Reverie Photography

Commission Changes Coming to 123RF

2012-01-19T13:22:00.000-06:00

Commission changes are on the horizon at 123RF for new users. The memo below has been posted about what is required to stay on the old commission rate for photographers. No word on what the changes will be or how they will affect us, but guessing by point 3 they will be moving more to match the other big companies with lower payout rates. At lest they seem to be honest and trying to hang in there for the long run. 123RF is based here in my home town, so we will keep a close eye on them and let you know more down the road.

We will be changing our Contributors’ commission structure effective February 1, 2012.
Here’s what you need to know:

All existing contributors shall continue to enjoy the current 50% nett commission share ONLY IF they fulfill ALL of the following criteria.:

Have registered with 123RF.com before February 1, 2012.
Have at least 150 accepted images in their respective portfolios by January 9, 2012.
Have had a minimum of 10 paid downloads by January 27, 2012.

All new contributors who start submitting images to 123RF.com AFTER January 27, 2012 OR do not meet all the criteria above shall be enrolled under the new commission structure.
For our veteran contributors who have been supporting us all this while, we thank you for your support and we will try our best to grow the business further in 2012. We will also try our very best to maintain the levels of 50% nett commission to you for as long as possible.

More details on the new commission structure shall be announced closer very soon.
In the light of the criteria above:

We urge you to continue uploading your images to 123RF.com if you haven’t already met all of the criteria above.
We believe it is more expedient to upload your images now rather than later if you haven’t met the sales quota criteria.

Thank you very much for your attention,

Things to Come at Mostphotos

2012-01-16T11:48:00.001-06:00

Mostphotos CEO takes a look at the year 2011 and gives us a peek at what the year 2012 will hold for photographers and buyers alike. Last year sounded like it was the year of getting things running better and this year will be the year of improving and fine tuning. If you are new to Mostphotos you can sign up here.

2011 was the year when we started our first marketing campaign, kicking off with the Swedish market. The reception has been great, and our customers are even happier than we could ever have anticipated.

This past year, as we entered the market, we decided to put a lot of effort into creating functionalities that would benefit our users. Among other things, we improved the online shopping
experience with international invoice support, and introduced more attractive bundle options such as the ‘monthly’ and ‘download’ packages. In addition, we now have organisation support and collections, and we also have the request feature that was created during the year.

Alongside all this, development during 2011 has revolved primarily around internationalisation, with localisation into different languages, multilingual search, and support for different currencies.

Last but definitely not least, we’ve been busy building a brand new, powerful search engine with some unique filtering options. The release date has not yet been confirmed, but we expect to launch our new search engine sometime this Spring.

2012 will be the year when we take on the remaining Scandinavian markets in order to boost our sales. The focus will still be on selling our monthly bundles, as that’s where the huge majority of the sales are coming from. As last year we pushed mainly to improve the experience for photo buyers, so 2012 will be the year when we really improve the experience for our contributors, with new, interesting and useful features.

To summarise, Mostphotos has a plan: to become the biggest by doing stuff differently. With that in mind, I want to leave you with a quote from Gandhi:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

I wish you all the very best for 2012.

Regards,

Arian Bahrami
CEO

End of Year Review

2012-01-02T15:21:00.002-06:00

As 2011 is now at a close, its time to reflect on the past year. Several things have changed over the last year in the stock photography industry. Everything from the several pay cuts/ changes at Fotolia, user fall out at iStock, to the new up and coming sites like PhotoDune and DepositPhotos. Over all the year was down for me compared to last year, but I continue to grow that image count on several sites. Hopefully 2012 will be a big year of uploading as I have several images backlogged from several trips. So here is to 2012 everyone and let the charts begin.

Actual dollars received (does not reflect money still locked in accounts due to payout minimums) compared to 2010.

Snap shot of sales through the last 12 months, December was the lowest month of the year.

Total percentage of sales per sites for the last 12 months. The top sites that ranked for the last year is as follows: Dreamstime (22% or 34% if you include referrals), 123RF at 11%, VEER at 11% (large extended license skewed them for the year), Shutterstock at 9%, Fotolia at 8%. Both Deposit Photo's and PhotoDune showed the largest increase in sales.

Snap shot of the number of live images at all the sites that I am active with right now.

