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Messages - Lee Torrens
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201
« on: September 28, 2008, 22:25 »
Perhaps best selling microstock photographer, (next to Sean of course), but not overall stock photographer.
Assuming there are traditional stock photographers earning more than Yuri (I'm very confident that is the case), you couldn't call him the "best selling stock photographer". But if you qualify 'best selling' in terms of the quantity of license sales, who sells more than Yuri?
202
« on: September 28, 2008, 22:06 »
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/09/27/2008-09-27_web_sites_let_amateurs_sell_their_photos.htmlAnother mainstream press article breaking the "news" that photographers can earn money with these "microstocks" things! This one seems to focus on casual contributors with low earnings relative to more dedicated contributors, and the lowest possible commission rates (cites 25 cents). I guess we can be glad this article won't produce a rush of new contributors.
203
« on: September 11, 2008, 19:59 »
I've seen an 18-month earnings chart of one of our market's finest and the increase at Fotolia as he climbed the rankings was near-parabolic! If you wonder how the people at the top make such amazing amounts, that is how. Fotolia's strategy is very clever in this regard - incentivising the top performers and making the rest of us work for it!
204
« on: September 02, 2008, 23:12 »
It's lighter, faster, makes better use of screen real estate and is more stable, and best of all, no memory leaks like Firefox.
On the downside, there's no 'reload all tabs' facility and it doesn't show pagerank.
It's a brilliant start, no doubt, but won't replace Firefox for me for a while yet.
205
« on: September 01, 2008, 12:59 »
I have referred 28 people there so far You've very likely referred a LOT more than that. They only show you (and pay for) the ones who buy photos. Not so many contributors buy photos. 
206
« on: August 27, 2008, 21:21 »
www.canonrumors.comForgot the 's' on the end. I was thinking that was the fastest de-registration I'd ever seen! 
207
« on: August 20, 2008, 23:15 »
I was told by one of the 'top' microstockers that there's enough of a bonus to have your images approved on a Monday at Shutterstock to make it worth your while timing your submission. As has already been pointed out, early sales at Shutterstock are crucial to the image maintaining a good sales level and not dropping off.
You can upload a few images ahead of time to calculate Shutterstock's current review delay, and apparently they're very consistent.
The same person calculates the jump in sales of old images when new images are approved as being pretty high too. (that's just for Shutterstock as well)
Additionally, he intentionally spends the summer slowdown period shooting lots so that he can maximize his uploads during the better months that follow.
We haven't spoken about seasonally themed images. Yet.
I haven't monitored these things myself, but it looks like it might be a good idea. I don't have the same scale as top microstockers, but the learning experience would undoubtedly be valuable. From what I know of a few of the top contributors (Yuri, Andres, Ron) they're all intensely analytical and strategic about these sorts of details. It can't hurt to follow their examples and create some good habits early on.
208
« on: August 16, 2008, 12:09 »
20% commission + 25c sub sales speaks for itself. If Crestock believes they must do this to properly fund advertising and growth, so be it. But remember that Bigstock grew while paying 50% commissions and have not yet introduced sub sales.
Good points, and all true. I earned more on Crestock than BigStock last month and it's the same for this month so far. Two months is hardly a firm trend, but I see Crestock 'out and about' a lot more than BigStock. I think Crestock are aiming a lot higher.
209
« on: August 15, 2008, 12:50 »
It looks simple from out point of view: "25 cents is lower than the market! Raise it! Sacrifice a little short term profit to attract more contributors so you can attract more buyers!"
The term "gross oversimplification" comes to mind. If it was that simple to build a successful agency then we'd all be doing it and succeeding. Give these agencies some credit. It takes a fair amount of money to do what Crestock have done so far, and you don't get to be in control of that amount of money if you're not very smart. Look at all the low-budget agencies that have failed!
Crestock don't need to answer to you. They will listen more to their portfolio growth rates than what contributors write on a forum. They'll read it to understand their metrics and acknowledge it for the sake of good public relations, but in reality you will only have any influence by voting with your portfolio. If the agency doesn't inspire you, don't contribute.
