. Do you find that many people buy a download or they just link back to you in exchange for a free image? As I understand the site, you can link back to various size images (so the image will show in a web page, but they haven't actually got the file itself. If they want to buy a downloaded file they pay $1 etc. depending on size and usage?

Steve

exactly - most people to the site dont buy - but it's worth it for the links and the occ'l adsense clicks

i use smugmug for my portfolio, and also allow anyone to use websized images if they link back - resulting in a PR 3 for my webpage

steve

the problem is SS specifically says that editorial is more than just newsworthy - so ANY rejection as 'not newsworthy' is therefore nonsense - there must be some other reason - vreviewers who use that reason must be ignorant or lazy

yep, their rejections have become totally arbitrary - esp fior editorial - their staf stikll think that editorial MUSt be newsworthy when the managers keep saying that's not the case - i just resubmit after aweek or so and they get accepted - real waste of time but they dont seem to care

my other peeve is that stupid hyperalert captcha they use - it's rare i can even read their first attempt - just what are they worried about?  other sites with much greater secuerity cocerns use simple 6 letter codes and sem to do fine

i've had same results recently withSS -  rejections of entire batches all with same reasons - "not newsworthy", or "it wont sell", etc   where usually they would accept similar.  the editorials are the worst - resubmitting gets many of them accepted, but it's a waste of everryone's time having to play this 'guess who's reviewing' game

one bug in their gps locator is that if you start to enter a location, you can't then decide not to - you first get an error msg saying to zoom in, but there's no way to cancel.

it's gpoing to result in a lot of badly tagged images  - better to just ttake the gps info if it's supplied w the image

back in pre internet days of telecommunications, i worked with several groups that started as ad hoc lists and developed into useful organizations

PNG graphics  format began this way in usenet and compuserve discussions

ESC - educational software coop

from ESC site at http://edu-soft.org :
-----------
The forums on CompuServe operated much the way newsgroups do now. People posted and replied to messages in threads. The forums were devoted to various topics, with subsections in each forum for different interests.

In 1992, in CompuServe's Education Forum (EDFORUM), a group of software developers got together and started a somewhat informal group they dubbed the Educational Software Co-Operative. Andy Motes, author of the popular School Mom program, was the chief organizer. The group generated enough interest that it was granted its own section in EDFORUM.

------------


the other organization was the Assoc of Shareware Professionals

http://www.asp-software.org/

steve

it's the reviewers that are unpredictable on SS - some dont know that editorial is not a synonym for newswoerthy - i just had a large batch rejected for npot newsworthy - looks like reviewer didnt even bother to look at most.   many of these were similar to other images that other SS reviewers had accepted

>>>>20 dollars a month is a ridiculously low price to pay for your site being advertised,

if i pay $20 to google, those ads go directly to my site - here i'm paying $20 / mo for ads that only go to my site x% of the time

other than pricing, i'm interested in the concept and would be wiling to work on a communal project or continue the brainstorming.   i have several 1and1 accounts with extra bandwidth that could be used for prototyping

my website is http://pix-now.com   run thru smugmug

fwiw

just found first usage of my stock on a russian  news site

http://generation.by/news3291.html

 [ google does a good translate of the page]

i've had smugmug for about a year too, w same results - but after try ing red bubble, fine ARTS et i wasnt really expecting much income - those other sites ely mostly on internal views [ie, non buyers], so a smattering of sales over time

i do like smugmug - it's much easier to mange than Galerry2 which i had before.  i use it as an online archive for other website and it does bring in a samll amt of adsense $.  i've started submitting to hubpages and smugmug makes it really easy to add images to my writing

steve

there are some places where a tripod just isn't realistic.  I've used a trek pod for several years

http://www.pix-now.com/Travel/Peru shows our Andes trek where i used the monopod most of the time.  we were limited in the total baggage weight we could bring for the 2 week trek, and since we would be camping at 14K' and going over 16K' passes many days, i didn't want to have it in my daypack.  in addition, on a trip like this, you don't have the luxury of being able to deploy a tripod every time - it's hard work, and you need to keep moving to cover the distances needed. in addition, exertion at altitude doesn't make your handheld shots any steadier!

so, for me, the monopod lets me reach places i otherwise would not see and still take acceptable images  - my images from this trip are accepted & sell at all the major agencies, including alamy.

another way i've used the monopod is on long car trips - where we need to cover 500 - 600 miles per day.  these aren't photo days, but a monopod let's me stop quickly, get some pix and keep moving

steve