While being logged in to Fotolia I opened an Adobe account and then synced.

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/contributor-fotolia.html states:

Quote
1. Go to the Adobe Stock Contributor portal.
2. Select Get Started to create an Adobe ID, or choose I already have an Adobe ID to sign in.
3. Select Yes, I'm a Fotolia Contributor to sync your Fotolia account. You will be prompted to enter your Fotolia login and password.

At no point I was asked if I'm a Fotolia contributor and they didn't ask for my Fotolia password. Is this to be expected because I was logged in to Fotolia? My Fotolia rank shows up in my Adobe Profile and my images seem to be there. Am I good to go or do I still need to contact contributor-support[]adobe.com

A note to myself (may be helpful to others, because I found it hard to find the correct login page to fotolia) https://www.fotolia.com/Member/Login

Some time ago I received an invitation from a website called "dizinga" to submit my art there. I waited a couple of months and the website still exists. I don't know how they got my email and I suspect that they just want to steal my art, but I thought I ask here anyway.

Anyone any experiences with that website? Is it as fishy as it sounds?

I was just wondering: If my images fit spot on the kind of images an otherwise low earner agency is selling, could the low earner earnings skyrocket to the level of high earners?

Do you know of cases in which an official low earner makes more money than let's say shutterstock?
I'm looking specifically for different illustration types, but I think it would be interesting to hear about all kinds of niches.

Just wanted to open a new thread when I noticed it already exists

My fully keyworded and described files are stuck in incomplete since a month now.
I'm not sure but this could have something to do with their new interface (and possible bugs)
The uploading process looks differently now, maybe they still haven't ironed it out.

I hope they'll fix that soon.

Also, one of the most annoying things they have initially done was enabling all the
"Consider for inclusion to 123RF Editorial if rejected." checkboxes by default while limiting the number of images per page (and also making me scroll a lot to squint for those checkboxes). I wasted quite a piece of my lifetime just clicking those checkboxes away since I submit in big batches. I loved the submission process as it was previously. Now they have made it admittedly better looking, but practically much worse.

After a while I got so annoyed that I have written myself a browser plugin to just disable those checkboxes automatically.
However I think they fixed the default couple of weeks later (now I don't care because I have my plugin).

Quote from: Pauws99 on December 12, 2015, 07:47
Not had a problem with Filezilla - but haven't uploaded for a while..........

I was never able to upload via veer's FTP. Ever since I became a contributor. Here is what I always get:

Status:   Resolving address of upload.veer.com
Status:   Connecting to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:21...
Status:   Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Response:   220-Veer - http://www.veer.com/
Response:      
Response:   220 NOTE: Please make sure to use "explicit FTP over TLS" to log in. SSL is optional.
Command:   AUTH TLS
Response:   234 AUTH command ok. Expecting TLS Negotiation.
Status:   Initializing TLS...
Status:   Verifying certificate...
Command:   USER myusername
Status:   TLS/SSL connection established.
Response:   331 Password required for myusername.
Command:   PASS ************
Response:   530 User cannot log in.
Error:   Critical error
Error:   Could not connect to server

My "explicit FTP over TLS" is enabled of course

Quote from: sharpshot on December 11, 2015, 17:21

Quote from: ACS on December 11, 2015, 16:07
It is not the price, it is the type of the content. My experience is not very different than yours with still images in P5.

Quote from: sharpshot on December 11, 2015, 15:31
They sell very few images at the moment, hope that changes but there's not much you can do to boost image sales.  I found one solution, turn illustrations in to video clips.  Sold this one 6 times now http://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/8681661/bright-colorful-fractal-spiral-swirl-loop.html#1

May I ask, which program are you using to make animations? I have also some illustrations 😉

I use virtualdub  http://www.virtualdub.org/ and the motion filter from here http://lags.leetcode.net/filters.html

Wow, that's a surprisingly awesome idea!
I have a few abstract illustrations which may be worth processing like this.
Here is a (poorly watermarked) example:

Here is my experience with veer:

Submission pages regularly break down.
FTP does not work with FileZilla, the most widely used FTP client.
Annoying submission limits and unpredictable approval times.
Performs to me financially as second worst.
Terrible unintuitive interface that can't be changed to pure english.
Those weird links with possibly broken html where you need to click below their text in order to open them.
They always expect you to click hundreds of keyword disamiguations, which is something probably no one does.

