MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Adobe Stock => Topic started by: Karimala on November 21, 2012, 13:16

Title: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Karimala on November 21, 2012, 13:16
Six years and over 2000 uploads later, my monthly earnings at Fotolia have dropped so significantly since May 2011 that I'm now earning the same as when I started in Jan. 2006.  Take a look at my earnings chart!  It's shocking! 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Perry on November 21, 2012, 13:17
That chart looks familiar  :'(
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: ginasanders on November 21, 2012, 13:19
How many images have you upload in the last 6 month?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Karimala on November 21, 2012, 13:27
I haven't uploaded since a house fire upended my life in late August 2010.  The earnings drop started 8 months later.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: tab62 on November 21, 2012, 13:35
sorry to hear about the house fire. Lets hope fotolia is not the norm or future of the other companies.  :-[

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Pauws99 on November 21, 2012, 13:36
Over two years isn't that graph to be expected?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Bauman on November 21, 2012, 14:46
Sorry, Fotolia forgets old files after a few months ... bad strategy (IMHO).
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: leaf on November 21, 2012, 15:17
Wow, that really puts things into perspective in a graph like that.  My earnings have been pretty steady lately but so have my uploads.  I have noticed however that new files are selling a lot better than old files.  It used to be that the same 10 files sold over and over again and new files hardly got looked at.  They have certainly changed things a bit in the last 12 months.

It would be very interesting to see 20 peoples earnings vs port size graphs and see if we can see an obvious trend.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Poncke on November 21, 2012, 15:29
I heard things have changed and active contributors get pushed. My sales have gone up since all of yours started to drop.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: michaeldb on November 21, 2012, 16:15
I heard things have changed and active contributors get pushed.
This is true. If you don't contribute regularly, you get severely punished in the search results. In my experience, not contributing enough to clear their threshold costs you about 25-30% in earnings.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Karimala on November 21, 2012, 16:58
I heard things have changed and active contributors get pushed.
This is true. If you don't contribute regularly, you get severely punished in the search results. In my experience, not contributing enough to clear their threshold costs you about 25-30% in earnings.

It's cost me 90% of my earnings.  I haven't contributed much to the other micros either, but they are either still growing or remaining steady (with IS being the exception). 

No biggie for me though...I've been wanting to leave Fotolia for a few years now.  They just made it very easy to do.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on November 21, 2012, 17:23
I heard things have changed and active contributors get pushed.
This is true. If you don't contribute regularly, you get severely punished in the search results. In my experience, not contributing enough to clear their threshold costs you about 25-30% in earnings.

It's cost me 90% of my earnings.  I haven't contributed much to the other micros either, but they are either still growing or remaining steady (with IS being the exception). 

No biggie for me though...I've been wanting to leave Fotolia for a few years now.  They just made it very easy to do.
On any day 70 - 90% of my sales are from images that have been uploaded in the last 6 months.   My old best sellers rarely sell now.  If I hadn't uploaded for the last 6 months then I would have very few sales.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: ClaridgeJ on November 21, 2012, 17:23
FT, invest in newcomers and low ranks are given preferance in search. Emeralds and Golds are pushed aside. Their files dont seem to be important anymore. Since they dont need them maybe we should find a better use for them.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on November 21, 2012, 19:38
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mm2AzqmJkoU/UK1zv-eV5eI/AAAAAAAABV4/qEx9QFFGyx8/s1600/fotolia.png)
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: steheap on November 21, 2012, 20:54
I've been adding files regularly to Fotolia for the past 4 years (of course they also reject a lot of my non-studio shots!) and over the past 2 years I went from 924 files online to 2101. My earnings have never been great ($84 last month), but I plotted the earnings per online file and it has stayed sort of constant over that period. Looked like things were going well at the start, but it has been down and flat ever since.

(http://www.backyardsilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Fotolia-performance.png)

I don't really track which images are selling - I see their emails with each sale but rarely give them much thought.

So, not a great site, but not going backwards (at least over the past 15 months or so)

Steve
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: friese on November 30, 2012, 12:58
i've been 'playing' with stock since 2005 and only upload a few images a month... if...
i noticed that its has been getting MUCH worse at Fotolia than other places...

NO DOWNLOADS IN 2 WEEKS..  (i started getting at least 1 sale every 2-4 days)

now i suspect that its not only me...

