Hi guys,

I've been on Zazzle for about 5 weeks now, got a TBA on 12/18/2010 and some nice comments as a result--but no sales yet. Guess that's not surprising since I don't even have 100 products up and haven't started any marketing, unless you call this post a first effort.

I actually joined Zazzle for a couple of reasons. Although I've been a photographer for over 30 years, I have little interest in stock photography and devoted most of my microstock submissions to fractal work. Alas, the micro industry seems to have decided they hate fractals now. I used to get 100% acceptance, now it's like 95% rejections--end of market for me. My second reason was because after 3 or 4 years on Red Bubble (but no submissions since first joining) I made a rather surprisingly large sale of one of my prints and a couple of greeting cards. So, since microstock seems dead for my kind of work, POD looks like my new venue. Just have to learn how to market my little store

BTW, I've joined all your fan clubs.

Here's my store link:      http://www.zazzle.com/pelmof*

Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

P__

AhHa. Thanks Karin. No complaints, then.

Found my images for sale on this site called Crystal Graphics, under their PowerPlugs section. Anyone know anything about them?

http://www.crystalgraphics.com/PowerPictures/Image.Search.Results.asp?page=1&testing=0&qs=yes&ss=fractal&ipp=30&c=page&newflag=all

I know I didn't contribute the images to them, and since the images are on a number of sites I couldn't identify where they were obtained. But even with an extended license (which none of these have sold for) I don't think they can offer images for print, can they?

And, check out this page. They've won awards, etc.

Is this a rip? 

P___

I agree with Fred. There is something seriously wrong with the search system at LO. I know this is dredging up another LO concern, but as an example of "wrongness" I have 668 images uploaded, 10,358 views, and one image has 2,516 views with 2 downloads. The next closest image for views has 114. I have a whopping $33.00 earned, and not a single download for several months. I'm really disappointed with LO.

My more recent work is far superior to the images which receive views--that one with 2,516 views is a very early image and really not equal to my most recent work which seems to get no views.

I have stopped uploading to LO. Doubt I'll ever be able to partake in the sideshow because I have no interest in (or time to play) the comments game if that's what it takes to get sales. That's just plain annoying and insulting. I upload images to a site so they will market them. I shouldn't have to do that along with the work of creation.

Seriously annoyed,

P__

I've mentioned before that I work remotely as a photo researcher for an online educational publishing company. While we develop educational content, we are a profit making company. I just forwarded the article to my boss. It's pretty remarkable how many people in in the biz are ignorant of copyright issues--my boss and the course writers included.

I recently sent my boss a caution about not using Shutterstock "editorial use only" images in our courses. Her response was "Really?" And our course writers are so jazzed up about using images they just google any picture and include it in the text. I'm currently working on an Art History course, and of course the author has devoted a lot of text about Picasso's Guernica and wants to include the picture in the course. All we can legally do is use a link to the image developed by an educational institution (educational institutions are exempt and can, and do, use anything.)

As course developers coming from an educational setting where anything goes, it's really difficult getting them to understand and believe in copyright issues. Maybe this article will impress them--probably not. But I keep trying.

P__

I stopped uploading for about a month in July/August but to my surprise got steady sales of older images. I've been uploading about 20 images a week since the end of August and noticed that the surge for new image downloads does still exist, but not to the extent it used to. Also, the sales for older images keeps even with the new images. Could it be the new search photographer portfolio option?

It's been puzzling me, too.

P__

Thanks for the info wysiwyg_fot. If this is one of the affiliates that's OK. Missed that announcement.

P__

Just checked it out and found some of mine there, too, with a blank author field. Why is that? Will we be paid if our images sell there? How did thay get these images in the first place? Did they just purchase images from DT and then upload them to their site? Or, do they have an agreement with DT that we don't know about? Lots of questions. Very puzzled. 

P__

Hey Freezing, thanks for the link. 

Basically spent the day creating a page promoting only myself--no links to helpful sites, just featurepics because they give the most back to the contributers. Just a backgrounder or resume sort of thing. See it if you like.

http://pelmof.googlepages.com/home

P__

Nope, I'm on a PC.

I've only been able to post once as myself on the SS forum. I do the log out/log in routine, but when it comes to actually submitting my post I get a message that my user name is already in use--I can submit my post but only as a "guest." Very annoying, so I don't even bother to try anymore. 

Owned by Jupiter Images, many hurdles to get on board as a contributing phtographer. Got the same flyer and trashed it. They really aren't seeking new contributers, just buyers.

Have to say that my last 2 submissions to LO went through in less than 2 hours each after uploading. Thanks to Karin for her speedy work. On the other hand, SS seems to be slowing down a tad bit--about 15 hours for my last 2 submissions.

