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Messages - sharpshot
6426
« on: August 07, 2007, 12:49 »
Things were going along quite nicely with LO and I was just $1.5 from a payout but now I haven't had a download since 26th July. This seems strange, as I have had at least a few downloads a week for a long time.
Perhaps it is just a blip in the summer but my enthusiasm for them is a bit dented at the moment. Even 123 RF is now selling a lot more than them. How long can I justify the time spent uploading to them for such a small return? They have until Christmas to catch up with 123RF or I will spend my time doing something more worthwhile.
6427
« on: August 07, 2007, 12:36 »
After a week away, StockXpert made me smile the most when I checked my sales. They are good on my holidays as well 
6428
« on: July 30, 2007, 10:54 »
I am sure they are still counting all the rejected images. A lot of people haven't been uploading to them recently, as the V2 still has problems, so I can't see how they can have all those uploads, unless they count all the rejected images as well.
6429
« on: July 30, 2007, 10:50 »
My stats are all there, going back to 2006-08-14.
6430
« on: July 29, 2007, 08:16 »
I found mine by going to "sell images" then clicking on "statistics".
It took a bit of fiddling around to get the monthly figures since I started there but it does work.
6431
« on: July 29, 2007, 02:12 »
Why don't we just run our own site? If the other sites threatened to cut our commission, we could just upload to our own site. I know it takes a lot of money to set one up but if a few thousand of us were willing to put in some money, it should be feasible. If we joined forces with designers, we could make the ideal site for all of us. With a lot of sites, either the photographers are receiving a poor deal or the site doesn't attract enough designers.
This makes a lot more sense to me than unions or associations that will also cost money to administer and might not have much power over the big sites.
6432
« on: July 27, 2007, 11:33 »
I wonder if they will alter the search in favor of those with a higher acceptance rate?
6433
« on: July 26, 2007, 17:56 »
77% for me but I am more careful with them than most sites. Don't want to go through that upload process for nothing.
6434
« on: July 26, 2007, 14:52 »
Here's a chart to show how my earnings with istock have fallen. This is while I have been uploading the max every week. The peak was on 13th March. 
6435
« on: July 25, 2007, 18:05 »
I disagree. Not all the designers are going to like the big 3 sites and there is a big enough market for new sites to thrive. Does everyone shop at only the major stores? If we all only uploaded to 3 sites, there would be little competition and the sites could lower commissions and do whatever they wanted.
The smaller sites are unlikely to sell out, as the other sites will already have those images.
When I add up the money made each month from a few of the smaller sites, it sometimes beats the money I make from istock. They are also less time consuming, as they have FTP, some don't have categories and there is no need to go through all the tags.
6436
« on: July 25, 2007, 17:15 »
It takes me hardly any time to upload to the new sites. I upload in the background while working on photos. With LO, it only takes a couple of mouse clicks and my photos are done. The other sites sometimes take about a minute to finish the photos.
6437
« on: July 25, 2007, 06:31 »
But the work I did a year ago is still making me money today. You don't get that working at starbucks
6438
« on: July 25, 2007, 04:04 »
Lucky Oliver. The site looks great and works better than any other site I have used. It is so easy to upload and there is a real community spirit. The reviewers give feedback and are very useful for beginners. They are building slowly, unlike other sites. If this strategy works (and it is still a big if), they might well become one of the top 5 sites.
6439
« on: July 24, 2007, 16:07 »
Albumo does that if you want their bonus. Someone here asked and you can upload and then remove the photos as long as you don't accept their bonus payments. As for spam referral links, I have seen them for lots of sites. Why shouldn't we share referral links and make some extra money? Having said that, nobody has ever joined a site through mine
6440
« on: July 24, 2007, 05:58 »
Give them a few months. There isn't much point them spending money to attract buyers when they have a small collection of photos. Don't forget that most of the sites started off giving their photos away for nothing or a very small amount and have taken several years to grow.
El's make up such a small proportion of my earnings that I am not too concerned by Albumo's low prices. StockXpert have high EL prices and I haven't sold one EL there. That is strange, as I have sold lots at lower prices. Lower prices will probably make people buy the EL rather than download the file and ignore the EL.
