Quote from: RacePhoto on October 30, 2008, 15:50If Eugene ever comes back after his one post,

He won't.

Move on, nothing to see here.

Quote from: Lee Torrens on March 21, 2009, 23:04Who else?

I'm a fanatic non-twitterer and a non-facebooker. I even turn my cellphone off at night, unable to follow the latest fads. I canceled Flickr after finding out I was exchanging too many comments for nothing. I just go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. Shouldn't we all?

Quote from: Milinz on July 04, 2009, 12:41http://www.chiff.com/art/photo/stock.htm

A site that considers Talkmicro the only microstock forum and iStockphoto the only microstock site shouldn't be considered a reference, even loosely. Perhaps some would consider it as a looser, if not a loser.  

Quote from: Magnum on July 04, 2009, 09:51How many actually thinks this is the reason for lower sales the last month?

Subtracting EL, I had my BME at DT last June. But I wish they imposed a size restriction on subscription, or an opt-out on it. 0.35$ for a maximum size just doesn't sound right, and when I ever upgrade to a 21-24MP cam, they will get my downsized versions.

Quote from: puravida on July 04, 2009, 15:02thanks alot, but i 'd rather be sailing then play this game !

I'd rather be selling than sailing, or even better, selling while sailing.  

Quote from: takestock on July 04, 2009, 12:57So many other sites have opened up, got submissions and just left contributors hanging - checking in occasionally to find "zero" sales and eventually closing their account.

Of course. The market has been taken since 2005. No new site made it after that, and no new site will.

Quote from: Sugandha on July 04, 2009, 14:55Would love to hear from you all, You can contact me at [email protected]

I will send you an e-card.
What do you have to offer?

It's quite easy to play.
Photo vs illustration, choose illustration.
People vs no people, chose people.
In case of people, chose the sexiest girl.
In case of 2 sexy girls, chose the simplest or isolated one.

Quote from: ziggy62 on July 04, 2009, 03:00www.OnePricePhoto.com Team

Your search engine sucks. I found this for "apple isolated" (only two matches).

I'm not that much upset with ShutterStock, which was the first and original subs microstock. You knew what you entered into the moment you signed up. They make me 3 digits per month, more than 0.35$/sub sale, and I upload only the reduced size to them. Fair after all, I don't want my maximums up for grabs.

What irritates me more are PPDL microstocks turning into a subs-too site after sign-up. You start uploading maximum sizes, and then you suddenly see this: (my last 7 DLs on DT).



The latest addition to this club is FeaturePics, although they will limit sub sales to a whopping low size of 8MP.

Quote from: madelaide on July 02, 2009, 22:16I have earned in FP twice as much as CanStockPhoto and about the same as 123RF.

Elena buys all your shots because you made it a full-time job filling her forum. 

Quote from: Perry on July 03, 2009, 11:20Stop using pirated Photoshop, I DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR YOUR PHOTOSHOP.

You don't. As with all pirated software and music, those people wouldn't buy the official product anyways.
Incidentally, since our images are sold now as low as 0.16$, can we buy PS anywhere at a subscription price, like 1$ per package only?

Quote from: News Feed on July 03, 2009, 16:00we're back with some huge changes on the site. Read on to find out what's new in Crestock 4.0!

QuoteIf I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not sales,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of design and can fathom all mysteries at any speed,
and if I have a usability that can move mountains, but have not sales, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,
but have not sales, I gain nothing.

Blessed those that giveth their images away to the poor for only 0.25$,
but I am not one of them.

Quote from: Lee Torrens on July 03, 2009, 07:38Here's another email from PN.  To misrepresent my earnings like that they must be incredibly stupid or liars.  Either way, I'm keeping my distance.

I left that part of the email out for brevity. Don't forget to mention that PN asks a parking fee for your images > 10. They argued that their high prices would make up for that. Now that they seem to have opted for the slippery slope of subscription, I wonder if they're going to dump that parking fee too. I uploaded 10 to PN, 5 non-people, 5 models. They asked to email the Releases or fax them, for which I have no time. And that's it.

