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Messages - Oldhand
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151
« on: September 09, 2010, 04:31 »
1 - Ask for leaf's help on this site!
2. State an intention to run a poll for anyone interested in representing the wishes of Micro photographers against IS specifically. Post here, on Microstockdiaries, IS, plus all other micro sites (they might like that!) Interested parties to contact Leaf by say Monday 9am.
3. Poll runs for 48 hours. You can choose as many candidates as you like, then everyone with over 75% is in the negotiating group. If too many people have over 75%, then it will be the 6 most popular.
4. The group then privately discuss options for reaching agreement with IS. Total refusal, acceptance on condition your current level remains the same, etc, etc..
5. They canvas our opinion on their ideas by another poll, again advertised in advance.
6. They approach IS on our behalf, in private, and communicate back the best deal they can. Needs a 75% approval to pass.
7. Bargaining power! We need to operate from strength. so the group has to co-ordinate a list of all photographers supporting them with image numbers etc.
8. What happens if IS refuse to move. Then everyone on the list starts removing image every hour until negotiations begin again from a set date after negotiations break down. Press are contacted with a release.
As my old teacher would say, needs work, but we have to start concerted action to succeed.
Oldhand
152
« on: September 09, 2010, 03:36 »
IS have planned for this reaction. They held off an already preplanned reply for 24 hours, and will have another up their sleeve if the response remains at the same level. They have appeased the top contributors with the tiered system, so they won't cause a problem.
Maybe 100-1000 people will delete their potfolio - again anticipated. Maybe the amount of uploads will be 50% of the usual amount next week - again anticipated.
IS's end goal is to weather the protest and get their way. Bit by bit uploading will resume and the comments on the forum get less.
What we need is concerted, directed action. A small group of respected contributors should canvas popular opinion, and then with a mandate from us approach IS. Is are quite happy for us to moan for weeks, what they do not want is actual action. Direct emails to buyers, articles in newspapers, facebook campaigns etc etc. Neither do they want us to have a focal point. They see the community approach as a weakness, when in fact it is our strength.
I "Mr and Mrs X" represent the wishes of the following 10,000 contributors with a total portfolio size of 5 Million. We need to open constructive dialogue with IS, or on such a day at 12am MST everyone will begin deleting their portfolios at the rate of 1 picture per hour until an announcement is fothcoming on your site. A press release will also be issued etc, etc.
Candidates please step forward.
Oldhand'
153
« on: September 02, 2010, 14:54 »
$1000 from all micro, SS best by a mile, DT and IS up considerably. Everything else constant. Alamy added an extra $500+.
Helped out my traditional macro income!
154
« on: September 02, 2010, 10:44 »
I did hesitate before jumping in this thread, however. Justified and accurate as your observation are, ask of everything what is in it's nature. (quoting hannibal lecter here!). Microstock is about selling large volumes a a low price point. TS is just another revence stream, and those who sign up know exactly what they are getting. To me the difference between 25c and 57c or $1 is negligable compared to older, somewhat easier days. I'm not complaining, time moves on, but unless there was a concerted effort by everyone to stop supplying TS etc (which I'd join in), then I'll take the hard and meagre cash. Call it my wider perspective on things! Agreeing to differ.. Oldhand the sentimentalist Agreed, by buying in to TS I may be hastening my own doom, but that pre-supposes anyone care's about my work in the great scheme of things. I could disappear in the morning and no one would care, everyone would still finds the pics they want. I don't like selling pics for 25c, nor SS 38c, or Alamy's Novel use 49c. Not much difference between the lot of them in my book.
There's a world of difference. I wish people wouldn't keep quoting 'SS pay 25c' or even 38c when the average payout I receive on SS is actually 57c.
Not only is that more than double the TS payout but at least SS (and all the other agencies), actually do their own reviewing, credit you as the author of your work, pay you within a reasonable timescale, have direct communication channels for their contributors, allow you access to your portfolio for editing, enable instantaneous viewing of sales and are vastly more transparent.
As it is now my average sale commission is just over $1 per download. If TS were to win the game and as a consequence all my sales were instead on TS then I presume that my income would be barely more than one quarter what it is now __ for the same volume of sales.
If you 'can't see the difference' Oldhand then you need the services of a decent optician.
155
« on: September 02, 2010, 08:37 »
TS isn't a million miles away from SS payments.
I understand the huge amount of negativity about TS, however coming from Macro, micro seemed a joke at first until I lost money and had to join in. Most of my old colleagues would't go near micro even now. Most of my old markets would however happily pay micro prices rather than those charged by traditional agencies.
I opted in to TS, why? It's additional meagre revenue for doing nothing. If I don't thousands of others still will. Greed. Lack of business sense?
As I see it, please correct me if I'm wrong... When micro started, the prices were very small paid to contributors. Over years most agencies have raised prices as much as they can. Now, we are bound to have companies and off-shoots of large established agencies filling sites with pictures at lower prices. That was always going to happen as no one site has a monopoloy on micro.
