Hi, I just noticed that Fotolia V3 is now online. Hopefully everything will be working like clockwork

Quote from: Black Sheep on June 02, 2011, 08:12
You don't produce any photos on your own and none of the images on your site are either free or public domain.
Fact is, you're a crook, and you do it in the vain hope of monetize someone else's work.

This is my final reply to this topic. Have you even visited the website? (Definitely not) Here is a link to my portfolio with over 2,500 images under public domain http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/browse-author.php?a=1

As I wrote above no more further comments, luckily I have better things to do.

Let me clear some things. I understand that some photographers are furious when they found a website which offers pictures for free. The same thing happened when traditional photographers found out about microstock.

I was surprised that we received an email from cclapper who was "furious" when she found that we advertise her pictures. She is the only entrepreneur I know who hates free advertising. Anyway, we managed to add her to our block list so good for those photographers who fill her positions.

It's true that we are paid by the agency but it's coming from agency's share not yours. There is only one occasion which affects your commission and it's when a customer uses a discount code. (which we don't provide)

I would expect appreciating our work with converting people who search for free images to become paying microstock members but some people simply don't see it.

I have a copy of that ticket in my email box, i'll send it to you in couple of minutes. Thank you

Hi, I don't know if you noticed that but iStock has some problems with credits - if you click on Support page you'll see this text

"Please note: You may not receive your credits immediately and there may be a 15 - 20 minute delay.
If after that time you have NOT received your credits, please contact support."

Well, after 20 hours I still haven't received my credits, so I sent them a ticket. After another 8 hours the ticket was deleted with no answer and no $$ added. Do they do this often? Thank you for your reply

http://www.stockxpert.com/browse_image/view/54680751

Thank you and merry christmas

Quote from: simsi on October 22, 2009, 17:27
as I am a newbie: where is Yuri's keyword page?

thank you!
Simone

http://arcurs.com/keywording/

Hi, I made myself a page with all links for my microstock activities. It's very simple and efficient (for me at least  ) It's in my favourites, and I just thought that some of you might like it as well.

There are links to main microstock agencies, keywording tools, this microstockgroup forum and few photo forums

http://www.back2homepage.com/page.php?id=2119

*there are few links which have my refferal number in it, but it doesn't have any impact on page's performance.

PS: If you like it and if you have any suggestions to improve it, let me know.

Quote from: hali on January 26, 2009, 18:30
bobek, we are not saying it's ok to sell our images for peanuts, and that giving it away free like you are pushing here is silly. we already know how popular or unpopular subs and cheapies are. we take it , some happily, others grumbling under our breaths. we know where the top microsites esp SS is heading (ie. down , as in bread crumbs for the dogs under the table). but why encourage it ? we know it's going down to zero, but let's not push it to zero that quickly. 
does it make sense? 

I understand that but the website is not here to compete with microstock but to support more sales there by referring new members.

Quote from: loop on January 26, 2009, 15:44
The more traffic, the worst. This is just about giving away images and rigths, risking model-realase conflicts and lawsuits, and contributin to a culture of "prhotos for commercial use should be free".

I'm sure that the same fear had stock agencies with microstock at the beginning. Pictures from $1? Madness.

The way I see it:
- pictures for not very important projects - free
- pictures for projects where a good picture is important but exclusivity isn't - microstock
- pictures where quality must be excellent and exclusivity desired - traditional stock image libraries

And of course, these categories will be overlapping a bit.

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-I could include the words 'free porn' in the metadata of my website and get probably more unique visitors a day than you've highlighted, so therefore the statistic means absolutely nothing.

- I'm not going to comment this one as it is complete rubbish

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-Anybody in the business of buying images in any sort of quantity will be very aware of Microstock by now.

- Not true, otherwise we wouldn't be referring new people

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-Anybody looking to purchase images by searching via Google will be presented with vast numbers of microstock sites long before they come across yours.

- try this search - http://www.google.com/search?q=red+hearts and look at fourth image (I'm searching from the UK) - red hearts, so close to valentines, quite a traffic volume

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-One decent stock photograph uploaded to iStock photo plus the other top sites will produce more revenue than any money you'll ever receive via referrals.

- that's why the title says 'REJECTED'

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-Reading through any microstock site forums for the posts of anybody who's ever participated in any 'free image' scheme and the result will be that it does not produce any significant extra revenue.

