Congrats.

Although I still don't think that we should be giving our work away for free.

Congrats.

Although I still don't think that we should be giving our work away for free.

yep, get it while it's hot!

yeah, I was unsure of what to do when i was asked if i was interested but a few things made me think it was OK.

Free is a very attractive search term... so the micro sites really want to offer something 'free' to be able to use it.  Most sites have a whole free collection but Shutterstock just has the free image of the week - something that I feel is a very different offering a whole collection. 

I could pick the image they used.

The downloads that come from the 'free week' are counted towards the total downloads for the image - so in the future it will sit higher in the rankings in the 'best match' search.  It is only free this week.  Next week it will be back to normal.

I also heard of other photographers getting a larger number of downloads on the week they had a free image.  With the New Years just over it is hard to know how my downloads would look without the free image, but after this week i will try and figure something out to see if I saw an increase in downloads.

Getting in the SS lightbox on the front page has boosted my sales a few times, so I am sure the free image will boost sales as well.  I wouldn't do it for a site with low earnings but I would for SS.

Congrats.

Although I still don't think that we should be giving our work away for free.

congrats Tyler...

echo...Although I still don't think that we should be giving our work away for free.

no offense meant to Tyler, but more to the stock sites who encourage it.

maybe we should ask them if they don't mind giving away some credits to us for free... like each contributor get 100 credits FREE..!!!
then see if they think it's a good idea.

anyway, here's an   anecdote:

i once, twenty odd years ago, managed a pro photo store and we conducted seminars for Sinar etc. we got together with the best to give a free seminar at first. no one came.   then malak (the brother of the great Yousuf Karsh) told us to charge a fee because nobody will think it's any good if you don't charge a fee.
sure enough, as Malak was world reknowned and business wise in his own specialty showed us his mastery was not just limited to being the Official Photographer worldwide for many Tulip Festivals for many years.
needless to say, when we started to charge a fee, our seminars were packed in every session we gave thereafter.

this is another reason why i strongly believe that free and cheap subs in micro
are full of horse feathers,  and will bring us nothing but folly .

IF ANY AGENCY WISHES TO BE A CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION,
LET THEM APPLY FOR A c.o. LICENSE AND BE NON PROFIT...
and call themselves SALVATION ARMY.

failing that, maybe they should show their true colours and name themselves
something more appropriate..
PHOTO MOOCHERS, perharps.

postscript:

hippy joke here :-
buy one get one free, good idea.
buy one get two free, not so good, but still an idea
buy none and get one free ?
boy, what bad weed have you been smoking , silly boy!!!