Sunday, April 27, 2008

Prostockmaster

I just wanted to write a review about ProStockMaster, a software I have been used for almost a year now to submitted my pictures to microstock.

ProStockMaster saves me a lot of time because I organize, keyword and upload my pictures to nine microstock agencies simultaneously. It is particularly useful when submitting to Istockphoto to put pictures directly into the queue. When I start with a new category of pictures, the semi-automatic IPTC keywording works very well to provide me with a first set of keywords. With ProStockMaster I can also keep track of my records and avoid resubmissions.

The most addictive feature of all is most certainly the statistics which allows you to check your stats just in one click. Technical support is very helpful and because of the open communication with their customers, ProStockMaster is getting better at each version. Because of all these things, I highly recommend including this software in your workflow. Try it, and you will not be disappointed.

You can download the trial version and later decide to buy the full version by clicking on the banner below.


Stock Photography Workflow Management Software

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Experiment 8 : Your photos in action, how to find them?

After selling hundred and thousands of pictures, it is always gratifying to see where and how they have been used but you will be able to find only a tiny fraction of them....


Your microstock pictures can be found in a number of media: website, magazine, leaflet, brochure, mugs, mouse pad, billboards or even TV commercials....
Only Fotolia so far, allows you to know the company or individual who bought your picture. The next step is then after few days or weeks to do a search on google with some luck find your photo in action.
The other option is google search your full name between commas, or your porfolio's nickname. If you are lucky enough, buyer can contact you or you got informed by another stock photographer via a forum. Recently, a group called "your photos in use" was created on facebook, you can have a look here.
If you are even luckier, you can stumble on your picture on line (it happened to me once) or on a magazine.

Here are my tear sheets so far, find with a Google search and random browsing. I will update this post if I found more of them.



Bought most probably on Fotolia. Found by Google Search



Bought by Mostphotos ! Found after random browsing....


Web links found with Google:


http://www.addlarose.com/content/blogsection/5/80/


http://www.epuzzle.info/warsaw_skyline

http://www.wday.ru/cekc/psycho/_article/vesennee-obostrenie-ulichnyh-izvrashencev/

http://goeasteurope.about.com/od/poland/tp/mustseewarsaw.htm

http://www.niezalezna.pl/index.php/article/show/id/1507

http://www.motorradwallpaper.de/motorrad_info/Fahrertipps/Helmabnahme_nach_einem_Unfall.php


http://www.fathermag.com/907/light/

http://www.bbcgreen.com/Travel/European-Holidays/Europe-by-train/Poland/Travel/European-Holidays/Warsaw-itinerary

http://www.apoverlag.at/DieApotheke/2008/07/seiten/haupt02_schlaganfall_0807.html

http://www.luft-zum-leben.de/lzl/content/aktiv_leben/umwelt/themenarchiv_umwelt/asthma_und_ozon/index_ger.html


http://www.catholicgreetings.org/Create.asp?card=926



http://backandneck.about.com/b/2008/12/17/scoliosis-stapling.htm

http://www.ehow.com/about_5050252_word-organic-mean.html


Thanks to TinEye

Fourth of July Sizzlers

Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms






Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Experiment 7 : evolution of average $ per download

Disclaimer: it is not a April fool's :)
With the recent changes in prices at IS at the beginning followed by FT and more recently by SXP, SS and 123rf in the foreseeable future I thought it will be interesting to look at the impact on the $/dl for each month (total income/total photos sold) on a graph





I mentioned this possible increase in $/dl in a previous post and it looks like it happened and here to stay.
$/dl increases because of the successive price increases at IS,FT,SXP, my raise in commission at SS but also because of the lowest % of SS sales this past months. Extended sales can have of course also a big impact on the $/dl.
Last month was my highest so far with $ 0.63 (helped by 2 EL at SS) but this month despite a small EL at FT $/dl was still above $o.5.

So looking ahead I hope by keeping the same volume of sales $/dl will continue to increase especially with the coming changes at SS and 123RF and maybe DT ? Future will tell, I will do an update in few months...