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Author Topic: Very Slow Sales At BigStock  (Read 17221 times)

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« on: September 08, 2008, 07:58 »
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I have recently been experiencing very slow sales at BigStock.

How has it been for you?
« Last Edit: September 18, 2008, 02:56 by takestock »


« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2008, 09:52 »
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Slow sales here also. (and getting slower by the day!)

The reason could be that they are treating buyers as badly as the photographers on the site.

Or now that they refresh the site every week or so there is nothing new to see on a daily basis.

I know photographers are quiting I have had several email me and tell me so. The reason they are quiting is not just the rejections .... it is the stupidity and insulting reasons for rejectons!

My computer monitor is calibrated for accuracy very week, I use CRT and an LCD monitors. both calibrated to check my work on both before uploading to any site. Then to have an approver tell me he rejected my shots as "too dark or too light" tells me he does not have a calibrated monitor or is just plane using a reason for a reject.

And the too dark or too light rejection kills me. He did not know if it was too dark or too light? I have to guess what he was thinking! Dumb!

Needless to say I had more on the site ready for the approval process, but I beat them to the punch ... I deleted them all and save them the time of doing it.

I will upload there never again. I am done.

It was a nice site some time back before they made the big change by adding a bunch of new approvers and rejecting nearly everything with a stupid reason or just "we have enough of this subject."

I was a professional photographer 30 or 40 years before most of them were born.

'nuff said.

-Larry

« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2008, 10:22 »
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Occasional sales for me.

« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2008, 10:51 »
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If you want to avoid mental anguish about image reviews at BigStock, and FT for that matter, upload your photos and forget about them  ;)

« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2008, 11:25 »
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Sales are slow... but steady.

Our port is pretty big there (900), and we are seeing almost daily sales now.  In fact, as I write this, I just sold two more for a total of $5 today, and it's only 9am :)

We submit to a number of sites.  Not every site accepts every image.
If we pissed and moaned about every rejection, I'd never submit again!

BS is run by a Mom and Pop style organization, from what I hear.  All I know is every time I've sent an inquiry on something, they get right back to me, and the issue is resolved in a quick and friendly manner.

Tougher on rejects? Maybe... but with the continued improvement on sales, I'm quite happy with them.

Gebbie

lisafx

« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2008, 18:17 »
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My sales at BigStock have been pretty sluggish lately too.  But I agree with RGebbie that it is a pleasant and well run site.  Very friendly customer service, fast payouts, and no crazy arbitrary rejections. 

« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2008, 01:29 »
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I must agree. The sales have been less than good recently. And I think the new reviewers of theirs made it their goal to reject at least one photo of each batch so that nobody would say they do not do their work. Since a few months ago I have had at least one photo rejected in each batch with some ready-made reason about too dark/light or blurry. I preferred the old way - I had to wait a week or more for them to review my images but they accepted them all.

« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2008, 16:07 »
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Sales have been less frequent, but more $2-earning are happening and today I even had a $3-earning sale.

Meanwhile, this month only $1.29 at 123RF.

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2008, 17:32 »
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Sales have been less frequent, but more $2-earning are happening and today I even had a $3-earning sale.

Meanwhile, this month only $1.29 at 123RF.

Regards,
Adelaide
heh...same here...but I did cash out Friday ;)

« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2008, 19:55 »
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Quite slow for me too, but I think it's more my small portfolio size. Once that's up to speed, I'm hoping for more sales.

:)  b

dbvirago

« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2008, 05:57 »
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A BME for me in August. The only site that did well last month.

Xalanx

« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2008, 14:11 »
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One dollar. That's all I need to get the payout. And after that I'll remove my portfolio. All of a sudden, after almost an year of nobody seeing my photos (zero views), in the last days bam! few sales. Well, I told them repeatedly that their search engine is not working as it should and a vast majority of my portfolio has zero views which means well... they're not found, imagine! :D:D:D

Therefore I'll get my payout and get out of there. It's my only REALLY slow performer. Not for long.

« Reply #12 on: September 14, 2008, 18:12 »
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I'm doing about the same as last year, and considering the state of the economy these days, that's not bad. I have never had any problems with BigStock, they've always treated me well. As far as rejections are concerned, I once got a 'too dark' rejection for an image that was a moonlit scene. I really wanted the image in my portfolio, so I wrote to BigStock admin and explained that the picture was supposed to be dark. They returned it to my portfolio, no problem. I'm happy with them. :)
Linda B

« Reply #13 on: September 14, 2008, 18:54 »
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Had a BME with BigStock in August. This month is looking to be one of the WME unless things pick up. It's so perplexing and depressing how these smaller sites can be so wildly inconsistent. The other weird thing that's happening at BigStock is that people viewing my portfolio dropped off dramatically in August and just about stopped completely in Sept. Weird stuff all around. :-\

« Reply #14 on: September 14, 2008, 21:25 »
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Not selling very much - but selling some. BigStock it is a very friendly and no-nonsense site, that's why I am going to stay there. When I asked for deletion of an image which I mistakenly submitted as an exclusive image elsewhere - they made no fuss and removed it within 24 hours - and they didn't have to.

« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2008, 10:33 »
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My sales at BigStock have been pretty sluggish lately too.  But I agree with RGebbie that it is a pleasant and well run site.  Very friendly customer service, fast payouts, and no crazy arbitrary rejections. 

"NO CRAZY ARBITARY REJECTIONS"

You do not have a link to your BigStock Portfolio .... I'm just wondering if you upload more than 1 or 2 shots a month or in a year.  (I have 2,045 on there.)

Crazy stupid rejections are my number one complant about BigStock.

-Larry

lisafx

« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2008, 15:53 »
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Larry, I upload roughly 30 images per week on average.   I currently have 4,135 images on BigStock.  Can't remember the last time I got a rejection there, but must have been a couple of years ago. 


« Reply #17 on: September 16, 2008, 16:00 »
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Larry, I upload roughly 30 images per week on average.   I currently have 4,135 images on BigStock.  Can't remember the last time I got a rejection there, but must have been a couple of years ago.

I wanna be you  ;D

« Reply #18 on: September 16, 2008, 16:44 »
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BigStock was always very slow for me. In one month here I get what I earn in one day at IS. My acceptance ratio was almost 100% but lately they reject a lot of my staff. My last studio macro shot and underwater diving image were rejected. Reason : snapshot (these snapshots were accepted by others sites). I think they hired a new stupid reviewer. Another rejection like this and I stop uploading to them.

lisafx

« Reply #19 on: September 16, 2008, 16:49 »
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My acceptance ratio was almost 100% but lately they reject a lot of my staff. My last studio macro shot and underwater diving image were rejected. Reason : snapshot (these snapshots were accepted by others sites). I think they hired a new stupid reviewer.

That explains it, then.  Guess I haven't gotten Atilla the Reviewer at BigStock yet.  Hope he/she passes me by ;)

« Reply #20 on: September 18, 2008, 02:18 »
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Right now it's just "Stuck"
Slowest ever period at BigStock!

« Reply #21 on: September 18, 2008, 23:49 »
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And, despite being slow....
Just made some calcs today on my port:
60% of their rejections were accepted in IS
35% - in both IS and SS

They also get my vote for the most ridiculous one:


Can you guess? It is obvious!
It was rejected for cropping.
I know, my bad, next time for an ocean shot I'd rent a space shuttle.....
« Last Edit: September 18, 2008, 23:51 by UncleGene »

« Reply #22 on: September 19, 2008, 03:05 »
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Sales are good and I get very few rejections.

« Reply #23 on: September 22, 2008, 00:26 »
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I saw that the new images that i uploaded do not even have a single view....is anyone having the same problem??

« Reply #24 on: September 22, 2008, 07:12 »
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And, despite being slow....
Just made some calcs today on my port:
60% of their rejections were accepted in IS
35% - in both IS and SS

They also get my vote for the most ridiculous one:


Can you guess? It is obvious!
It was rejected for cropping.
I know, my bad, next time for an ocean shot I'd rent a space shuttle.....



I must agree here. Their new reviewers are really terrible. They frequently reject photos even Istock takes (the worst for me). And the sales have been nothing spectacular this month.

« Reply #25 on: September 22, 2008, 07:54 »
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I have comment from reviewer for this photo,first time!  :o :-*

Comment is : "Nicely done!"



http://www.bigstockphoto.com/photo/view/3644796
« Last Edit: September 22, 2008, 07:57 by borg »

« Reply #26 on: October 02, 2008, 06:53 »
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just had a very good month for september, since january 08. they have been
quite steady for me.

don't seem to get many rejections, which was surprising as i read these posts,
i think i have more rejections in FT or IS.

but they are very quick and helpful too. just last month i uploaded a wrong file
and wrote to them, they helped me resolved it very fast.

« Reply #27 on: October 03, 2008, 08:12 »
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They also get my vote for the most ridiculous one:


Can you guess? It is obvious!
It was rejected for cropping.
I know, my bad, next time for an ocean shot I'd rent a space shuttle.....



Oh please, the space shuttle will set you up for a snapshot rejection. There'll be too many distractions (islands and continents) from the main focus of the ocean. Try again though.

« Reply #28 on: November 06, 2008, 19:44 »
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This one made me laugh so hard...



