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Messages - StockManiac
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226
« on: September 19, 2006, 18:21 »
I have't checked but apparently they changed the default search order but buyers can still choose the option to sort by the upload date. Yes, the default search order is now "Most Popular" (which is a time-based sort). It looks at how many sales an image has over how long it has been online.
227
« on: September 19, 2006, 08:34 »
So God is a myth and a boyfriend means a homosexual relationship!
228
« on: September 16, 2006, 16:56 »
The author actually made a few mistakes:
- Dreamstime sales are based on size, with the web size paying .50 and the print size paying 1.00 (not the flat .50 as stated in the article).
- BigStockPhoto has over 500,000 photos (not 100,000 as stated in the article).
229
« on: September 16, 2006, 06:51 »
Doesn't sound like they had much of a disaster recovery plan.
230
« on: September 15, 2006, 19:09 »
In other words:
You better have a drink, because its time for massive rejections...
231
« on: September 15, 2006, 12:26 »
I would wish that LO would start marketing because I'm stuck on $81.00 forever and I just want a payout.
$81 in tokens or $81 in your piggy bank?
232
« on: September 15, 2006, 12:25 »
Is there a page which lists the refused pictures ?
Not that I am aware of. Also, when a picture is sold, is there a way to keep track of when it was downloaded ? Is the title of the picture the only reference given ?
As Leaf has stated above, you can find out which images were sold by clicking on the pink piggy bank. This lists the date, title, size, and royalty of each image sold.
233
« on: September 14, 2006, 16:59 »
Leaf:
Please don't let the politically inept get to you.
IMO, Rinder didn't say anything wrong. He was stating his opinion, which if you read it again contains a valid concern. He said that he makes ~ 100x less money on Canstcok than he does on Shutterstock. With the quality of images that he has, this is a valid cause for concern.
Some people have stated "what is the harm in leaving them there?". Well, there is plenty of "harm".
First, if one of his images is used in a wrongful manner, having it on this site makes it that much harder to track down where the sale originated from.
Second, if sales are that slow, there is cause for concern that one isn't receiving due compensation. There is one thing that I have learned in life - if there is a easy way for people to cheat you, then they will. People cheat all of the time. This industry is unaudited and has basically said "trust us with your files". How hard would it be for a microsite to sell a photo and not report the sale? Especially if it is in another country? Or for a microsite to sell an extended license and report it as a standard sale? Probably not hard at all. And even if they were caught, they could just say it was an honest mistake. Is CanStock doing this? Only they know for sure.
Third, it takes time to continually upload to sites. If you don't continue to post, then your income will probably drop substantially. Many people have reported how their income has dropped substantially if they don't continue to upload to sites. This takes time, especially since each site has its own quirks. Some sites don't allow FTP, some sites require categories, some sites allow more keywords than others, etc.
Fourth, it takes that much longer to keep up with the changes that sites are continuously making. As you are all aware, this industry is in its infancy. Changes are happening every month, and every week in some cases. A site might add new options that they might enabled or disabled by default. If a photographer wants to opt-in or opt-out, they would have to know about these changes. Thus, they would need to keep up with the news about the site. For example, IS partnered with Vox within the last month. Many people didn't want to be involved, but they were required to manually opt out. Another example, is Dreamstime recently announced new Extended licensing. But if you wanted to be a part of this, then you needed to opt in. Fotolia recently partnered with TemplateMonster, and the list goes on...
Fourth, it is his right to remove the images if he wants to. They are his property and he should do with them as he sees fit and put them on sites that will maximize his profit. If he feels that CanStock sucks, then he has the right to remove his photos from them. End of story.
Finally, censorship already occurs on the microsites themselves (as has been attested to many times in this forum). To censor posts here (or on any of the neutral forums) would be a tragedy. Freedom of speech is a blessing. Just because you don't agree with someone doesn't give you the right to demand that they stop giving their opinion.
This world has become too thin-skinned. People get offended at everything and they then demand that the offense be stopped. But what they (the offendees) don't realize, is that they are offending those of us that believe in freedom and free speech. The world is a nasty place. Evil does exist. If someone finds a problem on a site, then I want to know about it.
234
« on: September 14, 2006, 04:01 »
You are right on the money with your evaluation.
The iStock forums are the worst of the lot. The threads constantly turn into territory matches. They have more threads locked than any other site. And admin are some of the worst contributors, always giving their opinions about how wonderful IS is and why you should be grateful that you make 20 cents a photos since they used to be a free sight, blah, blah, blah.
Shutterstock forums are the best of the lot. I don't ever remember seeing a locked thread. Posts are edited, but very rarely. And admin don't give "opinions" just the facts.
