This week we’ve added a couple of features we know many of our customers wants!

The first one is the first feature of our model/people search. You can now specify how many people you would like to have in your image, by minimum and maximum. If you put 0 in maximum you’ll get images without people in them.
Try the search at our search page!

The second feature is our category page. We now have 16 main categories, all of them with detailed sub-categories. Categories makes it easier to search and browse images, get inspiration and ideas for image use.  Did we miss a category? Leave us a comment, and we’ll try to add it asap!
You can take a look at the new category page here.

Cheers, Linda

Image by Yuri Arcurs Search: Min. people 12, keyword: happy

Some of you might have experienced images back in pending, and then either rejected or back in your portfolio.This is an ongoing process here at YAY. When we notice images lacking in either quality, keywords, description, or if we find there are too many similar images in your portfolio we’ll send the images back for re-evaluating.

These images are evaluated together with new uploads, and are not marked in any way. So, it’s as fair as we can make the process. I would advice all contributors to be careful with their keywords, as images appearing “out of place” are especially noticeable, and therefore more easily sent back for new evaluation. We are not going through the whole database; neither are we aiming this against any particular photographer. So it’s not an early spring cleaning, but a day to day process (as most cleaning is).

If you feel you’ve been faulty rejected, please e-mail me at linda@yaymicro.com, and I’ll be happy to look into it! Also feel free to e-mail us if you have any other questions at post@yaymicro.com.

Cheers, Linda

There have been a few inquiries on how sales are developing at YAY Micro. A few contributors have terminated their account with us, because they haven’t seen the anticapted growth in sales. Deleting accounts makes little sense for contributors and for us. It requires work both from our photographers and approvers before an image is added to the database. When that is done, however, the image is ready for sales and no more work is needed. Anyhow, we do agree that it is about time that we give a status update on how sales are going. We can’t give you too much detail; there are nosy competitors out there.

So, how are sales developing at YAY? The answer is very promising! The number of downloads since September 2008 (we opened for sales in June 2008) has increased with a whopping 28 % per month. In 2009 the average monthly increase was even higher, namely 32 %. There are seasonal variations in the number of download (f.ex. July 2009 had 67 % fewer downloads than June 2009).

Graph:

Number of downloads per month 2009

In regards to photographer’s payouts, the numbers are even better looking for our contributors. The total payout during 2009 grew by 67 % per month! That means that our contributors are starting to earn some good cash. Even when compared to the number of contributors (grows at an average of 5 %), both downloads and payouts are looking increasingly good.

That doesn’t mean that we are resting on our laurels. Quite the opposite: We’ve increased our staff and will now add more resources into sales. We will also start more aggressive marketing towards both contributors and customers in China. Keep those uploads coming and we will guarantee that you will earn money. YAY started from scratch two years ago – and building a site requires patience. As the chinese say: Even the tallest tower started from the ground.

Happy microstocking!

Jan

Finding and configuring a Twitter background image can be tricky. Here is a short guide on how to find and add a unique background to your Twitter-profile.

Twitter offers 20 background images you can choose from. All of these have pleasing colors, and nice clean design. They are, however, quite generic. Instead of using any of these, you can upload an image that better fits your Twitter page and/or personality.

How To Change the Twitter Background Image
Go to Settings -> Design , then either choose a theme or click change background image. Don’t be afraid to goof around; your profile won’t change until you press save.

Finding the Right Image
There are several pages offering free Twitter backgrounds. Thousands of Twits (easier to say than Twitterers) use these images, so if you want a personal, unique profile you should try to find other images. Think about an object/idea/concept/thought that you feel can represent you. You might find a photo you’ve taken yourself, or you could try a search at images agencies such as YAY. We have hundreds of thousands of images, illustrations and vector files at a small cost ($1.5 for a small image).

Click here to try a search for images at YAY

How Large Should a Twitter Background Image Be?
Twitter accepts images in GIF, JPG and PNG formats. The file can’t be larger than 800 Kb, but the smaller the better. The resolution should be quite high, but still be visible for users with lower resolution. Twitter supports screen resolutions down to 800×600 pixels. Most users today have screen resolution 1024×768 pixels or higher.

You should aim for an image that works for users having large screens with high resolution. Therefore the image you choose should be at least 1600×1200 pixels, and it is even better to have 2048×1600. An Twitter background image of 2048×1600 will fill the screen of 98 % of all Twitter users.

Adding a Bio
The 160 character biography Twitter limits you to, can be a bit too short. Instead you can add a short biography, logo or other additional information in an information box on one or both sides of the main Twitter window. You have to remember that if you want your bio to be visible in 1024×768, it should not be wider than 120 pixels.

Take a look at our Twitter-backgrounds:
YAY Micro
Jan
Linda
Bjorn

Here at YAY we believe that all of us can make a difference in our world. One way to do this is to support humanitarian organizations. As a company we have chosen to support Kiva. Kiva is “a person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe”. This is known as microfinance of entrepreneurs, and the aim is to fight poverty by empowering people. You can lend as little as $25 dollars, and when the money is re-paid you can withdraw it, or re-lend it. At YAY we always re-lend the money. If you don’t have any extra money to help other people, maybe you could donate some of your time to volunteer work or to promote important causes?

Linda

If you want to join Kiva – click here!

Other humanitarian organizations:

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/

http://www.oxfam.org

http://www.redcross.org/

http://www.savethechildren.org/

http://www.unicef.org/

-

One of our photographers, Todd (graficallyminded), has done an interview with us at YAY in his blog Arenacreative.com/blog. The interview’s mainly about YAY, our background  as well as how we perceive the stock photo business and the future of the stock photo industry. If you have any viewpoints or further questions we’d love to hear from you – just leave a comment!

In 2008, a new microstock agency popped up that caught a lot of our attention. The site’s design was so simple, yet visually pleasing and easy to navigate. Even the back end for contributors was designed for speed and ease of use. I’ve been personally selling my images from them from the start, and recently I had an opportunity to interview the team. I’m sure many will be interested in getting some insight from Yay Micro coming directly from it’s founders and employees.

Read the rest of the interview…

Linda

I’m happy to say that we’ve received the results from third party sales for Q3 and the money should arrive late next week! Results are on average a bit lower per image for Q3 than Q2, which of course is because of summer months and also because of changes in currency. Not all images we sent over has been admitted to the third party sales, that means that some of the newcomers will be represented with only a few images. In addition to this the new images were added gradually over the quarter, which means that sales for all newcomers will increase significantly in the next quarter. All participants will receive an email when the commission has been paid.

It is obvious that third party sales is a good addition in income for our contributors and we are working hard to increase the amount of images and also looking into other partners that can redistribute our images.

Jan

Beautiful photo from photographer Binski.

Linda

We have finally received all data on third party sales from second quarter and are sending out emails to contributing contributors at this moment. We are quite happy with the results from this quarter – and some of you will get a nice surprise.

As these results are from the second quarter they will not include images from the latest batch. That means that contributors who was added to the third party deal in May/June will have to patiently wait until next quarter.

As we’ve said earlier are we also working on other third party deals, as this is a nice addition to the income of our top contributors.

Jan.

Macro images can impress. This close-up by cascoly of a wisteria leaf has beautiful colours and a fascinating, almost fractal, pattern.

Jan