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Author Topic: What's holding you back from joining Symbiostock?  (Read 76866 times)

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Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #450 on: November 24, 2013, 20:07 »
+7
Only 150 or 170? I thought the list had 200+ something sites in the network?


There are currently 158 sites in the Symbiostock network and it is gaining momentum.

You can see how many sites there are at the bottom of the following URLs:

symbiostock.info

http://cascoly.com/symbio/list.asp?list=25


Christine "I can't help either I eventually just accepted that people using IE will not see the colours in my site as I do not think this will affect sales."

Redneck "I'm on version 5.2.12. Your version should work, too. I guess the white screen error is caused by something else."

Lusoimages "I've just conducted a few searches on my website and in the symbiostock page and I've detected something that got me worried.

I've noticed that when a keyword is composed by two words it's ignored by the search."

marthamarks "However, I do have to say this:  symbiostock-search.com redirects to this:

http://cascoly.com/symbio/symbiostock-network.asp

I find that a very confusing and unattractive page to look at and use. I'm reluctant to send any potential buyers there, to be honest."

Symbiostock_Newbie "One of the images I uploaded recently won't process for some unknown reason. It seems to process, but then when I go to "all images" it doesn't show up there. When I go back to "process uploads" the image is back there again awaiting processing!"

Snap Vectors "Hello. I've had three purchases on my site since yesterday. However, all three customers emailed me right after the sale, and said they couldn't see how to download their file."

Flawless


My site's running better than iStock. Looks nicer, too.


« Reply #451 on: November 24, 2013, 21:15 »
+5
Only 150 or 170? I thought the list had 200+ something sites in the network?


There are currently 158 sites in the Symbiostock network and it is gaining momentum.

You can see how many sites there are at the bottom of the following URLs:

symbiostock.info

http://cascoly.com/symbio/list.asp?list=25


Christine "I can't help either I eventually just accepted that people using IE will not see the colours in my site as I do not think this will affect sales."

Redneck "I'm on version 5.2.12. Your version should work, too. I guess the white screen error is caused by something else."

Lusoimages "I've just conducted a few searches on my website and in the symbiostock page and I've detected something that got me worried.

I've noticed that when a keyword is composed by two words it's ignored by the search."

marthamarks "However, I do have to say this:  symbiostock-search.com redirects to this:

http://cascoly.com/symbio/symbiostock-network.asp

I find that a very confusing and unattractive page to look at and use. I'm reluctant to send any potential buyers there, to be honest."

Symbiostock_Newbie "One of the images I uploaded recently won't process for some unknown reason. It seems to process, but then when I go to "all images" it doesn't show up there. When I go back to "process uploads" the image is back there again awaiting processing!"

Snap Vectors "Hello. I've had three purchases on my site since yesterday. However, all three customers emailed me right after the sale, and said they couldn't see how to download their file."

Flawless


Symbiostock is still very much in its infancy - in fact all the big guns in the stock industry had to start from scratch, with one of the biggest ones today being started in the creators little apartment he lived in.

"DON'T DESPISE THE DAY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS"

People learn along the way in any building endeavor, and there are mistakes, glitches, obstacles, challenges, but anything can be overcome and worked out with time and effort. In fact ALL websites continue to be works in progress, and ALL experience hicups from time to time.

I think Symbio has created interest at the very least at this point, and its only going to continue to increase in momentum. Sure the contributors are relatively small in number with only a fraction of images available than the big guns, but it is increasing every month.
The thing I have noticed is that each contributor is very proud of their own site whether it is relatively simple or has a greater wow factor, and to belong to a community of like-minded content providers. This is what makes Symbio sites different and a unique place for buyers to have an alternative buying experience.

Sure Batman always gets the spotlight - but don't discount the importance of Boy-Wonder.

remember - "DON'T DESPISE THE DAY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS"

StockPhotosArt.com

« Reply #452 on: November 25, 2013, 03:43 »
+6

Christine "I can't help either I eventually just accepted that people using IE will not see the colours in my site as I do not think this will affect sales."

