I am curios has anyone tried Clustershot? If so what do you think and have you had any success?

There are some big changes coming to the site. Check out the post by Duncun:

Several weeks ago I mentioned that we have some big changes coming soon. Several of them are still in the works and several are ready to be implemented this week.


3rd Party Licensing
We are opening up our library to outside authorized agencies. Put quite simply, we will be allowing other stock photography agencies and outside vendors to sell images on our behalf. Using our own API, these agencies will be able to gain full access to our library and search functions, and sell our images as if they were their own.

How it works:
1) All images will automatically be included in this program. However, photographers can choose to opt out completely, or exclude individual images.

2) Photographers will receive half of Can Stock Photo�s negotiated commission with the company. So say we negotiate a 75% commission with an agency. If an image sells for $2 through the agency � we will get $0.75 and you will get $0.75. The selling price and negotiated commission will depend on the individual agency.

3) You will retain complete control of your images. If you delete an image here, it will instantly be removed for sale from all distributers. We control all image files. All files are managed and served up directly from the CanStockPhoto servers.

4) You will be credited with sales instantly, as you are here.

5) All buyers must agree to our current licensing contracts, or equivalent. The same terms as we use here.

I expect this to become live sometime over the next month. We have a large agency onboard that will be carrying our entire library, however for the time being I can not reveal who it is. Other agencies can be added pending negotiations. This is great for photographers, as it allows you to market your images through other agencies � all from one spot. This will greatly increase the reach of your work.


Highly Tightened Submission Standards & Criteria
�Quality Over Quantity�
Starting very shortly we will be drastically changing how many images we accept, and what standards we hold them to. We will be only accepting the best of the best. For comparisons sake, our image standards will similar to some rights-managed agencies. We will be very selective and will only accept the highest quality images. All photos should appear to be shot in a professional environment, with professional equipment.

To allow a fair playing ground, we will be hiding the photographer�s name and status from our inspection screens. So image inspectors will be unaware of whose image they are evaluating � this will remove the risk of any accidental bias or favoritism. The images will be judged purely for their own quality.

Upload limits will be changed. Photographers with under a 50% approval rating will not be able to upload images. Other photographers may see large reductions in their upload limits. This is to encourage people to be selective in what they submit, instead of simply �dumping and running�.


Library Audit
Nobody likes audits, but sometimes they are necessary. Starting very soon we will be aggressively re-reviewing every image in our active collection. We will be removing all images that do not meet our updated submission standards. Images that have been online for a while and have no downloads and/or little views will be automatically deleted. Images that are of mediocre quality, plain, boring, or not original will all be deleted. We want to prune our library so we are left with only the highest quality images for our buyers.

Some photographers will not be affected, whereas others will see a large decrease in their portfolio. It all depends on the caliber of images you have online, as judged by our team (and software). We expect to remove 100-250k images. This is a business decision that will ultimately benefit the community as a whole.


New Keyword Handling
Starting very soon our system will only be ranking images based on the first 15 keywords listed. We have an ongoing problem of people abusing the system with keyword diarrhea. Some images are submitted with 50-75 keywords. This causes a mass dilution of the search results, and hurts everybody involved.

Please note this is not a �limit�. You can submit as many keywords as you want and do not have to do any special editing. However, our system will simply ignore every keyword after the 15th one. Although they will all remain in the image details, they will not all actively be used by our search engine.


Site Changes
Over the next little bit we will be making a number of site changes. All changes are designed to create a more buyer-friendly environment.

1) Front Page � we will be removing the statistics, announcements and discussion sections. Our forums will still be accessible from the link at the top of the site, but the main page will be updated to have more focus on the images.

2) Faster Search � we are completely re-tooling our search engine to provide much faster search results. We expect a 2-4x increase in search speed. We will also add more advanced search options.

3) Revised Site � we will be making some longer term changes to the site to further enhance its usability for buyers. This will involve more features in some areas, and redesigns in others.


Questions, comments?

Duncan

I am looking creating a web site to link to my portfolio and help build traffice. Is there a free web hosting (I'm cheap) service out there that anybody would recommend?

Many of us contribute to the up and coming sites. Which would rate as the best one and one that has potential to bump one of teh big six?

I've been with this site since 2004 and have more photos there than anywhere else but their sales have been slow. I am curious as to what those who are having success are selling there.