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Author Topic: Does uploading to DT still make sense?  (Read 4952 times)

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« on: August 15, 2014, 08:30 »
+2
Just studied my stats over at DT and was quite amazed how things developped.
The following are charts of my revenues from 2013 and in comparison the last 13 months.
I think those pictures speak for themselves ... or as simple as that: One up, one down.
Where as the down is approaching zero ...
Furthermore inspection process takes an awful lot of time.
What's going on on DT? With supposedly over 8 Mio. customers?




« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2014, 09:26 »
+2
Last quarter my sales were down with 33% compared to 2010 (!) with a portfolio almost 5 times bigger in 2014. 
So i understand your question.

« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2014, 09:55 »
+1
There is a common theme for all microstock sites and that is

1. Fast growing collections
2. Number of contributors going up
3. Pricing pressures driving "on going special deals" and overall price reductions.
4. Constant tweaking of the search dials.

I am not sure about dt, but I think I recall that you get penalized in the search if you stop uploading.

Anyway for me personally, my sales dumped pretty hard last month and are on par to be less than last month. Microstock is getting very hard to make any money. Those agencies who jump in here and claim that their sales are "better than ever" are essentially admitting that revenue reductions are then related spreading commissions across more images and more contributors.

Goofy

« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2014, 09:56 »
+2
Sum up  in one word- NO!   >:(



« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2014, 11:09 »
0
Mantis said everything in 1, 2, 3, 4 and stop uploading. In 2011 I stopped upload to go on vacation for almost two months (my sales were at the apex), as a result, I paid up today for what I did.

« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2014, 12:51 »
+3
I guess NO. DT has certainly a good image collection. But the interface for buyers is also old-fashioned and confusing, as for contributors. This is certainly one of the reasons why buyers prefer to buy elsewhere.

« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2014, 13:20 »
0
My RPI is down slightly but less so than FT, SS and (especially IS) so holding up fairly well all things considered

« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2014, 15:53 »
+3
I still upload there.  Their more fair than most other agencies and tho sales are down, theres still enough to make uploading pay off. 

« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2014, 09:49 »
+1
Lionheart - as a technical aside - clearly one graph's generally up and other's generally down, but the positioning of the straight lines exaggerates the incline of each.

« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2014, 10:04 »
+2
I'm seeing slow growth of 25% year over year.  My graph shows a lot of variability month to month but the trend is positive if not as strong as my top five agencies.

The attached graph shows nine years of income.

« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2014, 10:10 »
+1
Great data you have there, but since 2007 your revenue is pretty much going sideways.
I imagine you're uploading regularly, so yeah they're losing market share.

« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2014, 10:18 »
+1
I imagine you're uploading regularly, so yeah they're losing market share.

Nope, or at least not possible to derive from my data.  It may well be true that I'm losing market share on DT or overall, but that says nothing about DT's share of the microstock market, and nothing about their revenues or profitability.  The former could shrink without affecting the latter, and the former could easily be growing while the results of individual suppliers decline.

Uncle Pete

« Reply #12 on: August 17, 2014, 20:16 »
0
Not that I seriously have a disagreement - Lionheart - but in the 2013 graph, you skipped a high point, which would make it more level. And in the dropping one you skipped a high point which would have make it more level? Why not split them all and see and average?

Just studied my stats over at DT and was quite amazed how things developped.
The following are charts of my revenues from 2013 and in comparison the last 13 months.
I think those pictures speak for themselves ... or as simple as that: One up, one down.
Where as the down is approaching zero ...


I think that if people look at the general theme of topics here and dropping income in general, Mantis makes a good point. I'm ignoring other addition claims like stop uploading and whatever, just the four he listed.

I don't see anything to disagree with, it's just observing the facts. 1-2-3-4

There is a common theme for all microstock sites and that is

1. Fast growing collections
2. Number of contributors going up
3. Pricing pressures driving "on going special deals" and overall price reductions.
4. Constant tweaking of the search dials.


Doesn't answer the question, should anyone stop uploading anywhere. But it does point at a general Microstock Industry trend for contributors.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2014, 20:26 by Uncle Pete »

Goofy

« Reply #13 on: August 17, 2014, 22:02 »
0
and I was looking for job where the less I do the more I make - guess this is the wrong job for me  :-[



« Reply #14 on: August 20, 2014, 03:06 »
+1
Thanks everybody for all your suggestions.
Generally there is a "downtrend" on all of the different sites.
However the "dropdown" in DT was the most obvious one.
This was the reason to ask this kind of strange question.

Meanwhile some long pending files have been inspected,
and - believe it or not - i have sold three files  :)
DT never was a top performer for me but nevertheless a solid
mid-level one. Hope they come back to old strength ...

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #15 on: August 20, 2014, 03:55 »
0
DT is one of the few sites still showing consistent growth for me. Not sure why there is so much variety in results?

« Reply #16 on: August 20, 2014, 05:53 »
0
DT is one of the few sites still showing consistent growth for me. Not sure why there is so much variety in results?

Especially when July was a good month and this month? 4 sales with 2000+ images. My only agency down (very down) this month.


« Reply #17 on: August 20, 2014, 06:03 »
+1
DT is one of the few sites still showing consistent growth for me. Not sure why there is so much variety in results?

Different lengths of time in the business, different subject matter, different file types (you do video and illustration as well as pix) .... everybody is different, so you need to pare back to sub groups - such as photos only, lifestyle or not lifestyle, travel or not - before you will really start to get a clear view of the trends.

« Reply #18 on: August 20, 2014, 08:22 »
+2
Not that I seriously have a disagreement - Lionheart - but in the 2013 graph, you skipped a high point, which would make it more level. And in the dropping one you skipped a high point which would have make it more level? Why not split them all and see and average?

Just studied my stats over at DT and was quite amazed how things developped.
The following are charts of my revenues from 2013 and in comparison the last 13 months.
I think those pictures speak for themselves ... or as simple as that: One up, one down.
Where as the down is approaching zero ...


I think that if people look at the general theme of topics here and dropping income in general, Mantis makes a good point. I'm ignoring other addition claims like stop uploading and whatever, just the four he listed.

I don't see anything to disagree with, it's just observing the facts. 1-2-3-4

There is a common theme for all microstock sites and that is

1. Fast growing collections
2. Number of contributors going up
3. Pricing pressures driving "on going special deals" and overall price reductions.
4. Constant tweaking of the search dials.


Doesn't answer the question, should anyone stop uploading anywhere. But it does point at a general Microstock Industry trend for contributors.

OK uncle Pete, you're right. So let me answer his/her question with another question:

Does uploading to DT still make sense? That depends on your satisfaction with revenue. If "any amount of money" is okay then yes, it's worth it.  Or, do you have established criteria for uploading? If so, what is the criteria and does DT meet that baseline? If not, it no longer makes sense to upload. You have to assess the kind of work you do, the level of investment (money and time), the difficulty/uniqueness of images, your skill level (whether making 35 cents for an expensive image is acceptable to your baseline) and the growth of DT collection & contributor base.  The latter is because the competitive landscape will continue to get tougher and tougher and if your work cannot overshadow or maintain your baseline (assuming you have a tipping point) then it doesn't make sense to upload to DT.  Probably everyone in this forum will have different opinions on whether it makes sense because we all have different needs, we all use our income, more or less, differently......i.e. LISAFX uses hers to pay for college for her daughter while I tend to use mine for travel and gear. Some might use theirs for some other very low requirement reasons that don't cost a lot. 


 

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