Selling Celebrity Pictures
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Why do none of my photos have a price?
TopQuestion: I just noticed that none of my images seem to be available to potential buyers. Can you correct this?
Answer: To prevent unauthorized use of the platform (e.g. purchasing your own material), you will not see a download link appear next to your own images while you are logged into the site. You will only see download ability next to images by photographers other than yourself. Please logout and locate one of your images and you will see the images as they appear to our buyers. No worries...this is not a bug.
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What % of the subscription packages goes back to the photographers?
TopApproximately 40% of every sale, whether it is $19 or a $199 package, goes back to the photographers. It is simply divided and paid out based on the total number of downloads for each photographer – i.e. downloads are “pro-rated” and our total monthly revenue is divided up among the photographers whose images were downloaded during any given month.
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How do you advertise?
TopOur engineering team focuses much of its time and energy on Google optimization of keyword searches. In this day and age we feel that it is time very well spent, and will result in increased sales for our artists as our platform continues to grow. In short, all sales are generated by Google organic search engine optimization.
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Can I remove an image from your site at any time?
TopYES. Provide a written request and an administrator will remove the image(s) ASAP. Any licenses we granted on your behalf while your image was active in our catalog must be honored.
Via email: click here to contact us via email
Via mail:ImageCollect
c/o AudioMicro, Inc.
13351-D Riverside Drive, #219
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
United States -
What copyright restrictions should I be aware of before uploading a photo?
TopYou should be the principal copyright holder of the uploaded photo or have written authorization to upload the photo on behalf of the copyright holder (i.e. you're a photo agency acting on behalf of a photographer that you have written contract with). All contributors are held fully liable for any damages incurred as a result of copyright infringement. Please be sure to read our Upload Agreement.
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What style of photos are you looking for?
TopWe encourage you to "spread the love" and upload photos of all styles. There are millions of photo related queries a month by Google users, from "Justin Beiber Pictures" to "Megan Fox Photos" and everything in between. The more diverse your archive, the more likely you are to receive increased royalties. As a general rule of thumb, our customers are looking for a diverse selection of unique, high quality images.
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Is there any way I can get paid my royalties even if I haven’t amassed $50 in payments?
TopYes, if you have more than $5 of accrued payments, you can request a one-time pay-out by contacting us. We will place your earnings in your PayPal account on the next payout date.
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How do I get paid? When do I get paid?
TopYou can check your monthly sales stats in realtime from your My Account page.
We automatically deliver your royalties to you via PayPal on or about the first day of the month, subsequent to the month in which the sales transactions occurred. For example, for sales that occur in June, we distribute your royalties to you on or around August 1st . We pay you when your account has accrued an unpaid balance of $50 or more.
If you do not yet have a PayPal account, you can easily sign up for one at
https://www.paypal.com/
PayPal is simple and secure, and for added assurance, you can even order a "key fob / security key" from PayPal for $5 that will prevent anyone from being able to access your PayPal account except, you (the security key holder).
Here is a link to the PayPal security key signup -->
https://www.paypal.com/securitykey -
How can I see downloads I have received?
TopYou can check your downloads by visiting the My Account page. You can drill down on your monthly (and all time) downloads and see exactly which files have been licensed. You can also download these reports in .csv format and open them in Word, Excel, and any Text Editor program you like.
Please note that these Sales History reports here are NOT final. They are designed to give you a some perspective on your download activity. Detailed sales reconciliations and calculations are performed internally by our accounting team each month and royalties are sent via PayPal around the 1st of the month subsequent to the month in which the sales occur. E.g. for sales in March, payment is made around May 1st or the first non-holiday weekday thereafter.
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Do I still retain copyright ownership if my images are sold on ImageCollect?
TopYes, you remain the owner of your Content. The buyer of the Content is only granted a non-exclusive, limited license to use your Content in accordance with our Content License Agreement (aka Download Agreement).
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How can I improve my earnings split?
TopWe offer an extra 10% commission to contributors that serve as bloggers, forum moderators, and editors. If you feel your professional or technical experience qualifies you for one of these positions, please contact us.
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What’s the difference between selling my Content exclusively versus non-exclusively?
