Comments on: When Do You Give Up on a Slow Microstock Agency?

By: John Smith

John Smith — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:51:01 +0000

“enough is enough” is what i’m thinking about fotolia lately

first, subs – with no actual increase in sales, only reduction in price

then, more downloads needed to change ranking

then, the high rejection rate

then, the exchanging rate issue – those paid in $ or £ are losing about 40% compared to those paid in €; and i guess it’s because they have many best selling photographers in the states and britain (which subscribed in the early days before the other sites where available) and a strong market in europe (thanks to their new european and localized web sites), so they are even profiting on the exchange rate difference

then, the decreased percentage for non-exclusives – they even said that it’s up to us contributors to pay their marketing costs!

and last but not least: no advance communication at all and their forums being hardly censored, posts removed

they show absolutely no respect for contributors; and please don’t say this is normal in microstock: other agencies are way better in this respect

By: KML

KML — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:30:06 +0000

When a company starts making business decisions that hurt the majority of their contributors, that’s when I decide to leave. CSP’s recent announcement about demanding higher quality standards and removing non-selling photos, while not offering any incentives to contributors to help them meet the new standards or marketing strategies that will help sell the non-sellers, is the nail in the coffin. I’ve stood by them for two years, but enough is enough.

By: Photonomikon

Photonomikon — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:51:59 +0000

I don’t know if you’ve seen this discussion on microstockgroup:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=3749.msg35951;topicseen#new

By the looks of it, Canstock are going down and down…

By: Photonomikon

Photonomikon — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:36:53 +0000

For me BSP, altough fairly slow, is a consistent earner and sales are actually increasing at a slow rate. I do have several hundred images uploaded with them. It’s also the 3rd site that I joined since 2005 so I have a soft spot for them. Unlike other slow agencies, I’ve actually seen them advertise in various photography magazines. Oh, and one more thing: they accept 99% of my images

By: Mike McDonald

Mike McDonald — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:40:23 +0000

I don’t contribute to canstock, and obviously won’t based on this review.

I do contribute to BigStockPhoto and 123RF, both of which produce less than $10 a month for me. I have often wondered if it is worth the time. For 123RF, it is worth it because the upload process is so easy. BSP is another story, however. Uploading vector files is less than smooth, and with the fairly regular shutting down of FTP, it is frustrating. I’m giving that one a few more months to show signs of life before I give up on new uploads.

By: Photonomikon

Photonomikon — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 01:17:34 +0000

Your article hits the spot.
For these slow moving agencies I’ve decided to stop uploading once I’ve reached 100 images, unless the upload process is really easy, in which case it won’t cost me virtually anything to keep uploading. Once I’ve stopped uploading, I’ll just keep an eye on sales and see how they evolve.

On Canstock I’ve had an embarrassingly small amount in sales during the past year. I haven’t sold an image since October 07 but just this month, coincidentally enough, I had 2 downloads of the same image, 2 days apart.