Zymmetrical.com
Located on the sunny West coast of Canada, Vancouver's Zymmetrical is an exchange platform for artists and buyers at the forefront of creative design.
At the time of this writing, the site is in Beta. They may be defined as more of a mid-stock agency than microstock as prices tend to begin at about $3.00 up to $100 depending on quality and size.
My virtual friend and fellow stock photographer, Flemish Dreams, posted a secret tip on one of my favourite forums recently: Zymmetrical Appears to Deliver: I know I should keep this secret, but I got 2 sales of 7$ and 11$+ at Zymmetrical with just a tiny portfolio. Somehow, these guys seem to deliver, quiet as they are amongst the big loud guns of SnapVillage, Albumo and even MostPhotos that will rock the world... next year. I had already created an account (to reserve my user name) an Flemish's post intrigued me enough to look into them.
Zymmetrical is Canadian, from my home and native land, as the anthem goes. It's my patriotic duty to become a contributor of this home grown agency, encouraged by the fact that Kieth Tuomi (Founder and CEO) readily makes himself available to answer questions (and - OMG, he actual listens to user suggestions and requests!)
I've only submitted 10 photos so far. An interesting way they set their agency apart from others, is that the reviewer of each photo personally determes the selling price. Wee baby Ezra from the screenshot above was set at a full-size price of $49. To make Zymmetrical even more attractive to contributors, they offer a very generous 70% royalty: meaning if they find one buyer for this photo, I'll earn $34.30. That sure beats the $3.57 it's earned on Istock in the past 3 weeks with their paltry 20% commission (3 various sales).
Zymmetrical also sells fonts, graphics and videos. I'm surprized that more microstock agencies don't sell fonts.
They also have an affiliate program of 10% which endures for 12 months from your first visit. Please feel free to use my referral link if you like
. I'll definitely be sending more photos over, however, their uploader has been down for a couple days... (remember "beta").
The following information was pulled from the fact sheet on Zymmetrical's website:
Founded: November 2006
Employees: 3
Target Market: Designers, photographers, art directors, small business, hobbyists, students, etc.
Officers:
Keith Tuomi - Founder and CEO
Paul Melcher - CKO
Tatjana Farber - CFO
Zymmetrical is a global social marketplace in which photographers, designers, and video producers come together to form a marketplace free from traditional royalties and rights management. The web site allows photographers and designers of all levels to share and monetize their passion or profession while allowing graphic artists, web designers, arts directors, marketing professionals, and consumers to obtain high quality, legal digital stock art for as low as $3. Zymmetrical is the only major art agency that occupies the middle ground between the macrostock ($200 and up files) and microstock ($1 and lower files, low Artist payouts) market areas. Artists can adjust their own prices at any time, from $3 - $100, creating a truly flexible and democratic marketplace.
At the time of this writing, the site is in Beta. They may be defined as more of a mid-stock agency than microstock as prices tend to begin at about $3.00 up to $100 depending on quality and size.
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I've handpicked this screenshot of their landing page because, aw, shucks, it is my first featured photo on a site's splash page (that I know of). |
My virtual friend and fellow stock photographer, Flemish Dreams, posted a secret tip on one of my favourite forums recently: Zymmetrical Appears to Deliver: I know I should keep this secret, but I got 2 sales of 7$ and 11$+ at Zymmetrical with just a tiny portfolio. Somehow, these guys seem to deliver, quiet as they are amongst the big loud guns of SnapVillage, Albumo and even MostPhotos that will rock the world... next year. I had already created an account (to reserve my user name) an Flemish's post intrigued me enough to look into them.
Zymmetrical is Canadian, from my home and native land, as the anthem goes. It's my patriotic duty to become a contributor of this home grown agency, encouraged by the fact that Kieth Tuomi (Founder and CEO) readily makes himself available to answer questions (and - OMG, he actual listens to user suggestions and requests!)