Up to now, i have been getting a weekly rank of about 4,000  (sometimes even 2,500 !)
a while back with decent sales, i  dropped to around 5,000.
now here's the thing...
with almost NO DOWNLOADS in the past month or 2... my weekly rank HAS NOT CHANGED !

doesnt this mean that sales are generally crappier for EVERYONE ?...
if it were only me.. my rank this month would have tanked....

something is going wrong over there.. didnt they cut the forums ?  probably too many people bitching about sales.
steve
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: ClaridgeJ on November 30, 2012, 13:17
Great shame. FT used to be a great earner. Now its just pathetic. I have started to delete files already, deleted some 16, today with over 1500 dls between them. I am not supporting their self-destructive strategy anymore. Its one of the agencies I am dropping for 2013. Havent got the time to sit there uploading, this and that.
Plus the fact it does HELP a lot to have some insight behind the scenes so to speak in the entire stock business.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: robynmac on December 13, 2012, 19:22
Six years and over 2000 uploads later, my monthly earnings at Fotolia have dropped so significantly since May 2011 that I'm now earning the same as when I started in Jan. 2006.  Take a look at my earnings chart!  It's shocking!

At least your misery is shared!  My case is almost identical - 4,000 images later, my earnings have fallen back to the same levels as 2007.  My chart is almost a perfect bell curve, just like yours...  :-[   It has made no difference whether I upload furiously or don't upload at all.  Someone at Fotolia flicked a switch back in early 2011, and it's been downhill every since. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: sharpshot on December 14, 2012, 05:54
After my earnings almost fell off the chart, I was seeing a very slight recovery for a few months but now it's gone back to being abysmal again.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: JPSDK on December 14, 2012, 07:56
only agency going up these days is shutter, fot is on the lever. is and dt are going down.
Both massively.

My guess is that we have a huge customers migration going on.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on December 14, 2012, 11:07
...  Someone at Fotolia flicked a switch back in early 2011, and it's been downhill every since.

But you're emerald, aren't you? Isn't that what many other emeralds noticed and assumed that FT did exactly that to avoid paying out so much on sales - they'd rigged the search results? In their case, their reputation's in the toilet, so they haven't much to lose.

It's a bummer - they had seemed like such a bright light when they started. The first agency since the "originals" to make it to top tier status...
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Microbius on December 14, 2012, 11:17
FL has really been taking off for me the last couple of months.
I am just about to reach Emerald, missed it by a hair when they moved the goal posts last time.
I hope I don't see a drop when I pass the line!!
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: stockmarketer on December 14, 2012, 11:18
I'm Emerald, and I've been really going down the past week or so.  Not just the usual pre-holiday slide that we would normally expect... No, it feels like I'm being targeted (or rather ignored), and perhaps it's all Emeralds.  My 7 day rank (which had been steady) started tumbling, so others must be doing better than me all of a sudden.

Any other Emeralds seeing a crash this week?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: stockmarketer on December 14, 2012, 11:22
FL has really been taking off for me the last couple of months.
I am just about to reach Emerald, missed it by a hair when they moved the goal posts last time.
I hope I don't see a drop when I pass the line!!

I hit Emerald not too long ago.  Right away I boosted my prices as we're allowed, and my sales doubled.  Things were fantastic for a few months.  I made it into the top 20 (7 day rank) for a while. 

But soon after this, FT seemed to change how it treats its Emeralds in search results.  And it started lowering prices on images that haven't sold at least 4 times in some recent period.  My sales started gradually sliding. 

This week I feel like I'm falling off a cliff.  My 7 day rank is quickly sinking, after many months of being at the same number, give or take a few.   I'm wondering if this is happening to all Emeralds.

Note:  I have been steady with uploading, sending new stuff just about every day.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Microbius on December 14, 2012, 11:34
I was really looking forward to the bump, now I'm terrified!

I wonder if they are targeting Emeralds who have boosted their prices?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 14, 2012, 11:40
I was really looking forward to the bump, now I'm terrified!

I wonder if they are targeting Emeralds who have boosted their prices?

