pancakes

MicrostockGroup Sponsors


Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - sharply_done

Pages: [1] 2
1
Off Topic / The Superbowl
« on: February 07, 2010, 19:47 »
... just curious to see how many sports fans there are here.

2
General Photography Discussion / Updating my website
« on: March 29, 2009, 05:15 »
I've spent the past few days updating my website. I tried to keep it easy, simple, and fast - take a look: http://www.strathdee.net

Any comments/suggestions/problems are welcomed.

3
Microstock Services / Twitter
« on: March 21, 2009, 17:04 »
I've been thinking a lot about Twitter lately, and how to best use it to drive traffic to my portfolio - the right approach might prove very profitable. Here's an easy way to get started: click.

It might be good to follow this Twitter group, too.

4
General Stock Discussion / John Lund interviews Ellen Boughn
« on: March 19, 2009, 11:00 »
A pertinent point from an industry veteran:

The [traditional stock] industry has made the mistake of creating too many of the same images over and over again. This is because instead of nurturing the photographers who have vision to combine both art and commerce to produce unique images within the standard salable subjects, they let creative decisions be driven by previous sales results and creative research based all on the same sources. This has resulted in a glut of images that all look alike. I like to call them the image de joureveryone runs out and shoots the same style and subject with the same look on the same day, it appears.

I believe that one reason that microstock had explosive growth aside from the price point was that users could find one-of-a-kind images. Now that the major production companies are putting the same old, same old but new images into micro in great volumes, the same problem could arise there.



Go here to read more, or here to read other interviews.

5
Shutterstock.com / EL & OD mania on SS
« on: March 16, 2009, 13:49 »
I've been getting plenty of ODs and ELs on SS in the past six weeks - anyone else seeing this?

6
iStockPhoto.com / Current IS review time
« on: March 13, 2009, 23:05 »
It's looking like a good time to upload to IS. I haven't uploaded anything there in quite a while - what's the current time between upload & approval for non-exclusives?

7
iStockPhoto.com / New IS Contributor Charts data
« on: January 29, 2009, 08:15 »
The IS Contributor Charts website has been revised to include two new columns:  DLs Last 90 Days and %Gain/Loss. This makes it very easy to see the effects of the latest best match change. Some familiar names here are among the biggest gainers. Click here to check it out.

8
Shutterstock.com / How did SS perform for you in Jan 09?
« on: January 28, 2009, 13:34 »
Compared to what you were expecting, how much did you earn on SS this month?

Edit: Changed title and locked voting on 3-Feb-09.


9
Shutterstock.com / Forgiss stops uploading
« on: January 20, 2009, 10:10 »
A well-known contributor gets fed up and decides to do something about it:
http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54499

Edit: Changed subject of posting - sorry to mislead.

10
General Stock Discussion / Are you uploading during Xmas?
« on: December 20, 2008, 07:06 »
Given the lowered demand for imagery in the coming weeks, are you adapting your uploading strategy to suit?

11
 ... looks like most people are getting plenty of OD sales on SS - how did you fare this month?

12
General Stock Discussion / Vivozoom
« on: September 10, 2008, 17:56 »
I just received a promo offer from Vivozoom.
What's the word on these guys and their 'fresh approach'?

13
After looking at this poll, I suspect that the number of low-earners are skewing the results.

Let's see some real numbers, people!

14
General Stock Discussion / Cover of Time Magazine, Part 2
« on: June 07, 2008, 19:17 »
People are going to jump all over me for saying it, but I think the recent Time Magazine front cover placement may actually be worth LESS than even the small microstock royalty!

Time could have easily gone to Flickr and asked just about anyone there for permission to use one of their baby photos (as you can imagine there are tons of them). Very few would have turned them down. From some of the 'I'm stoked' comments I've read on this and other forums, I'm certain there are people here too that would have given them the image for free.


So ... if an internationally-recognized and well-respected publication (Time and National Geographic are the only ones that come to mind) approached you to use one of your images on their cover in exchange only for a photo credit, would you accept?

15
Given the results of the recent poll about SS tier levels, I'm curious as to what people's ambitions are.

How do you see yourself fitting into this industry?

16
Site Related / A Record Breaker
« on: April 04, 2008, 13:05 »
I just noticed that today's a record breaking day for this site: 873 people online (so far). Controversy sure makes traffic!

17
General Stock Discussion / Uploading Strategies
« on: February 28, 2008, 14:22 »
I've been thinking lately about uploading strategy. The initial exposure an image gets can play a large role in its long-term performance, and I'm curious about the uploading strategies people use in an attempt to maximize this.

I typically upload in batches of 10 images.
For fast turnaround sites (FT, StockXpert, 123) I upload on Saturday through Wednesday so that images will be entered into the database on weekdays.
For sites that hold images in a queue (DT, BigStock, CS) I upload on weekdays.
For SS I upload as soon as my current batch is approved on Friday through Wednesday so that images are entered into the database on Monday through Friday. It was pretty fast to get images on SS when they approved batches daily, but it's taking longer to build my portfolio now that inspection time has increased.
For IS I upload in batches of 5 as soon as a window opens.

Am I overthinking things?
What is your approach?

18
iStockPhoto.com / Gold!
« on: February 20, 2008, 16:44 »
Huzzah ... I made gold level at IS today with this sale:



It took me longer to get here than I anticipated, but things
should start to get better now that I can upload 30 images/wk!

19
SnapVillage.com / SnapVillage payments
« on: December 31, 2007, 08:18 »
I was supposed to receive my SnapVillage royalty by Dec. 21, but it has yet to show up at PayPal.

Anyone else having a SnapVillage payment problem?

20
General - Top Sites / Site Productivity
« on: November 29, 2007, 16:15 »
A prime indicator of how productive a site is the ratio of downloads to uploads. A good site, for me, is one where I can achieve more downloads than uploads (i.e. DLs/ULs > 1.0).

Here are my numbers:
IS: 13.9:1
SS: 8.9
DT: 1.6
FT: 1.0
StockXpert: 0.3
CRE: 0.3
123: 0.2
BigStock: 0.2

IS is by far my most productive site. How do your numbers compare?

21
Shutterstock.com / High reject rate at SS
« on: November 28, 2007, 00:27 »
My rejection rate at SS has increased dramatically in my last few batches - anyone else seeing this, or is it just me?

22
Crestock.com / New lower $50 payout level on Crestock
« on: November 13, 2007, 19:02 »
I just visited Crestock and noticed this ... time to get my money!

23
SnapVillage.com / Freezingpics on Snapvillage
« on: October 10, 2007, 15:06 »
After doing my daily upload to Snapvillage I took a short break to browse their library. I was delighted to see that our own illustrious penguin man - freezingpics - is very highly visible: he has second place in the 'snappiness' ratings, first place in the 'editor's picks' ratings, as well as two other images in that same elite grouping. Check it out by clicking here.

Way to go, Jan - keep up the great work!

24
Crestock.com / Image of the Day
« on: October 10, 2007, 10:57 »
Check it out: I've been selected as Crestock's 'Today's Best Image'!



25
iStockPhoto.com / Flame On!
« on: September 27, 2007, 05:44 »
Woohoo - I just got my first red flame on IS!


Pages: [1] 2

Sponsors

Mega Bundle of 5,900+ Professional Lightroom Presets

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors