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Messages - jareso
26
« on: July 22, 2013, 14:16 »
I never cared about social networking at all before, because I relied/rely on other ways and strategies of reaching conversions, such as content, SEO, paid advertising, etc. But I decided to experiment little bit also with social networking. So recently I created my social profiles and now I will see what will happen the next. 
27
« on: July 15, 2013, 10:15 »
Just out of interest is there anyone out there considering Symbiostock but is holding back?
Definitely extremely complicated bureaucracy/legislation/tax requirements that must be meet if someone wants to sell virtual goods directly from his own online store. (At least from where I am based. Slovakia, European Union.) I mean those requirements are REALLY complicated. Most of you probably cannot even imagine not even in your wildest dreams how can be some of those legislation requirements complicated here! In contrast selling through stock agencies is relatively easy from point of view of bureaucracy/legislation/tax requirements, because those complicated/problematic parts of business are left on stock agency.
28
« on: July 08, 2013, 09:47 »
To you steheap it may seem that you are on number 1 position, no matter whether you are logged in or not, but that doesnt mean that you are on number 1 position also for other people who are logged in under their Google accounts. This is it. They are served with their personalized search results. I am of course happy for you that you are on number 1 position in SERP with lonesome bengal cat, that is great to hear!  All I wanted to note in reply to cclapper was, that there no real fixed positioning in SERP exist. Thats all.
29
« on: July 08, 2013, 06:01 »
I have noticed that many of my images on my SY site show higher than the agencies. I am hoping that it is the power of the SEO.
Yes, it may be power of your and SY SEO! You are lucky than. Power of SY concept seems to be really strong! But, just one side note when talking about this. I dont want to disappoint you in anyway cclapper, but I hope that when you perform searches for positions of your pages in Google, that you dont have Google's personalized search results turned on at that time. Remember that positions of content (websites) people see in SERP are usually based on their personal preferences. Preferences internally collected by Google during people interacting with it. There is nothing like fixed position in SERP of your (or anyone's) website! Someone may see your website positioned higher, whereas some other person may see it positioned lower in SERP. (Based on personalized search results Google serves to them.) Important is overall performance, and weight of your website in eyes of search engine. Here good webmaster's practices, SEO, and good on-site content can help greatly. (But no fixed position exist. No position that appears same in SERP for everyone.)
30
« on: July 08, 2013, 03:34 »
Yes, I think too! There must be some bots, or reviewer with bad mood, or whatever.
Recently, after long time (years) of not uploading to them, I decided that I will upload the rest of my portfolio to them and they rejected almost everything saying: Similar Image, even to images that are not similar to anything. What is that?!?
I still have few hundreds of photos in unfinished line, but I am not sure whether to submit them now to pending line, or whether it wouldnt be better to wait for some time.
31
« on: July 08, 2013, 02:47 »
I have a strong feeling you dreamt about Symbiostock.
Yes, actually I am strongly thinking about that for a long time. It would be good to setup my own direct selling channel for my images, be it either Symbiostock or completely new direct selling system I will write myself from scratch for purposes of my personal online store. (I actually started to write my own direct selling system for my website, but it is faaar from finished.) The biggest problem is that I cannot setup my online store unless find solution to TONs of bureaucratic problems that my own direct selling personal website could possibly bring me due crazy local, and EU legal/bureaucratic requirements.  (But that is another story.)
32
« on: July 08, 2013, 02:11 »
Shouldn't be in the ideal world (utopia) author's personal website always ranking much better in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) than any other website, such as stock agencies were he might be also showcasing his images online?! I believe YES! Pity that search engines didn't see it this way too ... Actually, I am not sure why I am writing this here now. It was simply the first thing that came to my mind when I woke up this morning.  I believe that in ideal world there should be some authorize tool available on side of search engines, such as in Google's Webmaster tools, where author (photographer, illustrator, etc.) could authorize his personal website (his own online store) as main source where his works are available for sale. After that his images showcased on his personal website should always rank much better in SERP than his images that are available at stock agencies or in any other online place. Because he is author of those images, thus naturally his own personal website should be treated as the main, and the original source of his works! Shouldn't it be this way?!
