To put first things first: This is not so much a review as a warning. At the time of writing this, I can not recommend to anyone to join this agency.
General Information
Crestock was founded in 2005 in Norway. It is one of the smaller microstock sites, although they don’t publish the actual number of pictures to the public. The company started with the ambitious concept to offer the highest quality pictures of all microstock sites while maintaining attractive prices for buyers.
Submitting Pictures
You can upload via FTP or a HTML form with 10 slots. Crestock has a very efficient bulk editing system can save you a lot of time, if you have filled out the IPTC data for title, description and keywords. It is one of the sites that refrain from using categories for pictures, so this will save even more time.
Picture Review
Crestock has the reputation of having the pickiest reviewers of all microstock agencies. This is of course due to their intention to offer only the finest pictures to their clients. Especially for technical issues, the review standard is extremely tough. Some accepted pictures will be downsized to a smaller resolution without asking. But there are also many complaints that rejections are inconsistent and sometimes plainly imcomprehensible. And also in my own experience, I had to scratch my head very often about the reasons that were given for some rejections.
The review process used to be very fast. In fact a bit too fast for my taste, as I can remember a few times when pictures were accepted or rejected within minutes after submittal. It really made you wonder how a picture could be properly judged in such a short time.
But now, things have changed to the exact opposite. Some submitters complain that their pictures haven’t be reviewed for two monts.
Pricing
Crestock pushes the marketing of subscription plans, but it is also possible to buy single images at a higher price. For each subscription sale the contributor will get $0.25. Regular sales will give you $1.
Payout
Payout can be requested, if your accout is over $50. Supported are Paypal and Moneybookers.
Currently, Crestock is extremely slow with payouts. Many contributors complain about waiting for months to get their money.
Forum
There are a few forums on the site, but there is not much going on. Common topics are “When will my pictures be reviewed?, “Why did you reject this picture?”, “Where is my money?” or “Please close my account!”. Response from Crestock staff is almost non-existent.
Earnings Potential
My earnings at Crestock are minimal. After almost a year of membership, my account has not yet reached a two-digit value.
Conclusion
At the present time, Crestock seem to have serious difficulties in keeping up their business. Finances seem to be extremely tight. Payouts are still made, but only after very long waiting periods. There have also been reports about staff members leaving the company which might explain the current lag in reviews.
One can only speculate about the reasons, but I would think that the “high quality for bargain prices” concept backfired. Less and less contributors are willing to give away their pictures for a quarter. Such low prices can only be justified by high download volumes. But Crestock did not manage to attract enough buyers to warrant the loyality of contribtors. This loyality has been undermined even more by the high rejection rate. Right now, Crestock seems to have been trapped in a vicious circle: Contributors are fed up and stay away, and buyers can’t find interesting new pictures and stay away too.
I suspect one of two things to happen within the next few months: Either the site will be closed for good or it will be bought by a competitor. The concentration process on the microstock market will continue.
Until then, I can only recommend to avoid Crestock.