Veer Subscriptions Now LIVE

2011-12-08T12:26:00.001-06:00

We brought you the word that VEER would be launching subscriptions last month. Well as of this week that Subscription service is now live on Veer's website. You will now be able to buy high quality commercial images for your needs via their subscription services. To see the breakdown of pricing or to sign up at Veer click here. This is another step in bring Veer into line with standard micro-stock practices and further way for the older legacy stock site ways.

A few months ago, we let you know that we’d be launching a new subscription offering for customers this winter. That time has come, and we’re pleased to announce that Veer Subscriptions, featuring your high-quality commercial images, is now live and open for business.

Veer was already making it easier to be creative by offering customers an uncomplicated shopping experience using cash or prepaid credits. Now buyers also have the option to use convenient monthly or yearly subscription plans to make regular high-volume purchases. We’ve made it simple for customers to navigate between Veer and Veer Subscriptions, so they can purchase extended licenses for your images when they download as part of their subscription plan. That means a great buying experience for the customer turns into additional royalties for you. We’re also proud of the fact that the standard subscription royalties we’re offering you are some of the highest in the industry. You can see a detailed breakdown of our rates here.The image upload process remains the same. Your images make their way to Veer Subscriptions simply by existing at Veer, and your subscription royalties will be displayed in your regular dashboard. There’s no fuss, and more opportunities to earn.

For more information about how Veer Subscriptions works, check out our FAQ.

Sincerely,

The Veer Contributor Team

DepositPhotos Launch Editorial and Tax Center

2011-12-08T12:15:00.001-06:00

DepositPhotos is becoming a stronger stock photography company every day as it meets the challenge to become a top player. The company has officially launched their new tax center, which brings them in-line with the U.S. government requirements and also matching what several of the stock sites are now required to do. If you have not already done so, send in your W-2 info digitally on their website (outside US see other options). Along with the tax center Deposit Photo's will be launching their new Editorial images. You can start uploading your editorial collection today for acceptance. Editorial images is a fast growing department among the stock sites as news goes digital around the world. If you are new to Deposit Photos then sign up here. I highly recommend adding this company to your portfolio of sites.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 7 Dec. 2011 – Depositphotos, the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world, announces that it is now accepting images for “editorial use only”.

Depositphotos has expanded its license policy to accept non-model released and non-property-released images for editorial use as a descriptive visual reference to current events, newsworthy stories, social events, places and/or products. This new image category gives more flexibility to publishing houses, authors, newsrooms editors, journalists and bloggers to illustrate their stories by providing them with hi-quality images and news sensitive photos. The ‘editorial use only’ images will not be available for any commercial or promotional purposes.

“Depositphotos has started accepting editorial images due to strong demand for such content from our existing customer base. With this new submission option Depositphotos contributors will be free to cover important newsworthy events and product developments without being concerned with getting model and property releases,” says Igor Kaliuzhnyi, Head of Depositphotos’ departments in Eastern and Western Europe. “With the launch of our Editorial collection our clients will be more flexible in finding images to accompany their stories at fair prices.”
Among with these exciting new developments at Depositphotos is the new Tax Center. This now brings Depositphotos into compliance with the existing U.S. Federal tax law.
Income reporting will be calculated for all sales made by customers in the U.S., and tax deductions may be applied dependent on the existing US tax treaties for non-US residents. Contributors that are U.S. residents will now be required to fill out Form W-9, whereas contributors from other countries will be required to fill out the appropriate W-8 BEN form.
“A stock agency operating within a firm legal framework is a guarantor of security for you and your money,” says Dmitry Sergiev, Depositphotos founder and CEO. “We believe that the rapid growth of our sales will more than compensate our non-U.S. contributors for these recently introduced tax deductions.”

About Depositphotos Inc.
Depositphotos is the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world. Presently, it offers over 5 million stock photographs and vector images sold under royalty-free licenses. The stock photo library is increased daily by thousands of images, carefully checked and selected by moderators. The company is headquartered in Florida, USA, and has business offices in Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

Alamy accepts VMRelease

2011-12-05T22:31:00.001-06:00

Alamy makes uploading and model release a snap by accepting the digital releases from VMRelease. They offer a app. for your iphone so you never have to worry about forgetting to grab that release before you hit the street. Now only if they can come out with one for the Android.

Dear Contributor,
The need to have releases for your content is becoming increasingly important to clients in today's market, but carrying around print outs and pens on top of your camera gear can be an added hassle that you just don't need.

We're therefore happy to announce that we are now accepting releases produced by VMRelease, providing you with a convenient way to add value to your shots via an intuitive iPhone app that lets you produce releases on the go.