The reason that IS is rude is probably because of the participation by admin. Admin is especially rude on IS, and this attitude spills over to the general poster. Remember, monkey see, monkey do.
In summary, IS forums get a failing grade (F), while Shutterstock forums get an A.
235
« on: September 13, 2006, 16:45 »
All of the new microsites are beginning to all sound the same.
"Just you wait!"
"We have lots of stuff in the works."
"You wait and see."
"We pinky swear!"
Blah, blah, blah...
As someone once said: "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"
236
« on: September 13, 2006, 10:47 »
I think, we have to show differences for buyers we have licensing policy without dividing images under one license (for example, S, L, XL and XXL sizes (and prices) under one (for example. Standard) license, we have 3 types of licenses standard WEB, standard PRINT and EXTENDED with own prices ( the sizes of images for PRINT and EXTENDED are the same).
Chart of licenses
Also we have possibility for customers to buy only ONE image. (it is possible for logged user and for not logged , only price will slightly different).
This sounds almost exactly like Dreamstime. They have a web license, a print license, and extended licenses. They used to allow a non-registered user the ability to buy one image, but they just did away with that. So I don't see how your plan differs that much from the rest of the industry. Hopefully, you have more than just that alone...
237
« on: September 13, 2006, 09:02 »
Galastock:
Can you please answer some of the questions that have been posted?
What do you believe makes your site different from the many other sites out there?
In other words, what do you think will make your site stand out enough to withstand having the business go under?
238
« on: September 12, 2006, 19:54 »
Congrats. A prepackaged bologna sandwich. And it has to travel half-way around the world. Yum! 
239
« on: September 11, 2006, 08:28 »
If you guys and gals haven't voted yet for the poll on the projected month's performance, then please cast your vote @ http://microstockgroup.com/forum/index.php?topic=465.msg3886#msg3886If you have voted, then you can also change your vote (if it has changed)... I myself felt that the month would be below average, thus the reason for the poll.
240
« on: September 10, 2006, 06:29 »
Go to alexa.com
Undisputedly the highest traffic.
Can you please pass along the source of your info...
Freezingpictures: That is precisely what I thought amanda1863 would say and it is not an undisputed fact. First, all that the Alexa charts mean is that people that use the Alexa toolbar visit those sites more. Second, the "traffic" on Alexa doesn't take into account the breakdown of buyers vs. photographers. Much of this traffic might be for the forums or for people pressing F5 (Refresh), or something just as trivial. Third, more people are reporting that Shutterstock is paying more per month than iStockphoto, so this would suggest that Shutterstock is actually the one with the "highest traffic" (at least from a buyers perspective). Fourth, out of all of the design magazines that I have checked, Shutterstock usually has a more prominent position than iStock when it comes to marketing. I went to the book store a few weeks ago, and Shutterstock was on the inside cover of almost every major magazine, while iStock was relegated to many of the inner pages. So if iStock does indeed have the highest marketing budget, then they are skimping on the major trade magazines and pocketing some of that wonderful profit that they make. So hopefully, amanda1863 has something more factual than Alexa in mind when she is talking about "undisputed traffic" and "highest marketing budget".
241
« on: September 10, 2006, 01:46 »
Undisputedly the highest traffic. Can you please pass along the source of your info...
242
« on: September 09, 2006, 18:23 »
What do you believe makes your site different from the many other sites out there?
In other words, what do you think will make your site stand out enough to withstand having the business go under?
243
« on: September 08, 2006, 19:47 »
Fotolia's response (from Chad Bridwell) was posted on another site. Here it is:
Hello everyone,
I really appreciate all the great comments. It warms my heart to think that our hard work and late nights are finally making some impact on the community.
As a few have said, Fotolia traffic is spread over 5 websites, so if you add them all together we aren't doing all that bad. Fotolia is now ranked with many of the top sites in the industry. Even if we are not first for traffic and sales, Fotolia is only 1 years old.
Our database has grown very fast in a short period of time. I attribute this growth to a number of things including the Upload Reward Program a few months ago, a mention in Popular Photography, and this forum. While we are proud of our large database those numbers aren't as important to us as you might think. What I really want to see are more sales and commissions. I think most of you would agree with this. Having a big database is great but only sales makes a company successful.
August was our best month for sales but my goal is much higher for Fotolia. We have some stiff competition but I think Fotolia still has a bright future ahead.
Sincerely,
Chad Bridwell
I find it very interesting that he never attempted to directly answer whether they actually have 1 million accepted images.
