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Messages - OM
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751
« on: March 13, 2011, 06:36 »
does sorting the keywords by importance really help; i do my keywording in photo mechanic but it does not sort according to importance
That's what they say..
Would love to hear others experience; if this is the case, then I have more things to keep me busy on rainy days. What a monumental task to go in and resort all the keywords on Fotolia, uggg
Seems from other discussions and my experience that resorting once already submitted doesn't help much.. Should be done before submitting to get the best results..
On FT you can't re-sort after image acceptance except by deleting the file, re-submitting the file + new keywords and running the gauntlet of the 'Rejectors' once more. Some of my best sellers there are all files submitted in 2008 when I started. Anything submitted in the last year hardly sells at all.
752
« on: March 12, 2011, 20:38 »
I haven't been able to upload to the them in months. When I try to the upload page has an error which will not allow my keywords to be transferred from one box to the other. I gave up trying to continue to upload to the them until they get the page fixed.
Try uploading with Flash. Always worked for me after FTP failed on numerous occasions.
753
« on: March 12, 2011, 20:29 »
Strange as it may seem, use of DDT for vector control (mosquitoes and the like) is not banned and still used in India and, of course, North Korea! (Can't deny Kimmie his DDT). Preferred method of use is spraying the interior walls of houses in malaria areas. No damage to habitat of birds and other animals. It is not harmless and is a cumulative poison. Once in the food chain, it's difficult to get rid of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDTEdit: WHO gives DDT OK for malaria control. 2006. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/index.htmlThis all has nothing whatever to do with the original topic.
754
« on: March 11, 2011, 19:35 »
Did the newspaper leave the iStock and Fotolia copyright logos in for effect or did they just nick the photo's?
755
« on: March 10, 2011, 20:05 »
What is their incentive to beef up their security when they suffer no loss? You can be * sure that if it were their loss, it wouldn't happen so easily and on such a large scale. Contributors suffer their images being stolen and no doubt they will be used in some illegal image bank in god knows where thereby depriving the image owner of possible future legal sales via the stock agency.
756
« on: March 10, 2011, 18:55 »
Need to call RF something akin to 'WORM'.......Write Once Read Many. Buy Once Use Many, Buy Once Use Infinitely, Pay Little Use Infinitely Evermore.........should go down well with the French 'PLUIE' which would make their group ParaPLUIE. Dunno why they would single out Fotolia. It's a US registered corporation just like most of the rest. Anyway their little group can jump up and down all they like, any decision against RF would have to go eventually to the EU Court and they won't win there.
757
« on: March 10, 2011, 18:17 »
I always use a lens hood on my 50mm Nikkor as it is prone to flare from bright backlight. But I don't use the Nikon lenshood designed for it but a metal hood intended for a 135mm Pentax! With APS sensor I don't seem to get vignetting using such a long hood.
758
« on: March 06, 2011, 09:50 »
I'm really angry that nobody is sticking up for us wet plate photographers.
It's all a load of old collodion.
759
« on: March 02, 2011, 19:01 »
It's my only site (exclusive) and with only a few images (200+) February was good with average 1.81 credits @ 75p/download. Subs and premium subs are increasing though.
761
« on: February 27, 2011, 13:06 »
Black card A4 size. Cut hole in centre large enough for the lens to pass through. Place on lens and add lens hood to stop it falling off when you tilt the camera. Should prevent reflections of interior lights.
762
« on: February 18, 2011, 06:48 »
Thanks for posting Elena. Excellent work.
+1 Gostwyck.
763
« on: February 08, 2011, 07:07 »
It's more of an ad for that Panasonic camera. Wonder how many free ones they got.
Yup. "Love to use the photo's you sent, oh dear, wot no model release, pity."
764
« on: February 03, 2011, 07:19 »
The element the quoted poster is missing is that the cuts were not done because Fotolia or the market had hit hard times, but rather the opposite. It was because the business was doing so well that they made the earlier cuts, increase in downloads required to get various levels and the current cuts.
I don't see any reason to believe that FT (or IS - the grand copycat of FT in this particular regard) will reverse the cuts unless they are hard up for images at some point in the future.
