Cutcaster | Design and Photography Highlights

Interested in working with Cutcaster’s API to add images to your business

Jan 192012

If you have not heard yet, recently we released Cutcaster’s simple to use API that lets developers and small businesses quickly integrate a diverse database of images into their business models and workflows. Using our API is very simple and it is well documented.

If your business, website, online tool or product needs millions of high quality photos and vectors, Cutcaster wants to team up so you can integrate our stock photography library into your business. At the same time, you can work with our experienced business development team to determine the best path for achieving your business goals using the Cutcaster’s API.

To learn more about our powerful APIs, visit our Developers area or you can request additional documentation by emailing webmaster@cutcaster.com.

Cutcaster Giveaway- Free Accounts with Image Credits

Contests 3 Responses »

Sep 132011

It’s giveaway time on Cutcaster! This week, to celebrate the launch of our new stock photography site, we have 5 stock photo accounts at Cutcaster to give away to a few lucky people. Each account is filled with 25 free credits (worth $29.99) that you can use to download any stock photos and vector images from the site.

Cutcaster provides a wide range of high-quality, affordable stock photos, royalty free images and stock vectors. These images are perfect for websites, promotional products, advertising, publishing, or any other commercial use. Click the following links, to learn more about our latest website update regarding our image search engine and checkout area.

How to Enter:

For your chance to win a Cutcaster account loaded with 25 free credits, just do either (or both) of the following:

Add a comment below OR to our Cutcaster page at Facebook, stating what the first image you will download from Cutcaster if you win. Include the URL of the image as well. You could write this for example: “The first image I will download is this cool vintage gramophone: http://cutcaster.com/photo/100269016-Gramophone/“
Tweet this message: @Cutcaster Stock Photos Giveaway: Win a @cutcaster Account with 25 Free Credits! http://bit.ly/opaM5u

If you post a comment and send a tweet, you’ll double your chances of winning because we will enter you twice!

On Wednesday, September 21st, we’ll pick the 5 winners at random and announce them here.

The winners have been picked and will be notifed by email. Thanks for participating and for those of you who didn’t win, there will be more chances this Fall.

Cutcaster makes stock photography search faster, more accurate

Cutcaster Updates No Responses »

Sep 062011

Today, Cutcaster re-launched with several upgrades that address growing needs in the stock image marketplace for both image buyers and sellers.

We wanted to make changes that would translate to real improvement for all our users. Our search engine now helps buyers find, filter and download relevant images more quickly, and we’ve made it easier for our contributors to sell their images and earn good money doing it.

We’ve now combined an easy-to-use search interface with a highly accurate contextual search engine that disambiguates word meanings. As the user types in keywords, the engine determines their meaning and the intention of the searcher to provide more accurate image results. As the searcher applies additional filters—for number of people, orientation or dominant color, for example— search results are updated immediately, making it easy to focus and expand results as necessary. If a keyword has multiple meanings, a user will be able to select their meaning by clicking on the keyword to choose the right meaning. We do all the rest.

The checkout process has been improved as well with simplified pricing, shown in credits and dollars, and the introduction of PayPal. Our goal was to make downloading images as seamless as possible for people. Users don’t even have to register to buy, and now they have even more secure payment options.

For its contributors, Cutcaster has increased its royalty payments to one of the highest rates in the industry. Our rate are going from 50% to 55%. We want to continue offering excellent images from great contributors, and our rates help us attract and choose the best. At a time when other sites are reducing their royalty percentages and payouts, we’re increasing them.

A greatly simplified user interface facilitates how contributors upload their images and view their image stats. We will have the FTP upload option enabled again after next week but you can upload images now via the upload area in your account. The whole site is optimized for our sellers now. There’s no guesswork, from signing up to providing the right tax forms, to getting paid.

We hope you enjoy all the improvements and we welcome your feedback.

