Cutcaster's Blog

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New features you will see on a Lightbox Preview Page

1. Send this Lightbox to a Friend

2. Add this Page to a Lightbox

3. Purchase this lightbox

4. Add Single file to lightbox

From most pages at Cutcaster, you can now create new lightboxes, edit them, delete them, email them or add any of the files to your cart.

This will speed up the process and removes a lot of extra clicks. It also allows you to preview your lightbox from any page so you can see directly what is inside them without having to click to the lightbox preview page.

From this point forward Cutcaster is re-branding the Clipfolders and calling them “Lightboxes” which is an industry standard term that photo buyers are used to seeing.

What is a Lightbox?

A lightbox at Cutcaster is a customized folder that lets a user organize digital photos and illustrations that they would eventually like to download or share with a colleague/friend. Any files can be assigned to a viewable lightbox folder by subject, for later convenience, or used to compile unrelated photos for a specific project layout. Lightboxes also allow photo buyers and graphic designers to show clients options for a project in one simple uncluttered folder.

Use the lightboxes to store a group of photos that you would like to eventually purchase or send to a colleague/friend to review. Lightboxes can be set to private or public depending on your purpose for using them.

I hope the change of names doesn’t confuse anyone and hope this makes using Cutcaster easier.

Taxes aren’t fun, and as your partner in business, Cutcaster wants to do it’s best to help you determine which tax forms are required by the I.R.S. and/or by us. While Cutcaster cannot explicitly provide tax and/or legal advice, we can provide the information we think is relevant to assist you in making a decision about how to comply with applicable U.S. tax laws no matter where you live in the world.  Regardless of what you read here, we think it’s always best to contact your legal and/or tax advisor before reaching a final conclusion.

Which Tax Forms Should I Use?

All Cutcaster sellers must read the following guidance on how to comply with U.S. withholding tax laws:

A.   Are you submitting to Cutcaster as an individual? If “yes”, then you fall into one of these three groups:

GROUP 1 — If you are submitting to Cutcaster as an individual and are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, then no matter where you are worldwide you can submit Form W-9 to us to satisfy your filing requirement. Typically there will be no withholding of taxes on any of your Cutcaster income.

GROUP 2 — If you are submitting to Cutcaster as an individual and are a resident of a country that has a tax treaty with the U.S., then please submit Form W-8BEN digitally on Cutcaster’s website to benefit from the reduced or zero withholding rate that is specified in your country’s tax treaty. Note that a U.S. Tax ID # (TIN) is not required for GROUP 2.

GROUP 3 — If you are submitting to Cutcaster as an individual and are not a resident of a country that has a tax treaty with the U.S., then your U.S. source income from Cutcaster will be subject to 30% withholding tax. Please submit Form W-8BEN to us digitally on our website. Note that a U.S. Tax ID # (TIN) is not required for GROUP 3.

B.   Are you submitting to Cutcaster as an LLC, partnership, or corporation? If “yes”, then you fall into one of these two groups:

GROUP A — If you are submitting to Cutcaster as an LLC, partnership, or corporation and the entity is organized under U.S. law, then you can submit Form W-9 to us to satisfy your filing requirement. Typically there will be no withholding of taxes on any of your Cutcaster income.

GROUP B — If you are submitting to Cutcaster as an LLC, partnership, corporation, or association and the entity is not organized under U.S. law, use Form SS-4 to apply for a TIN. Once you have obtained a TIN, please consult with your tax adviser to determine which type of Form W-8 is correct for you. If you choose the W-8BEN, please complete it digitally on our website. If you choose a different W-8 form, please complete it and contact Cutcaster for further instructions.

GROUP C.   If you are not an individual, LLC, partnership, or corporation, then please consult with your tax adviser to determine which IRS forms are correct for you. Once you have determined which forms are appropriate, please contact Cutcaster.

Please print out the relevant IRS document(s) which we’ve attached herein, fill them out, scan them (save a copy for your records), and email the image(s) to us.  All personal information is of course confidential and will be held securely.

