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Messages - Allsa
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326
« on: January 06, 2010, 20:23 »
My W-9 was approved today. Yay! 
Mina was, too BUT how will we (meaning those of us from the US) find out the total $ paid to the IRS so we can deduct that amount from our 2010 income tax payments? Employers send W-2 forms, will Fotolia send us W-2's in January 2010? It should count as part of our income taxes.
327
« on: January 05, 2010, 17:02 »
In the US I was asked to submit form w-9. I submitted on the first and it still isn't approved yet.
Does nobody any good to submit forms and then not have them reviewed.
Same here, Lisa. I submitted the w-9 on the second and it still hasn't be reviewed. I've stopped uploading for the time being, until we find out what's going on. This is outrageous.
328
« on: January 04, 2010, 11:54 »
Is anyone else constantly getting a "Tax Form Formality" email every time they make a sale? I am, and I put in my W-9 like a week ago, and before that they already had my social security info for well over a year.
It's happening with me, also.
329
« on: January 04, 2010, 11:33 »
They are taking 28% of each and every sale of mine. I'm from the US, and have been paying taxes on my micro earnings from the beginning, I don't need to have them withheld by Fotolia. Aren't there laws against this sort of thing; I can't believe what Fotolia is doing is legal. Has anyone tried contacting the US IRS(Internal Revenue Service) about this? If FT gets away with this, what's to stop the other agencies from doing the same thing?
330
« on: January 03, 2010, 15:51 »
Well said, I couldn't agree more. Linda B Hi All,
You ever been fishing. Start thinking like a very old smart fish that hasn't ever nibbled at something that is to good to be true. He is still swimming. Exclusivity for any self employed person leaves them in a tough place once the competition is hurting. The more companies in Micro that can stay strong in the game the better for everyone, even Istock exclusives will benefit more if the money is distributed by more than one big player.
Perfect world for photographers, 10 agencies all making the same returns. Only the photographers can make that happen. Everyone jumps ship to one agency and I can guarantee you that agency will take advantage of their dominance in the business every time.
Cheers,
Jonathan
331
« on: January 02, 2010, 21:23 »
This is another reason why I can't go exclusive with any one site: lack of creative freedom. As one one who produces mostly raster illustrations, I would not want to be confined to iStock's (or any other micro site's) narrow aesthetic.
332
« on: November 17, 2009, 07:37 »
iStock used to make me crazy the way they would accept marginal images into my portfolio, and then reject my best work. But that frustration was resolved when they fixed the Scout system. Now that I know my best images won't be randomly consigned to oblivion, I'm happy with iStock. I like the way the reviewers will work with you, and let you fix and resubmit; this has helped me to improve the quality of my work. They are also my highest earning site, and the best paying for subscriptions.
333
« on: October 05, 2009, 16:40 »
This current thread is related:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/what%27s-the-limit-of-stolen-images-to-be-shut-down/msg118109/?topicseen#new
This person stole the idea, but not the image itself - if they had stolen the image itself, then I could probably (you would hope) get them kicked off the site. In this case they have stolen several of my ideas, and in at least one instance, they stole all my keywords as well. I go through a lot of trial and error, trying out new and different ideas, some do well, but many of them sink, that's just the nature of experiments - BUT is it right for some bottom feeder to come along and duplicate my successful images? They take no risks themselves, yet they benefit from my experiments? How can an honest person survive in Microstock?
334
« on: October 05, 2009, 16:12 »
What would you do if you discovered that someone copied one of your most popular images - and they even copied all of the keywords from your image (his keywords are exactly the same as mine), and the written description was almost exactly the same, too. I get so irritated with these thieves, and the laziness of this thief is especially disgusting, IMO. What would you do in this instance, would you complain to the agency? Would it do any good? Is there no limit to what these idiots can get away with?
335
« on: October 02, 2009, 15:41 »
I wish they would stop urging contributors to look at the 'top 50' best selling images to get ideas. I get sick and tired of having my ideas ripped off and the worst offenders are on Shutterstock. Why not encourage people to be original? They attract contributors who couldn't come up with an original idea if their lives depended on it.
336
« on: September 12, 2009, 17:56 »
I've always been dealt with fairly by Dreamstime. The only complaint I have is about subscriptions, but that's a problem with most of the micros these days.
337
« on: September 07, 2009, 17:02 »
Subs are bringing down my earnings on all sites. It's reached the point where if it were not for the waste of rejections, I'd seriously consider iStock exclusivity. Up until the epidemic of subscriptions, I never imagined I'd say that... 
338
« on: September 04, 2009, 09:19 »
Doesn't work for me, either.
339
« on: August 30, 2009, 08:11 »
I think subscriptions are ruining microstock, at least for the photographers. At both FT and DT, I've noticed that more and more of my downloads are subscription, and it's hurting my earnings. DT most likely has no answer for this, so they cut off all discussion. It's very discouraging.
340
« on: August 18, 2009, 10:13 »
I have recently been downsizing most of my istock submissions and have had much better luck getting them accepted. A shame they have to be a smaller file, but much better than getting rejects all the time.