It just indicates further to me that both IS and FT are simply pumping their businesses to maximise short-term profit so that they can sell on and walk away. They simply don't care about the future because those that are making the big decisions today don't expect to be involved for much longer.
Pretty obvious where this was going when Mr. Bridewell appeared on the forum under his newly adopted handle, 'THE CHAD'. Admittedly, he was quite early in this, as only recently does one see references on financial sites to THE BEN BERNANKE and THE GOLDMAN SACHS.
765
« on: January 31, 2011, 10:41 »
But then all those sub sales count just the same as a regular sale for the purpose of sort order placement (at least as far as we know).
Right. How much that impacts sales is another question. I have no way of knowing since I do not have any exclusive files...
Bin there tried that! After 3 weeks of cancelled subs and virtually no sales, I returned to the fold. Don't have a lot of images there but I do have a couple of good sellers (both in subs as DL's). The DL's seemed to drop off sharply too. Subs may only count as one quarter download for canister level but I think they count one for one in sort order placement. From Fotolia for contributors: " Visibility By following the rules above, you will achieve a better visibility. But there are further tips to increase your visibility:
1. By allowing the sales in subscription you will improve the ratio sold/views for each one of your contents. When a subscription customer wants to buy your image and you dont allow the sale in subscription, your content will be marked at 0 sold for 1 view. The ratio sold/view is an important criteria within our search engine. Images that are sold each time they are viewed receive a better visibility in the results page."
766
« on: January 28, 2011, 18:41 »
So I emailed FT with my question, and they only sent a canned response about how FT no longer pays to contribute images to the free collection, which of course I didn't ask about! Why can't they just answer my question?
Because you're dealing with HAL 9000 remnants currently situated in Bombay! Indeed the free section is no longer operating and should never have been started. Initially, images were donated to the free section for a period of 18 months and the contributor received a once-only payment of $0.50. Then after a short term, FT unilaterally extended the period to 5 years without enabling a contributor that agreed to 18 months to withdraw from the extended time. Never give a commercial organization free images.
767
« on: January 26, 2011, 20:15 »
Starting today, you may need thousands of images to get to $300/month within 1 or 2 years.........or you could do it with 10 good sellers.
I started late (2008) and by end 2009 I had 120 images at FT (exclusive). In 2010 I added around 80 images. My return per image in 2010 was around $5+/image (assuming an average of 150 images in portfolio over 2010).........but the 80 uploads in 2010 account for almost nothing. I have a few best/better sellers that were all uploaded in 2008 from which doth come the majority of my stock income.
My recent stats (last 6 months) show that there is an increasing % of subscriptions to downloads and that the downloads are reducing in size (fewer XL's and L's). I know that this year will be (much)worse (FT reductions in %'s) than last unless I can come up with a couple of new 'killer' sellers. If most newly uploaded images die a fast death which they seem to do if not 'EXCEPTIONAL' then I consider that there must be easier ways of making the $60/month from FT. Dunno what that is but I'm working on it.
768
« on: January 26, 2011, 19:32 »
I'm sorry, perhaps I am reading that wrong. Are they offering to pay $186 for 165 images done to their specs?? For commercial use?? Or is it $186 per image? The latter might be doable. The former is sheer masochism.
If you are into masochism you might want to put in a bid. Look at the other postings on that site and you'll see bids for original photography plus sizing them for web sites for LESS THAN $2 EACH.
After reading through a bunch of those postings I feel that I'm being overpaid at FT.
Mail FT about it and I'm sure that they will oblige by cutting your percentage yet again within the first half of this year. On second thoughts, probably better not. Support (aka HAL 9000) wouldn't appreciate the irony and either delete your entire portfolio or award you ruby status.
769
« on: January 26, 2011, 18:55 »
Talk about being underpaid... Check out some photo freelance jobs here. Have your chains secured firmly to your desk. http://www.odesk.com/jobs/photography
Here's one of their latest offerings with 11 applicants no less:
Job Description
I have a list of tips on how to take better photos on specific topics. I need you to find a photo that matches each tip. These photos must be available for use in commercial work, so they should be either from your own collection, or from a source such as Flickr (and licensed under the Attribution License).
There are approximately 220 total tips for this job, all for different types of sports photography. I do not expect photos for all of the tips, but around 75% or more would be good. The photos should be of a high standard, and illustrate excellence in photography.
