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Topics - rene
26
« on: January 11, 2013, 01:02 »
I start separate thread, concentrated on concrete actions we can take. What happens with iStock/Getty/Microsoft/Google and probably others, for instant submerged deals, is unacceptable. I dont think iStock and friends will stop because it is the right thing to do. We should stop them. If not swindlers will continue. We need 2 organized actions. One legal, another social/communication. I propose for social/communication action: Try to collect here addresses of people, sites, magazines, associations, journalists etc. Then prepare a kind of an open collective letter (only one to avoid spams)which will be sent to concerned people. Spread a word on social networks and blogs. Legal action: 1) Create paypal account to collect money. We should keep it simple, at least in the beginning IMO, so no need to create legal entity. On this site there are many persons I trust and respect (LisaFx, Leaf, Sjlocke, Jsnover and many others). If one of these people agrees to open an account Im ready to send few hundreds of $. 2) Contact a specialized lawyer. Present well prepared file with all iStock/Getty story, not only Google/Microsofts. At least we will have a precise idea what is legal 3) Based on lawyers opinion we decide next steps. I think it is urgent to act. Not only iStock contributors are concerned. All copyright holders, if this still means something, are concerned. If Getty with impunity can do this others will follow. Floated marked with high quality free images from Getty will devaluate paid ones. Who will buy Shutterstocks subscription if there is a free option? The reasons why IMO we should charge them: 1) It is simple immoral, not right. I know it not an argument in a court but this is what it is. 2) Probably illegal: nothing to do with promotion 3) Probably illegal: copyright holder cannot stop it 4) Probably illegal: the way they change ASA 5) Probably illegal: be paid for without paying suppliers 6) Probably illegal: not inform about these kind of deal which are nothing to do with regular business 7) Probably illegal: prevent us to become exclusive on competitors sites (impossible to remove our images)  Financial. It could be a possibility to earn much more money than from selling our photos.. Compensations could be huge for images download thousand times. 9) I just cannot stand that they think that they can do anything. There should be a punishment.
27
« on: August 21, 2012, 19:08 »
Now I have thousands of jpg files, all with embedded IPTC keywords, stored on a network drive. . I use freeware like Xnview or Infranview to manage jpgs. It works great but searching files by keywords is extremely long. Is there any method to accelerate researches? Do you know any software which are efficient, maybe with indexing system?
Thanks.
28
« on: June 25, 2012, 19:08 »
iStock and Yuri announced over one year ago that PNG files would be available on their sites. iStock officially stopped this project. Yuri after proudly talked this revolutionary feature on his website simply didn't make it.
Anyone has idea why these projects were abandoned? It doesn't seem to be very complicated to add another files' format in downloads.
29
« on: December 14, 2011, 22:36 »
Many exclusives drop crowns. Financially first months of independence will be difficult.
Actually I'm still exclusive at IS but I'm not buying anymore there. I have subscription at Shutterstock now and I'm not using all my quota. I propose to download images from freshly independents. It's not a big help but I think it's better then nothing.
If you are interested pls put link to your SS portfolio here- ONLY EX-EXCLUSIVES.
30
« on: November 12, 2011, 23:11 »
Personally I think that the new referral system is a disaster. Complicated, probably voluntary to avoid paying people. Not reliable and financially not interesting. Doing all this work for 20$ doesn't interest me (especially knowing that there is no guarantee that system works).
Before September 2010 I sent many buyers, without using the ridiculous 10$ referral system, simply because I liked IS. Now our relationship is strictly financial so if I can earn one more dollar by sending buyers to another site I'll do it. I'm still exclusive but I don't think there is no future for IS and throwing the crown is only question of time.
I'm curious if you continue to put IS links on yours websites. Do you use IS referral system?
I voted last option.
31
« on: October 27, 2011, 22:16 »
New referral system is on line. IMO it's even worst then before. In past I got few "passive" referrals without doing nothing. Today is not possible anymore. Another thing you should have at least $100 from your referrals to cash out.
In the past I was very surprised to see that IS was the only site I use (not only in microstock world) talking about clearing temporary files systematically.
You have a problem with the site? Solution: Clear your cookies,cache and ...referrals.
BTW, which site has the best referral program today in your opinion?
