|
MicrostockGroup Sponsors
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.
Messages - zorba
76
« on: July 21, 2019, 20:35 »
It is great to have this mentality as long as you know to differentiate your product. I have a few images that I just don't sell under 300$ whatever the use and some licenses have gone for 2000+$ (that is direct sales). I know they are just unavailable anywhere so I can command price. That are my top feeders that sell very few times and do not by any means make the bulk of my income(....)
Hi Everest, where is the place for those sales? The ones of 300/2000 ; where is the place in which you can set the price?
Hi Zorba I set my prices for a few group of images through my website managed with Photoshelter. Here I can set Right Managed prices. Also RF is possible but not for me as I am still exclusive with Istock/Getty on the image front. As usual the problem is getting your image seen by potential prices not the price by itself. Many of those images where in RM collections at Getty and I disagreed with lower and lower prices so I cancelled my RM contract with them and all those images got free. I immediately put those on sale on Photoshelter. Many clients contacted me after to purchase those images that I guess where in lightboxes on Getty. those 10-200$ became 300-2000$ I did refused everything lower I just don't cared to sell at lower prices those specific images. Many clients paid those prices without a blink. So Getty, all agencies and most photographers are leaving a lot of money on the table.
But as time went by from my contract cancellation fewer and fewer clients contacted me as I think very few people search through the photoshelter engine. I put those images in places like pinterest so they got a better SEO as Photoshelter is known for being very bad in that department. From time to time I still make a direct sale but it is only a small fraction of my yearly income.
But as we all know it is more important being noticed that the price that makes sales as long as you have unique images. My 2000$ sale for example was a book cover. They wanted exclusive rights forever I refused and we finally set for 2 years exclusive rights. I guess there was not a better option available elsewhere or the work/cost to design that book cover again was higher.
Many years ago I sold also an exclusive license for 2 years use in Germany through Getty for 23000$ to a Pharma corporation. I am sure that number that seems stratospheric for us was a drop in the sea for that company. Nowadays an advertisement photo production goes easy from 15000 to 40000$, a commercial for TV much more (I know as I have worked 10 years as a location scout). Micro or nano prices are great for 95% for clients that have low budgets or need large number of images continuously. But there is still a pool of customers that has budget for many zeros. They are a fraction of the stock market, you cannot count on them to make a living unless your work is truly specialized and unique ( I give you an example plates (backgrounds) for cars) but they exist, reaching them is what is not easy, a few thousand is not a problem for them.......
Thanks everest
77
« on: July 20, 2019, 18:47 »
It is great to have this mentality as long as you know to differentiate your product. I have a few images that I just don't sell under 300$ whatever the use and some licenses have gone for 2000+$ (that is direct sales). I know they are just unavailable anywhere so I can command price. That are my top feeders that sell very few times and do not by any means make the bulk of my income(....)
Hi Everest, where is the place for those sales? The ones of 300/2000 ; where is the place in which you can set the price?
78
« on: July 20, 2019, 18:42 »
Yes, it's super strange that Storyblocks, Motion Array (possibly others) and now Elements... (...)
just to clarify: with Elements do you mean SS Elements? or is there someone else?
Envato Elements.
Thanx
79
« on: July 19, 2019, 14:44 »
Asking for opinions on a bespoke photo arrangement for clients - rather like the IS custom work I think.
Anybody else get it? IS it legit?
if you're asking if it's authentic: it is. Text (more or less: it's an automated translation):
Hello,
We are working on a new platform to help you find more customers in your area and offer photographs on request.
We want you to be the first to participate.
Please take a look at the information below and answer a few questions in a short survey to let us know if you are interested in our new platform.
Project overview
The new platform will help you find customers who need photo shoots in your area. You will work according to their instructions and we will take care of the rest. For each project undertaken, you will receive a fee of between $ 50 and $ 300 or more for each photo shoot completed.
What makes the new platform exceptional?
We will take care of everything from organizing the photo shoot to image processing. This platform will offer you more opportunities to find new customers, expand your portfolio and, ultimately, save a lot of time in dealing with the complexities involved in organizing photo shoots. As an advantage, you'll spend less time promoting yourself because we'll do it for you.
How the platform will work:
1. Select an available project in your area and candidates
2. Present yourself in a place that we will specify in a day and at a time that are convenient for you and the customer
3. Make the photo shoot and upload your photos
4. Get payment immediately
Sounds good to you?
Let us know if you are interested in our new platform for photographers!
If you want to be part of another community that offers you the chance to monetize thanks to your photos, fill out a short survey to be the first to try out the beta when it is up and running.
I don't link the survey because of course it's a beacon link and I don't want to be tracked here. Will it be a dumb down challenge/competition/race every time? a Dutch auction (unique bid auction) ? Do they remember this is WORK ?
