b) As several others in the thread have suggested; compare similar files, not random. It is more likely that a photographer can find ideas to improve her photography skills, than that she will switch to illustration.

The most clever game would be that you can predefine a set like in a regular search operation, like limited to photos, not illustrations - and with keywords. Pairs should be made at random but with equal age on the site out of the search result set. The guess should be which of the pair sold most. That would be a real life situation, like a decision a buyer makes.

Pixamba sells images starting from $0.75.  Almost every other stock site starts selling images at $1.00.  So Pixamba has undercut the other sites by 25%!

I just looked at a shot that was on Panthermedia, then compared it with the Pixamba price. Largest size was mention 60 credits.

Pixamba also allows unlimited runs (which most other sites don't allow) and sells Extended Licenses starting at $3.75 (most other sites charge much much more)!

Yes I saw that later. 3.75$ x 40% = 1.50$. Can't believe that's right since it's ridiculous. ShutterStock gives as much or double of it for a simple on demand, and around 28$ for an extended license, any size.

I'm not sure what you are looking at, but that definitely doesn't resemble midstock to me.
I feel that Pixamba is going in the other direction: nanostock!

It gives at least an uncomfortable feeling, all this slickness and cleverness as to pricing tricks. Superficially looking, I had the impression that Pixamba was more midstock, then when you read all the small numbers, it turns out you can sell and extended license for just 1.50$. That will harm your EL sales a lot on other sites, as soon as EL buyers find out it's a giveaway on Pixamba. And ELs are the cream and butter of microstock. I'm also annoyed by the clever trick to make a jump from a mere 4.7MP to 11.2MP, bypassing the most popular cam formats like 6, 8 and 10. Slick. Too slick.

Time will tell when the uploaders on all new sites will report their actual RPD. If it's OK, there is still time to jump on the bandwagon.

I do wish both you and Keith well, but the train has have already left the station.

I had a look at Pixamba again, and I changed my mind. The site has real business info now. The guy is obviously a fighter since he can take critique and he listens. The site looks better programmed than Zymmetrical (sorry) and faster, but I'm not sure about the upload process, in which Release attach is the factor that slows most down. Anybody has experience uploading there?

Pixamba takes editorial, Zymmetrical doesn't. Traditional microstocks like Dreamstime and ShutterStock are getting very critical now about editorial. They seem to confound it with "News". I think I'll give them a try for editorial when they do something about the huge 4.7MP - 11.2MP gap in their pricing system, which excludes my (still popular) 10MP cam.

Prices at Pixamba seem more to lean towards midstock, just like Zymmetrical. I think sites like that deserve full support. The 0.25$ train has left the station but some trains are known to derail.

But at Pixamba, if you upload yourself you sell for very low prices (even undercutting some of the other successful micros), but the Panther images are up there for midstock prices.

Take for instance this image (waterfall in forest) on pixamba: 60 credits full size = 45$ = 32 euro, while on Panthermedia the same image is 53.39 euro full size. I wouldn't call 32 euro on Pixamba "microstock price".

On a side note, Pixamba put its business address/info on line in the info, which is great.

There are tons of sites and blogs like this. Just type in google "stock images, rapidshare" and you will get tons of results like http://8888ddl.com/media/?p=17994 which contains 700MB of stock images.

Sure and you can find all Windows versions (pre-activated), CS4 and other things there too. You just need the guide site for the links. They keep being deleted but an hour later they are back online. It's a cat and mouse game.

We are positioning niche. As the site evolves, those interested and willing to understand my vision  can contact me for submissions. My first requirement being Travel Images, in highest resolution possible.

Now we're talking business. ;-)
Conventional microstocks are not a good outlet for travel. Does that include editorial?

But before uploading, where is the TOS, the upload tool, the pricing/fees scheme and your business info? 

But you could explain what would make your collection different. If it's targeted to the local market, you might insist on Indian lifestyle, locations and models. That feels like a sound plan. If you want to compete at the global level with global style pictures and Yuri A. type of models, you might fail since there are already plenty of sites that have that kind of imagery. You will also have to consider the pricing. Costs of living are less in India than in the West, and customers probably can't bear the higher prices that are standard on global sites. In that case, global contributors will not be attracted for the low fees. Worse, since the Net is global, you might attract Western buyers with your lower prices targeted to the local market. Which contributors will hate.

Usually, sites sell most in the West, and contributors come more and more from the East/South wich is a downstream phenomenon considering the respective costs of living. That's why sneakers are all made in China. If you try to catch Western contributors, you might find yourself swimming upstream, like manufacturing sneakers in the US and selling them in China.  
Only salmons do a good job swimming upstream.

I can't catch your business plan and USP, sorry.

Update - our posts crossed but that was my point:

Doesn't make that much sense to me.  The same Internet is available worldwide.  It's just a matter of marketing existing sites in countries with currently low sales.  Just because a site is based in India bur has the same content as everywhere else doesn't mean Indians are going to flock to it more than anywhere else.

Quote from: loop on July 05, 2009, 08:35

Well, the fact is that the collection is working well, I have less than 100 files there and I'm selling vetta files on almost a daily basis... sometimes more than one in a day. Let's hope it lasts!

Vetta images are getting an extraordinary boost in best match placement. Getting good sales doesn't surprise me, higher prices not withstanding. We've seen over and over again what good search placement can do.

This might explain why others here, like me, observed a sudden drop in sales after June 16. One contributor here even mentioned a week without any DLs at all. My personal dry spell went from June 17-21 after a very good June 16. Over all, the first half of June was my BME, then suddenly all came to a halt and I had a meager 7 sales from June 17 till now. (Caveat: small port of 310, acceptance ratio 12/15 on latest batch)

Obviously, this must be result of tweaks in the search engine, and the Vendetta collection emphasis might be an explanation. I'm not sure if this is wise to do, but it's iStockphoto's site, and they do as they please. We are just the styrofoam pieces that float on the giant waves that iStock makes with its constant best match changes, whether good or bad. The positive side is that the Vendetta sales show that there is a market for higher-priced pictures and that the rush to the lowest possible price is wrong. The other positive side is that it makes you feel happy to be independent. If it rains at iStock, it's sunny at other sites. And vice versa.

Edit: hang on is that Microsoft or a third party plugin? can't quite figure it out.

Microsoft.

I can assure you that many teenagers think it's OK

Not only teenagers but Microsoft itself.
Thanks to a new plug in for Microsoft office, OffiSync, it has become child play to easily rip an image found with Google Image and include it into a presentation or word document.

Who Needs (paid) Clip Art? OffiSync 2.0 Integrates Google Image Search Into Microsoft Office. Read here.

That's very fine to me. I'm going to promote my stock port with a banner "Who needs to pay for Windows? Download it here for free [insert RapidShare link]".
With the proper copyright warnings, of course. 

I've had three sales so far

And what does that mean in $? They disclosed they would be just another suckscription site.

I wish SS would take Veer's lead and make available an online form that takes like 2 minutes to fill out and with one click, the form is sent.

They probably will. Just give it some time. Awaiting their solution, I just put my payout limit on a very unrealistic high number to avoid actual payout soon. Wait and see.