Agreed, by buying in to TS I may be hastening my own doom, but that pre-supposes anyone care's about my work in the great scheme of things. I could disappear in the morning and no one would care, everyone would still finds the pics they want. I don't like selling pics for 25c, nor SS 38c, or Alamy's Novel use 49c. Not much difference between the lot of them in my book.
Oldhand
156
« on: August 30, 2010, 14:33 »
I get paid by another company like this. Month 1 it on the 15th, month 3 the 16th, month 5, 17th. The goal post gradually moves just enough so no one complains and the money stays in their bank longer. A dubious business practice.
Not sure if this is the case with IS, they are transparent with payment dates, however some claification with these additional earnings would be appreciated.
Oldhand
157
« on: August 25, 2010, 04:51 »
Veer has a sound backer in Corbis. Over the medium to long term they are a reasonable investment given the time it takes to upload there. No way middle tier for me, but a good proposition if you're looking to increase the number of sites you submit to.
I would happily drop Crestock and Yay were it not that, again, their upload process in very easy.
Deposit I don't know enough about.
I'll happily give Veer time, and think it wise to have a prescence early on.
Oldhand
158
« on: August 23, 2010, 02:59 »
It depend from serie to serie but it is up to 1500 images per day. I using nikon capture nx and there you can batch edit several images. Usualy editing 10-20 images in one batch.... so it going very fast. Time consuming is photoshop and images with people, logotypes etc..
If it's time consuming does young daily amount drop to under a thousand?
159
« on: August 21, 2010, 16:13 »
Ditto - huge stack of 49c sales. Had another lot of 89c earlier this month. All was balanced out by 3 regular sales netting $300 this month.
Is it taking the rough with the smooth, or are Alamy taking the proverbial.
My own fault opting in, but the question is are they sales gained (however small) or lost elsewhere?
Oldhand
160
« on: August 10, 2010, 11:14 »
Hi there
I get half of the UK national newspaper every day. In the Daily Mail on the 6th August is a collection of saucy postcard pictures, 13 in all, but not the one you sold from alamy. My guess would be the Daily Telegraph or Guardian, which are two I don't buy!
Might help your search a bit.
Kind Rgds
Oldhan
161
« on: August 02, 2010, 02:35 »
10% increase from last month in sales overall.
Gains were from continuous uploading at SS which accounts for 50% of total sales. IS stable, but FT and DT down. DT showing the worst continued trend. 123 missed 2nd place off IS by 1 cent.
Al''s well.
162
« on: July 29, 2010, 05:57 »
Four children and a lawn that need constantly cutting!
I play the guitar, piano and harmonica, and love folk music. Love reading, read the 21 Partick O'Bien novels on the bus to work with my old job! Anything to do with history stirs my soul.
Nice videos!
My life away from work is my family.
Oldhand
163
« on: July 28, 2010, 05:45 »
I had the same problem with macro - stagnating, then diminshing sales. The glory days were over. Reason was more deals with specific agencies, more competition (caused by digital cameras!) smaller budgets for uses etc. I had my network of agents and own newspaper customer base, but it was tough.
My temporary fix was micro, whole lot of new markets and possibilites. Again the early years were good, now steady. What it did teach me was there was a huge demand for pictures other than the Eiffel tower or stressed businessman. A lot of the ideas gleaned from micro top sellers have been able to translate back over to macro bolstering sales there.
Selling stock is all about evaluating where you are selling in to. Assuming you do all you can to produce sellable material of good quaility, then analyze where you are sending it. There's only a handful of decent micro agencies, Alamy success's have been well documented, so where else?
I sell direct to the media and have a network of agencies in various countries representing my work. All these revenue streams add up.
My advice to anyone who want's to make money is to diversify their portfolio and have more outlets than only micro will provide.
Oldhand
164
« on: July 19, 2010, 14:00 »
I get sporadic emails as and when they feel like it, so rhyme or season. I make sales every day, but only get 1 or 2 notifications a week.
Mystery!
165
« on: July 18, 2010, 06:32 »
Ditto - arrived today
166
« on: July 18, 2010, 03:28 »
Hi all
My apologies for stirring up a hornets nest. Mtkang - take the other people's advice where it won't cause you a problem.
I used to work for the devil as far as cut your throat and sell your mother business practices went in photography. Here the line was blurred between RM and RF as long as a sale was made. Ethics aside all was well until someone complained (never happened), then it was profuse apologies and no harm done.
My colleagues experience on the forum remain at odds with my long involvment in the macro world. They are kind, courteous and well informed. I on the other hand should keep dubious practices to myself as this is no place for them.
Please accept my apologies, but I really don't relish a long debate on the issue. Now I'm off back into the seedy world of smoke and mirrors.
I bid you good day!
Oldhand the chastized would be whistleblower
167
« on: July 17, 2010, 14:54 »
In theory you can't sell an image RM if it has sold RF, however huge numbers of people do.
If your pics are on micro as RF, then there should not be a problem selling the same ones RM on Alamy. Some people will quite rightly argue this is not the way to go about things, but it is what lots of people including top microstockers do.
