Subscriptions have had no impact in my income yet, hopefully it will stay that way. I am getting a lot of subscription sales but I think this is from new buyers.

Funny, I was very vocal at dreamstime in favour of subscriptions when they launched it and I think it hasn't been that good there and on the other hand at StockXpert I was really against it because of the DT experience but it might turn out to be a positive thing.

Will see, time will tell, I will post my monthy stats in a couple of weeks regarding this to see how much real impact it has on $$ and Dls.

SS =30%
FT= 24%
StockXpert=15%
DT=10%
IS=9%
BigStock= 4%
123=4%
Scanstock=1%
Crestock=1%

Quote from: sharpshot on November 02, 2007, 11:00
It probably didn't work very well because people didn't find it.  I did get a few sales from there but haven't had one for a long time.  I don't know why shutterstock don't offer single sales at a premium from their main site. 

I wonder the same thing, but properly advertised or maybe even under an option of each image not with a random site that nobody knows about and that nobody can find.

Jumped a level too

Steve took his holidays at the right or very wrong time depends on how you see it hehe .......... but man am I dissapointed with stockxpert, I have to confess that my favourite site is Shutterstock and second was stockxpert but at the moment I am very dissapointed. I can't believe the lack of action from their part to solve the problems. First rule is it is not broken don't fix it .... the site was working perfectly, climbing up ahead many other sites and someone had the great idea of introducing subscriptions which caused all this mess.

There is a list of things they should have done:

1. They knew about the security glitch and they did nothing for ages ...... the first thing they had to do was to disable the recover password via email and work the problem out.

2. You can't attach model releases ........ if it doesnt work roll it back and work it out but don't work in the live page!

3. Thumbnails not generating .... disable uploads so we don't waste our time while this is sorted!

4. Subscriptions sales not being recorded ...... well I hate the fact they introduced subscriptions, the subscription model works at SS but it doesn't work anywhere else.

Honestly I dont understand why they let everyone upload and upload when the system is just not working, this affect our sales and it affects the sites reputation because buyers just see errors when trying to download new images.

I think sales have been the same so far is too early to tell BUT the site is a right mess at the moment

hehe yeah Sean invited me, just in case the OP is mis-interpreted ....... I have nothing to do with the site I just got invited to the site in the early stages 

It's interesting to see this poll. But maybe you should add 25k+, there are a few people capable of doing that much these days

lol jacus, unfortunately I am already signed up
Thank you for the information, this makes more sense, back to uploading then.

yeah it looked good to me until I realized they sell ALL the photos at $1 no matter what size .......

"What Buyers Know About Microstock Photography"

It might be interesting for some, I like it but then I am biased. When you read it you will know why

http://blogs.photopreneur.com/what-buyers-know-about-microstock-photography/

Uhm good to know payouts are working now. That's the only thing that got me worried since at the end of the month I need that money to pay for my new flat.

On the contrary to everyone else here, last week was my best ever week at fotolia and this week is no different so far, hope it keeps that way or better.

An important note for those that seem confused by the sizes, the small size at fotolia IS NOT BLOG SIZE, is WEB SIZE! 800 x 600 can almost cover your screen.

Hi Greg and welcome to microstock.

I have been doing this for 2 and a half years and have a 6000+ photo portfolio in various sites. I CAN tell you that you CAN earn money from this. I earn several times more here than I would on any full time day job (in London, UK). This was my dream job when I started doing it and from the beginning I knew where I wanted to be and achieved it with a lot of effort.

I have been doing this as my main and only job for 1 year. I put slightly more hours than a normal day job because its also my hobby. (maybe about 50-60 a week in total?)  I just love it!

About models, you can easily get TFP or TFCD models so you don't have to pay them anything. I've 104 people in my portfolio and they are more than happy with the prints. Also $50 spent on a model come back pretty fast if the photos are commercial.

My website:
http://www.andresr.com

Eco amazing work and a very well deserved prize. Congratulations!

well those shots for me are not microstock material ....... they are more suitable for a RM agency

Quote from: rene on June 20, 2007, 13:24

Quote from: andresr on June 20, 2007, 09:20
I have never understood why people downsize images at some places especially at SS.

In my opinion the majority of buyers on SS download photos even if they don't need them. So the size of 4 MP is not a problem. They will buy your photos anyway.
If the buyer need your picture, in 90% of case 4MP is enough. In other case, if he need a huge size picture, he can still find it on another site and you get 3$ and not 0.3$.

Thats a peculiar way of seeing it.
1. It's not a matter of buyers using or not your photos. They see them anyway and they will prefer the higher quality over the lower quality ones.
2. 90% is ok 4mp? not true ..... my vast experience at other sites will tell me that at least 25% of the buyers buy Large+ size. (6mp+)
3. Do you really think a user will go to another site to look for your image at a higher resolution? no mate, Let's be realistic if you find a buyer that wants your photo at a high res and can't find it at SS they will move on and buy another one they are there.
They are not going to search the whole microstock for your photo until they find a suitable size so it's a sale you just've lost.

Low res submissions = lower sales.
Higher Res submissions = more sales


Do you see yuri arcurs, kirsty, liv-friss, and ALL other top submitters downsizing images?

Quote from: hatman12 on June 20, 2007, 10:12
Yes, welcome andresr.

I submit maximum resolution to all agencies.  I fail to see the logic of those who say "I'm not going to sell max res at SS for 30c';

thank you hatman and Tyler I am happy to join you guys around here, never knew there was so much "action" in these forums.

I also don't understand that logic ..... never will I think.

I submit the maximum resolution possible to all sites. I have never understood why people downsize images at some places especially at SS. Buyers won't know the difference in sizes before downloading a photo at SS because images are interpolated A LOT, so all images display roughly the same sizes no matter what was their native resolution.

When buyers WILL know that your image was originally small is when they download a supersize 14mp image that came from a 4mp file and move to another portfolio with better quality images.