10 Essential Microstock Tools

As I mentioned in the reviews of lookstat and iSyndica, working with microstock images can be a lot of work.  Lucky for submitters however, there are a number of tools to help us perform the many mundane tasks.  Below is an extensive list of the tools developed with microstock photographers in mind.  I have listed the various programs and services in the order voted most popular in this thread on the forum.

General FTP Program

If you are still uploading your images via a browser, one-by-one, and have more than a handful of images to upload, you need to check out an FTP program.  Keeping true to the ever true “K.I.S.S.” principle, a simple FTP program is still the most used piece of image submission software for microstock photographers.  A few of the most popular FTP programs are

• FileZilla (Free) PC | Mac
• CyberDuck (Free) Mac
• FireFTP - FireFox plug-in (Free) PC | Mac
  
• SmartFTP ($36.95) PC

DeepMeta

For those photographers who are uploading to iStockPhoto, DeepMeta is essential.  It may take a few minutes to find your way around the program, but once you are familiar with it – you will become entirely dependent on it – and that’s a good thing.  The program is completely free and assists you in attaching releases, keywording images, uploading, tracking – the works.  The software only works with iStock but even for non-exclusive photographer it is a indispensable tool.

[DeepMeta]

Yuri’s Keywording Tool

Yuri Arcurs provides a number of tools on his website for anyone to use.  One of the most useful features is his keywording tool.  Akin to other popular third party software, it is both free and simple.  The tool works by asking you for a few specific keywords, then, through an image search, finds other keywords which may apply to your image.  The tool needs to be used with caution as it is easy to get carried away and use too many keywords with your images, however it is a great tool for brainstorming and seeing which keywords you may have missed.

[Yuri's Keywording Tool]

PicNiche Toolbar

PicNiche is a Firefox broswer plug-in and has a number of useful functions including image uploading (similar to FTP), microstock blog updates, personal earnings notifications, a keywording tool, and various other useful link shortcuts.  The creator Bob Davies is an active MicrostockGroup member and posts updates and provides trouble shooting support in the dedicated PicNiche area of the MSG forum. The software is free – so you have no excuse to give it a run!

[PicNiche Firebox Plug-in]

ProStockMaster

ProStockMaster is the Swiss army knife of microstock tools.  The software allows you to simultaneously upload to multiple agencies, brainstorm for keywords, provides earnings statistics and allows you to search your database by metadata.  The software isn’t free but if you make good use of it, it isn’t expensive either.  The software is sold as a monthly subscription.

[ProStockMaster]

iSyndica

I did a full review of the iSyndica service earlier, so I won’t cover it all again – but suffice it to say that it is a very useful image propagation tool and stats tracker.  If bandwidth is one of your biggest deterrents to getting your images online – you will want to check out iSyndica. iSyndica has a free trial, but does cost a little if you end up using it to upload a large amounts of photos, videos or vectors.

[iSyndica]

lookstat

The other big name in third party services, Lookstat provides a full package of image services for photographers who need to lighten their workload.  They also provide detailed image sales tracking through iStock and Dreamstime with the ability to create collections to further refine earnings performance.  Lookstat provides image statistics for free, and charges if you choose to use their ‘Back Office’ image uploading / processing services.

[lookstat]

CushyStock

Similar to ProStockMaster, CushyStock provides keywording, uploading and tracking of your microstock images.  The software has a free trial, with two additional software versions depending on your needs, both sold as a one time payment.

[CushyStock]

FindPhotoKeywords

FindPhotoKeywords works similar to Yuri’s Keywording tool, but has more features.  The tool allows you to search for keyword ideas from five different sites, as well as search in 10 different languages.  While I had a few problems when selecting images from Getty, and when trying to ‘unmark all keywords’,  a number of MSG members find the site quite useful.

[FindPhotoKeywords]

FlemishTagger

If English isn’t your first language or you want help organizing and sorting your keywords – FlemishTagger could be a useful tool.  The website best describes itself as a script (javascript) to generate, reorder, edit and spell check image IPTC keyword tags.

[FlemishTagger]

Did I Miss Anything?