The Summer Doldrums aren’t affecting Cutcaster

Cutcaster Updates, Uncategorized No Responses »

Aug 112011

Is summer almost over? Wow, the last three months have been a blur of hard work, taking stabs at solving very difficult problems and thinking about how we could improve our whole site experience. Our main goal was to ensure that the first page of images we displayed in front of any buyer on any given search, would contain the one they couldn’t leave the site without.

A few updates. We’re just adding the final touches to the new homepage design, the new account dashboard and the new picture finder we built. We still have a lot of testing but things are looking great AND on track for an end of August release. Our search page interface is one of the simplest to use and let’s searchers find perfectly matched picture results even when the keyword they used to search might have more than one meaning i.e. bar (Drinks) or bar (Metal). It’s a smart blend of some complex search engine filtering and using words to give meaning to other words to find the most accurate images for that search.

Our new pricing system will move us closer to a credit system. However buyers will still get the option to purchase single downloads via a credit card if they want. The credit system is just easier for most buyers today to understand and will allow us to offer the site in multiple currencies to attract new buyers. Also the changes should help keep the costs down from all the tiny micropayment transactions, return a higher percentage of royalties to you and let you know exactly what you will be earning from your daily sales.

Royalties for exclusive content uploaded after Sept. 1 is moving up from 50% to 55% of the sale. Non-exclusive content will stay at 40% like before. Payouts will still be made at $25 when it is reached. We need more exclusive images and illustrations and we want to pay you for it. If you are interested in partnering up with Cutcaster to represent your collection on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis, please reach out to us via creativedirector@cutcaster.com or register a sellers account here.

Dad doesn’t want a tie again for Father’s Day

Photography No Responses »

May 232011

After giving thanks to all the deserving Moms last month on Mother’s day, it’s now the Dads turn to shine on Father’s Day. Father’s Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. It is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in many countries and on other days elsewhere. It complements Mother’s Day, the celebration honoring mothers. How will you be giving thanks and celebrating Father’s day 2011?

Get the stock photos above at Cutcaster by clicking on the below links.

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100364359-Father-Holding-Daughter/

http://cutcaster.com/vector/100298228-Father-and-daughter/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100229267-Father-and-Son/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100145169-Two-men-standing-outdoors-smiling

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100086279-Dad-carrying-son

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100132689-A-Middle-Eastern-man-with-his-children

Camera shoot ideas for the spring and summer months

Buyer Requests, Photography, Seller Updates No Responses »

May 022011

A note from our Creative Director, Cora Reed:

Spring has arrived, and everyone is eager to get outside and take pictures of all the fresh blooming flowers. Some stock sites aren’t even taking flowers any more, but I must admit I love them.

Here are some hints for flowers:

Compose! I know it’s tempting to take shots from top down, or even just at random. A fat bumble bee on a perfect flower is nice, but a random bug on a flower, not so much. Keep those for your personal collections. Think outside the box! Look for different angles, make sure your flowers look perfect. Macros are wonderful, bokeh works great for background compositions. Send only your very best flower pictures. Really look at them carefully, and submit the pictures that make you say “WOW!”

Download these images here:

Photo of Tulipa World Legend Darwin Hybrid Tulip

Serenity Sakura

Gerbera flowers

That said, a word of warning for you spring and summer time shots. Here is a short list of easy shots that we really don’t want to see:

1) Common ducks, geese, and sea gulls. (Give me a nickel for every duck photo I see and I could pay down most of the US’s national deficit. Well almost.) If you must submit ducks, find the interesting pictures of ducks like this:

And as with any animals, be sure to keyword with common and scientific names of animals.

2) For those close to a beach and taking pictures of the beach, keep those WOW concepts in mind. Remember that Cutcaster does NOT accept pictures of children you don’t know and can’t get a model release for, so please do not upload them, even as editorial photos. In addition, we will not accept the backends of beachgoers without their consent or knowledge.

We are extremely excited to see your latest pictures of spring’s bounty! Get out, shoot as much as you can and keep your most exciting and best work coming!