33
« on: July 01, 2013, 09:34 »
Sorry to writing to this thread, but I dont want to create separate thread for this.
My suggestion is that it would be also good if there was displayed how much +(pluses) and -(minuses) one received near every post.
Not only total result.
It would much better describe overall picture of post quality based on voting in my opinion.
34
« on: June 30, 2013, 02:19 »
My last sale has 0 views, don't think you should care about views on yay.
Yes, I think that views are not counted for sales through partner sites thats why even 0 views images can have sales. But it is just my guess.
35
« on: June 28, 2013, 15:13 »
Doesn't SS do the same thing?
At ShutterStock it is different. There are no titles at ShutterStock at all. Only descriptions (called captions, but it is the same) are there, so it is not important whether titles are read from IPTC or not. But on Photokore titles are required otherwise photos cannot be submitted for review!
36
« on: June 28, 2013, 09:39 »
It happened to me too.  I decided that I will give this agency a try with my new photos, after a long time of not uploading to them. (I already have there 85 online photos that I uploaded there sometime in 2011.) Today, I uploaded there more, about 400 photos through FTP and all are missing titles! Descriptions and keywords went trough just fine, but titles are lost and not read from IPTC! Anyway, I am not willing to write those titles photo-by-photo again in their web upload application. So I deleted what I uploaded today and will probably not upload there more. I just dont understand how can they have such error there?! (That error completely discourages from further uploading.)
37
« on: June 27, 2013, 04:34 »
Thank you for suggestion pancaketom.
I finally contacted 123rf directly and they told me that they upgraded their uploading system recently to serve contributors better.
They also processed my images from ftp so now I see them in their agency and that is what I wanted.
38
« on: June 26, 2013, 15:45 »
For me it also doesnt work. Today, after long, long time (years) I uploaded new files to 123RF using FTP, it was uploaded OK, but I realized that there is no way how to process them so they will appear on 123RF. Or is there?! On My Upload History page when I click: FTP Upload: If you have uploaded photos via FTP, click here to process uploaded files.It leads to 404 not found page. http://submit.123rf.com/ftpresults.phpWhen I login to FTP I see all 383 files I uploaded today there. But is there some way how to process them (copy my files from FTP to "unfinished line" on 123RF website)?
39
« on: June 23, 2013, 02:29 »
If someone successfully refers people to Symbiostock, they get bonus traffic from around the network for a given amount of time.
Good ideas Leo! But as I understand it this traffic sharing in form of referral bonus that will be given to website bringing traffic will work only if person participating on this kind of referral program has Symbiostock website. But how will you to reward people that are outside of Symbiostock network? How to motivate people outside of Symbiostock or completely outside of stock photograhy field to participate on Symbiostock promotion? Or you dont want promotion from outside? Do you want to rely only on power of network and its photographers participating on promotion? Maybe it is really enough. (I dont know the answer, time will show.) Yes, your network is getting stronger and stronger by new sites being included, which brings new possibilities how to take advantages from that strong power Symbiostock networking brings. But I guess it would be also good if you had something that will motivate people outside of this community in promotion. (Through I am not sure what it should be, or how it should work.)
40
« on: June 23, 2013, 01:26 »
Easily! A bonus traffic program.
I am not sure what exactly to imagine by bonus traffic program, but I will let myself be surprised what it will be when it will be. 
41
« on: June 22, 2013, 05:49 »
Leo, dont you think about creating affiliate/referral program for Symbiostock so also people outside of stock community (not stock photographers/illustrators) will have stronger motivation to promote Symbiostock sites/network? I actually have no idea how exactly should that Symbiostock affiliate/referral program work, because of course Symbiostock is about 100% earnings from sales going to pocket of image author, whereas affiliate/referral programs are about sharing of some % from image sales. That is contradictory at a first glance. So I don't know whether it should (or could) be similar to typical programs used by stock agencies, that are based on sharing of percentage from sales. Or whether it should be some completely different/revolutionary marketing affiliate/referral scheme that Symbiostock will establish. I am just curious, thats all ... whether you plan something like affiliate/referral program in future of Symbiostock , or no?
