I think iS quote 24hrs for any changes to take effect, although from my experience it's never taken that long. As to how long it takes to you to get more views, that depends on your work, I wouldn't worry about the views - it's sales you want

Quote from: RT on July 01, 2010, 17:57

Quote from: Randy McKown on July 01, 2010, 14:44

Quote from: louoates on July 01, 2010, 09:38

Hmmm. 20% of one million sounds an awful lot like a profit of $200,000.

Which can be looked at two ways ... I made $200,000 over the course of an entire year .. or .. Hmmm I just lost $800,000  

$1,000,000 gross - $800,000 costs = $200,000 profit ........ where exactly have you lost any money?

ok I'm going to invest into expenses in order to run a business .. smart idea moving on .. So I'm working with $800,000 capital .. now I'm going to invest it all on expenses .. year is over and now how much do I have in my pocket? $200,000 ... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you are losing money and need to take a serious look at your business model. Would have been better off not working at all and hanging on to the capital and maybe using it to pay for some business classes.

You're confusing yourself (again) going back to your original example, if you start out with $800,000 capital and you turn that into $1,000,000 you've made a profit of $200,000 (which incidently is a 25% profit not 20% as you originally stated) you haven't lost any money from the original capital. Many people have pointed this out to you but I guess you just don't get it.

Percentages mean absolutely nothing, it's the nett return that is the most important thing.

A 25% profit from a $800,000 investment would make any investment banker smile, in fact most of the worlds businesses don't make that sort of profit margin.

My photography business is ran on a 4000% profit average. I like it when it goes a couple thousand percent over that but I'm happy running it at 4K. This is also a good average (in america) it's not MWAC prices but it's not Elite either. I should point out that the 4000% profit is the result of our previous recession. This year we are seeing people coming out of it and by next year we will be back closer to our original pricing structure which will be more like 7000%.

Randy you do not make 4000% profit or anywhere near it, based on even the most modest of photography businesses that would mean you were making millions in profit each year, I don't think you understand how business profit works because if you did you certainly wouldn't make a statement like that, must admit though it did give me my morning laugh - thanks.

Of course I may be wrong, you might get your studio rent for free, free camera, free studio equipment, free electricity, free computer & software, free consumables, free stationary, free web hosting, free props, and everything else you need to make a photo for free including rates and taxes. 

Guess nobody's heard anything recently...... =tom

I got accepted a couple of days ago, very easy upload process and very similar in style to how it was at StockXpert, although they have imposed daily limits, I may consider sending all my stuff in by DVD. Attaching model releases is a breeze as is editing the IPTC data (if you choose to).

And, I too am glad that Shutterstock/Corbis did not follow the Getty example by closing down the BS site or blindly continue that unsuccessful attempt at transferring OD sales to Big Stock. 

Eh... Corbis have nothing to do with either Shutterstock or Bigstock

You are assuming the 10c rate per subscription download will stay this low forever, this is not the case. You may remember that Shutterstock raised their download payout from 20c to 25c in 2006 and increased this as years pass by. We will be doing the same.

So you're starting your business by copying Shutterstocks commission rate from four years ago and cutting it in half. Good luck with that one!

Then you're going to let a buyer have unlimited downloads for $89.95 a month, and pay out 10c commission for each download. Or in other words once a buyer downloads 900 images you're running at a loss (obviously it would require less downloads if you consider running costs), no doubt you're keeping your fingers crossed that they'll only download the 30-40% allowance that happens at Shutterstock, and of course nobody is going to see this as an easy way to stockpile 20,000 images for $90.

Seriously - I hope you haven't invested any personal money in this project.

I think DT may have out-sourced some of their inspection process to a company specialising in it. That's probably why they just refer you back to them. It also may explain why the contractor is so rigid in applying whatever 'rules' they have been given. Of course the contractor doesn't have a vested interest in sales, either on behalf of the agency itself or the contributor, but is more concerned with keeping DT happy and retaining their services.

In my case the reviewer has a portfolio on Dreamstime and is listed as one of their editors, I'm not going to bad mouth the person other than say they aren't really in a position to dictate what makes a successful stock image  

You know my portfolio, the images that have all the flames on iS well it was more of that series each one with a different concept, and those that DT rejected have had 11 sales on iS in the first week.

I recently had some images rejected under the too similar tag, these images are part of a series which I sell thousands off on iS and the other sites but the subject is a completely different concept (all of the other sites have approved them obviously). I sent a message to support but they insisted I replied to the rejection email which then goes back to the original editor!!!!! What's the point in that? His reply to my appeal made me believe he didn't really understand about the stock business and what makes an image sellable so if he didn't understand it the first time how is appealing to him a second time worthwhile. Even the images in the series that I do have on DT are my best sellers there 

So the lesson I learnt was if you have a niche series which sells in the thousands everywhere else you can only upload one to Dreamstime, even if the actual subject concept is 100% different. Now I wonder why people are stating that their Dreamstime sales aren't keeping up with the other sites 

Well at least they win first prize for the most irrelavent search results: (despite people pointing it out over two months ago on this thread)

Enter 'Man' into the search box and the resulting first page of 30 images feature 25 images without a man in them! Same thing for many other search results.

I'm also guessing you can set your own prices, at least on one page of results the images ranged from $300 to $10, something that hasn't proved successful in the past on other sites.

Personally I can't see this South African based agency lasting more than a year but Yuri has uploaded his stuff so no doubt many others will too  

Deepmeta then go to the keyword wizard.

What I mean is I don't recommend you sell the exact same image as RF with one agency and then also sell that image as RM on Alamy. You can of course sell some as RF and some as RM images on Alamy depending on what license you feel will suit the image best, that part you'll need to work out for yourself.

Hiya!

well, all good things come to those who wait. Truth is, we all need a solution. I understand all 3 arguments in this industry (contributor, distributor and buyer) and I sympathise will all 3.

Fact remains that the industry is managed by the wrong people! I am involved in this business, as some of you are in more than one respect, and only reflect my own personal feelings. I mean speaking as a photographer, this is what I would like to see happen. But as a buyer, I must also warn that such a move in the industry could turn micro stock into an elite industry, making prices too high.

So the balance needs to be carefully looked at and managed in such a way that photographers dint get carried away with their prices, while at the same time caring for the distributor, (who by the way needs to add their own markup) and sparing a thought for the buyer who needs to pay a much higher price!

Also, keep in mind that a distributor has overheads to cover. photogs only submit their work and that is it, but the contributor needs to pay for marketing, hosting, and so on and so forth...

So what exactly was the point of your initial post, or any of the others if at last you've suddenly realised that there are three parties involved in this industry and each wants the best value out of it?

Is anybody else having difficulty uploading using FTP?

I'm using filezilla which keeps disconnecting, some files get through but most aren't with the error messages "connection timed out" "couldn't connect to server" "critical error"