All,

I would find it most interesting data, for those that don't mind sharing, to find out what the highest number of downloads everyone has had in a single day on Shutterstock and whether or not this particular day happened to be their Best Day Ever(BDE). Let's exclude everyone's first two months on SS ...

Here was mine:

19 Total Downloads including 1 on Demand. No ELs. Not a BDE - 900 images March 2010


-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

Does anyone if there is a place on the site that shows you who your individual referrals at Graphic Leftovers are ?

I have only been able to find the "Total Earnings" tab that says referrals "X signups / x clicks" but I haven't been able to otherwise find anything that allows you to drill down any further. Perhaps its in another location on their site ...

This site is producing sales and looks very promising. Help send our kids to college by joining Graphic Leftovers through my referral link if you haven't already checked it out 

http://graphicleftovers.com/ref=mwp1969/


-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

Who has had sales the new site Graphic Leftovers?

It appears they've been at it for about a year ...

Here is my referral link if you haven't already signed up.
http://graphicleftovers.com/ref=mwp1969/


-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

I received the following email from SS today:

Dear Mark Payne,

Did you know that Bigstock recently joined forces with Shutterstock, the largest subscription-based stock image library in the world?

To celebrate this new partnership, we�re pleased to offer Bigstock customers a 10% discount on a Shutterstock subscription. If you use a lot of images, this deal is perfect for you.

With a Shutterstock 25-A-Day subscription, you�ll have access to a library of over 9 million high-quality, royalty-free images. That means more choices, stronger designs, and greater savings.

Shutterstock subscribers enjoy:

Flexibility. Shutterstock adds tens of thousands of images a week spanning a vast array of subjects, so your options are endless.
Convenience. Sign up for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. Subscription pricing makes it easy to plan your budget.
Quality. Shutterstock images come from top photographers and illustrators around the world, and there�s no extra charge for high-resolution files.
Purchase a 25-A-Day Shutterstock subscription and begin downloading today. Simply enter coupon code SB310 during checkout to receive a 10% discount on any Standard License plan. Visit www.Shutterstock.com to get started.

We hope you�ll take advantage of this special offer at Shutterstock, and you�ll continue to use Bigstock for your individual royalty-free image needs.

Best regards,

The Bigstock and Shutterstock teams




-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

Dear Fotolia Contributor,

2009 has been an amazing year for all of us - through aggressive marketing and promotion efforts, we were able to more than double photographer payouts! We're planning on repeating that trend in 2010 - and effective January 1, 2010, we're implementing some changes to help us towards that goal.

File Prices:

While XS downloads will remain at 1 credit, other downloads will increase between 1 and 2 credits per file. In addition, we'll be simplifying the file structure and combining the XXL and XXXL categories. For more information on file pricing, click here.


Commission Structure:

To accomplish our marketing and promotional goals, we've adjusted our artist commission structures. While some levels have increased and others have decreased in terms of percentages, a majority of contributing artists will continue to see increases in the total dollar amounts earned as we are raising prices. In comparison, Fotolia continues to pay artists one of the highest royalty rates in the industry, and we've been cited by many top photographers as one of the fastest growing and most important stock photography sites on the internet! For more information, click here.


Marketing and Promotions:

Fotolia has been aggressively marketing and promoting your images, vectors and videos, both online at various designer sites, and offline in the world's most influential design magazines and tradeshows. Typically, we offer customers a combination of free credits and discount on credits. Rest assured that these discounted and free credits earn you the exact same royalty as regularly priced credits - Fotolia bears the entire cost of the promotion. In 2010, we expect to be even more aggressive in our marketing activities for the entire community's benefit.

Also on their side bar graphics in the email:

"Performance since 2008
+48% New Buyers
+53% Credit Purchases
+54% Contributor Earnings
+57% Contributor Payouts
+203% API Calls
+15 Trade Shows"

END QUOTE



-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

Received the following today from StockXpert regarding the future of JIUnlimited and Getty's announced subscription site ...


Start Quote:

Hello mwp1969,

We have news for all StockXpert contributors regarding the future of JIUnlimited.

A new Getty Images subscription site will launch early 2010 and will take the place of the current JIUnlimited.

We have updated the StockXpert end user license agreement summary table to include the new Getty Images subscription site. You can see the new table here http://www.stockxpert.com/lpages/contrib ...

The royalty for subscription sales at the new site will be $0.25 per download and a 20% royalty on all single image sales.