Use the app to create your own personal or company profile, capture images of your subject/property, input contact details, obtain signatures, send and store, all in 6 simple steps. Once you transfer your releases from the app, you can upload them to Alamy in the usual way via the "Assign release(s)" tab via image attributes in "Manage Images".

For more information visit the VMRelease website.

Kind regards,

Alamy

Rate Increase at Envato - Photodune

2011-12-05T22:02:00.001-06:00

Envato has given a non-exclusive rate increase across all their sites and it is now officially live. Typical marketplace authors where making 25% and will now they will be making 33%. While several of the larger stock companies (Fotolia and iStock) have been giving us pay cuts, I am glad Envato is giving us a raise for our images. If you are new to the Envato family check out their site here. You can sell or buy several types of things from them, not just stock images.

Non-Exclusive Rates Increase: Now Live!

There's some exciting news for our non-exclusive Marketplace authors. We've increased the commission rate for all non-exclusive Marketplace authors from the old 25% to 33%. This means our non-exclusive authors will earn about a third more on each sale they make.

Non-exclusive authors have no need to do anything and will automatically receive the higher commission rate for all sales made.

Shutterstock Launches iPad App

2011-11-16T14:29:00.001-06:00

Shutterstock has officially launched their brand new iPad app. which is available for download now at iTunes. The application will not only allow you to search images in a mosaic type view, but you will also be able to save them to your account for quick downloads. Also part of the application is the ability to share via email or social media sites like Twitter. Check out the write up below from the Shutterstock team. To sign up for Shutterstock, click here.

As head of the Mobile team at Shutterstock, I’m excited to announce Shutterstock for iPad is officially live in the iTunes App store. (You can download it for free, here.)

After six months of researching, planning, developing, and fine-tuning, we hope customers find this application makes browsing for images a more seamless and beautiful experience than ever. With the simple swipe of the finger, you can:

Scroll through thousands of images, seamlessly tiled together in a unique Mosaic View that doesn’t compromise image quality or aspect ratio by cropping or distorting;
Save images into your existing lightboxes, or create new ones; and
Share them via email, Facebook or Twitter.

As I’m sure many of you know, getting to the point of app launch can be a challenging, yet exhilarating, experience. Since this was to be our first venture into the mobile space—and because understanding the customer and their workflow is always central to product development at Shutterstock—this initiative started with a bit of research.
About six months ago, we began noticing an increase in mobile usage of our web site. Specifically, people were coming to Shutterstock from an iPad, and they were doing so on the weekends. As we dug deeper via a mix of customer interviews, qualitative and quantitative research, we learned that people were getting requests on nights and weekends, and were finding it easier to sit on their sofa with an iPad than with a laptop.
Understanding how and where our customers were using the device meant that we couldn’t simply repurpose our website for the iPad. We had to build a unique experience that was more intimate, immersive, and engaging than a browser site, and yet one that enhanced our core functionality: the ability to search, save and share images.

Blurb launches eBooks

2011-11-12T14:51:00.001-06:00

Blurb launches their platform to allow users to publish eBooks that can be downloaded at iTunes. several photographers and artist have been long waiting for this ability as Blurb is one of the highest quality companies out there. If you are new to Blurb be sure to check them out for your hard print or digital books. Below is their write up.

Dear Bookmakers,

Starting today, the books you've made with Blurb BookSmart® and Blurb Bookify™ are available as Blurb ebooks. They're gorgeously rendered, full-resolution versions of your books, optimized for the iBooks® app on the iPad®, iPhone®, and iPod touch®. You order them like any other Blurb book, and we do all the fancy conversion.

Here's how you can get started:

Sign in and go to "Your Books."
Order the iPad/iPhone version (you'll find this option just above the printed book options on the right side of the screen).
Enter the promo code at checkout.
Download it or send the link to an iPad or iPhone.

And you can make your ebook available for sale to others. Just select the "iPad" option under "Seller Options" in the "Edit Book Settings" tab of your book details page. While you're there, set the markup through our Set Your Price program.

It's a new and beautiful way to experience and distribute your books. Check it out now.

Happy ebookmaking,

The Blurberati

Alamy Live News

2011-11-12T14:45:00.001-06:00

Alamy launched their live new service last month. Below is a little information about what to expect and how to upload your news worthy images to their site. Alamy site is located here.

