Just an update for those of you who have considered posting your work on Flickr to have it "found" by Getty......the current Getty Flickr collection photographers have been invited to submit an unlimited number of their hand picked photos for review by their editors for inclusion in the collection.  I almost fell out of my chair when I read the note.....

I know that Flickr gets hammered here a lot, but for me posting on Flickr led me directly to Getty and quite a few nice sales at price points considerably higher than microstock.

The Flickr Getty deal is a great way for someone to get "noticed" by Getty - and I'm sure the fact that one rates high on "interestingness" (Flickr's supposedly secret formula that decides which photos are featured on Flickr's front page) helps get a photographer's work noticed by the Getty editors. 

I have no idea what the secret formula is for "interestingness"......but the photos of mine that make the front page usually have a high number of comments and and high percentage of those people make the photo a "favorite".

And has already been mentioned, I personally tag (keyword) all my photos on Flickr with appropriate words and terms - which has led to several sales outside of the macro and micro stock worlds.

Many people shy away from Flickr - but for me it truly has been a showcase for my photo work - and has led to several projects that have produced collectively several thousand dollars a year.

Just to close the loop......I uploaded a couple of my conversions to SS and DT - turned down flat saying that they don't accept these type of photo conversions.

In answer to your queries:

1) No - you don't have to remove your photos from Flickr if Getty selects them....in fact, they put a link alongside your image on Flickr that says "license this image from Getty Images" right on the Flickr site.

2) A couple of my Getty sales were on images that I had previously submitted to a couple of other micro-stock (and macro) agencies and been turned down for "not commercially viable".....so it makes it even better when they sell for much higher prices at the Getty site.

They claim they are reviewing all photos marked public from all Flickr members .... but with 30,000,000 Flickr members, I don't know how they are finding anything.

I was surprised they found my stuff....but all of my photo are marked public on Flickr.

Just to loop back to this topic.....I've had 65 of my images up on the Getty Flickr collection for sale the last six weeks or so....and here's the results:

7 Sales (three in Europe and four in the USA) - average selling price approximately $300 and average commission just under $60 per sale.  Total earnings from this new venture for me so far are just a tad shy of $400.  Half of the sales were to big well known ad agencies in New York.

For comparison, I've got approximately 250 other images for sale on the Big Six microstock sites.  During the same six week period I've earned approximately $175 combined from all sites on approximately 100 sales.

Thus, I'm very pleased with the Getty Flickr arrangement so far.  We'll see if the Getty sales curves goes up or goes down as their Flickr collection grows - but they clearly have some blue chip clients that would probably never have seen my stuff via the microstock agencies.

All of my earnings go into my PayPal account - and all of my photo and related purchases (external hard drive, filters, etc.) come out of those earnings.....

So, for the last two years I've re-invested 100% of my earnings back into photography.

Perhaps I'll "harvest" some earnings down the road, but right now it makes it much easier to justify a purchase (a lens, for example) when it is being paid for completely out of photo earnings.

Thanks much for the additional non-microstock site suggestions - I'll definitely give them a try.

Understand completely......

Thank you both for your replies.......

Could you share the Dreamstime link here like you did the SS link?  That SS link worked like a charm.....

I've searched the threads and I apologize if this has already been answered....but I could not find it.

I'd like to delete some of my approved photo files at SS - how do I do this?  I've searched the SS site as well.....

Thanks for the encouragement, Warren.....

I think all of us are hoping for an edge in the microstock world that would help us float to the top of the millions of shots out there.  That's why I started experimenting with the various filters to create this pseudo art.

The original images are okay - but when I've converted them and shown them to others online I was startled to have several people (not friends nor family) ask if they could buy a print....which got me to thinking.

Here's another one - not sure whether it is unique and unusual ... or simply a piece of crap.  That's why I started this thread - because I knew if it was crap, people would confirm it pretty quickly.

Thanks for feedback - and I concur that using feedback from family is never any good.  I actually was getting the feedback from strangers, but they aren't commercial buyers....and that's a point well taken.

I was thinking that this type of conversion might stand out in the crowded marketplace, but didn't want to waste the effort uploading if the agencies don't even consider this type of work - and it sounds like most don't.

