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Messages - cascoly
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10 11 ... 170
126
« on: August 31, 2024, 15:50 »
My microstock income pays for all trips and provides me with guilt-free upgrades.
Wish it could provide for more but it is what it is in 2024.
same here, i have a modest retirement income but microstock lets me travel more than i could otherwise
127
« on: August 31, 2024, 15:44 »
Another wonderful article, providing concise, well chosen observations. and your fishing example is a direct challenge to those who, complain their images don't sell - I've mentioned several times my best-selling travel pix are those taken in cruise ship casinos.
And I began listening to the old saying when you go fishing put a worm on the hook: its the fish that must like it, not you and uploading to the agencies mostly nice but quite ordinary pictures, the kind ordinary people would like and buy.
advice everyone should digest if they want enjoy seafood.
it destroys the argument that AI should be isolated from real art
128
« on: August 30, 2024, 14:38 »
Weird, some people are seeing growth and others are seeing virtual collapses. Maybe it's geographic?
more likely portfolio contents - i sell many editorial images on SS but AS doesn't accept editorial and then depends whether you concentrate on food, people, travel, etc
129
« on: August 25, 2024, 18:33 »
don't panic!
just write them to explain & they'll usually let you re-submit - i've had this happen several times
130
« on: August 25, 2024, 16:12 »
...
Are we now supposed to go over our entire library at Adobe Stock to find and delete all images of abuse, suicide, nudity, violence/crime etc. just to avoid the risk of account suspension?
And if we would all do this, wouldn't you think the Adobe's collection would become totally "impoverished" and give a one-sided view of society (just like Canva is currently doing by removing everything negative)?
some other concerns are erotic sculptures on Hindu temples, naked cherubs on church altars (chi1d p0rn?) and other religious paintings & sculptures showing fig-leaved or other scantily clad figures canva's recent 'violations' are ridiculous- i've had pix of a Civil War re-enactment deleted - latest was an isolated image of a cannon! and their appeals process is a joke, all they do is wait a day, then post the same response, saying " we agree with the deletion", failing to respond to anything said in the appeal and of course, there's their refusal to admit there's any widespread rejection of entire batches from long time contributors - SECONDS after they're uploaded
131
« on: August 25, 2024, 15:30 »
...
basics statistics - your Aug. numbers are not encouraging to reach your goal - what have been your jan-jul results to date? if you only achieved 50% in august you're falling behind.
of course, that's just wrt your 'goal' - a 50% increase over last year is otherwise a great result
true,but August isn't over yet,in any case yes,I'm behind in reaching my goal of at least 80% more between one year and another.
yes,50% is a good result but it is not enough because in this way it takes too long before reaching at least a decent income,like I said if I was 30,a 50% more would have been great.
an extra 80% between one year and another is really the acceptable minimum,less than this,it really takes too long.
unfortunately what you want or need has no effect on reality of likely sales
However,it is not certain,it all depends on whether what happened last year happens again,that is,in September last year I sold 400% more than my previous best month.
if the taps open at least once a year I can do it,but if the taps remain closed this year,it will be very difficult for me to do it.
We'll see, the only certain thing is that I'm quite tired of seeing these low sales numbers, and honestly this year I expected something more, not much more but definitely more than this.
..
expecting & wishing rarely affect results - what is your % increase for Jan-Jul? if less than 80%, you can calculate how much greater your sales must be for the final months again, basic statistics - called regression to the mean - a 400% increase for one month is highly unlikely to repeat. and you have to consider the base - as your sales increase it becomes harder to maintain the same increase i havent seen any longtime contributor here reporting even a 20% increase for each of the last 5 years. i count myself lucky to have even flat sales for last 5 years (a net downward trend when cumulative US inflation is about 20% over that period)
132
« on: August 25, 2024, 14:48 »
...
133
« on: August 24, 2024, 19:30 »
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my results this month are already good,I'm at about 20% more sales numbers and 50% more earnings compared to August 2023 and the month isn't over yet.
I expect a good increase in sales any time now in order to reach my goal of at least 80% more earnings or sales numbers compared to 2023.
basics statistics - your Aug. numbers are not encouraging to reach your goal - what have been your jan-jul results to date? if you only achieved 50% in august you're falling behind. of course, that's just wrt your 'goal' - a 50% increase over last year is otherwise a great result
134
« on: August 24, 2024, 19:19 »
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Thanks.
I'm not sure if the numbers should be split 50/50 for the first 6 and last 6 months of the year 
And the latest works always need several months to emerge from the crap.
I've been working and uploaded, but result will come in next future (I hope).
