They seem to have this magic lottery button for subscribers commission 

"We use the 'subscriber share' method to allocate how this money is divided among each individual contributor."

It would be nice to know what that exactly means.

You can see it live here:

https://elements.envato.com

What are your thoughts?

Woorks again! Thanks.

Am I the only one?

I also can't get to their forums to ask this silly question

I actually found this website: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/

What I understand is that I can use those maps freely. Even the ones that are .pdf (vector). Can someone take another look of that site?

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/usage_statement.html

Quote from: sweetgirll on May 14, 2015, 17:24
Because is a share alike, you can't use for micro stock.....means you have to share the work in the same manner as the guy who did the map...you haVE to give it away.

The best thing is to find a list of maps in public domain...however the ones I know are not SVG or EPS. so you would have to retrace on top of it....

Thanks, that's what it thought. Have to grind some maps. I'll probably learn something new countries

Quote from: Semmick Photo on May 14, 2015, 17:22
The licence is right there under the image

QuoteI, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike   This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.   
You are free:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Thanks, but as I'm not native english speaker I don't fully understand 

Does anybody know if I can use Wikipedia maps for a part of the products that I want to sell? Like in some slides of powerpoint or other illustration?

Like this one:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe.svg

Thanks.

123RF is 1/3 compared to iStock.

Quote from: sweetgirll on May 07, 2015, 22:07
I could be wrong, but those image sets, where you put a load of illustrations in one single file are the ones that probably sell more...than single illustrations in a file...

What I see selling are a lot of those "sets", a lot of  best sellers like those single files packed with badges, logos and icons, banners, design elements, vintage labels and text sets and so on.

I could be wrong...but is like a trend...but that's attractive to the buyer, and even tho some will download all of that even if they will never use it...

Yes, you're right that's just how it goes. One of the biggest failures in microstock vector is definitely the lack of additional filetypes. EPS8 and EPS10 files are the worst vector files, because they are limited in editability. Graphicriver and iStock has got this one right, but Fotolia and Shutterstock are really shooting themselves in the leg. Fully editable .ai files would increase the sales a lot. I would ne buy a vintage logo with an expanded text, because it would take a lot of time to find out what font was used and maybe it's curved or something. I can't believe SS hasn't already given an opportunity for additional filetypes.

Quote from: sweetgirll on May 07, 2015, 21:55
FileSold....
are you generating 6 dollars per month with your small portfolio or are you generating 6 dollars per single image?

$6/vector/month

Quote from: tapajoan on May 07, 2015, 19:56
6$? RPI/year or monthly? I mean, if it is monthly that's a very high number.

It's monthly. Well like I said, it's all about the quality. I think many are making even more per vector.

Quote from: VB inc on May 07, 2015, 14:45

Quote from: File Sold on May 07, 2015, 11:24

Quote from: Shelma1 on May 05, 2015, 16:56
Some people do amazingly well with several hundred illustrations. Others do amazingly well with tens of thousands. And everything in between. Develop a unique style, find a niche, upload regularly and pay attention to keywords.

+1



It's quality over quantity in this vector business. Do something that is useful for many Easier said than done, but it's the same in every area of business.

A successful vector image needs these:

- usefulness (a broad audience is a must)
- eye-catching (try to amaze your customers with colors and quality)
- do a collection (yes, you have to "cut" the price by doing a collection, because customers will buy these to their repertoire even if they don't need them at the moment)

Pick a niche. Study it. Own it.

I'm generating about $6/vector/month. I have a considerably small portfolio, but have been pushing some quality vectors. I'm sure there's people who make better dollar per image. So remember quality, quality and quality.

Bolded by me... That is pretty impressive. I am generating $3-$4 a month per vector piece if we are averaging it out. But this is just on SS. And a lot of my pieces are sets or collections which take more time to create.

I am curious if your portfolio is less than 100 pieces when you say considerably small. Mine is in the range of 200-400 range. And most of my vectors have been created years ago when i was exclusive at istock. These days, I concentrate my efforts in my career which isnt in micro.