I'm grateful for the perspective you've all shared.

I appreciate the responses.......so far those who have seen these conversions fall into two camps:

1) I love it - can you do a photo of me...of my baby...of my dog....in that style?

2) I don't like it at all.

The reason that I'm asking is that the people who like it seem to REALLY like the pseudo artwork, and thus I thought there might be a market for them.

Thanks for the suggestions about Veer - any other sites for "artwork" that you'd recommend instead of microstock sites?

I am not sure a buyer would know the technique to convert the shot to the pseudo artwork .... I've been experimenting with several different work flows to get the results.

Has anyone had something like this approved at any of the microstock sites?

I apologize if this has been asked before, but can anyone tell me if any of the microstock sites accept photo art conversions (original photos converted to pseudo artwork using software)....? 

Here's an example of what I'm inquiring about.

Up to today, they selected the images they want from your Flickr portfolio.......but just a couple of hours ago they announced that all the Flickr contributors who have already been chosen by Getty could submit five of their own picks from their Flickr portfolio to add to the Flickr Getty Collection.

Sales via the Flickr Getty deal are starting to show up in contributor's account listings.  Most people (including me) are reporting one sale during the month of March (reported at the end of April).  However, the payoff is nice - I earned almost $80 on one RF sale.

Still very early to tell if this is going to take off, but if you're invited, it might be worth a bit of your time.

Just a thought....

Why not open up your research to non-Seattle based microstockers and conduct your interviews online and via the phone?

Not ideal, but this site certainly has plenty of people with experience that you could pick their brains....

One of the things Getty has changed recently is that if they selected one of your images on Flickr.....and you've already sold it elsewhere as royalty free.....then you can still submit it and simply remove it from other sites from this point forward.

That freed up about a dozen images for me that I removed from other sites and made exclusive with the Getty Flickr collection.

We'll see how it goes.....but 20% of a $80 to $350 sale seems a tad bit higher than the same percentage on a $10 sale elsewhere.

You could always buy images from other shooters here at the microstock group if you really have no other use for them....

Quote from: WarrenPrice on January 30, 2009, 03:28
Congratulations Jeff,
I've enjoyed following your work at Flickr.  You deserve the selection.
Warren

Thanks, Warren - I very much appreciate the kind words.

I received an invite from the Flickr Getty Images Collection project this week for 70 of my photos on Flickr and I have to admit that I was pleased to be chosen.  I've been on Flickr for several years and posting there led me to microstock because a kind Flickr member suggested that a couple of the shots that I posted were stock (or microstock) quality and luckily the stock sites agreed. 

Here's the details:

Commission structure - Royalty Free - 20% contributor, 80% to Getty.  Photos sell (depending on size) for anywhere from $85 to $300

Rights Managed - 30% contributor, 70% to Getty.  Photos sell (depending on size again) for anywhere from $225 to $700

Contributor must sign an exclusive for the Flickr photos you upload to them.  Even though the photos have been pre-selected by the Getty editors, they still have to be uploaded to Getty and reviewed for model releases, trademark infringements, etc.

They've set up a private Flickr group for invited members - at last count the group (which was launched late last month) has approximately 4,700 members (out of 30,000,000 Flickr users).

According to a couple of other people I've talked to who have received invites, many people had less than 10 photos chosen for inclusion.  But they did apparently go through my photostream - because some of the images they picked were uploaded two or more years ago.  They chose some people shots, some lifestyle shots, some landscape shots and a couple of wildlife images from my photostream on Flickr.

I've decided to accept their offer to join them and am submitting about 2/3rds of the photos they wanted.  The other 1/3 are either already for sale elsewhere or I don't want to go exclusive on the image at this point.

The Flickr Getty collection is supposed to launch at the end of March.  We'll see how it goes....

Thanks for the quick response - much appreciated.

I could not readily find the answer (I promise - I looked and looked).....but since I've never deactivated a photo on IS, can someone explain how one goes about deactivating a file that isn't selling?  Maybe I'm just not going to the correct screen.

I looked for a place to do so at the site, and I can't seem to locate it.

Thanks.