What tools do you use?  Did I miss anything essential?

[MSG Discussion] – Which third party tools do you use?

Lookstat Back-Office Services – Just Press Play

The Back Office

I recently had a chance to try out Lookstat’s back-end service, and although I have yet to  add it to my permanent workflow – I find myself looking forward to the time when I do.

The back-end service of Lookstat is a great tool for anyone who likes shooting more than sitting in front of a computer or who doesn’t have a room full of people working for them.  Microstock photography is time intensive.  Shooting and editing in larger numbers, keywording those images, and perhaps most time consuming, uploading to the large number of microstock sites – all add up to a lot of time spent per file.  Time that could have been more productively spent shooting.

For those who take advantage of the Lookstat Back-end service however – all they need to do is shoot, ‘press play’, and watch their images appear on the microstock sites of their choice.  Edited, key-worded, uploaded and processed – ready for sale.

Perhaps one of the best features of the service is it’s scalability.  If you only want to make use of a couple of the services Lookstat offers – uploading and keywording for example, you can.  Additionally, if you have a huge back-log of images, or shoot seasonally, you can use the service only when you need it, with no further commitment.  Something hiring in-house staff simply cannot compete with.

In terms of logistics, the Lookstat back-end is simple.  You upload a set of images (and releases) via FTP – wait for them to be keyworded, make any changes if necessary, download the keyword sets to your computer if you want, confirm the data and your work is done.  Lookstat takes care of the rest – and you can proceed with your next shoot while you images are pushed through the uploading process on the sites of your choice.

The luxury of an automated back end is obviously a paid service, but the price is fair given the work involved. If you are sitting with a back-log of images, which could be earning you income, you should be easily able to recoup your costs by getting these online today with Lookstat instead of in a few months (or longer) working by yourself.  To get the full pricing breakdown, and further info you’ll have to ask for details on the Lookstat site.  Alternatively, you can check out the discussion on Microstock where Rahul, the CEO checks in quite often to answer questions.

But wait, there’s more…

If you’re not a big producer or at the level where you need / want someone to take care of part of your workflow,  Lookstat has a few things that still deserve to be checked out.  Valuable features that are free.  Firstly,  Lookstat has a blog where they post suggestions for shoots along with detailed statistics showing popular search terms and possible database holes and opportunities.  If you are wondering what to shoot or which shots withing a topic may sell – browse the blog while you are brainstorming.

Secondly, the analytics side of Lookstat, which is a big part of their offering, provides a valuable tool for sales tracking and shoot performance.   Lookstat can automatically track sales on all of your images from both Dreamstime and iStock and allows you to group the images for comparison.

To Summarize

Lookstat is the Tupperware of third party services.  It is extremely useful, reliable, and an industry benchmark.

If you are involved in microstock or thinking about getting involved – check out Lookstat if for no other reason than their valuable blog posts and analytic tools.  They are free – you can hardly go wrong.

If you want to outsource some of your work load with minimal risk – check out the Back-Office service.  Like I said earlier, I haven’t added it to my permanent workflow yet – but if I manage to organize as many shoots as I hope to this year, I will definatly be offloading some of the work to them.

[Lookstat discussion on the forum]

Fotolia, Credits and Commissions – what’s all the fuss about?

If you have been following the microstock industry the past week, this will be old news.  If not – this should get you up to speed.  There has been a lot of discussion both on the MicrostockGroup forum as well as the Fotolia forum about credit prices on Fotolia.

MicrostockGroup Threads: first here, then here, and here, etc etc
Fotolia Threads : first here, then here

So what is all the fuss about?

Commission Pricing

Fotolia recently updated their pricing structure to charge $1.20 / credit for the most expensive credit packages, with other currencies also being respectively updated.   When the buyer makes a purchase with those credits, the photographer is given a % of the credits spent and not the purchase price.  So if the buyer purchases 10 credits for $12.00, then buys a photo for 10 credits (spending his $12.00 worth of credits); a white ranked photographer whose commission level is 25% will earn $2.50 (10 credits * 25%), as apposed to $3.00 ($12.00 * 25%).  This essentially gives the photographer a 21% cut of the sale instead of the 25% described in the contract.