I'm also doing a lot of collections. That $6 is across all the microstock. SS is pretty much same as you have. Depends on month.

I actually have a close to four digit portfolio, but I've been doing this full time for a while now. I think my portfolio is still pretty small compared to few guys.

According to Similarweb, unsplash is getting a pretty significant amount of visitors:

http://www.similarweb.com/website/unsplash.com

I think unsplash do cut some sales from microstock (specially micro bloggers etc.), but there's still a huge need for paid images.

I'm actually pretty sure Crew has some idea behind unsplash. I mean they will sure monetize it somehow.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on May 07, 2015, 12:05

Quote from: File Sold on May 07, 2015, 12:01
I think unsplash is affecting the whole photographic scene now. Those photos are so in demand right now. I'm using them frequently. I would assume that those kind of images sells great on microstock.

Nice images, but I wouldn't touch them with a 20 foot pole.  Nothing about releases or protection for the user or anything.

Yeah. Landscape images are safe, but those people images you newer know. They claim all images are "Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos", but I think they don't aks Model Releases is it photographers fault if there comes a lawsuit?

Yes, it seems like photography business is going after VSCO these days. Has any photographers seen better sales by adding vsco filters?

I think unsplash is affecting the whole photographic scene now. Those photos are so in demand right now. I'm using them frequently. I would assume that those kind of images sells great on microstock.

Quote from: Shelma1 on May 05, 2015, 16:56
Some people do amazingly well with several hundred illustrations. Others do amazingly well with tens of thousands. And everything in between. Develop a unique style, find a niche, upload regularly and pay attention to keywords.

+1



It's quality over quantity in this vector business. Do something that is useful for many Easier said than done, but it's the same in every area of business.

A successful vector image needs these:

- usefulness (a broad audience is a must)
- eye-catching (try to amaze your customers with colors and quality)
- do a collection (yes, you have to "cut" the price by doing a collection, because customers will buy these to their repertoire even if they don't need them at the moment)

Pick a niche. Study it. Own it.

I'm generating about $6/vector/month. I have a considerably small portfolio, but have been pushing some quality vectors. I'm sure there's people who make better dollar per image. So remember quality, quality and quality.

Quote from: Lizard on May 07, 2015, 02:35

Just sold a 4$ image on CM and I was tax withheld on 1,2$ so Im not really sure whats going on.

My country doesn't have tax treaty with US so 30% on US sale would be normal but 1,2$ is 30% of the whole 4$ sale not on 2,8 that I get.

So or they are withholding 30% on full 4$ price or they are withholding 42%+ of my 2,8$ share.


Im really interested to hear any  thoughts ?

They updatef the tax page. Have you already filled it? You have to fill it again 2015, otherwise they'll cut 30% if you don't tell them your country has a tax treaty.

No promlem Mantis. Just bring it on!

Thank you Leaf!

Your forum is one of a kind. I hope you're getting something back from your affiliate links!

This is like the perfect theme for Wordpress, but the search leads to different site

http://themeforest.net/item/spaces-creative-multipurpose-shop-wp-theme/full_screen_preview/8525907

Hi guys. I'm just thinking of building my own site and would love to keep it simple and minimal like unsplash.com.

Does anybody know where could I get the best "template" like that to start with. I'm pretty familiar with Wordpress, Squarespace etc.

I tried to find a perfect one, but none of them had a search box where people could search my images. Maybe there was one that it searched the whole page and that's not what I want. I think unsplash has a perfect search as it stays on the same page.

Does anybody has a solution to my problem?

Cheers

This is a really bad move from them against us contributors. Cutting our already low commission like this ain't that nice move. It cuts the downloads, but we still get the same crappy .38$. If I can't get the bills paid, then I'll go for another work and stop uploading. Is that what you want SS? Less high quality images? Wake up!

April seems to be a little worse than March. Easter holidays probably cut the sales. I'm only doing vectors that are not for specific holiday scene.

Welcome to the vectors! Remember to check SS's "sunset vectors" in the search. Aim for that quality or more and you're gonna make some bucks everywhere.

Graphicriver has one of the worst submission system, but I would still upload there because you'll get some sales.