Are the resized images getting accepted because they prefer smaller sizes? Or is it because there are fewer visible flaws in the resized images?
341
« on: August 11, 2009, 08:30 »
My earnings are down on StockXpert, mostly because most sales are subscription these days. I really wish they never introduced subscriptions, my earnings dropped as a result, and never recovered. They are still worth uploading to for me, I hope Getty doesn't pull the plug.
342
« on: August 06, 2009, 09:32 »
Downloads were slow during June and July for me, but now they are starting to pick up. BS is a small but steady earner for me, and it's still worth my time to keep uploading. I'm also very happy with the way they treat their contributors. 
343
« on: August 03, 2009, 16:01 »
I'm still uploading, but I've noticed a big drop in sales recently. Sales at StockXpert seem to fluctuate a lot more than the amount of change I see at other sites, I wonder why? I've pretty much always been happy with them, but I do wish they had never started with subscriptions. Terrible idea, but everyone's doing it, unfortunately.
344
« on: July 20, 2009, 16:26 »
Since anyone with a fractal program can push buttons and spit out images, they aren't very valuable, and istock doesn't even accept them for the most part.
Isn't that a lot like saying anyone with a camera can take a photo? While anyone with a camera can easily take a snapshot, it takes skill to shoot stock-worthy photos, and even greater skill and talent to create photos that are worthy of being called 'Art'. The same is true for fractals. Fractals have evolved considerably over the years, and there are many fractal artists out there who have spent years learning and practicing their art. Janet Preslar is a good example: http://www.parkenet.org/jp/07gallery.htmlSamuel Monnier, who also writes his own formulas for UltraFractal, is another example of fractal artist who creates exceptional works that I and many others consider to be Art: http://www.p-gallery.net/Please don't malign fractals, they are a viable artform that is undervalued and under-appreciated. I've spent years developing my fractal skills, but I seldom upload them as stock simply because the micros aren't interested in fractals for the most part, and most fractals don't sell very well on the micros - NOT because I believe they aren't a worthy artform. Linda B
345
« on: July 19, 2009, 16:25 »
I've tried it - from my experience most fractals don't do well on the micros, and it's hard to get them accepted.
Linda B
346
« on: July 17, 2009, 14:59 »
It's a shame you are deciding to withdraw your portfolio, I think many of us have a lot to gain by partnering with this site, especially as they develop there customer base over the next six months. For me at least VFM is far from being a waste of time, good luck to them and to those who decide not to take the leap of faith.
I just have no tolerance for mass rejections, especially from a new and unproven site. If contributors refused to tolerate that sort of treatment, Veer would be forced to adjust. As it is, they don't seem all that concerned about wasting contributors time. Call it a personality clash, but I have no desire whatsoever to do business with Veer. Usually new sites go out of their way to encourage contributors, and then as they get more successful, they tend to get less user friendly. Eventually, you start seeing rejections increase as their libraries get larger. Veer is starting out with mass rejections, and IMO it can only get worse from here - count me out.
347
« on: July 16, 2009, 17:32 »
Apparently I'm not the only one with emotional problems... for a site that's not even started walking, i am surprised to see some ppl already making judgement to quit .
sure the rejections , more than necessary . but i look at in the other way . the more picky the lesser the collection, the greater the chance of getting downloads.
see it this way, "hey , so much the better for those who stay !"
as for that "intelligent" person who you thinks Veer is for idiots and a big hype .
exccuuuusse us for living !
woo hoo , dude! don't stay up on accounts of us idiots .
we won't lose any sleep , neither will we be staying up waiting for you..
yuk!yuk! snort, grunt ! ...( no translation possible, just unintelligible ,incohorent gibberish!)
as whatalife said, "don't contribute, if you don't like Veer".
348
« on: July 16, 2009, 17:01 »
You do what you gotta do to stay sane, even if it's an otherwise poor business decision...
Well, I can certainly relate to that statement, seeings how I resigned from my job today with nothing really lined up. Bad business decision? You bet. Worth it to quit instead of walking around with a knot in my stomach all the time because I hate my job and the people managing it? You bet.
Good for you - no job or agency is worth sacrificing your sanity. You will probably accomplish a lot more since your energies won't be drained by the constant frustrations. I try to keep emotions out of my business decisions, but sometimes protecting your sanity IS the best choice for both you AND your business. Don't let Veer discourage you from the micros, you can keep trying to find success with those agencies that already have proven track records. There's a lot of trail-and-error in this business.
349
« on: July 16, 2009, 16:14 »
I am not getting why people want to close accounts and remove all their files? I simply stop uploading and observing this account.
You're right, that would be the logical response. But my emotions were getting the best of me, and so in the interest of emotional stability, I decided that the account had to be closed. Take a look at my avatar, I'm not the most stable person in the world  You do what you gotta do to stay sane, even if it's an otherwise poor business decision...
350
« on: July 16, 2009, 14:59 »
I just sent Veer an email instructing them to close my account and remove my illustrations from the site. Case closed, time to move on. My time is worth more than this. 
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