it is kind of funny because i guess many users are not aware of this 3rd party program... are only those images in folders are in it? or all portfolio?

Not only is it NOT hurting non-exclusives by sending buyers to other sites, it is actually saving buyers money, too. Using basic minimum credit purchases to illustrate, a L image on IS costs $15.20, I get $3.00. The exact same image on DT costs the buyer $13.20 while I make $4.07.

Going exclusive made sense IF IS had honored their side of the bargain, but they have not. Now exclusives are SOL. And trust me I am not gloating. I have friends who have been with them from the start and it sucks big time that after all their commitment, they are getting the shaft.

Well... Graphic Leftovers deserves that seal.

Any other agency like The3DStudio for example?

They pay over 50% too!

Quote from: gaja on September 10, 2010, 10:55

I sure wouldn't mind getting a few of those referrals. The upload bonus alone would be more than my ordinary income at DT. Sjlocke; you biting? 

Any clever high-volume IS-er moving to DT will sell his referral link to the highest bidder.

1. Every exclusive-elsewhere member that starts to upload to Dreamstime will receive the upload bonus that we award to our exclusive photographers:
$0.20/approved image. This goes into effect today and ends November 15. All you need to do is email us the link that shows you are an exclusive contributor elsewhere and your account with us. On November 15 we will count your uploads and will award the bonus for all accepted files.

2. Same offer applies to exclusive-elsewhere members that have disabled images on Dreamstime. They will receive the upload bonus for all newly uploaded files (not for enabling the disabled files though). Naturally, these re-enabled files will gain their previous search placement and price level, so they will enjoy much better sales and royalties than from new uploads.

3. We will award the 10% share of the bonus+future earnings to all members referring such users (you just need to include your referral's username in your email or use it at registration time). Additionally, existing members who will motivate exclusive-elsewhere contributors to re-open their Dreamstime account (should they already have one), will be awarded as their referral users. An email to support is all that is needed. We've been bombarded with emails about disabled files. If they appear in your Disabled files section, you can enable them. If not, it means they were deleted and you need to re-upload.

Quote from: alias on September 08, 2010, 13:22

@Leaf: have you thought of doing it as an offshoot of MSG ? You already exist. This could be the hub of the new site. Everyone is here already. Maybe what you are thinking and what FD is thinking is complimentary.

Initial inspection ? Easy: peer review - provide a link showing that another site we all respect has already accepted it. That will cover the first 5 million images at least Fastest growing site in history. Will it scale ? Will the bandwidth be too expensive ?

Really excellent ideas. (Maybe Alias is not an IS spy after all?) MSG is UGC, a stock site would be a natural outgrowth.

Is startup capital is needed, if half of the top 2% of microstockers put in $1000 each, for one share in the new venture, that would be a sizable sum to start off with. The shareholders would have self-serving reasons to make sure that they uploaded their ports to the site as quickly as possible, and in helping the venture succeed in other ways.