Also, top agencies are accepting up to 50,000 new photos per week! Unless you're shooting something nobody else can shoot or you're famous enough to command a brand premium, you're participating in a commodity market. In commodity markets there's little use focusing on medium or long term gains. Get what you can for your product now. In microstock this means look at how much money the agency is putting into your PayPal account at the end of the month. Commission rates mean nothing because buyers will sooner buy from another photographer than switch agency to get 'your' image.
(Crestock advertise on my blog, but my comments are the same for any agency)
210
« on: August 14, 2008, 01:33 »
The think I believe you're overlooking is actually from the contributor side rather than the buyer side. Contributors who don't want to sell at microstock prices can go to CutCaster and sell their content at much higher prices and with higher commissions. By attracting this portion of the market CutCaster will - in theory - end up with content that the microstock agencies don't have.
Whether it's better quality or more quantity remains to be seen, but if it works buyers will pay more at CutCaster than at the Big6 microstock agencies simply because they can get a better product, or something they can't find elsewhere.
CutCaster are new to the market, so moderate your expectations with that in mind. While people are getting sales and both the prices and commissions are higher than at Fotolia, you won't get nearly the same quantity of sales at this time. If CutCaster can catch up, it won't be soon.
So if you're looking for an interesting agency to support with your portfolio, CutCaster is a great choice. If you believe their model will work, then uploading is an investment in your future earnings. But if you're looking for an immediate return, it's going to be slow at CutCaster for a little while longer.
And as RGebbie said, if you tell us which other agencies you're currently using we'll be able to make suggestions (that aren't those).
-Lee
211
« on: August 11, 2008, 00:37 »
Hey John, PNG files are far superior choice for background images (that aren't photos). Replace those heavy GIFs with PNGs and you'll see some more downward movement in your page sizes. 
212
« on: July 08, 2008, 15:45 »
according to wikipedia it is $37,000.. who knows if that is right.
I took a look at Yuri's website, and it didn't mention anything about hasselbads.. maybe he isn't using them anymore?? or perhaps I was looking at an old website.
Yuri still uses the Hasselblad. He's working on a new website (almost ready) so that's why there's limited information on his current site. Take a look at his iStockphoto profile page and you'll see the crop that Vonkara is talking about.
213
« on: July 04, 2008, 18:29 »
picniche.com is another microstock mashup website which returns the quantity of images and their combined downloads for the keywords you search on. You can instantly see the demand and supply for images in a particular subject/niche. It's only connected to Fotolia at the moment, but other agencies are coming online shortly. I wrote about this site a couple of days ago but didn't get much of a response, so I'm coming here where I'm sure to get educated opinions. What does everyone think about this facility?
214
« on: June 18, 2008, 13:21 »
Some buyers don't need or want big files. No conspiracy here, sorry.
215
« on: June 12, 2008, 12:27 »
Someone tell me I am wrong because I would welcome the reassurance....
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think some extra information will reassure you. Most of the contributors on Alamy have a deep hatred for the microstock concept, for all the usual reasons. You can put money on the fact that a significant portion (I'd guess more than half) of their images will never be made available at microstock prices. The backlash over the very restricted toe-dipping effort of the Limited Use scheme is convincing evidence. Have you seen the images on Alamy?? While there's the usual brilliant photos that you'd expect from the established professionals in the traditional stock photography market, there's also a LARGE portion of their portfolio that wouldn't meet the requirements of the top microstock agencies - not even close! If the feedback I've been getting is any indication, a worthwhile chunk of microstock images are already in the Alamy portfolio! So you could perhaps discount a million or so of their images which are already available in the microstock market. Limited Use is a 'test' for Alamy, but I don't expect it will work. Why? - Too many contributors will opt out, so only a small portion of their portfolio will be available with this license. - The license restrictions rule out any serious buyers - The people who do qualify to use the license are not used to paying for images - The market of bloggers, students and teachers are about 50 time more likely to come across one of the established microstock agencies before they find Alamy. They're just not known in that market. ...so if Limited Use does eventually turn out to be less than lucrative, they'll likely go back to core business and 'leave the money on the table' for people who're setup to take it.
