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Messages - Travelling-light
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376
« on: March 18, 2013, 15:11 »
I cannot imagine anyone quit exclusivity in the last 12 months for stocksy. I certainly didn't, I didn't even know about it until leaf broke the news.
The place isn't open for buiness yet and has no customers.
I went independent because all the drama and bad management decisions of the last 2 years and especially the last 6 months. And then the Microsoft deal and the getty/google deal.
The traffic for istock is falling continuosly, it never goes back up. Istock must be losing customers on a massive scale. Everyone I knew who used to buy from istock has turned away over all the IT issues and the extremly high prices. Nobody ever goes back to istock.
And here in Germany many photographers supply Fotolia with exclusive content and do extremly well there. The best known blogger is averaging over 10k a month while being independent. And he stopped supplying istock in 2010.
His earnings and those of many others are growing well.
I think maybe 2 years ago, or 18 months ago probably as an exclusive you would have made more. But I believe with the continuing drop in downloads and focus on Thinkstock and Getty, the exclusives cannot win.
istock is just a brand fighting a losing battle for attention between all the other Getty brands. They have fired a lot of high quality staff, they have closed the office in Berlin and even the German forum no longer has a dedicated moderator and community builder.
If they don't even have money for that, than for me as a European contributor it means I have to pay attention to the agencies that are investing and building their presence in Europe.
I know it will take time to build up my portfolio on other sites. But in the end I simply have to go where the customers are going.
I have waited a long, long time to see if they will reverse the trend, but I don't see the slightest indication that the customers are coming back.
Same here. 1) All the drama is very distracting - you never know what they are going to do next, only that it never seems to be good for contributors. 2) The IS exclusive contract is far too restrictive - when things start to go bad, it doesn't give you much opportunity to do anything to improve your situation. 3) When we quit IS exclusivity, our income was 2/3 of our BME, and we thought things would only get worse at IS, and it seems they have. Although we are earning less, we now have fingers in lots of other pies. It's still early days, but they are starting to pay off. Cobalt will not regret her decision, I'm sure. She's giving it two years, and she's given a lot of thought to her strategy, just as we have done.
377
« on: March 17, 2013, 15:40 »
I agree, those are brilliant. I really envy your creativity!
378
« on: March 16, 2013, 16:57 »
We have left. We don't compete with the big producers, do you? As I said before, I think maybe they don't want the small producers, we are probably too expensive for them to maintain. Think about it, all those niche files, all need to be inspected, all cluttering up their data base, hardly ever selling. If they wanted us, they wouldn't have cut our money, would they? So, in leaving, we've given them what they want. The people who need the niche files will just have to buy them elsewhere. Everyone is happy 
379
« on: March 16, 2013, 15:54 »
We get lots of those too, they're still better than micro. We are gradually seperating our files, some for micro, some for elsewhere, depending on how niche they are.
380
« on: March 16, 2013, 14:57 »
The whole pace of activity there seems slow. I uploaded some photos 4 days ago, they still show an estimated 5+ days until review. Meanwhile they're nibbling at my old, unsold photos with automatic deactivations. They recently dumped one that had brought me an EL at SS about 2 days earlier. The photos they're deleting are niche subjects which were only expected to sell once in a while, which they do on SS, but I guess DT doesn't want those sales and would rather get new business handshakes.
Why not put your niche photos on Alamy? We sold one for nearly $400 a couple of weeks ago, and another for $250, of which we get half. If they are just occasional sellers on the micros, you may as well get decent money for them. You would need a lot of micro sales to make up that kind of money.
381
« on: March 16, 2013, 14:36 »
If it didn't make much difference, they wouldn't be doing it, would they?
382
« on: March 15, 2013, 01:14 »
Are you looking in the right place? The number on the Earnings Summary page is the total number of DL, including ODS and SODS. The number of subs is on the Earnings by Date page. Just a thought, as you are saying this only happens when there are ODS and SODS
383
« on: March 14, 2013, 12:56 »
We have closed our account.
384
« on: March 11, 2013, 10:45 »
That's excellent news, Zager, thanks!
385
« on: March 10, 2013, 21:10 »
I don't have all my photos at Pond5 set at the same price. What happens when they go to Pixmac? Does Pixmac sell at the same price as Pond5? Thanks.
386
« on: March 08, 2013, 13:57 »
Or maybe they did use one but haven't notified it yet - @OP another little joy of Alamy is that sales can take many months to be notified to Alamy, and months more if via a distributor.
Oh yes! We're still waiting for a sale to be notified for a DPS in 'Britain' magazine for Sep/Oct 2012. Member Services have been nudged a couple of times.
387
« on: March 08, 2013, 11:45 »
I love IKEA. I can spend hours in there, just looking at all the brilliant ideas they've come up with. Why wouldn't people go to Stocksy for the same reason?
It isn't all rubbish, either. I have several pieces of furniture purchased over 10 years ago when we lived in Sydney, then brought back to New Zealand, still in daily use, still looking good. We don't have IKEA in New Zealand, unfortunately, but I have tried to furnish my house in similar style. Whenever I go to Sydney, I shop at IKEA for bits and bring them back in my suitcase with me, and I know many others do the same.
We just can't get that "look" anywhere else. So, it's not just looking and picking up ideas, it's buying too. Why wouldn't people buy at Stocksy? I think they will.
388
« on: March 08, 2013, 01:51 »
We've been using Release Lackey on Android for a year and nobody has refused it. We tried to buy Easy Release but were refused for the crime of having an unlocked and rooted phone!