244
« on: September 08, 2006, 15:54 »
I'm one of those people who is very smart at anything creative, but understanding the legalities of who owns the rights to a photo once its been submitted and accepted by a stock photo company is beyond me. I was hoping one of you could answer a couple of questions regarding this? And hopefully answer it in in idiotese? You retain the rights to your images at all of the major microstock sites (iStock, Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia) and many of the smaller ones(Bigstockphoto, 123RF, Stockxpert, LuckyOliver). I am only aware of one site that wants to purchase your images (for around $5 apiece), but I can't remember their name. There are also some licenses (such as Sell the Rights on Dreamstime) where you could sell the rights to a potential buyer, but that is usually for a substantial amount of money (usually $500 and up). If a stock photo company like Dreamstime accepts my submitted photos, does this mean they now own the image and I can't sell or use it anymore? If not, can I submit the same image to several stock companies?
With RF sites, you can submit to all of them if you have the time, and inclination (unless you go exclusive with a site). Also, what has worked better for you guys -- Royalty Free or Extended License?
This is not an either/or. You can do both. Usually an Extended License allows the purchaser to resell your images (as in mousepads, tshirts, coffee mugs) or increase the amount published (from one specified amount to another or unlimited), but you still retain the rights to your image. But this does not mean that they can take your image and submit it to another microsite or sell it as is. It needs to be a part of another product. The major question that many people deal with is whether they want someone to resell their images (on a product) for such a low amount. Hope that helps...
245
« on: September 08, 2006, 07:13 »
I just read a thread on another microstock forum that questioned whether Fotolia actually had more than 1 Million images. The poster gave some facts (which I have verified) that give some food for thought. Here are some excerpts from the thread: - on Istockphoto - they have 1.048.000 picture online and the last
picture added has the ID #2.097.832 because of the rejected images I think
- on Dreamstime - 609.000 pictures and the last added picture has the
ID #1.040.224
- on Fotolia (http://www.fotolia.com/pics/) - 1.242.000 and the last
ID is #1.229.603 ( ) so they accept everything?
I've tried to search some popular strings:
"man":
Istockphoto 78842 results
Dreamstime 44094
Fotolia 35304
"woman":
Istockphoto 123571 results
Dreamstime 76597
Fotolia 72679
"background":
Istockphoto 136031 results
Dreamstime 127648
Fotolia 99319
"yellow"
Istockphoto 72074 results
Dreamstime 49627
Fotolia 47841
"black"
Istockphoto 95952 results
Dreamstime 61718
Fotolia 50591
Maybe this would explain the lack of celebration by Fotolia for the "one millionth image". Maybe they don't have 1 million accepted images yet, but rather 1 million submitted images. Any thoughts?
246
« on: September 08, 2006, 06:26 »
Thanks for the quick reply.
I ask because turning microstock into a full-time job depends on a bunch of things. One of the most important (IMO) is where a person resides. If a person resides in an area where the U.S. dollar is worth a lot, then it would be easier than if you live in an area where the dollar is worth less.
For example, I live in a major city in the U.S. If I were single, then the amount you quoted ($500/wk) would need to be almost doubled (to $800/wk) in order to just make ends meet. But I currently support a family of four, a house, and three cars. So that amount would need to be doubled again (to at least $1600/wk) for it to work for me. So I don't see it happening for me anytime soon...
247
« on: September 08, 2006, 06:14 »
eyckmans: Are you exclusive? If so, what is your canister color? And what do you submit (photos, vectors)? If photos, do you have images that requires MRs?
iStock does have the lowest royalty for a per image microsite. They only offer a 20% royalty. Most other sites offer much more. FT 33%, DT 50%, StockXpert 50%, FP 70%, etc.
Some people report higher earnings but that is because they either are exclusive, have gorgeous models (which sell quite well), or sell vectors (which sell much better than photos and at a higher price) or some combination.
I don't think that it is fair comparing these sites to SS, since a subscriber on SS has to pay a minimum of $169 for a monthly subscription. This leads to a different revenue stream, since you will probably end up with a LOT more sales on SS compared to many of the other microsites. On top of that, SS has now become the #1 paying site for a majority of submitters.
So in summary, IS is currently the "Walmart" of the micros. Hopefully we can "unionize" and force them to give us a pay increase.
248
« on: September 08, 2006, 05:55 »
cre8tive:
May I ask where you reside?
249
« on: September 07, 2006, 16:40 »
So how is September doing for everybody after the 1st week?
250
« on: September 03, 2006, 07:52 »
Many people have been waiting for September for a variety of reasons. Here are just a few:
- The summer is over and everyone is back to work
- Europe supposedly goes on vacation in August
- Christmas is just over the horizon
So many people have been hoping that September will be great.
But will it live up to expectations or be a big disappointment?
What do you think?
NOTE: Remember to add your vote to the poll on the left-hand side <--
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