So was I when I turned Emerald earlier this year. Unfortunately it didn't happen. My sales seemed to reduce more than the boost from the price/royalty increase. Month-on-year I'm now generally about 20% worse off than I was before I turned Emerald. Good eh?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Microbius on December 14, 2012, 11:48
oh poop, I might not adjust my prices when I pass the mark, maybe the search now buries more expensive files or the buyers have become more price sensitive?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: stockmarketer on December 14, 2012, 12:07
oh poop, I might not adjust my prices when I pass the mark, maybe the search now buries more expensive files or the buyers have become more price sensitive?

Definitely not the latter.  My sales immediately doubled when I raised prices, then FT started making noise about Emeralds selling their work cheaper on other sites and they would have to do something about it.  Lo and behold, my sales started falling.   I don't think buyers decided at that particular point that my pics were too expensive and stopped buying them... my sales fell in half fairly quickly.  (And all of a sudden this week, they seemed to have cut in half yet again.)

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 14, 2012, 12:09
oh poop, I might not adjust my prices when I pass the mark, maybe the search now buries more expensive files or the buyers have become more price sensitive?

Although I asked for all my images to be priced at 2 credits, because of FT's rule that images must have had a certain number of sales within the last 6 months (5?) to qualify for the higher price, only about one third of my portfolio is actually at 2 credits. I've got plenty of images with 150+ sales but are still priced at 1 credit.

I think FT rotates images within their default sort-order so even best-selling images can 'disappear' for a few months meaning that they then lose the higher price.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on December 14, 2012, 13:49
oh poop, I might not adjust my prices when I pass the mark, maybe the search now buries more expensive files or the buyers have become more price sensitive?

Definitely not the latter.  My sales immediately doubled when I raised prices, then FT started making noise about Emeralds selling their work cheaper on other sites and they would have to do something about it.  Lo and behold, my sales started falling.   I don't think buyers decided at that particular point that my pics were too expensive and stopped buying them... my sales fell in half fairly quickly.  (And all of a sudden this week, they seemed to have cut in half yet again.)
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the price difference.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 14, 2012, 13:58
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on December 14, 2012, 14:07
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.
I guess so but when I doubled all my prices at FT I almost doubled my earnings and earnt more there than I have ever made at any other site.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: velocicarpo on December 14, 2012, 14:07
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.

Dude, are you getting paid by SS? Just asking.... :-)
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 14, 2012, 14:20
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.
I guess so but when I doubled all my prices at FT I almost doubled my earnings and earnt more there than I have ever made at any other site.

I wish that had happened to me!
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 14, 2012, 14:22
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.

Dude, are you getting paid by SS? Just asking.... :-)

Yes indeed, SS pay me lots of money every month and the amount keeps going up. That's why I like them very much. Do they not pay you?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: velocicarpo on December 14, 2012, 14:36
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.

Dude, are you getting paid by SS? Just asking.... :-)

Yes indeed, SS pay me lots of money every month and the amount keeps going up. That's why I like them very much. Do they not pay you?

So, then let me ask more directly: Does SS pay you for expressing a very one sided point of view n favour of them in every and any thread?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: stockmarketer on December 14, 2012, 15:48
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.
I guess so but when I doubled all my prices at FT I almost doubled my earnings and earnt more there than I have ever made at any other site.
Yes, that was exactly what happened to me.  For a while, FT was my #1 site, even topping SS.  For now, they're in 2nd place, but if the drops continue, I can see them falling behind DT, BigStock and 123 before long.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on December 14, 2012, 18:58
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.
I guess so but when I doubled all my prices at FT I almost doubled my earnings and earnt more there than I have ever made at any other site.

I wish that had happened to me!
And I wish that it had stayed that way instead of dropping to a fraction of that virtually over night due to a best match shift. !!
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: robynmac on December 14, 2012, 19:32
Yes exactly the same happened with me and I believe that Lisa said the same happened to her.  I also see no drops in images selling when images hit level 4 and 5 on DT so the buyers really don't seem to mind the difference.

The customers that remain at DT & FT are clearly less price-sensitive. All the others are probably now at SS. From FT's various actions, in limiting our ability to increase prices, it seems obvious to me that they know many buyers are indeed price-concious. It goes some way to explain SS's remarkable success too.
I guess so but when I doubled all my prices at FT I almost doubled my earnings and earnt more there than I have ever made at any other site.

I wish that had happened to me!
And I wish that it had stayed that way instead of dropping to a fraction of that virtually over night due to a best match shift. !!