6441
« on: July 23, 2007, 12:33 »
From there blurb, they are owned by Home Mines, LLC.
The mailing address is Fair Oaks, California. I can't find anything else about them. Would be interesting to know who we are working with. Anyone know them?
6442
« on: July 23, 2007, 10:20 »
They are building up the collection before advertising to designers. Not much point in advertising when there aren't many images. Unlike most new sites, they have attracted a lot of photographers and have built a good collection quickly. They seem to realize that this market is growing fast and they want a slice of it quickly. I can see them being one of the big sites, as long as they continue as they have started.
6443
« on: July 23, 2007, 01:57 »
I do much better with bigstock but the last month hasn't been great. Might just be the summer slow down.
6444
« on: July 22, 2007, 15:06 »
Have you tried Albumo? They are paying photographers to upload and are promising a big advertising campaign to attract buyers. Easy to upload to and growing fast, they could be in the top 5 sites very quickly. My affilaite link http://tinyurl.com/36jwhd
6445
« on: July 22, 2007, 14:50 »
I like this email I just received from them. They mean business. Look out istock  Dear Artist, We are happy to see you contributing to the fast growing Albumo.com! Here is the monthly update on our future plans and current progress: Our Plans: In order to grow strong & competitive on the royalty free market, Albumo will start a massive advertisement campaign after our photo stock reaches a mark of at least 200,000 images. Meanwhile, Albumo is the rapidly growing royalty free community with over 100,000 images at hand. To speed up the process and to help us start advertising your art work sooner, we encourage you to spread the word about Albumo and invite your fellow artists so they could contribute as well. To do that with the pleasure of 10% royalties, please use our Referral Program links! Current Progress: Our Marketing & Development teams are currently working on three main tasks, which involve active improvement and further development of Albumo.com. These tasks are as follows: 1. Optimization of Albumo programming system in order to reach a more robust responsiveness of the website. 2. Development of a personal profile page through which artists could actively promote and sell their works. The personal profile will have a variety of features that will enhance members communication through bloggs and social (professional) networks. 3. Finalization of our marketing strategy that will allow a quick capture of the royalty free market. We thank you for all the excellent and hard work you have done so far! Truly Yours, Albumo.com
6446
« on: July 21, 2007, 11:31 »
As far as the comments about "if istock keeps giving advantages to exclusives, then i'm gonna have to quit"... that seems a bit silly. What would be the point of becoming exclusive if there was no advantage?
I actually said "I will have to consider if it is worth uploading to istock if the exclusives are going to have more advantages." What I mean is that exclusives already have extra commission, higher upload limits, faster reviews and a few other extras that the rest of us don't hear about. Now they are going to have a 100% commission day and an unlimited uploads weekend. That is more advantages while non-exclusives are still stuck on 20% commission, the lowest of any of the sites. On top of this, my sales have gone in to decline since March while they are improving on other sites and istock now make only about 15% of my microstock monthly income. If this continues, there might come a time when I find it isn't worth uploading to istock. I hope that doesn't happen but it looks like it might.
6447
« on: July 21, 2007, 02:35 »
Unlimited uploads for exclusives only. It is bad enough only getting 20% commission. I will have to consider if it is worth uploading to istock if the exclusives are going to have more advantages.
There is no way I am going exclusive with one site. I just don't want to work for one company.
6448
« on: July 20, 2007, 00:34 »
traveler, you are 100% correct. There is no real money to be made in microstock. I am not going to encourage photographers with a large macrostock portfolio to compete with me in the microstock sites It is more sensible for us to move up to macrostock. I have been doing microstock photography for a year and I am now starting to collect some photos to submit to alamy. Are there any other good macro sites I should consider applying to?
6449
« on: July 19, 2007, 15:00 »
I do get the feeling that StockXpert has a lower number of EL's than the other sites. I have just had my second EL with Lucky Oliver, and their sales are well below StockXpert.
Are they charging too much or is it not as easy to purchase an EL as it is at other sites?
6450
« on: July 19, 2007, 04:07 »
Still no sales yet but I see that others are selling a few. I think they are probably building up the images before pushing for buyers. They are going to be a big site if they continue as they have started. I estimate they have around 90,000 images already.
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