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Messages - michaeldb
Pages: 1 ... 20 21 22 23 24 [25] 26 27 28 29 30 ... 37
601
« on: January 20, 2011, 21:05 »
They nearly always have the best review times, earnings are growing nicely and Duncan often replies to posts here. Doesn't it make a nice change from some of the other sites?
+1
602
« on: January 13, 2011, 20:28 »
Looks crisp and clear Brian, thanks for the improvements (that payment history was very welcome) and keeping us posted!
+1 Looks good. Easy to see my January payment amount and that it is already on the way.
603
« on: January 09, 2011, 14:28 »
Until my mom calls me up and tells me about some microstock site she heard of, I'm going to think they aren't doing enough marketing.  I'm not sure if a company like Google or Amazon would be a good thing to join the microstcock game, but you have to think they would market . out of it.
I couldn't agree more! When ss was doing a survey about improving submitter end, I tried to tell them - no one cares, it is good as it is, please focus more on advertising to more diverse audience. Alas! They spent the money on prettifying the submitter page. The key to micro stock is that indeed this is a product that everyone can afford. Your grade 6 child doing a school project. Your grandmother making a church poster. Your neighbor plumber putting his add into the local newspaper. But - every time we approach someone to ask permission to take pictures, they not only never heard of micro stock, most of them had no idea what stock photography was!
We are a Wallmart of photography business, and yet no one knows about us!
Some really good points. I wonder what actual percentage of website owners and bloggers understand how to buy and use microstock images to illustrate their pages. 90%? 50%? 25%? In terms of supply-and-demand, microstockers worry about oversupply of images, and those concerns may be justified. But the potential market for microstock may be much larger than we realize.
604
« on: January 07, 2011, 14:57 »
In terms of percentage of growth in sales in the last 6 months, CanStockPhoto has been by far the best site for me (I do vectors and submit to 8 sites).
605
« on: January 07, 2011, 14:54 »
So you saw the movie Outsourced? And if you didn't, you should - it was a lovely cross-cultural misunderstandings movie.
+1
606
« on: January 06, 2011, 17:56 »
Thursday, January 6, 2011.
Can you predict the weather too? We need you in the UK.
I have been microstocking since 2005 and up til this year I kept records of my daily sales, so I just looked back at them to make my sales prediction. BTW Cloudy with a chance of scattered showers. 
607
« on: January 04, 2011, 20:22 »
I requested a payout at BigStock on January 1, and it accepted the request for most of my payable balance. But it left $71 in my payable balance, which was about the amount of the fraudulent credit card purchases on my account.
So on January 2, I requested payment for the $71 and it accepted my request.
Then on January 3, I got both my payments by Paypal.
I never had a negative balance, so maybe that is why I got paid. So I guess they are still paying, but have problems as a result of the fraud. I'm sure they will get it all sorted out in time.
608
« on: December 28, 2010, 22:47 »
In the second quarter of 2011, in a joint venture Ebay and Google will buy Dreamstime for $110 million and SS/BigStock for $180 million. The DT/SS/BigStock sites will be combined into one. So contributors will only have to submit each image once, to be reviewed only once.
In the new site, customers will pay for single images using Paypal microtransactions, no more credits. The search engine will be Google's image search, which will direct users to the stock site and not to IS or the other competitors. And the search engine will have ads. Stock video will be sold on Youtube.
The savings from economies of scale, and the reduced costs of reviewing, plus the added revenue from Google ads will allow the site to pay contributors twice as much as we are earning now.
Otherwise, not much will change.
609
« on: December 28, 2010, 12:35 »
Thursday, January 6, 2011.
610
« on: December 27, 2010, 13:53 »
I just got an email from DT notifying me of a customer refund: "Due to reasons which are beyond our control, we are sorry to let you know that $0.01 have been removed from your earnings as result of a refund..." 
611
« on: December 23, 2010, 14:36 »
Micael is a very cute kid! What a great smile. Thanks for posting the pics, Maria. I'm sure they give all of us a little boost of Christmas spirit.
612
« on: December 22, 2010, 14:48 »
I sympathize with the people who have problems with the new requirements. But I already have to prepare my vectors in different ways for different agencies, so I can't single out Veer to complain about. And I have to say that I like the way Veer has announced and handled this change. I like the way they explained why they are making the change and how to meet their requirements. If anyone has problems with the new requirements, you should check out this video on their site. It is helpful and very well done: http://www.youtube.com/user/VeerIdeas?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/gK8o98Fh-T0
613
« on: December 22, 2010, 14:42 »
614
« on: December 22, 2010, 12:30 »
Thanks..
+1 Great pics, they make me wish I could have been there!!!
