Quote from: melastmohican on May 03, 2010, 15:42

New distribution model. I wish there was a central repository for images and agencies could go there and pickup what they want but they will not get a content they would only link to it. This way if new agency with new strategy appears they can pick whatever type or quality of images they want and focus on marketing them. All they have to keep is metadata not files itself. Agencies do not have to spend money on storage. For contributors it would be one place to upload images. Also if they do not like agency they can block it from getting images with one click of the button.

This is something that might actually have a tiny chance of happening.  A repository company would offer storage, which has value in itself, and an API which image sellers could use to access our images, with our permission.   I very much like the idea of control, and not being held hostage by sites like Dreamstime with a 6-month lockin; or seeing my images shopped on fakey-looking 'partner' sites by Fotolia.   Of course the microstocks would initially refulse to play along; but eventually they might be forced into cooperating.  

This is also something that existing storage vendors (like Amazon S3) could offer as a value-added service.

This is of course a "dream" solution which is in favor of contributors and pushes agencies to the role of current partners. It may only happen if there is enough people not happy with current model and will somehow participate in developing new model. Alternatively somebody big like Google could step up and handle development cost and then would become paid repository administrator. Agencies would never like this model so they would not participate until they are forced to.

Overall better than month ago but far from BME. Good news is that SS made new record and dominated results this month. Second time this year I got BME form SS which is really good start. Let�s look at other top 5 guys. 123RF came second. Great result in comparison to last year but after BME in January it cannot repeat its success and it is going slightly down every month. Still much better than others. Fotolia grows, slowly but steadily. It is enough be be third. Surprising result form CanStockPhoto due to one Fotosearch Medium Regular sales. It happened after a month of no activity. DT is really down. Something is going on there, I got unusually high rejection rates and almost no growth in sales. IS on the other hand seems to grow. It is still 1/15th of what SS does but it is way better that last year. I wish ThinkStock result were posted faster cause it is now almost half of normal IS sales.


          Apr           Apr/mar
SS      63.91%     135.89%
123RF 10.12%     76.13%
FT       8.71%      159.99%
CanStockPhoto     5.10%      4700.00%
DT      5.09%       50.32%
IS       5.08%       84.18%
BS      1.45%       80.00%
CS      0.54%       120.00%
Total   108.13%

I cannot really tell what is so specific about my stuff that makes is get rejected from IS and thrives on SS. When I started with microstock I was mostly uploading nature and travel shots I accumulated on my hard drives in past years. Recently my travel times are limited so I have to learn how to shoot indoors. Maybe when I learn that I will start doing better at IS :-)

Me too, nature and travel ... but, I am new at SS and probably still going thru the "Honeymoon period." 
Lately, I am shooting objects and indoor setups. 

Mela... do you still upload on a regular basis?  How regular?
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10 images per 5 days / no upload on weekend. I should reach 3000 images very soon. Then in few months next canister.

It probably has nothing to do with a site itself. SS was always fastest for me. Something must be going on on your local corner of internet.

The only thing that comes to my mind right now is this boxing analogy. SS is just dominating my results this month.

Quote from: stockastic on April 29, 2010, 12:22

I agree with Warren, if you want nothing but positive vibes, the microstocks have their own forums for that purpose.  

One thing that continues to surprise me about microstock is how much the results vary for different photographers on different sites.  For me, DT and SS make more than IS (in part because IS rejects so much).  FT is a distant 4th and I will probably drop it soon.  123RF was a complete waste of time for me - it sold almost nothing.   For other photographers, results are entirely different. Obviously, different material is part of the story, but is it just that simple?

Similar oberservation here on portfolio of circa 3,000 pics.

SS and DT make more than IS - considerably more...
IS - Doesn't like my work very much, it rejects much more than it passes. Those it passes sell well, but my style is not theirs.
FT - Was a distant fourth, but now on par with DT
123 - I've always been different here - it's consistently around  $70-$80 per month, which if fine for me.

It's funny really, if I sent the same 20 pics to all the above 4 sites, IS will take 1, SS - 20, FT - 10 , 123  - 20, DT - 5.

Hence I have to differentiate what goes where. My biggest earner is SS, and that's my marker who I produce images for.

Of the rest, if I sent in the same batch of 20:-

Can - 20, BS - 20, Veer - 5

Funny old game - oh, and back to the thread, measuring DT over quarters rather than by monthly sales, it's still in the ascendency.

Oldhand

I would say IS is most consistent in rejecting most of my stuff. The stuff they accept mostly start selling after a while. Soon I might start getting more money from their partner programs than from main site.

SS is my major source of sales. I am very close to having 3000 images there. Recently their reviews are very inconsistent. I am sending 10 images in batch and I have all accepted or rejected. I do not think ones they accepted are any different from the ones they rejected. I must be just a different reviewer.

FT was always rejecting most of my stuff. Now they accepted more than SS and sales are taking off recently.

DT they change their standards recently. It used to be almost as SS but now lots of rejections for description and keywords. I haven't change my workflow for at least a year.

123RF huge change from accepting almost everything, I got twice more images there than on SS, to rejecting everything. Reviews takes ages now, maybe these guys have some troubles with their reviewers. Still returns are higher than from DT or FT which is a puzzle for me since for most people this site is not even in top 5.

I earned half of what I got on IS still barely 1/20th of SS earnings but with this growth rate IS finally will start giving similar output others in top 5. I do not think subs from Think will soon match SS but they might put a dent on other results. They must be doing great job marketing their site.

I start uploading there. I like simplicity of their workflow. There no categories, they process IPTC and everything is online. Then you can change it if you do not like defaults. Rejections are high but I kind like 0-1 approach: rejected or accepted. No fancy reasons for rejection just comment that they are taking what they think would sell. On the top of that they pay for upload so I am not feeling like wasting my time for them. Also good thing is that they have API for third-parties from the beginning which in time translates to larger distribution network.

I do not know if you can protect something so simple like cupcake in example. Anybody who can draw can copy it in 5 minutes.  This discussion is a pointless as problem of patents for software or business processes. If you allow them it would hurt innovation in long run.

Where images are stored? I notice that they have an option to use their e-commerce solution on my own site. I hope they put some info about this option.

It's almost nothing in comparison to MSDN. The biggest problem is to get it accepted :-) If these sample apps got thru I guess something similar should be accepted too. I guess I need to go to bookstore and check what good books are available. I am glad I switched to Mac last fall  so biggest cost is already behind me :-)

I just saw this blog post from Scott Bourne:
http://photofocus.com/2010/04/08/the-ipad-offers-new-markets-for-photographers/

When I follow his link it seems like images are wrapped into app which allows user to save them on their devices. I do not have iPad to test it so I am trying to guess if images are downloaded from the web or packaged with the app.