For questions or concerns please email taxes@cutcaster.com.

Let us turn your words into picture perfect photos that beat your expecations and save you money and time.

We know when you do something yourself you will do it right and it is hard to trust someone to do research for you, but why not leverage our free photo research and delegate it to us for a chance to show you what we can do.

Need an extra set of hands, eyes and team members to help you find the perfect image you are looking for. Pass it on and hand it over to Cutcaster.

We can easily integrate into any team environment or unique workflow that you have. Let’s have a brainstorm session and uncover eye-popping imagery for your brief.

To save you time, we offer a free picture research service at Cutcaster, in order to help you better locate images you might never have found yourself.

Cutcaster employs a team of highly trained photo and illustration researchers who know our collection better than anyone else. If we have it, they will find it for you.

Save hours in your day by letting us do some of the research for you. We will often turn research around in an hour or less and larger ones take us less than 24 hours. Please email creativedirector@cutcaster.com for more information.

Ever wonder how much one of your photos or illustrations is worth? What you should charge for a great stock photo? Should the price of a stock photography license change depending on the image or buyer? If you charge too much will that scare away all the photo buyers?

Outside of a stock photography agency telling you what they are going to charge their photo buyers for a stock photo license or a buyer telling you directly what they want to pay, it’s hard to know what to charge for a stock photo. You can look at your costs, the uniqueness of the image or how the stock image will be used and come up with a some idea for what to charge. There are also some photo pricing tools for stock photography out there but most you have to pay for or, worse, are outdated.

So Cutcaster introduced it’s ‘photo pricing algorithm‘ and ‘bidding for content‘ features to help sellers use get the most revenue in return per image and buyers find the best deals for stock photography. The pricing algorithm and bidding for photos feature are the cornerstones of Cutcaster’s dynamic content marketplace which provide sellers total control over how much they want to charge for a license to use one of their stock images. Below we will explain how the Cutcaster Pricing Algorithm works.

What is the Cutcaster Pricing Algorithm?

Cutcaster’s proprietary pricing algorithm maximizes your content’s earning potential by changing it’s price to match the demand in the marketplace. The revolutionary pricing algorithm is the first of it’s kind in the stock photography industry. The more demand for your stock image, the more you should be paid for it.  The algorithm is based on image metadata, search variables surrounding your content and how your file stacks up against similar content in the Cutcaster marketplace so we can understand better what the buyers are willing to pay and how to price the content in the future.

How does the photo pricing algorithm add dollars to my bottom line?

Just like how the price of a company’s stock on an global stock exchange is set through the interaction of buyers and sellers, we wanted to create a similar marketplace for a piece of digital content.  If the price moves too high and nobody buys or views your content, well, the price will come down. If there is a high level of demand for your content, the price will move up and you as the seller should be able to capture a higher price for it.  What the algorithm accomplishes for you is the automation of this process across your entire inventory of content. So with very little effort, you can feel confident that your work is being sold at the right price and you are getting the most return per image.  If the price is set to high, well that is where the buyer can bid on content and show you what price they are willing to pay. At Cutcaster, we want our content contributers to spend their energy being creative.

How does it work?

It’s actually pretty simple.  You have the option to set your own start price and let the algorithm work its magic from that price.  To set the start price you may want to look at your costs regarding the production of the photo, how it has sold in the past, the uniqueness of the image or how the stock image will be used (in Cutcaster’s case it is royalty free) and come up with a some idea for where you want to start the photo’s price. From that price the algorithm will go to work. Alternatively, you can use the algorithm default starting price, which will look at the image’s metadata, the keywords, the description, similar content in our marketplace and other pertinent information to get a fair start price. Once the file is approved by our editors and released into the Cutcaster marketplace, the price will fluctuate depending on the demand for that particular image.

The formula is flexible and will/can be modified. Feel free to let us know if you think there’s room for improvement or other variables we should consider when evaluating your prices.