Redneck "I'm on version 5.2.12. Your version should work, too. I guess the white screen error is caused by something else."

Lusoimages "I've just conducted a few searches on my website and in the symbiostock page and I've detected something that got me worried.

I've noticed that when a keyword is composed by two words it's ignored by the search."

marthamarks "However, I do have to say this:  symbiostock-search.com redirects to this:

http://cascoly.com/symbio/symbiostock-network.asp

I find that a very confusing and unattractive page to look at and use. I'm reluctant to send any potential buyers there, to be honest."

Symbiostock_Newbie "One of the images I uploaded recently won't process for some unknown reason. It seems to process, but then when I go to "all images" it doesn't show up there. When I go back to "process uploads" the image is back there again awaiting processing!"

Snap Vectors "Hello. I've had three purchases on my site since yesterday. However, all three customers emailed me right after the sale, and said they couldn't see how to download their file."

Flawless


I think you are acting in total bad faith because you're quoting problems people report that are part their own fault and part Wordpress and not Symbiostock specifically, and not mentioning the solutions available to those problems.

The Redneck quotation refers to an error he caused on his own has I did myself, and thousands of others using wordpress that have nothing to do with symbiostock. It's a wordpress issue and the lack of knowledge from people messing around without understanding programing.

The Lusoimages quotation is also a Wordpress issue that has a limited search functionality but has been solved with a symbyostock plugin, or a little work from the photographer as I did and now have no problem.

Other problems you mention I could say I've experienced the same things and more from multimillionaire agencies that have paid programmers and designers available 24/7. In fact in the last days Shutterstock has been down for contributors for a long time!

Plus, Symbiostock is a very helpful community that helped me tremendously in helping to setup my website even if the standard setup is not complicated. Only personalizing things require a little more work, again with people always willing to help.

We've just launched our website but we're very proud of it, looks good and it still isn't completely finished or have all of our portfolio.

As for the "flawless" remark I can tell you that I see many more flaws in your attitude than in the working of Symbistock.

Ron

« Reply #453 on: November 25, 2013, 03:44 »
+1
DNFTT

StockPhotosArt.com

« Reply #454 on: November 25, 2013, 03:50 »
+2
DNFTT

I'm not feeding the troll. It upsets me that his partial version of the facts pushes back people from joining this project. I can accept legitimate critiques but not ones based in bad faith.

« Reply #455 on: November 25, 2013, 06:11 »
+1

The Redneck quotation refers to an error he caused on his own has I did myself, and thousands of others using wordpress that have nothing to do with symbiostock. It's a wordpress issue and the lack of knowledge from people messing around without understanding programing.

The people that are trying to set up these sites are basically photographers, and no, don't have programming experience. There are many wordpress themes that DO NOT require messing around with much of anything and all customizations can be done from the admin area. This theme is not one of those.


When the only way to get your site working and looking decent IS to mess around with programming, its not fair to people wanting to set up a site to minimize that fact, either. SY is not a typical wordpress theme and if you are not happy with the way it looks out of the box, you need to know css, you need to be willing to make changes to programming and you are going to need to talk to your hosting company.


The quotes that were pulled out do not give the whole picture, for sure.


I think that anyone wanting to set up a site can read through everything and decide for themselves. There are positives and negatives to SY and i dont think it's fair either to say something like "SY is wonderful and is easy to set up," and yet i have seen comments like that, too. Thats in total bad faith and a partial version of the facts, too.

Ron

« Reply #456 on: November 25, 2013, 06:18 »
+4
You have always been keen to point out any issues with Symbiostock. Everytime some posts they are happy with the site and had no issues, you come out saying its not true, its impossible.

I keep saying it, I have had little issues with my site, from the start. I did find it very easy to set up and I was surprised to get the site working within a day without any knowledge of WP or PHP or CSS.
 
