Pure Reviews

Shutterstock launched on NYSE yesterday with a strong opening.  As of closing today (10.12.12) it was priced at $22.00 with ticker as SSTK.  See the write up below from the CEO/Founder Jon Oringer Dear Shutterstock Community, Today was a very exciting day for Shutterstock – a day that wouldn’t have been possible without each of you. This morning, Shutterstock became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. This milestone is the result of many years of hard work and innovation, and perhaps most importantly, the incredible talent of each of our contributing artists. Together we have built a thriving, diverse, global creative marketplace that spans more than 150 countries. I can still remember the day I started Shutterstock in 2003, out of my apartment. I was trying to solve a business need I had for quality stock photos at an affordable price. Before I knew it, demand for these images surpassed what I could provide an...

As 2011 is now at a close, its time to reflect on the past year.  Several things have changed over the last year in the stock photography industry.  Everything from the several pay cuts/ changes at Fotolia , user fall out at iStock , to the new up and coming sites like PhotoDune and DepositPhotos .  Over all the year was down for me compared to last year, but I continue to grow that image count on several sites.  Hopefully 2012 will be a big year of uploading as I have several images backlogged from several trips.  So here is to 2012 everyone and let the charts begin. Actual dollars received (does not reflect money still locked in accounts due to payout minimums) compared to 2010. Snap shot of sales through the last 12 months, December was the lowest month of the year. Total percentage of sales per sites for the last 12 months.  The top sites that ranked for the last year is as follows: Dreamstime (22% or 34% if you include referrals), ...

     The wrap up of 2010 is complete and the sales numbers are in, see charts below.  I started off 2010 with a total of 22 sites.  I personally added 2 new sites, but dropped 5 sites who either performed poorly or closed their doors.  We will start the 2011 year of with a total list of 19 sites...which have links off to the right.  Over all I would say that 2010 was a successful year with an increase in revenue by 78%.  Top earner goes to my powerhouse Dreamstime , then iStockphoto , Shutterstock , and 123RF .  Click on the charts below if you wish to increase the size.  If I can do another 75% jump in 2011 I will then be ecstatic, so here is to hoping. December Sales Chart: Year End Chart: Current Image Count per Site:

Sadly after two years of work, iSyndica has chosen to close their doors.  The reason if vague, but I am sure its simply boils down to volume - "Unfortunately, we have, for many reasons, decided to discontinue the service, with an effective last day set to October 10, 2010."  They had a great concept, but with the economy and ever shrinking earnings, more and more photographers are doing the uploading leg work themselves.  Currently they have shut down all upload options, leaving all ftp access for users to download their online portfolios.  Also a key and important fact is if you still have credits they will retro pay you the value left.  For additional information check out the FAQ page here.

Oddly enough I pulled my portfolio last week from ThePhotoStorage due to the lack of sales and views that I have had with them over the last two years.  Well, they have officially closed their doors as of today...it was originally announced they would close on March 21st...but their website is now gone and taken over by some storage company.  The micro site will join the graveyard with the others.

vs vs Well Getty has finally chosen to shut down StockXpert, but they are not making it easy to understand. I will give my break down and you can read below the official report. So first off, if you have credits at SXP then you get a one for one trade with iStock (Buyers wont loose any cash they have paid). Now the tricky part, if you are just at SXP then you can request a finial payout of your balance, do so before Feb. 11th when they close the doors. If you are a member of iStock, then your balance will be transferred to that account. Everything makes sense so far right. Now the wrench. Getty is launching a new subscription site called Thinkstockphotos...and if you are a member of SXP then they will be merging your images over to that site. They will only do this if you are opted in on third party option. So, now the odd part, you have a sale at Think...were does the money go...your iStock account, a new account at Think, nope...sounds like its back in SXP account. Even afte...

Zymmetrical closed its doors on Dec. 30th according to the press release...although I logged in yesterday so today is the official door closing ceremony. But either way, they are gone and everyone's photos are being removed. Sounds like they just want to focus on their clip art side at flyerstarter instead of the stock photo side. Below is a write up from our padres over at Zymmetrical as they with everyone there best. It is with deep regret we must announce Zymmetrical is closed. The stock industry and the economy in general are a hard situation these days, and we have made the difficult decision to close the operation, preserving our health and future potential. We met a lot of friendly image producers & agents who are doing great things and working hard in these turbulent times. Sales were up, business systems were finally getting stable and fast, but you need to know when to fold. When your job is not making you happy any more then it's one of those times - and what ...

So I pose the question is the New Dark Room closing? They have never been a great seller or a big player on any scale, but they continue to truck along trying to carve their piece of pie out of the stock world. When arrive at their homepage though, you see new updates from 2008 with that last item posted on their FRONT page in May of 2009. That is a long time for not touching your site. But this is not all the has me wondering. Recently they closed my account...which is fine sense I have never sold an image. But here is the kicker, my images still show up. But before you freak out, they do say "This photo isn't available for sale". Either way, I thought it is best to email Devin (the owner/admin guy) about the issue. Well the only way to get a hold of them is through their own contact address on their page...which is not a valid email address. All this brings me back to the question, did the New Dark Room turn out the lights? If you still have images up, let me...

A very short lived program over at Dreamstime was the adding of selling canvas prints and posters via a third party company. This program started up in October and is already being dropped due to having troubles with the third party. See the quick post below We decided to remove the prints program announced here . The logistical hassle and dependence on third party services made us reconsider the future of this program. It is also the reason why you didn't see too many updates. This program wasn't able to take off properly. It's the first time we had to remove a product since our inception, 5 years ago. No matter how difficult is to withdraw features that required a lot of work, I consider such move wiser than supporting a program that proved neither able to compete with our core model nor able to help it grow. New programs need to be disruptive in order to compete with core models. Furthermore, our customers experienced significant inconveniences and shipping...

Rest In Peace to our friends or lack of at Image Catalog . They have officially closed their doors as of this week. I don't have anything besides that, not reasons why...my guess no sales and poor service. I know I was kicked out of their club for submitting to many images at one time, I guess I over whelmed them. If you where a member of Image Catalog let me know if you got a letter before the closed up shop...also let me know if you got paid as that is always an ongoing question when someone closes their doors. Later today will be my sales numbers for November.

Well, Albumo closed its doors sometime in September. They have been dieing a long dramatic death as the site was full of spam of users wanting their photo's pulled. Also they stopped reviewing images sometime at the start of the year. My guess is that the site was abandoned and either pulled due to not paying their hosting bills or it was just pulled down by the creators. So far this site falls under the category of not paying out any of the cash that was left in users accounts. I am sure several users took about a $30 hit as several people never came close to the cash out point. As far as the images left on Albumo servers, hopefully they have just deleted them and don't try to do anything illegal by selling them off.

SnapVillage doors are finally closing. Starting on Aug. 1st the lights go dark on the little guy, but don't worry...all the action has been moved over to VEER. Photographers will have all their remaining balances paid out no matter what you are owned. Also you will have access to your images for 30 days and on Sept. 1st all files will be removed. Below is the company write up. R.I.P. SnapVillage Hello SnapVillagers, We are fast approaching the final stages of the transition from SnapVillage to Veer Marketplace. After transferring many SnapVillage contributors over to Veer Marketplace in the Spring, we’re now working to finish transitioning customers as well. As we’ll be wrapping this process up very soon, we will be shutting down www.SnapVillage.com this Saturday, August 1st. As of August 1 st , SnapVillage.com will no longer be available and visitors will be redirected to Veer Marketplace. Any remaining unpaid royalties will be paid out on September 15th. We will pay out ...