The same here and I also have problems with Shutterstock (M.A. won't add the photos I uploaded after April 2022, so it's not counting those sales either).
I've reported this to the owner, but after one initial response (and no solution) I got nothing.
So the programme is now quite useless. That's a shame.

What other software are you talking about? I found Microstockr, it supports many more agencies but has some flaws and it's less useful than Microstock Analytics. And sooo slow!

Yeah, me too.
I mean, they sell HD videos for 8 dollars?? 25 for 4K video (which cost 4 or 6 times more on all other agencies)?!

Why should we practically give our videos away for free? And yeah, I'm sure they have quite a lot of sales... But we receive next to nothing!

Quote from: Quasarphoto on October 25, 2017, 16:59
Because most of the forum members hide their identity and have no link to their portfolios I take everything what is said on this page with a huuuge grain of salt. There is no way to check the relations between the complainers and their actual work. People having few hundred snapshots in their portfolio are whining their heads off, nonsense.

I have 10,000 photos on Fotolia, so not just a few hundred snapshots, and I stopped uploading to iStock a long time ago. Because if someone wants just that photo of mine, with that model and so on and buys it on iStock instead of any other agency, I make half or even less than one third of what I'd get with, say, Fotolia or Pond5.
Every sale we get on iStock means a lot of money we didn't get from another agency. You know, 15% against 50% in some cases...
So screw them, I'm not their slave, working for them for a bowl of soup!

Also if we keep supporting them, other agencies may think "Oh, these stupid contributors are happy even with a 15% commission, let's decrease ours at least a bit."

Quote from: namussi on August 17, 2017, 12:54

Quote from: StefC on August 17, 2017, 09:55
We should all boycott agencies like iStock that don't respect us and our work. Both for videos and images.
I mean, 15% commission?!? Who are we, their slaves?

Slaves are not paid anything.

Jesus.... a little flexibility, try to grasp the meaning. Not everything you read is to be taken literally. This is called hyperbole, it's a figure of speech, you know?

We should all boycott agencies like iStock that don't respect us and our work. Both for videos and images.
I mean, 15% commission?!? Who are we, their slaves?
The more we support them with our files, the more people will buy from them.... And so we lose A LOT of money. If we sold the same files at the same price through Pond5, we'd get more than 3 times the money. So every sale we have on iStock means one less sale on other agencies where we would have earned a lot more.

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on January 20, 2017, 16:35


Buyers may not search the way you think all the time, so sticking to what's in your scene/footage is important, but - as an example - including living room, cozy, house, home, interior along with fireplace, mantel, mantelpiece, gas fire (or wood or whatever) may well help your files sell if the buyer looks for "cozy living room" not "warm fireplace".

Looking at Shutterstock's list of keywords used to find my sold files,  I see some files have house selling more than home and others the opposite - so I now always include both; for interior shots, sometimes room is more important than bedroom or living room, and so on.

Also consider that buyers may use local versions of a website (for example, it.fotolia.com) and your keywords will be translated automatically to be found by those users. So you don't really know what foreign buyers will search for, what words they'll use.

I use www.microstockanalytics.com and it gives you all kinds of info and statistics, I couldn't work without it (or something similar I mean)

Quote from: spc on October 11, 2016, 10:50

Quote from: StefC on October 05, 2016, 10:33
I don't really remember. But even if they didn't sell many EL, they will begin now, if word spreads out that you can buy one for 1 dollar instead of 100. Selling out our hard work...

Is this information from their website? Because I couldn't find anything about extended licenses in their new plan.

I'm sorry, I was mislead by how they display prices next to each photo. They say: price 1 download, next to all sizes and including EL. So it looks like a small photo and an EL have the same price. But this is not the case.
But still, selling full resolution photos on demand at subscription price is just wrong and terrible for us.

After a few email where they tried to talk me out of it, they deactivated all of my files. (8300!)
Now I've just reactivated the videos (it's easy, just search for .mov or .mp4 in the "deactivated" page)

Now let's spread the word even more

On a side note, I found a nice autoclicker that does just what's needed here (except solving captcha!)
https://free-mouse-auto-clicker.it.uptodown.com/windows

I don't really remember. But even if they didn't sell many EL, they will begin now, if word spreads out that you can buy one for 1 dollar instead of 100. Selling out our hard work...

