That's really not good at all. I've been using his keywording site for ages and it was very very convenient.

really??? does his keywords get you dls??? if so, it's a shame ...
as i would like to use them too.

Thanks! I know this one. But Yuri website had this huge advantage that he showed how popular are given keywords and also how much searched. This was very useful.

Just checked the competition. FT is a close second with 827 thousand tomatoes, followed by IS with 491 thousands, and DT showing 431 thousands. Alamy has paltry 271,550 and GI doesn't even show the count.

However, that's nothing compared with Google archive. On this January 1, 2016, Google search engine returned in 0.39 seconds over 67 million tomato pictures. Seems like a big and vibrant market.

that's mighty lots of tomatoes there circulating the Earth
but maybe we are the silly ones because if no one buys tomatoes and marijuana
pictures there won't be so many out there and still growing.
imagine, i would think that pharmaceuticals (pills and birth control ) would be the most wanted
images considering man is breeding faster than rabbits 

but guess what, pills and birth control still got me zero in dls after xxx years in my portfolio.
as for "we already have too many of this one" button for reviewers to push,
i don't think there are any human reviewers left in ss.

just my thoughts for 2016. just try it... super sharp image side to side,
no OOF in the foreground, blue sky in the background.
approved 100% all the time.

creative focus or creative lighting , blur in background or foreground, rejection 100%
or poor composition.

You're on a bus, going down a mountain road, the brakes fail. As you head for the corner at high speed, and are ready to drop off a cliff you say, when the bus stops falling and crashes, we'll reach some sort of equilibrium and everything will be alright, back to where it belongs.

Microstock is an out of control bus, and we are just passengers. Things will never be fine or the way they were. You can get off the bus before the wreck, jump before it goes off the cliff or just keep telling yourself, it's all going to be fine some day. If you wish upon a star, your fairy god mother will come down and rescue you.

Microstock will never be what it was. Never Ever

yes good point YYY
just like that ole james bond movie where the bus is over the cliff and everyone goes to the back of the bus to balance it so the bus won't go over...
instead of jumping off the bus 

http://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Policy_Reproduction_Bank_Note_Images.pdf

Queen doesn't like her photo used for ads.

LOL funny canadians still want the queen yet ireland , scotland and wales have been trying to get rid of her as a welfare recipient

Remember, there are multiple holiday slumps throughout the year, Christmas season being the longest. Europe takes a 6-week (I think six, maybe eight) holiday in the summer, which really slows down sales.  When school gets out in May/Jun sales slow while parents take time off for vacation, etc.  Thanks Giving, etc.  Slow times happen throughout the year.  For Xmas, I usually don't see a pick up until week 3-4 of January...a slow ramp up. Don't let it get you down. Keep shooting and building your port.

correct . in fact in some countries as i know even have the whole office close from15 dec till jan 14 instead of staggering vacation time for each dept or each employee. to the bosses of these companies, it makes a lot of sense because most ppl prefer time off with families during the christmas season. this is more fair than say having ppl with less seniority having to go on vacation when they least want it because the unionized ppl with seniority get the pick of christmas to new year.

so from these countries you will see zero activity for dls.

good topic re: rejection on subject.  no , ss never does that... but there are reviewer(s) who would depending on which side of the bed they woke up , would reject a batch with "poor composition".
which is myseterious because who knows what is that???

as someone in another thread said, "it's time reviewers get to be contributors before entry.. (or something like that)..so they know what a contributors go through".
what i mean is, i am sure you agree, i look at my best sellers and sometimes i still shake my head why this one has earned me so much. if that reviewer knows what is good composition,
i am sure (s)he would not need to work as a reviewer... just make that image that clients want.

i think the composition rejection is the last alternative certain reviewer(s) make if they cannot find a reason to reject our work. this just to protect their a** in case one day that amazing day when Oringer decides to really check up on what his reviewer(s) are doing to double-dip on rejections first then resubmit so i can earn twice.

the red above is true because i always resubmit my rejections and always got approved 2nd time.
because i feel i get another reviewer who is fair. sometimes i get the same reviewer who rejects it with another reason... so i submit a 3rd time and it gets approved (justifiably ) by the other reviewer.

thing is i cannot put a finger on which day to submit because esp nowadays, holiday season , you cannot tell when the weekend dude/gal is working

SS can not be doing this to 'pump their numbers'.

If they wanted to pump the numbers we would not be getting so many 'Out Of Focus' rejections even when the photo is tac sharp.

There must be another reason so much crap is being accepted.

yes it sure looks fishy why regular contributors get a whole batch rejected with
no matter what , there is a problem with your photo.
according to the ss thread of complaints, these are coming from ppl who know how to process
photos for years... but suddenly
it is mostly OOF. if not, it is poor lighting , even if shadows are transparent. if all is perfect,
it is composition. so no matter what , the rejection still stand for these regular contributor
who suddenly forgot how to focus, WB, composition and contract some shaky hand disability.

but marijuana dude walks in with thousands without being curated.
who can solve this million dollar, i mean million image mystery???

