Considering New Site - 123rf.com

April 28th, 2007 by Lee Torrens

123rf, or 123 Royalty Free, was around when we first started selling photos online. My original popularity test told me it wasn’t a good investment at the time, but like a few other microstock websites, I’m starting to see a lot of other microstockers using them.

The 123rf website has the appearance of an established market participant, complete with all the bells and whistles. An initial investigation shows the numbers are starting to look good. So, it’s time to reconsider our decision on 123rf.

Here’s the table:

Website	123 Royalty Free
Web Address	www.123rf.com
Google Pagerank	6
Google Backlinks	1,240
Alexa Rank	12,458
Image Stats	700,000 images
Minimum Image Size	Minimum 4 Megapixels
Vectors	Yes
Footage	No
Licenses	Royalty Free
Compensation	Commission is 50% of fee paid.
Pricing	Scales per size, starting at $1, or subscription
Payment Methods	PayPal, MoneyBookers, Check
Payment Delay	14-21 days. Paid 15th of every month, two weeks in arrears, for each month where you reach your payment limit.
Referral Program	15% of buyer purchases and 10% of contributor sales

Comments:

The 123rf website is great. The layout is clear and all the information you’d expect to find is there.

Conclusion:

I have no complaints about 123rf who I feel are doing a fine job with their stock photography website. My only reservation with them is their popularity and turnover. I hope that given their website and technology seem solid they’re now concentrating on marketing and building their subscriber base. I will sign up with 123rf and upload a selection of images and watch. If the images sell sufficiently well I will continue to invest.

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