FT was never #1 for me, but it was certainly a strong #2 behind IS and ahead of SS.  Now it's sunk to a distant #4.  The way it's going, FT for me will soon fall behind Depositphotos, 123RF and  BigStock.  Similarly for me, the change was sudden and happened some months after I became Emerald and increased my prices.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: JPSDK on December 14, 2012, 20:01
are we witnessing a turmoil in the industry.

It appears to be drastic like an implosion.
Major players are collapsing, and the moons in orbit cannot perform, they are also going down.
What is happening.
Have we come to the end of the line and is everything being restructured.

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 14, 2012, 20:29
:
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: sharpshot on December 15, 2012, 07:29
are we witnessing a turmoil in the industry.

It appears to be drastic like an implosion.
Major players are collapsing, and the moons in orbit cannot perform, they are also going down.
What is happening.
Have we come to the end of the line and is everything being restructured.
It's only my earnings with SS that have kept me interested in microstock.  If they started playing around with the search or cutting commissions, I would have to move on to something else.  It doesn't feel comfortable relying so much on one site.  I think a lot of non-exclusives are probably relying heavily on SS and we're not much better off than exclusives.

I concentrated on building up my non-microstock portfolio with alamy this year but that's not worked out.  Earnings are too low and now they're cutting commissions.  I'm going to have to come up with a plan c for next year.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 15, 2012, 10:46
oh poop, I might not adjust my prices when I pass the mark, maybe the search now buries more expensive files or the buyers have become more price sensitive?

Whether or not you adjust your prices is irrelevant.  It is the fact that your royalty percentage goes up that will get you dropped out of the searches.  Once you hit emerald you are too expensive.  Has nothing to do with customer resistance to your prices. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Microbius on December 15, 2012, 11:40
I think I might cry, talk about a looming fiscal cliff.
How immoral can you get. What's more a disincentive to success then saying "sell more with us and we'll destroy you".
It's exactly the reverse of how canister levels should work.
Have they ever commented on this?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on December 15, 2012, 11:49
I think I might cry, talk about a looming fiscal cliff.
How immoral can you get. What's more a disincentive to success then saying "sell more with us and we'll destroy you".
It's exactly the reverse of how canister levels should work.
Have they ever commented on this?
I don't think so but it happened to too many of us for it to just be a coincidence.  My earnings there are a quarter to a third what they were in the first year after turning emerald. It was like overnight the dls got turned off.  Images that had sold thousands of times virtually stopped selling at all.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: sharpshot on December 15, 2012, 12:55
It is a coincidence because many of us didn't turn emerald but still had the huge earnings slump.  They don't seem to discriminate by canister levels, anyone can see their earnings decimated.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: zimmytws on December 15, 2012, 13:43
+1
I have not reached Emerald(not really that close either) and my earnings have dropped from ~$250 per month to less than $100


It is a coincidence because many of us didn't turn emerald but still had the huge earnings slump.  They don't seem to discriminate by canister levels, anyone can see their earnings decimated.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Poncke on December 15, 2012, 13:44
It is a coincidence because many of us didn't turn emerald but still had the huge earnings slump.  They don't seem to discriminate by canister levels, anyone can see their earnings decimated.
My sales went up as sudden as yours dropped. From 1 pay out every 3 months to a pay out every month.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 15, 2012, 13:50
It is a coincidence because many of us didn't turn emerald but still had the huge earnings slump.  They don't seem to discriminate by canister levels, anyone can see their earnings decimated.

The fact that others see their incomes fall and rise with the best match changes doesn't in any way mean that the emerald drop isn't real.  The emerald drop is the one constant.  Kind of like the Istock exclusive bump, only in reverse. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: sharpshot on December 15, 2012, 14:18
It is a coincidence because many of us didn't turn emerald but still had the huge earnings slump.  They don't seem to discriminate by canister levels, anyone can see their earnings decimated.

The fact that others see their incomes fall and rise with the best match changes doesn't in any way mean that the emerald drop isn't real.  The emerald drop is the one constant.  Kind of like the Istock exclusive bump, only in reverse.
If everyone saw their sales drop when they reached the emerald level, they wouldn't go down in the rankings.  Emeralds here have said that they have fallen in the rankings, so they're being replaced by other emeralds that I presume are doing better.  So I'm still not convinced by the emerald drop theory.

