Hi Paul,

can you try logging in to fotolia through http://www.fotolia.com with your user information? That's what Microstock Monitor is trying to do.

Thanks,
Michael

I could imagine that the main target of LO is/was to sell the site right from the beginning (nothing wrong about that) . They have a low commission-rate, a modern up-to-date design etc that would really fit in a plan like this. For a bigger company (like corbis) it would probalby still be cheaper to buy a site than build from the scratch. And a buy like this would be a big advertisment for any site (just look at the deal IS-Getty) so they could sell right from the beginning.
Disclaimer: Again this is just my imagination

Just a reason more to stay with them, right? :-)

All the best,
Michael

Hi all!

Which license are you using at featurepics? I'm currently using RF + business extension. Which one are you using? I've been with them for a month with competitive prices and haven't sold a single photo (those are doing very well at other agencies). Maybe it's the wrong license? I chosed it because it seems to give buyers the most flexibility.

Thanks,
Michael

Hi all,

due to the frustration with microstock watcher (support didn't reply to my e-mails either) and because I like programming, I wrote my own software to receiving stats:

http://microstockmonitor.unfolded.com

There is also a dedicated forum on Microstock Monitor in this forum (in the software section).

I'm looking forward to see you there.

Ah yes...and Microstock Monitor is of course free :-)

All the best,
Michael

Hi Berry,

it's on my ToDo list: http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=1209.0 . I will look into that soon and definitely try to resolve it.

Many thanks,
Michael

Hi!

Well, I'll definitely give it a try. I'm curious how it turnes out. I'm also in the process of adding them to the Microstock Monitor software (see signature and software forum), now that I'm accepted.

All the best,
Michael

It's like that with stockxpert. They will review your photos and only after that you need to describe the accepted ones. Very convenient, but I don't know how they handle keyword spaming with that system.

All the best,
Michael

Hi all,

I've created a seperate thread where I maintain all features which are considered for future releases. That other thread is sticky and locked, it's just "for your information".

Let's keep discussing all issues in this thread for now. If traffic goes up, I'll create some sticky threads with dedicated topics (Features, Bugs, Questions, ...).

By the way ... if you want to do me a favour - please spread the word about Microstock Monitor. Feel free to tell people about it in the various stock forums which you partecipate in. Would be awesome!

All the best,
Michael

WOW guys!

Thanks for the great feedback so far. I'll summarize and answer below:

autorefresh
Cool idea! But shouldn't autorefresh too often, else the agencies will suffer slowdown from to many requests. I'll consider it as a "nice to have" feature.

more than 1 account on the same stock
Is that allowed? I'll only implement it if there is considerable demand for it. I'll consider it as a "nice to have" feature.

can it run from an USB stick
The program currently stores its data (in particular user info) in the windows temp folder. You can run it from an USB stick (just copy libcurl.dll and MicrostockMonitor.exe), but the user info which you enter will be specific to the computer were it is used (i.e., you will have to re-enter it and it will be stored on your work computer!). I'll consider changing the program so that the user info is stored in the same directory as the program, then it will be truly portable by copying the dll, the exe and the user config file onto the stick. I'll consider it as a "nice to have" feature.

screen shots & feature page
Absolutely - you are right. I'll consider this a priority task.

paypal button
Sounds good --> "nice to have" feature...first do the important stuff :-)

adding 123RF, FeaturePics, CanStock and iStockPhoto
iStockPhoto is next (application is already prepared, but not implemented, that is why you see the "ToDo" messages). Is featurepics selling? I'm a member there with 400 photos and haven't sold anything in a month. 123RF sounds good, I will have to sign up there and try it. CanStock ... is it selling?
--> iStockPhoto will come very soon (got accepted today), others are "nice to have", but I will consider them. 123RF probably earlier than the others since someone said it's easy to upload there, I'll consider opening an account soon.

LO shows 'N/A'
I wasn't able to figure out the "current downloads", i.e., the downloads in this period (month) with them. Is there such an info for them? I only see the total downloads.

Each time I refresh the statistics, it erases all the posts from the SS Latest Topics page
Tricky...it should only re-log in if the application is restarted. I'll look into that.

All the best,
Michael

Hi all,

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Michael and I'm from Austria. I've been doing microstock with shutterstock for about one year now and recently also joined the other "big" microstock agencies. I don't know about you, but I'm one of the statistic freaks who usually check their sales very frequently. Of course, when I joined all the other microstock sites, this got very time consuming.

Luckily, my other "hobby" is programming. Therefore I started to write a software which would pull all the relevant stats from all the agencies which I contribute to and display them in a small window. Recently I've finished this software and have been using it a lot for myself.

Today, I'd like to announce that I'm providing this software, which I call "Microstock Monitor" to anyone for free. Microstock Monitor is a local windows application and it is from now on available for download at:


and currently supports Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Fotolia, BigStockPhoto, StockXpert and LuckyOliver. iStockphoto is coming very soon.

Since I really appreciate the value of Microstock Group forums, I did contact Tyler (aka Leaf) and asked him if he could provide a forum to discuss Microstock Monitor in exchange for a link in the application. While it's easy enough to setup a forum these days, I did not want to set up just another forum, but rather work togeter with my favourite microstock discussion site in bringing this software to you. Tyler kindly accepted (after testing the software) - many thanks!

One question which Tyler immediately asked me was:

What assurance can you provide to myself and others that the software is safe to use (ie, password, user theft)?

which I answered with:

The software will run on the local computer of the user and will store all user information locally. It does not send the user information anywhere, except for the microstock agency web sites. The user can configure their firewall to allow the software to only communicate with the websites of the microstock agencies and therefore avoid any mis-communication with unknown servers. Windows standard firewall allows such a configuration.

Another question is which compensation I get for developing and maintaining this free software for you. The answer is quite simple. I've a links section on the Microstock Monitor website and links inside the software which have my referal code added to them. So if you like Microstock Monitor then I'd greatly appreciate it if you use one of those links to sign up with microstock agencies, which might give me a little compensation for my work. Thanks!

Said that, please go to http://microstockmonitor.unfolded.com and give it a try. I'd love to see you using this free software and I'd love to get your feedback in this forum. This is a new software, so I fully expect that it may have bugs (although it runs very stable on my machine) - so please report them back here as well!

Many thanks and all the best,
Michael

Hi all,

I got accepted at istock. Now I'm at all of the "big 5" plus a few of the upcoming ones.

But is istock really worth the pain? There are no FTP uploads. The website upload system does not read the IPTC data of my photos (anyone else got the problem?). The ImageManager software seems cumbersome to use (can't I add 5 photos _at once_) and it doesn't like my IPTC keyword format (it interprets all keywords as a single one).

And I haven't started about the 15 per week limit for non exclusives yet.

Is istock worth all the pain?

Michael

Hi!

Best luck for your second try. I also applied with istockPhoto and lucky oliver - haven't heard anything from them yet. The first agency which I applied with was shutterstock...about 2 years ago. Got accepted with them, they are making the biggest profit for me - try to get with them if you are not yet.

All the best,
Michael

Hi!

I'm on version 1.5 and luckyoliver.com always gives me an error. Does anyone else have this issue?

StockXpert doesn't seem to work either... :-(

Thanks,
Michael