What a beautiful picture of a precious, happy little boy! 

Thanks so much for sharing the story and photos with us and allowing us to be a small part of your wonderful charity work.  You are awesome Maria! 

  +1

Interesting information. I have been considering doing my own site, and I had not thought about the possibilities of using keyword tactics which are against the rules on the agencies. Not spamming or black-hat SEO - those would work against you in the long run I am sure - but things which the big agencies don't like for whatever reason but which might give you an edge on Google.

Quote from: mtkang on December 08, 2011, 11:35

maybe this is the reason, the agencies send me the money in foreign currencies..

You can keep multiple balances in PayPal. If you activate all major currencies (USD, EUR, GBP) automatic conversion upon receiving funds won't happen.

You'll still have to convert money sooner or later - and pay the conversion fee - but at least you can choose the best moment. Or avoid (double) conversion at all, if you need to buy something from abroad.

Interesting! So if I "activate all major currencies" then when I get paid by Rodeo in euros, the money will sit in Paypal as euros? And I can buy things from European sites, which offer Paypal, and pay them in euros?

And, I suppose, I would have to pay my US taxes on the money according to the euro-to-dollar exchange rate at the end of the year?

...and finally that more and more new publishers who never before used stock images are now picking up something on SS to save money and cutting costs.

everything is possible but i remain skeptic about the long-term.

Yes, I also think that new publishers are still coming to microstock, and I think that will continue because microstock is making new kinds of publishing possible. Suppose that somebody has an idea for a new kind of, say, greeting card company but has little capital. A source of cheap images might make that business possible, when it would have have been impossible otherwise. Then if that business succeeds, others copy it. Microstock actually causes its market to increase qualitatively, i.e. by its very existence it creates new kinds of customers for its services.

Microstock is not a zero-sum game. The growth of the pie makes the size of the pie grow more.

I emphatically agree with Lagercreek, "No, its not a stagnant market at all!  the buyers are there and more are coming."

Antistock, it is never too late to become an optimist!

... if dilution was the only factor, Shutterstock would lead the pack in terms of decreased earnings since they have no ulpload limits, no exclusivity, very easy submission process, and their library is still growing very fast...

Excellent point! There may be no such thing as 'dilution' in reality. What seems to really be happening is that buyers are shopping at the stores with the largest selection and most reasonable prices, and it means more sales to the suppliers who sell there. Why should this be so unbelievable?

On topic: my November sales were close to BME at both SS and DT, and I did have a BME at 123RF. I was pleasantly surprised at how strong Nov was considering that I have been submitting less in the last few months.

I do vectors. I usually get 2-3 dls per month. Then my experience was something like PixelsAway:
On Sept 22 I got 2 dls.
From then through Nov 14 I got 30 dls.
Then the dls stopped, until today, when I got one.
A theory for why the dl bonanza started: A lot of big spending buyers left IS and went to SS. But if so, why did the dls seem to suddenly stop?

... As more and more images are added to the site, it's only logical that contributors would see their earnings decrease through dilution of their portfolios and increased competition...

This may be true, I have seen several people say that lately, and I cannot recall anyone arguing against it. But there might be another side.

If I made picture frames and Wal-Mart offered to sell them, should I say, "I don't want to sell at Wal-Mart, they have too many products." Or if I want to sell my watch, should I decide not to sell it on ebay because ebay has too many watches for sale? Buyers tend to go where the selection is best.

Surely many of the SS PPD/non-subs sales these days are to buyers who are jumping ship from iStock, and to what ship are they likely to jump? The one with the most images? Hence our great increase in PPD sales at SS. Maybe the more images it offers, the better we will all do. Maybe there is no such thing as a downside to dilution.

Sometimes its nice to have some fun and not have to spend time fiddling with filters in photoshop.  Most people don't own photoshop and a lot probably just take photos and upload them straight from the camera.  They would probably laugh at us spending time recreating the effects they can achieve in camera.

Yeah they look like kind of fun gadgets. But then I am not really a photographer and I am old.

Something I was wondering about yesterday: If I can take a photo with my phone, why can't I make a phone call with my camera?

Done.

+1   I PMed you Maria as instructed, but I guess it won't hurt to post and put this thread back up to the top of the list 

"IP laws are nothing more than an economic distortion caused by useless governments. ...I can tell you this much, the concept of selling 'licenses' is NOT the future." cardmaverick

Maybe IP licenses are not the future, but they do go back to the 17th century and are essential parts of our legal system. Intellectual Property includes trademarks and patents. It would be nice if I could write software and sell it calling it 'Adobe Photoshop' or a build a computer and sell it calling it an 'Apple'. Or freely use patents belonging to IBM or Google, but what would that do to the world economy?

"Ocean Tomo ... conducted an analysis of the largest companies in the United States and found that patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other intangible assets have exploded as a percentage of the S&P 500�s market value, from seventeen percent in 1975 to eighty percent in 2005." Wiley Media

Ending IP rights would not only mean that all microstock agencies, ASCAP/BMI, publishing houses and so on would be out of business, but also that US corporations would suddenly lose 80% of their value, causing the worst stock market crash in history, and wiping out the retirement savings of millions or people, for starters. Good idea?

I too have lots of images on Pond5, but no visible sales. OTOH my 123RF sales have been great in recent months, increasing percentage-wise more than any other site. Are some of my 123RF sales really on Pond5 (which is a very easy to use site with lots of customers, so it seems possible)?

I like the site, very nice job IMO! Prices are reasonable. I will add it to my list of microstock resources.

On the downside, I think your License Agreement needs some work, eg "The following is an unexhausted list of image usages not permitted under any license:" is not very good English legalese. Maybe go to elance and pay a lawyer-type to touch it up?

Re PPD versus Subs sales on SS and IS:
Like IS, SS has another site. If we are going to talk about the ratio of Subs to PPD on SS, should we not include the PPD sales we get on BigStock?