best 1T portable external hard drive / disk / HDD?

what is the best portable drive?

As a portable drive, most people may consider the price, look, brand and other issue.

But I think i will only choose Transcend 1 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive – Military Drop Standards (TS1TSJ25M3), that’s simple because as a portable drive, i don’t want my data inside get lost due to a drop or some accidental shake. It takes a lot of time and effort to get help to retrieve data, and most of the time you may not get back what is lost in a damaged hard drive.

I like this transcend drive because it seems the only external drive which had a kind of shock and drop test (Military-Grade Shock Resistance – Designed to meet U.S. military drop test standards), it is not a gimmick as you can actually manually check the case of hard drive which had a few layer to protect the drive. check the link if you want to know more Transcend 1 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive – Military Drop Standards (TS1TSJ25M3) and it is even one of the cheapest among those 1T drive.

I saw a lot of drive with nice looking case, slim, or whatever. But without a shock protect, I really think one should not buy it.

and the case is rubber feeling which didn’t really get scratch after using. Personally i have one incident that I tripped my laptop and the hard drive fly. The USB cable damage, and i got the drive and use another USB cable and it works again. That’s the time I know i won’t know buy other hard drive anymore.

glossy stickers or labels for sale

here are a set of glossy icons i have made for sale. It is in vector format with a corner curl effect. Great to use as seal sticker or labels in your design.

It is available for download through the following stock sites:

canstockphoto

shutterstock

picWorkflow – final steps for your stock photo workflow

Come across picWorkflow recently, and I am quite impressed that it actually works smoothly as it is claimed. The images are able to upload to every websites in just a few clicks without problems.

click to register, and the support is good, and you will get free credits for helping out something.

Steps 1. click the ‘Input’ page

First to select ‘Input’ page, page that will show you files that you had uploaded.

Steps 2. To upload your files

To upload your images through 2 options, ftp, Java applets or lightroom plugin! For vector option, upload matching name of eps and jpg preview, IPTC in jpg preview will be read.

after finished uploading, click the ‘Import’ button!

Step 3. To add keywords, skip if IPTC had been tagged in jpg

click for ‘process’ after successfully ‘imported’.
It is advisable that you had use Photoshop or some tool that write IPTC data such as descriptions and keywords to your jpg, it will cut short the time for workflow, and it is always good to tag your IPTC directly to your JPG so you won’t end up with a files without keywords.

If you had tagged your IPTC data with JPG, you can simple go to next step.

Step 4. To set up login information for websites

Click ‘output’ page. Firstly, you need to set up for all your accounts login information, look for ‘manage credentials’

You will be directed to a page that all websites that are available, and you can add your own websites that support ftp.

Edit with your username and passwords for ftp of every websites, you need to key in a ‘Master Password’ for any changes of this page. Just key in a password and remember it, since you need to use it all the time.

Step 5. To submit

After it is done, go back to the ‘output’ page. To upload, just click the yellow buttons under the websites you want to submit.

If your file is haven’t uploaded, the buttons will be appeared as an yellow button, click on the buttons and it will show as orange as pending upload, after it turns green, it means the file is uploaded in the sites successfully.

button status:

you need to key in your ‘Master Password’ to authorize the uploading.

That’s all, once all the light turns green, you just need to go those websites for a final check, and choose categories if necessary and done.

Register here picworkflow. It will make your images to be available for sales at every websites in shorter time.

What kind of photos are selling in alamy?

I guess not one has an answer for what kind of photos are selling. As long as there is a thousand kind of buyers, it seems every kind of photos can get sold.

It is always back to a point, what kind of photos you are producing, and look for the right channel to sell it.

Does a snapshot worth something? I happened to check out a thread in alamy and it is a thread about where alamy images had been used.

I will have to agree every kind of photos has their own usage. Make me rethink of what kind of images can be sold.

Here are some links:

http://aksesasia.com/pans-and-pots-at-a-delicious-price.html

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-nokia-chairman-ollila-prepares-will-resign-in-2012/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterwedderburn/100054449/halal-meat-we-should-know-when-were-eating-it/

http://www.slashfood.com/2010/09/22/pairing-cheeses-with-apples-and-pears-cheese-course/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7977361/South-Korea-introduces-fingerprint-scans-for-suspicious-foreign-visitors.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/7985111/Britains-pothole-problems-continue.html

Currencies paid by microstock agencies.

