MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: tab62 on August 27, 2012, 13:26
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I am just curious on how many folks have the required 5,000 images in your portfolio's to keep your current pay rate of 50%? I only have 1,000 thus a pay cut soon to come. I would consider 5K image portfolios a veteran (at least 3 or more years in the business)...
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it ainīt about the amount of files, they are looking into the amount of sales (credits)
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You neither need 5000 images nor 5000 sales. Read the price info page again. This is also discussed here:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/which-sites-did-you-gave-up-on/75/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/which-sites-did-you-gave-up-on/75/)
I am just over 1000 credits for this year so far and I am not one of the big players around here. Will surely not be able to top the 2000 mark to get to level 4 (45%). SO I can be sure of 40% (level 3). Thus 20% drop in my commission from 50% to 40%. That's going to hurt! :(
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I am more screwed than I thought - I have only 218 downloads thus level one payout :-\
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I am more screwed than I thought - I have only 218 downloads thus level one payout :-\
Again, 1 dl is not necessarily 1 credit. Look at their credit table to establish your credits based on the type of downloads and only then you can calculate your level.
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Thanks CD!
Just did the cal I have 372 points thus a level two at 35% a nice 15% pay cut! Let's see my day time job I haven't got a raise in three years and now pay cuts on my part time job- gotta love it.
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Not too concerned about it. Just waiting for payout and then dropping them. Got enough money sitting there that I do not want to walk and loose it. Maybe I should write them and see if they would pay me early if I decide to close out.
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Thanks CD!
Just did the cal I have 372 points thus a level two at 35% a nice 15% pay cut! Let's see my day time job I haven't got a raise in three years and now pay cuts on my part time job- gotta love it.
That equates to a 30% drop in income.
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How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.
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Looks like I will be keeping my current commission for next year. If that goes down, I will rethink selling there. But for now sales are pretty good so no reason to leave them.
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Sales have been steady and growing a bit but not enough to get me anywhere near the current commission level. I've moved from the basement to the next level but won't get higher than that unless things really take off.
They are my #3 seller right now but that's definately going to change if they stick with this currently planned commission structure. It's particularly demoralizing after they floated the first (short lived) commission change they put out there that basically grandfathered in all but the very newest contributors at the current rates, then they pulled that back and threw out this new plan that requires a very big portfolio or a portfolio that commands a lot of larger file sizes to get those RC's up to where we're at now. I'm definately not feeling the love here.
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I'll most likely be deleting my video port there, if they decide to go through with the planned commission change for video contributors too. They didn't even start selling videos until March, and sales have been worse than Revostock (my previous worst performing site). Add to that a cut in the originally promised commission that encouraged me to upload in the first place, and I'll be out of there. Otherwise I'd be content to keep the files there, hoping sales might improve. I've stopped UL'ing feeling it isn't fair to either of us to waste resources if I'm going to pull them at year's end.
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How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.
Look at the calc. tables they supply and check your DL stats YTD (quantities) for every dl type. Use the table to calc. your credits per type as per their table. Add all together and establish your Level from the level table.
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I took my payout and left. It was not just the paycut, but the shabby way that they handled it.
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"Hi All,
Thanks for the comments and warnings, we will take everything into advisement. No I wasn't paid (not by the competition) or given a script, everything here reflects what my views are. Nobody likes change, and although it was truly hard to accept some of the criticism that were offered - Nonetheless, I can't thank you enough for your thoughts, opinions and ideas.
Do allow me to address some of the concerns that were brought up:
1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.
2. On the operations side, we are hiring - hiring takes time, training takes even more time. We're looking to eliminate long queues and try to accept content in real time as we span the operations to work 24 hours from Monday to Friday.
3. We have plans to improve the contributors site but at the moment, improving features on the customer and sales functions, as well as rolling out new products take higher priority. We're hiring more IT personnel to cope with the expanded scope of responsibilities and hope to achieve a good balanced site.
Rome was not built in a day and I have to ask for your further understanding. We are achieving our milestones month on month, and I believe you too will enjoy higher sales volume in the days to come. I earnestly hope that you'll continue to be a contributor even after the implementation date. Only time will tell what decision you'll eventually make. But do factor in the growth if you're plugging the figures into your spreadsheet while determining your future levels.
Lastly, I do hope that everyone here enjoys the fruits of their labor earning more than 50% commissions from 123RF in 10 months time.
Thank you very much,
Alex."