Download the above images below at Cutcaster using these links.

Woman in white dress in sea

Pretty young girl smiling while at the beach mother at the back

Bicycle with flowers

Warm Regards,

Cora Reed

Free Stock Photos, Vectors and Clipart for Commercial Usage

Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 282011

: Free stock vectors

: Free Travel Photos

: Free Animal Photos

: Free Election Signs

: Free Animal Images

: Free People Photos

: Free Background Pictures

: Free Texture Pictures

: Free Famous Landmark Photos

In addition to becoming one of the leading online stock library for royalty free images, Cutcaster also offers free photos and free stock vectors to customers from all over the world looking for outstanding visual art to help tell their story or represent a brand.

Check out all the free pictures that Cutcaster offers to members and non-members for immediate download and if you are interested in any of the above images you can download them from the below links.

http://cutcaster.com/vector/800967545-Orange-background-with-flowers/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/800856373-Blond-woman-with-plaited-hair/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100500074-Lower-Manhattan-Skylines/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100625693-Statue-of-Liberty/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100622734-Flames-Fire-of-Hell/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100714026-Young-Lamb-On-Green-Grass-Cornwall-UK/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100523643-Wood/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/800906270-elections-2012-one-way-post/

http://cutcaster.com/photo/100460264-Head-of-Moray-eel/

Win two free tickets to attend the Bees Awards on May 3rd in San Francisco

Design Industry News, Friends of Cutcaster, Photo Industry News No Responses »

Apr 272011

To enter, just download an image or purchase a credit package from Cutcaster over the next 4 days and you can win a ticket for you and a friend (valued at over $500) to attend the prestigious Bees Awards next week on Cutcaster. Hurry only three lucky winners will be selected. And, even better, here is discount code for 10% off your image or credit purchase: BEESAWARDS

Winners will be emailed two free tickets this Sunday. Cutaster is proudly one of the Bees Awards first sponsors. The Bees Awards is an completely unique and sold-out Awards Ceremony that recognizes those communication professionals working within international social media marketing and advertising. Everyone is welcome to attend and enter the contest by either downloading an image at Cutcaster or buying a credit package.

To download an image or purchase a credit pack, visit Cutcaster today. For more information on the Bees Awards visit their website.

Social Media Icons and Pictures

Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 262011

Online today, most everyone is using social media to connect with friends, business associates or companies. Social media is defined by some as media for social interaction, using highly scalable communication techniques and information that is easily accessible to anyone. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue like we have seen on sites like Twitter and Facebook. For all our users who spend countless hours on social media sites, we created a collection of social media pictures and icons that can be downloaded and used on your blog, any social media site, or company website to make your ideas and brand stand out.

Check out our social media picture collection now.

Cutcaster’s April Newsletter

About Cutcaster, Cutcaster Updates No Responses »

Apr 192011

The new Cutcaster is rocking and rolling. Traffic and sales are improving each day and the reviews from our customers and contributors have been outstanding. Shortly, we’ll begin our first real advertising and marketing campaigns for the new site. Are you ready to take advantage of this opportunity?

Upload your newest artwork to attract the attention of picture buyers who are searching now at Cutcaster. Uploading new content, as often as possible, is the best way to get higher placement in our search results as well. Learn from this short uploading video how to upload multiple pictures at once via our new FTP system.

Want to know a great way to get more sales and impress visitors that land on your portfolio page? Organize niche sets of your images with our newly released Lightboxes. We’ve seen that creating lightboxes has led to an increase in views and sales for images included within them. Why not create your first lightbox now to see how it works? This short lightbox video shows you how easy they are to create.

Are you telling your friends and colleagues about Cutcaster and using your referral codes so you get earn easy cash at the same time? See how to add a referral link to your webpage, blog or forum signature that points to your portfolio and gives you cash when new users signup.

If we aren’t already connected on our Facebook page and Twitter page, please take a moment to connect with us.

Your Cutcaster Team.