Alamy Live News
Dear Contributor,

Alamy is today launching its Live News service – a revolution in the way Alamy deals with news, sport and entertainment images. For the dedicated photojournalist, the news agency looking to sell into new markets, or the experienced photographer who takes the odd news, sport or entertainment photo, we believe we now have the best service available. And photographers still keep 60 per cent of any news, sport or entertainment images which we sell on their behalf!

There are six broad changes we have introduced:

• Alamy will now “push” an edited selection of news, sport and entertainment images to its customers directly via FTP.

• A fast FTP upload service has been created for committed news photographers and agencies. You can apply for access to the FTP upload route here.

• The existing web-based news upload route has now been opened up to hundreds of additional Alamy contributors who have an exemplary QC track record and history. You will have been contacted by email if you are one of these contributors.

• The caption length limit for news images has been increased to 300 characters. In addition, new strict rules on caption content and style have been introduced. Please see our news picture guidelines here for more information.

• Alamy staff will actively police the Alamy news feed and remove images and edit picture information as they see fit.

• We have given a clearer definition of the kind of news images we want here.

I won’t bog you down with all the detail in this email. But for those looking for more information, please visit my blog post.

These are just the first in a series of developments and improvements to our news service which we will be rolling out in the coming months. We believe there has never been a better time to sell your news, sport and entertainment images through Alamy.

James Hall

Head of News

Increasing Royalty Rates at Crestock

2011-11-12T14:29:00.001-06:00

Crestock is boosting royalty rates up to a 40% rate from a 30% rate. See the chart below to see how things might change for your sales. Below is the press release directly from the CEO, enjoy.

Increasing Royalty Rates & Revenue Channels for Artists

To Crestock's Contributing Artists:

Since Masterfile Corporation acquired Crestock in July 2010, a lot of changes have taken place. We've added stability to the business and its website, provided you with reliable payments and brought responsive people on board to provide support and answer your questions. But there is still much room for improvement – most importantly in overall sales and the return on investment for you, our contributors. We're working on that too.

We're launching two important initiatives that should benefit all of our contributors as outlined below. These changes have been detailed in the revised Crestock Artist Image Upload Agreement.

1. WE ARE INCREASING ROYALTY RATES.

The new rates will be calculated on a progressive scale, based on your total number of images sold since joining Crestock, as follows:

Prior to this change, royalties were capped at 30% and $0.25.
Important: We also changed the calculation of the aggregate download count to include subscription downloads so you can reach royalty thresholds more quickly. Previously, your eligibility for an increase was only calculated based on single image licenses and did not include subscription downloads.

2. WE ARE ADDING THE CRESTOCK COLLECTION TO MASTERFILE.COM

The Crestock collection went live on Masterfile.com on November 9. This is a trial to see if Crestock images can produce sales growth at Masterfile while increasing royalties for Crestock's contributors. Meanwhile, we're continuing to build and promote Crestock.com. By offering all your images through two licensing platforms, we expect to multiply your sales opportunities as a contributor to Crestock.

Founded in 1981, Masterfile is a well-established licensor of premium royalty-free and rights-managed stock images with offices in Toronto, Düsseldorf, London, Milan & Paris, plus independent distributors in more than 100 countries. The Masterfile website is searchable in 6 languages - English, German, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese - and it transacts in multiple currencies. Masterfile's business comes principally from direct relationships with advertising agencies, graphic designers, corporate marketing departments and editorial publishers. Masterfile is not a microstock business: it earns most of its revenue through direct contact between clients and sales people using invoicing arrangements rather than on-line credit card transactions. It's a business that involves a high level of personal service. However, there is no denying the popularity of microstock – even with its largest clients – and Masterfile always wants to accommodate all its clients.

During the trial phase, we are offering the Crestock collection on Masterfile.com only in low resolution suitable for websites and mobile applications. Larger file sizes will be supplied to clients by Masterfile upon request.

Every Crestock contributor's images will be included in the Crestock collection on Masterfile. The Crestock collection is searchable on Masterfile.com under a separate tab, called "$10 RF" (or equivalent in other currencies) - and it looks very good indeed! As of this writing, about 1 million Crestock images have been added to Masterfile.com with the remainder to follow by the beginning of December. From then on, Masterfile.com will be updated with Crestock images about one month after the images appear on the Crestock website. Masterfile does not add images to its website in real time: to optimize the speed of search results and provide powerful features such as SimSearch, Image Upload, Visual Pairing, and Colour Search, the Masterfile site is updated through an offline batch process, with new images normally going live every two weeks. Crestock images will not be offered as part of Masterfile subscriptions at this time.