216
« on: June 11, 2008, 13:28 »
Anyone care to speculate what 10 million new images is going to do to the microstock market?
In this case, very little. First, any image with restrictions won't be available in the scheme. Second, it sounds like most contributors will not opt-in to the scheme. Third, the licenses offered are so restrictive that very few microstock buyers will find them suitable. Alamy would need to launch a very different scheme to this to be a threat. I don't think any microstock agency is at all concerned by Alamy's announcement.
217
« on: June 09, 2008, 16:08 »
Agreed, though the drop in price is a lot less at Fotolia and this is a completely new type of license for Alamy.
But yes, I doubt many contributors will follow through on their threats to remove their portfolios. The options are very limited at that end of the market. PhotoShelter Collection is the only real comparative option, but they don't have any sales yet (using "any" in a relative context).
218
« on: June 09, 2008, 13:51 »
Hi Lee, do you have a different link that doesn't require a paid subscription to read it? (or am I doing something wrong?)
No, without subscription you only get the intro, sorry. The article reads more like a press release than one of Jim's usual heavily-analytical articles, but it has a lot of details (like that one) that I haven't seen anywhere else. Jim is very well connected!
220
« on: May 13, 2008, 15:53 »
Ah ah I voted for MD too:)
I think also that MS blogs are on the rise especially in Eastern Europe (Poland for example).
I am curious Lee what are your top 3 blog visiting countries ?
Excluding France (I blogged from there), my top 3 are US, Slovenia, UK)
35% US 8%UK 6% Canada
221
« on: May 13, 2008, 14:32 »
Ok Matt, in retaliation I'm voting for N2M!  I love how you're so aggressive and you don't care who you upset! Honestly I think the microstock blog market is still wide open. You can count on one hand the number of blogs which are: - focussed on microstock - properly registered and hosted (not free blogspot or wordpress blogs) - updated regularly - writing more than just news updates Microstock as a market is still growing and blogging is gaining more exposure and acceptance. The opportunities are clear and there's lots of space for more than the current offerings. But who cares about all that, it's LOTS OF FUN!!
222
« on: May 11, 2008, 20:59 »
If the modem is powered off no traffic will be passing through it. Of that, you can be certain.
Assuming authentication is done with user credentials you set on the modem and not just the physical cable connection (99% of providers work this way) , those symptoms describe either someone using your account, spoofing your account identification from another point on the network, or a mistake at the cable company.
I'd suggest your best course of action is to contact your provider and explain the situation. Hopefully they can give you fresh account credentials as it's the easiest possible solution and one of the most likely to resolve the issue. Beyond that, they can test your line to see if there's a foreign device, and worst case changing service providers will almost certainly resolve the issue.
I hope that helps.
223
« on: May 09, 2008, 00:32 »
I think I used Lee Torren's link somewhere. Don't remember, but I seem to recall hearing from him about being one of his referrals. Hope it's paying well.
Anyone else have any MSG regulars on their referral lists?
Yes, you're my referral and Shutterstock, and BOY am I glad about that! I too make sure I sign up under someone else's referral link, and try to make sure it's the person who introduced or recommended me to the agency. However, from my experience it's not something to waste too much time on unless the agency you're signing up is called Shutterstock.
224
« on: April 30, 2008, 14:52 »
I've spoken to half a dozen iStock exclusives about the jump in sales after going exclusive and their responses ranged from double to quadruple the quantity of sales. The average was around triple. Obviously earnings would jump even more due to the commission bonus, which depends on your canister level. Needless to say they were all convinced that they were earning more by being exclusive than they would contributing to all agencies.
The experience will vary with each portfolio, so take all input in context. The only way to know for sure whether your portfolio will earn more exclusive with iStock is to test it.
I'm telling you what they said, but I myself am skeptical. I won't be doing that test with my portfolio any time soon.
225
« on: April 08, 2008, 20:10 »
I've got moo mini cards. They're excellent, though don't believe their delivery time-table. I ordered mine with two days to spare prior to going to an overseas exhibition, but they arrived the day after I left. That said, I expect to be buying from them again. I'm happy with the product itself and the price.
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