I'm sure someone from FT will come here and explain it all to us :)
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 15, 2012, 14:23
If everyone saw their sales drop when they reached the emerald level, they wouldn't go down in the rankings.  Emeralds here have said that they have fallen in the rankings, so they're being replaced by other emeralds that I presume are doing better.  So I'm still not convinced by the emerald drop theory.

I'm sure someone from FT will come here and explain it all to us :)

LOL!  I'm not holding my breath.

Why do you assume that the people who are passing emeralds in the WEEKLY rankings are emeralds?   My weekly ranking is the one that has plummeted in the past couple of years, not my overall ranking.  That's held fairly steady.  I think it went from 34 - 39.  But my weekly ranking is between 400-600.  That suggests it is, in fact, lower ranked people outselling me.  And LOTS of them. 

I am in the top 50 or better across other microstock sites.   I don't think it's exactly bragging to say that there are not 400-600 people selling better than me in microstock generally.  Just on Fotolia.

Most other emeralds report the same.  Doubt it all you want, doesn't change the reality. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on December 15, 2012, 14:40
If everyone saw their sales drop when they reached the emerald level, they wouldn't go down in the rankings.  Emeralds here have said that they have fallen in the rankings, so they're being replaced by other emeralds that I presume are doing better.  So I'm still not convinced by the emerald drop theory.

I'm sure someone from FT will come here and explain it all to us :)

LOL!  I'm not holding my breath.

Why do you assume that the people who are passing emeralds in the WEEKLY rankings are emeralds?   My weekly ranking is the one that has plummeted in the past couple of years, not my overall ranking.  That's held fairly steady.  I think it went from 34 - 39.  But my weekly ranking is between 400-600.  That suggests it is, in fact, lower ranked people outselling me.  And LOTS of them. 

I am in the top 50 or better across other microstock sites.   I don't think it's exactly bragging to say that there are not 400-600 people selling better than me in microstock generally.  Just on Fotolia.

Most other emeralds report the same.  Doubt it all you want, doesn't change the reality.
Exactly, my 7 day rank is over 1000.  I doubt very much that there are 1000 emeralds.  At one time it was about 30.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Microbius on December 15, 2012, 14:57
Could make an interesting poll. The 7 day ranking of emeralds.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: sharpshot on December 15, 2012, 15:17
If everyone saw their sales drop when they reached the emerald level, they wouldn't go down in the rankings.  Emeralds here have said that they have fallen in the rankings, so they're being replaced by other emeralds that I presume are doing better.  So I'm still not convinced by the emerald drop theory.

I'm sure someone from FT will come here and explain it all to us :)

LOL!  I'm not holding my breath.

Why do you assume that the people who are passing emeralds in the WEEKLY rankings are emeralds?   My weekly ranking is the one that has plummeted in the past couple of years, not my overall ranking.  That's held fairly steady.  I think it went from 34 - 39.  But my weekly ranking is between 400-600.  That suggests it is, in fact, lower ranked people outselling me.  And LOTS of them. 

I am in the top 50 or better across other microstock sites.   I don't think it's exactly bragging to say that there are not 400-600 people selling better than me in microstock generally.  Just on Fotolia.

Most other emeralds report the same.  Doubt it all you want, doesn't change the reality.
I don't doubt that lots of emeralds have seen their earnings slump but as the same thing has happened to me and lots of others, I doubt that it's just to do with canister levels.  It could be people that have been there a few years are being hit the hardest and newer contributors are getting a boost.  It seems more random to me.  The only people that know are working for FT, we're just guessing.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 15, 2012, 18:55
The only people that know are working for FT, we're just guessing.

You're right, we are just guessing.  I don't know of another explanation for why so many people are reporting that their sales drop off a cliff practically overnight after getting promoted from gold to emerald.  I would be interested to hear any other theories that account for that.

I suspect it is a combination of factors.  Obviously it is not ONLY emeralds who are seeing drops.  There is also clearly some universal sales and traffic slowdown at Fotolia.  No doubt they are experiencing something similar to what Istock has after making a series of changes that upset contributors and perhaps alienated buyers. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: JPSDK on December 15, 2012, 22:52
Maybe the emeralds loose sales because they raise the prices.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 15, 2012, 23:02
Maybe the emeralds loose sales because they raise the prices.