Please note: for the moment, artists' names do not appear with the enlarged versions of the Crestock images on the Masterfile website. This will be corrected in Masterfile's next content update in about one month.

Your royalty will be calculated on Masterfile's selling price to the client - and Masterfile's rates will generally be higher than those of Crestock. Any revenue sharing between Masterfile, its affiliates, distributors and Crestock will not affect the royalty to Crestock artists.

Example: If you have a 30% royalty rate and:

(a) Masterfile licenses one of your images for US $10.00, then you will be paid US $3.00 by Crestock.

(b) If a Masterfile distributor licenses your image for 7 Euros, then the selling price will be converted to US Dollars and you will be paid 30% of the converted amount by Crestock.

And the best part about these changes: You don't have to do anything extra – the changes are automatic. Just keep uploading images to Crestock and we'll do the rest for you!

If you have any questions or comments about these new initiatives, please e-mail help@crestock.com where you will get a personal response within one business day.

Steve Pigeon, Chairman & CEO

Alamy take Paypal

2011-10-01T14:45:00.000-05:00

Alamy has started accepting Paypal as form of payment for your royalties. This is great news for several people who already use the service and this will allow for users to get access to their royalties even faster. Sign up for Alamy here.

Dear Contributor,
Good news – we have made some improvements to the way in which we pay our contributors.
We are now offering PayPal – we can pay you in GBP, USD or EURO’s via PayPal. If you opt for PayPal we will send your payment so that you do not pay any PayPal fees.

If you do not have a PayPal account or would like to know more please see the PayPal website.
If you already have a PayPal account and would like to be paid this way please enter your PayPal details by logging into My Alamy, selecting Change your Payment and Tax details and then selecting Change details.
To be paid by PayPal in the October payrun you need to update your details by October 2nd.

For more information on how we pay you please see the financial transactions page on our website.
As usual, if you have any questions on the above please email memberservices@alamy.com and we will be more than happy to help.

Best wishes,

The Content Team
Alamy

Veer Improves Subscription Royalties

2011-10-01T14:06:00.000-05:00

Veer makes good with their contributors after a large outcry on the very low subscription rates they announced in September. They have gone back to the drawing board and raised the rates to a more industry standard with some extra bonuses compared to the other guys in town. Below is there full write up on how the royalties brake down for contributors.

Veer Subscription Royalties Update

Last week Veer announced its plan to launch a subscription service. Though we expected the response to be positive, we offered contributors the opportunity to opt out of the program if they so desired. The response from contributors has been loud and clear. Obviously we missed the mark. We’ve asked for your feedback and have been listening carefully over the last few days as we went back to the drawing board to revise our royalty model. Two key issues were raised by contributors: 1. Basic plan royalty per download range of $0.10 to $3 is generally good but a minimum of $0.25 per download is preferred. 2. Extended license plan royalty per download of $0.13 to $3.75 is far below expectations; there are other subscription sites averaging $28 per extended license download. This was a deal breaker for many contributors. So here’s what we’re going to do. Firstly, we’re raising raising the rates of our basic subscription to have a minimum royalty of $0.25 per download. We’re also raising the maximum royalty from $3 to $4.95. The range is now $0.25 to $4.95 per download, per image-buying customer. Secondly, we’re changing the subscription extended license plan. Instead of a daily download model for subscription extended licenses, Veer will enable subscription customers to easily purchase extended licenses on a per-image basis, as we do now on veer.com. If a customer purchases an unlimited reproduction license for your subscription image, you’ll earn $35 for the extended license, in addition to your subscription royalty per download of between $0.25 and $4.95. For example, if the average subscription customer downloads nine images per day and the general range of downloads is between five to 15 downloads per day, then here’s how much a Veer contributor will earn with the revised subscription royalty model: Customer downloads 15 images per day=$0.33 royalty per downloaded image Customer downloads 9 images per day=$0.55 royalty per downloaded image Customer downloads 5 images per day=$0.99 royalty per downloaded image And if a customer adds an unlimited reproduction license to your image, you’ll get an extra $35 per image on top of the subscription royalty. See the updated rate card for all the details. We believe these new subscription royalties are competitive and will be an attractive new revenue stream for participating subscription contributors. For anyone who communicated a subscription opt-out message to Veer and would now like to opt in, simply send a message to contributorhelp@veer.com with the subject line “Opt In” and we’ll make sure your images are included in the subscription site. You’ll have until October 21, 2011 to let us know, but the sooner the better. Please note that if we decide to offer a daily download subscription extended license in the future (with much better rates), then you’ll have the opportunity to opt out of that as well. Veer puts a high value on open communication and collaboration. Once again, we really appreciate your honest feedback and we've taken it to heart. This has been a learning experience for us. We’re inspired by the engagement of our contributors and we hope you continue this engagement by joining us on the launch of Veer Subscriptions. Sincerely, The Veer Contributor Team

