when looking for photos, I often search by style words like retro, grunge old.  I feel that beautiful and cool could also fit into a similar style category and would say it is valuable to add them if they are relevant.

Hi guys. Sorry for all the spam this morning. I think I've got things under controlagain. Thanks to everyone who reported the spam.

A few posts were removed from this thread.  This is a good discussion - let's try not to reduce it down to personal attacks on individual photographers.

Great news.  Thanks Mat!!

Why is Dreamstime listed as one of the Big 4 when it's #8 and behind Pond5, Alamy, 123RF, and Deposit? 

Yeah, simply because it was in the big 4 earlier.  They have obviously fallen quite a bit in the last while.  I'll fix the forum sections pronto

Thanks.  I�m really uninspired to upload my legacy people images because I waste all the time assigning multiple and different releases to all of them and then 75% get rejected even though all the releases have been accepted before.

I hear ya!

WHAT CAMERAS AND SETTINGS DO STOCK PHOTOGRAPHERS USE?

Depositphotos analyzed EXIF data from their library of 60 million files to find out what settings and cameras stock photographers use. EXIF data is the detailed information that is recorded as you take a photograph. It includes ISO, shutter speed, camera model, aperture and much more.

One of the interesting findings from the study is that the almost 40% of stock photographers use Canon. Here�s a visual representation of what most stock photographers use.

A couple more benefits as I understand it...

It's transparent.
When a buyer buys a photo, the photographers share goes directly to them.  It isn't put in a holding pot until you've got $100, and isn't calculated in the back end (full of bugs) and then tabulated at the end of the month.  When a purchase is made, you get the money - straight forward.

Less transaction costs
Credit card and paypal fees are between 4-5% .. that's 4-5% extra that could be going to us.  Using their own coin, the transaction cost doesn't exist.

--

What would be cool in the future is if the image file had a digital signature in it. When someone scraped the image off google and used it in their blog or office document, the software would ask - have you paid for this?  We can't see your purchase on the blockchain.  Please link your purchase or click here to license the image for $4.00. 

hello,

I am a student and stock photography is part time for me.
Am making $250-$300 per month from IS , SS and AS with a profile of around 1000 files.

Which site is better for you guys ?

take a look at the poll on the right - it'll give you a pretty good idea of which sites are best for people.

Please could someone in explain in one sentence, without jargon, what the benefit is of such sites to a customer.

The benefits are toted to be .. that the money can be transferred direct from the buyer to the photographer, no paypal middle man fees.  Some blockchain sites also claim to have some copyright protection embedded in the image.  I'm not totally sure how that works.. .. but it could be something like this...

A buyer buys a photo and pays for it with crypto
The transaction 'receipt' .. a reference to the record of the purchase on the blockchain (which is public) is embeded in the image.
If that image gets used by a second person or multiple people, it will be obvious because you will see that they are not the original purchaser of the image.  If that thief needs to prove they purchased the image, they won't be able to because there is no record of it on the blockchain.

What i'm not sure about however, is if I'm selling 'direct' to the buyer - am I going to be the one responsible for charging / reporting correct sales taxes to wherever the images are being sold.  If a buyer is in Norway, I should charge them 25% sales tax.  outside of Norway, no tax.

Quote from: NorthFace on April 15, 2018, 08:04

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 14, 2018, 18:50

I'd like to know how many IS Exclusives are taking the poll for that 267 number?

I forgot what the numbers are meaning. Is it 267% (167% more than all other agencies together)?

It's not a percentage as such, but 100 is a benchmark of some sort, meaning even SS is much lower than it used to be.

Yep that's right. 
A dollar amount wouldn't mean anything anyhow.  The number can be used as a ratio against other sites.  So a 60 site would earn 2x more than a site with rating 30

I haven't tallied up how many exclusives are voting, but my guess is it isn't many.  I assume it is a few people voting with high incomes.

This charade will struggle to get off the ground. The website looks amateur at best, and let's face it, a stock library is defined by the quality of its website to a large extent

Agreed.  The cost of the image is mostly in the time it takes for the designer to find it.  Usability of the site, accurate search results, and library quality are what matters.  I'm afraid this site gets low grades on all accounts.

Quote from: leaf on February 07, 2018, 09:52

You are right - threads could simply be locked. 
When a thread has nothing to do with microstock and the trash talk goes back far down the thread, I don't feel like sorting through it to try clean it up.  It is moved to a hidden area.  I don't feel the forum is any worse off or any useful information really goes missing when the thread is gone.

So why there is an off topic section?
And at this point why don't you just remove/lock/close it?
Or okay for an off topic section, but only related to photo, video, sound and illustration.

Of topic is for off topic discussion - not off-topic fighting, hating, bashing.  If off-topic discussion turns sour,I don't think we are missing much by having it removed.