I can tell you that for me nothing has changed AT ALL in terms of commissions in 2012. Still the same flat monthly sales with a lot of new uploads, around 300 more added since the announcement. I am speaking only for me, of course, and I am sure there are those who will give 123 a big whoooray on sales, but I bet the lions share of contributors haven't seen squat and won't. What they will see is commissions go down while 123 enjoys a goof chunk of artificial profits at our expense.
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I'm pretty much in the middle of the 50% rate. I find it hard to get too riled up about the changes given what people accept from other sites.
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Might just scrape into the 50% but 45% for sure so not terribly concerned yet.
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My "goal" was 40%, but I need some kind of "divine intervention"...
The "sales boost" that I was expecting never happen, like was on FT, SS.
I should have worked, instead believing on statistics.
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I tracking in at 45%. Commission cuts suck. I hate it. We deserve better.
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As newbie I will probably drop to 30%, with the small port and low sales, they will become a none earner. I will probably drop them untill I have better HCV photos.
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Top Tier - Big 4
Shutterstock 100
iStock 55.6
Fotolia 33.8
Dreamstime 24.9
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Middle Tier
DepositPhotos 19.2
123RF 17.4
Interesting to see where they will end after the price cut
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looking at my own numbers a contributor needs to do around 1930$ to keep the 50% royalties (160.8$ per month)
I have around 50% subs
52% - 7721$ (643$ per month)
54% - 19303$ (1608$ per month)
56% - 38k $ (3166$ per month)
58% - 190k $ (15833$ per month)
I believe this says it all ;D
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1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.
So they're earning more and more and still that isn't enough for them, so they have to take money from our own cut. Does he know he doesn't make any sense? Does he even care if it does, since he knows the vast majority won't quit.
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2009 - 83.22$
2010 - 306.49$
2011 - 808.75$ (67.40$/month)
2012 - 623.82$ (77.98$/month)
no double ;D
will make it to the 45% (I guess)
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1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.
So they're earning more and more and still that isn't enough for them, so they have to take money from our own cut. Does he know he doesn't make any sense? Does he even care if it does, since he knows the vast majority won't quit.
Sounds just like iStock, report increasing and fantastic profits, but to help us survive, we're going to need all you contributors take a pay cut.
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1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.
So they're earning more and more and still that isn't enough for them, so they have to take money from our own cut. Does he know he doesn't make any sense? Does he even care if it does, since he knows the vast majority won't quit.
Sounds just like iStock, report increasing and fantastic profits, but to help us survive, we're going to need all you contributors take a pay cut.
But at least IS announced it right away, unlike 123RF that was misleading us with grandfathering everyone with over XY DLs. Meh, I don't even know why I bother complaining about it. I'll just delete my account at the end of the year.
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So they're earning more and more and still that isn't enough for them, so they have to take money from our own cut. Does he know he doesn't make any sense? Does he even care if it does, since he knows the vast majority won't quit.
Sounds just like iStock, report increasing and fantastic profits, but to help us survive, we're going to need all you contributors take a pay cut.
But at least IS announced it right away, unlike 123RF that was misleading us with grandfathering everyone with over XY DLs. Meh, I don't even know why I bother complaining about it. I'll just delete my account at the end of the year.
But iStock didn't just announce it right away. iStock said first that they'd double the levels to get to diamond (I'm not sure if all were double, but I think so) - 50K downloads vs. 25K. At first they said they'd grandfather everyone at their current level, but at the time I was gold approaching diamond and would effectively have had further to go in late 2009 to get to diamond than I did when I started in 2004.
Then they made many people (including me) happy by grandfathering you at the next level - i.e. golds could get to diamond with 25K and silvers get to gold at 10K etc.
Then they changed their mind and did the RC scheme. In between they had a scheme to let people become exclusive past their grandfathering deadline if they committed to become exclusive by some date in the summer of 2010. A number of people took them up on that, became exclusive by August and then in September they announced the RC scheme, effectively removing the reason people had been promised. It was totally, 100% despicable, underhanded, unethical behavior. And the "change anything any time" ASA let them do it.
I haven't pulled my port from 123rf but I haven't contributed anything new since they announced this cash grab. Sales bump along at much the same level as before for me. But I'm not supporting an outfit with new images that behaves that way - and given the standing in the polls, I don't think their happy talk about doubling sales is anywhere near happening. They just see other agencies grabbing more cash and think they should get them some too. Shame on them.