YayMicro Growing

2011-09-14T22:25:00.000-05:00

YayMicro is going through growing pains as it site is back up and running again. They had to shut down FTP uploading and have had a slower site then normal the last few month. Traffic has increased 10 fold with more then 650,000 unique visitors. Below if a formal letter from the CTO of YayMicro talking about the new servers and future improvement that will be coming to the site. All this is great news and we look forward to the growing success at company. Sign up for YayMicro here.

YES, uploading is now up and running again! :)

You can upload by FTP (ftp.yaymicro.com) or use the web interface.

Recently we have experienced a huge increase in traffic to our site. We had 650.000 unique visitors in August, which is a decuple (yes, its a word and means 10x) since January. In August we also started our corporation with ddp images in Germany which opened our database to huge amount of searches from photo buyers all over Europe. In mid September we will know how much sales we get from ddp, for now we can only say it looks very promising. All this new traffic, together with an increased amount of incoming images ended up stressing our servers so much that our site started to respond slow from time to time. At time we could not process incoming images. The slower response time was starting to be a problem for contributors and customers, and we knew that it would only increase since our traffic is still growing rapidly.

The good news is that we for quite some time have prepared to move our system to a more modern and scalable platform. Only problem was that this was still a few months in the future. With the intolerable situation we where in, we had to make the hard decision that we needed to close down uploading until we had moved our system. We hoped that the moving would be fast, unfortunately it was not. These things are quite hard to predict some times - I think we all know an IT-project with a delay or two.

As I’ve said we have invested in a better and more modern system. Uploading is now running on the new system, but that doesn’t mean we are done. It will take some tweaking and testing before the system will be as good as it possible can be. Our goal is to have the best uploading system out there, and we will work very hard to make sure this happens this fall!

Again, I apologize for this down time, and I hope we can make it up to you in the future! If you have any questions about this, feel free to email me personally at bjorn@yaymicro.com. Although I can’t promise to personally answer each one of you, I read all email that I get, and you will all get an answer. I’ll make sure that we at YAY take care of any concerns and questions you might still have!

Kind Regards,
Bjorn
CTO of YayMicro.com

PS! As there are many, many images coming in now it might take longer than usual to get your images approved. Normally it takes 24-48 hours, we suspect it will take a bit longer the next one-two weeks.

Dreamstime Student Promo

2011-09-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

Dreamstime launches a student promo. If you are a student and need some great stock photo's all you need is your student ID to get a discount of 25% off any plans. Also they are giving away 5 ipads also, which 2 are will to go to student who buy images during this campaign. 5 more ipads will be open to student or regular members who refer any members. New to Dreamstime, join here.

Are you a STUDENT? 25% OFF for all images!

Need A+ images for school? We know all about your sleepless study nights, scrambling to prepare presentations, pre-exam headaches and tight budgets. Your projects deserve the best visual support. We can't write the term paper for you, however we can certainly take the image prices down making it easier for you to produce quality work!

We've got all images you need at 25% OFF, and you can win one of five iPad 2s!

Any registered student will get 25% off all images and image packages for the month of September. Registration is free and once your ID is validated you will be automatically registered to win one of 5 iPad 2's.

Bounce It Off Millions

2011-08-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

I have been chosen by the One2One network to help spread the world about a great promotion by Bounce, which is starting up a Facebook page and in order to kick things off right they are hosting a great contest. Head over to their site and answer a few questions and send in your advise you want to be turned into a poll. Everyone that enters will be entered to win two Bounce bars, one for you and one for a friend...a total of 5,000 winners. I personally think this is a great promotion, so see below for all the details.

Bounce asked people to make a choice between sheets or bar, and now Bounce is offering a chance to have millions of Facebook users help you decide on a choice of your own. Still stuck on the final two baby names? Need advice on whether to go to Mexico or the Maldives for your honeymoon? How would it feel to have millions help you decide?