Quote from: Chichikov on October 05, 2016, 07:22

Quote from: StefC on October 04, 2016, 23:08
Their statement that this thing doesn't involve enhanced licenses is clearly false, just look at any photo. You can buy it for 1 dollar, even the enhanced (or extended) license. On Shutterstock you can get 25 dollars, on depositphotos 0.30 or so.
But no, this will not affect our earnings... How can you even think such a thing?

They mean that it will not affect our earnings on Depositphotos, because on this site, in any way, you will never get a sale for more than $0.30...

But there used to be a difference between normal license and enhanced license. Anyway, f**k them and their brilliant ideas

Their statement that this thing doesn't involve enhanced licenses is clearly false, just look at any photo. You can buy it for 1 dollar, even the enhanced (or extended) license. On Shutterstock you can get 25 dollars, on depositphotos 0.30 or so.
But no, this will not affect our earnings... How can you even think such a thing?

Hello, am I the only one having problems with online dating sites using my photos?
Some agencies do prohibit this type of usage, as it's a personal matter (it may look like the person depicted is using an online dating service and if he/she is in a relationship it could be embarassing at the very least). Other agencies don't put this in the "sensitive use" list, so there's no restriction.

One of my models has found a photo of him on an ad for plentyoffish, I tried contacting them several times on several email addresses but never got a response.

Just deleted all my files I had for sale there.

Bye 500px

If only they finally decided to PROTECT OUR WORK with a decent watermark!
At least in the Marketplace album.

But no, the "previews" are really huge (more than enough for most online uses) and the watermark is a tiny logo in a corner.
It's like saying "Hey, come here, the images are fully searchable, with tags and full descriptions and when you find it... you can steal it, it's so easy!"

Me too! I got 8 downloads at 8 cents today, never seen that before

Quote from: redwater on May 13, 2015, 00:02
Just want to ask, when buying the "Unlimited Owned License", can one still avail of the regular updates of the program in the future?

Yes, I have the Unlimited license and get all the updates.

If only they added Bigstock, too! This year, it has become my 3rd earner, after Shutterstock and Fotolia. So their data would be very important to analyse, but I can't! 

I've just removed 700 photos out of 730 I had on my public profile, I'll keep just a handful of landscapes, because.... yes I did earn something, but how many people stole my photos in the meantime? Unless we can protect them, it's not worth it!

So, any news about the watermark issue?

I have uploaded a few hundreds photos some months ago for test and the other day I sold my first for 35 dollars (not on Prime though, but from the "social network" side of 500px). But seeing my photos on Prime ready to be stolen at 900 pixels width, with that ridiculous watermark on top is just unacceptable (they're not even right-click protected, you just save them and on most removing the watermark takes 10 seconds!)

It's like they do all they can to push us away!

In response to the person saying that you can easily steal photos from personal sites anyway (or Flickr etc...), that is true but you don't put ALL of your portfolio there, do you? They are used to showcase your work, so they contain a tiny fraction of your production.
The idea here on 500px, on the other hand, is: "Upload all your portfolio here, we'll give you good money for each sale but we'll do next to nothing to protect it. People wanting to use your photos on the web will flock in and easily steal them! What are you waiting for?"

How hard is it to remove the watermark on the attached file?

I'm sorry if it sounded harsh, but what I mean is: do you want to be part of the network (hence be included in the global search engine)? Then link to it, too. Collaborations are not 1-way streets.

Does it sound fair to say: "OK I like this network thing, please everyone send me buyers. I won't give you any one, though, I want to fly solo..."

it's like those big link directories that send you lots of visitors and ask for a link back to be included in their index. If I don't want to link to them, I just don't apply (and choose not receive inbound traffic from them)

Hi everyone, I think it should be a requirement to link to symbiostock.info if one wants to be included in the global search engine, otherwise those websites will only receive and receive and not give anything back to the community. Or, if they choose to "go solo", they shouldn't be added to the global search engine either.


a quick question: I haven't added Dashphoto.eu to my network, yet it appears both on my network page and in my search results. How come?

Thanks, but my idea would be to a have single gallery with all the photos together (divided in categories as usual), but I guess it's not possible

Jo Ann, that would be very kind of you, please do.

I'll look for matches in the meantime

Is it possible to have 2 photographers on the same Symbiosite, each with his/her own Paypal account?
What would it take to achieve this?