I've only submitted 10 photos so far. An interesting way they set their agency apart from others, is that the reviewer of each photo personally determes the selling price. Wee baby Ezra from the screenshot above was set at a full-size price of $49. To make Zymmetrical even more attractive to contributors, they offer a very generous 70% royalty: meaning if they find one buyer for this photo, I'll earn $34.30. That sure beats the $3.57 it's earned on Istock in the past 3 weeks with their paltry 20% commission (3 various sales).
Zymmetrical also sells fonts, graphics and videos. I'm surprized that more microstock agencies don't sell fonts.
They also have an affiliate program of 10% which endures for 12 months from your first visit. Please feel free to use my referral link if you like
. I'll definitely be sending more photos over, however, their uploader has been down for a couple days... (remember "beta").The following information was pulled from the fact sheet on Zymmetrical's website:
Founded: November 2006
Employees: 3
Target Market: Designers, photographers, art directors, small business, hobbyists, students, etc.
Officers:
Keith Tuomi - Founder and CEO
Paul Melcher - CKO
Tatjana Farber - CFO
Zymmetrical is a global social marketplace in which photographers, designers, and video producers come together to form a marketplace free from traditional royalties and rights management. The web site allows photographers and designers of all levels to share and monetize their passion or profession while allowing graphic artists, web designers, arts directors, marketing professionals, and consumers to obtain high quality, legal digital stock art for as low as $3. Zymmetrical is the only major art agency that occupies the middle ground between the macrostock ($200 and up files) and microstock ($1 and lower files, low Artist payouts) market areas. Artists can adjust their own prices at any time, from $3 - $100, creating a truly flexible and democratic marketplace.
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9/10/2008 3:17 PM
Microstock Junction wrote:
It's time to post an update about Zymmetrical who I first wrote about in March. I am especially motivated by 3 sales last month at this mid-priced agency that have earned me a commission of $49.70. (Only my top 3 sites earned more than that last month). Keith Tuomi sent me a nice note to let me know that each inspector hand picked a favourite submission for the homepage, and Keith picked this shot of a typical Canadian grain farmer.I must note at this point that one of my 3 sales was for the shot on the ... -
9/10/2008 3:17 PM
Microstock Junction wrote:
It's time to post an update about Zymmetrical who I first wrote about in March. I am especially motivated by 3 sales last month at this mid-priced agency that have earned me a commission of $49.70. (Only my top 3 sites earned more than that last month). Keith Tuomi sent me a nice note to let me know that each inspector hand picked a favourite submission for the homepage, and Keith picked this shot of a typical Canadian grain farmer.I must note at this point that one of my 3 sales was for the shot on the ... -
9/10/2008 3:20 PM
Microstock Junction wrote:
It's time to post an update about Zymmetrical who I first wrote about in March. I am especially motivated by 3 sales last month at this mid-priced agency that have earned me a commission of $49.70. (Only my top 3 sites earned more than that last month). Keith Tuomi sent me a nice note to let me know that each inspector hand picked a favourite submission for the homepage, and Keith picked this shot of a typical Canadian grain farmer.I must note at this point that one of my 3 sales was for the shot on the ...
Thanx for plugging flemishdreams
The fun side of ZYM is that they value your photo commercially. It's often off from what sells at other sites, but you can always change it. As Keith stated informally on the MSG, there is a limit of 20 or 40 keywords per shot, so one should do priority ranking of keywords. That's a rising trend, like Fotolia (7) and CanStockPhoto (15).
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Congrats on the frontpage, very nice work!
Hope you have DL's. I was on frontpage for few weeks but did not get any, maybe I was too expensive he he
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Nice,
Just registered using your referral link.
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I thank you kindly! And I believe that would make you my first referral with Zymmetrical. I visited the site to see if the signup was registered in my account - but I couldn't find any indication that it was. I will try to find more information on that, but some sites have a "silent" referral signup and I have been surprised with little bonuses in my account from referrals. Hopefully this is the case.
The guys at Zymmetrical seem very eager to become a major player. They listen to contributors and implement many of our suggestions. I hope they make it past the "new" status and forge new ground!
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Zymmetrical doesn't seem to generate significant sales according to feedback in the forums (such as microstockgroup or talkmicro). However I registered there as your referral. Will upload at low priority, when time will allow...
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