Interesting concept. The end game seems to be able to sell the images in narrow categories. A subscription plan focused on very specific needs. The proof is always in how many will actually pay. I'd be interested in seeing if the technique of sending the images monthly is a valid one. It certainly eliminates the keyword problems.

Quote from: louoates on October 17, 2013, 10:02

I'm still not seeing any chains attaching me to any one agency. All of us non-exclusives have options to come and go as we want. Most of us can agree that the microstock business was created to minimize image costs for both the user and the provider, including a sustainable profit margin, and subject to the immutable laws of supply and demand.

yes and? leaving BigStock?

I no longer upload to any of my 5 sites, mostly due to many of the shrinking-income complaints noted here. I'm just content to keep reaping commissions as they come in. I totally agree with Sharp on this issue. I'll add that none of us has any upfront investments in any of the sites,  and no say in their management decisions. Like us, they're doing what they need to survive. I don't begrudge them whatever marketing strategy they choose.

I've won awards at photo contests and local art shows. I just say "award winning" in bios without detail. Nobody has ever questioned me further than that. I suspect that nobody much cares what you say in this regard.

Think what fun if you hired a queen lookalike with crown, etc.  frolicking nude in the surf at sunset.

Quote from: Ron on July 02, 2013, 06:54

I have a tendency to upset people by things I write, probably because what I say is always rubbing someone the wrong way. No matter how intelligent or dumb or true or false my comment is.

You admit to writing dumb things that are false and wonder why people get upset. Might be your attacks at people. Then you want to be burying the hatchet all should forgive you. Might be better to stop wiritng mean posts at people with false information. Be nice and everybody will be nice back. You reap what you sew. GALATIANS 6: 7-9 (KJV)

Often it is the language used that upsets people. Most folks are not professional writers and often choose a word or phrase that has loaded meanings.  For example if I wrote "you claim to say..." it is very different than "you say..." and "you don't have a clue..." is far different than "are you sure of that information?..."

If you were conversing face to face you have the benefit of facial expressions and body language to mold the language in ways impossible when using just the written word.  The use of emoticons    attempt to replace that personal interaction.

Quote from: louoates on May 23, 2013, 10:49

I love the new interface.

Are you not seeing your set 'cover image' all over the place in the square crop? I see it in my sets in FF, IE and chrome, and it's the same for the sets of my contacts. It looks really naff, IMO.

Yes, I'm not thrilled with their crop for sets. I quickly found that if i mouse over the image and start to drag it a bit the full image shows. It may be that mousing over it should auto-show the full image.
But the full impact of this new interface is much better than before and I imagine much easier for users to find content.

You need to be careful when calculating hours worked vs. image income from any one site or all sites combined. Lots of folks here overlook the continuing income stream with no new working hours.
For exemple, you only have 1 image that took 1 hour to shoot and process. You then keyworded and uploaded that 1 image to 10 sites. That took another 1 hour because you're a lousy typist.
So you've spent 2 hours of time.
Now you sit back and wait for the money to come rolling in. Unfortunately, the image sells only so-so, let's say 1 sale per month per site, averaging $0.50 commission per sale. That totals $5 per month income. So you could say that you earned $5 the first month for an hourly rate of $2.50.
That's a crappy income stream. So you decided to retire from micro-stock and you're too lazy to remove your 1 image. So it sits there earning a meager $5/mo.
Two years later you re-calculate your hourly rate and discover that your 2 hours of labor has actually earned you $120, or $60 per hour.
Three years later you found that your 1 image earned you $90 per hour.
Hmmm. Maybe micro-stock wasn't so bad after all.

And...?

The business failure landscape is littered with companies who mistreated their suppliers. The month that IS adopted their unambiguity scheme my sales dropped 60% and never recovered. For years IS has been the last to get uploads from me due to much of the comments voiced here. And don't get me started on their insane category monstrosity.

I prefer the badges I got when in Cub Scouts.

Quote from: louoates on August 20, 2012, 15:18

If Canada's tax folks are anything like the U.S.'s your home office deduction is a red flag. You may as well tattoo "audit me" on your forehead.

This used to be the conventional wisdom, but according to my CPA that is no longer the case.  So many people are working from home the past decade or so that it is now very commonplace to use the home office deduction.  If you are legitimately using a home office for your business there is no problem claiming it.   Worst case scenario, even if you were to be audited, as long as it meets the rules you should be okay. 

Kiplinger still lists the home office in its top 12 IRS red flag dangers. Most run afoul of the "exclusive use" rule of the home office. Lots of wiggle room for the IRS interpretation on that one during an audit. Count me gun shy on this one. I'd still advise doing an estimate on the small deduction it would offer against the risk of an extremely expensive and time-consuming IRS audit. Even if your deductions are 100% accurate and you have all the paperwork in order are you prepared to also assemble your last two or three years worth of documentation including all bank savings and checking accounts? Remember, that you will be hosting one or two agents in your home and provide them every record they request and that they earn their employment recognition for finding every possible reason to disallow any other expense on your return.

The additional risk is not just limited to the IRS. Every IRS audit I've gone through involved similar interest by the state. I can't say for certain that they "work together" but in my case both IRS and state audits came suspiciously close together. If the state gets involved you will almost certainly will be assessed a penalty and/or back charges from "use taxes" you haven't paid on out-of-state purchases for any of your business-expensed items. Don't know about the Use Tax? Most folks don't nor do they pay it. That line is on most state income tax forms. The kicker is that the Use Tax applies to both business and personal purchases.  When the state goes through the last few years of your purchase receipts, including personal purchases, you will get a rude awakening. And a sizable state invoice.

In theory you may be in the "right" to claim such a deduction. But you also have a "right" to jump over a pond of alligators.

I got an email from some American professor last week asking if she could use one of my pics from my personal website in a book she was writing. No payment was mentioned, but, and wait for it - I had to fill in a form for her, granting her permission to use the pics - she wasn't offering to sign an RM agreement for me, AND I had to size/crop to a particular size and send it as a tif!

So I wrote back and gave her the option of purchasing a similar (E+) from iStock or licensing the one she wanted directly from me for $70, an amount I arrived at from the iStock price of the similar plus the bother of looking for the file, resizing it, converting it to a tif and sending it to her.

Have I heard back from her? You guess! (There are no Googlable alternatives on the web apart from the set on my website, though, so she'll just have to do without.)

At least she didn't just steal it from your site. The form may have been for the publisher who would know about such things. But sometimes this process takes some time. I would recommend that you email her back as any good salesperson would do seeking a sale.

That point would be different for everyone because everyone values their time and energy differently.