TopSelling your Content exclusively with us means that no other libraries, anywhere in the world, have the permission to distribute this particular Content and that we are the only outlet in the world that represents your work. Contributors receive 50% of sales from "exclusive" Content.
Licensing your Content "non-exclusively" means that the Content is available through other distributors (including yourself). Contributors receive 40% of sales from "non-exclusive" materials.
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I am used to very high licensing fees. Will this undermine my high paying images on other sites?
TopThe high end of the celebrity image licensing market is not going anywhere and the traditional celebrity photo agencies should not see ImageCollect as a threat but rather an opportunity. Every micro stock celebrity images sale is not a lost customer for a traditional library, but most often a new customer and an additional sale for the photographer.
We are not making light of the celebrity photo licensing industry by simply undercutting the larger, established libraries. What we are doing is getting exposure for unknown, unsigned photographers by placing their work in online publications that are produced by every day consumers on shoe-string budgets.
With a micro payment model, photographers may first think they are underselling themselves; however, the reality is that with micro payment, you are actually opening up your library to an entirely new group of content purchasers that never before would ever think about paying for a celebrity photos. As blogs continue to proliferate the Internet, as it’s obvious that celebrity imagery becomes increasingly important in the equation. Licensing your content on ImageCollect opens up your portfolio to an entirely new audience, and an entirely new customer base. The market for strictly online self service celebrity photo licensing is going to continue to grow well into the foreseeable future. Even blogging softwares, such as WordPress, incorporate one-click photo insert options into all blog posts. If consumers do not have an outlet where they can get easy access to affordable, pre-cleared celebrity content for creative projects, there are two major implications:
1. The customer will simply not use celebrity photos for their projects.
2. They will make unauthorized use of the content that they have illegally downloaded.
Micro stock music opens up celebrity photo licensing to the masses and offers an affordable, easy solution for licensing imagery for consumer producer creative projects. -
What commission rate do I earn if my Content sells?
TopArtists receive 40% of the sales from each file that they submit to our archive.
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How much money can I potentially earn selling my photos on ImageCollect?
TopIn the micro stock photography world, many of the top contributors earn 6 figures (i.e. over $100,000) per year in micro payment royalties. We feel the size of the micro payment celebrity image market could be in excess of the micro stock photography market, and that this market will emerge over the next 5 to 10 years.
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How are you different from your competition?
TopHere are just a few of the many differences between ImageCollect and the competition:
a. No initial test files or portfolio review to become a contributor
b. We pay a 40% royalty as opposed to 20% and even less
c. We are strictly focussed on celebrity photosd. We are going after the millions of monthly Google queries for celebrity photos as opposed to just offline licensing (though we do have our own in-house licensing team that deals with offline licensing).
e. We are fresh and new and able to pivot on a dime
f. Unbeatable prices and friendly customer service!
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What does "crowd source for content" mean?
TopIt means we accept content from anyone from an established photographer to someone who has just captured his or her first celebrity image. Obviously we have quality control and will reject files if they do not meet our quality standards, but there are no restrictions on who can submit content - anyone and everyone is free to do so.
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What exactly does royalty free mean?
TopRoyalty free means you pay only once to use a track file which is pre-cleard for publications like magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, TV, web videos, podcasts, and more. It does NOT, however mean that the buyer now owns the copyright. There are limitations such as the number of print publicationst that you can distribute (250,000) without the need to purchase an Extended License or arrange for a custom licensing agreement.
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What is micro stock?
TopMicrostock is a concept rooted in the photography industry. What defines a platform as a micro stock photography company is that they (1) source their images almost exclusively via the Internet, (2) do so from a wider range of photographers than the traditional stock agencies (including a willingness to accept images from "amateurs" and hobbyists), and (3) sell their images at a very low rate (anywhere from $1.00 - $10) for a royalty-free image. ImageCollect takes the same idea and applies it to the celebrity picture industry. Anyone can upload his or her celeb photos, and then, they can be bought at a low rate (as little as $5 each). Through this, the photographer has the ability to get his or her images out to a large group, and due to the low price, more buyers are attracted.
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How should I caption my images?
TopA detailed guide to captioning and editing your images is here. Please, review it in detail before you submit. We recommended downloading / printing it out and save it for future reference as you get familiar with contributing to our library.