- their free image section leads only to your portfolio. If people look for 'Labrador' there are 11 other pictures of Labrador below your image with your Fotolia number

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-Unless I'm mistaken you are not a registered charity and therefore the sole reason you've created this site is to generate revenue for yourself and not to help others.

Of course I'm probably making the most revenue because I have there over 800 photos but for example that girl has much better earning per member than I do. And if somebody submits 1000 pictures they will probably make more than I am.

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 12:54
-I have more 'core data' to prove that your site won't work than you have yet provided to the contrary.

- my answers above

Quote from: RT on January 26, 2009, 09:26

If you spent as much time trying to improve your skills rather than trying to make money off the backs of other peoples talent (or lack of in this case) you might find it pays better.

Apart from Dreamstime which give you a payment for just referring people I can't see anybody making any money from this, ( I notice you've kept the Dreamstime referral just for yourself) your site is aimed at freeloaders and the sort of people that trawl the internet searching for sites like yours are not the sort of people that will buy an image, no matter how cheap it is, but they are the type that 'cclapper' has highlighted and will no doubt increase the number of images that are being ripped off each day, especially if they're willing to download an image that is so cr*p that none of the hundreds of microstock sites would even accept it.

As 'flemishdreams' mentioned above why anybody would want to be associated with a site like yours is beyond me.

I only hope that when your site fails which it will, you will be out of pocket.

And please drop the smokescreen of trying to help others make money, this is pure and simply just another tacky referral site.

In my first post I asked people not to trash it until they see the results. All your arguments are based only on what you think, no core data to proof them.

I don't understand why do you want this website to fail so desperately (do you see it as a competition for your pictures?)

I'm sorry to disappoint you with this graph which is showing how the website is ' failing '


Facts:
Unique visitors: 2,300 a day
A year ago: 900 a day

All I do is that I give you an opportunity to get something from your pictures if the agencies rejected them. Not interested? Fine by me.

Somebody else will surely enjoy this option.

Quote from: cclapper on January 25, 2009, 22:31
I guess I disagree. When people are used to getting images for free, they will think $1 is too much. Sure, they will go to the microstock sites then, and start ripping off the thumbnails and using those, with or without the watermark, because what the heck, those are for free.

But I will keep my eyes out on this site to hear from other microstock users who think this is a good idea and is making tons of money from the referrals that make it worth the effort.

We expect that everybody knows about microstock websites, but it's not true. They simply don't know that there is a possibility to buy quality pictures cheaply. They still think that pictures cost around $300 each. The data shows us that 51% referred members also spend money there and some of them even buy subscription (very good if you referred them  ).

I'm sure that Kngkyle (who submitted around 10 pictures) will share his first experiences in 2 weeks time.

You see, I only posted it here because it's working for me and some other members, so I just tought that some of you might be interested in it.

Quote from: biedy on January 25, 2009, 18:39
This is a nice but unsuccessful try to catch referrals.

With his own page (www.publicdomainpictures.net), Bobeks (= Petr Kratochvils) catching for referrals is not very efficient. At Dreamstime he catched 11 "photographers" who have uploaded 0 (=zero, nill) images. 

Well, we added that links on left hand side in December, before that there was only Fotolia. And as I wrote before the area where people click is on the image page under 'Sponsored pictures' title.

Just wait 2 weeks and I'm sure that some of microstockgroup members will share their experience.

Quote from: Kngkyle on January 25, 2009, 18:41
My god could you have made the button with our referral link any smaller?

That is what the submitters get, that little fotolia logo.

And then he gets his own referral links on every page with these nice big buttons that you can't miss.


I think you could be a little more generous...

Come on. All 'Sponsored pictures' below her image have her Fotolia number. And that's the area where people click

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=504

Quote from: sjlocke on January 25, 2009, 18:11
What do you get out of it?  Just the google advertising income?

Yes, but unfortunately it only covers server costs

Quote from: sjlocke on January 25, 2009, 18:11
That's pretty risky.  You know who's going to get bit in the butt?  You (the site) and the contributor when the lawyers come a callin'.  They aren't going to care about that little statement.

Well, contributors have to agree that they own all copyrights before releasing the picture. Also we have to approve the pictures before they are visible to public. So if we think that there is something 'wrong', we reject the picture

Quote from: sjlocke on January 25, 2009, 18:11
Giving away images to build a referral base - ie. consciously trying to get competitors to join up and submit images that compete with yours - does not sound like a smart business move to me.  And these submitted images would be competing with others you have.