Go to facebook.com/bounce, click on "Bounce It Off Millions” and submit a choice or decision that you’re making in your life. Your question will be turned into a poll, and tens of thousands of Bounce fanatics can lend their opinion, so you’ll have thousands helping you make a guided choice.

Bounce will choose 4 of the most interesting polls to be featured in a facebook ad, so your question or choice could go out to the entire facebook world, inviting 150 million+ Facebook users to help you make a choice. Imagine having that many people decide between your two favorite names for an expected baby!
Bounce fans can also enter in sweepstakes for the chance to win two Bounce Dryer Bars—one to keep, and one for a friend of your choice. 5,000 winners will be chosen.

Promotion rules

*I am participating in sponsored post with Bounce and One2One Network. However, the views and opinions are my own and not approved by the corporations listed above.

Mat Kearney - Young Love Review

2011-08-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

I am taking a moment out of our typical photography related post to tell you about Mat Kearney. I was recently selected by the One2One network to review his new album titled "Young Love". Mat has a great fresh sound that I think many of you would like. He falls under the catagories rock/alternative, but would fit very well in the top 100 hits. Currently his hit song is "Hey Mama" which even if you aren't a fan of alternative music, check out the follow link to listen to it for free.

My personal option of his music is its very upbeat and entertaining. Several of his songs have worth my android music player. Hey Mama rightfully so is the best song on the album, but I also enjoyed "Down" and "Count on Me". If you really like his music you will be happy to know that he is going on tour next month.

Buy the album on Amazon below:

Young Love:

1 Hey Mama
2 Ships In The Night
3 Count On Me
4 Sooner Or Later
5 Chasing The Light
6 Learning To Love Again
7 Down
8 She Got The Honey
9 Young Dumb And In Love
10 Rochester
11 Seventeen

Cool interactive website

Mat Kearney official website

*I am participating in sponsored post with Mat Kearney and One2One Network. However, the views and opinions are my own and not approved by the corporations listed above.

CanStockPhoto Hits Landmark

2011-08-23T14:02:00.000-05:00

CanStockPhoto hit a big landmark just after they launched a massive re-branding of their site. They have had their 5 Millionth image uploaded and approved, which gave the lucky photographer a new mac computer. They re-branded their site around mid June giving it a fresh look, easier to use interface and updated logo. If you are new to CanStockPhoto then sign up today and check them out.

Fotolia New Look

2011-08-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

Fotolia rolled out their new website layout. Shortly after announcing their price drop in royalties coming with the new site. The site does have a cleaner and more user friendly look, which several buyers and contributors should both like. Some of the new features include refined searching, which now lets you search by price point. Also they have changed their subscription plans for buyers. So log in and check it out.

Deposit Photos VIP Status

2011-08-18T21:28:00.000-05:00

Depositphoto's is rolling out more marketing features to bag some large profile contributors. Very similar to when they launched their site they are offering features to help bring over your images to their platform. One of these feature is getting a $0.10 per image, up to 500 images. Also something I am not as thrilled about is higher positions in search results for large clients. This is something I am sure several companies do, its just not something advertised. If you are interested in joining Depositphotos click here. Personal ranking of the site for me is between 3rd and 5th when it comes to earnings.

Depositphotos offers individualized collaborative terms for those photographers who have a large portfolio and would like to upload it to our site.

If you are a skilled and talented photographer or illustrator working with different stock photo agencies, and you have a large portfolio ready to upload to our site but no time to spare, we are always ready to assist you.

Our offer:
1. We are always happy to help you upload large numbers of images for sale
2. Higher positions in search results and special status of VIP authors at Depositphotos
3. Possible participation in the Photographer Promotion Program

Top photographers with large and high-quality portfolios who enjoy a popular following among buyers may be invited to participate in the Photographer Promotion Program.

Fotolia Drops Royalties

2011-08-17T23:40:00.001-05:00

Stock photography sites continue to race to the bottom when it comes to royalty rates. Fotolia has announced they are working hard to lower your earnings by dropping the royalty rates. They are now aligning themselves with iStock, which had a large number of complaints when they lowered their royalties and became one of the more hates sites. However iStock did not see the large fallout that was talked about and it appears that Fotolia has noticed that. The biggest hit was to vectors, who royalties dropped almost 80%. This also marks the second time in one year for contributors to drop in royalties at Fotolia, as they changed their ranking settings in the spring, which dropped several users down on earnings.

