the email from them below

There are better ways to sell
your photography online.
We�ve always kept photographers and their work at the core of our business. We are photographers. Our friends are photographers. We believe photographs, like any art or product, have a value that should not be manipulated or diluted without the consent of their creators.

This is why Getty Images' decision to make 35 million images available for free has enfuriated photographers globally. Unexpected changes like these affect the livelihoods of thousands of photographers, many who depend on services like these to make a living.

We truly believe in the products we build because they enable photographers and artists like you to set your own standards of value. So what is the value of your work? Honestly, we don't know. And neither does Getty. So why let them decide?

Sell on your own terms and keep 100% of your earnings using our Sell Media E-Commerce plugin.

It's your work. You should be able to determine its value.

I tried them out a long time ago (before symbiostock) and purchased several of the add-on features.  It was buggy and I couldn't make it work properly.  That was quite a long time ago tho so maybe things are more stable now?

It sounds like another choice for us. GOOD! - I stick with my Symbiostock site, though.

I tried to integrate them with my Photoshelter site.  I couldn't even get the basic template operational from them.  They use Page.ly on the back end.  I got double billed and I couldn't really get any help from them.  I ended up getting my money back (which I appreciated) and went with a Photoshelter Beam template instead.

The people voting these normal comments down are stirring up crap. You cant make a joke, or an honest comment on this forum without receiving the judgement of a few angry people.

Great, sold an EL this month and a small size, kept 96% of the sales, after PayPal fees. Its right up there with the middle tier in terms of earnings.

  The problem with self-hosted sites is the same problem with any start-up site. How do you draw buyers to your site in great numbers? That's where the top four agencies have the advantage.

  The problem with self-hosted sites is the same problem with any start-up site. How do you draw buyers to your site in great numbers? That's where the top four agencies have the advantage.

Yeah its a problem. Seems like if one could get a few customers who consistently buy, the 100% of the sale might make up for the lack of lots of customers and getting paid peanuts.

I haven't been able to get interested in Symbiostock because I get the feeling the developer is backing away from the project and there's no one to pick it up.  So it may work today, but at some point in the future there could be big problems and no one to deal with them.  I realize it's working fine for some people now but I'm afraid it might ultimately turn out to be an expensive (in terms of my time) dead end.

So if there's someone offering a comparable system, maybe not as good but with an assurance of future support and development...

the email from them below

There are better ways to sell
your photography online.
We�ve always kept photographers and their work at the core of our business. We are photographers. Our friends are photographers. We believe photographs, like any art or product, have a value that should not be manipulated or diluted without the consent of their creators.

This is why Getty Images' decision to make 35 million images available for free has enfuriated photographers globally. Unexpected changes like these affect the livelihoods of thousands of photographers, many who depend on services like these to make a living.

We truly believe in the products we build because they enable photographers and artists like you to set your own standards of value. So what is the value of your work? Honestly, we don't know. And neither does Getty. So why let them decide?

Sell on your own terms and keep 100% of your earnings using our Sell Media E-Commerce plugin.

It's your work. You should be able to determine its value.

Is it just a range of paid WordPress themes to which you can add an E-Commerce plugin?

I used the sellmedia plugin for a year and one of their themes. I like it at first and my test sales worked but my real sales never worked. I always had to send the zip file to the customer. I switched to symbiostock this year and so far I love it! I've had one sale and and worked! And it's a lot easier to set up for someone like me who knows very little about web stuff.

I license traditional stock photos from my Photoshelter site. My photos get indexed and about half my sales are from google searches, the other half are from photo editors going directly to Photoshelter's home page and searching. Most of the time the buyers call me to arrange for licensing so I am making good contacts as well.

Not a huge volume of sales but at $100-400 per photo it adds up nicely. I've considered symbio and other platforms to set up a micro site, but don't imagine the volume would make it worth the trouble.

http://www.photoshelter.com/referral/MA2CA7TC7J