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Messages - epixx
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6 7 8 9 ... 47
76
« on: August 04, 2009, 00:56 »
I've sent my ten photos to get accepted by Veer, mostly industrial and travel, since this is what I sell the most of. Since they asked me to send my ten best, I only sent photos that have been accepted by all other agencies, and only photos that are top sellers, which in my case means hundreds of sales. Many of the photos are motives that give zero hits when searching at Veer.
All rejected for different reasons, flat lighting being the most common. While Veer is obviously free to head in any direction that they want, I get a sneaking feeling here that somebody has had the brilliant idea that they are going to become something unique within this business.
If there's one thing that has been proven again and again, it is that uniqueness sells, but in tiny numbers, while those with large, complete selections of photos sell in large numbers. Like in iStock vs. Crestock or Dreamstime vs. Lucky Oliver.
Veer will possibly last longer than Snapvillage, but after a few searches for photos that I could use as a graphic designer, which is what I mostly do for a living, I'm not terribly impressed, and that goes for the flat lighting too.
77
« on: July 29, 2009, 05:18 »
Yes, I've had around $20 deducted today  Edit: the money is back. Don't ask what happened 
78
« on: July 23, 2009, 23:01 »
Something strange going on here. I have more sales at IS per day than currently at StockXpert in a month. Is this the punishment for opting out of subs?
79
« on: July 23, 2009, 22:55 »
Are designers real people?
80
« on: July 01, 2009, 08:10 »
No problems for me
81
« on: July 01, 2009, 06:22 »
Corbis has never mad money. I doubt they ever will. Can Getty survive the change of pace? They try to do that by buying the piranhas and changing them into their own mold. Although they may be partly successful in doing that, their success will never become the sum of their total acquisitions. The world simply isn't slow enough for that anymore.
The only certain thing is that there will be changes, that there will be new markets developing and new ways to use images. Were you on Facebook five years ago? Could you send and receive emails and photos on your mobile phone ten years ago? Did you use internet 20 years ago? What will come tomorrow may or may not build upon what was created yesterday. Maybe we're all safe with SS, IS and DT, but there's no rule saying that they will be the most important players in five years. Five years ago, they hardly existed.
82
« on: July 01, 2009, 05:40 »
Here we go. All figures compared to June 2008: SS 26%, down 40% IS 23%, up 61% DT 21%, up 70% FT 11%, up 5% 123 5%, down 1% CS 5%, up 1940% BS 4%, down 41% StockXpert 2%, down 55% CRE 1%, up 667% SCAN 1%, down 60% FP 1%, down 42% Total, down 1% since June 2008, up 1% since May 2009 Big fluctuations still for me, although the total volume is still going up. One thing is for sure: nothing is written in stone in this business yet. Oh, and btw.: the Canstock increase is real. It's a completely new world there now, and a new payout today 
83
« on: June 30, 2009, 23:52 »
RacePhoto, Dinosaurs consolidate, and while they are busy doing that, the piranhas bite them in the but. Unfortunately for the dinosaurs, they are so thick-skinned that they don't notice the bites of the piranhas. Not until one of them bite so hard that the dinosaur starts bleeding. Then they die. Alternatively, you can invest your savings in General Motors
84
« on: June 28, 2009, 18:47 »
Jeg er fra Brum, like utenfor Oslo, men jeg bor i Samut Prakan, like utenfor Bangkok. Tok feil av veien da jeg skulle hjem en kveld  
85
« on: June 28, 2009, 18:45 »
Same here. They'd better get it up and running again. I'm just one Euro from payout 
86
« on: June 23, 2009, 23:43 »
Ok, thanks. Probably cached at my ISP or somewhere else in the system. I have the same problem with all my browsers.
87
« on: June 23, 2009, 23:24 »
When I try to access Crestock, I get a page with the following message up:
"Our servers will be down from 6.00am GMT until 6.30 GMT for routine maintenance"
This has lasted for a day or two now. Anybody else?
88
« on: June 17, 2009, 19:15 »
What actually happened was that an image maybe 2 weeks old ended up on the last place of my portfolio when sorted according to popularity. Now tell me what incentive do I now have to submit more images to SS?
Wow... I hadn't noticed that before. All of my latest uploads are on the last pages
89
« on: June 17, 2009, 18:58 »
At least they are consistent: consistently slow  I keep uploading there. With all the turbulence in this business, unexpected things may happen, and they are ahead of StockXpert for me now, way ahead. That wasn't the case a year ago.
90
« on: June 17, 2009, 18:54 »
Still uploading. Had my first 100% rejected batch in a long time today. Rejects for cropping (food photos) and property release (swimming pool).
