MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: MarkRyanDesigns on July 11, 2012, 09:13
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Hello there, I ve been illustrating for a couple years and I was curious if anyone had any suggestions on how to get you illustrations noticed on istock. Do Lightboxes help get a bit of a spotlight on your work?
For every couple of hours I spend on an illustration it just feels like it's a drop in a very large bucket.
Mark
http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=4862097 (http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=4862097)
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I've never noticed lightboxes make a difference.
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Hello there, I ve been illustrating for a couple years and I was curious if anyone had any suggestions on how to get you illustrations noticed on istock. Do Lightboxes help get a bit of a spotlight on your work?
For every couple of hours I spend on an illustration it just feels like it's a drop in a very large bucket.
Mark
[url]http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=4862097[/url] ([url]http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=4862097[/url])
I feel like my entire portfolio is a drop in the bucket. And, it really is. :P
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Build a time machine, and go back in time a few years. ;D
All you can really do is make a lot of great images, keyword them as well as you can, and find the best partners to help you sell them.
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I would have to recomend you display similar images (dont over kill tho!) so on closer inspection by the potential buyer they can see other images by YOU if the one they are viewing is not going to work for them. Also link to lightboxes if you have many on the same subject. The amount of time that this takes compaired to adding just one image is insignificant (using DM (there may be some issues with illustrations)).
I answer this, not as a contributor who tries to do this, but as an EX buyer. If I liked the artists work, I found it useful to browse their work for similar files etc, and I would even change my needs to use a piece by a particular artist (that's what design is all about, changing everything and anything for the best end result)
I once designed a reciepe book (on the cheap) and once I had found a good photographer we would actually change the reciepe slightly in order to keep using their work, and it looked the better for it as you could tell all the images had a similar feel and could have been shot for the book.
Edited to say… keep up the good work with the keywording.
One final thought, Have you thought about designing illustrations for current affairs/topics like green energy, banking crisis, consumerism? etc.
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I've never noticed lightboxes make a difference.
I had the same feeling for a while but had many times 3 or 4 files sold for the same buyer, 2 or 3 times had a buyer getting over 15 files
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2 or 3 times had a buyer getting over 15 files
At IS?!? :o
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2 or 3 times had a buyer getting over 15 files
At IS?!? :o
last week had one buyer getting 17 files, need to mention for 24 cents each lol
and a few days after I belive the same buyer got 8 files for 68 cents each, S size this time
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2 or 3 times had a buyer getting over 15 files
At IS?!? :o
Years abo I had a buyer buy 17 of the same topic. All S, (no XS then) and oddly, I've never been able to find the website. Guess s/he must have made a presentation. That day (with the other dls the same day) is still by far my best DLs total, though not $$. Gosh, I was excited. I don't think I've ever noticed more than 3 sales to one buyer since.
However, as lightboxes can't do any harm, I definitely use them.
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Are there any specific settings that help when making a lightbox?
I just started making lightboxes for each individual model. So that if a buyer want's more images from one model he can find them easily.
When i go to the lightboxes menu, under the my uploads menu, it just says image is in a private lightbox.
Is this right?
Can buyers actually see and use the lightbox??
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You have to link them via code in the description field.
Someone here might point to the generator someone created to make the links
Something like this
(http://www.microstockgroup.com/file_thumbview_approve.php?size=1&id=#####) (http://www.microstockgroup.com/file_search.php?action=file&lightboxID=#####)
replace #### with the lightbox number and the other one with an image number that is representive of whats in the lightbox.
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Are there any specific settings that help when making a lightbox?
I just started making lightboxes for each individual model. So that if a buyer want's more images from one model he can find them easily.
When i go to the lightboxes menu, under the my uploads menu, it just says image is in a private lightbox.
Is this right?
Can buyers actually see and use the lightbox??
It it's only your images which are in the lightbox, it should indeed be a private lightbox.
If you want buyers to be able to see them, make a banner and put it in the description area of each file in the series.
There wre official instructions on how to do this fairly recently, but with all the discussion / complaints recently about site bugs/breakages, I can't find it, and the awful forum search facility yielded this:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=34354&page=1 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=34354&page=1), which is more or less the way I do it. (I think I read that photobucket won't do for this nowadays - I use my own webspace, or you can use Dropbox)
I believe many people also do it via DeepMeta.
You can also link images either via http://www.sirimo.co.uk/istockphoto/ubbgen.html (http://www.sirimo.co.uk/istockphoto/ubbgen.html), which I do with smaller groups, or apparently via DeepMeta. This way you don't need to make and find a host for a banner.
Public lightboxes are for more than one person's images.
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You have to link them via code in the description field.
Someone here might point to the generator someone created to make the links
Something like this
([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/file_thumbview_approve.php?size=1&id=#####[/url]) ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/file_search.php?action=file&lightboxID=#####[/url])
replace #### with the lightbox number and the other one with an image number that is representive of whats in the lightbox.
It changed stuff and didn't display sorry, I don't know how to fix it.
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I see you guys mention that some of your images have been bought by the same buyer on IStock. How are you identifying the buyer? I don't see any identifying information when I look up a specific purchase, other than the name of the partner site if that is where the sale originated.
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Not sure how but I link all my images together (see below) and sold 4 on saturday so I think it does work.
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-21648572-rising-stock.php?st=461a9c1 (http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-21648572-rising-stock.php?st=461a9c1)
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I have a large series of similar styled illustrations (about 70 of them) that I put into a private lightbox. Each image gets a clickable lightbox image in its description.
[url=http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&lightboxID=yourlightboxid][img]url to your lightbox image[/img][/url]
Make a nice lightbox cover image, for potential buyers to click on.
According to my stats page, my lightbox gets plenty of views (more than 4000 since november 2010) and very often, buyers buy multiple images of the same series.
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I see you guys mention that some of your images have been bought by the same buyer on IStock. How are you identifying the buyer? I don't see any identifying information when I look up a specific purchase, other than the name of the partner site if that is where the sale originated.
If two or more images have been bought, of a similar theme, within a short timeframe and with the same credit value, there's a very strong likelihood that it's the same buyer.
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Good morning Mr. Noedel. The link didn't work...