Symbiostock 1.2 Released

,

This release is a relatively large one. The largest changes involve minimizing memory and CPU usage for the processor which has been retooled to evade most of WordPress’s heaviest built in functions. Along with this are a number of bug fixes that rectify a host of minor issues all relating to WooCommerce integration.

It also adds a big feature missing from WordPress which is the inclusion of keywords/tags in the search engine. This has not only been added, but implemented in a manner that is approximately 85% faster than most third party plugins.

This release signifies a significantly large stride forward in providing a truly stable digital media distribution system.

/0 Comments/by

Speed, Tag Searching and Metadata Writing

, ,

Metadata Writing

Symbiostock 1.1, released about half a week after 1.0, introduced metadata writing. With this powerful feature, you can now save your WordPress edits directly to your images. This only works on images that readily support metadata, such as JPEGs.

What’s this good for?

Well, now you can use Symbiostock as a full-fledged metadata editor. Anyone who is a professional stock image producer knows that metadata editing is never that easy, and now being able to both manage your store and tweak your titles, descriptions and keywords, not just in your store, but right in the core of your images.

But again, what’s this good for?

Simple. If you download this image, submit it to an agency, or even sell it, all that data is stored in it. You don’t have to manually repopulate titles, descriptions or keywords with agencies, which is in itself a large and tedious task. Do all your editing in one place. Thanks to WordPress’s great tagging system, duplicates are automatically removed. So you can just keep typing relevant words, click save, and you’ve got an image ready to go. Couple this with our PLUS hosting system, and you can even automatically submit your images to agencies. This means that as a PLUS customer, once you upload your image to Symbiostock, you never have to do anything else. Edit it there, update it there, and submit it to agencies there.

Massive Search Speed Boost + Tag Searching

Speed? Speed. You may or may not know this, but neither WordPress nor WooCommerce search tags in their search engine. Don’t believe me? Try it out on your own site. Add a tag to a product or article, do a search, and it won’t show up. This is a known shortcoming and isn’t easy to overcome. Why? Because tag searching adds a lot of overhead, and if you have thousands of articles or products, you’re looking at a 1-2 second delay on every search query.

Well, not anymore. In Symbiostock’s next release, the search engine has been revamped to include built in tag searching.

The best part?

We’re talking 0.2 seconds overhead. We’ve cut it down by up to 90% using the Symbiostock engine. In fact, the more images you have, the more tags you have, the more you will see a massive difference between this and third party plugins that provide similar functionality.

This is just one of the many fantastic new developments that are going to keep coming with Symbiostock. And soon, even the Symzio project will come online – a wonderful, community driven search engine that takes all your beautiful images, and presents them to customers in one cohesive and speedy interface. Exclusive to Symbiostock users like you.

/0 Comments/by

Promote Symbiostock for Free – Get Premium Stuff!

,

As a burgeoning new open-source enterprise, Symbiostock is off to a great start. We’ve got a nearly zero error rate with the official plugin, our hosting service is streamlined and likewise bug free, and we’re getting great feedback all across the board in regards to the direction we’re taking.

All that being said, we still need your help! The internet has become a giant social machine and amidst all the noise, we want artists all around the world to learn about Symbiostock. The more people that use it, the more development we can invest in, and the more powerful it’s going to get.

Symbiostock was born out of a need to be in control of our media – to sell it at our rates, in our environment. I wanted to be able to sell any image I took that I felt held artistic merit – not just the ones some person a thousand miles away deemed worthy!

But Symbiostock is just the first step. We need artists, artists exactly like you, to come on board. You see, the more artists that choose to sell independently, the more we, as a group, compete with the larger agencies. In doing so, we force all concerned to take us seriously and even out the playing field. That means more artistic freedom, more profits, and more control in the digital media marketplace.

Here are two cool, totally free ways in which you can help Symbiostock now:

1) Give us a glowing review on WordPress.org:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/symbiostock/

WordPress is where we distribute and update Symbiostock. Great reviews allow people to really understand how the plugin can help them, and are the bread and butter of any good plugin.