When iStock said 'lighting' - no contest. But here -

"Subject not evident enough - hard to tell what the subject of the photo is - sorry, thanks"

hali

« Reply #29 on: November 06, 2008, 20:57 »
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This one made me laugh so hard...



When iStock said 'lighting' - no contest. But here -

"Subject not evident enough - hard to tell what the subject of the photo is - sorry, thanks"


 ;D sorry, no sexual acts , please !  ;D ;D ;D

« Reply #30 on: November 06, 2008, 22:00 »
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"Subject not evident enough - hard to tell what the subject of the photo is - sorry, thanks"


 ;D sorry, no sexual acts , please !  ;D ;D ;D

Maybe they meant opposite - they said they want it more evident?  :P

« Reply #31 on: November 07, 2008, 02:00 »
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Can you guess? It is obvious!
It was rejected for cropping.


Running the risk of being a partypooper and you getting mad at me, I have to agree with the rejection reason. There is a cropping/framing problem here. People in sunsets are very difficult to do and not only for technical reasons, like spanning the huge luminance differences. We all have the tendency when standing in the water to keep our cam safe from getting wet. The result is you don't have the horizon in the image, and especially with sunsets this makes it slower for our brain to extract the object shape. Personally, I mostly try to have the shoulders over the horizon. This yields a surprising and eye-catching composition which has more chances to be sold. You will have to lay down in the surf and you need one eye on the surf to protect your cam. Seawater and DSLRs don't mix very well.

As an expample, this shot (not mine) from Istk. Which one would you buy? Yours or this one?


An example of a shot while I was laying down with the cam just a couple of inches above the water level. Imagine how it would look if I were standing up and I had the model surrounded by just water ...

« Reply #32 on: November 07, 2008, 11:12 »
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No, you'll not make me mad. I agree with (almost) everything you say, and I do not claim this photo to be great (though I like it, otherwise it would not be submitted).
IMHO the issues you are pointing are not related to cropping/framing - these are 'choose how to frame from the same point of view', and you are talking about changing viewpoint.  Purely on cropping side, I have similar photo with horizon included, and from this perspective it makes photo worse.

But all this - on serious side, and I posted about funny one. Here is the exact rejection reason:

"Poor composition/Cropped subject: Chopping off part of subject makes photo harder to use generally :-) thanks"

It would be nothing funny in this rejection if it was limited to first two words :)

« Reply #33 on: November 07, 2008, 11:37 »
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"Poor composition/Cropped subject: Chopping off part of subject makes photo harder to use generally :-) thanks"
It would be nothing funny in this rejection if it was limited to first two words :)

Well reviewers at BigStock have only a limited number of rejects reasons to chose from, and this is probably the closest they could find. Some sites are worse. Take IS: when they reject for distorted pixels, they really mean we love our exclusives  :P

« Reply #34 on: November 08, 2008, 12:22 »
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Take IS: when they reject for distorted pixels, they really mean we love our exclusives  :P

Are you sure? I always thought that we love our exclusives is translated to over filtered. They even give us a hint - "over filtered" as two words exist only in their language :)

« Reply #35 on: November 11, 2008, 07:48 »
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My last sale on BigStock was on september 14th. It's really sad.... It's almost 2 months since then

hali

« Reply #36 on: November 11, 2008, 21:49 »
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maybe they took time off to campaign for the election ;D

« Reply #37 on: November 12, 2008, 08:29 »
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My last was yesterday...

In my portfolio BigStock is double better than StockXpert and 123RF...

« Reply #38 on: November 12, 2008, 15:54 »
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My last was yesterday...

In my portfolio BigStock is double better than StockXpert and 123RF...


Also better than Fotolia...

Today also 1 sale of 2 $...

« Reply #39 on: November 12, 2008, 16:22 »
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BigStock lost the 5th place this month to Zymmetrical, but sales there are normal to me (slow but steady).

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #40 on: November 13, 2008, 07:55 »
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I can understand that someone earns more or less than other, but why it's so big difference in percentage by agencies sales at so many contributors...!???

« Reply #41 on: November 13, 2008, 15:46 »
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Borg,

This is always strange indeed, you have one person saying "site A rocks" and the next "site A sucks".  One reason could be the type of image one creates, maybe some sites sell them better than others because of their specific clientelle.

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #42 on: November 14, 2008, 09:58 »
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Borg,

This is always strange indeed, you have one person saying "site A rocks" and the next "site A sucks".  One reason could be the type of image one creates, maybe some sites sell them better than others because of their specific clientelle.

Regards,
Adelaide

Yes!
 
I really don't know what else can be...

Thanks Madelaide!


 

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