My rule was always quality, not quantity. And this strategy always paid.
chacun a son gout (everybody has gout) - some say upload constantly since only new images get noticed, others say wait till they acquire a patina. it is what it is (except when it isn't) which is why no suggestion works for everyone and tracking your own stats is the only possibly worthwhile option
135
« on: August 23, 2024, 14:13 »
3. Envato
7. EyeEM
These companies sell content well and normally. Envato is my number one source of income.
are you on AS & SS?
136
« on: August 23, 2024, 14:13 »
11. deposit
12. vecteezy
137
« on: August 21, 2024, 19:14 »
....
I stopped uploading to shutterstock in 2020. Was all in but 10 cents is not worth the trouble. Im not very succesful at all in these stock companies but adobe stock is doing better for me than shutter ever did. Shutter was great with video sales.
your choice, but the 10c cheapest sale isn't a true measure - i can't remember anyone here reporting their RPD was < $.20 /image -- mine varies from$.50-.75 /image - only slightly less than AS but with higher actual income/mo (which is what really matters)
138
« on: August 20, 2024, 16:30 »
Tried many, but this is by far the best: www.udream.ai
The reasons:
1) you can upload 400 images at a time
2) generates a zip file containing all the tagged images without changing the file name
3) supports jpegs and pngs
4) provides titles and different longer descriptions
5) concept based model, it does not limit to describe the scene
6) supports upscaling for images smaller than 4,2 mp using one of the best AI based upscalers available (and for free)
7) possibility to choose both single and compound keywords
also tags pngs, for agencies that support them (useful for example for cutout items)
I love it, I've never touched a single file by myslef since I've started using it.
i've been using https://www.visualmind.ai/?ra=3233 {using this link will give you a 10% bonus on your 1st credit payment and i get 20% bonus credits} using your list it: 1) you can upload 400 images at a time (not sure if there's a limit but i've done 200) 2) generates a zip file containing all the tagged images without changing the file name 3) supports jpegs and pngs (will convert png to jpg) 4) provides titles and different longer descriptions (also provides different text for similar images) 5) concept based model, it does not limit to describe the scene (you can also suggest concepts) ... 7) possibility to choose both single and compound keywords ... in addition VM provides a csv , which is perfect for me, as i main spreadsheets with meta data -- using those sheets i can find images in seconds across more than 250K archived images [only about 50K submitted to agencies - others are originals & various post processing, etc] VM can also use your file name as a suggestion. Titles & descriptions can be set to various maximum lengths. Option to avoid registered trademarks Another major feature is the ability to prepend/append keywords and add text to descriptions. the latter is useful to add bylines for SS, or to add location & country when it's not obvious from the image - eg: 'generic' images from a river cruise, church/temple names when image shows a detail and it only costs $.03 /image and $.09 /video (which i haven't tried yet) I've processed about 1500 images in the last month
139
« on: August 20, 2024, 15:49 »
Leaf hasn't posted since January. The site is slower every day. There aren't poll results because 39 people is not enough. I will post this and see if it goes live or if the forum times out before it's created. Enjoy the group while you can.
i h aven't seen any slower response on the site a major reason for the poll is it's lack of reliability, so many of us don't bother to post. overall, there have been many interesting/controversial/informative posts in the last year The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated - misquote from mark Twain
140
« on: August 20, 2024, 15:35 »
for photos it was very low, like 10ish percent.
10% isn't very feasible to work with.
And for vectors?
what did you mean by not feasible? the submit process is easy i had about 60 accepted - about 3% of eligible
141
« on: August 19, 2024, 13:10 »
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I am using imstocker AI keywording + keywording in SS. But as I do travel imagery, the main problem is not keywording, it is writing descriptions. After description is done, keywording is a breeze.
If I don't want to do it by hands, I can upload an image to ChatGPT, provide it with a description if I want, and with a proper prompt it generates really good keywords. But no one can write descriptions but me.
..,.
yes, i do mostly travel also, and AI can't always tell the location of specific building. adding a description is a large part of editing, and that would be a large disadvantage of batches thru ChatGPT. i've been using https://www.visualmind.ai/?ra=3233 {using this link will give you a 10% bonus on your 1st credit payment and i get 20% bonus credits} which lets you add text before or after a description - so i can add byline, or location. can also add tags. it does a great job, w only minor changes to description & costs about $.03 / image ($.09 / video which i haven't tried yet) i had been using ChatGPT for tags, which helped but still took a long time
142
« on: August 18, 2024, 13:37 »
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Then you just get one push and afterwards your port will drop like a stone.
On all agencies you have to keep a steady upload stream so when customers search by newest they will always find some of your files.
Just upload 50 a day, or even 20 a day to extend the time you can have an active stream.
At 80 a day the material would only last 10 days, and I doubt you would need more than 30min for that.
first, there's no actual evidence of those effects - just varying anecdotal evidence - eg, my sales don't vary much when i'm uploading m50-200 batches weekly, or when i'm traveling for a month & submitting nothing. 50 a day is still 'bulk' submitting, but the real problem OP brings up is that it takes at most a few minutes to submit a batch to SS or AS since you can submit multiples, but w DT you need multiple clicks for each image, so submitting is much longer with DT (not to mention the considerable difference in sales)
143
« on: August 18, 2024, 13:29 »
a blast from the past!
10 years ago this offer was appropriate. When 0.38 was the lowest we were paid for an image and it was enough to upload few hundreds images a month to stay competitive. Even 0.5 was fine then or even $1 for video. But not anymore.
Now we get as earn as 0.02 per sale and microstocks want much more images. And AI is here to do the keywording - for free or for cents.
false comparison - price rec'd isn't useful for determining what to pay for keywording - whether it's worth submitting at all is a separate decision you need to add meta somehow - so the decision should be based on the cost of your time to edit images - if you can process 50 images in an hour, compare your hourly rate to the cost outsourcing 50 images. simplistically, if your hourly rate is $25, paying $12.50 at $.25 is a savings of $12.50. at $.05 you'd pay $2.50 - saving $$22. For free services, you need to consider the time it takes to prompt - you'd still have to add the result to you image meta. i'm not aware of any free services that process in bulk & update the image meta? in the real world you may have to spend time correcting the AI results, so $.25 may be a close decision but at $.05 it's a no-brainer. and if you don't consider the cost of your time at all, no price point will work {cost of processing 1 image} compared to {cost of outsourcing} +{cost of finishing} For free services, you need to consider the time it takes to prompt - you'd still have to add the result to your image meta. i'm not aware of any free services that process in bulk & update the image meta? are there any you can recommend?
144
« on: August 14, 2024, 14:11 »
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May I ask what does RF images stand for?
Royalty Free. Non-editorial and non-AI generated
....
AI gen are definitely RF & sold as such on any agency that accepts AI what's your source for it not being RF? other than your stated dislike for AI?
145
« on: August 12, 2024, 13:10 »
Same here, and it's been for awhile. This is what happens when you frequently change interface - bugs creep in.
what's worse is when they make a change and don't do regression testing or beta testing before releasing it into the wild . Wirestock was one of the worst offenders here - seemed like every new feature created 2+ new bugs, which they mostly refused to admit existed. i stopped submitting to them more than a year ago, so things may have changed
146
« on: August 12, 2024, 13:02 »
https://upstock.guru/keyword_checker
It's free here.
did you actually use this? how long did it take to fully add meta data to an image? there are other more powerful free keywording apps - this one is cumbersome, for each image "A new window will open showing images relevant to your search.
Select a minimum of 2 images by clicking on them, the more, the better.
Make sure to choose images that are similar with your image and keywords.
Proceed to click "Generate Keywords" to finalize the process."and in the end it just gives a list & you still have to add it to your image and provide a description & title compare that with apps do batch processing & that add metadata to images and provide a csv
147
« on: August 09, 2024, 15:26 »
Yes, me too, can't wait for summer to end and people get back to work.
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yes, too many people traveling when they could stay home & work & just buy my travel pix instead
148
« on: August 09, 2024, 11:57 »
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I'll stop there, I realize that I'm going to spend too much time, there is so much to write... and I also prefer to keep some things to myself, we are in an era of ruthless competition. This forum is not always the ideal place for warm friendly relations either
yes, very sad - <nostalgia> that's not the way it used to be </nostalgia>
149
« on: August 08, 2024, 20:13 »
August 1 - 6, 2023: $289.34
August 1 - 6, 2024: $21.77
My August, 2024 is bad, but my August, 2023 was horrible.
August 1 - 6, 2023: $22.42
August 1 - 6, 2024: $177.84
Starting August 8, 2023, the month picked up tremendously, so I am still holding out hope for this August.
again, given the wide variability month to month, single month comparisons aren't as useful as 3 or 4 month running averages
this is comparing a single week of a single month
statistically, even worse! next we'll see day by day comparisons!
150
« on: August 08, 2024, 14:12 »
Does anyone know how stock agency search engines rank content?
The rating of your content depends on the number of views and sales. For example, you added 50 spam tags, your content is viewed by many buyers for some time, but no one buys your content because your tags are spam or your content is poorly made. Accordingly, your content will automatically receive a low rating and buyers will not view it anymore. It's simple....
pretty detailed -- your source for this concept? which agencies use this? or did you just make it up?
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