And as long as you keep knocking Symbiostock, I will keep repeating I had no difficult issues setting up my site.

You keep going about having to change the CSS, but that goes for EVERY WP theme you want to change. If you like the look of the basic Symbiostock theme, there is nothing you need to do.  If you dont like the look of any other WP theme, you need to change the CSS as well.

StockPhotosArt.com

« Reply #457 on: November 25, 2013, 08:40 »
+4
I don't think setting up a Symbiostock site is hard, even if you want to have a good looking one. And I don't think that knowledge of CSS, PHP, "CIA" or "NSA" is required.  ;)

Our site is the standard Symbiostock theme built with the available tools to all with simple checks in boxes and drag-and-drop items, without the need for programming and I think it looks good and no one would be ashamed to have a site looking like it even if it will not win awards.

The only serious problem I had and got the White Screen of Death was when I tried to change from the standard 24 thumbs in the gallery (which is completely fine) to 48. I made a mistake in the PHP file and that happened.

What Symbiostock does require is some work and a little patience because some options are not obvious at first and despite the guide is good it has a point or two that requires extra-attention and made me ask for help to remove a menu item I didn't want.

So, even if setting up Symbiostock cannot be done with both eyes closed, in the end I think it's a harder job to upload all the images in our portfolios that setting up a site.

marthamarks

« Reply #458 on: November 25, 2013, 09:18 »
+3
Flawless


No, Batman. Not flawless. Work in progress. And most of those issues you jumped on with such pleasure are now either fixed or in the fixing process.

http://bestnaturestock.com/

« Reply #459 on: November 25, 2013, 10:00 »
0
I have a simple question for symbiostockers (if I can call you like that): Is it worthed to invest time and money?

Ron

« Reply #460 on: November 25, 2013, 10:17 »
0
I have a simple question for symbiostockers (if I can call you like that): Is it worthed to invest time and money?
Only you can decide that. It totally depends on your images if you get any sales. No one can determine that for you.

But I think everyone of us, except maybe a few, will say yes. For me it totally is. Only the satisfaction to have my own site is enough. I havent made my money back yet, but I am getting there. It was a 300 dollar initial investment, including the premium plugin and a year hosting, and I made back 30% within 4 months.

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #461 on: November 25, 2013, 10:29 »
+2

The Redneck quotation refers to an error he caused on his own has I did myself, and thousands of others using wordpress that have nothing to do with symbiostock. It's a wordpress issue and the lack of knowledge from people messing around without understanding programing.



The people that are trying to set up these sites are basically photographers, and no, don't have programming experience. There are many wordpress themes that DO NOT require messing around with much of anything and all customizations can be done from the admin area. This theme is not one of those.


When the only way to get your site working and looking decent IS to mess around with programming, its not fair to people wanting to set up a site to minimize that fact, either. SY is not a typical wordpress theme and if you are not happy with the way it looks out of the box, you need to know css, you need to be willing to make changes to programming and you are going to need to talk to your hosting company.


The quotes that were pulled out do not give the whole picture, for sure.

I think that anyone wanting to set up a site can read through everything and decide for themselves. There are positives and negatives to SY and i dont think it's fair either to say something like "SY is wonderful and is easy to set up," and yet i have seen comments like that, too. Thats in total bad faith and a partial version of the facts, too.

I don't know any CSS. Yet I have a functioning site.

I totally get that you had some issues, that you're studying web design, that you're familiar with zillions of WordPress themes you find flawless and that you wanted to futz with things, so you altered the CSS (I guess; I don't even know if "altered" is the correct terminology).

But as much as you complain that it's misleading for people to say setting up a Symbiostock site is easy, it's also misleading for you to state that you must know CSS in order to do it. I'm happy to have a clean, simple site that functions properly, and I built it with no programming knowledge at all.

