http://twitter.com/adeptris

I have a website and use PhotoShelter archive for Image licences, I am looking for website software that does full Rights Managed, Royalty Free and full rights managed pricing.

I am looking at Licence Stream but again is ongoing costs, Lightbox Pro is the only stand alone I can fond that does it all but at $1000

Anyone using something else, SmugMug and the other are just not feature rich enough.

http://www.lightboxphoto.com/
http://www.licensestream2.com/


David

Me to, that was the sweetner followed by the Subscription email 

David

Also, what are all the FFFFFF references?

#FFFFFF = White (255,255,255) Red=255,Green=255,Blue=255
#000000 = Black (0,0,0) Red=0,Green=0,Blue=0

David 

Bit of a conflict of interest for Getty, they own Istock and you could be deleting images from Istock so they can have them as RF on Getty.

David

So when I told the buyer that I shipped it First Class (meaning without tracking), that opened the door for her to contact PayPal and get her money back.

So the harsh lesson here is this: While I wish I could continue to trust people and give them the benefit of the doubt, the fact is that people on eBay are generally scum, and will steal the shirt off your back first chance they get.

As much as I feel for you, to expect someone else to pickup the bill for your mistake is not right, maybe the Ebay Buyer is telling the truth and the Driver, Postman, Warehouseman or one of the many other people that handled the package ripped it off, that can happen as well, Ebay are aware of most scams and if this buyer has a claims history they will act.

If I buy or sell an Item for $5.00 I will only use a signed for service, or collection in person and that is all I would accept, not because I do not trust the seller or buyer, but because things do get "Lost in Transit", I recently purchased a Laptop, I was out when it was delivered, and when I got home there was a "Left with Neighbour" card, but no parcel with the neighbour so I went straight to the carriers depot, when the driver returned it was "Found" in the van.

I send my expences which have no value to anyone else in weekly, the only time they were sent not signed for they were "Lost", it is just a peace of mind more than a monetry reason that I will not use an un-recorded service no matter what the value.
 
The real lesson you have learned here: Not all people on Ebay are Scum, some people in all walks of life can be, and you run a risk and are responsible to cover the cost if you send an item unrecorded or not-tracked and it is "Lost in Transit".

David (106 Ebay Transactions with no problems)

I see your point here but perharps this conflict could occur say if your images are available at all prices. but what if your portfolio is diff.
 what if only the smaller sizes are on micro and the larger and full size
be on mid and macro. why would it make you dead meat as race puts it?

Ok this is simple, you put your car into the garage and have the brakes done and they charge you $100 an hour, then you are in the bar with Fred a friend and you mention the garage, your friend has used them before just had some work done at $70 an hour.

Now you feel like a jerk and have a few choices next time you need work done, first change your garage, second pay the $100 and say nothing, third is to say "I know you have done some work for Fred at $70 an hour, if you want my work you will have to match this", the garage may argue that the guy working on Freds car is not as skilled as the guy that worked on yours, and this is the different products and price points, but you could then argue that both vehicles are roadworthy.

I think in most cases it would be choices one or three and you would have to reduce your fee for option three,  but both of these will damage your brand, I have a couple of websites with different business models, and try to make sure if you are searching for one site online, the other will not come up in a search as one will damage the other.

David

I have been there since October 2007, more or less. Have more than 500 photos. Zero sales. At the same time, I made more than one thousand dollars on microstock, with fewer images. Of course I am none. Still...

How much research have you done since?

Unlike some micros there is only one level of Photographer / Contributor, I have less Images than you but get regular views and zooms and have had sales, as an average one in a hundred viewed images get a zoom, so we are talking 1%.

Research? 
Look at your statistics "Your Alamy Measures" are you getting views and zooms, what is the ratio of these, are the search terms relevent to your images, if not you will need to look at your keywords and placement.

Look at other statistics "All Alamy Measures" what is getting views and zooms, what is the ratio of these, are the search terms relevent to your images but you are not getting views, if not you will again need to look at your keywords and placement.

Look at your images and the number of keywords the relevence and the placement of these, on Alamy and on most good sites Less is more so your essential keywords should reflect what you see, if your image is a Girl Brushing Her Teeth then you first 3 keywords should likely be Girl Brushing Teeth, as a rule I only have a total of between 10 - 15 keywords and these are only Essential and Main, also take enough interest to do this correctly, do not rely on keywording software to generate the keywords and just accept them as placement is very important.

This might also apply to a few other sites, just do a search to see where your images fit in with similar images from other photographers, make sure you test with an image that is keyworded well and use a typical buyers search string and options, one that is based on your "first few keywords", like "Girl Brusing Teeth", one you would use if you was looking for an image, then have a look where your image comes up, if it is way down the resulting images ask yourself why, if it because there are to many pages then you are just shooting the same images as everyone else in a saturated area.