What I am trying to say here is don't panic, if you think your pics would do best as RM on Alamy, do that.
Rgds
Oldhand
168
« on: July 16, 2010, 11:41 »
Too right - I hope my wife didn't forget the scraps...
169
« on: July 16, 2010, 11:16 »
Actually I thought it had some mileage. Submit 5 from series, all pass QC, only keep two, no damage to accpetance ratio. I take your point though, maybe too much discretian left to the reviewer.
I really mean the idea for when I send in a brilliant illustration, technically perfect and not my fault the reviewer didn't understand the concept and rejected it. Harm done to my accceptance ratio and put's me off uploading certain pictures..
No more thought's for today it's fish and chips on a Friday here in England!
Olldhand the traditionalist
170
« on: July 16, 2010, 11:08 »
Hi there
Don't worry about model releases for RM, it's very inconvenient and practically impossible unless you are shooting with specific models. I'd send everything up to Alamy as RM. Next, everything I'd sent to Alamy I'd see if it was accpetable for micro, if so I'd sell it there RF as well (that's what most people do).
Alamy is not exclusive, nor is micro unless you choose to be so.
With other agents, most will insist on exclusive representation in their own country. Say you found a German agent, send them all the same material you have on Alamy as RM and micro as RF. This will not cause a problem.
Your market shots and HK skylines have editorial travel written all over them. Tailor your shooting so you take some nice street scenes in Kowloon, with some extra "no people" shots of buddhist statues, street signs, food close ups etc etc for micro.
More outlets the better.
Oldhand
171
« on: July 16, 2010, 09:22 »
There's more little fish than big ones in the sea...
Yuri has spat his dummy out and the tantrum has been rewarded. All's fair in business and war, but is it ethical and fair? No.
DT's acceptance ratio and correlation to search results is restrictive. It prevents me from uploading everything there.
I know what I'd do as DT's boss. If an image passes the reviever but is not wanted in their library, then reject. If it does not pass the reviewer, reject and affect the acceptance ratio. A two tier system.
Just a thought, I normally have one a day.
Rgds
Oldhand
172
« on: July 16, 2010, 03:49 »
Hi there
Alamy should be your first port of call for travel pics sold as editorial RM. If you have releases great, but in most cases you won't. Once you have a large collection of travel pics with an ongoing supply there are a huge number of agencies you can approach to represent your work in countries throughout the World. That will be challenge, but is possible if you fill a niche etc. Have a look at cepic.org which will give you an idea of the number of agents out there.
Keep going with the Micro where you can. It's worth adapting some of your work specifically for this market.
Quality will remain an issue wherever you supply.
On the plus side if you are based over in Asia / Hong Kong, then you've a head start on me as there are only so many green English fields and sheep you can take, and that's all that surrounds me.
Good luck - Oldhand
173
« on: July 14, 2010, 04:33 »
Does anyone sell directly to newspapers or TV stations? If so, what is the rate which you sell your photos and/or video?
Hi there It's my main job selling editorial to national newspapers, so maybe I can help a bit... I only deal with photo's and this is split into editorial stock and news. Local news in normally just that - local. Provincial papers only pay a small amount, and in all honesty your lucky to get any money of the them in the UK. If it is a news story with wider interest you could send it in on spec to all the national's as well. They all have email adresses for news stories, gather a list and send them in ASAP. If they get used in the next days papers then you can ring up the picture desk to arrange a fee. They'll probably give you their standard space rate unless it's a big event or something exclusive (which is a different ball game altogether). I make money from supplying stock to nationals. It's an area in decline, and the fee's paid are the newspapers own space rates. For a headshot, 2"sq color, it would range from 30 to $70 depending on which paper it is in the UK. The NUJ are professional rates and have mileage, half day rates etc, etc. Normally you need a commission from a newspaper to charge these. To my mind you would be sending pics in on spec and would only get the space rate. There would be no exclusive tie in or contract, so you can do what you want with the picture afterwards. Footage I can't help with, but any more questions fire away. Rgds Oldhand
174
« on: July 12, 2010, 07:24 »
The ref erred on the side of caution too long. An early red would have sorted the Dutch and Von Bommel out. As it was he made amends in the second half by giving a gola kick instead or a corner which led to the goal.
Spain were creative and played with flair, everything the Dutch used to be. Right result, entertaining game, and for my money fault must lie with Holland's manager. There game plan was negative, and relied on it all going to penalties.
Well done the Spanish.
See you in four years (if we qualify"
Adios - Oldhand
175
« on: July 12, 2010, 04:55 »
Hi Brian
To set in in context, I liked Snap Village and similarly Veer.
For an old dog like me stuck on windows XP the site is a lot faster, so that's great. More $$ would be great, but that's obviously your goal as well as shown by the site updates etc. Everything works well on there for me, and I have good expectations over the coming month's and years.
Primarly though, many thank's for your dialogue on this site which is greatly appreciated.
I'm no technical analyst or stat junkie, just someone looking for an outlet to sell his pictures who care's what the photographers think and has a good chance of showing results.
Good luck to you.
Oldhand
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