In Fotolia’s defense, they also offer credit packages for $0.75/credit, yet still pay the photographer commissions on a full credit.  Whether the photographer is getting a good or bad deal depends on which packages Fotolia sells most of.

Exchange Rates

As if the pricing confusion wasn’t enough, the whole issue has raised an old sore spot many photographers have had with the way Fotolia handles currencies.  Depending on when and where you first signed up as a photographer, you were assigned a currency which your account is associated with.  Photographers earn ‘credits’ on the Fotolia site, then when requesting payout convert those credits to cash.  Fotolia’s ‘exchange rate’ is currently 1 Credit = 1 USD = 1 Euro = .75 GBP. For those photographers who are lucky enough to have signed up with the Euro currency, they are currently earning 37% (1 Euro = 1.36562 USD, Feb 8 2010) more than photographers with a USD Fotolia account.

In terms of image sales; if a buyer purchases credits with Euro, then spends them licensing a photographers images who gets paid in USD, a white ranked photographer could earn as little as 16% of the actual credit sale price.  On the flip side if the photographer gets paid in Euro and the buyer pays in USD and purchases the largest package, Fotolia pays out a 46% commission. (see table below)

Given these variables there is quite a large variance in the actual commissions photographers are getting for each sale.

Below are two tables.  The first table assumes the photographer gets paid in USD and is a white level photographer.  The table gives the commission levels from buyers paying in three different currencies and buying either the most or least expensive packages.  The second table is the same as the first table except the photographer is paid out in Euro.  Currency exchange rates were calculated 5 Feb 2010.

White ranked photographer paid in USD

-

White ranked photographer paid in Euro

It is pretty clear that having photographers paid in Euro is costing Fotolia a lot more than photographers paid in USD.   What commissions Fotolia is actually paying out is almost impossible to know.  Alexa claims 63% of Fotolia’s traffic heads to the German site with another 6.3% heading to Fotolia France.  Using these numbers we could assume the majority of Fotolia’s buyers are from Europe and are paying in Euro while the majority of photographers appear to be paid in USD.

How other sites deal with the problem

All microstock sites have credit packages which sell at different prices – so how to they deal with the problem?  The most common method, used by both Dreamstime and iStock for example, gives photographers a % of the actual price of the credit.  This method may be more complicated when first looking at your earnings report but provides a more transparent commission structure, which if nothing else keeps photographers happy.

Lastly, photographers seem to be upset due to a lack of response from Fotolia.  Fotolia has not made an official comment on the situation, save a small post from Chad on their forum.

Good evening everyone,

On behalf of the Fotolia team, I want to thank each of you for your patience and support while we roll-out new purchase incentives and commission structures. Rest assured, our payout averages continue to be amongst the highest in the industry. Fotolia understands and appreciates the investment contributors make in creating their material. We welcome and value your feedback. Should you have questions about Fotolia’s new program, please contact Customer Service directly and we would be happy to chat with you.

Fotolia Management

Help, my image has been stolen! What next…

I’m Innocent, Really!

© Hartphotography Dreamstime.com

There seems to be a never ending supply of threads where people find their images stolen or being given away for free.  Our first line of defense should be to contact the infringing party directly.  There is still a lot of education to be done regarding proper licensing and many people do not know how to license an image, or that stock photography even exists at all.  If we inform the offending party – we not only stop them misusing our images, but have the chance of gaining a new microstock customer.  Make use of a good referral link when you notify them and you will not only profit from the sale of another image but from the referral income as well.   Shutterstock recently contacted an offending party, who purchased the wrong license for their image use, which resulted in multiple extended license downloads for many members on MicrostockGroup.  Most people are honest and want to do what is right – we need to help them know what is right.

Maybe Not So Innocent

Ok, I’ll admit that sometimes people aren’t so innocent and outright steal images to give away, sell, or build up a portfolio on flickr or some other photo sharing site.  If you get no response from first contacting the infringing party – it is time to get more serious.

