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Messages - mattb
1
« on: July 13, 2009, 10:42 »
theres also the wifi cf card, .. i haven't tried it, but it looks interesting and if it works well, it would be a nice compact solution.
Leaf, are you referring to the eye-fi card? I had the first generation card, it didn't work very well for tethering. It didn't transfer RAW files and it was pretty slow. I ended up giving it to my wife, she always seemed to have problems transferring pictures to her laptop and the card worked great for that. The new version of the card is supposed to transfer RAW, I would be interested to know if the speed is any better.
2
« on: June 20, 2009, 18:46 »
If I really stretch I could maybe understand the firefighters, but I'm still scratching my head on this one. 
3
« on: June 19, 2009, 20:52 »
I had something really strange happen with my initial batch, they all got sent to "needs work" for releases. There was an issue with the model release I used, so I understand why those got pushed back but I'm confused as to the rest of them. Has anyone had to supply releases for images at Veer when non of the other agencies needed one?
4
« on: June 17, 2009, 08:58 »
I had stopped but I think I might start back up again. Almost all of my recent sales have been from StockXpert and at least for me, it looks like the view problem has been fixed. I'm starting to see views on my newer images although all my sales are still on my older ones.
5
« on: June 16, 2009, 11:59 »
Need an option for #2 and #5, the get drunk part isn't such a bad idea. 
6
« on: June 16, 2009, 11:54 »
Avast warned me after
it happened, a
Yikes, can't believe Avast didn't catch it before you got infected, never had that happen before. Kind of scary, getting warned after the fact is only slightly better then getting warned at all. So did the trojan turn off your firewall or was it already off?
7
« on: June 15, 2009, 18:46 »
Got a response back from support, said it was a technical glitch. All is better now. I'm impressed with how fast they got back to me.
8
« on: June 15, 2009, 15:14 »
I'll let you know how the support request goes. I noticed something this morning, every one of my images that were online before 2/17 have been tagged for bad keywords. My guess is someone is trying to make a some quick change. I would have thought DT would have put in some safe guards for this type of thing.
9
« on: June 14, 2009, 21:20 »
I never received a notice that I any of my keywords were flagged. The strange thing is, for the example I posted, non of the keywords were removed from the original set of keywords.
I don't know how much if it all it's affecting my sales though. April and May were my best two months in a long time, although this month is shaping up to be very bad.
I did submit a support request so we'll see what that gets me.
10
« on: June 14, 2009, 15:10 »
I just happened to notice that many of my images have their keywords locked. I'm assuming that they were reported for some reason but when you only use 10-15 keywords a image, it makes it pretty hard to spam. Take this one for instance: http://www.dreamstime.com/three-grapes-image7997761. It's got the same set of keywords that it had when I originally uploaded it but its got the boilerplate "This image has been rightfully reported as having bad keywords and an editor approved the needed corrections. At this time you can add more keywords only through the key-mentoring system." next to the keywords. Normally I wouldn't really care but given all the search engine tweaking going on there's no telling if it will impact placement or not. Just wanted to know if anyone else is seeing this?
11
« on: June 08, 2009, 09:07 »
Because many many people work in offices - like my own - that have worldwide licesnses for Microsoft and nobody is permitted to add or remove programs or software onto computers owned by the company ... people always offer that as a solution but it is simply not a solution for all of those people working in large companies on computers that do not belong to them.
It's possible to run firefox using a jump drive. http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portableIt doesn't install anything after it's setup on the jump drive.
12
« on: June 05, 2009, 12:47 »
stockastic, does this help? The justification of the decision that was previously decided in the decision to require a 6 month hold on said images is a good and wise decision for all parties involved in said decision. Personally, I think 6 months is a little long but not entirely unreasonable. I think for DT exclusive images, 6 months is totally fair since DT has a greater investment in those images with the higher commisions. For non exclusive images, it does seem a little too long.
13
« on: May 27, 2009, 09:41 »
When I resubmitted them I put a note in the comment field that I corrected the issues from the first submission. All I really did was boost the saturation a bit, which I really didn't even like, and they were accepted.
14
« on: May 26, 2009, 18:17 »
Guess it's time to strap in and enjoy the ride.
15
« on: May 26, 2009, 10:08 »
I would agree that all it's only speculation but it's speculation based on my past experience working with businesses. I really hope I'm wrong but I really think we are going to start feeling the squeeze on our commissions. It may take a while, only because, as you pointed out, the current crop of buyers aren't overly price sensitive. But this may change as a wider array of buyers come into the fold. Agencies are going to start focusing on this market( i.e. PhotoXpress), and the new crop of buyers will be less sophisticated and more price sensitive.
16
« on: May 26, 2009, 09:34 »
Competition for contributors was great when it was happening and driving royalties up, but this race to slash prices and put the other guys out of business really doesn't look to have an up side for contributors.
Totally agree with this. I'm worried they are taking the WalMart approach: Slash prices, put your competitors out of business, screw your suppliers. The funny things is, WalMart's suppliers are chomping at the bit to sell there even knowing that they put a downward pressure on prices. Many a supplier has been put out of business because of the squeeze WalMart puts on them.
17
« on: May 21, 2009, 15:54 »
I'd go with the PS3. I hardly play games on mine anymore, it's mainly used as a BlueRay and streaming media player. I have the 1st gen 60gig models and haven't had any of the problems zymmetrical has had. The downside is that the additional remote is a bluetooth remote which wont work with standard universal remotes.
18
« on: May 18, 2009, 10:40 »
That's just plain crazy. I wonder how long it took to amass all that stuff.
19
« on: May 18, 2009, 07:38 »
If you do decide to go the S corp route you might want to look into a payroll company to handle the filing of your quarterly forms as well as the salary you are going to pay yourself. From what I remember it really wasn't that expensive and it saved the hassle of doing the paperwork. For me it was worth it but in the end you need to figure out if your going to save enough in taxes to cover your costs of the S corp and have some left over.
20
« on: May 16, 2009, 13:28 »
I think I got a reviewer in a bad mood. They mostly got rejected for lighting which is kind of funny since they were studio shots.
Oh well, I'll just wait a bit and resubmit.
21
« on: May 16, 2009, 10:28 »
I just had a whole batch rejected at SS that both DT and IS took all of them. Instead of resubmitting, I was wondering if SS has something like 'scout' that I can have review them.
Thanks
22
« on: May 14, 2009, 11:05 »
Can a company pay all of its income as dividends? I was wondering if this is something that raises eyebrows at the IRS.
You do have to pay yourself a salary to keep the IRS happy, what that salary needs to be is definitely a question for your accountant.
23
« on: May 14, 2009, 07:52 »
I also get no views on my new images but after a few days they all get one view suddenly. I don't think the first view on all new images is real.
Same thing with me, I have a bunch of images with 1 view and then they get stuck.
24
« on: May 13, 2009, 12:35 »
Thanks Matt. This is exactly how it was explained to me too. The savings comes from the 15% Social Security taxes you don't have to pay on the dividend income.
And don't forget Medicare and probably state unemployment insurance. 
25
« on: May 13, 2009, 08:12 »
Here's what I remember from my days as an independent consultant when I had an S corp. If this is your main source of income you will need to pay yourself enough salary to make the IRS think you really are taking a salary from the company. Both you(as an employee) and the S corp will have to pay all the normal payroll taxes on this salary. You can take the rest of the money out as dividends. The only taxes you pay on that money is the same amount you pay on your other investment income. Since its investment income, you don't pay all the payroll taxes which is where your tax savings come from.
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