32
« on: April 07, 2011, 10:59 »
Did you noticed Pond is selling photos and vector? I think it's an excellent news. I like them a lot. Fair commission (50%), possibility to fix your price. And they sell more of my videos than SS+IS together.
After recant moves at IS, Fotolia and Dreamstime they are only one microstock site I wish success.
33
« on: December 04, 2010, 02:40 »
I wanted buy new D7000.
As on some forums I red about video hot spots problem I wanted to be sure if it was only firmware problem. Response is NO. The sensor is completely crap. I checked 3 different, new, cameras in 3 different shops and results were the same. There were dozens of dead or hot pixels, majority red.
Test conditions:
Manual setting, ISO 6400, Speed 1 second, cover on lens - image normally should be completely black
Image taken in the same condition with my old cameras : max 2 pixels
34
« on: May 17, 2010, 07:36 »
After over 2 months of exclusivity my feelings are mixed. Before my IS earnings represented 40-50% of total microstock earnings.
Now it's about 120%-yes, I earn more and it's a positive point.
Now negative point: my downloads' number is the same. It seems that I didn't benefit from better best match placement.
My earning increase come only from better commission and much higher prices (exclusive, exclusive+ and Vetta).
I'm curious about experiences from other fresh exclusives.
35
« on: April 14, 2010, 20:43 »
Strange thing, this month big "guns" (Yuri, Iofoto, Monkeybusiness) have not any uploads at Dreamstime. Usually they upload hundreds/thousands files. Are they preparing something? (boycotting new uploads limits or going exclusive)
36
« on: March 03, 2010, 09:53 »
I want to delete my images (almost 1500) from Fotolia and Dreamstime. I have red, long time ago, that there were scripts for doing this. Anyone has an idea where I can find them?
Thanks for your help.
37
« on: February 02, 2010, 21:24 »
What happens at Fotolia its just unacceptable. If we do nothing
I was thinking what we can do against them. In my case its simple, in few months Ill be exclusive at IS. But everybody cannot do this.
They act like terrorists so discussion with them is pointless. In my opinion just stopping uploading in not very efficient. So what else? I have few ideas (maybe not very clever):
- uploading batch(s) of 100 crap images. All will be rejected, reviewing costs will hurt FT
- spread bad (but true) information about dishonest behavior of FT. Allmost everybody has his own site, have different accounts at popular sites (Facebook, If Fotolia is associated with tags like thief, dishonest in Google research some serious companies will hesitate before buying images.
- There are many copyright infringement case with FT images (logos, copyrighted designs, places) If we contact a legal department of involved company FT lawyers will have a lot of work
- FT withhold 28% of all commissions from some contributors (even from no US sales). Is this tax transferred or they keep it in this case they are in trouble. Can we check it?
Do you have any ideas?
38
« on: January 27, 2010, 04:49 »
I'll go exclusive with IS.
Ones exclusive I can sell at:
Istock (including Vetta)
Photos.com
Getty images
Alamy but only RM
Any others agencies to add at this list?
Thanks
39
« on: January 18, 2010, 09:56 »
I'm preparing my "stock" business card in different languages. I have some trouble to write English version - my English is very poor. The main purpose is to tempt models and restaurant chefs to work with me. I was thinking about something like this:
Do you need nice photos? Do you want to immortalize your creation, a special event? Are you interested in modeling for stock photography? If your project interested me and we work together you'll receive images from the photo session for your personal use for free
I'm worried about errors. I'd be very grateful if someone can give me any advice.
Thank you in advance.
40
« on: January 04, 2010, 11:29 »
Can you please tell Oleg\'s children to stop playing with the server?
My withholdings tax have been changed (in one day) from 28% to 39% then to 43% and now they are 28% on ALL downloads! --> They should be 30% only on US transactions.
I just got email from FT about free section: \"your files have to stay at least 18 months in this section\". In the same time the site\'s page says \"your files have to stay 5 years\"
In the begging it was funny but now it\'s too much.
Thanks.
41
« on: January 03, 2010, 10:07 »
What happens at DT (even Stockxpert seems do better)? Third (consequential) month Dreamstime has \\\"red arrow\\\" in poll results.
My numbers are bad, RPI dropped below 1$ for last 3 months (never happend before), 50% dls less.
