This looks like an interesting proposition, Online Thymes http://othymes.com have started a Microstock Site. It's not due for official release until April but it could be a future contender.

http://www.crestock.com/en/

You never know it may flop, but it can't hurt to get some images in there to get in early.

Doug

I checked it out a few weeks ago.

It might be okay, but there's so many startups that just die off for a lot of reasons - lack of advertising and preparation, not knowing the difference between good images and bad and not knowing how to attract the right buyers.

If I remember correctly, one of the things that turned me off is that they will only pay by Paypal or Moneybookers...I honestly can't remember, but I do recall there was something that made me back away from it.

Unless somebody is using a new site and recommends it to me, I tend to stay away from them until they have a proven record.

Somtimes I wonder if some of these startup sites do it in the hopes that some bigger, popular site will buy them out

Uploading a lot of pics on some of these sites can be very time consuming if they don't have ftp access and I've done that in two places previously that folded a few months later. I've still got one site that hasn't really done anything for anyone in the way of sales (a few but nothing much) and it usually takes over 2 weeks to get images approved. The upload is incredily slow...so much so that by the time I've done 5 I can't be bothered to do more :lol: Impatient I guess.

If anybody is already signed up with Crestock I'd be interested in hearing what they think of it.

EDIT: well, I just went back and looked at it again. Lots of changes from when I saw it. They didn't have forums previously, and it looks like they have ftp upload now too. Going back to have a closer look through the images to see what the quality is like and read through the faq etc.

I also rather like the "todays best image" and "todays worst image" - sort of gives folks an idea of what's acceptable and what's rejectable.

And I notice they offer cheque payment to anyone whose country doesn't deal with paypal. Well Canada does, but i don't. I signed up and will ask them directly about a cheque payment...I don't know if I'll upload anything right now.

__________________
Photography of Grace
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Photography Blography

I started uploading there today. Aprovals are very fast but very few. If you submit more than 3 images of the same model, they reject them all. I have uploaded only images that was accepted by other sites. They rejected a bunch of my studio shots as "similair submissions". Model talking on cellular is apparently "similair" to her working on a laptop. Or maybe it was her bikini?

Had 11 aprovals and about 20 rejections.. Normally I had about 98% acceptance. Maybe just their standard. Will keep uploading like always and see what happens.. Will keep you posted on any sales..

Thats not good news if you have large series of pictures of a model.

Im going to upload a few pics to them this week, Apparantly they have an FTP feature, that you need to ask for.

Ice your portfolio is really good, ive been looking through it at shutterstock.

Do you find your models sell better than other shots? Im considering doing some work with models soon. Im in the process of setting up a home studio for taking more stock orientated shots.

I need to hold off the temptation of just submitting everything and just concentrate on what sells.

I would be very interested to hear your opinions on the pics i posted in the critique section. They are unprocessed..

Doug

Thanks Doug for the huge compliment!

I found that models are very seosonal. Some will keep selling and then once and again pop up again. What they do do is they attract designers that then brows your portfolio and buy some of your older images. My top selling images is for example one of my construction series. People do tend to sell better. You get fast sales in the beginning and then it tapers down. On objects i found that they sell not that fast but constantly and always help push up your totals.

I would say shoot models! They bring in designers and they will bring you other sales. Funny thing is on IS my top selling images is Business look and I sell girls in bikini's very well ;-0) I also started only in March last year and only started upload in July. Forgiss kept bugging me till I started taking it serouis and know I'm hooked! Its like a drug. You just want to see what has sold and what sells. making you just want to shoot some more!

Hope this help. Have to run. Have a DVD production I'm of to of some Doctors so don't want to be late :wink:

Okkk... They do not want more than 3 images about of the same MODEL. The images differ but they get rejected heaps "similair submission of prevouis submission.

Please give me your honest feedback. I have linked my SS images that was approved and not approved on CS.

Similair to ?

Or


I agree, there might be some image problems but not similair.. Or maybe its just me :twisted:

I think they are being stupid myself, someone may want the whole series of one model...

The only thing that makes the shots the same is the model... (nice pics by the way)

This would probably put me off submitting to them. At three of one model you would require 30 models to get a portfolio of 100 pics! Talk about time consuming...

I think I may try uploading to them this week, im sure when they get enough complaints they will change their mind!

I think we should email them and suggest they change their policy.

Doug

I started uploading in December. Noticed approvals are few and far between - not a big deal. Last Sunday I decided to push about 195 photos to their site. Review was happening faster than I could keyword...then I started noticing that I wasn't getting a response from all of my photos after I keyworded them.

I emailed support and went back through my records. 41 photos just disappeared. I re-uploaded them. I got a response saying they weren't happy with the batch so they just deleted all of them. A review was not done of the photos. I feel very insulted by the whole thing - when I invest time into a new site that I'm not going to get a payout from in at least a year, I'd expect the same respect for my time.

That was my entire day Sunday. I have 46 on the site...asked them to disable my account (I really felt insulted at the waste of my time). They have not disabled my account as of yet.

I should have spent my day Sunday shooting and submitting to their competitors.

You can't take the rejections personally.

I'm uploading very slowly there, basically trying to figure out what their preferences are before I upload too much. They've rejected a few of mine that are posted at every site I belong to - the two most picky places (Totally Photos and Shutterstock) have them on site but Crestock rejected them. Their loss, really.

Why would you delete what's already there? It doesn't cost you anything to leave them, and you never know what might come of those images in the next 6 months.

__________________
Photography of Grace
Feature Pics
Photography Blography

It isn't the rejections that I took personally...it's the very fact that they decided to simply delete my files rather than review them and either reject or accept them.

I submit to 18 different sites. I track my sales and my listings very carefully so that I don't submit a rejected image twice. I don't want to waste my time or theirs. I also run my business like a business to track sales per image, total downloads, etc. If you just delete my files, rather than reject them appropriately and let me know you're rejecting them, then I'm calculating revenue per image on that site and getting bad statistics. The only way I have around that is to search on their site through accepted images and rejected images and reconcile that to my records. It takes a lot of time.

What they are doing shows a lack of respect for the contributor. Give me the courtesy of letting me know when you are taking advantage of the rights I am granting you.

I want my images deleted so that the other 17 competitors that are willing to allow the time to review my images can take advantage of them. There's no need to encourage the behavior they are exhibiting towards others.