thanks a lot, lisa. that's really helpful for deciding what to do with all the pennies one's earned down the line. i never knew photographic cos were in the irs line of sight. 

i can understand your reasoning for incorporating. but, you don't feel just limiting one's output to only stock cos (rather than individual clients) is enough protection since they are doing the licensing, and not the photog? i mean, if anything should happen, i'd let the stock cos take the heat. 

hi lisa,

is the reason you were hit with these back taxes due to having reported these online purchases as expenses for your business deductions? this is just for the state and not the federal, right?

this is such a conundrum. you want to be successful, but not to the point of having to deal with all the new paperwork.

This situation must be scaring customers away, and as a result we are already loosing sales .

Do you feel your sales level have been affected? 

yep, no sales yesterday.

Hi Ap,

 At this time Micro is not even close to out selling standard stock. Maybe down the road but it's a bit of a jog.

 As for the post I would like to ask them about the future of their industry and how they plan to sustain growth and profit and at what rate and margin. With some data to support it. Where will all the new buyers come from to sustain growth in this industry at the rate the product is being produced.

Best,
Jonathan

hi jonathan,

i was referring to the 'growth' of micro outstripping mid or macro stock. that seems the real trend and the source of threat to the pros. i don't know what its absolute share of the market is though. minuscule?

i find ft highly consistent too, for their rejections. but, you're right, it's never for technical reasons, just subject matter not suitable for them.

it seems microstock is the key growth area in stock (outbidding traditional stock) for the next few years. where do these three see the growth areas to be? ie online media, traditional stock users, small blogs, etc. how much growth per year and in the line of jsnover's question, which foreign markets are most promising? (asia or south america, etc.)

this is the anti anti-dreamstime thread for those who'd like to air their differences and show their support for this "dream" stock co.

1. great company name - very inspiring and so unstockish, like ss or is, or any name with 'stock' in it.
2. great for newbies, in terms of reviews and acceptance. their qc seems to be based more on subject matter and composition (something a newbie should be able to handle) rather than the technical details of noise and artifact. there is a strong selective aesthetic sense about their choices. so, even though i've managed to get my technical quality up, my acceptance rate has remained the same.
3. acceptance of editorial photos, even for those non newsworthy but illustrative of an event or subject. this is just great for those really 'interesting' photos or a chance to play photojournalist for a day.
4. highest commission pay out per download (for me) in absolute $, not % commission (it averages about $1.19 per download, beating 123rf and is at $.89)
5. there are no tests to pass or hoops to jump through for the newbie. so, you're kind of off and running from the start with your dignity intact as you climb the rungs of success at higher rated agencies.
6. the design and layout for the website is very nice, giving it a real professional edge.
7. they show the key words buyers used to search for your photo - invaluable and entertaining!
8. kudos to achilles for responding to each and every negative query, irregardless whether he's right or wrong.
9. dreamstime became the first microstock site to sign on to the picscout agency irc, which means: "all buyers who lookup a microstock image in the IRC will be directed to Dreamstime exclusively" and "the IRC protects images from theft and misuse". http://www.microstockdiaries.com/

for those who have a different experience, here is the original anti-dreamstime thread:

http://www.microstockgroup.com/dreamstime-com/what-do-you-hate-about-dreamstime/

sorry, i'm not a capitalist.

the market is already deciding which photos are "needed" by the sheer # of downloads, so why make it even more extreme? you're just rewarding the yuri acurs of the world. is that your devious plan?

 

i guess this will discourage all the newbies who only get one download per pic. is this your devious plan?

 Any suggestions where to go, we've been to shanghai (took mandarin for 2 weeks) and now we are in hangzhou, suzhou in a couple days then nanjing but we have at least two months open.

west lake in hangzhou is absolutely beautiful and there are so many tea plantations there. in the sourrounding vicinities, there is thousand island lake, a smaller version of three gorges, and huang sang mountain, which is the classic jagged chinese mountains with mist, etc.

further, there is guilin river...in beijing, there is a train that will cut through the desert to take you to tibet, quite a lot actually.

isn't that how ansel adam started?...i mean photography really isn't rocket science, especially these days.

the third one is definitely very nice, but at 100%, it's really, really noisy. noise is also a problem with the other two, and many highly visible artifacts in the cloud area in the second. noise only looks good in film, which is called grain. 

nada (about three months)