MicrostockGroup

26

New Sites - General / Galastock

« on: October 21, 2006, 15:20 »

I was playing around with Galastock and thought I would do some statistics. Below is the highest download per category. The category is first, then Downloads (DL), then views for that photo not the highest views (V), then what the photo is, then Total number of photos (in brackets), then comments:

Abstract DLl2 V155 Cemetery crosses* (640) (~ is second)
Animals DL11 V71 Penguins (1040)
Architecture DL9 V47 Modern building (1140)
Backgrounds and Textures DLl2 V155 Cemetery crosses* (720)
Business & Finance DL13 V218 Fountain pen# (520)
Communications Dl10 V213 Lady on mobile (180)
Food & Drink DL13 V100 Coffee^ (1220)
Holidays DL7 V316 flower (700)
Illustrations DL7 V79 Silhouette of 6 people (220)
Macro DL8 V56 Coffee (400)
Medical DL8 V36 Lady with mask on (120)
Miscellaneous DLl2 V155 Cemetery crosses* (1080)
Nature DL10 V82 Lizard (2500)
Objects DL13 V218 Fountain pen# (2420) (^ is second)
People DL11 V50 Shaking hands (1960)
Sports DL6 V132 Riding boot in stirip (440)
Technology DL6 V71 Radio active sign¬ (420)
Transport DL6 V76 Boat (580) (¬ is second)
Vectors DL10 V128 Paint cans~ (180)
Work and Construction DL1 V17 Digger (40)

Comments:
-   I thought you could only add one category per photo but some photos clearly have more (*, #, ^, ~, ¬ are the same photo). Not sure whether you use to be allowed two categories and it has changed?
-   Total photos is about 16,520 (I rounded down to the nearest 20 but since there are double ups this seems about right)
-   Most photos is nature with people up there but business down quite low. Highest sell is food with businss, abstract, background, miscellaneous (same photo) in equal second.
- (EDIT) the default search is by date (newest first). YOu can also search by most DL and most views but it always defaults back to date. Not sure if this can be changed.

As far as my photos at Galastock go, they are selling quite slowly – about the same as LuckyOliver (most downloads on site is 18 though I am sure some free credit swaping went on). Not to sure if it is worth joining up yet??

27

Off Topic / news

« on: October 12, 2006, 06:06 »

I just found that the news is at the bottom of the list of posts. Maybe it needs its own page (ie. forum, interviews, reviews, links, NEWS).

or maybe put headlines (do they come with headlines) in a box below the stock links on the right (but above useful tools)

28

Adobe Stock / Fotolia Payment cycle

« on: October 11, 2006, 09:12 »

Has anyone figured out the fotolia payment cycle. Reading on their forums, they dont have one and just save up all requests until they can be bothered doing one, with the excuse being - multi currency receipts and payments are difficult.

I think this is one area fotolia need to smarten up on, even if they say we only do it every second friday!

I am due a payment from fotolia (ie over $50) but need it to hit my paypal account the same time as other payouts (ie the start of next month) as I need to transfer $100+ to my bank account to avoid fees (due to foriegn exchange).

29

iStockPhoto.com / interesting iStock fact-oid

« on: October 01, 2006, 04:38 »

Saw on another forum that a diamond exclusive was posting in.

From what he said I gathered the following information:

There must be only 57 Diamond members
He has 2,500 photos online (he said it is his hobby, not his job)
He made just under $25,000 in the last year
he said he averages $1 per DL so he must have sold ~25,000 photos or 10 each per year.

30

iStockPhoto.com / iStock have done it again - new annoucement!

« on: September 26, 2006, 02:58 »

I will let someone else post about how wonderful it is that Appeture now has an iStock plugin for uploading (free).

However, the first anybody knew about it was when Apple release the product, then someone posted on the iStock forum and asked what exactly this new iStock plugin does. Haven't they heard about doing prereleases at the same time! (ie. joint prereleases) Especially after being told off by almost everyone for implementing something new without consulatation, they do something again and dont even let the photags know even though it has been released to market by Apple.

They are lucky this is a positive thing though lots of people will be asking where is the PC version?

31

Alamy.com / Workflow for Alamy

« on: September 06, 2006, 09:09 »

What is your workflow for alamy.

Does it differ to the microstocks (other than the upsize at the end).

I have finally got around to shottig raw and am thinking of trying alamy.

Edit: what do you use to upsize. I currently only have Elements but I dont think they accept teh upsizing that is done in this program 9only v7 and CS). Is there any good freeware? I dont want to invest incase I dont get accepted and even if I do, until I get sales.

32

Featurepics.com / Featurepics now does resizing

« on: August 01, 2006, 10:42 »

Featurepics now allows resizing. You have to opt in (though this can be done in bulk). Prices are about 25% for small and 65% for medium. I say about as i cant work out how they determined the price (they are not round percentages).

I think this is a good thing. I have now allowed resizing for all my photos but have also increased the price so i get more for a big image and about the same for a medium image.

Hopefully this will drive customers to the site.

33

General Stock Discussion / time of the month

« on: August 01, 2006, 03:45 »

Following on from the which day of the week has more sales ...

For those that track sales on a daily basis, is there any pattern on DL at particular times of the month.

I dont track this (I only track monthly) but it seems as if things are slow at the start and then pick up toward the end. However, this could just be due to the irratic nature of some of the small sites which boost sales at irregular intervals.

