock opening up a laundry service?

 

They've been taking their contributors to the cleaners for a couple of years now

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I also use "Downy Wrinkle Releaser" . 

...are we still talking about the ironing, or does this stuff apply to the naked people?

Quote from: jamirae on August 11, 2011, 11:44

I also use "Downy Wrinkle Releaser" . 

...are we still talking about the ironing, or does this stuff apply to the naked people?

If the latter, I could use a 50 gallon drum