2) Submit your site to the Artist Network

http://www.symbiostock.org/artist-network/

Showcasing your site in the Artist Network is a fantastic way to both promote Symbiostock and your site. Visitors will be able to find you and visit your store, and artists can see your different sites to envision how theirs might look. It’s totally free, and a great networking tool.

And, if you help promote Symbiostock in these two ways, let us know, and we’ll give you a complimentary two-months of free hosting with PLUS, or if you prefer, 50% off any of our premium themes.

This is open to both new and current users. Just let us know via private message once you’ve supported the project in both those ways.

And remember – even if you don’t need hosting or themes, taking five minutes to help us out would be a really fantastic way to spend those five minutes – we’d love you for it.

/0 Comments/by

Symbiostock PLUS: Your All-in-One Solution

,

We haven’t talked much about Symbiostock PLUS yet, so this will be our formal introduction to it.

Symbiostock PLUS is the service that the makers of Symbiostock have created for users that need or want an easy hosting solution for their media. It is an economical, fully supported hosting system that does not require any technical expertise to get started with.

As soon as you sign up with PLUS, you log right into a WordPress install with everything ready to go. You have access to a myriad of specially chosen plugins that you can use to enhance your store, from EU VAT tax, to Search Engine Optimization.

Our most economical plan, at only $5 a month, permits you to host all your images in one central location, have your own fully automated ecommerce store, and even allows you to distribute your images to stock agencies as you add them.

Yes, one of our newest features is meant to bridge that gap, allowing you to earn on your media through third party agencies and through your own ecommerce store. Our distributor service automatically uploads your media to designated agencies depending on their media type. It even auto-generates JPEGs for your vectors if you want, and submits them with the vectors. It keeps track of all your submissions so there are no duplicates, and allows you to exclude any images you want from being distributed, or re-uploading ones you want.

This, along with a variety of other services, is completely free with every PLUS account.

Our goal with PLUS is to be able to provide a service at a cost that pales in comparison to the plethora of rich features you, as an artist, can use to further fund and monetize your talents.

Click here to find out more about the features PLUS has to offer.

/0 Comments/by

Symbiostock is here!

,

Symbiostock is now released!

You can download it directly from your WordPress install by going to Plugins > Add New and searching for Symbiostock.

Offering a fully featured FTP/web uploading system, thumbnail and watermark generation and re-generation, and a robust but simple licensing system that permits you to customize your media sales in any way you see fit.

Fully integrated with WooCommerce, Symbiostock offers a secure and automated way for customers to buy your media, receive download links, all without you having to do anything.

Decide on the sizes and set the price for the downloadable image. Upload your own watermark. Globally change pricing and licenses at the click of a button.

Use any WordPress theme to customize your store. Change your theme at the drop of a hat.

Compatible with every plugin WordPress has to offer, from search engine optimization to marketing and analytics, you can now take your media store to the next level.

Be one of the first to try out this powerful new tool: Download it through your WordPress install or download it here!

/0 Comments/by

Symbiostock Artist Network

Introducing the Symbiostock Artist Network feature!

We want to showcase and promote artists who use Symbiostock to bring their digital media store to life, which is why we’ve created the Symbiostock Artist Network. This is an optional perk only available to Symbiostock users and it’s completely free to join.

Artists who are part of the network will have a their website listed and linked to from the Symbiostock Artist Network page AND their site will be randomly spotlighted on our homepage. Demo samples are currently populating our homepage and network page to show you exactly how artists will be featured. Links are always randomly rotating upon refreshing the page to ensure everyone gets equal visibility – and it’s pretty fun to see!

To promote the network we will be providing optional sleek badges for network artists to use on their website as a means of linking back to the network page. Our Symbiostock Express demo site already has an example of the badge which you can see in the footer section. For full details on how to join, checkout our submissions page.

We’re looking forward to meeting new artists!

/0 Comments/by