As an infrequent purchaser - once I needed coffee beans.  I was looking for a nice splash of beans over white to drop in the middle of a flyer.  There were pages and pages of spilled beans but they were all sharply chopped at the edge and I didn't have time for retouching.  So, they lost a sale peraphs because they had too many similars and their database was full.  I already had my credits, so it was no big loss for the agency. But if I was going to StockXpert for the first time to buy credits... that's another story.  They would have lost a new customer.

I joined 40 days ago, have about 400 images on line, and earned 16$. I have a sale every 4-5 days. That is low for me. I was hoping for something better. But I hope things will improve.

Chode, I remember (I think it was Achilles) saying it takes about 90 days for a photo to gain momentum.  Although, very often I have quick downloads on recent uploads - then they sink for a couple months until they find their place.

I know you are comparing DT to your experience at FT, but I make much much more on DT with same portfolio.  At FT I get less than a third of transactions, and each individual transaction averages to 38 cents less than DT.  (If I could exclude the subscription sales, the difference in those numbers would be much greater.)

Same thing happened to me a couple months back.  It took about 30 hours and straightened itself out.

Thanks fintastique.  You know, I've never really paid this thread much attention before and I'm quite surprized to see that IS doesn't have the largest library.   

If they would just accept a few more from me now and then, they would have a chance to catch up.

LOL, isn't that funny!  There's yours!  Good stuff too.  My fave is Whiteout... looks a lot like Manitoba right now.

One thing about subscriptions though, only busy, thriving agencies will get them... this introduces their hot young designers to these sites that are not Istock...  and they all do freelance stuff but would never need a subscription - so who know, maybe we do benefit.

Not that I like getting 30 cent sales. 

I remember too that Costco had something by Ipod, but it would only handle JPEG and no RAW, but the price seemed pretty good if you could live with the smallish viewing screen.

Shutterstock

Oh, you are wicked.

What about leaving SS ?

Or better: uploading downsampled photos on SS and keeping the best photos and the full resolution for other agencies?

Just wondering... for now.

At least one other contributor here has mentioned that he only sends 4mp shots to SS.   I sent them two this week that needed cropping to 4mp, nice to be able to do that with no regrets!

I'm not very active at this MS thing, but it still seems like a lot of extra steps to downsize!  It is really unfair that the regular agencies don't have a max size on the the subscription. If the buyer finds what they like, most times they would purchase the full sized image. 

Penny, I realize we have different long term needs, so for what it's worth I'll add my experience.   I am not a full time photographer, but there are times (like right now leading up to Christmas) that I can barely manage time to go to bed.  My cards are overflowing!!!

I had several big events back to back this summer and splurged for an Epson P-3000 storage viewer.  Couldn't afford the 80gb but the 40 is serving me well.  I searched around on a few forums and many think it is an overpriced gadget.  Well - I don't have use for it on a daily basis, but it has been a great resource for me on those times when I did need it.  I dumped several cards of wedding photos on it the day after my neice's wedding and they passed it around and picked out photos for their thank you cards before they left on honeymoon.   I came home directly to a sports event where I filled up several cards, I'd fill a card, put it in to dump while I shot from a new one.

I noticed that the Epsons have come down slightly in price (in Canada) and this week have a rebate as well.  Maybe about $299 now.

I just don't know about the storage devices with no viewing screen.   They only serve one purpose then, storage. The great thing about the Epson is you can go through, delete photos that do not meet your standards, and you can rank them by importance and do a bulk of work while on the road.

Other than that, it seems that Sandisks are almost free now - I thought the 4gb's I bought at Costco for $69 were a bargain three months ago, but I saw them in a Dons flyer for $39 this week.  If you are shooting RAW on that D200, it sure fills a card up quickly.  I think 230 shots or so on a 4gb?

Another thing about the Epson, sometimes I'll work from it hooked up to my pc.  I have a horrible time with Nikon Capture crashing, and it seems more stable when I read from the Epson than my card reader.

You can also view video and listen to music. 

So... my advice - if you have use for a portable viewer in the future, it could be a valuable tool for you on a trip.  I can't remember why I wanted a Jobo viewer, I did quite a bit of reading on both - Dons was out of stock at the time and I had to go with the Epson. 

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if the site is making good sales off the image do you really think they care?

They may not care, but it is doing them more hurt than sales.

Go to StockXpert and key in the word hippie.  I don't know about you, but I would expect to see on the first row some long haired, peace loving homo sapiens, but 8 images on the first page are by lione and one is by photoprince (who I would guess is the same contributor - or major keyword stealer).

If I was thinking about going to StockXpert from Istock and this is how my first few search results went, I certainly wouldn't stay long enough to buy credits. 

Same guy, no doubt?  I don't see spotted anywhere in that image.

I have to ask myself though, how on earth would you ever properly keyword an image like that?