Please refer to the rest of this thread which deals with that idea in depth a number of times...
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: JPSDK on December 15, 2012, 23:26
Ja, its a bit primitively written and I am not really familiar with the price and ranking system of fotolia.

But if I were a buyer it would find it annoying that pictures had different prices and I would certainly look at the price before I downloaded.
I might even have my boss coming after me, when I had downloaded a more expensive file. I would have to argue and explain.
That might motivate me to find another agency next time.

So what Im saying is that higher prices may cause falling sales both individually and to the agency in general.

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Microbius on December 16, 2012, 04:30
Here's the poll for Emeralds, results should be interesting to all!
http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-emeralds-7-day-ranking-poll-(emeralds-only) (http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-emeralds-7-day-ranking-poll-(emeralds-only))
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: grafix04 on December 16, 2012, 05:54
I may be off the mark here, but hear me out anyway because this is what I think is going on.

I don't believe FT is penalizing Emeralds.  I believe FT is penalizing all contributors who sell at other lower priced micros like DP.  Remember this thread?

http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/return-to-start-fotolia-reserves-right-to-put-you-back-at-white-ranking/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/return-to-start-fotolia-reserves-right-to-put-you-back-at-white-ranking/)

Remember they wanted to push people contributing to DP (or other cheap micros) back to white level?  They backed down on this because there would have been a huge backlash and possibly even legal implications.  I suspect instead of punishing people by dropping the levels, they've punished them quietly and sneakily by pushing them down the ranks.

For months now I've been slowly dumping the micros, getting rid of the smaller and cheaper ones first.  I dropped DP and then my earnings at FT went up a short time after that.  FT was on my hit list but since the rise in sales, I've pushed them back on the list.  Could it be that they stopped punishing me because I left DP, or is that buyers wanting my images migrated from DP to FT?  I suspect it's a bit of both.

Maybe you need another poll to determine whether contributors at DP have seen a decline in sales at FT.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on December 16, 2012, 06:02
grafix04 are you emerald?

if you aren't I don't think they are "wasting" time looking where you have your portfolio or not, it would be crazy to track us all, I don't think they would unless you are emerald, I believe they are been tracked because they are just a few and also like you said from a previous thread where some receive a FT email regarding "cheaper agencies"
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on December 16, 2012, 06:11
It might be worth considering that if Fotolia "spread the joy" by rotating the search in such a way that lots of lower-level contributors pick up an unusually big slice of the action three things happen: F pays less in commission to the big hitters, keeping a larger slice for itself (not sure how that balances between higher commissions and higher file prices); F increases the average time between payouts across the board, which would massively increase the pile of contributor's cash it is sitting on; and F should get lots of happy lower-rank people who will feel encouraged to keep pushing work into the site.


 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on December 16, 2012, 06:20
It might be worth considering that if Fotolia "spread the joy" by rotating the search in such a way that lots of lower-level contributors pick up an unusually big slice of the action three things happen: F pays less in commission to the big hitters, keeping a larger slice for itself (not sure how that balances between higher commissions and higher file prices); F increases the average time between payouts across the board, which would massively increase the pile of contributor's cash it is sitting on; and F should get lots of happy lower-rank people who will feel encouraged to keep pushing work into the site.

well well well said! you only missed a few favorite contributors they have ;D
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: grafix04 on December 16, 2012, 06:39
Perhaps, Luis, still worth considering it for Emeralds and above.   They did want to punish them for dealing with DP.  I believe they found a way ;)
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on December 16, 2012, 07:06
Perhaps, Luis, still worth considering it for Emeralds and above.   They did want to punish them for dealing with DP.  I believe they found a way ;)

indeed! the lack of uploading help too thinking of some reports here, beside that I dont remember one emerald reporting an increase in sales...
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: grafix04 on December 16, 2012, 07:23
I haven't uploaded anything new on FT for about a year and my sales have gone up.  Strange because they were dropping at a rapid rate before that and I had them high on the list to dump them. With two commission cuts within a year and the drop in sales it would have been easy to get rid of them.  But now this sudden increase since dropping DP?  Coincidence?  Who knows. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Karimala on December 18, 2012, 14:09
As the OP, I just wanted to add a couple additional details about my situation, because they aren't consistent with the speculation as to the reasons for the sharp earnings drop.

