SnapVillage

Update 1 Aug 09: Snapvillage closes, contributors will be paid out any money due even if the amout is below the minimum payout limit.

Update 10 May 09: Snapvillage no longer accept new image uploads (as of May 1st), they in the process of migrating most photographer accounts to their new outlet on veer.com, in the interim period photographers and buyers can still access the collection and make purchases from snapvillage. Veer have announced the veer microstock marketplace [5] open on 8th June 2009

Update 11 Feb 09: Corbis will be phasing out snapvillage in favour of their new microstock marketplace on veer.com. Once a full review of the new site has been completed a link will be posted here.

----

Snapvillage - aka Corbis [6] on the band wagon. After recently relaunching their website after a period of beta testing and user uploading the site is now worthy of a closer look. Was it a good idea to include the word 'snap' in the domain name of a stock photo site?

I do not have a large enough portfolio to create an accurate measurement of the income. At the moment from images I looked at they seem to be somewhat liberal with their image acceptance (common with most start-ups gaining an image base). Most photographers opting to attach a $5 price tag to their work.

Image price is variable not credit based, the default price is $5 for an image, I suspect that they offer the $1 option so they can advertise "images from $1" that said $5 for a decent sized image still brings them just under the istockphoto price line.

From preliminary results I am not getting many views of the images I have uploaded not many sales. This is not a good sign BUT it is still early days and my portfolio still small. Snapvillage also offer no referral / affiliate scheme, leading me to wonder where they plan to get their buyers from? (they may perhaps have some corbis advertising backbone and finance behind them). As a photographer it's easy to think that affiliate schemes just to recruit new photographers, but they are also the main source of buyers that a lot of microstock sites rely on.

Preliminary Conclusion

I'm uploading to snapvillage (draw your own conclusions on that, but I always recommend concentrating on the top earners [7] first). It's difficult to ignore a microstock site backed up by someone like corbis. As ever there is no guarantee of incomes in the future but I find it hard to believe that snapvillage would 'fail'. I suspect that snapvillage will grow their collection to a critical mass and then start to push sales, or perhaps offer selected images redistribution via other corbis outlets.