389
« on: March 08, 2013, 00:39 »
Today I achieved something I've wanted to do for years. I went out shopping, and when I came home, I'd earned more than I'd spent 
390
« on: March 06, 2013, 19:41 »
Well, there's plenty of time on this thread. I'm writing software, not licenses. I did want to initiate something though so that when this is available people don't have to say "Yay! Time to sell images" and then... "Oh wait...don't I need some sort of license?"
Even if there's some extremely simple contract I'm cool with it. I just can't release this thing without something like that...it would be like making the cart without any paypal IPN to complete the sale...
I'm really pleased that you've come up with this contract. I thought we were going to have to write our own  Looking forward to this being released, and pleased we will be compatible with that big search engine you mentioned!
391
« on: March 06, 2013, 18:05 »
I think the same solid contract would be best. If anyone wants to add or subtract, they should think hard about why.
Will a buyer really want to check the contract of every different site on the network. Having the same contract makes it easier for the buyer.
For example, dk is talking about maximum number of reproductions. I think we should all be the same, just keep it simple.
392
« on: March 06, 2013, 17:44 »
Sounds excellent! Can I just say here that I think it would be wise for everyone to use the same contract. I can't see buyers wanting to wade through a different contract for everyone's different site. So, if there's anything anyone is not happy with, they should say so now
393
« on: March 05, 2013, 15:46 »
I know nothing about css and html. I am thinking that i should just rent their product instead of buying the software. may work out cheaper since i do not have to worry about fixing stuff and paying people to do so.
In that case, why not go with Photoshelter instead? You can pay by the month, and you don't need to know web programming or mysql.
I second Photoshelter. From what I know now, I would have saved money if I had gone this route. Another advantage to Photoshelter is that they are searchable through Picturengine, unlike Ktools.
Also, Photoshelter has good Google-juice. Doing an image search on Google brings our sites up in the middle of the big boys. You can customise a little or a lot, depending on your abilities, and there are new templates coming up shortly. [name-drop]We had a drink with Allen, the chairman, the other night, and he's very enthusiastic about the new developments.[/name-drop] 
394
« on: March 03, 2013, 17:29 »
So stealing a car with a screwdriver doesnt matter because you can do it with a another tool as well?
I am just letting people know.
And I'm just reminding them that right-click disabling is a complete waste of time anyway in deterring image piracy, while discouraging legitimate viewing - you can't right-click > Open in new tab. Which is why we never post anything important over 600px or without a watermark.
395
« on: March 03, 2013, 13:53 »
Why do you think this matters?
If it's posted openly on the Web it's downloadable, and right-click disable only takes a few seconds to bypass.
396
« on: March 01, 2013, 19:22 »
Update: New Wordpress installed on my localhost. Ready for testing.
How did you that? Can you point me to some instructions? I want to be ready for testing, too.
If you're running on a Windows machine, go to http://www.wampserver.com/en/ and install the WAMP server. This gives you a local Web server to test on, not normally accessible from outside your home network. You can install Wordpress from http://wordpress.org and you're ready to go. If you're using a Mac, then I believe http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html will do the same for you.
397
« on: February 28, 2013, 22:53 »
Small update - I'm down to just a few small details regarding the search fields/forms, paypal ipn, and maybe some css on a few pages.
I've also deployed it online to see if it works "Out of the box" right away, and it does!
Gonna test the networking abilities on a few of my own test sites, and once thats done I'll release it.
We're looking forward to being able to try out a test site. Great work, Leo! Has anyone come up with good ideas on RF license agreements yet? I've been digging on the Web, but haven't come up with anything very generic. Particularly with networks of sites, some agreement would be good on repro limits, whether to require ELs, and the like. Also, there's always the problem of whose law to should be used to interpret the agreement. Has anyone been making progress on this? RM is less of a problem, especially if we use PLUS licensing, as the conditions are spelled out in detail.
398
« on: February 27, 2013, 20:04 »
What I've noticed this month about Shutterstock is that the ODs and SODs have really dropped off. I know this is a short month, but in January I had $200 in ODs and $120 in SODs, this month it is $173 and $17. As I understand it, the SODs are the ones that people can just come in from a search and buy the image - suggests that people with accounts at SS still buy, but the ones who are buying as they see the image they need have dropped through the floor - $120 to $17 is quite a change.
Anyone else notice a lack of SODs on Shutterstock?
Steve
Yes, we have noticed the same. This month is quite poor on SS, although subs are about the same. IS is up though Maybe being friends of Google has helped them
399
« on: February 27, 2013, 20:00 »
I am sorry, but it seems you know more then Jon himself. Nobody knows what he is up too.
No matter how fanatic the SS fanboys are, just because they say something doesnt make it true.
It's quite simple. There are different types of entrepreneur. You can tell, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, from how they've played their cards in the past to how they are likely to play them in the future. No-one accuses Zuckerberg for example of being a 'pump and dump' merchant. He was offered millions, then hundreds of millions, then billions to sell out. Always he refused (which almost none of us could possibly have done). These guys are different to most of us and their motivations are different too. Oringer is the same and has similar ambitions.
As the golfer Rory Mcilroy pointed out recently, at the ripe old age of 23, he's no longer playing golf for the money (that side is already assured), he's just playing for titles and records. It's the same for Oringer and his type. Money has become largely meaningless; it's only winning the game that now matters.
I agree with you, but what we are talking about here is the methods he could use to win the game. You seem to believe he will never screw you, and I hope you're right, but others disagree.
400
« on: February 27, 2013, 19:55 »
Another good question would be, if you've made $10000 yourself, how much have you made for Google? Just thinking of all that advertising. I wonder if the advertising will continue now. Could be another area to squeeze.
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