To keep up with the market, we reduced commission rates for sales in credits only. However, we raised our prices in credits to compensate lower commission payments. We believe that both parties will benefit in the long run.[/i]

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  They are raising prices - which could bring in more revenue - as a way to keep our earnings the same as they reduce the commission rate, assuming of course that increasing prices doesn't reduce sales.  But how is that keeping up with the market?  Their e-mail stated, "Our decision was dictated by the requirements of the market and the times, and is intended to change the profitability of the project, with the aim of giving it a new push toward future development."  What are the requirements of the market and times?  They need to spend more on advertising?  What new ads will they be running?  Or are they planning a better delivery system?  Will "change the profitability" be for our benefit or only for the owners?

My interpretation: "We've spent a lot of time developing this company and now we want to cash out while we can".  That is exactly what they did at 123rf - there was certainly no improvement in sales after they went to the RC system to cut our commissions.  I haven't uploaded anything since January so I guess I'm ahead of the curve in that respect.

SSTK hit the top ten most shorted stocks on the NYSE a few days ago.

I didn't know that - that is a distinction I assume most companies would want to avoid.  Now I'm glad I didn't buy any.

SSTK is now at $30.45 - there was definitely a lot of room to go short on that one.

or they are giving up, who knows.

I don't know the answer, but maybe they see the writing on the wall and are just trying to cut costs and extract as much money as they can before turning off the lights.  Sales are hanging in there - they are running number three for me so far this month, just ahead of iS - but otherwise they just seem to be coasting.  BS, Canstock and DT have all died for sales and seem to be doing the same thing - just hanging on until the end.  DT had a big splash with their Google deal but sales have dried up the past couple of months  and they are about ready to drop out of the top earners in the poll.  I assume we are headed for a shakeout pretty soon where only a few will survive.

Two weeks is way too short a time to be worrying about sales.  Different images sell at different rates on various agencies.  On average it looks like the action on FT is about 25% of what it is on SS according to the poll on the right.  For you, zero sales on 100 images in two weeks is normal.  My experience is that images often get DLs faster on SS but FT picks up eventually.  For me, I usually earn from 2-7 cents per accepted image per month at FT, which I assume is low.  If yours sell at the same rate then no DLs in two weeks with 100 images is about right.  Once you have 1000 for a few months you will have a better idea.

And then there's the finance bit, if a company is taking 70% of the price then they have that much more money to spend on marketing, promotions, meetings with buyers etc. So its hard for a new company to retain less money and be more competitive unless we all realize that if we get more money we also have to shoulder some of the marketing responsibility (stocksy did this well, with all the contributors-owners sharing it heavily on social media) maybe we all can do the same for 500px or Pond5 or Canva or Alamy

One problem is that some of them are using their take for CEO bonuses and stock options while their market share decreases. 

Alamy and 123rf both gave us commission cuts with the promise that their extra take was going for increased marketing for better sales but I didn't notice an increase at either one.  At 123 I'm sure it was just for the owners.  Alamy gives most of their profits to charity, but it is a charity run by the family that runs the agency.  I have tried to find out what the charity supports and what percentage of their money goes to charitable operations versus administration but was not able to find out anything - it may be that the "charity" is mostly for the family and a way of hiding how much they are earning (it also may be perfectly legitimate, I was just surprised that I could find almost nothing about it outside of Alamy).

Maybe marketing costs are so high that it is impossible for an agency that charges less than 50% commission to survive - I don't know.  Pond5 and featurepics both pay 50%.  Featurepics is hanging in there but sales are slow.  Canva pays us 35% but they are increasing sales so that is OK - they are the one agency nowadays that really seems to be doing something different to increase customers.  I guess the Adobe deal at FT also is a new variant but it hasn't translated into much of an increase so far.  The others are mainly just competing on price.  Using commission cuts to advertise their low prices, which results in the need for more commission cuts is not a good use of resources IMO.

It was only March that Uncle Pete started a thread when SS was approaching 50 million, and now only five months later it is over 60 million and adding over 500,000 per week.  At that rate they will add over 26 million per year and the SS database will reach 100 million in only another 1.5 years.  Incredible. 

When I started in 2009 they had around 4 million I think and they were adding 80,000-100,000 per week which seemed like a lot.  Hard to keep up with the current flood.

I've been lucky so far but I probably shouldn't leave as much in there as I do - I'll be really annoyed if I lose it because of not transferring it out fast enough.  I should probably bite the bullet and pay the conversion fee.  Thanks for the reminder.

I don't think it matters - just use the account you've got.

..these people that  try to migrate to capitalist countries - like Syrians today - are forced by pure capitalism, war is one of the main tools of capitalism, everything is much more linked than it looks on the surface...

...we will have revolutions for sure - what kind and what will be the next "solution" - I don t know...

That is nonsense - capitalism has nothing to do with wars.  Certainly some capitalists have benefitted greatly from wars but most would say that war is bad for business and therefore against their self interest (getting back to the theme Zero Talent likes to bring up).

In Syria the problems are caused by the dictator Assad and ISIS.  Do you think ISIS is setting up a capitalist society?  Certainly not!

Religion is the biggest cause of wars, not capitalism.  If we could get rid of religion then we could reduce differences between societies and the cause for many wars would go away immediately.  Unfortunately I don't see that happening any time soon.

It depends on if you are doing family vacation snapshots or travel shots for stock.  I always bring a travel tripod and plan shots for stock when I am traveling, whether it is for vacation or my real job, but of course it is not necessary and too much trouble for family snapshots.

To compare the lenses you could try here (http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-XR-Di-II-Lens-Review.aspx).  Not sure if that is the Tamron you are looking at, but it does have some comparisons with other brands and he talks about its strengths and weaknesses versus the Canon and others.  The guy at The Digital Picture does a great job with gear reviews and is the first place I look to for unbiased reviews.  Good luck!

I hope he gets nominated and separates the Pubs, Then Hillary will win hands down.   LOL I wouldn't be surprised if she put him up to it. Perfect Move.lol.

back to topic. shares Plummet.

Trump definitely makes things interesting.  It's possible he actually thinks he has a chance of winning, or maybe it's all just for publicity and a way to feed his evidently limitless ego.  He has said he likes Hillary and that the economy does much better under Democrats so maybe part of his goal is to try to make sure Hillary can win - assuming she gets the nomination instead of Bernie Sanders.  The fact that so many Republicans in Iowa seriously support Trump is shocking - I assume it indicates a backlash against the ruling families and I'm all for that, just wish there was a realistic candidate.  If we end up with Bernie running against Donald that would certainly say that the People are tired of politics as usual.

SSTK at just under $33 this morning.  With a P/E over 56 it still seems a bit overpriced to me but getting close.  Wish I had bought some at the beginning and sold at the peak.  I would definitely buy Canva now if they were public - they still seem to be on the upswing.