How about your results?
42
« on: December 15, 2009, 06:17 »
Bigstockphoto was always very low earner for me, but I had a payment almost every month. In December I have 0 dls. It has never happen before (I'm here for over 2 years). Looks like BS is slow dying.
43
« on: December 14, 2009, 07:07 »
Another change without any notice given to us.
"These files have had no sales on Fotolia over the past 24 months.
You have the possibility to add them to the Fotolia free files API and earn 0.5 credits by doing so.
Your files will then remain in that section for a period of 5 years and will be available for downloads through the Fotolia free files API."
Free section has increased from 18 to 60 months!
I start to hate this kind of silent changes. Fotolia and Dreamstime are champions in this.
44
« on: September 28, 2009, 21:37 »
I must admit that they are very inventive at Dreamstime to retrieve more money without further effort. After having introduced enlarged images, familiarized buyers that these images are clearly indicated (this image was upsized) they have removed this information, in silence (old good DT's strategy). How many buyers will be fooled thinking download a big picture? A medium sized photograph may sell for a maximum of credits. Brilliant. Naysayers will say that it is not honest. Legally it is ok, buyers agree conditions when downloading. Otherwise they can buy a pocket calculator and count the total number of pixels and compare it to the original size indicated under the picture. A sale is a sale and more credits are more credits.
BTW, I always checked in for monthly newsletter. Never got it. Anyone else in this case?
45
« on: September 15, 2009, 04:54 »
I dont want to start new social movement, just give you an advice. Be suspicious, be vigilant and dont trust every advice and information microstock agencies give you. Be selfish, do what is good for you. They are not our agents, this is not win-win relation. We have not common interests, worst, our interests are opposite. Whats good for us is bad for them. They sell credits and subscriptions, we sell images. For each credit plan or subscription the site get money. We get nothing. For each downloaded picture we get money and the site lose money. They love to have our images (thats what makes clients put money in their pockets) but they dont like sell them. Who is the best client for microstock site? The guy who paid for 1 year subscription (2400$) and had a car crash 10 minutes later. I wish a very long life to all our buyers. 
46
« on: July 27, 2009, 03:04 »
I'm a little bit tired to upload to many sites. IS is my best earner (about 40% of all RF income). So with exclusive commission, in theory, I'll not lose so much.
I really like Vetta. I already have some files, sleeping on my hd, that could go there. I'm ready to invest money to make more creative shoots - these kind of photos that I'll never sell for pathetic subscription price.
What makes me hesitate go exclusive is that IS can change. So I'm thinking about not cancel accounts and keeping possibility to come back. At some sites we can just 'hide' files without deleting. It seems that at
- SS we can keep all files and deactivate them with one click. Then reactivate wit one click
- DT - deactivate one by one, then reactivate one by one
- FT only delete
- StockXpert - only delete. StockXpert will be probably dead before the end of the year so no big lose
- BigStock - only delete. 1-2% of my income. Can live without.
Any thoughts about multi-sites come back (after canceling IS exclusivity)? Thanks
47
« on: July 20, 2009, 23:07 »
Tomorrow I will try to shoot the solar eclipse, photo and video. Have no experience on it. Any tips ? Should I use filters ?
Thanks.
48
« on: June 18, 2009, 00:26 »
Hi,
I start to sell my footages at Pond. Looks very interesting. With only 20 videos I have already 3 sales in 2 weeks. Compared to my portfolios (video) at IS and SS with over 200 files and only 3-5 sales/month Pond rocks. And they pay us 50%. I'll probably fix prices of my video at Pond lower then prices at IS and SS. I still get more than at others sites. I prefer buyers go to Pond, it's win-win model. What prices you put at Pond?
Thanks
49
« on: May 10, 2009, 22:39 »
Hi,
I want to delete my portfolio from here but keep my account. Is there possibility to do it fast? Deleting file by file from history page is very slow.
Thanks
50
« on: March 10, 2009, 00:24 »
For me there is no more reason to have exclusives photos at Fotolia (earning are the same). So before stop selling my exclusives files only at FT I'll test the impact of increasing credit's price to max. If they still sell good I'll continue with FT, otherwise I'll upload my exclusives images to all sites.
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