With the weakness of US currency and Tax on US sales for some countries, one may need to take note the difference among all agencies. The mentioned Tax is taxed on US sales for countries with non-treaty to US. Check this link for country that had treaty with US, here.

Agencies that Paid in US$ and Tax for US sales:

Shutterstock: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-yes)
Dreamstime: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-yes)
Bigstock: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-yes)
Veer: US$-Paypal (Tax-yes)
fotolia: US$/EURO/UK Pounds-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax – yes), If you want to get paid in EURO or UK Pounds, please remember to register through a EUROPEAN or UK fotolia website, however it seems sometimes the website will direct you to US based webpage, so just watch out.

Agencies that Paid in US$ not holding tax for US sales:

istock: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-No)
123rf.com: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-No)
Graphicleftovers.com: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-No)
Canstock: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-No)
Depositphotos: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-No)
Crestock: US$-Paypal (Tax-No)
Cutcaster: US$-Moneybookers/Paypal (Tax-No)

Agencies that Paid in EURO and not holding tax for US sales:

Zoonar: EURO – Paypal (Tax-No)
Yaymicro.com: EURO – Paypal (Tax-No)
Panthermedia: EURO – Paypal (Tax-No)

One more thing you can get paid more is by using Moneybookers(1.99%), It has a better exchange rate than Paypal(2.5%). However, Moneybookers can only keep one currency, instead of like Paypal keeping multiple currencies. Remember to choose a location that your bank is located when registered to Moneybookers.

I end up using Moneybookers for all US based agencies, and keep the paypal for some EURO payment.

check out both:

What microstock websites, other than big 4, are still worth to submit?

other than those big 4 microstock agencies ( shutterstock, dreamstime, fotolia and istock), what websites are still worth to submit?

1. 123rf.com
Sales are started to pick up after first few months.

2. yaymicro.com
An agency that is actively promoting its portfolio and easy uploading.

3. graphicleftovers.com
If you are an illustrators, what are you waiting for? it accept eps vector, psd file format and you can set your own price and with 52% commissions. It is an agency that pays fair to contributors. Yes, i do have sale just in first month!

4. canstock
it does have some sales once in a while, there are big commission sales from fotosearch partnership.

there are tons of stock website out there..and there are newcomers every days? but i suggest you use those major one i had mentioned here to build up your portfolio. Some agencies will offer cash for uploading your portfolio, and you will be ready at that time.

One thing I observed recently, is the tax on US sales for those US based agencies. It is 0% to some countries and can be as high as 30% to some other countries like mine. I got no idea why i have to pay tax to US..and 30%? at the same time the US currency is getting weak.

anyway, keep building up your portfolio, it is always something can generate you cash, especially in this digital era.

free $5 to sign up at Graphicleftovers!

if you are looking to buy something for your halloween, here you got $5 free to buy an image from graphicleftovers. Just sign up with the promo code and you got $5 immediately in your account.

Promo code: free5

type in during register, as coupon code.

Best time to sign up with them..click here! Graphicleftovers

Yaymicro!

Yaymicro is located in Oslo, Norway. As a young stock agency, it is growing and getting more attentions from sellers and buyers.

yaymicro is starting an affliate program. You can earn by telling people about this website! click the link below to registered and get the free image and discounts!

you’ll get 1 credit added to your account, that allowing you to download 1 free image, in web-size. You’ll also get a 20% discount on your first purchase, no matter what or when you buy!

click here to check out the website to get the free image and browse through those images and illustrations.

click here for yaymicro

Royalty free halloween cartoon images

Halloween cartoons!

There are some nice illustrations for your coming halloween, available at graphicleftovers, you can buy it with affordable price, eps vector format and high resolution jpeg. Here are a few I like:

where to download free photos?

There are quite a few source to get free stock photos and illustrations.

Here are a few stock agencies that offer free photos.

Dreamstime

Dreamstime had a free stock image library too, offered by contributors, it is full size image but the license is as Limited Royalty Free Licenses (RF-LL).

What is that different from RF license? as explanations from their website, this RF-LL is as The high resolution images downloaded from the free section may be used under the terms mentioned for the regular Royalty Free license, with a single additional restriction: the maximum amount of copies is limited to 10,000 copies. If you exceed this amount and you already purchased credits you may request to download the image under the regular RF license.

check out Dreamstime free images!

123RF

123rf had a selection of free stock image, but it is only available for small size, that’s around 400 x 300 px, good enough for a blog or website usage.

If you need a bigger size or vector format then you have an option to buy from it.

take a look at 123rf free stock images.