CanStockPhoto Review
Can a microstock agency started by a University student be successful? You better believe it. Although sales slumped some years ago, things have picked up again for this interesting agency. FotoSearch coming to the party helped out enormously, as did a website revamp and the industries fastest review times.
CanStockPhoto has weathered the storms and remains as one of the libraries that most photographers join without any hesitations.
Why sign up with CanStockPhoto?
- Easy upload process means its painless to add images
- Ultra-fast review times (sometimes under an hour!)
- Reasonable reviewers means pretty high acceptance rates
- Good royalty rates of around 50% for most sales (except subscription)
What’s the downside to CanStockPhoto?
- Hit and miss sales for many despite decent sized portfolio’s
- Website can be a little lacking in different ways
- Doesn’t have the polished feel of a top tier agency
CanStockPhoto Review – Conclusion
Although the website had a makeover a little while ago, CanStockPhoto still retains a somewhat dated feel to it. Some things are a bit basic and it lacks the sleek feel off the bigger agencies. You can create ‘galleries’ of your images in an attempt to showcase them to buyers. While some photographers strongly support this as a way to improve sales, I have yet to see it have any impact. Additionally, I don’t think a site should have to rely on some additional means of showing off your images to make sales. Surely just a good client base and accurate search algorithms should be enough.
If the upload process was hard, I might think twice about uploading new content to CanStockPhoto each month. Currently their sales are lackluster, even with a reasonably sized portfolio. But since it is so smooth it really doesn’t make sense not to be a part of it, even if sales are well below expectations most months.
One final note: CanStockPhoto seems a much stronger agency if you have a number of vector illustrations in your portfolio, rather than just straight photography. So if you have a mixture of vector and photos ready to go, by all means give CanStockPhoto a shot and it may just pay off.
Thanks for reading. Are you ready to check out CanStockPhoto now?
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CanStockPhoto Review - Microstock Agency,
2 comments:
I agree with the pros….absolutely fastest review process I met and also a high acceptance (I know, it differs ptohographer to photographer, but I compare my submissions to other agencies). Its a great way to build the bigger port in a shorter time. I would only add that the new contributor should provide 3 samples of his/her work or links to portfolio in other agencies. I cant evaluate the initial acceptance success of others but the acceptance was without any problem. Its also nice the drag and drop system of uploading your photos.
Thanks for adding the 3 samples bit Robert, I had forgotten about that.
Glad acceptance was fast and trouble free for you.