News

2 months news in one post: (I think twitter is having an effect on my news posts, more regular updates next month!)

Quite a month compared to January:

As previously posted, Getty launched their new subscription site thinkstock and closed stockxpert.

Shutterstock reached 10 million images, at this rate that's going to double to 20 million images in less than 2 years.

Also this Month:

Fotolia officially announced the launch of the Microstock Photo Plugin for WordPress. Bloggers can download the plugin to simplify the process of buying and inserting fotolia images into their blog posts. New fotolia users can receive 5 free credits when they register, bloggers can also optionally earn affiliate revenue when a visitor buys an image from fotolia after clicking on it in their blog.

Isyndica announced a range of updates including a spell checker, support for moneybookers, alamy and discounted yearly subscriptions. The updates also included a "leaderboard" which compares your best selling agencies to those across the rest of the isyndica users. Right now my istock sales look a little atypical!

lookstat published a useful microstock guide, written as an introduction to microstock for RF (macro) and RM photographers. It includes some statistics, advice and checklists that are still useful for microstock photographers who already know the ropes.

shutterstock launched a "facebook connect' app to provide a service similar to their shuttertweet feature. As a bonus you also earn an affiliate royalty on sales made of your images if people buy them after seeing them in your feed. If you want to announce your sales and uploads to your facebook friends there are instructions on your shutterstock account page.

fotolia also launched flixtime.com a service similar to animoto.com that allows you to upload your own photos and videos to create a dynamic video presentation, users of flixtime can also choose free stock images from a media lounge and also sign-up to fotolia to obtain three free photos from the fotolia collection and discounts on future purchases.

Deposit photos started a free trial subscription where (potential) buyers can download up to 140 images free of charge. Photographers are paid for each download as though the images were being charged for. I also had my first sale at deposit photos - still early days there...

Veer have announced some exciting plans to integrate their marketplace microstock collection with the rest of their website making the marketplace "front and center" in their search results. Veer marketplace currently resides in a separate tab on veer.com, and results are displayed in a separate sidebar along with the main search.

The changes (planned for Q2) will include a new interface and also see the removal of veers Rights Managed collection to a new site (yet to be announced) which will target "more traditional and sophisticated customers".

Veer also promise to "substantially increase our marketing activities to spread the word about our simple web site and affordable offering to a much bigger audience" once the changes have been implemented.

Slightly longer than usual since my last news digest - it's slow on news over the holidays...

Fotolia launched a 'tax centre' in their account control panel, all contributors are required to complete tax forms before payments are made. This practice is in line with shutterstock and veer. For individuals in many countries it's a reasonably simple process of reading some documentation and filling out a form online. Contributors have until January 1 2010 to complete their forms.

Veer introduced 10,000 USD customer protection to images purchased in their marketplace.

The Last 30 Days in Microstock - Bite Sized:

Lookstat added a new 'collections' feature which allows you to analyse sales on arbitrary groups of your images, then continued their series of anonymous analytics from their contributors with a very interesting look at portrait v landscape v square images, followed by an analysis of beer v wine stock images and Easter photos. The results rhyme with those from google analtyics found in microstock submission calendar.