80
« on: July 19, 2019, 14:31 »
Yes, it's super strange that Storyblocks, Motion Array (possibly others) and now Elements... (...)
just to clarify: with Elements do you mean SS Elements? or is there someone else?
81
« on: July 19, 2019, 14:27 »
If you read that post and interpreted it as crying and/or whining... then it's very apparent why we have such differing views! I thought I came across as quite upbeat in that post!
I think the opening post is very humorous ... but humour has often been used to cover sad messages.
82
« on: July 19, 2019, 14:26 »
  BWAHUAAHHAHAhahahahHAHAHAHAHAh I LOVE YOU :-D of course, I laugh not to cry
83
« on: July 11, 2019, 17:54 »
I'm experiencing a very frustrating situation with Depositphotos. FTP keeps disconnecting, having timeouts, arriving to 99% of a files, not permitting retrieve of previously started trasnfer ... and when you ask them to check, they ask something TO YOU, instead of checking themselves. Of course we have the same program we had when error didn't occour.
I asked colleagues: they have errors too. Corrupted files, transfer undone, connection problems, "too many connections from this IP" ... and so on.
The captchas make me waste time in useless requests for too many times and in my experience when a company does not solve the structural problems means that is failing in its main business and therefore does not spend to make things work.
Are you experiencing FTP problems or we are the only unlucky people?
84
« on: July 11, 2019, 09:08 »
Hi everyone,
I'm using a few agencies to sell videos. I have about 1.000 clips and I can earn couple hundred dollars per month.
I work with Shutterstock, Pond5, Storyblock and AdobeStock. Storyblock was about 30% of my total earnings.
But I didn't sell anything there for two months.
Do you have any suggestion? Some agencies that I can use like alternative for Storyblock.
they bought some exclusive portfolio, so they OWN those portfolio: so they're pushing on those portfolio, and not to the whole market (our videos and images) ... they are competitors against us, their contributors.
85
« on: December 22, 2018, 13:13 »
Hi,
I would like to remove personal data before keywording and uploading it stock sites. Do you guys know any good software for this purposes? And it should be a desktop software, not online-based.
I'm uploading stock photos to AdobeStock and I don't know does it matter but I stopped using Lightroom & PS. Now I'm editing all my photos in Luminar which is pretty good after two weeks learning. In my case I don't want to store the image information about what editor was used to create it so this extra data has to go away.
Thank you for any help in this matter! 
for windows: download EXIFTOOL put it in a PATH included folder (learn what this means online) then go into the JPGs directory from the commandline and type: exiftool -ALL= . -EXT JPG Simple.
86
« on: August 21, 2018, 14:55 »
I have been contributor to iStock for many years now. One thing that troubling me and I failed to understand is the need choose a "deeper" iStock keyword term.
For example, if I put "woman" as keyword, it will suggest me to choose either
"one woman only" or "women".
Another example would be "snatch", it will suggest me to choose either
"kidnapping" or "snatch - weightlifting".
Even if I don't choose any of them and remain it as "woman" or "snatch", the said image will still appear in the search result by searching "woman" or "snatch".
So my question is, why do I bother to choose a "deeper" keyword term? Furthermore, I don't find that the keyword term suggested is more relevant, if not worse than my original intention.
I think it's about "automatic" translation between many getty/istock regional localizations of websites. IMHO
87
« on: August 11, 2018, 18:14 »
Plagiarism is very common in microstock when you get a million images a week.
If you do not want to deal in such things then better try macrostock or direct selling.
do you think that asking some justice directly to the agency wouldn't be the right thing to do?
88
« on: August 11, 2018, 18:01 »
Seems like stock has always been low paying but the next year is always lower than the previous. I'm still pretty new at this game but it seems, based on the more experienced contributors, that pattern will continue. Yet we all keep "feeding the beast." A lot of people quit the biz or are on the verge of quitting. In the future, are we going to talk about today's stock market as the good old days? So why do we keep at it?
for the vast majority of contributors this is a gig work, they're more than happy to earn 100$ a month. It's additional 100$ on what they earn on their regular-job. So there is no reason for them to quit. It's like when your son goes competing in a professional job without leaving your house: no expenses, no worries. No need to really earn. There are some old-stock producers that have huge resources and they've seen wearing away their earnings by microstock. So when they started to contribute, they did it with class, style and power. High level of quality entered microstock. It's no more profitable to upload an apple like Jon Oringer did when he founded SS. If you upload an apple, you must have something GREAT. An idea, a really professional model eating it, a wonderful scenario, perfect light ... They lost their high-earning commissions in regular world... so they entered in this microstock world. And there are freelancers that use microstock as microstock was born: to earn from scraps. Look at what is the Dissolve proposals for very professional highly skilled film makers: earn from their b-roll: in that case their staff will work on metadata and everywhing else: just upload and be exclusive for that media. It's no more time for low quality, low quantity, non-industrial workflow and timings in microstock, I think. If you do this as your main income job, you must have a good reason. This is only my opinion: no data, no scientific papers.
89
« on: August 11, 2018, 17:46 »
This article was created with Google Translate.
Even if translation is not smooth, thank you for your understanding.
I have not been a microstock writer for a long time.
There are not many stock creators in Korea where I live.
So there is no opportunity to be honest in my portfolio.
Look at this: this is the way: https://www.shutterstock.com/g/pressmaster
90
« on: July 27, 2018, 13:53 »
Yeah ... I think I'm going to just drop most all this crap and self host. We are making peanuts with these fuckers.
I have a server and crap if you wanna hit me up.
FROM : https://www.videouniversity.com/articles/selling-stock-footage/"He started by selling clips on his own website BassVisuals.com, but sales were so low he started submitting his footage to all the major stock footage sites. Paul says in his article Make Money Selling Stock Footage Video that it is best to let others sell your footage. The big agency sites are where all the customers go when they want stock footage. These large sites do all the marketing so why compete with them?"
91
« on: July 24, 2018, 15:20 »
[...]
If I give up my exclusivity and start submitting to Shutterstock and Adobe, will my income be the same as what it was at iStock as an exclusive? [...]
My answer: definitely NOT. The right answer: who knows?
92
« on: July 24, 2018, 15:16 »
FTP uploads don't process the images in the upload queue. Status bar keeps empty after chewing for hours... 
and "live chat" changed into "SUPPORT" that doesn't support anyone.
93
« on: July 24, 2018, 15:16 »
How many images did you have online when you started to make $100 per month at 123RF (excluding EL sales)?
no
94
« on: July 19, 2018, 04:52 »
this info (I didn't notice before) could be found here: https://contributors.gettyimages.com/HelpArticle.aspx?article_id=5389abstract: Royalties / Earnings / Account Balance
Royalties, earnings and contributor account balances are now calculated and reported monthly, so real time information is not available.
Royalty Statements are published on the 20th of each month. You will see what you have sold and what you have earned and can download that data.
If your earnings for the month exceed your minimum payment threshold, then you will receive your payout on the 25th of each month.
If your account balance does not exceed your minimum payment threshold, then the current balance will be carried forward and show as such on future statements until you are eligible for payout.[...]
95
« on: July 19, 2018, 04:50 »
Not sure how Deep Meta works, but Sue is probably referring to the fact that iStock earnings don't get released on ESP until around the 20th of the Month.
Oh! Sorry, I didn't know. Thanks.
96
« on: July 19, 2018, 03:44 »
Tomorrow is 20
sorry but I probably missed the point :-/
97
« on: July 19, 2018, 03:14 »
I see no tracks of june earnings in DeepMeta ... do you?
98
« on: November 06, 2017, 09:46 »
Hey Guys,
My name is Mike and I am new to the community. I am a fan of photography and been involved with numerous art/photo tech projects in the past. Currently, I and my friend are thinking about creating a new peer-to-peer stock platform where artists will have the ability to sell images/videos directly to buyers with very low transaction fees (5-10%). We are doing research in the space and would really appreciate your feedback. Would you be kind to fill out the short survey below:
https://goo.gl/forms/Ev00fvEjzN4MoHXS2
good luck and let us know the name of the project :-)
99
« on: May 21, 2017, 14:01 »
I'm just getting a little frustrated with Adobe... I will submit a batch of images (this is happening only recently) and half of them will be rejected due to "lack of aesthetic or commercial appeal", and there's no way... they are good solid microstock images. So I wait a day and resubmit them with no changes made... accepted! I understand there are probably many reviewers with different tastes etc, but honestly, this has happened a few times now and I resent the waste of my time. Also when the images do go on sale, there have been sales almost immediately... anyone else experience this? It's like they feel they have to reject some to do their job or to keep the agency high-end. And the other agencies are accepting all of them with no issues.
of course: I see that: if you push agencies to solve this problem your files never get a second chance with a reviewer that's not tired. So I consider this a GOOD think, even if it sounds like people that don't know their work. If you find your file has not an actual problem, you simply have a second chance to upload it and have it passed.
100
« on: May 21, 2017, 13:58 »
...
Regarding your ticket, I recently opened one, (about a rejection / misunderstanding) and they replied pretty fast, you should try again. Make sure you choose "contributor question" from drop-down menu, and that your e-mail address is correct.
I did this three times, and in 2 months: never solved the problem nor replied; and the problem is still there 
|
Sponsors
Microstock Poll Results
Sponsors
|
Show Posts
