The way it looks to me, is if you get 400 images accepted  (the key word here is ACCEPTED) then you will receive $1.40 for each photo accepted no matter how many images you have with them already.  They also have in small print  " Images submitted during the Veer® Dash for Cash will be reviewed and published by the end of August, and payments will be sent by September 15, 2010."

That will give them plenty of time to review and selectively take the photos they want......and I'm sure they will be pretty picky on their selections....but hey...for $1.40 for each one selected (assuming you get 400 accepted)...they should be.  I only have 126 images online....I just never got around to uploading more...they were a little picky on those and I had a few rejected, but not overly so.  I put my first 100 up today....only 3000 left......I am not even going to waste my time uploading the marginal images...as I am sure they will be axed.

I'm actually a little exited about this....for the first time a big name player that has a very good possibility of succeeding is going to pay something just to get some content....

Here is the message that I had originally received about this.....it says one year.....so I don't know why after over two years they are still up.  Seems like it should be Fotolia that contacts Microsoft and removes them....since it was there contract. 

I hope you are well. Listen I wanted to give you an opportunity to participate in a new partnership we have with Microsoft. You may be familiar with Microsoft Office products and the clip art that they offer online at this link http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx. The clipart website receives over 200 million visitors each month and supports 52 different languages. Through this new deal, Microsoft has invited Fotolia and some of our photographers to provide small images to their clipart website.

As you can imagine Fotolia is very excited about this opportunity and we would like you to participate.

However, here is the catch; the images displayed on the clipart website will be available to their users for free. Microsoft is looking for images that are 5x7 inches at 150 dpi, our small license. Of course, if a user needs a larger image Microsoft will direct them to Fotolia to buy the larger size image.

We believe the upside to this opportunity is huge. It could be great exposure for you, your portfolio, and most importantly increase your monthly income.

Nevertheless, if a photographer participates, they must agree to keep the images online for at least 1 year, for this is the duration of our contract with Microsoft.

If you would like to contribute to this relationship, please let me know as soon as possible. We will need to start selecting 5-10 images from your portfolio that both you and Microsoft approve.

Can I count on your support?


I too would like to see my images off of Microsoft...they have plenty of money and if they want to use my photos...they should pay for them.

I never joined them originally as I heard so much negative stuff about them, but when they introduced the fotosearch venture I decided to give them a try. I only loaded 700 images.   To my surprise they have done fairly well.....I almost reach payout every month and regularly get large fotosearch sales.  A few days ago i got 4  $19.80 sales on fotosearch in one day.  I plan to load the rest of my portfolio up as I get time.

Here is the latest find a friend of mine sent to me....full cover..

For me it will come down to how easy or difficult it is to upload. Snapvillage was WAY to difficult to upload to.....I'm amazed that some of you uploaded 2000+ images on this system....(more power to you )  If the upload process and Model release attachment process is easy....then I will probably be willing to take a chance and upload my 3000+ images.  I only uploaded about 40 to Snapvillage, because it took way to much time....I did make about $20 on those photos, but it just took too much time to upload.

Hopefully they will create a streamline process to get photos onto the site.   

Brian,   what will your upload process be like.....especially the model release attachment method??? 

QuoteLess we are happy more we uppload

How true this is.....

This is what is killing us...........the less we make.....the more we upload to try to make up for it.....and the more the Companies make.    And the more photos we have online....the harder it is to quit.

I like it the way it is.......but if you submit it to Istock...you better trim it alittle as they tend to reject photos with to much open space.  They've P##$^eed of more than once doing that. 

At least they showed some professionalism and explained the situation and asked for comments .....more than I can say about Fotolia   

Monday's are always the best day of the week........it means I have 5 days to make some money until another weekend comes........ 

I use one and I love it. I use it for my main storage device for all my photos.  I have one folder for Raw files, one for worked on PSD files and a final one for finished JPEGS.   I have the older USB version so it's a little slower than the new one, but it works fine for me.  I also have movies and other items on it.....but the reason I bought it was for my photos.  I still backup the RAW files every once in a while to an old hard drive....just in case .  The system is VERY Very easy to use....anybody could hook one up and use it...and is is sooooo easy to change drive....pull it out....pop the new one in....done. 
They are kinda expensive....that's the one drawback

I think you do need the Droboshare unit to use over a network...but I don't use mine like that.

Quote

Quote from: shank_ali on February 24, 2009, 07:20

Quote from: lisafx on February 23, 2009, 22:08

Quote from: gostwyck on February 23, 2009, 21:31

Personally I don't see any significant or obvious advantage/disadvantage to either exclusives or independent contributors with the current best match. In my view it is simply favouring good-selling images, irrespective of age.

I suspect you may be onto something here.  The last couple of best match incarnations were so heavily biased against independents that simply leveling the playing field could have caused big drops in exclusive sales. 

Correct.We had a good run ....Now we must keep building our portfolio's and polishing our crowns waiting for a favourable swing in the best match once again.

But.....in reality it should be the buyers that dictate how the best match works.........if they can't find the photos they want, they will go somewhere else.  Maybe IStock is feeling pressure from them to make the best match do exactly that.....find the best photo for a given search....not the best "exclusive photo".

QuoteIn my view it is simply favouring good-selling images, irrespective of age.

How true this is....and I have to agree...right now it seems like it's just the best images that are coming up.....not like before. The buyers must be happy   they are actually getting some pretty good pictures on the first few pages   ..........and we (non exclusives) are getting a fair chance at selling a photo.

Ya.......my DL's are back up to what they were 8 months ago....I might even get a BME this month    I just hope they keep the best match like this for a little while to make up for the last 5 months when DL's plummeted     

I thought that best match 2.0 was already implemented???    it's not???

