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Messages - Mantis
4876
« on: April 23, 2012, 16:48 »
Would someone please try (again) to make this feeble old brain understand this Plus thingy ... what is the benefit? Do images sell for more? Do we get a bigger cut? How do we know when a Plus Image sells? Do buyers search specifically for Plus Images?
Warren, Photo plus does not get you more money for a dl. But it gives you a placement boost, so if they sell more frequently, you net more money. IS charges more credits for photo+ but you don't enjoy more of the sales pie, they do. It's all about sales frequency for the contributor, so choosing your better selling images for this program is advantageous. Once you submit they are locked in for six months and you can't pull them out.
4877
« on: April 23, 2012, 14:42 »
Hi!
Anyone else experiencing issues with Shutterstock stats?
If I check total of sale for the day, it shows me 70 sales, and only 1 Enhanced download. 66.57$ sales.
If I click on the day, and check, it shows me 72 sales, and 2 Enhanced download... If I count manually, I get 95.71$ sales.
Is this just a delay in the update of the sales? The value at the top also shows me the ''lower'' results?
Congrats on great sales.
4878
« on: April 23, 2012, 13:50 »
I had a pretty good month in march, will be 300 off this month when compared to last.
4879
« on: April 23, 2012, 13:47 »
Great post Baldrick. I prefer to shoot what interests me as well, and still try to get as much enjoyment out of each shoot as possible. When I get too bogged down with the business aspects of microstock, my creativity dries up.
I do keep track of RPI and RPD, but only out of casual interest. Overall earnings, and performance of each site interests me a lot more.
Well, you can all sit and plot your RPIs and RPDs and RPI/As and whatever. I just do what I like and that works for me. If I really intended to get rich I would follow Yuri's lead and carry out a detailed analysis of the top-selling images to see what angle of the model's head sells best, what position the hands should be in etc. etc. but I'd rather enjoy life than spend time poring over numbers or doing statistical analysis.
I guess I'm still in the top 1,000 overall and the top 100 of the non-people portfolios and I've never chased these numbers you're worked up about.
PS: Here's a secret I've spotted about people who are ahead of me in the lists ... they all seem to take better photos than I do. I expect that's because they calculate RPIs.
To each his own. I look at RPI oh about every quarter. It takes a few seconds to compute it and is a dashboard item for me. It certainly doesn't drive me necessarily more in one direction or another but does provide an indication of image effectiveness (usefulness, etc.) over the long term. So I view RPI as a long term indication of competitiveness. Now, does that mean I drink more or less beer when I am shooting? Usually not.
4880
« on: April 23, 2012, 13:37 »
I was confused by this paragraph in the "What's happening with Best Match" section;
"All of these factors also affect the searches that contributors are doing as well, making it difficult for you to asses what you're seeing or to understand how it might look from the perspective of a specific customer. So bear in mind when you look at a set of results that it won't be the same across different segments."
I always thought Istock's best match algorithm was a half-assed effort. Or could it be another reference to JJRD's donkey?
Omg I am in traction...please dont make me laugh so * hard....good one.
4881
« on: April 22, 2012, 17:01 »
Frankly, I'd prefer if potential buyers would just go to my portfolio and buy stuff. 
My thoughts exactly
4882
« on: April 22, 2012, 16:57 »
Those don't work for me on my ipad
4883
« on: April 22, 2012, 15:02 »
4884
« on: April 21, 2012, 14:40 »
Plus you can download the cvs file.
4885
« on: April 18, 2012, 18:46 »
Nothing for me either.
4886
« on: April 16, 2012, 18:47 »
I'm looking forward for the public announcement where they'll thank everyone for the hard work, but sadly they must go... 
These guys don't stand a chance.
This is what I was thinking but I sincerely hope it doesn't happen, but survival has to endure growth. I was also thinking a bit in another direction. Could Peter have started SF with the intention to make a quick buck hoping he can sell it off to another bigger micro, like IS perhaps, once it has gained some traction?
4887
« on: April 13, 2012, 19:40 »
FT sucks for me. I was moving up to a mere $200 a month then they sprinkled bad "JUJU" on me, took me from less than a thousand rank to way more than a 2000 rank, now back to around 1000. Sales are 80 ish a month now, no more $200 forecasting per month for me. It's all in the game of microstock, take it or leave it. I am here to stay.
4888
« on: April 13, 2012, 19:31 »
My top 5 is almost identical at every site
Same here. And what's really fun is that when an image is sold on one site, "all of a sudden" it sells on 2-3 other sites the same day or the day after.
4889
« on: April 12, 2012, 18:27 »
Nice work, Tyler. Any chance there will be an forthcoming version that pulls from other micros, not just Shutterstock?
4890
« on: April 08, 2012, 08:40 »
A shame that some of you got treated this way, but don't think you're safe on other sites my friends, they all have their different tactics.
