Susan G.

I have been a member for a little under 6 months. Before joining, I did my due diligence and did some research into the ViewBug site. I stumbled upon these reviews and a few Facebook pages directed at calling ViewBug a scam. I have to say it almost deterred me from joining. I noticed though that it was only a handful of people who were having issues. ViewBug has hundreds of thousands of members so the ratio wasn't worrisome to me. One of the main complaints was how they hound you about joining or raising your membership level at a cost.
I cannot tell you the amount of emails I get from other reputable companies that offer similar services doing the same thing. ViewBug's sales model is no different than that of other companies. To me, this doesn't make it a scam or a bad site. People fail to realize the cost associated with running a site like this. I also read there were issues receiving and/or winning prizes. For me, I was looking for a site that I could receive honest feedback about my photos and learn in the process. In the end, I decided to join.
I am truly happy I did. Not only have a met a TON of talented photographers who I learn so much from on a daily basis but I also have gained a great deal of confidence in my own ability. The networking opportunities are so worth what I pay each month to be a member. When it comes to entering contests, yes, it's a numbers game. If there are 60,000 photographs entered in one contest or challenge, what are the odds yours will get noticed. You do get weekly emails letting you know roughly where your photo ranks ahead of other entries but nothing specific. I'm ok with this. I'm very motivated when I get an email saying my photo is ahead of 52,000 other photos. The bottom line to recognition is you have to work at it. I spend the time going through photographs and commenting on them, liking them and giving peer awards. I spend the time voting in contests that I am in. I also follow photographers who have similar styles and interests as my own. As I do this, I grow the number of followers, I noticed my votes started to increase and my ranking progressively get better. I make a point of interacting this way at least once a day. Because of this, I started gaining more and more likes, more and more peer awards etc. This make sense. Just like Facebook, your main feed is made up of people you follow. The more people you follow and that follow you, the more your work gets noticed. People usually return the follow when you follow them too. Overall, this site is no different than other sites that offer the same type of service. Yes, there is a membership fee. The higher the membership, the more you pay but the more you get. Of course I would like to win a contest but that's not my main goal. I would rather have my work noticed by like photographers and grow my name as a photographer than win a prize. I really like ViewBug, it's really done wonders for my confidence, my photography knowledge and inspires me daily.