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Messages - charged
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26
« on: May 17, 2020, 15:06 »
Never mind folks. I see on their site now they only allow Getty releases. Kinda ridiculous.
Not true. They allow generic releases. I use Yuri Arcurs's generic version and I upload to iStock. Never ever had a problem. http://arcurs.com/2008/05/what-is-a-model-release/
27
« on: May 14, 2020, 08:20 »
The more relevant keywords the better. Because you actually have no idea what words different customers use for searching. On iStock you can see which keywords are used most often to find each image by looking at the keywords order on their individual landing page. Clearly that website runs A/B testing on each keyword and see if it leads to click throughs.
Where do you see keywords order? Can you show me a screenshot? I find Related Searches useful on Dreamstime. I can see that iStock has this option too.
On iStock you need to click into the landing page for each image, then scroll to the bottom of the page to look at the keywords. If all the keywords are in alphabetical order, it means they haven't done enough tests to figure out which keywords are testing better for that image. Otherwise you will see the first few keywords that are clearly out of alphabetical order and the rest are in alphabetical order. The ones in front out of order are the ones that through testing, they have seen customers use those keywords to find that image.
28
« on: May 13, 2020, 16:52 »
The more relevant keywords the better. Because you actually have no idea what words different customers use for searching. On iStock you can see which keywords are used most often to find each image by looking at the keywords order on their individual landing page. Clearly that website runs A/B testing on each keyword and see if it leads to click throughs.
29
« on: May 13, 2020, 11:00 »
Most likely that is done by visual search by their algorithm and not done by keywords.
30
« on: May 11, 2020, 16:15 »
I wouldn't send my work there, but if you search thorough their collection, there is a lot of high quality contents there.
31
« on: May 11, 2020, 12:33 »
No problems logging into ESP just now and I used DM last night to upload.
32
« on: May 05, 2020, 09:13 »
The collapse in pricing just means everyone stops making high quality and time consuming content. The return on revenue just doesn't justify the cost. Kind of unfortunate there isn't a easy way for the stock agencies to use software to understand which contents should be priced higher due to the level of efforts required.
33
« on: April 29, 2020, 10:00 »
Sent you a PM.
34
« on: April 29, 2020, 09:55 »
iStock exclusivity was never a thing I did consider for myself as I was with other agencies before iStock even existed. But I don't think that is really that bad. I do think you get a huge bump in search results if you are exclusive.
People hate iStock for valid reasons but the other agencies are not better.
Someone announced a software a couple a weeks ago that can read out the keywords at iStock and put them into your files automatically I think it was in this forum try a search for it. I'm 100% sure I read about it so there is a solution for your problem.
I take it you mean this - https://www.microstockgroup.com/software/stocktool-save-your-keywords-backup-your-online-stock-data/
It's not free though, and it doesn't say that it translates the disambiguated keywords; unless it does, the problem would still remain as explained by Jo Ann. Unless someone has access to the iStock dictionary so they could write something to reverse the controlled vocabulary terms to more general terms, e.g. Residential Structure back to "House", etc., you'd still need to go through the keywords yourself.
So yes, it might be of some use but you'd have to decide for yourself if it was really worth it to you.
If all the keywording would take you more than 10 hours, and you count your time as at least $15 per hour, then the software is worth it. As far as changing the CV terms to general terms, maybe the developer can be prodded to make that update, or maybe it already exists in the software, since the software has been built for iStock exclusives leaving exclusivity.
35
« on: April 28, 2020, 19:05 »
I second the opinion to use upwork.com or guru.com. Here are some tips to using those sites...
1. Freelancers from developing countries are almost always much cheaper than people from developed countries.
2. You can either set a range for the job and let them bid for it, or you can set the price you want. Usually I set the price I want, which is lower than the default range you can choose from on the sites.
3. Freelancers on the internet are a mix bag in terms of reliability. Some people will turn around work the next day. Some will drag it out for weeks, then either finish it or not. Unless you have a lot of time, it is a very difficult problem to solve without testing a bunch of people, because no one will upfront tell you they are slow. Looking at past reviews of theirs isn't necessarily a good indicator. I've had very slow people work for me, but I don't mention their speed in the review because I don't want to burn bridges, since I know I might need them again.
4. I'd recommend setting some percentage of the pay based upon speed. So if they don't finish the work in a reasonable agreed time, they earn less. Or if they finish on time, they get a bonus.
