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Messages - Uncle Pete
3851
« on: June 27, 2019, 05:49 »
friday is an holiday?
But it is summer in the US, so lots of people go on holiday (vacation). IIRC summers are usually slow. Then sales start to pick back up for the winter holidays right around Sept.
Right, it's not a holiday but kids are out of school, people are out of college, families start taking vacations, businesses, many in the US, have a slower production schedule. USA isn't the end all for stock but a good percentage. It seems like June - Sept. is slower than some other periods. But of course we also have the after the holidays January, start of the year slump as well. It's more like, there are some times when sales are good and more times when they aren't, but people want to think the good periods are the usual and the low is the unusual. Things could be the opposite. = Most of the time we don't get much and sometimes we get good sales. 
3852
« on: June 27, 2019, 05:39 »
I get rid of that stupid town/ state/ country - date that you have to have on SS it leaves more room on Alamy for a bigger desription.
The Dateline is standard for news and reporting. You might not like it, but the rest of the world has been using that format for centuries, and there's a reason why the location of a news story and the date is important. WHEN Why would anyone want to leave out the location which is important to what is happening WHERE? This applies to anything that is actually newsworthy, not for someone who wants to slap Editorial on anything that they don't have a release for. A dateline is a tag on a news story that specifies where the story was filed from. The date is very important for anyone reading news to know whether it was last week or two years ago. Yes of course, we don't need a proper dateline for some subject that isn't actually newsworthy or the date and location are irrelevant. So I suppose the answer would be "what kind of editorial" before people start applying generalities that don't apply to everything that falls into Editorial. And I still say there are many times when people in Microstock just call things Editorial to get around releases that could be necessary. A proper dateline should actually help sales because buyers want specific locations and events. A mountain in Italy if someone wants to use that for background while writing about Italy will get more downloads than "A mountain" with no location. Detailed, good and accurate data will help get more sales than vague or flawed data, which was created for views or trying to be seen in a search. When you do descriptions for your editorial images for Alamy.com, do you follow the same rules from other websites (City, Country - Day, Month, Year)?
Most of my photos in Alamy follow Shutterstock nomenclature, but I'm having low sales in Alamy.
I'm started to think that if I start my description following that rule the chances for being shown in searches is minimum (therefore low sales).
How do you do the description of the editorial images for Alamy?
What? Why would a good accurate bit of data, in the description cause lower appearance in searches or lower sales. I don't understand? One would think just the opposite, good data means good matches for people looking for what is in the image.
3853
« on: June 27, 2019, 00:51 »
Over 280,000,000 royalty-free images on Shutterstock. June 26th or 27th, 2019 depending on your location.
Nothing much more to say. Another 10 million images accepted to compete with ours, 47 days.
3854
« on: June 24, 2019, 19:32 »
Just wanted to share that Dreamstime keeps the remaining balance at account closure. Really shifty policy considering their payout threshold is 100$.
Sales were so poor I wasn't going to get my money until next year anyway.
Odd because when I closed mine, I politely requested payment and account closing, they paid me after a few months. I was not at threshold. Times change so maybe that did too. But I wrote first and they sent the money, I didn't just delete everything and ask for money.
3855
« on: June 24, 2019, 19:28 »
I've had a handful of Alamy sales netting me under a dollar, but the lowest (so far?) has been 66c. (Not NU, which I'm not in.)
Interesting, mark me lucky. I'm in Novel Use but never saw anything from that or all programs. Just had an exclusive sell for $120 old 2009 photo that I never bothered uploading anywhere else.  Back on topic. I think most people have decided that discoverability is not worth worrying about, it's an Alamy construct and from everything I've seen and reading others, can be ignored.
3856
« on: June 24, 2019, 18:12 »
Made me look for worst: 899KB 679 x 452 pixels 66KB compressed China, Web, One month, Bulk Discount, Flat Rate $3.92 Then 899KB 679 x 452 pixels 91KB compressed China Editorial Website, Bulk discount, Flat rate per image $3.96 followed by: Usage: Personal use Media: Non-commercial, one time, personal/home use$9.81 Then they are all $15 and up to Usage: Editorial Media: Textbook - print only Industry sector: Media Industry Sub-Industry: Publishing Print run: up to 5,000 Placement: Front cover $200 Or things like: Usage: Editorial Media: Textbook - print only Industry sector: Media Industry Sub-Industry: Publishing Print run: up to 5,000 Placement: Inside Image Size: 2 page spread $145 Those are commission not sales. Roughly 10X what we get on average now from Micro. Last month I had three .06 commissions from IS. I like Alamy, hope that's obvious why?
3857
« on: June 24, 2019, 01:22 »
3858
« on: June 22, 2019, 11:33 »
or so it says.