So yeah, unless they fix *A LOT*, going dead will be the natural consequence.

I uploaded about 100 images and I can't edit them. When I click on the link to edit, there is a delay (with a server timeout?) and then I get redirected to http://www.veer.com/more/contributor/

Anyone same problems?

Yes, you read right, I have close to 1000 images at pond5 but no sales (well almost, I made 10$ in 2 years). I produce illustrations and my images sell pretty satisfactory on other agencies.

I was gradually going down with my prices in hope to get some sales but right now I'm at 7,50$ per image and still no sales.
I feel if I go lower I might as well give extended licenses for free.

What am I doing wrong? Now I'm thinking in opposite direction to drastically increase my prices to about 45$ and see if that shakes things up. Also, after some analysis I drastically changed my keywording strategy in my last batch (not approved yet), but I feel like I'm still poking in the dark.

Anyone out there making any money with illustrations at pond5, or is that a place to sell videos only?

Since canva doesn't have it's own section in this forum, I guess I'll have to ask that here:

I tried to apply as contributor at Canva for multiple times and I got rejected every time. It's the only agency that didn't accept me until now. Now I look at current poll results and ask myself if it's even worth to continue investing my time into further applications.

How much do you guys earn right now for let's say 1000 PNG images?

I uploaded a new big bunch of images last month and they were selling very well until the 1st October. This month I suddenly have days with no sales and almost all sales are very old images.

I think they are rotating the content and they arrived at the point where the rotation is back to my old content which was of course lower quality because I was a beginner back then.

I would guess that they rotate the content yearly under assumption that Christmas images are submitted before Christmas etc. This also pumps over market knowledge from previous years into the next year.  Seasonal images get preboosted that way. Another effect is that good but previously overlooked images get another chance to travel to the top if they manage to get discovered this time.

This strategy is understandable, but has those bad side effects which are pain in my ass. They should adjust some gears in their current algorithm.

Problem solved.
I had a bug in one of my installed chrome plugins. It removed Javascript from the checkboxes. All fixed now.

Quote from: indyedge on September 09, 2015, 02:56
1. 123 RF
2. Canstock
3. Shutterstock
4. Fotolia
5. Dreamstime
6. IStock
7. Bigstock
5. Deposit Photo

Wow, how do you manage to make so much on 123rf? I had a boost when I changed my keywording strategy but nothing near you.
123rf is my 4th place, but it makes me 5 times less than Shutterstock.

I'm currently uploading images in JPEG format to Bigstock, but I would like to add the PNG option as well. However PNG doesn't support IPTC metadata fields (correct me if I'm wrong), such that I still need to upload the JPEG, otherwise I would need to manually enter all keywords and descriptions again.

My theory is, that if I upload a PNG file and a JPEG file with identical file name (but different file ending), their system would recognize that. I would expect the system to show me only one uploaded image and automatically use the keywords&descriptions from the JPEG.

Is that true? Anyone with experience in uploading PNG's?
And what about differences in resolution? I reduce resolutions of my images according to Bigstock's filesize limit. This will usually result in different resolutions depending on the format.

I don't want to try it out, I prefer to ask.

500 Illustrations will make you on average about 60$/month if I you submit to 10 best known websites. My own value is a little bit higher, but I estimate that this is the average for many.

DeepMeta seems like a good idea, but it's actually a terrible option for me since I use different system to upload my images. It also requires Windows which I don't use.

I think I have to analyze what is happening to the checkboxes in my browser. By now I think this may be some plugin issue.

Yeah, show us your Canstock portfolio, otherwise I'm assuming you are some kind of online marketer trying to pitch canstock.
Canstock is 6th on my list by total earnings and second last by August earnings.

I get the following useless message each time I try to submit the same image:

You must enter at least 5 single keywords or phrases separated by commas. Multiple words separated by spaces are treated as a phrase. Please ensure that your submission follows the guidelines provided by iStockphoto.