34

iStockPhoto.com / Video Footage

« on: July 31, 2006, 10:12 »

Does anyone here do video footage?

Is so, iStock have just launched their video footage site. Have a look here

I think Shutterstock is the only other site doing it. See here

35

General Stock Discussion / sRGB or Adobe RGB

« on: July 11, 2006, 10:37 »

What colour space do you use.

Do you set it that way in the camera or change it once in photoshop etc.

I have always used sRGB (default setting) but wonder if I should change.

I thing most publishing houses and therefore designers prefer Adobe RGB.

36

Shutterstock.com / Change in search policy

« on: July 10, 2006, 03:31 »

Quote

Best Match only exists within the photographers' galleries. The new algorithm is going to be for the "Most Popular."

This was quoted by Setho (admin) at shutterstock.

This will severely change sales. I am not sure this is a good thing as just becasue something has had more sales, doesn't mean that it is better than the photo that was just uploaded.

37

General Stock Discussion / Categories

« on: June 28, 2006, 08:20 »

I have just done the rounds on the forums today and noted that someone has posted the below quote on SS, Fotolia and Dreamtime (haven't cheaked any others).

What is everyones opinions on categories. I personally dont see the point, searching by keywords is surely more helpfull??

Quote

do we really need categories anymore? On other sites categories are already optional why not on Dreamstime. If a buyer really wants to browse through categories there are already more than enough pictures in the categories. If a contributor thinks he can improve his selling chances he/she should still be able to add categories but again why not optional. For the serious non-exclusive contributors time for uploading and categorizing really become an issue and i personally can't see any sense in the categories anymore. Dreamstime categories are one of the hardest and most timeconsuming categories and costs me a lot of time therefore i didn't upload for months. Please help me to save me some time it's really in your own interest.
Instead of (IMHO useless) categories it would be great to spend the time to add thumbnails under a picture to show buyers a full serie.
Best Regards

38

General Stock Discussion / Stock software

« on: June 23, 2006, 10:31 »

Has anyone tried this?

http://www.softsymphony.com/photoassist.htm

Is there any other software out there. I know istock has there own program but one that works on all sites would be great.

Any designers out there. I would be happy to trial if for you

39

Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock per picture sales

« on: June 20, 2006, 06:19 »

Just had my first which I got $3.99.

Does anyone know what percentage we get?

40

General Stock Discussion / Alexa ratings of stock sites

« on: May 18, 2006, 10:40 »

Full web link -> http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=526355

I am not exactly sure how alexa rating work but thought this was interesting:

The most visited sites in all 'Royalty Free' categories.

1. IStockPhoto.com
www.istockphoto.com - Site info
2. Dreamstime Stock Photography
www.dreamstime.com - Site info
3. ShutterStock
www.shutterstock.com - Site info
4. Photos.com
www.photos.com - Site info
5. BigStockPhoto
www.bigstockphoto.com - Site info
6. Fotolia
www.fotolia.com - Site info
7. Inmagine Royalty Free Stock Photos
www.inmagine.com - Site info
8. FreeFoto.com
www.freefoto.com - Site info
9. Comstock Images
www.comstock.com - Site info
10. Can Stock Photo
www.canstockphoto.com - Site info

After seeing this, it makes me wonder about the ones i dont know of. Does anyone submit to photos.com, inmagine.com, freefoto.com or comstock.com and how are sales there.

41

Shutterstock.com / Is shutterstock missing out?? (on per picture sales)

« on: May 14, 2006, 06:02 »

After seeing 123rf per picture sales ( I already have a few after a few days) and seeing on the shutterstocks forum that someone complaining that they had 3000DL and no per pictures and someone replied that was normal.

Are they missing out by not offering per picture sales as part of the site (or more obvious). They way I see it they are only catering to designers who use a lot of photos. If a designer only uses a few photos, they will use one of the other sites.

I think they need give a per picture sale into the site and to offer credit packages (ie 10 credit packages). Until then, I think they are holding themselves back.

My opinion

42

General Stock Discussion / What jpeg compression do you use

« on: May 12, 2006, 11:43 »

What jpeg compression do you use. I use 12 on photshop and get pictures of about 4-8mb depending on the image.

I have now heard some people only use 10 so there images are only 1-2mb.

Am i doing overkill??

Does using more compresson (ie lower number) result in less noise since it must flatten the image??

43

Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock approval que

« on: April 28, 2006, 10:24 »

Has anyone else notice that when you submit one lot of photos on (say) Monday, and a second lot on (say) Tuesday, they all get reviewed at the same time despite the fact they were submited 24 hours apart.

This seems weird as they aren't doing it in a ture first in first out basis.

44

iStockPhoto.com / Lightbox's

« on: April 19, 2006, 05:28 »

Does being in a public light box on iStock improve your chances of getting downloads.

I guess it would help as if the designer is searching on a theme and searches light boxes rather than just a normal search.

Any feedback welcome. <-Just trying out the move function.

CJ

45

StockXpert.com / Do you use categories

« on: April 07, 2006, 05:36 »

Do you use categories and do you think they help with sales.

Surely most people would look view Keywords rather than search via categories.

Especially on StockXpert, ifyou upload via Ftp, the photos can be approved before you even have a time to choose the categories (Some didn't even have keywords where the IPTA data didn't work).

Is it worthwhile going back and putting some in?

On other sites, is it worthwhle putting in as many as possible or just the bare minimum?