Quote from: Reef on December 18, 2022, 02:43

Hello, everyone, Haven't been here for a while and was curious how the stock market was going. Like most of you I have had my mind blown by AI apps like Midjourney which seems to be improving at an incredible pace. A few days ago I tried ChatGPT, and although it doesn't have live access to the web or can create imagery yet, it more than blew my mind on its potential. As a designer I can realistically see my work being completed by an AI tool in the near future. And, I have already used it to write some copy for a product within a brochure thus eliminating the girl's job in the office who usually does that for me. And to be blunt, AI did a far better job than she or I could. Interesting times ahead I think. So my 2 cents to this topic is it would be foolish not to acknowledge there will be significant changes as AI becomes more powerful. How well we adapt is really unknown!

�In a world filled with automated processes and grey machinery is there still a demand for contemporary ceramics? Absolutely! Should you purchase one of my ceramic pieces, know that the clay was dug, processed and hand-thrown on a pottery wheel by a human being.
Its hard work and so it should be. The reward to you, the consumer, is an object of beauty signed by its creator and something you may admire for a lifetime. And who knows? Your great-grandchildren might share your joy a hundred years from now!�

The link in your tagline takes me to this site. Is this yours? If it is then the level of hypocrisy here is truly mind numbing.

Yes, that's my website thou I haven't touched it in a long time - just building up something for retirement when I can focus better on ceramics. When I wrote that I wasn't even aware of AI technology apart from maybe seeing it in the movies. I do believe there will always be niche or specialised areas in any industry including stock. But, honestly, no one knows where this AI technology will go, so yes, even hand crafted ceramics could be automated using AI.

No sales for 10 days! Normally make about $200 a month. Very strange.

Exactly same for me except its been 18 days. Something has changed, again!

my basic goal here is to increase the size, variety & visibility of symbiostock, so i'm trying to keep things as simple as possible -- i'm open to any questions or suggestions.

I'm a Designer who buys stock imagery and illustrations, and even supported Symbiostock for a while. You asked for suggestions (see attached) which, if applied, would at the very least stop other Designers walking away from your site. Guaranteed :)  Unfortunately, I don't even know where to start on your typography, so I wont! Good luck.

Finally had a chance to re-write my css. I'm having a few problems overwriting some of the Custom Styles built into Symbio. Anyone else had this problem? Anyways, managed to get the home page backup again. Seems ok in all latest browsers, but I welcome critique from anyone who uses an older browser.http://www.astonmars.com/

Unfortunately my Child Theme (style and functions), which I spent days writing, is now mostly obsolete.  You have changed a lot since April, you bad boy I will probably have to start from scratch again. Before I do, Leo, can you advise if I should wait until you have a stable and consistent version, with respect to coding?

I haven't read 4HWW but I did buy Ferris's 'The 4-Hour Body' and, from reading it, I'd take anything he has to say with a large pinch of salt. Ferris is very good at self-marketing and making good money in supposedly providing simple solutions to all of life's problems. Unfortunately the real world is actually much more complex than he would have us believe and therefore his basic ideas often don't actually work.

This issue is a good illustration of how Ferris's theory breaks down when examined. We (i.e. microstock contributors) may consider the 'product' being sold by our distributors to be the content we create. SS however wouldn't agree. SS believe that what they are really selling is a service and it is their skill on handling data that allows them to provide a better service than anyone else.

Once again here's Oringer's blog explaining his thoughts on the issue;

http://jonoringer.com/2013/01/13/why-going-exclusive-as-a-microstock-photographer-doesnt-work/

Let's say I had a real tangible product to sell __ a really good homemade jam for example. Here in the UK we have the 'Big 4' supermarkets (a bit like we have the Big 4 agencies). Now I could do an exclusive deal with just one of those supermarkets. They would then be able to sell it at the optimum price and both they and I would achieve good margins for the product. However, if I sold my jam on a non-exclusive basis to all the supermarkets, then it might sell in 4x the volume. Price competition might mean that I made less margin on each sale however the greater volume might mean I made far more money.

If life was all about cost and volume then I would drink Watney's instead of Fuller's or Young's. Where do we draw the line? Are we all greedy pigs or does exclusivity offer hope?

Quote from: daveh900 on September 18, 2013, 12:07

I must be the only one here that is a CC subscriber, is happy with the product and doesn't mind the $50 a month cost. 

You're not the only one. I use much more than just Photoshop and Lightroom, though. That makes it a much better deal for me.

I do freelance design so it works for me too! In fact I love it! Has anyone tried Photoshop Touch?

One of the great features about cloud is the 20gigs of storage space available. You can upload your work files there, PS, Illustrator, Indesign and can then view them online from your iPad.

What is the scam with this though? It doesn't let them use the images right just takes down my version of the images. So what is it they gain by this?

Not having to see your imagery on the web? 

Quote from: Reef on July 09, 2013, 08:52

Exclusive - with only Sig or Sig+    Purchases are significantly down but I'm earning about the same. New uploads are a complete waste of time!

You have NO Main collection files? How did you accomplish that? You actually didn't have any files in your port with 0 (or in some cases of forced demotion to Main, 1 or 2) DLs? Or did you deactivate all of your demoted files?

I just checked! Only some new uploads have 0 downloads but they went straight into sig. I did delete a whole batch of images in the organised protest earlier this year so there may have been some zero's in that.

In the current economic gloom we are all in I thought my experience recently would be of value.

Recently my goal has been to become more self-sufficient. Having moved to an area surrounded by forest and sea I now collect my own wood to burn in a wood stove and catch my own fish for nutrition. I keep chickens and grow an ever increasing amount of veg and fruit utilising a huge water tank that was here when I bought the property.  The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in power prices so solar panels are probably my next priority as well as reducing the amount of power I currently consume.

With self-sufficiency and power consumption in mind my attention turned to my need for a new Workstation. I currently run 2 x Dell Desktop Workstations of which the older one is running XP Windows. Rather than replace the old one with another Desktop Workstation I decided to get a Mobile Workstation instead. Typically I would go onto the Dell site, select the Workstation, modify it to my requirements and print out the quote. I'd then email Dell the quote and ask if they could improve upon the price. They always do, and I would get a nice discount which I would then go ahead and purchase. When I did it this time I didn't immediately get back to them. A few weeks passed, then a Dell Rep called me and asked if I was ready to confirm the order. After checking my business account I realised I didn't have enough funds to afford it right now. When I told the rep he offered to discount further. Great! He dropped the price by $500. Wow! But I still didn't have enough funds to buy it. So, you guessed it, he dropped the price another $400 and I snapped it up.

The original online price was $3800 and I bought it for $2400. Just a note for those who think this is still expensive. These are serious machines which I need for doing 3D visualisations and such as well as stock of course

Maybe I have been naive all these years, but I thought a saving like this is worth telling.

Next on my list will be a mobile solar pack and a wireless mobile broadband device.

So now, when the summer heat returns you will find me sitting outside the cafe, or under a shaded tree doing my work rather than consuming power in an air-conditioned room.

I'm confused!

I seem to have no files in the main collection. I never used + or uploaded to Vetta but all my files are now in Sig or Sig+

Also, I compared the pricing with getty and.... well, see screen grab showing the same file price on both sites.  How does that make sense?

I was on the verge of going independent and setting up a Symbo site, but now I suppose I should wait until the dust settles.

Spill the beans, Leo