I entered 35 keywords and chose their meanings, but each time I submit I end up with the same error again.
Sometimes my title turns yellow, but it doesn't say anything about any title issue.

Just to clarify
-all 3 categories are chosen
-my title is 85 characters / 4 short sentences.
-quite long description (~1500 characters) but I never had issues with long descriptions before
-image type is chosen
-disambiguation checkboxes are chosen

Anyone any idea what is happening?
As if the torture of their submission process is not enough already.

edit:
It seems to be influenced by the disambiguation checkboxes. As soon as I change any of the detailed ones (when you click the plus symbol), I can't submit any more.

Inpired by previously posted rpd calculations, I just made my own. I ordered the agencies by how much money I make per upload (that includes uploading images that get rejected later). Even though depositphotos accepts almost everything, they are still my second last place.

Here is my reality:

• Shutterstock (not surprising)
• Dreamstime (they reject a lot, but my images sell well)
• Istock (still doesn't really reflect effort, given how painful the sumbission process itself is)
• Photodune (if they rejected less they would easily score better than istock)
• Canstock (wasn't like that before, but I got lots of sales lately)
• 123rf
• Fotolia
• Bigstock
• Veer
• Depositphotos
• Pond5 (I probably set the prices too high over there)

whoops - wrong thread.... [deleted]

Hey, I can see how that might come out the really wrong way, but I also suspect you wanted to understand my statement the way you did. Most people are victims to corruption and not its perpertrators. I have russian friends myself. I meant to imply that the russian societal structure supports corruption and the russian state has a long history of it.

So given that depositphotos has some shady roots in Russia, there might be heightened probability of scam and corruption.

And don't tell me that's racism. When I say that most of my scam mail comes from Nigeria, that's a fact and it's nothing personal against any Nigerian (except the guy who actually is responsible for those emails).

Quote from: Dook on March 07, 2015, 15:00

Quote from: einstein on March 07, 2015, 13:43

Didn't got the special treatment email yet, but special treatment for money sounds like a very Russian thing to do.

I can't believe you are identifying a whole nation with some kind of criminal activity on an international forum. There are a lot of Russians here. There a lot of people of all nationalities. That's why I always try to be polite and respect other members.
Big minus from me to you.

Quote from: hatman12 on March 07, 2015, 02:32
I applied to Deposit and got that same email - special treatment, priority search placement etc etc.  Sounded a bit fishy to me.

Didn't got the special treatment email yet, but special treatment for money sounds like a very Russian thing to do.

Is that legal?
I know you pay money on ebay to be placed in the top section, but ebay lets you know which itmes have been manipulated (at least if you have good eyes to see the almost invisible grey separators)

I'm a programmer and stock submitter so I was just wondering here: What keyword services are you still missing?

I have some working code in my sleeve (that I use for myself) which I could possibly turn into a product for everyone. I wonder if it's something worth thinking about. I could sort keywords by how well they will probably lead to sales, how descriptive they are, suggest missing keywords, calculate how closely they relate to each other, suggest keywords to put together a description, find niche keywords, find keywords that likely don't fit the image, estimate categories etc...

I didn't make the decision to stop uploading yet but it's interesting to see what others say here. I will give it another run because I only uploaded 100+ images ever since I got accepted few months ago. I feel pretty cheap so far, with 1$/month. I make more on canstockphoto. There is something untrustworthy about this website.

Once I upload a sufficient amount of images and still don't feel right about it, I may pull out as well.

I was wondering lately: From which corrupt or not corrupt country are they originally from? Their main headquarters are in US but the website feels very russian to me.

This limit is not enough for me. Only about 65% of all my images get uploaded. After that I get a white page saying something about a cookie (but it's not a login issue). I assume it's the problem mentioned here because it mostly happens to my largest files (I already scale them down such that they never exceed 20 MB).

I have a very slow upload of about 60 kB/s and I want to upload over night. I upload in batches. It is really annoying to repetetively figure out which image still haven't successfully uploaded and I have to repeat the procedure multiple times.

Quote from: GrantP on November 13, 2014, 18:56
Hi Niakris,

We have raised the timeout to 5 mins. I hope this helps.

Grant