Quote from: Dumc on July 13, 2016, 13:34
Thats true. But what if there are customers who want to buy only one or two photos, or EL. It can be cheaper for them and more $ for you. I'm not saying this is going to happen. Probably it won't. But it sure can't happen if you don't have e-mail there.

It certainly can happen. I am constantly found through social media by people who want something done for them. It did bring some income. Unfortunately most of them were not serious customers, so it was a waste of time. And then it all comes to benefits vs time spent on sifting. A manually built network of customers worked better for me and seems like a better investment of time.

Another issue that has to be considered. When submitting images on SS, you are protected by their TOS and their resources to enforce them. When on your own, you are on your own, along with all the legalities. For example, I was approached once to modify one of my illos in such a way that could potentially constitute a libel. I am not a lawyer, and I bowed out. If bought through SS, it's their problem, not my.

Of course, as with everything, anyone's mileage can vary.

Let's say you decide to do it. Let's say, you ask SS if it's OK, and they say, no problem. I doubt you will get many extra customers from that, because people who buy on microstocks are not likely to look for customized images of anything. Microstocks are like supermarkets. How often would a person buying grocery would start calling suppliers to buy a "customized" dozen of eggs? You will get a lot of spam and requests from odd people who don't really know what they are doing. You decide what's works better for you.

I think it's all self explanatory here

http://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/kbat02/000006581?l=en_US&c=ContributorKB%3APortfolio_account&fs=Search&pn=1

I personally do not do that, but if you want to and in doubt you can ask them directly, there is no crime in that. They also have a form for a public profile.

Quote from: hellou on June 30, 2016, 05:57

Please tell me your thoughts and questions.

I think (IMHO) that any new enterprise should start with asking what needs of customers are not yet met or addressed. At this stage needs or wants of contributors are irrelevant. Even if 100% of revenue goes to contributors, 100% of zero is still zero.  I honestly don't know what those customer needs would be.

Quote from: Mr Nobody on June 25, 2016, 15:00

Quote from: Shelma1 on June 25, 2016, 02:52
Well, to answer the original question, this was the worst Friday for me in years in terms of sales. Fotolia was particularly bad, but SS was awful as well.

Hey someone actually addressed my question 

I'll chip in  . It was a regular Friday for me.

I wouldn't worry too much about the current day SS reporting. The sales will be consistent once the next day sales start.

Quote from: thepokergod on June 07, 2016, 06:11
Yup me too and NO corresponding rise in sales.

They must have changed some metric for the views stats - renders them utterly meaningless.

Perhaps they did. It's possible they are more accurate now, I remember seeing sales with zero number of views. Blind dating of sorts. Is it possible?

Four days to a week for me. Some stocks also prioritize and it may take on average longer for a newcomer. I don't know if iStock is doing that.

Been slow for me until the last moment when things evened out. Large day to day fluctuations in sales isn't something unusual.

Quote from: Anthony on June 06, 2016, 06:31
Has anyone else else had a huge increase in Fotolia views while their sales have decreased?

That's the trend I observe since March. Not sure what it means though.

My overall earnings increased, but as a percentage of income from other stocks they slightly dropped. So, I would say they were fairly stable. I am indie, obviously.

Even if the subject is popular, that does not mean that your pics will pop up in searches. We are not all equal in the eyes of browsers. Perhaps there are people on this forum who were successful in driving traffic to their own online stores, but I am not there yet, so can't really comment.

From what I've seen it's possible if you are already famous and have a large fan base.

Interesting... Does it mean they are not to be reported as self-employment income but rather as passive copyright royalties? or they are just not reported on GST/HST/QST forms?

Hey guys, do you have any experience dealing with GST/HST? There seems to be no mechanism for charging it or even know how many sales are made in Canada for Canadian contributors. Any input?