I'm not an emerald.  I got stuck at silver when they increased the number of sales needed for the next level.

I also don't contribute to DP.

And yet my earnings started dropping significantly after not uploading for only 8 months and are now down by 90%.

It took 3 1/2 freakin' months to reach my last payout (used to regularly receiving weekly payouts).  After I'm finished with this post, I'm writing to Fotolia to ask that my portfolio be removed and account terminated.  I refuse to support their destructive company and greedy shareholders anymore.   
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Karimala on December 18, 2012, 14:54
Thought I'd add a screen shot of my Fotolia views 3-year chart just for kicks.  Unbelievable to go from over 8000 views per month in January 2010 to a mere 705 views in November 2012 (that's not even 1/2 a view per image!). 

And that crazy sudden drop in views in the middle?  I went from 6013 views in August 2011 to 3266 in September to 2249 in October to 1190 in November...an 81% drop in views in a mere 4 months!  Unreal.  Let these numbers be a warning to all Fotolia contributors that drops like this can happen to anyone of any ranking at any time without notice, suddenly landing your income in the tank.

FYI -- this chart is available on Fotolia to all contributors.

Sent my account termination email to Fotolia.  Good riddance to the worst micro of them all.

Ahhhhh...FREEDOM!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 18, 2012, 15:27
Wow, Karimala, my views graph looks exactly like yours.  Falls off a cliff in August 2011. Assuming I'm doing the math right, looks like we've both had around a 90% drop, give or take a couple points.   :o

(http://www.pbase.com/image/147921899.jpg)

My earnings decline was more gradual, but still very severe over time. 
 
(http://www.pbase.com/lisafx/image/147921900.jpg)

My earnings drop is 70%.  This indicates that I am actually selling images to a HIGHER percentage of viewers than I was three years ago, so I don't think this represents a decline in the desirability of my work, either quality or price-wise.  Just way too few views to translate into decent sales. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on December 18, 2012, 15:55
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kTPZQiqPQAo/UNDYGQr9qpI/AAAAAAAABak/H79eWkCBzHA/s1600/FT.JPG)

in the FT forum a while ago the drop in views was discussed, some say it is related to bigger thumbnails
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: gostwyck on December 18, 2012, 15:56
I have exactly the same shaped graph. Views suddenly plummet by about 80% after Aug 2011. The views pattern don't relate to my sales though.

My guess is they did something to the way they collected the data, possibly registering views only from bona-fide buyers rather than all contributors. They might have needed to save load on their servers and/or make the stat's more meaningful.

Wasn't this about the same time that they introduced the new 'Dashboard' in which you had to choose 'Customer mode' or 'Contributor mode'?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: cascoly on December 18, 2012, 16:21
(http://cascoly.com/images/fotolia.jpg)
i had a coupla periods where i stopped uploading to FT for  year or more, but not much change in income.  i started uploading againabout 3 years ago, but again no real effect.  started uploading again about 8 months ago and income seems to be increasing somewhat

=========== added later ==========

sorry must be my preschool hasidic kabala study coming back....

for convenience, i insert a new column on the LEFT side each month [so i dont have to scroll way iut], so the most RECENT data is on the left

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Poncke on December 18, 2012, 16:25
^^ Your portfolio seems to go down while you are uploading. I must  be missing something
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on December 18, 2012, 16:27
^^ Your portfolio seems to go down while you are uploading. I must  be missing something

I was wondering the same, not understanding, less total images and less earnings... what do you mean Steve?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: grafix04 on December 18, 2012, 19:51
I think Steve's 'total images' should read 'uploads'? 




The 'views' data from the other contributors is interesting.  Again mine is similar to all of your charts but has had a sharp rise in the last couple of months and is consistent with my sales. 

I haven't uploaded anything for a year, my revenue has suddenly spiked and it's my older images that are still outperforming the newer ones.  Is there a method to this madness or is this just a fluke?  Probably the latter.  I should expect it all to come crashing down soon.

The only other thing that I can think of is that there's someone out there that is heavily promoting my portfolio - doubtful though.

