|
MicrostockGroup Sponsors
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - fiftyfootelvis
26
« on: January 17, 2017, 20:18 »
Shutterstock is down about 30% for me too, but iStock is up a bit and Adobe/Fotolia is up significantly.
I'm guessing Adobe Stock has taken some of Shutterstock's customers. After all, 99% of designers work with Adobe programs.
27
« on: November 12, 2016, 13:58 »
Cohen was one of a kind.
Sure it's sad to see one of the greats go, but he went out at the top of his game and you can't ask for much better than that.
Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back
They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track
But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone
I'll be speaking to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song
28
« on: July 12, 2016, 20:40 »
I don't see Fotolia passing SS anytime soon, but my sales there have probably doubled since Adobe took over.
29
« on: July 01, 2016, 13:17 »
I got it too, and started going through my images and checking titles, but then I got this one today:
We would like to offer a clarification about yesterdays email regarding the titles of your content. This email was distributed to a broader group of contributors than we intended. We sincerely apologize for the concern caused. We want to reassure you that no further action is required from you.
The vast majority of our community work hard to consistently create powerful and descriptive titles to support their work. Our goal is to create a fair and level playing field for our entire contributor community and we value the time and energy invested into preparing your content for license on Shutterstock.
We have robust compliance standards in place to protect the integrity of your content and we are investing heavily in developing a new platform to improve the contributor experience. You may have seen some of the new pages recently rolled out. Included in this development will be new contributor tools to help with your content submission process.
We are working tirelessly on creating the best contributor experience for our content creators and we apologize for the communication yesterday. You can expect that any further communication from us will be detailed, informative, specific, and actionable.
Thank you,
Jon Oringer
and
The Shutterstock Contributor Support Team
30
« on: April 09, 2016, 21:31 »
I'm a Stocksy reject as well, so I'm no expert in that department, but I buy a lot of stock photos for advertising. Your shots are beautiful, but most of them, even many of the lifestyle images, have a bit of a posed, fashion-y feel to them. What I am always looking for in lifestyle is casual, natural looking images a moment in someone's day captured. I almost never buy a shot where the subject is looking at the camera. I don't mean to be critical as I love your images and I could see myself buying a few of them.
31
« on: March 20, 2016, 13:09 »
Never give anything for free unless it is for a family member or a charity that you know and respect.
The business of graphic design, illustration and photography has been de-valued enough without us giving our work away for free.
32
« on: December 03, 2015, 13:51 »
I don't think it is good for anybody. As a purchaser of stock it is getting harder and harder to sift through all of the really bad or just mediocre images. Often there will be 20 or 30 bad images from the same shoot, just slightly different from each other. They would never have all been accepted in the past.
And as a contributor, I think it just lowers the image of microstock across the board.
As a purchaser, even though clients don't like spending the money and I don't like the hassle, I am being driven back to Rights Managed just to more easily find quality images.
33
« on: November 24, 2015, 13:22 »
I buy stock all the time and it is usually from iStock, Shutterstock, or Veer mostly because the companies I work with have accounts with them.
Once in a while I will still go to the Rights Managed sites because, even though it's expensive and the licensing is a nightmare, there are a lot more high quality images. I won't buy from Stocksy because that *insult removed* rejected my images.
Searching for great photos is still the hardest and most time consuming part of my job. The search engines need improvement and there are just so many crappy images to sort through. For god's sake people, stop getting your models to stare straight into the goddamn camera! It is so hard to find natural, believable lifestyle images. If I see one more happy white family in matching sweaters grinning into the camera like catatonic morons I'm going to lose it.
What family goes for a walk in the autumn woods in matching sweaters? The answer is: No family, ever, in the history of the world!
34
« on: October 19, 2015, 20:00 »
I work in advertising and I do microstock on the side. There will always be bad days, but for the most part I like both. The advertising pays well and the micro stock just provides a bit of extra cash.
For most of us contributors, microstock was never going to be a way to get rich. It's the dollar store model: sell a lot of items at really, really, really low prices. You're not getting paid what your work is worth, but you knew that going in.
35
« on: September 18, 2015, 12:14 »
Those copyright restrictions are there to protect both vender and the purchaser from legal action.
Adobe not mentioning them does not mean that your client won't get a cease and desist letter from Head's lawyers.