Short of inventing extra keywords, does anybody think this visibility lark makes any difference to anything at all?
Nope, I doubt that the extra work makes any difference.
3859
« on: June 22, 2019, 11:31 »
I think what is an OK amount to consume is different for each of us. We don't all fit the same mold. These studies are OK as a starter point and not the silver bullet of guide lines.
With all these news stories, you are correct. Remember when it was a glass of wine a day? Hey the French cook everything in loads of butter. Chinese live longer because of the spices and low fat. They don't eat cheese...  That has more to do with refrigeration, but wait, Georgian (Russian) live the longest or used to?  Next week we will learn that coffee is great for us, and two weeks later how it's bad for us. Sugar is bad, artificial sweeteners are bad = if it tastes good, spit it out! I'm born and raised in Wisconsin, a Cheese Head, I'm lactose intolerant but cheese is no problem, just ice cream and milk. URP! I've never owned one of those stupid foam cheese heads. I have been to the National Cheese makers Convention as a guest of a cheese factory. Oh that was dreamy. Tasted the contest winning, awarded cheeses. Oh Wow. I'd love to get a media pass to that? (see always thinking stock aren't we?) By the way, working in Iowa last weekend, they had a new M&M Flavor, Hazelnut Spread, which is obviously an allusion to Nutella. Pretty good. Not appearing in WI yet, but the marketing people said nation wide roll out?  = 
3860
« on: June 22, 2019, 11:09 »
So its about the same on SS and Adobe. I have lots of City Timelapse shots and they all get rejected because of "INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REFUSAL"
Is this normal? Cips that practically show the whole city skyline get rejected.
No issues on Pond5..
Should I not mess with these sites for city shots?
Thanks
upload them editorial.
Adobe takes Editorial now? From my understanding... you usually don't need a release for the buildings, as it's part of a skyline and none of them are the main focus of the clip. But you still need a release for any logos, which it looks like you have a few of. So you need to remove the logos or shoot again without the logos in.
Right logos need to be taken care of some how. Also lighting effects in some cases can be protected. Every agency has it's own rules and regulations. If AS rejects them, that's the way it's going to be. Upload to the places that do accept them. Of course if you think the extra work and effort is worth the investment and will pay back, then good luck, keep trying. If not, we need to place our work, where it's acceptable by their standards and move on.
3861
« on: June 22, 2019, 10:12 »
How'd ya do?
RPD .33 that says it all for me. May is average for me but the three previous months were disasters. It hurt to see a good number of downloads but all of them were of terrible value.
I won't put my hope on that sporadic high value sales among sea of $0.3-0.6 sales. I believe they're cannibalizing sales from SS and AS so I've stopped uploading to iS.
What would happen if enough contributors stopped uploading to iS? Those who are still there would have better sales and report about it. Then those who have stopped would change their minds and resume uploading. And then...
I have stopped uploading I don't think they will care or notice. 
3862
« on: June 19, 2019, 09:24 »
Monkey pic is still 'up' and visible from here, with name blanked.
Name is blanked, but clickable, but when you click on it, it shows "Sorry, we can't find what you're looking for. While you're here, take a look at our hand-picked Collections."
Right, the image database is still adjusting and updating but the "Ristic+Milos" account and all their stolen images are gone. You can't download the image.
3863
« on: June 19, 2019, 09:09 »
no sales since 8 days... Usually, I have sales every day ... a trend or it's just me?
Summertime Slump is part of that, but looking, my SS sales are down 77%, vs 2018 or 2017, just for a comparison. Maybe it's not just AS?
3864
« on: June 19, 2019, 09:03 »
That video collection must be an error.  Wood backgrounds person: File #: 127568738 One of my more recent uploads: File #: 261822387 Which is 134,253,649 files ago for the backgrounds. Maybe someone else is better at this and can see the date uploaded? I'm not that great at navigating AS at this time. I think the backgrounds were added around Nov of 2016. Adobe bought FT sometime in 2015, who knows when the stricter rules were activated.
3865
« on: June 19, 2019, 08:36 »
Hi!
A short question, if you have time.
How much does it host to purchase a domain name and the hosting for let's say an year?
Thank you very much.
Hi all!
I know this thread is old, but for any new readers stumbling on this, I wanted to update the numbers as things have changed a bit in the last 6 years. From any of the major players (think Godaddy or 101domain.com) you're looking at anywhere from $75 to $300 a year depending on a wide variety of variables including website storage, bandwith, and subdomains. What you'll need depends largely on the kind of site you intend to host (anything from a blog/personal site up to a massive enterprise). The cost for domain names also varies a lot depending on the desired extension. For example, I just purchased a .ai domain for my tech startup and the cost is $160 for two years. I purchased mine through https://www.101domain.com/ai.htm. When you type in your requested domain it will tell you the cost and cycle length for all available domain extensions. Hope this helps!