« Reply #462 on: November 25, 2013, 10:37 »
+1
@shelma  ;)


I did not say you must know css. I said if you dont like it right out of the box, you need to know those things. But then there are two or three of you here who dont really even read what i say. You are just going to argue for the sake of arguing.  :)  Go for it!


My comments are addressed to people who want to make an informed decision.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2013, 10:46 by cathyslife stockphotos.com »

« Reply #463 on: November 25, 2013, 10:42 »
+1
I have a simple question for symbiostockers (if I can call you like that): Is it worthed to invest time and money?


So far, no. Have had a site up since april. Dont have over 1000 images up yet tho. Not ready to give up just yet. If i have 1000+ images up, am doing marketing, am selling those same images elsewhere, and still have no sales, i will say no, not worth it.

« Last Edit: November 25, 2013, 10:55 by cathyslife stockphotos.com »

StockPhotosArt.com

« Reply #464 on: November 25, 2013, 11:19 »
+2
I have a simple question for symbiostockers (if I can call you like that): Is it worthed to invest time and money?

As Ron has mentioned, it's up to you. He spent $300, but I spent only $80 more or less for 1 year hosting in Bluehost and the specific Symbiostock sitemap.

To me, having the site for less than two weeks, with 1/3 of the portfolio and possibly no sales in the near future (although who knows that...) I'm already really happy and think it totally worths it.

I've had accounts in Smugmug for years which was much more expensive, my Zenfolio is still online and despite I payed the most basic plan to have one with similar options to Symbistock would again be more expensive, so comparing, Symbiostock is much better investment so far at least in financial terms. And for the first time I really like how my site looks despite it's the standard Symbiostock theme!

Besides I feel I'm making part of the one thing that could be beneficial to us photographers since 2006.

As I consider very important to have a personal space on the web beyond the agencies I found Symbiostock to be the best option available for me.

Ron

« Reply #465 on: November 25, 2013, 11:28 »
+1
Just to explain, the 300 dollar I spent, included hosting, back up service, donations, premium plugin and 2 other plugins.

You can set up your symbiostock site, for free, and only pay hosting, which could be under 100 dollar for a year.

Any website needs hosting by the way...thats not only for symbiostock.

Shelma1

  • stockcoalition.org
« Reply #466 on: November 25, 2013, 11:33 »
+1
@shelma  ;)


I did not say you must know css. I said if you dont like it right out of the box, you need to know those things. But then there are two or three of you here who dont really even read what i say. You are just going to argue for the sake of arguing.  :)  Go for it!


My comments are addressed to people who want to make an informed decision.

"When the only way to get your site working and looking decent IS to mess around with programming, its not fair to people wanting to set up a site to minimize that fact, either."

You spelled "it's" incorrectly, btw.

Ron

« Reply #467 on: November 25, 2013, 11:53 »
0
@shelma  ;)

.....
I did not say you must know css.....

My comments are addressed to people who want to make an informed decision.
You did, people who argue with you do read your comments.

« Reply #468 on: November 25, 2013, 12:03 »
+2
 :)

« Reply #469 on: November 25, 2013, 12:27 »
+10
I have a simple question for symbiostockers (if I can call you like that): Is it worthed to invest time and money?

You have to decide that. But what I would say is that I've "invested" my time in uploading to a lot of agencies since 2004.

In some cases - iStock, in spite of the fact that they turned from being a wonderful place to a sad shadow of their former selves after ingestion by the Private Equity parasites that ate the Getty borg - they made me a ton of money. And that includes the massive time sink that was the "disambiguation" required after they moved to Getty's controlled vocabulary, one of many things that pushed work onto contributors.

In others - albumo pocketstock and Gimmestock - for example it wasn't worth investing my time.

Part of the problem with any of these things is that you can't know for sure up front which ones are the winners and which the losers.

I am so sick of how badly most of the agencies are treating their contributors that I'm willing to invest my time to find an alternative. I think there's a lot of potential in this approach, but I don't have a crystal ball to know up front if it'll work. Where work means become a steady earner over time.