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Maybe my results are exceptional. I'm seeing 77% better revenues this year over last. I haven't redone my calculations, so I don't know if that will put me at 50 or 45% when/if they implement their plan. But it still leaves me feeling confident enough to continue uploading. I don't compare 123's plan to what iStock and Fotolia did. iStock already offered the lowest royalties in town when they cut them a further 20%. Fotolia had adjusted royalties twice already; the third adjustment was the last straw for me. 123 hasn't made me quite that angry yet.
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I emailed them telling them they where the next agency to exploit the tog, and that I would pull my port. They responded with a one liner saying they will take my comments in consideration. The question how they figured their drop in commission is fair and motivating went unanswered.
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Maybe my results are exceptional. I'm seeing 77% better revenues this year over last. I haven't redone my calculations, so I don't know if that will put me at 50 or 45% when/if they implement their plan. But it still leaves me feeling confident enough to continue uploading. I don't compare 123's plan to what iStock and Fotolia did. iStock already offered the lowest royalties in town when they cut them a further 20%. Fotolia had adjusted royalties twice already; the third adjustment was the last straw for me. 123 hasn't made me quite that angry yet.
thats the problem, we have lower % in other agencies, we get used to it and we "forget" but it ainīt going to help us on the long run
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I emailed them telling them they where the next agency to exploit the tog, and that I would pull my port. They responded with a one liner saying they will take my comments in consideration. The question how they figured their drop in commission is fair and motivating went unanswered.
Response to my "threats" was similar "Don't let the door hit you in the A$$."
??? ;)
ED: My interpretation of their response. ;D
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I emailed them telling them they where the next agency to exploit the tog, and that I would pull my port. They responded with a one liner saying they will take my comments in consideration. The question how they figured their drop in commission is fair and motivating went unanswered.
Response to my "threats" was similar "Don't let the door hit you in the A$$."
??? ;)
ED: My interpretation of their response. ;D
Its a shame really, utter disrespect and greed.
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I don't compare 123's plan to what iStock and Fotolia did. iStock already offered the lowest royalties in town when they cut them a further 20%. Fotolia had adjusted royalties twice already; the third adjustment was the last straw for me. 123 hasn't made me quite that angry yet.
If you forget about royalty % for a second and compare the royalties at a certain file size, you'll see that FT pays you at least 50% more on average (depends on the level you're on and the pricing you set etc) and IS pays you a few times more, the largest size at 123RF gets me around 2$ while I get (on average) over 5$ at IS. And most people get more sales with FT and IS so that again makes a difference. That being said I don't like any of those agencies particularly, So I judge them by the money they bring me. And since both bring me a lot more than 123RF, IS for instance at least 10x more, then you can know 123RF is the least favourite among the unfavorite. The bottom line is the most important, their attitudes towards us are more or less the same anyway, so that doesn't really make a difference.
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Does anyone know how often the contributor level will be updated? Once a month, once a year ?
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Does anyone know how often the contributor level will be updated? Once a month, once a year ?
Monthly.
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I stopped uploading to them many months ago, being really pissed on their shady way of deducting customer discounts from us. I am around 3k right now so I'll probably "just make it" into 50%. Anything less and I'll drop them, or I'll just collect the earnings and never send them anything anymore.
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How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.
Look at the calc. tables they supply and check your DL stats YTD (quantities) for every dl type. Use the table to calc. your credits per type as per their table. Add all together and establish your Level from the level table.
http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html (http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html)
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How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.
Look at the calc. tables they supply and check your DL stats YTD (quantities) for every dl type. Use the table to calc. your credits per type as per their table. Add all together and establish your Level from the level table.
[url]http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html[/url] ([url]http://davidgilder.com/misc/123RF_credit_calculator.html[/url])
Thanks. Very useful.
The only problem is that I had to delete zeros for column LEL (Limited Extended Licence) that is in 123rf table but not in yours. But I don't remember that I have seen "LEL" in 123rf earnings few days ago.
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From another thread where the calculator was mentioned and I tested it:
"One work from your Total Row, so not month and year. So put in 0 for month and 0 for year and then start with the totals starting at the subs column. If it/you made a mistake, refresh the page, else every time you click calculate it ads the new total to the previous calculation.
Formula error: This guy only give 5 credits for an EPS and it is 10 credits (XXLMH column). Double his quantity he has in there, then you are right."
Let us know if this is correct/incorrect David.