42
« on: June 20, 2013, 06:55 »
this article by John Lund is pure BS, what he says was true maybe in 2009, nothing of what he recommends is working in 2013, now it's all about being linked by top-tier authority sites, even buying links is reported in SEO sites to be not working anymore.
by the way, to top it off he claims to be a webmaster but his blog is hosted on a free Blogger account and using the default template !
Xanox why dont you want to understand the truth the free lunch is still possible! (Yes, I agree it is not that easy as it was before, but still done-able.) Thus SEO rules mentioned in that article are still important and they have their real value and substantiation! For example, there have already been first sales on websites from Symbiostock network without their owners doing any paid advertising! How is that possible?!?! Guess how. Because SEO rules and free lunch (picking of image buyers directly from SERP for free) still works! Thats it! Btw. nothing against you Xanox. I more or less understand what you want to say by words that what worked in 2009 doesn't work in 2013 anymore. But I think your opinions regarding SEO are way too negative, because you say that there is no free lunch possible at all. I say that there is. But the truth is somewhere in the middle. Free lunch is still possible when SEO is done with great care and points in that article are good beginning to it!
43
« on: June 20, 2013, 06:18 »
Paid advertising of various kinds is by faaaaaaaar the most effective way how to find image buyers. But also some free promotion that comes to my mind quickly: 1.) Post lower resolution (or watermarked) images from your website on social networks, such as on Facebook, Twitter, G+, etc. with links to respective image preview pages on your website. 2.) Have links to your website in forum signatures where allowed. 3.) If you are not English speaker mention your website in your local/mother tongue forums, blogs, etc. where you will explain how great Symbiostock system is and as a prove of your words you will give your website link there as working example. This will also promote Symbiostock as whole as well as your website. 4.) Give some advantage (such as some discount) to buyers if they will link (with active click-able link) back to your website from their online projects where they placed images purchased from you. 5.) Similar can be with free images. Maybe you should allow your website's visitors to use your lower resolution images for free (such as up to 600px, etc.), with condition that they must provide backlink to your website. Permanent and good quality backlinks can be sometimes much more valuable than some small $ price that would buyer pay for lower resolution image. Overall old truth have good/quality on-site content, such as quality images, good blog articles (perhaps with topics and themes in which image buyers may be interested), etc. and people will do your promotion for free when they will spread links to your website by themselves. Also another idea, maybe Symbiostock system should have (develop) some kind of quality affiliate/referral program that will motivate even more people in Symbiostock promotion. I mean motivate people not from stock photography origin (people outside of this community) in Symbiostock promotion.
44
« on: June 18, 2013, 02:22 »
Phillip Minnis I like your venetian gondolas and scenes very much, they are beautiful. The post-production you have done on your images is really awesome. You have my honest vote/like!
45
« on: June 17, 2013, 01:45 »
I would prefer if there was also check box to run searching by count of downloads.
+ Count of downloads shown under preview images.
So it will be easy to see how sales are going in Symbiostock network.
46
« on: June 14, 2013, 02:50 »
If your website was completely new than your previous higher traffic may have been caused by effect of initial traffic boost that new websites receive from Google when they are being included in its SERP for the first time.
47
« on: June 10, 2013, 01:30 »
Congratulations on sale! I am also trying to do videos, but so far no luck with sales, anyway I still hope that one day maybe they will came. Btw. can you please show the video that you sold?
48
« on: June 09, 2013, 15:13 »
It is nice idea!
Regarding the SEO impact.
I dare to say that removal of royalty-free words will have minimal negative impact on SEO (if any).
