A bit disappointing for me: 48 sales earning $92.10 on 2600 images - I was hoping for at least double that. This places them about 50% below 123RF, and in seventh place for earnings.

On the bright side, the $/DL is good ($1.92, no ELs), and I won't have to wait 1.1/2 months to get the money - it'll be in my PayPal account on the 15th. Also, they've only just entered into this marketplace, and I hope sales will grow.

... I also suggest that you read copyright law, it has no similarity to buying a product like a car or a house and to make that comparison is ridiculous.

Copyright law can also vary tremendously by country, too. In Canada, for example, it's the owner of the film/CF card who owns the copyright, while in the USA it's the person who clicked the shutter.

There is another option albeit a bit more drastic, whether Dreamstime have a 6, 12, 18 or 24 month policy in their terms makes no difference whatsoever, you as a contributor are the copyright owner of those images, if you choose to no longer allow Dreamstime to distribute those images then send them a notice giving them 28 days to remove your images from their site ...

This also varies by country. I know of one photographer who signed an agreement with an agency such that the agency has the right to license his imagery for 20 years ! He's consulted with lawyers about getting out of the contract, but has been told it's a no-go.

I do not think that is the solution. Its not good for those who have a very specialized portfolio who are best on their subject.  The best match 2.0 which iStock wants to implement should be the solution. But that seems not too easy to do

I can easily second that thought.
As someone who has a specialized portfolio, my sales at DT have always been lower than those at their competition. Many people here rank DT in their top 3 earners - despite much analysis, tinkering, and tweaking I have never been one of them.

...but one teenage girl, teenage girl only, teenagers only, one woman, only women..
would not they be redundant?  they all mean the same thing.
why is this so different from spamming?
...

You shouldn't apply the same keywording technique on IS as you do on sites that don't have a CV. If you take a bit of time to play with it, you'll begin to understand how the CV works and how each of these seemingly equivalent keywords are arrived at. Given the recent implementation of 'More like this' and visibly ranked keywords at IS, it's important to investigate the keywords that competing images use. Failure to do these things will give your image less than it's maximum possible exposure.

Each site has it's own keywording quirks: SS automatically adds plurals, DT uses titles and description, FT ranks the first 7(?). In order to maximize exposure you should know the ins-and-outs of each site and take advantage of the tools available to you. The bottom line is this: You may have made the best image in the world, but if you fail to keyword it optimally you will have handicapped your income from it.

It took me about a second to figure out it was a cup of coffee ...

Which reminds me of something I've always wanted to ask: What is your avatar a picture of, Zeus?

Maybe Avava's post is meant to be tongue in cheek?   I actually thought the comparison was pretty funny!   

No, he was dead serious. He's got an axe to grind against sjlocke, and for some mysterious reason he's chosen (again) to act on that publicly in this forum.


Although avava has a long history in the traditional stock industry and is looked upon with admiration and respect there, the same thing cannot be said of his reputation in the microstock world - especially here. He's joined and quit this forum four times (first as as Chumley, then AVAVA, avava again, and finally this time as avava), and this latest incident takes it over the top for me.

In the event that he returns to this thread, I'll just say this: You've got much to learn about maintaining an online presence, avava. If you continue this behavior it won't be long before you've sufficiently embarrassed yourself that those in the know won't want to be associated with you and most everyone will hesitate to take you seriously. If you want to be a big player in this marketplace you'd better smarten up!

.nevermind.

Perhaps percentages coupled with images portfolio size is more helpful:
...

Even if you included the total amount earned I still couldn't figure out a quantitative way to use this information to increase my sales.

I never understand the point of these percentage threads since you can have different numbers for different amounts of time at different agencies.  You don't know the amount of royalties, the number of images added per month or anything.  I can't see how these stats are any use at all.

Yep, a total waste of time, even when portfolio size and dollar amounts are included.
I challenge everyone who contributed to this thread to describe how they've been able put this information to effective/valuable use.

Thanks for the 'heads up' - I'm in the market for something new to read, and your latter recommendation may just fit the bill!

...
I hate flash sites that take time to load and like other people I'm easily bored waiting.
...

Sorry about the flash, but I wanted a bit of, well, flash to the site. The old version did much the same without flash, but required more time to maintain (which is why I let it slide for so long). This version is going to be a piece of cake to keep up to date.

Dunno what's up with the speed - things seem okay from here. But maybe that's because my browser has everything cached.

I've spent the past few days updating my website. I tried to keep it easy, simple, and fast - take a look: http://www.strathdee.net

Any comments/suggestions/problems are welcomed.