The first step to bidding on images and naming your price at Cutcaster is to create an account at Cutcaster under the Register page.  To bid on images and name your price you need to be a registered Cutcaster user.  It’s free.

Once you have selected the image you would like to bid for, you can look to the right hand side of the screen and see the different pricing options based on the file sizes.  First, choose the size of the image you would like and the license type, Standard or Extended.

Next, if you look right below the menu table, you will see three options. 

You can enter your new price (bid) and click on the ‘Send’ button:

The artist will receive an email letting them know that they have a bid for one of their images and will have 48 hours to either accept the bid, negotiate or reject the bid.  In most cases, sellers react in less than 2 hours to bids.

If the Artist Accepts Your Bid:

Login to your Cutcaster Account and from within your Studio page under ‘My Marketplace’ you will see a red ‘New’ under ‘Accepted Deals’.

Click on ‘Accepted Deals’.  You will then have the option to ‘Purchase This File’.

You will then be taken to Cutcaster’s Cart page where you can checkout using any major credit card, Cutcaster credits or pay by invoice.  If you have a coupon or discount code, you can also use them on this cart page.

When you select your payment option, click on the green ‘Checkout’ button and the image will be available for you to download.

If the Artist Decides to Negotiate:

If the contributor decides to negotiate after receiving your bid, you will receive an email letting you know what price the contributor is willing to accept.  Log onto your account and under ‘My Marketplace’ within your studio page you will see the counter-offer under ‘Content I Want to Buy’.

You can either Accept, Negotiate or Decline the new price:

If the Artist Declines Your Bid:

If the artist declines your lower price (bid), an email will be sent to you notifying you it was declined.  The declined offer will show up in your ‘Delcined Deals’ in ‘My Marketplace’.

If you have any further questions, always feel free to email help@cutcaster.com.

ISB. You may have never heard of it but you might already be suffering from its’ effects. What is it and can it be cured?

Well. Photo buyers and researchers have been known to collapse of boredom, exhaustion and image overload because of ISB. Just check out the poor chap below. Are you bored of the same old tired stock photos and illustrations that have outdated technology, no diversity, clothes from the 70’s and feel way too posed? Do you wish there was a great and new source of stock photos, illustrations, vectors, clipart or any kind of user generated images that was authentic, non-cheesy, editor-reviewed and had all the clearances you needed?

You can avoid “Image Search Boredom,” by choosing to search for your stock photos and royalty free images at Cutcaster. Any of the files at Cutcaster can be used for advertising and promotional projects, including hard copy printed materials, product packaging, presentations, film and video presentations, commercials, mobile applications, catalogues, brochures, promotional greeting cards and promotional postcards, entertainment applications, such as books and book covers, magazines, newspapers, editorials, newsletters, and video, broadcast and theatrical presentations up to 500,000 copies, on-line, electronic, or mobile publications, including use on web pages, hard copy prints, posters and other reproductions for personal use or promotional purposes. Cutcaster photo and illustration marketplace can help you with any of your creative needs. Visit www.cutcaster.com to find the best content at the best prices ready to be downloaded and used immediately.

office photos
photos of couples
advertising photos
sports photos
family photos
baby photos
retirement photos
winter photos
exercise photos
elderly senior citizen photos
photos of lions
wild animals photos

Google just released and is testing out a different way of accessing image searches by placing image results together using a cluster. This new tool is called “Image-Swirl”
http://image- swirl.googlelabs .com/

Try a search at the site and  you will see stacks of images served up to you. When you select one of the image thumbnails, a cluster of similar images will pop up.  What do you think of the new tool? Will it help photo buyers find the right image faster? Is it a better way to display image search results?
Obviously after a few test you can see there are only a few search queries updated to the testing tool. I tried to do a search for “stock photos” and it wouldn’t let me. I also did a few other ones and got some funky results but some impressive ones as well. You can decide for yourself what you think.

There is a write up with more details at:

http://www.pcworld. com/businesscent er/article/ 182384/new_ result_clusters_ swirl_into_ googles_image_ search.html