Thanks to all who commented.  It's very much appreciated.  Yes I need to review the eCommerce aspect of the site.  The guys who put this together for me missed that requirement and now they say it can't be done.  Fortunately I've some friends in this business and I'll let them take a look at the coding and see what they have to say.

Robin, I activated the right click blocking to discourage the casual thief.  I know it's not that difficult to get around but hoped that would be sufficient.  I really didn't want to add a watermark, but if it becomes necessary that's an option.

Again, thanks everyone for their comments.

You have some really great images on the site but I will comment from my day job perspective working with eCommerce website design and build.

I know you say it's not just for selling images but, as a buyer, I want to go straight from the image to a buy/enquire option. Even if you don't want/can't set up a pay and download option, it would be better for a potential buyer to be able to click on an image of interest and go to a form (or at the very simplest, a pre-formatted email). allowing further details about use to be added if necessary, and sent to you with one click. Better still, let the buyer add images to a cart/lightbox to allow multiple enquiries in one go.

The image sequence displayed on the home page runs a bit fast for my liking (I know you have a pause button) and it's a little unhelpful that the sequenced images have captions and descriptions (which are hard to read in the time on screen) but this info is not displayed when selecting the image with a click.

I wish you the best of luck with the website. Although building it seems like a lot of effort it's nothng compared to the SEO and promotion work you need to do to get the right visitors to it!

Thanks for the comments.  I'll have to check into the direct click option.  Don't know if I can make that work with this program or not, but it sounds like a reasonable concept.

I agree with the speed of the images.  I've been trying to change that but the default speed seems to be stuck.  Just need to keep after it until it's fixed.  I've had some comments that I shouldn't put any description on the home page images, but I felt they needed to be there.  Don't know why it doesn't show up when you click on the image from the home page.  It shows up from the search and in the galleries.  Another item for the to-do list.

And you are correct.  To quote the SEAL saying ... "The only easy day was yesterday."  Now the real work begins.

I've finally gotten around to begin setting up my own web site.  It's not quite done yet, but complete enough to get comments.  It's function is not just for selling images, but various services as well.  While it uses a WP template, it does not utilize Symbiostock or woo-commerce.  The only comment I've received back to date is that there may be too many similars too close together in some of the categories.  I'd appreciate any thoughts or suggestions you may have.   http://russellshively.photography

I have already uploaded about 1800 images, most of those looks they are in pending cut-out situation (what ever it means?). About two three weeks ago I first time checks out my online images and there was 880 and now 871 images.

At the moment I do not upload any more, I wait, what's going to happen for cut-out and online images.

Agree with what others have said.  There's a very good chance images that are currently "pending cutout" will likely never get through.  This is based on prior comments from Lee combined with what's going on with existing portfolios.  What I've done is to cut out my own images and save them as PNG files.  When submitted, these seem to go straight through and begin to sell shortly thereafter.  Never had one rejected or deleted.

Quote from: w7lwi on June 25, 2015, 20:00

Quote from: Nikovsk on June 25, 2015, 15:15

Quote from: w7lwi on June 25, 2015, 15:09

OK just got my e-mail from Getty that I was paid ... yes ... $99.58.  So I guess the $100 minimum means close to $100.  No complaints.   

No, they are based in US now and keep 30% tax for US sales.

While true for non-US contributors, I am in the US and nothing was withheld from the payment.  This was my actual total earnings (such as it was) at the close of May 30, 2015.

I thought US contributors get to fill the W9 and no part of the income is withheld. At the end of the year, a 1099 is sent with the total earnings for the year on which taxes are paid (to the US as US person).

That is correct.  We fill out a W-9 and nothing is withheld (with a few special exceptions).  The 1099 is only required to be sent if the yearly earnings amount to $600 or more.  It is sent to both the contributor and to the IRS.  Earnings less than $600 are the responsibility of the contributor to report to the IRS.   

Well Symbiostock is a WP theme.