And that is the kind of thing that turns clients into ex-clients.
36
« on: July 24, 2015, 08:15 »
When Adobe bought Macromedia a few years back, I had high hopes that they would incorporate some of the vastly superior features of applications like Freehand, Fontographer, and Dreamweaver.
Instead, they simply shut them down, thereby eliminating their only real competition and missing a huge opportunity to improve the clumsy, inelegant interface of their programs, especially Illustrator.
After that short sighted billion dollar fiasco, I have little faith in their handling of this new venture.
37
« on: May 12, 2015, 13:12 »
Pretty slow. I might get a payout once a year.
It's too bad, sales used to be pretty strong at Veer and I still like company.
I buy stock from them because the quality of the images and the search engine is better than a lot of sites.
More consistantly creative/artisitic.
39
« on: May 11, 2015, 19:44 »
In general you should never work for free. For me, the only exceptions can be for family or a charity I know and trust. And even then there is a limit. When I first started in the advertising business a lot of agencies did spec work but fortunately that has changed. However, there are still a lot of slimeballs out there who will ask you to work for free because it will be "great exposure for you" and "it will lead to more work down the line". Don't listen to these creeps. You will never see a dime from them. The return per image is already low enough in Microstock. Don't start giving your work away for free. Still unsure? Check out this handy flow chart created by Jessica Hische: http://shouldiworkforfree.com
40
« on: March 08, 2015, 17:23 »
When I started uploading I hadn't heard all of the negative comments.
I have uploaded around 100 images which brings in $25 - $30/month.
Not great, but not the worst.
41
« on: March 02, 2015, 20:55 »
For me February was a good but not outstanding month.
Some of my new uploads are performing well so I'm feeling reasonably optimistic.
42
« on: January 27, 2015, 21:05 »
Vectorstock is okay if you sell vectors, but I wouldn't really recommend any of the other sites.
Sales are so slow that it is not worth the time to upload.
Unlike most people posting, my iStock sales have gone up over the last few months.
43
« on: August 26, 2014, 21:44 »
Very hit and miss. I'll go two or three months without a sale and then suddenly have a decent (for GL) month.
In August I had a $23.40 sale.
44
« on: December 31, 2013, 11:16 »
I have always loved James Thurber's short story so I am afraid to see the movie.
Hollywood doesn't have a great track record with literary adaptations and Ben Stiller at the helm doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.
45
« on: November 04, 2013, 19:29 »
GL sadly seems to have dropped off the edge of the earth. I'm trying to motivate myself to upload some recent photos to them but... nothing has happened there in such a long time...
Oddly enough, just had 2 sales on GL today! Let's hope it continues!
46
« on: November 02, 2013, 18:58 »
October started off slow - 2 days with 0 sales - but ended strong. Overall pretty decent month; better than September anyway.
What's up with GL though? It was always slow, but I haven't had a sale there in 2 months.
47
« on: October 08, 2013, 20:15 »
I just did a couple of quick searches and I thought some of the images were really nice. I use a lot of images of people enjoying wine and I saw a few that I would definitely purchase if not for the $500 price tag. That's a little steep for some of my clients.
48
« on: September 26, 2013, 18:31 »
As a buyer of stock, I like Veer. They have always had more creative and artistic photography and I use them a lot for ads and brochures. So this new direction makes sense to me - play up your strengths.
However as a contributer, my sales have really dropped in the last couple of years and I don't expect this to change that at all.
49
« on: September 13, 2013, 21:41 »
I'm a contributor, but I also buy a lot of images. When I'm searching for images, I like this feature. Often I'll preview an image but find it is not quite what I need, so having some other suggestions is really helpful. Unfortunately, many of the ones they suggest are too unrelated to be useful. If they can resolve this issue and suggest more closely related images it will be good for everyone.
Anything that makes it easier to find the perfect image is good for buyers and therefore good for the whole industry.
50
« on: August 17, 2013, 19:03 »
There are just a lot more of us contributing content now, while the number of buyers has remained more or less the same. This is the new reality and whining about it doesn't help anyone. There's also a lot more really bad content these days. The industry needs to keep quality high to continue to thrive.
|
Sponsors
Microstock Poll Results
Sponsors
|
Show Posts