If not...I sure hope they don't change it too much...

I can't really say anything bad about 123rf they have been very constant for me with a payout easily every month.  Even when I didn't upload to them for 4 months due to a move from Italy to the Azores....they still remained constant.  They are not a site that Im going to get rich on....but they add to the pot.   It's funny how some sites are good to some people and other site favor others     

So....how do we contribute directly to the site.  The main reason I never contibuted much to Snap Village is because of the painful upload process.  I got so frustrated that I just deleted most of them....

I have about 700 images with them now and have been selling about 1 a month.  Nice size sales when the come...

The subscription sales were starting to get so numerous that I opted out of subs a few weeks ago.....I still have sub sales going out, but I think it takes a month or so to have the images pulled from jupiter and photos.com.

The interesting thing is.....when the deal started with Photos.com there were several people that posted about some larger sales from photos.com....not subs but regular sales and they netted around $3 each.  I got one....Since that date...I haven't heard anybody getting anymore regular sales from photos.com...................maybe a bait and switch???

I like SPX................but ............sales are really dropping........and turning off the subs will make them drop more.....but I am just soooooooooooo tired of giving my photos away for .30     I'm just not going to do it anymore....not unless I get huge volumes or a fair amount of regular sales to make up for it.   That's why I closed my Crestock account.............   $.25 sales were all I got.....and not really that many of them....

With this kind of great news.....why in the HeL# would I even consider giving them any FREE PHOTOS ?

I just sent Fotolia an email asking them if it is true that they are going to put all my photos with an EL price of $20   If this was true I asked them to remove the EL option all ALL my photos as I am not willing to sell my photos at an EL price of $20...(currently I have them at $150).....and get a whole 38% of it.........opps make that 35%.   If we all start sending them this message .....maybe they might think twice about it.

QuoteIf Dreamstime wasn't there I would probably go fo IS as exclusive.

Ya....that's the ONLY reason that this is a hard decision.  DS has been doing very well for me...and even though I get alot of subs there.......I also get many sales for over $4.

QuoteThey should allow exclusive images

they should..........but they won't.........and ya it does scare me about thier best match swings.....what if they went thru  another bad best match and my sales plummeted as before.....and I had all my eggs in that basket???  For this to work.......I need to get and increase in exposure from being exclusive....and I'm just not sure what kind of increase in DL's that will bring.  My revenue will double...since I'm diamond, but that alone will not equal what I currently make.....I need added exposure.....I'm hoping I would get it.

Right now I'm going to get things set up so I can do this if I deciede too..   I have deleted or working on it.... a couple bad accounts that have never amounted to anything.........Crestock, Alblumo, Featurepics, and I have stopped uploading to DS...........until I can figure out if this is a good thing to do or not.

I have been submitting to Microstock now for over three years. I haven't posted a lot on the forums, as I rarely have the extra time, but I do cruise thru every few days and read up alittle, and occasionally post something.  I have watched my income continually drop over the last 10 or so months and I don't see it changing much in the future.  Most of this is due to the subscription plans that most of the sites offer now and of course the huge number of new photos being submitted.  I was never a big fan of subscription in the first place, but SS made up for the low .25 commission with huge download numbers, but nowadays the downloads are rapidly falling off, and the thought of selling my photos for pennies, is not appetizing.  I use to sell around 200 photos a day on SS......now I'm lucky to get 70 or so.   I'm not sure what to do......I never thought that I would ever consider going exclusive with IS, but now it is beginning to look pretty good.  The income I generate from IS has been fairly constant.....except for the last 5 months...due to the Best Match which almost killed most nonexclusives....... The new Best match has brought my dls back up to what they were before..... If I could double my IS income (since I'm Diamond) and increase my dls alittle by the added exposure from being exclusive....... Maybe it's worth it??    What are your thoughts?   I know....all my eggs in one basket........but I know a lot of you have thought about this too.................

I do have a couple questions for those that have made this switch.
I have been checking on the procedures on deleting photos....I have over 3000 online.  Which sites will delete the photos for you? Any of them??   DS makes you wait 6 months...from the last upload,  BS make you wait 3 months.....the rest don't seem to have a time restriction.  If I have to delete photos, One at a time from all the sites...............yikes.........anybody want a part time job deleting my photos 

Done.....  I wish you had a ......"I don't Know"  field..

Well, I made more than I made last month....but Dec is always the worst month of the year.  My sales have continued to fall slightly every month since last year.  I am down about 30% from my BME in March of 2008. (With over 3000 images online)  Right now I am struggling to maintain my current level and that is with adding around 200 new uploads every month.  It is just getting harder and harder to have your pictures get any exposure with 70,000 new photos coming in every week.....and unfortunately I don't see anything changing in the future.   A year or so ago when they were adding 20,000 new photos a week.....or 80,000 new images a month....my 200 new uploads accounted for .25%  (1/4%) of the total new photos....Not much but at least I had some visibility. Now my 200 images account for only .005% ......I just can't keep up with the numbers and my images are getting lost in the Abyss. 

I use the Drobo...and it works great...alittle expensive..but it's worth the piece of mind I get.  but......just in case I keep a backup HD of all the RAW and finished PSD files on it.  The only thing I should do is keep a copy of this HD in another location other than my house....just in case of a fire....but I currently live in a concrete house...so smoke won't hurt it.... 

It working fine for me...............  once the photo is loaded and it is asking you the 4 questions....you know the ones.....no, no, no, yes         just click on the Upload link on the left side of the page......then click on edit next to the picture of the photo you just uploaded......check the four questions and continue...........walla........the data is there..............not sure why.......but it's there....