that would be a great idea.  what other sites are selling your work that you didnt authorize and do you know who the deal is through?

spamming is a real problem and one that i see firsthand. i have nightmares about it ;-)  well maybe not that far but i have spent a lot of time refining keywords at our site which wastes my time when i should be out getting more buyers. 

first off spamming does not work. it basically upsets the buyer who will then ignore the site where they are seeing the most spam and irrelevant search results.  researchers and buyers hate to wade through countless images that shouldn't be included in their search query.  just think that is 20% of the search results that are returned are irrelevant than that is an extra 20% of time that a person has to spend going through it and wasting their time.

the reason you most likely are getting away with adding in spam words is because you haven't been caught yet or the site you are dealing with doesn't have a good system in place to check the keywords upon submission. its a tough battle that a site has to wage and can be very very costly.  spamming hurts the sites search results and pisses off the buyers who wont come back so indirectly it is hurting your sales on that site and wasting your time even uploading to that site in the first pace bc buyers won't come back.

we added a spam flagger to our site and regulary check keywords in our pending area.  you can't catch it all but you hope to at least contain it.  and sometimes you are dealing with a person whose first language isn't english and they have a good excuse for why their keywords might be slightly off.  i would also ask  the agency you work with how strict or lenient they are with keywords and then go according to their standards.

one thing that is really bothersome is someone who just cut and pastes keywords into 40 different images that were taking in the same shoot and doesnt change or add any of the keywords.  just because you show up in more search results doesn't mean that you will get more sales.  in a rare case MAYBE but more often than not it will never lead to more.  hope that helps from a perspective other than a contributor ;-)

Yep I edited the first link so it was working now and there was no confusion. 

Hey Guys,

I really want to improve our service for both buyers and sellers and would really appreciate it if you could please take our 1 minute, anonymous survey to help us understand better what you are looking for. http://bit.ly/ViVN8

This is to help us understand what you expect from  a website like Cutcaster and how we can improve our service to maximize the benefits you can get out of it.  I'M LISTENING so this is your chance to really let us know what you want and what is important to you.

Without your input we won't know what to change and your feedback is invaluable. Thanks for your time.

http://bit.ly/ViVN8

I have been reading about some of the other companies in our industry giving refunds from fraudulent credit card transactions and removing money from accounts when they incur chargebacks. doesn't seem like they can offer a lot of protection to their contributors or fight with the credit card companies to recoup any losses. 

how many of you have been affected by this and how much do you think it costs you?  i'm interested in learning how big of a problem this is and how much it could be costing photographers, agencies and how this could be affecting the price the buyer is paying (if it does)?

Wow, us, Agencies really need a makeover.  I hope people don't feel that way about our company. What a nightmare of a feeling and perception and i am sorry that some of you feel that way.  I see it being completely mutual and helping one another. 

I wonder how buyers would answer this question.

do people like that option?  i wonder how many people opt out of having their images resized?

yeah i have researched what other sites are doing and their sizes.  in addition i have been asking buyers what sizes they typically buy which varies obviously by industry and use. 

i like the idea of opting in or out of having your images resized and wonder if people would want that feature.  when i ask the buyers they say they want all the images to be offered in different sizes but want to hear what you guys think too bc you are half the equation and its your content. 

astrocady i think what you said is what we can do and will do.

thank you alias and sharply done too. 

thats an interesting point astrocady and madelaide.  ill see what the developers say and post more in here.  anyone else have any ideas or suggestions.

milinz not becoming anything but broadening the offering to cater to more customers ;-)

That is really good.  Hhahahaha. 

completely agree.  the only part that stinks is that the scammer has the high res original and can just do this again to another site.  something needs to be done bc this is a lot of lost revenue for the actual copyright holder and lots of an agencies time and money is lost due to this.  looks like he is still there at crestock. 

Crestock should really remove this guys account.  He is a full on fraud and has sold a bunch of licenses at crestock using other peoples files.

http://www.crestock.com/portfolio/namlehoang22.aspx