Program Overview:

The StockPhotoMaster program is a dedicated web browser designed to allow submitting stock photographers to check sales, copy keywords, run FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs as well as your image editing and organizer programs. The program is FREE and designed to aid the photographer in uploading and checking photo sales.

Since this is a free program, I’m sorry to say that there is limited documentation but I feel the operation is so intuitive that even just a limited knowledge of computers will be enough to see real benefits from the use of this dedicated browser program.  Let me also assure all users that there is no pop-up, virus or other nasty hidden things associated with using this program.  First I don’t know how to do any of that stuff and second I wrote this program for my own personal use and never thought of making it available to the public.  So why give this tool to others for free?  I though it might be useful and I have benefited so much from the other stock photographers that have taken the time to help me with their posts on the various forums that I thought I’d give something back.  Also, I would ask all new users that are applying to the various stock photo agencies, to use my provided links.  Why?  Because some agencies offer a benefit to those that refer new photographers to their agency.  It cost you nothing but I get a few pennies when you are successful and sell your photos.  So it also benefits me to help you!  That’s just the motivation I need to keep improving this program.  It’s a good thing.

Stock Agencies:

There are eight buttons dedicated to the various websites that accept stock photos over the Internet.  The current version comes with the first six buttons per-defined for my favorite stock photo sites.  You can change these of course, but I recommend you apply to these sites, as they are the ones that I made the most cash from.  You can always tell which website is selected because that button will be lighter in color then the others.  To see how to reconfigure these buttons, see the “How to Program” section below.

The StockPhotoMaster 2007 Program:

The program is a simple dashboard that allows the user to access their favorite stock sites.  The eight buttons located in the upper left can be configured for your favorite sites.  I have pre-configured the first six buttons but you can change them at any time by clicking on the "CB" (Change Buttons) button.  When you start the program, it looks like this:

The URL or web address associated with the first button is automatically displayed.  You will need to log-on to the sites the first time you run the program.  Once the site is displayed, the following buttons can be used.

Direction Buttons:

The “Back”, “Forward”, and “Refresh” buttons do exactly the same thing as any other browser.  If you don’t know what they do, you need to play with any other browser for a while.  Nuff said.

The Black Bar:

Simply said the black bar is a progress bar.  When it is fully extended, it means the current web page is fully downloaded.  Nothing more.  I had some extra room so I stuck this in.

URL Display:

This displays the current web address of the displayed web site.  It’s simply for your information.  You can also use the program as a regular browser by typing in another address in the field and click on the “Go” button to go to that website (Ex: Yahoo.com).

Refresh (On/Off) Button:

The “Refresh (On/Off) Button” has two states.  The initial state is “Refresh Off”.  This means that the displayed website will display in the browser and just stay there.  This is fine where you are checking out your various sites for current download stats.  If you want to see changes on the displayed website, click on the Refresh Button and it will change to “Refresh On” and will refresh or update the displayed website with a default of about every minute.  The box next to the Refresh (ON/Off) button is the approximate number of minutes to refresh.  You can change this value to the refresh rate you desire.  This way you will see if your numbers change (I use this function on Sutterstock.com all the time.  It’s really exciting when sales are surging).

Run FTP Program:

If you use an FTP program to upload your photos, you can set this button to launch the program.  See the “How to Program” section of there direction to set this button.

Copy Mode:

I really use this function all the time.  Clicking on this button will divide the browser into two sections with a new set of buttons for the second browser on the bottom. The default website displayed will be you first stock agency button website.  This function is really useful for copying keywords and other information from one stock agency website to another.  The eight website buttons are your configured buttons.  The new browser also has back, forward, refresh buttons.  To close the bottom browser, click on the "Close Copy Mode" button.

Run Editor and Run Organizer Buttons:

I use these to launch Adobe Elements Editor or Adobe Organizer programs.  You can of course set the location of the programs you use. (If you don’t want to shell out $300+ bucks for Photoshop, I recommend getting the latest version of Adobe Elements.  It will be the best $100 bucks you ever spent.)

How To Program:

So you don’t like my default settings?  OK, I’ll get over it.  One of the nice things about the StockPhotoMaster program is that is can be customized.  Here’s how:

First, click on the CB button next to the GO button. This brings up the configure buttons section on the bottom that will allow you to set the buttons to what ever you want.  To change the site buttons, enter a label for the button in the 'Enter Button Label' field and below that enter the URL of the site you want the button to take you to (example: http://submit.shutterstock.com/main.mhtml). Once that's done, click on one of the eight site buttons you want to associate with the site.  To change the FTP program you want to use, enter the location on your computer's disk drive of the program and click on the Run FTP button to lock it in.  The same applies to the Run Editor and Run Organizer buttons.  I use Photoshop Elements so the default is set for them, but of course you can change these.  Remember that your default locations are only updated after you press the associated button.  To exit this mode, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT, press the "Close Set-Up Mode" button.  That not only closes the configuration mode, it also saves your button info to a file so the buttons will remain configured the next time you run the program.

That's it.  Play with it and have fun.  I hope you find my program useful.