Well, what data show us is: more pictures = more visitors = more referrals. And I believe that a bit of competition is a good thing.  

Quote from: cclapper on January 25, 2009, 17:21
I think that people that aren't willing to pay even $2 for an image aren't going to buy from the microstock sites anyway.

That's the thing. Many people don't have a clue about microstock. They just look for free images and then when we show them what kind of images they could get from just $1, they go for that.

We started that service with Fotolia API in the middle of September 2008 and I asked her how many people she has referred (it was in December). Fortunately she was willing to share that information. In 3 months she has referred 26 paying members (she also told me how many credits she has earned but I think that it's too private to share it here).

If you want to you could contact her by clicking on white envelope next to her name.

Quote from: sharpshot on January 25, 2009, 17:28
I don't have a rejection problem but I do have some old photos that I might think about using on a site like this.  It would be more appealing if we could use lower sized images.  It is easy to upsize from those 1280x xxxx photos for most uses.  I don't want to risk losing paying customers to try and get referral fees.

Smaller images wouldn't bring that amount of visitors. The website also started at the time when the smallest image on Fotolia was 1600 x 1200 pixels

I'm not aware of any microstock website which would send money automatically.

Quote from: Pixart on January 20, 2009, 16:15
I thought FT subs were limited to L.  I've never had an XL sub sale.   Or is that a Vector?

You're right only L size is available for subscription

Quote from: Klapamos on January 25, 2009, 04:56
You can buy FTP software that will let you upload to multiple websites at once. Some examples are Cute FTP and classic ftp.

You don't have to buy FTP software. There are plenty of free ones - FileZilla http://filezilla-project.org/ is probably the most known one.


And I would go for the big 6 (on the right hand side)

do you have any tips to share with me?

• open an account with all Big 6 - located on right hand side
• submit there around 15 best pictures you have and wait for response
• look at their best selling photos
• also submit some of your pictures to http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/ to start earning from referrals

what site should I work with?

• start with all Big 6 - located on right hand side

can I upload the same photos on different sites?

• yes, you can but make sure not to tick (an exclusive image) tick

how many photo should I upload?

• start with your best ones and than upload as many great images as possible (only technically perfect), the rest would be rejected

what type of photos do these sites need?

• they like people, illustrations, food, situations, stuff isolated on white background
• don't bother with flowers, sky, sunrises, sunsets - they've tons of them

Hope it helps

You know the feeling. You take a picture, process it in Photoshop, upload it, fill all the titles, description and keywords, find suitable category and than your picture is rejected because of something silly like (this is not what our buyers are looking for, or we already have enough similar photographs). All your time and energy was just wasted.

Not necessarily. There is a website called Public Domain Pictures.net which allows you to submit your pictures and earn money from them by referring people to stock photo websites.

If you submit your picture under public domain license:

- the pictures are resized to 1280 x XXX pixels (so if visitors require a higher resolution, they could contact you and you can sell them high-res versions)
- keywords from the image title perform a search on Fotolia and thanks to their API they show search results with your Fotolia number - you get affiliates
- you can also let visitors to donate you money for your pictures thanks to PayPal donation button
- you can also promote your Fotolia portfolio and your website (if you don't have one, you could fill it with a link to another stock photo website)

Here is an example of a page where the girl promotes her portfolio on Fotolia with PayPal button and pictures at the bottom include her Fotolia number.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=404

Statistics show that in average every 10 pictures refer 1 paying member to Fotolia per month.

So if you're interested, feel free to give it a try on http://www.publicdomainpictures.net

Please don't trash this post unless you try it. It's a great service and for example this girl doesn't submit almost any pictures to Fotolia any more as she's just happy with earning she makes by referring new members.

Don't even bother to send pictures of flowers, sunsets, your pets, unless they are really good and you're 100% sure that they'll sell. The reason is that they have tons of these images and you would just waste your time by uploading them.

Don't forget to check your firmware and make sure that you have 1.0.3 (or higher) otherwise you might experience an error 99 which will freeze you camera and the only solution is to charge your battery in full. It happend to me outside, so no pictures for the rest of the day.

After upgrading to 1.0.3 problem disappeared

Almost anything what is on white background. The reason is that it's easily integrable into buyers designs.