You will need to return to me a spreadsheet with the list of tips and image file names. I will also need the original image, the source (eg. Flickr), the name of the photographer for attribution, and a link to the original image.
Please see attached sample tips, with the first item filled in.
Those with photography experience and/or their own collection they can source from will be highly regarded. I have more work across other categories for interested candidates. Open Attachment
Skills Required: Photography Employer Activity on this Job:
Last Viewed : Today Applicants: 11 (avg $186.87) Interviewing: 0
Offer of penal servitude now cancelled.
770
« on: January 21, 2011, 06:51 »
Remember Fotolia advertising as the fair treatment agency when iS announced their rate cut. They didn't mention cutting rates two weeks after iS did back then. What effing hypocrisy! Not that it surprises me. Fotolia was where the pay cutting all began.
I remember it well. In fact it was the first thing I thought of when I heard FT cut commissions. Isn't this the point where May Hayward shows up to tell us about how great FT is, and how we should be exclusive with them?
Little changed from September for emeralds...........except that perhaps min. credit has been revised from 5 to 3. http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/why-i-love-fotolia!/
771
« on: January 18, 2011, 19:46 »
Impressive body of work, Jonathan. A delight to view. More modern magaziney than traditional stocky! If you get what I mean. Excellent.
772
« on: January 16, 2011, 10:34 »
A mutually profitable arrangement made by two powerful parties in which both get what they've always wanted. Rules are for the power-deficient.........."It's a big club and you and I ain't in it" (Paraphrased George Carlin).
773
« on: January 14, 2011, 18:44 »
Also, since when do printers give things away for free? My printers always wanted to charge for even thinking about making a change.
Even if he plays by the rules and only downloads the images he directly uses for that brochure, I'm sure that the $200 can be partially or completely recouped by slight increases in other parts of the job. I've never seen a subscription agreement and don't know in which ways it deviates from a simple download agreement. But if the printer is in breach of the contract, how is this policed? Edit: had a quick look at a FT subs agreement and the conditions for use of the downloaded images do not appear to deviate from the standard download use agreement. Whether downloaded via the subs program or the conventional download, I couldn't see any time-limiting usage terms in either.
774
« on: January 14, 2011, 17:09 »
For a number of years I've been lucky to work for a client that requires an A4 sized, full color product brochure twice every year. Until recently this brochure consisted primarily of product photo's ( made by us) with some graphics provided by the printer. Occasionally, we were also asked to provide some extra shots from stock archives and we have been small, occasional buyers of both iStock and FT images (by download).........helps cash in some of my FT credits too!
In July 2010, the client requested us to search stock agencies to find images specifically including people which were to be used as background shots to give the rather stuffy brochure a more modern appeal. The client told us that for the right shots he was prepared to pay up to 60/download..........no doubt brought up in the RM days! Unnecessary of course, I don't think we paid more than 15/shot and we never charged on top of what it cost us to buy. The new approach was successful and this time around (Easter brochure), at client's request, we viewed around 6,000 images to arrive at our selection for him of ~100 shots. Toady he phoned to thank us for our selection which he could show the printers. However, for those extra shots, the printer had made him an offer he could hardly refuse. The printers told him that they had access to a 'royalty free' archive and that they would provide him with all the shots he needed for free.
I have no doubt that though our use of microstock, the printer has now discovered the joys of microstock + subscription. For $200 he takes out a one month FT sub which allows him to download 750 images which he can store for future use of his clients at 30 cents/image. Must be the cheapest form of customer loyalty ever invented. Wish I had thought of it earlier..........but maybe my contributor mind-set prevented me.
775
« on: January 03, 2011, 20:39 »
Just been browsing the various country sites of FT and for buyers it seems like the FT credits have been re-adjusted to $1 values in the various currencies. A credit for a UK buyer is 63 pence and for a Eurozone buyer it is 0.75. In light of this discovery, I don't see how FT can be paying a percentage (depending on rank/exclusivity etc) of 1.00 credit to the contributor....likewise how can they pay UK contributors the old 75 pence per credit earned if they are selling credits at 63 pence...........I have a sneaky suspicion that we will be informed of these pricing changes after the fact, at sometime in the future.
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