5. Since you are looking for an illustrator, you need to test people out. You will get someone that claims they have 20 years experience, but you look at their portfolio and it is just ugly drawings. Number of years of experience does not equal to quality.
Sometimes haste makes waste.
But then it depends on what is needed.
A quality portrait or children's book illustration or custom clip art for a business card.
Also some people have other things such as a day job. So saying someone is slow in turnaround is not totally realistic because they may have other things that occupy time as well.
Let me give you more context. I hired a programmer to do something for me. I asked is 2 weeks enough, he said it would only take a few days. 4 weeks later, still nothing. So this guy is clearly pretty unreliable. I've worked with other programmers who will usually respond within 24 hours. Some others will get me the changes needed within a week. A week or less is quite reasonable to me, because the expectation was set by me and accepted by the other person. I've hired dozens of people over the years on freelance websites. I'm quite experienced.
36
« on: April 28, 2020, 07:44 »
I second the opinion to use upwork.com or guru.com. Here are some tips to using those sites...
1. Freelancers from developing countries are almost always much cheaper than people from developed countries.
2. You can either set a range for the job and let them bid for it, or you can set the price you want. Usually I set the price I want, which is lower than the default range you can choose from on the sites.
3. Freelancers on the internet are a mix bag in terms of reliability. Some people will turn around work the next day. Some will drag it out for weeks, then either finish it or not. Unless you have a lot of time, it is a very difficult problem to solve without testing a bunch of people, because no one will upfront tell you they are slow. Looking at past reviews of theirs isn't necessarily a good indicator. I've had very slow people work for me, but I don't mention their speed in the review because I don't want to burn bridges, since I know I might need them again.
4. I'd recommend setting some percentage of the pay based upon speed. So if they don't finish the work in a reasonable agreed time, they earn less. Or if they finish on time, they get a bonus.
5. Since you are looking for an illustrator, you need to test people out. You will get someone that claims they have 20 years experience, but you look at their portfolio and it is just ugly drawings. Number of years of experience does not equal to quality.
37
« on: April 25, 2020, 12:39 »
.
38
« on: April 25, 2020, 12:39 »
Here's a well known quote....
"ruminating is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die"
It seem like that is what is happen in your situation. Move on, let it go. You are only making yourself unhappy.
39
« on: April 25, 2020, 10:11 »
Write out your work flow from beginning to end. Keep looking at it as you shoot for stock. Gradually you will start seeing inefficiencies. Ie, one section takes you 4 steps, but thinking about it some more, you can reorganize it in to 2 steps. Stock photos is a volume game, therefore, you want to spend as little time as possible on each image, while keeping quality high. I personally spend a large amount of time and money always refining my work flow, because the end result is greater output with less cost and less time.
40
« on: April 22, 2020, 16:20 »
English is my second language, though I did grew up in an English speaking country, and at this point I only speak English. I'm not white. I also thought the OP was kind of racist when I first read the post. I just choose not to say anything at the time. I've also reviewed images before for one of the big 4 stock agencies. I think I did it for 2 years. It takes no more effort to accept all your images vs reject all your images. Either way, they are just pressing either an accept button or reject button. In fact if they are giving you a reason about the rejection, then it takes more effort to reject your videos because they have to find the correct rejection reason among the list they can choose from.
41
« on: April 20, 2020, 23:18 »
How did you guys do for March on iStock? I was really dreading the worst due to the coronavirus. It ended up being the highest earning month since last August. So pleasantly surprised. Though now I'm really dreading April's stats, again due to the coronavirus.
42
« on: March 27, 2020, 12:26 »
Facebook had reported yesterday that they have seen a surge in usage on all their various platforms, however, it has not translated into extra earnings because advertisers have pulled back on advertising. So the take away from that, is to expect big drops in downloads.
43
« on: March 09, 2020, 10:17 »
Thanks for all the advices. Seems like i should consider many more things, and don't know what to do now. I thought that it would be a good idea of partnering with someone so we could manage more photoshoots. But i should reconsider.
I'm also wondering about something that how African studio or such photo factories manage to go on that?
Either African studio is owned by one person, which means there is no problem with ownership, or African studio is owned by more than one person, and they may have the same issues everyone here pointed out when the multiple partners disagree. Partners disagreeing isn't limited to stock photos, partners disagree in all industries and MANY friendship dissolve when they disagree over money.
