Also I would be happier to sell image 100 times for 99 cents rather than 10 times for 10 dollars.

I'm not sure I understand this statement. Why?

Realistically, you are probably more likely to have less sales, so you might want to get the most out of them.

I thought art was already in the term stock art?

I wouldn't do it, but I haven't submitted to SS in 2 years. So, they aren't exactly on the top of my priorities list.

Its nuts regardless of the agency. You already pay them through royalties. They need to get their act together and market themselves. Its not your job to do that. Its so ridiculous I cant even take it serious, I wont even consider it for a second. Sorry.

In theory, I don't see anything wrong with it. If I was guaranteed my sales would go up a significant amount by investing x amount of dollars in certain agencies, I'd definitely do it. You could never get that guarantee though, so I don't see much point at throwing money at it.

That said, there are many other ways to promote agencies that don't cost anything.

Quote from: cthoman on April 06, 2013, 11:00

Most websites are on white, so there is always going to be extra white space around your images on the various sites anyway. Why not just let the artwork crop itself to the edges?  Your just making your thumbnails smaller by adding the extra white space.

I personally don't like the artwork going to the edge and want the extra white negative space for breathing room purpose. And being a control freak, i cant rely on other sites to give me that white space or not. 

Understandable. I used to re-crop my images, but I stopped. It just seemed like an extra step.

You either choose to go exclusive or you don't. I've never heard it being forced on anybody. If they did, then it is their mistake.

Quote from: fotografer on April 04, 2013, 03:14

I upload to 123rf and my images aren't at pond5 so I am uploading directly there.

Quote from: sharpshot on April 04, 2013, 04:14

You can ask P5 to remove your images from 123 and upload your portfolio direct...

Thanks, guys. I haven't been able to find any of my images at Pond5, so I'm assuming they aren't being sent over from 123RF. Looks like I'm missing out by not having my stuff there. Guess I'll start uploading direct.

They don't have their vector uploads set up yet, so you may have to wait a month or 2. Unless you go through Pixmac, but they don't have the price setting features set up there. So, I'm waiting until it all gets settled.

I made over $800 with SS last month and $60 with DT, so the higher RPD with DT is meaningless to me.  My highest RPD site is alamy but I average less monthly earnings with them than with DT lately.  So I'm not that concerned about RPD.  It would be nice if it was higher with SS but I'm much more interested in how much each site makes each month.

It would be nice if buyers went to higher RPD sites and downloaded the same amount of images but that doesn't happen.  I think they buy more than they need with SS but with the higher priced sites, they download less.  So RPD isn't as important as some people think it is.  For the best RPD, why bother with microstock at all?

I understand. It is totally meaningless until it means something. 

Seriously though, it's hard to find sites that both pay well and have enough volume to be profitable or have potential (I had to build one of them). That doesn't mean the two are mutually exclusive. 60% of my earnings last month came from 12% of my sales. Like you, my top site earned me over $800 (if SS was your top site), but the RPD was around $7.

None of that happened overnight though. I'd like to think that I had something to do with it by choosing to go "all in" on my high RPD sites and let the other ones just coast. But, those sites had to show some signs of life. For example, I like Cutcaster, but I don't think it would matter how many files I upload there.

Sorry but I can work on a 13 raw image HDR panorama for 4 hours. Include the shoot and the cost for travel and time shooting and I think I deserve to get the same money if not more as for a vector image.

Me too, but you don't have to convince me. You have to convince the agencies. I'm all for it though. I think photos are dragging down the cost of illustration. That's probably why I'm finding the best contributor deals on mostly illustration only sites.

Not always on everything, but fine, add them to the next poll and only include sites that pay 50% or more (most of the time?). That would solve the questions of who we should or shouldn't vote for. If it was only for places that are 50% and up (most of the time?), why are all the Microstock sites that don't pay that, included as an option.

See where it's confusing? And it said "The best contributor friendly agency"

I like Alamy even at 40% Distributor makes 40% I make 40%

40% Distributor Commission    30.90    
40% Distributor Commission    27.80

It's not necessarily all about %. It's about what you get paid per sale. I think many of us were surprised (as was I) at the number of votes SS got because it is pretty much known as the lowest per sale agency out there.

I actually think this poll was pretty interesting because it shows most contributors don't really care about RPD at all. They'd rather promote SS because... Actually, I'm not really sure why. I guess that would be a good follow up question.

March 2013
GL  - RPD $6.36
ToonVectors - RPD $19.11
CAO - RPD $9.25
My own site - $13.82 RPD

All four sites earned me more $ each than, IS, DP, FT or BS

Cthoman wasn't joking, they are out there. We just need to support them. Granted both of us are illustrators but at the same time both of us have stopped uploading new images (at least our good ones) to sub sites.

Yep, no joke. My numbers are similar. It would be nice if there were more sites in that range, but I'm glad to have the ones that I do.

Your support plan for Pond5 is making the poll fake. How does site go from 9 to 17 in 1 month. Nobody believes Deposit numbers now I think Pond5 is faked to. Makes the poll no good.

I'm not sure if this was directed at me, but I don't have files at either of those. Pond5 sounds interesting. When they get their vector uploading up and running, I'll probably test it out.

That's a nice way to look at it.  They used to have 50% for all sales now they start your files at 25% and you can work all the way up to 45%, thanks Dreamstime for making that possible.

That motivation is for our benefit.