615
« on: December 21, 2010, 18:04 »
Money earned in given tax year or money paid in this period of time? Some money might never be paid because contributor will not reach payout limit. Is is counted as income?
Typically on the 1099's you receive, it is money paid out. So my payout for December that I will probably request on Jan 1st will be on next year's taxes and last year's December will be on this year's taxes.
I believe this is correct. US people at least (I don't know about other countries) would be taxed on the money when it is paid to them. If it is never paid to them, then they never owe taxes on it. The part about December is correct. if you defer asking for your December, 2010 earnings until January, 2011, you would not have to pay taxes on them until April, 2012. Personally, I haven't been requesting payouts since October. However, some agencies have a limit on how much you can earn without requesting payment. I believe on SS that amount is $2000. I.e. if you have earned more than $2000 at payment time, SS will pay you whether you want it or not.
616
« on: December 18, 2010, 13:31 »
Thanks for posting the pictures. I'll be looking forward to seeing the rest. The Santa didn't look fake, he looked pretty good IMO! Looks like overall you did a wonderful job!!
617
« on: December 16, 2010, 00:35 »
I like canstock. One of the easiest uploads, very fast reviews, a high acceptance rate, growing sales and some higher priced fotosearch sales every now and then. Things have changed a lot since 2008.
Yeah, the resurrection of this thread gives me a chance to say something I have thought about posting. Canstock has been doing great for me! I have been doing microstock for 5 years and am happy with my 2010 revenues. But by far the fastest increase has been Canstock. My revenues there have almost been doubling month to month. And I have had an opportunity to interact with Duncan and can say that it was pleasure and he is a class act.
618
« on: December 15, 2010, 19:01 »
The frog kitten has been on greeting cards in drugstores all over the US for years, and has inspired hundreds if not thousands of microstock 'derivations'. But there is still only one real frog kitten, my all-time favorite microstock image..
619
« on: December 14, 2010, 14:11 »
They have a lot more images in the last 4 months of the year than at the start and I can see that in the past that might make a big difference to earnings but does that apply now they have a huge collection?
This is an excellent point. Even if IS adds only 5% to their collection, then sales in December would be 5% higher then sales in the previous January, all other things being equal. However, this increase in the size of the collection would not really be a justification for the way they have changed the royalties for individuals, would it?
620
« on: December 12, 2010, 19:47 »
My combined federal and state income taxes come out to 33%, plus 10% sales tax, plus property tax, plus social security tax, plus medicare tax, plus utility taxes, plus vehicle registration tax, plus gasoline tax.... plus.... plus.... plus....
Good point. And to understand how much taxes your are really paying, you have to take into account all the hidden taxes. Think about it this way, how much would the things you buy cost if there were no taxes? For example, everything which goes into making a car is taxed over and over long before you buy the car. Dealers pay inventory taxes while the cars are just sitting on the lot. Billions in taxes are paid for the Social Security and Medicare of the auto workers. So, if there were no taxes, the car you buy for $30,000 would have maybe have cost only $20,000. Add that $10,000 to all the other taxes you pay. Counting hidden taxes, most Americans who pay taxes give about half of what they make to the government in one way or another. But of course, we are told, that is not enough.
621
« on: December 12, 2010, 19:36 »
Interesting that he has a bid of $471. I wonder what images which cost $4.71 each will look like.
622
« on: December 12, 2010, 14:37 »
Speaking of "Payment Request," I wonder how you request payment (or know if one is due) with the StockXpert site inoperative? I'm pretty sure it is down to resolve the "accounting issue" but what if it were eliminated?
Also noted that the payments made are from HAAP and not Getty, Thinkstock, nor iStock.
I am wondering the same thing. I didn't bother to request a payment for last month's earnings. They owe me money. And they remove the payment method without explanation or warning? That is not how business should be done by any company IMO.
623
« on: December 11, 2010, 18:41 »
...your retirement is unsustainable...
'unsustainable' IS and SS (meaning 'Social Security, not Shutterstock) are both Ponzi schemes?
624
« on: December 11, 2010, 18:12 »
Thanks for the update.
Patrick.
+1
625
« on: December 11, 2010, 18:09 »
... I would much rather they keep the 2-4% and apply it to the massive deficit. Good news, you are free to give the money back if you want to. On your 1040 tax form, you can choose to pay as much as you want to over and above what you owe. Me, I'll be keeping the money. I don't think we have a taxes-are-too-low problem in the US, I think we have a government-spends-too much problem. If we give gov more money, they will just spend it. Until spending is brought under control, deficits will continue to grow. Gov can always spend more more than we pay in taxes, no matter how high taxes go.
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