91
« on: June 12, 2009, 23:54 »
The best bargain out there right now is the Pentax K20D. You can have them as low as $650. It has 14MP, full weather sealing (as have a number of their lenses), one of the best viewfinders etc. The reason for the low price is mostly the launch of the new Pentax K7, which has more or less the same sensor, but is smaller but even better built and faster. Pentax makes some of the best lenses you can find, but they are mostly less expensive than Canikon.
Apart from that, all the DSLRs out there are good, although some will fit better in your hand than others.
92
« on: June 04, 2009, 19:33 »
They are the slowest paying site I submit to.
My latest payout on Featurepics (requested 2009/3/30) took amost a month.
Those are their terms: Payments requested one month is paid out by the end of the next.
93
« on: June 01, 2009, 00:15 »
Could it be that most critics of the US withholding tax have never before declared their income to their local fiscal authorities and for the first time realize that microstock is a business and that tax fraud is a crime?
Withholding taxes do exist in a lot of countries and you get back overpaid amounts when filling out your yearly tax declaration. Why should a honest taxpayer have a problem with that?
I have a problem with paying tax in a country where I don't live. The country that should receive my tax money is the one where I use the hospitals, the roads and other public services.
94
« on: June 01, 2009, 00:12 »
Just had another payout, the second one this year. That makes it worth it, doesn't it?
95
« on: June 01, 2009, 00:03 »
Here are my figures, all compared to May 2008:
IS 35%, up 55%, BME
SS 21% down 57%
DT 18%, up 5%
FT 11%, down 51%
StockXpert 4%, down 28%
BS 3%, down 25%
123 3%, up 4%
FP 2%, no sales last year
Scanstock 2%, same as last year
CS 1%, up 38%
CRE 1%, down 40%
Total, down 21% from May 2008 and down 24% from April 2009.
This is a strange development, since May is normally a strong month for me. It was the best month in 2008, while April 2009 was BME. May is WMY so far, even lower than January. I guess the holidays in May generated an optimum number of long weekends this year, at least in the western world, which probably influenced the results quite a lot.
The big winner is IS, while SS seems to be heading towards the ditch at an incredible speed.
Edit: I just had to check. May 2009 was the worst month at SS for me since September 2006 (excluding Decembers, which are very slow months for me). In September 2006, I had just started with microstock, and had a portfolio that was a fraction of what I have now.
96
« on: May 24, 2009, 14:00 »
When I see how long time it has taken a couple of other agencies (FP and CS) to build decent sales, I think I will give YAY a year or two more. I've had some sales with them, and they can succeed over time.
97
« on: May 22, 2009, 23:51 »
Great post Catastrophe Ummmm... you didn't just copy/paste it from the IS forum, did you
98
« on: May 21, 2009, 02:34 »
Number of sales seems to be relatively steady for me, but RPD has gone down more than 30% from April to May. Lots of subs
99
« on: May 18, 2009, 20:08 »
I'm also one of those that doesn't seem to have made the cut - granted I only submitted 84 images out of a portfolio of around 2500 - but - the sales record for SV and upload process and performance of the site left a lot to be desired.
In all I only made $32 there - but even when sales were recorded, there was no process of notification, and the payment that should have happened automatically only came through after a specific enquiry.
I can't see how alienating those who did put effort into a failing site through blanket rejections - apparently without any sort of review helps to create goodwill from people many of whom will be both contributors AND clients. Surely if you're starting up a new enterprise you can do better than that?
Interestingly, I haven't been transferred either (1,400 images at SV). I don't see it as a great loss, at least not for now, but when I look at images and portfolios that have been accepted, and that cover the same themes as I do, I'm not sure if I agree with them. Some themes that do very well for me are simply not covered at all. It will be interesting to see how they develop. Edit: I'm far too kind in my characteristics. I did a few searches from a buyers point of view, and the "young-smiling-girl-in-office" and some other mainstream themes seem to be well covered, but get a tiny bit off the beaten track and there are very big holes. These guys need all the photos they can get, and I wonder why they've limited the transfer from SV at all. As a buyer, I search at agencies that offer a wide variety of themes. If this is what Veer is planning to offer initially, they're already off my list. A few examples: A search for "Business jet" gives 22 hits at Veer, of which two show a business jet. "Lotus flower" on the other hand, gives 140 hits, and most of them are at least water lilies. Very few lotus flowers though. "Hanoi" gives one hit (people do buy travel photos, at least from my portfolio), and it's not even a good photo. I'm afraid they have a long way to go...
100
« on: May 15, 2009, 02:12 »
Good to know. One more question, how do they managed to put in on a Canon with Nikon mount? That would be customized , I s'pose?
Adapters for that are available from many sources. Since the flange to sensor distance is much shorter on a Canon than on a Nikon, no glass is needed in the adapter.
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