When I search on my Alamy Images essential keywords my Images appear often in the top 5% of the returned images, my 2 "Girl Brusing Teeth" images turn up in Rows 3 and 7 from 183 rows of 5 images (918 Images in total)

This is the sort of research I do:
With 4 pictures of the popular landmark The London Eye I done two searches.

Search "London Eye" all images, 1st and 4th Keywords (Essentials)
My First Image, Page 19 of 130 Image 2300 0f 15484

Search "London Attraction" all images, 1st and 2nd Keywords (Essentials)
My First Image, Page 15 of 283 image 1724 of 33934

The second search with the first two keywords just shows me how important keyword placement is.

If I am keywording right and getting views with no sales then my images are not what the buyer was looking for or just not good enough, if I am not getting views then I am keywording wrong or shooting the wrong subjects.
 
David Simples   

For non UK readers "Simples" is a phrase used in a UK advertisment
   

Reason im asking is because firstly the price the images go for sure surely buyers would go to microstock agencies and before you say yes I know the size of the images are larger on alamy. Ant

Hi Ant,
Most Microstock sites do not have editorial content and the images are mainly Royalty Free.

So your conclusion is not really true, as Alamy sell 78% of images for editorial use, and about the same percentage as Rights Managed (79%) and Royalty Free (21%).

So you can say that the Buyers and image usage is often from different type of company, first it is a bit confusing as to why the buyers prefer RM surly RF is cheaper you might say, but in a lot of cases you would be wrong, a news story about refuge collection they may require a spot size image for a single use and a limited run, this is often less that a small RF image on the traditional sites and the chance is they may never need to use this particular image again.

Take the credit crunch you may not find an image of the RBS or Northern Rock on the microsites but you will find many on Alamy, so most news stories will have an appropriate stock image on Alamy.

As to Sales this will depend on your portfolio, mainly content, type of image, how good you keyword, and if they are looking for and at your images amongst the 15 million others, if you upload an image of "The London Eye" yours would join the 35,000 other images that match the search, so you need to look at the All Alamy measures data, look at the search terms as a guide only as these are just from selected buyers, do lots of research looking at Sunday Newspaer Supplements, Lifestyle magazines, Travel magazines etc:, then you need to use tight keywording as spamming will hurt your Alamy Rank, but the more you put in the more you should get out.

Here ends this reply

David  
  

These posts always make me smile, 'cull these old images that do not get seen in the search', if that is true what harm do they do, take up disk space that is about all?

Some will be little nuggets of gold for the stock sites, photographer has moved on stopped contributing, any sales will likely never make payout threshold, if the photographer is no longer active who will cull them?

You might say the sites should cull these images, but never say where the money is coming from to pay the wages to sort through millions of images, cut the contributors percentage to pay for this?

I contribute to Alamy they will hit 15 million images this weekend, I have a couple of hundred image, but they get, views, zooms and sales and come up high in relevent searches, that is because of good tight keywording, buyers often find what they want on the first few pages.

Who decides what is a bad image, I have seen links to some average images that have sold for big bucks, and the reason some are down the pages is not because they are bad but because they are badly keyworded, and good images will end up in the dollar bin and get snapped up, a photographer with bad keywords could cost them lots of money.

Microstock is an infant it timescale, and what is not viewed today could be top of the search tomorrow, at the moment in the UK all things 1980's is getting big, and the fashion of that time is due to make a comeback, where will the old images of that era come from, stock sites that have the scanned image that would likely have not had a view for years, ones that in your opinion should have been culled?

The only thing that should matter is your own images, running your own business and contributing to the sites that have a business model you like.

Most photographers answer to your request for them to cull thier images, may be to request that you look after your own business, the stocksites would have much the same reply.

David  

Does that make him a hypocrite that he would buy other people's pictures for a dollar, but not sell his own for the same price?
As a side note, he showed me some of his photography....it's not very good IMO.

Not a hypocrite just a good businessman that knows his own limitations by not shooting his own images, and values his own time more than his vanity!

I know how to fix my car and a few years ago I would have had a go, but now I value the service the local garage gives, they do a better job have the right tools, and they free my time to earn money at what I do best, am I a hypocrite?

David 

I would also like to see headstones upgraded to include audio output and as you visited a loved one with  flowers we could press a button and hear our deceased voices.

You can already buy a custom coffin!

Just close your eyes, shut out the world and remember, then you will hear thier voice and see thier face.

If you really like complete strangers pressing a button to see or hear a clip of a loved one?
There are sites like http://www.gonetoosoon.org/ where you can setup a page and send a link to friends who with strangers can leave a comment.

With 2 deaths and a murder in the extended family last year lets hope it's not someting to think about for a while.

David