MicrostockGroup

1

Off Topic / Facebook / Google advertising help

« on: April 29, 2021, 03:16 »

Since the dreaded Covid has done for my job for a good while yet (travel photographer) I've started making the backpack camera bags I've always wanted and built a website to sell them (gokyogear.com).

Obviously a venture like this lives and dies by advertising and I figure Facebook advertising is a good place to start. I have no idea how that works, how much it costs or where to start.

Has anyone used Facebook advertising to sell stuff? Can you pick who they target with your ads? Do you have to pay up front for x amount of ads, or buy credits that get used up when people click on them?

What about Google ads? I presume you have to choose keywords and the cost of those varies with their popularity. Any tips on using Google would be appreciated.

Also, feel free to test my website effort to destruction, it's the first time I've made something like this, so there's bound to be mistakes.

2

Selling Stock Direct / Google images licensable tag

« on: August 24, 2020, 09:41 »

fstoppers.com/news/google-adds-new-licensable-tag-help-photographers-sell-photos-508399?utm_source=FS_RSS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=Main_RSS

developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/image-license-metadata

3

General Stock Discussion / Alamy editorial vs iStock editorial sales

« on: December 10, 2016, 07:35 »

Has anyone got any experience of how Alamy editorial sales compare to iStock editorial sales, for both volume and royalties?

iStock has stopped inspecting my editorial images for a month now and I can't get anyone to fix it so I'm thinking of sending my editorial images to Alamy as RM instead.

This is the sort of content I produce:

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/photographer?collections=sku&photographer=fotovoyager&excludenudity=true&sort=best

4

General Stock Discussion / Article about Offset and Shutterstock on vice.com

« on: November 30, 2015, 06:25 »

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/inside-offset-the-surreal-millennial-targeted-photo-market-within-shutterstock-111

5

General Photography Discussion / Peter Lik, master salesman, does it again

« on: December 10, 2014, 09:11 »

I can't quite imagine how he manages to get people to pay so much for his images, nice as they are, but fair play to the guy.

http://www.lik.com

A rather more bitter take on it here:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/dec/10/most-expensive-photograph-ever-hackneyed-tasteless

6

iStockPhoto.com / iStock has got so bad I now owe THEM money

« on: September 29, 2014, 14:39 »

I can't believe this day has come, but sales are so low for me that I now owe iStock money.

I've gone from $3000 dollars a week to $0 but I'm not allowed to discuss it on the iStock site.

Please excuse me whilst I tear my hair out in public here instead.

This is either the work of a genius at iStock to completely kill off all sales for Exclusives or the worst thought through plan ever. I can't decide which.

7

Nikon / Nikon Coolpix A

« on: May 08, 2013, 07:00 »

Anyone use one of there yet?

In my endless, seemingly futile quest to find a pocketable camera that'll go some way to replace the 15kg of DSLR equipment I currently hump around, this looks like it might be good enough and small enough to be useful.

I'd be interested to see other stock photographers' (i.e. people who use it for work, rather than holiday snaps) experiences with it.

8

Off Topic / Seoul, Korea

« on: April 21, 2013, 11:20 »

Hi,

I'm going to be shooting in Seoul next week from Wednesday onwards if anyone wants to meet for coffee or photography.

Will

9

General Stock Discussion / Getty's photographers are no happier than iStock's

« on: December 23, 2012, 05:49 »

Rather disgruntled blog post about search, E+ and falling sales.

I think we're mistaken to blame each other, we need to campaign for more realistic royalty percentages.

http://blog.johnlund.com/2012/12/getty-image-search-and-participation.html

10

General Stock Discussion / Very useful keywording blog

« on: December 14, 2012, 05:11 »

This blog examines the different way libraries accept, use and interpret keywords, it's a gold mine of information for those of us who are preparing to jump from the sinking iStock ship:

http://blog.keywordsmart.com

11

General Stock Discussion / Podcast interview with Jon Oringer in the Guardian

« on: December 11, 2012, 09:01 »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/audio/2012/dec/11/audio-tech-weekly-podcast-bitcoin-shutterstock

It's the first article, so you don't have to wade through all the other stuff.

12

Microstock GTG / Workshops / Events / Everest Base Camp photography trek Nepal April 2013

« on: December 06, 2012, 14:45 »

I've been offered an opportunity to help organise a photographic tour to Everest Base Camp in Nepal.

At this stage I'm just seeing if there's enough interest to make it viable - it needs eight people to run and more than fourteen brings the cost down a little bit.

The cost will be around £1500 from Kathmandu for 20 days in April 2013. This includes hotel accommodation in Kathmandu, transfers, internal flights to Lukla, shared rooms in teahouse lodges, food on the trek, cooks, guides, porters and an itinerary that focusses on getting pictures at the right times at great locations up and down the Khumbu valley, culminating in a hike up Kala Pattar (5600m) for sunset (and sunrise if you're feeling keen!) shots of Mt. Everest itself as well a walk across the Khumbu glacier to the climber's tent city below the ice fall to meet an Everest expedition at Everest Base Camp.

You cannot beat the Himalayas as a mountain photography location. The air is perfectly clear, there's no light pollution, the stars are too numerous to count, the local people are friendly and the weather is (almost) predictable.

I've been there four times now and it's the only place I return to regularly.

You'll need to be reasonably fit, happy to walk for several hours a day and carry a daypack, along with your camera. The porters will carry everything else and you'll be reunited with your kit each afternoon at camp. It can be cold at night so you'll need a warm sleeping bag and clothes and comfortable hiking boots. Anyone who walks and shoots for pleasure can do it if you take it slowly.

It's a wonderful place to shoot breath-taking landscapes, colourful temples and prayer flags, smiling local people and high altitude mountaineers.

To give you an idea of what you'll be shooting, here's some I prepared earlier:

http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/7298188

I have no idea whether there are enough photographers here that would like to do this, but I'd though I'd test the waters and see. Reply here, site mail, email or call me if you want to express an interest and we'll see if we can get this party started!

13

General Stock Discussion / iStock photo trends report 2012

« on: November 29, 2012, 06:19 »

http://www.mystockphoto.org/2012-photo-trends-from-istockphoto/

Not quite sure why this isn't available on the iStock forums themselves, but it's doing the rounds elsewhere. I imagine most of us could have guessed this for ourselves, but it's good to see feedback of any kind.

14

General Stock Discussion / Interesting interview by John Lund about macro and microstock

« on: September 01, 2012, 06:17 »

http://blog.johnlund.com/2012/08/from-tradtional-to-microstock-cristian.html

15

iStockPhoto.com / iStock sales

« on: July 11, 2012, 16:09 »

My iStock sales have crashed catastrophically in the last few days, down to a third of usual levels.

Is anyone else experiencing this kind of dramatic downfall or is it just me?

I seem to be only occassionally selling older images, even right back to 2005, at the moment. What a waste of time the last 4000 uploads were for me if this continues.

16