Quote from: Magnum on July 03, 2009, 11:28cover blown milinz

Me? Well I'm not loose enough to confound "loosers" with "losers" all the time, second, I'm not a reviewer at FP, and third, my last iStock batch was accepted 12/15. Nice try. 

An email from PictureNation:

(This sounds like FeaturePics that had to abandon its author-priced model for a subscription model)

QuoteIndustry watch – pricing and licences

As mentioned in our last newsletter, we've been monitoring sales and trends and changes in the market even more closely than usual. Whilst our members continue to get print res sales of £35 and £75, there aren't enough of these transactions happening.

We've always been a 'mid-stock' site – floating inbetween the American microstock sites that sell pictures for a dollar or less, and the Alamys and Gettys who sell pictures for hundreds of dollars each. Alamy are totally open about their sales figures – and have reported quite a drop in some of their sectors. Their newspaper image sales are down by as much as 70%. Picture buyers are – like many during the recession – having to cut costs for their publications – and many are turning to the cheaper microstock libraries.

This is significant for us – because our key clients have so far been the public sector, marketing companies, education establishments and, we were starting to make good progress with the newspapers. The downturn has affected them – so is affecting us, and we're a small and quite new library – not with the income stream of the US giants or Alamy. Alamy have done their own research and found that the newspapers are instructing their picture staff to use, wherever possible, the subscription sites where they can buy images for very little. Alamy are looking at how they will address that. And we have been too.

Watchers in the image industry forecast that more and more images will be obtained from social networking sites, that images are becoming so easily available, and so many available for free, that libraries will struggle. We know that businesses and wary image buyers will always choose to get their images from a trustworthy place where the photographers, like yourselves, have given permission for the images to be bought and used, and not just right clicked off the internet for free, with the risk of copyright breach.

We have been doing our own research and talking to small business owners, printers, web designers, marketing companies, etc....who all report that they love our site, its simplicity, the licensing, and your images – especially the spontaneity of them – and for the UK businesses they love the UK look of your pictures. But, when they get to our prices they are shocked. They are literally all now using the microstock sites and say their clients will not pay £75 for a solitary image any more. It's not just the effects of a recession – we are no longer price competitive. And once these buyers start using the cheaper libraries – they won't go back to the pricier ones. We haven't lowered our prices since we launched in November 2006.

Our web prices are great value. But our single print prices are too high. We don't have license options for businesses who want to use our pictures for templates and re-use. This is losing us – and you – quite a bit of business - and the associated PR – and it's time for us to address that.

We also confuse clients with our language - 'subscriptions'. Not our fault – the other bigger libraries have changed their language or introduced subscriptions that have different meaning to ours.

We have to follow the big players sometimes, as they do set the trends. More libraries are now offering a subscription or a credit service. Our PN subscription service is like their credit service. So we think we need to change our language from subscription to credits.

Many of our members sell images on other sites too – which we encourage - and having spoken to some of our members on the phone and by e-mail – we know they are happy to get sales from the microstock sites even for the small amounts that are paid out. Shutterstock only pay 25 cents (about 15p) commission for every download – even high res. But they're a good, established and popular US site.

To increase sales volume, we need to lower our print prices and we need to offer an extended license option – all of which will increase the purchase options for buyers, give better value for money in a competitive market, and increase your chances of sales.

Some members have images for sale with us and the same images on other cheaper sites, and are getting few or no sales for those images with PN. We'd need to offer a more competitive price. Your commission rate would not be affected and stay at 40%. We pay 40% across the board – before our costs – and we don't seek exclusivity. You can sell your images elsewhere too.

Is running a demo version "legal"? Assume you have viruses/malware every month and you have to reformat/reinstall Windows, included the PS demo for 30 days, is that "legal"?