Free Software For Selling Photography Online
123rf
Sell photos with LightBurner.com – new FREE online microstock content distribution service
Dec 8th
I am glad to invite you to try LightBurner Beta, our new free microstock content distribution and analytical service.
LightBurner customers can submit images to the following pre-integrated microstock photography agencies:
Microstock Photography Agencies Supported by LightBurner
Also you can define unlimited Custom FTP Channels, delivering your images wherever you want to, for instance your blog’ FTP server or your backup FTP site.
I plan to have at least 20-25 pre-integrated microstocks supported in December yet. Your suggestions for more destination are warmly welcome.
LightBurner Portfolio
The famous keywords suggestions + translations, first introduced in ProStockMaster in 2006 (wow, 4 years ago – who can believe it), is now a part of LightBurner too.
Other interesting features include built-in search in your portfolio, Similar Media area, cataloging by Lightboxes, Folders and Categories, notes on images and sales balance for each channel. Of course, LightBurner reads IPTC for any uploaded JPEG, so you get your files with all the metadata – searchable and cataloged, at your fingertips.
Easy Multilingual Keywording With Auto-Suggestion
The service is still far from being completed, however I believe that existing functions work quite well and have a great value to any microstock contributor. More agencies and more features will come in the next weeks. Without getting into the details, you can expect nice surprises in your LightBurner account.
How to get started
- register for a free account. In a few moments you will get a Welcome email with your credentials, including SFTP access.
- upload your files by SFTP (FileZilla will do)
- login and go to My Account -> My Portfolio -> Channels/Edit and select your sales channels / agencies
- select what files go where. Multiple options available, including “Assign” X files to Y channels, “Edit” of multiple files or simple drag-n-drop a file to a channel
Actually, that’s it. The distribution is automatic, so you do not have to do a thing.
Photos Sales Statistics
Your files statuses are updated accordingly: red square (undistributed) is replaced by yellow (partially distributed) and then by green (fully distributed). You will have to hit Refresh from time to time to see these statuses changes.
A few notes:
- All the original uploaded files are removed after 3 days
- Shutterstock delivery is over FTP, stats / balance can not be displayed due to submitters accounts blocking with a captcha
- At the moment LightBurner supports JPEGs only, no other formats and no model releases
- Later on ProStockMaster will work directly with your LightBurner account, thus saving you traffic, costs and time by uploading media just once
- The last but not the least: bugs happen. Please be patient, and report them! Contact: support(at)pixamba.com, david(at)pixamba.com or via LightBurner’ online form
BigStock, 123rf, Dreamstime, Fotolia improvements in v1.7.3
Mar 26th
This release fixes login and upload of stock photos to Bigstock and 123rf . It also fixes Dreamstime and Fotloia microstock sales statistics. We took off Stockxpert microstock site due to their merge with iStockphoto.
Stock photography software adds Alamy and StockXpert
Nov 25th
New v1.4.0 is here!
It brings you two new agencies:
1. Alamy, the first traditional royalty free and rights managed stock photography agency which we decided to include. Meanwhile we have implemented the uploads only, however we plan to extend Alamy support in further releases.
2. The long-awaited (and millions times requested) Stockxpert! Many thanks to Steve Kapsinow from Stockxpert for his valued help.
Upload issues with Dreamstime and 123rf reported in my previous post are also fixed in this version.
Our list of supported stock photos sites reaches for the first time a two-digits number: there are 10 supported microstock agencies on the list now. It’s a nice milestone.
UPDATED on April 1, 2007: FIXED – Problems interacting with 123rf
Mar 28th
I just have released v1.2.3 which fixes 123rf issues related to upload and statistics.
This version also fixes statistics representation for LuckyOliver.
Please follow the instruction http://www.prostockmaster.com/upgrade.htm to upgrade your software.
Sincerely,
David
——————————————————
123rf guys have completely revamped their web site.
I have to issues an updated version of ProStockMaster to follow their changes. Hopefully, everything will be ready in one week – stay tuned.
(http://forum.123rf.com/viewtopic.php?p=1817#1817)
Meanwhile, please do NOT try uploading to 123rf with the current software version – it is just a time waste, no files will be uploaded to 123rf web.
I will update this record when the upgrade will be available. Those of you who use ProStockMaster v1.2.1 or above will also get an automatic alert that the new version is available on our web – please follow the upgrade instructions.
As I wrote in my previous similar post regarding ShutterStock, I am working with some sites on implementing a stable API (interface) ProStockMaster – The Site. When this work will be completed we will hopefully never face this failures again. However, these things always take [much] more time that it was planned
Mac package update
Sep 23rd
The Mac packaging is updated!
Now Mac version is packaged with native Mac bundler and finally ProStockMaster on Mac is delivered and installed like any other native Mac application.
I like Mac look & feel: http://www.prostockmaster.com/images/mac_main_screen.jpg – really cool Mac-native GUI.
Finally: Payment, price and the unlimited version
Aug 29th
I just finished today testing of all the payment stuff. The payment processor is going to be PayPal and the product price will be EURO 39. / $49.
All the payments are processed on PayPal site and at the end the payer receives software activation code generated by ProStockMaster site. I hope you guys will excuse me if I will not accept GBP and AUD at least at this phase. PayPal also accepts credit cards, so it should handle 99% of payment options this way.
I am also adding an affiliate program, so anyone who want to promote ProStockMaster will get 25% sales commission on any sale of the software to his/her referred buyer.
At the moment I need 2-3 more days to add “lock/unlock” functionality to the software, so a person who has downloaded ProStockMaster can pay, get his activation code and enter it in the app without a need to re-download the software. I think at the end of this week all this stuff will be ready.
Security issues
Jul 5th
I have been asked multiple times a question like:
> Is it secure to enter my site’ user name and password into your application?
It’s a good question. Since you login to an Internet stock photo site with your user name and password, ProStockMaster shall know these parameters in order to login and properly upload images to your account on selected site. This is the only way the application can securely access your personal account on that site and upload images there.
If you are familiar with any FTP client, like Smart FTP or cuteFTP, it is exactly the same process.
The client asks for your credentials and then uploads your files on your behalf to some FTP site. ProStockMaster follows this approach and uses your credentials for proper login into a stock site and upload your work to your personal account. There is no other use for your credentials.
ProStockMaster hides and encrypts your sensitive information storing it locally, thus providing reasonable (however, not an “unbreakable”) level of security for your personal data. This level of security is comparable with the level of security you would expect to get from a typical FTP client or from your favorite web browser.