If someone's looking for easy money, they're in the wrong business, whether it's Shutterstock or Symbiostock. If you're happy with what you're earning from the agencies, they why bother building your own site? If you're looking for alternatives, go for it.

« Reply #470 on: November 25, 2013, 14:21 »
+13
It was my approach when setting up our site in the beginning to do my best to design the layout using only the basic theme and plugins.  I didn't want to make any custom CSS changes due to the constant updates and changes.  To this day I haven't made a single CSS code change.  It's not that I couldn't figure it out it's just a conscious effort to keep things as simple as possible and I'm very happy with the way our site looks.

As in most things worth doing, there can be a learning curve but nobody should let that stop them.  Using a camera, learning photoshop, lightroom, ftp clients, color spaces and understanding all the hoops one needs to jump through to submit to agencies at one time required a learning curve.  For most of us now those things are second nature.  This is a project that I took on with a long term time frame in mind.  An investment in the future of my business.  I'm very happy with the direction it's going.

Ron

« Reply #471 on: November 25, 2013, 14:45 »
0
It was my approach when setting up our site in the beginning to do my best to design the layout using only the basic theme and plugins.  I didn't want to make any custom CSS changes due to the constant updates and changes.  To this day I haven't made a single CSS code change.  It's not that I couldn't figure it out it's just a conscious effort to keep things as simple as possible and I'm very happy with the way our site looks.

As in most things worth doing, there can be a learning curve but nobody should let that stop them.  Using a camera, learning photoshop, lightroom, ftp clients, color spaces and understanding all the hoops one needs to jump through to submit to agencies at one time required a learning curve.  For most of us now those things are second nature.  This is a project that I took on with a long term time frame in mind.  An investment in the future of my business.  I'm very happy with the direction it's going.
Great observation CC !

StockPhotosArt.com

« Reply #472 on: November 25, 2013, 15:23 »
0
It was my approach when setting up our site in the beginning to do my best to design the layout using only the basic theme and plugins.  I didn't want to make any custom CSS changes due to the constant updates and changes.  To this day I haven't made a single CSS code change.  It's not that I couldn't figure it out it's just a conscious effort to keep things as simple as possible and I'm very happy with the way our site looks.

As in most things worth doing, there can be a learning curve but nobody should let that stop them.  Using a camera, learning photoshop, lightroom, ftp clients, color spaces and understanding all the hoops one needs to jump through to submit to agencies at one time required a learning curve.  For most of us now those things are second nature.  This is a project that I took on with a long term time frame in mind.  An investment in the future of my business.  I'm very happy with the direction it's going.

I completely agree.

« Reply #473 on: November 25, 2013, 21:03 »
+2

The Redneck quotation refers to an error he caused on his own has I did myself, and thousands of others using wordpress that have nothing to do with symbiostock. It's a wordpress issue and the lack of knowledge from people messing around without understanding programing.

The people that are trying to set up these sites are basically photographers, and no, don't have programming experience. There are many wordpress themes that DO NOT require messing around with much of anything and all customizations can be done from the admin area. This theme is not one of those.


When the only way to get your site working and looking decent IS to mess around with programming, its not fair to people wanting to set up a site to minimize that fact, either. SY is not a typical wordpress theme and if you are not happy with the way it looks out of the box, you need to know css, you need to be willing to make changes to programming and you are going to need to talk to your hosting company.

....

but that's just not true -- SYM works right out of the box - you can install and have a working site in a very short time without doing ANY programming or coding.  You need some computer savvy (eg, ftp and installing software, but sym requires no programming or even CSS].   whether a particular photographer likes it or not is a design & aesthetics concern but is not a problem with symbiostock.  and even for design there are a number of simple solutions available.

« Reply #474 on: November 25, 2013, 21:19 »
+1
 :)


 

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