Microstock Sites

If the images are being sold on a microstock site, contact the site directly and explain the situation.  Give links to both your own, and the offending images.  Most sites have a link on the bottom of every page labeled ‘contact’ or ’support’ which you can use to send them a message.  The microstock sites are quick to take down infringing photos and deal harshly with users who upload infringing content.

Flickr

Most photo sharing website are more than willing to remove infringing content from their site, and flickr is no exception.  A quote from the flickr guidelines:

Copyright Infringement
If you see photos or videos that you’ve created in another member’s photostream, don’t panic. This is probably just a misunderstanding and not malicious. A good first step is to contact them and politely ask them to remove it. If that doesn’t work, please file a Notice of Infringement with the Yahoo! Copyright Team who will take it from there.

You may be tempted to post an entry on your photostream or in our public forum about what’s happening, but that’s not the best way to resolve a possible copyright problem. We don’t encourage singling out individuals like this on Flickr.

[Flickr Guidelines]

If flickr agrees that the image is infringing on your copyright, and generally they will, flickr will remove the image from their  website.  If the member’s portfolio is primarily made up of infringing content, the entire account will be deleted.

For a form letter you can send to flickr, along with addresses and further information, check out this information from Kevin Hulsey

[flickr copyright and intellectual property policy]

Google

If a website is hosting your content, one recourse is to report it to Google.  This won’t get the site or the image removed from the internet but it will remove the site from the Google search results and should drastically decrease the amount of traffic the site receives.  For addresses and information on contacting Google, as well as a form letter check out Kevin Hulsey’s page again.

Web Host

Most websites are hosted at a web host.  You can find which webhost a website is using with a simple ‘who is’ search.  Once you have found the website, send them a form letter informing them of the infringement.  All web hosts will have different policies regarding copyright infringement but if a site is hosting your content, they should take steps towards getting it removed.  Also, remember that the host must receive a “reasonable amount of time” to remove the content.

Do you have any other suggestions for protecting your intellectual property?  Let’s hear them in the comments.

[In the Forum: MicrostockGroup Image Sleuths]

Microstock in Technicolor – A comparison of image prices and sizing

New Pricing

Since the new year Fotolia, iStock and Dreamstime all have updated their pricing. I did a review of the iStock update here.  Getting your head around the various image sizes each site is offering as well as what they are charging for the credit packages they sell and lastly the variety of price levels the images can have – is confusing to say the least.

The Table

To try make sense of some of the information and see how the agencies compare, I have put the information for the top 6 microstock sites in a table.

The table shows what each site is currently selling images for at their cheapest and most expensive offering. To calculate the most expensive price I took the cost of the most expensive credit sold and calculated what the cost of the most expensive type of image would be. On iStock for example this would mean buying a package of 12 credits then buying an exclusive image, for Dreamstime it would be a level 5 image etc. The cheapest image was calculated from using the most expensive credit package purchase (giving the cheapest price per credit) and buying the cheapest type of image.

The ‘high end’ collections, such as iStock Vetta, 123RF Evo etc., that some of the sites offer, have not been included in the table.

The table is color coded to hopefully help give a clearer picture of how things compare. Each image size has a color, if there is no pricing for a given image size for a site – the higher price (color) is used because that is what the buyer would need to buy if they needed that size. For example, if I needed a 3mp image and I were buying it from iStock, you can see that the 3mp cell for iStock is colored the same as it is for the 5mp image which means you would have to pay $9.50-$22.80.

Observations

So what does the table show us? Excluding Shutterstock for a second, it is interesting to see that the three most popular sites offer the widest range of prices.  It appears to be working for them.  Certain buyers are willing to part with “big” money in order to purchase desirable files, while the agencies still provide cheaper priced images for to those buyers who want them.

Shutterstock is primarily a subscription site, so it is almost unfair to include them in this table, but they do offer credit purchases and at surprisingly cheap prices.  Shutterstock, 123RF and StockXpert haven’t updated their prices for 2010 yet, so lets hope they have something good in store for photographers.

[Discuss on Microstockgroup]