I have bought a theme on Themeforest (Envato) for $38 to use on my wedding site, maybe you can find something there as well. Some quality themes on there, including support.

Thanks Ron. I had purchased PhotoNexus from Themeforest so that's why I was confused by my IT guy.

Has anyone here used a WordPress template for their photography web site?  I was looking at setting up a site using WordPress, but my IT web designer claims WP doesn't allow a search of IPTC keywords, only the description field.

Now I'm really conflicted here.  I've avoided uploading to FT mostly because of their less than honorable practices as detailed on numerous posts on MSG.  Now with this move, it seems that in order to take advantage of the Adobe CC sales I have to upload to FT and risk all the negative things people have been complaining about for the past year or more.  If I could upload directly to AS it would be a no brainer.  But including FT as a middleman agency is causing a lot of heartburn.

Quote from: w7lwi on June 14, 2015, 20:12

Quote from: Dumc on June 13, 2015, 05:23

Quote from: wordplanet on June 13, 2015, 01:23

That makes sense. My payment method has been the same for years now, only difference is I don't have to request payment. I think I was just under $100 on May 31 and the May PP kicked me over. I just wasn't sure if the May PP would count for May or June, since in the past I just requested payment whenever I noticed I was over $100, it didn't have to be by the end of the month. I filled out the tax interview, so I should be all set with the new system. Thanks.

If you were just under 100$ on May 31, then you will not receive payment. Because, how can automated system know, you are stil waiting for PP for May, which is reported on June. If the system sees, you haven't reached 100$ mark on the last day of month, then it doesn't automatically process your payment.

According to my records, my balance on May 31 was $99.58.  On June 7 it had increased to $105+ (I only check once a week due to low earnings).  Today it had dropped to just over $10.  I don't know if PP bumped the May 31 dollar value over the $100 threshold or what may have happened.  Guess I'll have to wait until the 25th to look in my PayPal account to see if I get paid and by what amount.

Then you will have had over $100 at the end of May.  The PP for May is not included in the June payment.

You don't have to wait until the 25th of June to see how much; check your payouts report (under the Financials tab) and it will show what payment is pending.

OK, ponder this.  I checked the payouts report.  It stated that I had a payout of $99.58 pending as of May 31, 2015.  Less than the $100 minimum.  And current balance still shows as $10.36.  So do you now get a payout when you get "close" to $100?   

How does Canva work?
I've signed-up with Canva and am interested in participating with the Canva site.
I guess I'm missing something here; how does Canva work?
Do I create the designs and post them for sale?  Do I upload photos like any other site for designers to use?
I seem to be stuck on what to do next and am having a hard time finding such information.

Just need a bit of a nudge to get going here.   
thx,
Rick Zepp
[email protected]

Just upload images the same as any other site.  The designs are made by their customers using the images uploaded.  If you can make/upload PNG files with an acceptably transparent BG, those seem to sell quite well (for me at least).  An acceptably transparent BG means no debris on the BG or subject edges when viewed over a red, green, blue, white and black field (individually of course  ).

I just noticed that I have two images that had been approved and sold are now marked as soft rejections.  Is this the same as what's been reported as images removed from CANVA?  I've had no images physically removed from the CANVA site, only the status changed from approved to rejected(s).

Quote from: ultimagaina on May 26, 2015, 09:02

Your horizon doesn't look horizontal too me.

I noticed the tilted horizon too, but since that wasn't a reason for the rejection�

Looking closely at the image, it looks to me as if there is a coastline on the horizon and the water is following the coast, rather than being slanted.

Lee,

In spite of continued assurances since last year, all of my images that have been marked "processing" are still in the same state.  As no apparent progress appears to be being made to correct this CANVA problem, I intend to re-upload these images over the next two weeks. You can simply go ahead and dump the old images marked processing as I have little to no confidence they will ever be corrected, in spite of previous statements that they are now your "highest priority".

Russ