I can imagine the frustration for the big IS change though, not only in forums, but search and sales too.
**^exactly^**
4891
« on: April 07, 2012, 20:12 »
Nobody ever criticizes anything at IS, but everyone wants to look good and kiss some a@@
IS forum writers have no sense of community. It's only a place to try be noticed by a few bic pieces. Pathetic.
This is all wrong if you consider what IS WAS. Contributors used to always criticize. We still would if we could. Now those kind of threads get instantly locked by the forum *. It used to be a meaningful community, a lot of helping and image critique. Then contributors, after all the changes IS made, said, "fk it, I am not helping other photographers become my competitors with the RC change". What's left? The rest of what you said. Those who can stomach posting "I love you" threads and responses are what's left. And there you have today's IS forum....by no fault of the contributors, but 100% fault of the IS policy, forum admins and a lack of forum usefulness altogether. The more power to those posting on IS who can stomach the unconstructive, misguided environment there. For me, I found MSG a couple of years ago and it's FAR better than the IS forums and also, I might add, the SS forums.
4892
« on: April 07, 2012, 19:59 »
They will zoom at 10% for inspection
4893
« on: April 06, 2012, 19:42 »
"Take this job and shove it"....Johnny Paycheck.
4894
« on: April 06, 2012, 19:33 »
i wish the SS forums had an ignore button. I'd go there much more often if they did.
A BIG +1
4895
« on: April 06, 2012, 19:23 »
Achilles posted this today (Dreamstime) -
One of our latest updates for the search algorithm went wrong and we are now seeing for most keywords a massive influx of irelevant images in the first ranks. This is just to inform you that we're aware of the issue and we're working to solve it asap. Due to the size of the database and the complexity of our algorithm it may take a while.
We have switched to "best selling" as a default for the search engine, while we address the relevancy.
We apologize for the trouble, this didn't go as expected.
They need to leave it as it now is __ my sales have gone through the roof! DT's 'Relevance' algorithm produces ridiculous results anyway.
Agree. Whatever they did I am getting a bunch of $3-$6 dl's. I love it.
4896
« on: April 05, 2012, 18:08 »
I am at 7, and I have ZERO on ignore. As much as I might disagree with peeps, it is still very nice to read what others think.
4897
« on: April 01, 2012, 19:12 »
today is the 30. March and still no money :-(
no money from where? I have already $$ from StockXpert (February sales) and PP (February too)
Luis is right, March sales wont really roll in until later in April...at least that's what I think he is inferring.
4898
« on: April 01, 2012, 08:04 »
I applied to Istock the other day and I was rejected. None of the three photos had people in them and they were more artistic shots so I'm not that surprised. I found a few pictures that I'm thinking of re-applying with. I'm looking for feedback these five pictures; which should I use as the 3 to apply with? Should i try to find other pictures? Do only one or two work? Etc. Thanks a bunch!
I put the pictures in a set on flickr so it should be easy to scroll through them:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjaminmorin/sets/72157629345453074/
Istock wants to see a mix of images to assess the breadth of your skills. I did one nature shot (a very different kind of nature shot, though), one studio isolation and a model also shot in the studio. The days of seeing what's collecting dust on your computer are over. Istock (among other agencies) don't want their inspectors spending all of their time rejecting images. That doesn't help grow their business. So they are hard on the acceptance process to increase the odds that, when accepted, you will be uploading good quality imagery that will help them make money. BTW, you only get a tiny piece of that revenue, too so you generally have to have a niche, or a rather large collection, or both. Istock limits your weekly uploads depending on how many images you sell, so it can take years to build a big, effective port. It's a LOT OF WORK just to make a few extra bucks a month. I hope someone has explained that to you clearly. It's important to know. It seems that some peeps applying for MS think it's a quick extra buck. In the old days, maybe. Today, it's a very competitive business that dictates far better quality and concept than point and shoot.
4899
« on: March 25, 2012, 19:29 »
Another great resource for used equipment is http://www.keh.com
I've used them without problem to purchase cameras and lenses the gear has always been as advertised.
I know several pros who use them regularly.
Very reliable company.
I have been burned one to many times on Ebay but hav used KEH many times successfully, especially with hard to find stuff. I have never been unhappy with KEH.
4900
« on: March 25, 2012, 19:25 »
I don't know what happened, but after doing very well on BS all year, come the first of December it totally died. I mean dropped of the face of the earth. Same images doing fine elsewhere, particularly on SS, but at BS, zero, nada, zilch.
BS has never been exciting. I keep hoping an increase in portfolio size will increase the excitement (sales). 
Well, I started BS about 6 years ago, and I made $50 a month with 300 images. Now I make $60 a month 5 years later with 2500 images. I wonder if they are growing or ending up like Stockfresh.
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