Most of image buyers search for images in external search engines using keywords and phrases describing images they are looking for. Such as if buyers are looking for images of Orava castle they simply type Orava castle, or Orava castle images/photos, or similar phrase.
49
« on: June 08, 2013, 12:31 »
Believe it or not, but principle shown in that hypothetical story is not uncommon here.
But OK, of course you are absolutely free to think what you want.
(Really no offense.)
Just to answer your question. They will tell you that you should become "VAT payer" prior to making business with company based in another EU member state, exactly just as law requires. But that will mean that financial bureau will give you your VAT ID and you will loose ability to have simplified accounting. And that is not worth for most of people. They would rather prefer not do business with companies based in another member states of EU, than to have VAT ID and loose ability to have simplified accounting.
So, ... anyway, I said pretty much all what I wanted to say to this thread ...
(No need for me to try to persuade anyone here.)
50
« on: June 08, 2013, 02:39 »
Yes, in Slovakia we also have something more or less similar to what you described. When someone runs business like that he is required to do only very simplified accounting, and he is not required to know all data of those with whom he made business, he just reports total money he spent and received, he pays taxes, social insurance, hearth insurance, etc. and he is fine. (Of course this is just very simplified explanation.) But problem is that you cannot do this, I mean to have this kind of simplified accounting: 1.) If you are company (kind of LLC, INC equivalents) 2.) Or if your income crossed some threshold. 3.) Or when you DID BUSINESS, received, or sent money, from/to company based in another member state of EU!!! PRIOR to doing business with that company based in other member state of EU you are required to become so called "VAT payer" (otherwise you will receive BIG financial penalty from bureau), and since than you must run different type of accounting! Not that simplified version any more. I am not accountant. I have accountant who is doing all that for me, because I wouldnt dare to do it myself. It is waaaay to complicated, because I must do full accounting, not simplified. But, of course, I have learned many things since I do business here. And non-simplified accountings are of course many, many times harder to do, with various requirements I described in previous posts! Here is one of those dangers I was speaking about. Hypothetical story for example: ***Imagine you are person who is required to run just simplified accounting, you will setup your own personal photo store, and you are of course very happy about that! But one day some company from EU will land on your website, purchase while you are away,(your photo store is automatic system it doesnt need your support), you will came to your PC and see that you have had sale. YAY, you are sooooo happy and you starting to think about many ways how you are going to celebrate this sale ... but wait ... then you will notice that buyer was from other member state of EU ... ahhhhh, no, $#@##, @#$$ ... and now your happy days come to end! Right now, by this sale, you committed serious legal/accounting violation! You didnt reported fact you are going to do business with company based in another member of EU PRIOR this business happened. You should have asked your financial bureau to become "VAT payer" PRIOR this, and they should have give you your VAT ID, which you should have used during current and future transactions. Now you should go to financial bureau and report yourself that you committed this violation, so that they can give you your VAT ID at least afterwards, and of course you will be given BIG penalty for not doing things right. If you dont go to report yourself to financial bureau you will be given another BIG penalty for not reporting yourself dont worry they WILL find out, soon or later. In this online world it is easy. They may check money transfers at company that sent you money, finding out you made business with company in another member state of EU. And of course since now, and ever after, you are required to run much harder type of accounting, with much more requirements. No way to return back to simplified accounting. ***End of hypothetical story. Was that worth? For sale of one image, maybe for 5$?!? Isnt it better to receive money just from companies based in non-European countries, such as USA? This is how EU "helps" flow of business inside union! 99.99% of people from here, such as: photographers, illustrators, programmers, etc. people doing business online dont do business with companies that are based in another member state of EU. Never ever! In no way! If they find out that company is based in EU, they dont want to hear about it any more! If you came to local (Czech, Slovak) microstock forum, where agencies and online places where to submit photos are discussed, you would find that almost always the most important question is: Is that agency based in EU? If yes, everyone advices you: Beware! Dont register and dont sell there it is company based in EU!! You will have "VAT payer" problems. So this is how EU really "helps" trade inside union ...
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