Pacey
If you "purchase" your own domain name (because actually you just register the name) it is usually for two years, and that's about $10. If you actually purchase a parked domain name, then it costs more. I've made up all my own domain names, so I pay for hosting and registration, no paying someone who just buys and sells names. https://www.gate.com/domain-names/pricing.htmlfor example http://www.Motorsport-Monitor.com is shared hosting with four of my other websites, and costs about $14.95 every two years. The hosting is around $100 a year. That's if I pay annual, otherwise it's $9.95 a month for a "business" plan. https://www.gate.com/website-hosting/business-hosting-plan.htmlI'd say, and this is all depending on traffic, hopefully that's good news, because traffic means sales.  Starting out, $110 a year. That's storage, hosting and domain name. 2019 prices, virtually the same as I've paid for the last ten years.
3866
« on: June 19, 2019, 08:17 »
that is so crazy... you can disagree than you will get 100% of your money. But then they will kick you out they say.
Win-win.
That was my immediate thought as well. Nothing lost and everything owed, is gained. Maybe with more of these after the fact cuts, or closings, which is the future, people will stop supporting these parasite agencies for the measly money?
3867
« on: June 19, 2019, 07:59 »
I'm from Wisconsin, home of, Colby cheese (yes named after the city), Spotted Cow beer, sold only in WI and of course a variety of cheese factories and artisan cheese makers. Kind of like craft beer has taken off, craft cheese is running through a popular phase. "The shocking news comes from a study conducted at Canadas McMaster University, in which the cheese-eating habits of a whopping 130,000, 35-70 year-olds, representing a staggering 21 countries were examined. Believe it or not, the research shows that participants who consumed a substantial amount of the yellow stuffabout two servings every dayexperienced a decreased level of stroke and heart disease.
Whats interesting, though, is that those who abstained from indulging in cheeseor other dairy products for that matterexperienced a higher rate of mortality, to the tune of 44.4%. Talk about shocking!"https://tiphero.com/eat-cheese-for-a-long-lifeAnd no this isn't one of those, like the Onion or others, humor sites that post real sounding news. It's a real study. Make mine aged Blue Cheese with veins and spots, high cream level. Nothing more enjoyable than a cheese that's aged in a cave and smells like... well anyway. Who'd have thought that a dairy product was good for anything except baby cows? 
3868
« on: June 15, 2019, 13:26 »
Have you used a different person as witness or yourself? Could be one of the reasons...
Yeah, because loads of people sue themselves for false signatures on releases of self-portraits.
Scary thought isn't that? I do have someone else witness my selfies, which has always been a good laugh, but I did that years ago. I think the OP needs to write to SS and get their answer. Could be brain loose reviewer, could be a change, like dates, could be wording, or witness, or maybe as simple as one release for every shoot. But we're just guessing, until SS is contacted and gives a specific answer.
3869
« on: June 14, 2019, 10:42 »
An alternative method would to install team viewer on your home machine, then when your on the road, send files home with your travel laptop via team viewer.
Or use Dropbox
Or pay for a hosting service and upload via ftp
Or use backblaze backup
I have all of the above.
Yes that's the idea, simple, wired to the internet 2T drive. Sorry about the link. Yes, it's WD drive, Sandisk is marketing, named ibi drive? Smart photo manager like having a private sharing site for family and friends. Privacy... control. https://sameapk.com/sandisk-ibi-com-wdc-ibi/Review: https://www.entertainment-focus.com/technology-section/technology-news/sandisk-release-ibi-their-new-smart-photo-manager/I'm just posting for interest, new device technology. I use thumb drives, portable drives and at home have an array of external hard drives, backups and storage. I have Dropbox for documents and information I might want on the road. Personally I don't have a need or use for cloud backup.
3870
« on: June 14, 2019, 10:14 »
I just thought i would start a thread giving an introduction to Microstock Photography for the new members of the forum. Hopefully this thread can be a source of good info and resources.
What is Microstock Photography
Microstock Photography is the term given to the business of selling your photos online through a Microstock agency. Microstock Photography is very similar to traditional stock photography but sets itself apart by offering images for sale at a very low cost (typically $1.00-$40). Microstock photography also has a very low threshold in regards to who can participate, unlock traditional stock photography agencies which often require a portfolio of several hundred or thousand images before you are accepted.
[Wikipedia Definition]
Microstock Agencies
There are many many microstock agencies which are willing to sell your images. However not all agencies have enough traffic to generate decent sales. The top 4 agencies are Shutterstock, iStock, Fotolia and Dreamstime. You can check out the poll on the right side of the page for the full list. The agencies are listed in order from highest to lowest earning site according to the monthly polls on MicrostockGroup.