44
« on: March 05, 2020, 16:37 »
What happens one day if you and your friend no longer like each other? It is fairly common for people who go into business together to eventually fight over money. What happens if one day one of you feel like the other is no longer putting in their fair share of work? What happens if almost all the photos that sell are only from one partner, will the other partner still take a cut. What happens one day if one partner no longer wants to contribute anymore but the other one does? Lot of pitfall to sharing an account with a friend. It has real ability to hurt your friendship down the line.
Having said that. You can 'probably' share ownership of an account by setting a limited liability company. Both of you assign copyright to the company. The company will own the copyrights and the company will have the account on whatever stock site. The earnings will go into the bank account of the company, and the company will distribute the earnings to each one of you based upon percentage of ownership. I've never tried doing this with stock, but this is in theory how you could do it.
Alternatively, one of you assigns all copyright to the other people, that one person is the account holder on stock agencies. Through out the year the non-copyright owning friend will issue invoices to the other for their share of revenue, and this is how they will get paid, meanwhile, the copyright owning friend will write off the invoice in their tax return, because they didn't get to keep that portion of the money.
45
« on: February 25, 2020, 10:59 »
For fun a few months ago I sent SS a request that I was interested in becoming a photo reviewer. They responded back to me in a couple of weeks . I didn't not save their email but it went something like this. It was a very nice and polite letter. Thank you for your interest in SS. At this time you just don't have the experience we are looking for as we have other applicants that fit our requirements better. Thank you from SS. So I guess my dream job will be on hold. Now for my background. I have been doing stock photos since Mosses came down form the mountain. I have a small site on SS and most all the other top sites. I get small sales from most of the sites daily. I have sold/published over a million photos in my time on earth as a photographer ..again over a long time in the business. So maybe someday I can get my dream job as a reviewer. I can only hope and pray....W.Scott McGill
Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted the job even if they were interested in your application. I had to sign an NDA so I can't say much more ...
I was a reviewer for a different agency over a decade ago. I did it for a couple of years. There is nothing to it. You just look at photos and decided to accept or reject based upon the agency's standards. Back then you were paid 50cents per review, so some inspectors were making 6 figures. Of cause this was a long time ago. No doubt a great deal has changed since.
46
« on: February 25, 2020, 08:56 »
10 years ago my RPD was $10, now it is a tiny fraction of that. So less motivating to upload. I still upload photos, but I haven't uploaded vectors in years, those extreme low prices makes me not want to spend any time on vectors. Like everyone else, I've thought the entire business of stock images have been slowly approaching unsustainability for years now. I did sort of prepare for it by investing elsewhere. I've invested in a real estate business and a local restaurant brand. Depending on the year, the income from both those investments pull in more passive income than my stock income.
47
« on: February 24, 2020, 09:43 »
Do you not get the istock pay out email? It was sent out on 21st of Feb by Payoneer. Meaning it should land in your account in a day or two at this point.
48
« on: February 19, 2020, 11:52 »
Hi to all of you.
I'm in the same situation as wollwerth, I'm in the microstock market since 2009 and I decided last month to create a youtube channel just to see if it could improve my earnings by promoting my work.
Here is my channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8A6Xz1YrjUrNQJPrr8C0pA
After some weeks I still see just a small number of visitors and just 5 subscribers.
I think I'm doing something wrong, or simply my work has no interest for the people on YT.
I'm doing it because I wanted to try, but of course I hope to have some kind of improvement about my sales (YT and microstock).
I would appreciate very much any advice from you!
People go to Youtube to either be entertained or learn something. Your video does neither. I think the question is, would you watch these videos if they were on someone else's youtube account. If you would watch endless videos like this, then there is a market, if you wouldn't watch endless videos like these there is no market. Beyond that, there is also just being in the right time at the right place. My understanding is that 99% of videos on Youtube don't get many views. Thus the key is producing quality content to break into the 1%. Also if you go and look up the history of uploads for popular creators, you will see a lot of them put up with low viewership for months or years on end before they broke through into being popular. Sometimes things just take time.
49
« on: February 19, 2020, 11:41 »
Thanks everyone, very informative.
50
« on: February 18, 2020, 17:44 »
RPD $2.03. Total monthly income is always a persistent slow decline from month to month.
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