Quote from: lisafx on May 13, 2011, 14:45

Leslie, just one additional piece of advice about Dreamstime.  Recently they are VERY strict on uploading similars.  I would suggest culling out a few of the very best images from each series, rather than uploading them all to Dreamstime.  It is important to have a high acceptance ratio at Dreamstime, more so than the other sites, because it is a big factor in search placement. 

Lisa -by similars, does that mean they won't take a series of expressions?  For instance, where I have a model isolated on white and she's looking up in one, looking to the side in another, smiling in one and with a neutral expression in another, would they consider those to be similar?  Otherwise, I don't think I'll run into that problem.  It takes me sooo long to process one image it's hard to imagine having time to process multiples!  Also, on the istock forums awhile back, didn't you say you were having trouble becoming exclusive at istock because other agencies had long lag times for removing your images on their sites?  Is that still an issue?  Thanks for the advice! Leslie

If you have a man and a woman, they might be too similar, or apparently if it is similar to something someone else uploaded, so maybe now you get one person pic, one object pic, one landscape pic, and that is about it. or maybe they will take a whole series with only minor differences between pics. Sometimes it really just feels like a crapshoot, but if they reject pictures apparently it does hurt your placement. Good luck and have fun trying to figure out what they want and don't want.

Don't know what your problem is. Sean himself says for quite a while now that his revenue is stagnating.  Am I wrong
Not that I wouldn't trade places with him any day...  Hell I'll settle for 15% of his revenue.

All I am saying (giving sean as an example) is that if your portfolio grew by 20% but your revenue stayed more or less the same, it is a safe assumption that if you grow your portfolio by 30% (for example) you CAN expect a rise in revenue. No need for a math degree for this.
If one wants to predict future revenue and hence RC's, you must ALSO take into account by how much your RPI will drop (and it willl) and how much your portfolio will grow, nothing more, nothing less.

And no, 20% for an exclusive doing MS as a full time job isn't that high IMO. Then again, its not just a numbers game.

Please don't take this personal anyone, these are only numbers and opinions.  I have great respect for Sean, and many other individuals not only becuase of how much $$ they make a month but because they are talented artists (which I might add, I am NOT!).

In my experience best match changes make a much bigger change than portfolio degradation. 20% might not be that hard for a few years, but eventually if you are working solo it will become unsustainable. If you are not exclusive there the upload limits alone will stop you.

Quote from: ibogdan on May 08, 2011, 02:23

I would add Stockfresh for a few reasons: they have a very quick review process (usually within 1-2 hours), they accept almost everything, they have a fair commission (50% and subs sales are limited to M size) and their site looks clean and nice. The main problem is that the sales are very slow (been there since July 2010 and I only sold 3 images with a portfolio of 700+).

If there sales are as slow as getting approved...I have been waiting so long I have lost track of how long its been..., I am not sure its worth the effort.

By quick review process you mean on a geological time scale I presume (as far as my experience goes anyway). Over 11 months so far.

It would be interesting if the sites could come up with a few more search methods - like "artsy", "simple", "insider access", etc. etc. It would be a real pain in the butt to set them up though. Seeing what shows up in the top of the searches for a subject you are familiar with is often pretty painful. That doesn't even touch the spam - on purpose or otherwise. IS tried to fix a lot of these problems w/ the CV etc, but we all know how that worked out.

I am guessing most people just search on the best match and with a keyword or 2 and if they don't see what they want in the first few pages then they have to get more creative. Simple and isolated is often what they are looking for.

Thanks for coming on here and explaining things, I for one appreciate that.

I wonder if the reason this rollout is so scattered is that after KK said that only .1% were seriously affected and that people had calmed down they quick needed a diversion so they brought this up early...

Although looking at all their other problems lately I suppose this is nothing special.

I wouldn't be surprised if they lock a bunch of images in for at least 6 months, then surprise - they are all getting moved over to thinkstock. Then after 6 months if you pull the plug, it will still take months for them to come off of their subs site...

If it seems like a nefarious idea, that is probably what they are going to do. (this is the new kind of trust that IS has now, I trust them to try to screw us).

wow, I'm one in a thousand... does that mean he thinks only around 100 submitters were dramatically affected? Either he is way out of touch or full of hot air.

It seems like when IS messes up the site and hurts us, they offer big discounts to pacify buyers, which - you guessed it - hurts us. I suppose you could argue with 55 -85 % going to them it hurts them more, but I am not sympathetic to that argument.

I'm still not convinced that THEY are making less money, but it sure seems to be hurting us, which ultimately is unsustainable (if that word means what I think it means). As they push wholly owned and expensive high %age (for them) content to the front, they might still be making more. Eventually that might bite them, or maybe they will manage to continue to make enough profit to get their bonuses.

I think my lowest was .10 - but that was back in the heady days of 20%

Most if not all sites have a minimum payout and if you cancel before you reach it you should expect to lose the money in your account. Seeing how low the minimum is is one of the details you have to read and decide on before you join and start submitting. Most people who are planning on leaving a site wait 'til they hit the minimum before leaving or keep a balance above the minimum for the last chunk of time so they can empty out their account as the last step.

I haven't tried to leave Canstock, so I can't say if the process is a pain or not, but if I had a heap of images I wanted removed I'd definitely be writing them with a request rather than doing it one at a time.

I am ready to jump all over a site when they lower commissions or otherwise screw the artists, but the minimum payout is something we all joined with full knowledge of (or should have if we read the fine print).