Free Software For Selling Photos Online
PantherMedia
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
Where Are My Uploads On PantherMedia Microstock Site?
Feb 22nd
Some customers asked me where to find their files once they are uploaded to PantherMedia web site.
You have to go to “My Panther->My Images->Images (FTP/PSM)” menu located on top of your home page when logged in to PantherMedia web site.
Note that you will see there just one stock image out of all the stock photos that you have uploaded to PantherMedia stock photography agency with ProStockMaster microstock software. Once you submit this stock photo or a stock illustration, the web site will show you the next image from your PSM-PantherMedia upload folder.
Also note that PantherMedia submission process suggests you to insert up to 8 “Main keywords” into your stock photograph. First, I suggest you use at its most, i.e. insert exactly 8 keywords into all your stock photos if you can. Of course, keep the stock photography keywords relevant and descriptive 
Obviously, doing that increases the chances for your stock images to be found by the microstock buying customers, i.e. the chances for a stock photo to be sold.
Next, make your work easier and get better stock imagery sales by the proper use of our microstock software functionality. PSM “Manage Metadata” window allows you to put the keywords in the order of their importance / relevancy directly into IPTC metadata for your stock photo. Use up and down arrows buttons to re-order your keywords in the order of their relevance, putting the most important keywords at the top of the list.Some sites do pay attention on the order of IPTC keywords, expecting that the most important keywords describing a stock photograph will be first in the IPTC section.
Manage IPTC Metadata Window
Thus, when you will have to put “Main keywords” in the PantherMedia submission form you can just copy and paste 8 first keywords from the list of IPTC keywords you added to your image with ProStockMaster. And once you put your keywords in the order of their importance with PSM some other agencies will be able to use this information too, thus giving even more exposure to your pictures.
Co-operation With Microstock Agency PantherMedia
Jan 22nd
Yes, I know, I know. You want more storefronts to sell your stock photos and illustrations. The more stock photography agencies sell your royalty free images the bigger revenues you get. We learned that very well and we completely agree.
Every time we talk to our stock photographers they emphasize they would love to expand their sales network, selling more stock content through stock photo agencies and distributors..
We hear it so often that we even put this question in our FAQ
So here are you go: showtime!
Please meet PantherMedia, a microstock agency located in Munich, Germany. PantherMedia has been around since 2004, when the two founders and current owners Petter Ammel and Robert Walters established PantherMedia GmbH. Being the first stock photography agency to offer midstock images, PantherMedia went international in 2008 and is represented by international partners in more than 40 countries.
Initially my attention to PantherMedia was drawn a few months ago by a stock photography expert Andy Goetze, who runs Stockphototalk blog. Later on, working with PantherMedia on various technical and business issues I was absolutely charmed by people who run this venture.
So, while writing this post, it was very easy to me to figure out a few reasons why you will love submitting your stock images to Panthermedia.net
First, because PantherMedia can sell your work as a midstock for prices $50 and more! Take a look at their prices: for instance, if you sell a stock photograph with a merchandise license, it can go at 449.90 €!
And here comes the second reason – you keep up to 60% of that! The “up to” part of your commission depends on the license and exclusivity you choose, but if you go for it – you get your 60%, absolutely. Remember, this 60% are out of a midstock $50+ price!
The third reason why you should register with PantherMedia right away is that ProStockMaster is now tightly integrated with PantherMedia.net and you get your sales stats for any stock photo you got with PantherMedia, directly at your desktop.
With PantherMedia.net working with ProStockMaster API we completely automate collecting stock photos sales and downloads statistics on per-image base.
Still not convinced that you should sign up with PantherMedia? Come’on! And how about 33% off for ProStockMaster PRO license once you sign up there?
Typically, we do not offer discounts, even for the Christmas period. You probably noticed that we never did it in the past. However, we believe that PantherMedia and their customers is a very special case and we are happy to offer them a $5999 ProStockMaster PRO licenses, 33% off our $8999 list price. Register with PantherMedia and find out tour special offer there.
And here is the last but not the least reason why you should select PantherMedia in the list of agencies where you contribute your images.
These guys are really care about their photographers and their community. Yes, they really do. Try them out, it’s free (the fifth reason to join )- and you will see that you enjoy your stay there.
Disclaimer:
I do not work for PantherMedia and I never ever did. I was not paid to write this post. And if you buy a PSM license through PantherMedia site for just $5999 instead of $8999, I am loosing money… 
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.