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: luissantos84 on December 18, 2012, 20:03
The only other thing that I can think of is that there's someone out there that is heavily promoting my portfolio - doubtful though.

nop ;) don't promote ever actually
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: grafix04 on December 18, 2012, 20:04
The only other thing that I can think of is that there's someone out there that is heavily promoting my portfolio - doubtful though.

nop ;) don't promote ever actually

Thanks for confirming it's not you  ;D


ETA:  Actually the more I think about it the more I think that someone is promoting my work.  I wonder if there's a new site out there that includes a bunch of my best sellers linking back to Fotolia with their referral code.   There's no other plausible explanation for the sudden rise.

Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: kikkerdirk on December 18, 2012, 20:14
My views also dropped in exactly the same period! But I know exactly why this happened! It didn't have any effect on my FL earnings.
The sudden drop happened when they introduced the automatic zoom when you hover over the images. So nowadays buyers can see an enlarged image when hovering over the thumbnails. Before august 2011 they had to click on the image to see it.

My earnings on FL are still rising they are now 3 times the amount of last year and the year before I also had an increase of 300%
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: cascoly on December 18, 2012, 20:36
sorry - i'm so used to reading my photography graphs, i forgot it was counter-intuitive

the graph goes from left = latest to right = oldest.  i've added a note to the original

s
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: stockmarketer on December 18, 2012, 23:14
Weird thing just happened.

My 7-day ranking has been getting worse this past week, taking a big hit every day, while my all-time number has remained exactly the same.

But get this... today my all-time ranking went UP one.  How is that even possible?
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Karimala on December 19, 2012, 00:39
My views also dropped in exactly the same period! But I know exactly why this happened! It didn't have any effect on my FL earnings.
The sudden drop happened when they introduced the automatic zoom when you hover over the images. So nowadays buyers can see an enlarged image when hovering over the thumbnails. Before august 2011 they had to click on the image to see it.

My earnings on FL are still rising they are now 3 times the amount of last year and the year before I also had an increase of 300%

Ahhhh...that makes sense!  However, it still doesn't explain my incredible drop in earnings during the same time period.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: lisafx on December 19, 2012, 09:00
My views also dropped in exactly the same period! But I know exactly why this happened! It didn't have any effect on my FL earnings.
The sudden drop happened when they introduced the automatic zoom when you hover over the images. So nowadays buyers can see an enlarged image when hovering over the thumbnails. Before august 2011 they had to click on the image to see it.

My earnings on FL are still rising they are now 3 times the amount of last year and the year before I also had an increase of 300%

Ahhhh...that makes sense!  However, it still doesn't explain my incredible drop in earnings during the same time period.

Thanks Dirk, for the explanation.  I agree with Karimala on both scores.  The views thing makes sense now, but the earnings drop is still the main issue, and for me, unresolved. 
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: HerMajesty on January 14, 2013, 04:18
My 7 day ranking stayed in the 120-100 range for some time now (my record high was 80), but to be honest it's not the level of earnings that one could live of. I don't see how someone could be an exclusive @ Fotolia and make a living in a first world country. Unless you're in the top20-30 it would be extremly hard to be a 'full-timer'.

Not sure if that cheers anyone up, but it's not only your drop in relative performance, but the actual earnings at the top aren't  that great.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 14, 2013, 04:39
Dont know?  I havent boosted any prices at all. To be frank I dont really know what they sell anymore but they are still the no.3 and it beats me especially since 3 of the middle-tiers are doing better.

It dont bother me really. Its a strange agency with strange values.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: cardmaverick on January 29, 2013, 19:21
I have to say, around May of last year, Fotolia has really gone downhill for me. I stopped uploading to most sites a few years ago and had very consistent sales there despite not adding anything new. Slowly it's just kept going down and down.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: fotografer on January 30, 2013, 12:31
The one thing that I like about Fotolia is that my new files really take off there.  Much better than anywhere else even SS which no longer seems to have the new image boost that it used to have.
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Poncke on January 30, 2013, 12:43
BME by 10 cents LOL
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: heywoody on January 30, 2013, 16:47
BME by 10 cents LOL

On the bright side, if you are who I think you are, it's €0-10 and not $0.10  ;)
Title: Re: Shocking Fotolia Earnings Drop
Post by: Poncke on January 30, 2013, 16:50
BME by 10 cents LOL

On the bright side, if you are who I think you are, it's €0-10 and not $0.10  ;)
Its no longer a secret, dutchman in ireland, but I was foolish enough to sign up to FT USA, so I am double ffed... LOL