Author Topic: Polylooks open in the UK (Read 9541 times)

leaf · « **on:** September 15, 2009, 07:48 »

Polylooks, which is owned by a large German telecom company has now opened a UK webfront.

It will be interesting to see how they do. I am not to keen on uploading to yet another agency, but the more agencies in the market the more advertising $$ that are out there to get new customers. Also the more agencies the more competition there is to keep the photographer - hopefully providing us with better terms.

[mystockphoto]

MikLav · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2009, 09:29 »

...and they seem to accept non-German photographers which they didn't do when they first opened.

Microbius · « **Reply #2 on:** September 15, 2009, 09:42 »

i think they recruited a few internationals then ran into some sort of legal or tax issues and had to delay offering their work on their site. Looks like they may have sorted it now.

leaf · « **Reply #3 on:** September 15, 2009, 10:02 »

is anyone submitting to the German site already? How is it going.

RT · « **Reply #4 on:** September 15, 2009, 10:33 »

Quote from: leaf on September 15, 2009, 10:02

is anyone submitting to the German site already? How is it going.

I was one of those that were 'recruited' after much speculation and discussions with a couple of others that had been picked I decided to take a risk and uploaded 100 shots to test the water, I heard absolutely nothing from them not even an acknowledgment that they'd received the shots, I emailed and eventually got a reply stating there were legal issues and I (we) would be contacted when it was sorted out, guess what, I've heard nothing from them and didn't realise they'd opened until I saw your thread.

And this is how they treat the people they individually hand picked for the launch !!

JerryL5 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 15, 2009, 16:13 »

Signed up, but it turns out since I'm in the USA, I can't upload
because of tax withholding, which they do not do. They do
offer to send an email when the situation changes..

takestock · « **Reply #6 on:** September 15, 2009, 16:54 »

I think I have tired now of submitting to new sites.
They all seem to come with a "Fanfare" but very soon fade and are almost forgotten.

microstockinsider · « **Reply #7 on:** September 15, 2009, 19:18 »

I signed up to the uk site just to have a look around, but the photographers test is still in German... perhaps I'll wait a while until they have ironed out the bugs. They do have the backing of Deutsche Telekom...

sharpshot · « **Reply #8 on:** September 16, 2009, 01:55 »

They own T-mobile, so perhaps they intend to use the images for mobile phones? This could be a big market as mobile phone screens get bigger and people want to have decent images on them. I wonder why they didn't buy one of the current sites? It seems an easier way than starting from scratch now.

sharpshot · « **Reply #9 on:** September 16, 2009, 02:49 »

Quote from: microstockinsider on September 15, 2009, 19:18

I signed up to the uk site just to have a look around, but the photographers test is still in German... perhaps I'll wait a while until they have ironed out the bugs. They do have the backing of Deutsche Telekom...

I just did it in English, perhaps they have just changed it?

I need to double check the legal small print before uploading anything, haven't got the time right now but there were a few points there I wasn't sure about.

MikLav · « **Reply #10 on:** September 16, 2009, 15:30 »

Quote from: microstockinsider on September 15, 2009, 19:18

I signed up to the uk site just to have a look around, but the photographers test is still in German... perhaps I'll wait a while until they have ironed out the bugs. They do have the backing of Deutsche Telekom...

I did it in English

Just tried to upload 10 photos. FTP went fine, keywords read correctly, categorizing and attaching releases is quite easy.

Images got approved within a couple hours. Very soon they all got their first views - some got at least one, some got several.

I have no idea about translation to German - and this is something not easy for me to test

As everyone else here, I too wonder whether they will succeed. They are indeed not just "yet another microstock" because they are backed by such a giant as Deutsche Telekom. Not only have they thick pockets but also they control quite a few marketing channels. Let's see what will come out of that...

Microstock Posts · « **Reply #11 on:** September 18, 2009, 09:13 »

The site seems quite good. What I noticed, is that they accept images of people without releases, so long as their faces aren't showing.

leaf · « **Reply #12 on:** November 11, 2009, 17:31 »

does anyone have any updates for this site?

microstockinsider · « **Reply #13 on:** November 11, 2009, 20:29 »

No
because still when I login to polylooks.co.uk and click on "sell images" > "do the test" I get taken to

https://uk.polylooks.com/microstock-user-show_skill_test_start.php

and I get a nice German questionnaire...

Vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse, als Fotograf über Polylooks Bilder anzubieten!

Sie wurden erfolgreich als Fotograf bei Polylooks registriert.
Unser System hat festgestellt, dass Sie sich außerhalb Deutschlands aufhalten. Fotografen, die im Ausland leben, können sich aus steuerlichen Gründen (Abfuhr von Quellensteuern) derzeit noch nicht bei Polylooks anmelden. Diesbezüglich arbeiten wir an einer Lösung. Gerne informieren wir Sie, sobald der Verkauf von Bildern für Fotografen aus dem Ausland möglich ist. Bitte hinterlassen Sie hierfür Ihre E-Mail Adresse in dem unten stehenden Kontaktformular.

Die markierten Felder * sind Pflichtangaben, bitte füllen Sie diese auf jeden Fall aus.

Am I the only one?

Suljo · « **Reply #14 on:** November 11, 2009, 20:39 »

cc
They accept authors from only 13 counties and have only PayPal payment method!?!

Freezingpictures · « **Reply #15 on:** November 12, 2009, 03:09 »

I was one of those whom they invited in the early days. For me there was no problem since I am German. They offered me as I understood them at the time to sent them my images on DVD and they would do all the uploading and everything. Turned out it was just the uploading and I still had to do some things on their website to be able to have them online. I finished some images for them, over a hundered of my better images.
No sale in months. For me it was so far a waste of my time. I was initially flattered by the agency that they even called me on the phone and was told about their big plans. Actually that person was a former employee of Getty and backed up with the mighty Telecom it made me think this would kind of gurantee sucess. But I was wrong. In fact I even get more views in a couple of hours at Fotolia than I have gotten in several month of beeing at polylooks.

leaf · « **Reply #16 on:** November 12, 2009, 03:41 »

thanks for the thoughts. It sure seems like an uphill battle for new sites!

oboy · « **Reply #17 on:** November 12, 2009, 08:28 »

I send them a email asking, what about if I live in the US. The answer came quick. They worked out the tax problems with several European countries, but have not resolved the tax problems with the USA. They are working on it and will send me an email as soon as they accept contributors from the USA.

RT · « **Reply #18 on:** November 12, 2009, 08:39 »

Quote from: Freezingpictures on November 12, 2009, 03:09

I was one of those whom they invited in the early days. For me there was no problem since I am German. They offered me as I understood them at the time to sent them my images on DVD and they would do all the uploading and everything. Turned out it was just the uploading and I still had to do some things on their website to be able to have them online. I finished some images for them, over a hundered of my better images.
No sale in months. For me it was so far a waste of my time. I was initially flattered by the agency that they even called me on the phone and was told about their big plans. Actually that person was a former employee of Getty and backed up with the mighty Telecom it made me think this would kind of gurantee sucess. But I was wrong. In fact I even get more views in a couple of hours at Fotolia than I have gotten in several month of beeing at polylooks.

Pretty much the same experience as me, I had the phone call and the offer of an interview in their magazine and being a featured photographer, I uploaded 100 shots via FTP then heard nothing from them, I noticed the site had gone live and I still hadn't heard from them, then a couple of weeks later I got an email saying they had sorted out the tax problems and that I could then register on the site with preferential treatment to complete the upload process - I haven't bothered yet and don't think I will !

fotorob · « **Reply #19 on:** November 17, 2009, 09:58 »

Maybe it is of interest for some photographers:

My latest income at Polylooks: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alltageinesfotoproduzenten.de%2F2009%2F11%2F17%2Ffotografen-einnahmen-bei-microstock-bildagentur-polylooks%2F
(auto translated by Google, hope it is understandable).

Bye, Robert

etienjones · « **Reply #20 on:** November 17, 2009, 10:13 »

Quote from: fotorob on November 17, 2009, 09:58

Maybe it is of interest for some photographers:

My latest income at Polylooks: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alltageinesfotoproduzenten.de%2F2009%2F11%2F17%2Ffotografen-einnahmen-bei-microstock-bildagentur-polylooks%2F
(auto translated by Google, hope it is understandable).

Bye, Robert

Thanks Rob for your experiences. It sure doesn't make one want to go through all the work to upload there.

E

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Author Topic: Polylooks open in the UK (Read 9541 times)

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