Getting Started
Don't be mislead by the cheap prices - Microstock is a professional marketplace and is very technically demanding. Even if you are already a professional photographer, don't be surprised if you have troubles getting images accepted when you first start uploading. Take the rejections to heart and learn from them. You can also post images in the critique section to get other users opinions.
Is there anyone here who makes a living off this? I mean as the main source of income? I am looking for ways to diversify my income, and since I love photography, I am thinking if this could be a good fit or just a waste of time.
Thanks
Microstock is what anyone makes of it. Some individuals do well, some suffer. Easy answer though is, Microstock is somewhere between a good fit and a waste of time, depending. I know people that study and make fresh images and video, and they make money. The forum here is littered with people who find, nothing but dropping returns for their efforts. I can say, what should be first in considering this as additional income. It's not easy money. I've seen people who think they know it all, and have arts degrees, photo experience, who don't seem to understand that Microstock is not just art. It can be art, but most important is how functional and useful any image is, to others. If it's useful and can be used for illustration or making a point, and in demand subjects, you can make some money. If you shoot a black goat, laying in a pasture, without much meaning or purpose, your financial returns will be disappointing. If you can think "why would someone else want this image, or have a use for it" without a stretching, maybe or distant hypotheticals, you will have something that gets downloads. Shooting photos, and getting images accepted is easy, making a sale is difficult.
3871
« on: June 12, 2019, 13:29 »
It's half the Adobestock video sales this month now. 1/3 the Pond5's video sales probably. Since they started promoting their own contents under the Eighth Wonder name, our contents got pushed back on searches and sales started to fall drastically. I have no hope on Shutterstock at this point to be honest. Pond5 and Adobestock are our future. Shutterstock's business model now is to create own contents by imitating top selling contents and keep 100% of sales to themselves. This week's sale at Shutterstock is like 1/5 of last year's peak. Horrible.
Maybe you are just shooting the same stuff.
Maybe you should read what helloitsme wrote.
Well I did and most of the thread is contradictions, saying sales are dropping, sales are steady and sales are rigged, fixed or as it's been called before "capped". But the OP wrote: Shutterstock's business model now is to create own contents by imitating top selling contents and keep 100% of sales to themselves. Now the whole subject has been hijacked by the usual conspiracy theories. So I'll try to get back to the question, what portfolios are SS owned, content that copies and imitates artists, so SS can keep 100% instead of paying us. Do I dare ask, if they are stealing our sales, how can so many people be paid, exactly the same for months and months or over years. From what I read, nearly everyone is losing income and sales, not running flat. The people with fixed income must be special and get special treatment that the rest of us don't. Because year after year, sales and income has been dropping, since 2012? Running flat would be a prize and I'd like the same income that's reliable, month after month. How do I get on the fixed income train?
3872
« on: June 12, 2019, 08:43 »
You own the device, you have it at your home or location with internet. You control who can view or add images. Group, individual, Etc. http://retail.sandisk.com/index.php/email/emailWebviewI'm not getting one, but I thought it was interesting because people have asked about travel and safe backup while on the road. 2T isn't huge, I'm sure there will be larger and competition. If I understood the promotional material, which is mostly fluff, you can send from any device, to your home storage unit. A web connected 2T hard drive for $149 or $179 isn't a bad price. I don't need one, I'm not buying, or selling them. I just thought this was a new creative way to have photo sharing, and the owner controls everything. Personally SD cards and thumb drives are cheap enough that I can carry a pocket full. I have external drives, for backup in the field. Private photo sharing device, is how I'd define it?
3873
« on: June 12, 2019, 07:51 »
Nice project, best to you and your success.
As I see the question, you are looking for illustrations and probably items and subjects, not the kind of art or concept images that most of us are producing already, I'd say $5 an image, for someone to create a shot for you, is fair to both. There aren't many illustrative one item images on the stock sites, that would be visual dictionary kind of material?
I don't know why a Shutterstock subscription wouldn't work for you, by the month. You could also come here and say what you are looking for and we could upload. Sure I'm only getting a sub sale, but you would have any of us interested, creating for what you need. Those who want to donate would also create and upload, make it entertaining, MSG competition.
And by all means, links to an artists portfolio or website as a payment would be attractive.
3874
« on: June 07, 2019, 12:00 »
Darn I was hoping to get a flock of replies saying how wrong I was. Seems that converting images to vectors isn't easy?
3875
« on: June 05, 2019, 16:17 »
There's that word sustainable again....
Right and we should be grateful and proud to have the commissions cut? Well not WE I never gave them anything...
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