I'm pretty surprised that there hasn't been a general outcry about the more than week-long SS problems. The most egregious being that recent accepted images don't show up in a search (thereby consigning that batch to oblivian), along with todays inability to show recent downloads, etc., etc...

As typical, the SS forum is falling right in line and complaining ever so mildly.

BUT this has been going on for more than a week, and there have been so many problems. Those of us on SS know what I'm talking about.

So, why haven't we had a discussion about this here, where we can really vent?

I, for one, am not going to upload again until they have it straightened out. Suggest we all do the same--my last batch has no sales, and I haven't uploaded since. I usually get a rash of sale as soon as a batch is accepted. Nothing from the last batch has sold--only the random sale here and there from previous batches.

P__

Searching is all wacky. Either sloooooowww, or page unreachable, or internal errors crashes you out. Made my searching a nightmare early this morning.

39.5% with 152 accepted.

Don't think there's anything to learn from their rejections. Contrary to their introductory comment on all rejections that they follow a strict standard for acceptance, there is no standard. It really seems to be idiosyncratic to the particular reviewer and, I suspect, an unwritten standard to keep acceptance below 50% for submitters regardless of the quality of submissions.

My submission acceptance rate on all other sites I regularly use is over 90%.

P__

Hi, all. I'm playing--have commented on a few so far, and will continue. My link is here:
http://www.luckyoliver.com/portfolio/pelmof/popular/1

P__

I hate those days, and in January they are fairly frequent for me--but then I only do fractals. However--I had a record day at SS--48 downloads so far, and the day isn't over! I don't even have 400 images up yet. Have I been "discovered?" 

P__

DT rejections confuse and thoroughly annoy me. I've mentioned before that I seem to have a trend going with them. One entire batch will be rejected with their insulting comments about "poor execution, be more original, we have too many of these anyway, etc." Then the next entire batch will be accepted. Then the next one rejected, the next one accepted. That has been going on for months now. I don't upload anything except fractals there, and my execution is the same, lengthy process for all of them.

Just had a batch of 18 rejected this morning (immediately followed by a sale from the last accepted batch). Have 25 currently in the queue--if all goes as it has been, I expect they will be accepted.

I've thought of a new strategy. After an approved batch I will next upload 2 or 3 of my "lesser" images for the rejection round. Then upload a big batch of "good" images. So, my next upload will be a small one of "lesser" images.

Let you all know how that works.

P__

Redirected, and I'm in the U.S.--Chicago. Hope it's solved soon.

I submitted images months ago and could never find them on the site. Have no idea whether they were ever on the site. There was no way to communicate with the site regarding this. I thought it was a bogus site. Still will until I see something different. Sorry, don't believe it'll be any different now unless you show some movement. Tired of uploading images for who knows what purposes. 

I find BigStock a real puzzle. The only things that have sold there for me are the ones I submitted early on and put into a gallery. I've been thinking that creating galleries is the way to get sales? Is this the way to get interest in your images? Do buyers really only view galleries on BigStock? How odd. No keyword searching?  So confused by this site.

It's a disappointing month for me so far. And I am uploading my usual twice weekly batches. Hope it picks up soon.

Pat

Quote from: berryspun on October 07, 2006, 15:49
Just received this email:


Dear Microstock Forum user and Photographers,

We are still waiting for the domainname microstockphoto.com to be moved to us as new owners and were planning to wait with moving the microstockphoto.com website to a new server untill this was finished, but because of this delay, we don't want to wait longer and will start moving all content this weekend.
Because of this, we will close the login to the Forum and photographer login just untill the movement of the website is completed.

We will also present some screenshots of the new design for microstockphoto here later today, which we will try to implement into the site asap.

We will send out an email to all photographers about this and hope you all have understanding if any problems should occur. (which we don't hope so offcourse)

As stated previously, many updates are planned, concerning updates, marketing etc. and we will try to keep everybody updated on it.
please check the forum announcement page now and then for updates.

Denne melding og oppdateringer ligger også på: http://www.microstockphoto.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=152


Ruben
ViaStep

Just got the same email. Looks to be Scandinavian?

Quote from: fintastique on October 07, 2006, 07:21
Anyone notice BS seem to have issues accessing FTPing photos to keyword.

Yes. I have 52 stuck between FTP upload and the pending queue. There is a screen that comes up with several (not current) dates indicating the server is down for maintenance and will be back up in a few hours. It's been about 10 hours now.

Note: this should probably be in a new or different thread.

Pat

edit: The queue is working now.