We've been hard at work for the last few months adding features to make the site more convenient for both contributors and artists. With this latest release, we're also revising our subscription plans to align with what's happening in the marketplace. As a result, prices and commissions have been adjusted accordingly. Please see details here. Here are some of the highlights:

- To streamline the product offering for customers, we've merged standard and premium subscriptions into one product.
- Vectors now count as 1 download in subscription plans
- HD videos are no longer available in subscription plans, but web resolution videos are available, and count as 5 downloads.

We encourage you to create and upload HD quality videos to maximize your revenue stream. That's because HD resolution videos will only be available for purchase through the credits system.

Amongst the features you'll find in this latest version of Fotolia are powerful search faceting and filtering, which will allow customers to find the latest and greatest content, faster than ever before.

Fotolia contributors have contributed over 14 million images to date, and we look forward to you continued support in our collective quest to become the #1 stock photo agency in the world.

Sincerely,
Team Fotolia

ShutterStock Languages Update

2011-08-17T22:46:00.000-05:00

Shutterstock is adding the ability to add key words in other languages besides English. They do require that you to add a note to the review team on what the words mean in English. Its a great concept for contributors in other countries, but I wonder if it really ends up being helpful if you still have to describe the keywords in English. Either way, its a nice feature for them to add. Full write up is below. Join Shutterstock here.

Shutterstock serves customers all over the world, and we need creative images with global appeal. We have a demand for stock images that show text—such as signs and forms—in all major languages.
This poses a challenge, since we can only approve images containing text if we know what the words say.
Recently, we instructed our reviewers to begin approving more images with international text, as long as the contributor has included a note explaining all non-English text depicted in an image.
What this means for you:
1. As a contributor, please feel free to submit good, usable images that include non-English text in the image. The images you see in this post are good examples. Don’t copy these examples, but get creative with concepts/themes that may be of value in your own language.
2. When you submit images that include non-English text, please include a note to our review team, in English, explaining what the words mean.
With your help, we’ll be able to make more images from around the world available to customers.

Alamy Contracts Updated

2011-07-31T21:33:00.004-05:00

Alamy is updating their Contributor Contracts to address the new offering of video and news content. This is great news for several photographers who shoot heavy in the editorial category. It will also be a great new outlet for stock video users. We will let you know when the new features launch. Until then checkout the full write up below and head over to look at the contract updates.

We've updated the standard Alamy Contributor Contract in order to include definitions and clauses for both our upcoming offerings in video and news content.

You can view the full contract here.
You can view a summary of changes here.
You can view a directory of our previous contract changes here.

Other than the odd grammar tidy up, nothing else has been changed.
As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to email Member Services who will be happy to help. During UK office hours, they have a fantastic average response time of less than one hour.
Also, for up to the minute news, musings and interesting links, be sure to follow @AlamyContent on Twitter. We've also got a Facebook page you can now 'like' - so please come and say hello.
Best regards,
The Alamy Content Team

123RF Upgrades

2011-07-28T22:53:00.000-05:00

123RF has launched a few new features on their site over the past month. First off they now allow you to log in through your existing facebook or google accounts. Second up they now offer a auto suggest feature, which shaves seconds off your searching and helps with spelling. After all, we know a lot of us can use help in that department. Other things they have improved is better algorithms for image searches, a subject cluster which allows better organize the images you are searching for. Finally they announced changes to their rewards and loyalty program will be forth coming on August 18th of this year. New to 123RF, Join Here

iStock Revamping Referral Program

2011-07-28T22:40:00.001-05:00

iStock is revamping their referral program in the very near future. Currently they have given us a little taste of what is to come by bumped the reward from $10 to $20 for new buyers if they make a 26 credit purchase in 30 days. To help convince the buyer to join they are also giving them 15 free credits to use. There newsletter shows a third box about winning a trip, which goes to the two top users that refer the most new customers by August 31st.. Stay tune for the latest update. Join iStock here

In a couple of months, we're going to be launching a completely redesigned and rebuilt referral program. We've already made several improvements to streamline things, but most importantly we're doubling the referral bonus effective immediately.

That means you can earn $20 (USD) for each and every new customer you refer to us, and as long as they make a purchase of 26 credits or more within 30 days of signing up, you're in the money. We'll even help you motivate your referrals by offering them 10 free credits just for signing up through you.