We will be migrating certain StockXpert content over to this new site. Depending on your preference settings and if you contribute to iStockphoto, you will fall into one of three groups:

Group one � Opted-in to Subscriptions and EL's on StockXpert
If, as of November 5, 2009, you have opted-in for both Subscriptions and Extended Licenses, and you do not have content on iStockphoto, your StockXpert content on JIUnlimited will be migrated automatically to the new site. You will receive an email in early January with the file numbers of each image migrated.

Group two � Opted-out of Subscriptions and/or EL's on StockXpert
If, as of November 5, 2009, you were not opted-in for Subscriptions and/or Extended Licenses, and you have no content on iStockphoto, your StockXpert content will not be added to this new site. If you would like to have your content available, enable both Subscriptions and Extended Licenses in your profile. We will be doing another migration of StockXpert content in Spring 2010 and will add your content then.

Group three � Joint StockXpert and iStock Contributor
If you are currently an iStockphoto contributor and have files already opted-in to the iStock Partner Program, iStock files will appear on the new Getty Images subscription site when it launches in early 2010. If you had non-duplicated files opted into subscriptions on StockXpert, please feel free to upload them to your existing portfolio on iStockphoto to continue their subscription sales.

All Groups
In order to determine duplication between StockXpert and iStockphoto, we compared email addresses. If you used different email address for your accounts, we may have missed you in our matching. If you used different email addresses for each account, please follow this link and login at iStock so we can match up your accounts http://www.istockphoto.com/stockxpert?SX ...

We encourage everyone who hasn't done so to become a contributor at iStockphoto. As an iStock contributor you can continue to sell at Photos.com, as well as the new Getty Images subscription site when it launches, through their Partner Program. Join iStockphoto here http://www.istockphoto.com/stockxpert?SX ...

If you aren't interested in having your non-duplicated StockXpert images at this new site, you can always go to your profile http://www.stockxpert.com/user/edit_prof .. (point #7) and opt out. Please opt out before December 31, 2009 if you don't want us to move any of your images to the new site.

We'd like to thank you again for your continued patience and support. We will stay in touch with more news as we're able.

End Quote


-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

All MSG'ers & Newbies

Today I passed the $500 total sales milestone mark for my raise at Shutterstock.  

*Highlights and details of the 2 years in stock photography newbie experience leading to reach this milestone are posted on my blog here: http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

Learning, Practice, Patience and Persistence helped me prevail to get into SS after too many applications to count. It is possible ... even when you think it is not.

June of 2007 was my first full month at SS.

32% Raise achieved 18 months after approval at SS with a portfolio of 482 images

Continue to build momentum in 2009 with this month (Nov. 2009) as a new BME at SS and overall.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to MSG and all here that freely share their knowledge and advice so that we all can become better photographers and illustrators.

Lastly ... but primarily ... I would like to thank my beloved wife Stacey (suwanneeredhead) whom I first met when our paths crossed through our stock photography circles.

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

 

This week my 300th image was approved at Shutterstock  

*I would like to suggest that this link be used for those that would like to keep track of and report their 100th, 200th, 300th etc. and beyond upload milestones for their submissions to SS. I would find being able to draw some comparisons for SS helpful similar to how we compare with the gauges here on MSG for Dreamstime and IS ...

-Mark
www.PayneImages.com

All,

A heads up to everyone it appears that "Attila the Reviewer" has surfaced at BigStockPhoto (BigStock). It has been seven days since my last approval (1) and 29 rejections since then. Hell ... even God rested on the 7th day.

Mark




 

All,

Today I got my first sale at Featurepics. Its been an interesting story ... after trying my pricing all over the place $8, $6, $2, $5,  for a couple of months with no results I was frustrated. I told myself if I was going to have to wait, then I might as well be paid well for any sale there. I rasied my price to $10.00 for all images with allowing resizing.

The next day I got a sale for $4.00 with a commission of $2.80

Note: Its a picture that I have on all of my sites.

Mark

Hi all. I am seriously considering the 400D as my first body for a DSLR set-up.

I know it has an LCD but can it be used for other than to review what you've previously shot or other than for the menus? A friend says she has this camera and she's never been able to "view" what she shoots on the LCD (however, she's technically challenged so I imagine its just her not having gone to the manual to figure out the right set of buttons to press or menu settings)

If the camera has this capability ... could someone please let me know the steps so that I may pass them along to her?

Also any information about your experience with using this camera for stock would be appreciated.

Mark

I just had my had my first approved images come out of the queue

I have a couple of questions about the features of Zymmetrical ...

#1 How do I price my photos?
#2 Where do I see how many views my photos have
#3 How do I use the filter in the status text box as all I see in that column are icons?
#4 I hover my mouse over the camera icon and it says "video" on all every image

Mark