In 2016, I wish everyone that works at any type of image based agency at all levels (especially senior level) go through mandatory 3 month full time course where they need to produce, upload, keyword and sell images/ vectors/ videos just to see how it is to be a contributor in this industry so that real changes can be made like wage earnings and the perceived value of the commodity they are licensing out.
The hedge fund managers or any other player with real financial stake in this industry must go through this training for 2 years thank you. 

well said.. if i understand you correctly.
yes, it's like the same in music where the "best teachers" are really the worst musicians.
..and it is no wonder that today we see so many technicians and speed freaks in guitar music..jazz, rock,whatever..you call it. everyone sounds the same.
like many years ago, some music critic actually reviewed many of today's great grandfathers of music and called it rubbish.
i wonder also, that reviewers must provide a proof of 20 20 vision and not color blind.
of course, they have to take a test to know how to calibrate their monitors too, or else we see
them rejecting left right & center from wrong wb or composition or anything that has a  shadow as poor lighting.

but i won't hold my breath  .. or your wish to happen.  they would have to sack everyone

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on December 23, 2015, 13:35

Can't  believe I forgot about BT. He was a super smart interesting guy too.

Thanks for the compliment. I've got a lot of stuff going on at the moment that's got in the way of doing stock but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of it some time in the next year. Meanwhile, I lurk here from time to time.
I'm not sure if a public spat I had with Gostwyck may have had something to do with him being less active here. I hope not.

me too.. (in red) .. but i am sure gos is not that little minded to want to say something at you and then run away to cry because we talk back. as they say, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
i never took gos as a feeble mind , that is why when he shouts i shout back
because i know he can take it like a good fighter in the ring.
we do it with our drinking buddies at the pub , maybe even worse than i give it here in the forum..
but really, we are here to speak up... or else it won't be a forum.

if you want to have everyone agree you with like a lemming, you should indeed form a fan-club or direct everyone to your fb where they can shine your shoes.

thanks to everyone here we are still in the same boat...
we're not here to fight against each other; more like to agree to disagree.

and yes, i am one who is very much against whoever drove lisa away for speaking up.
shame.. if you're lurking lisa, don't stay away in 2016.
this forum should not be like c*nva 

ok, have a happy holiday too !!!   see you in the next round 

p.s.
and yes, i am still not going to use the SHIFT key. i have better things to do with my middle finger

he probably wants to focus on his peopleimages dot com

Unions are nothing but old socialistic philosophy and politics.  True they did have a place at the turn of the century and when workers were treated unfairly, worked in hazardous places, and child labor laws didn't exist. Now they are nothing but big leeches, drawing blood from workers with dues that go into the union leaders pockets. Many are mob run in the US.

That's how socialism works, the few profit from the pain of the workers, but make the business out to be the villain while they pretend to be some sort of brotherhood of strength. Then the union people on top reap the rewards and the workers are still paying for little or no gain. You need to pay to be a member for promises and protection. Maybe so you can work. Because non-union can't work in a union shop.

I want to see a thorough investigation of who was stealing Rex artist money. Maybe other artist money. And full disclosure. But until that I'm not going to fly off and accuse.

true , re your first para statement. it was meant to help the oppressed at that time, and it did good.
but when it came to the first world or progressive society, they became leeches like you say. much the same way as the old colonials brown-nosers rajas and colonels who pander to the "founder"(cough cough ..like the indigenous there before them were not "found:") of the new world.
same for the communes and tribes whose chiefs were the saviours of the nations... the Union were
. naturally, you do find diehards who preach the good of the Union because they were the ones who sat on their ar$es being the ones with $eniority and very little skill except to come to work complaining how much they hate their jobs yet won't quit until the pallbearers come to take their carcuses away from the office.

and yes, been there too, where the same people wearing hard hats doing the same jobs were told their services are only half as good as the Unionized labourers thoughthey work just as hard if not harder . ..so they only get half the pay. But, wink wink, if they pay the Union dues ... poof like magic their services suddenly became as 100% .

same for this thing with Rex etc... yes, they like to make ss look so bad so we all kneel to their
graven images and pay them dues to "protect" us. these leeches ... they just don't die, do they...
much like the cockroaches that survive even after the bombs killed every other living thing.

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on December 21, 2015, 14:36

there is a fool born every minute who believes the Union and all such
things are there to work for your benefit

That's what you get for swallowing 30 years of Chicago School economics and neoliberal propaganda - a refusal to accept that we're better off together, rather than as atomised serfs receiving barely 20% of the royalties earned on our creative output from mega-corps and private equity owned money funds.

as opposed to what??? we still get 38 cts per dls, up to 28 to 102 bucks per single earning
versus 50 cts of picking coffee beans a day