Author Topic: Envato Photodune: what's the skinny? (Read 3949 times)

hatman12 · « **on:** March 20, 2015, 18:23 »

What's the story on Photodune? I don't upload there, but as a fairly new independent I'm obviously interested in researching all agencies. I'm aware that Envato has great success with the audio side of the business, but it appears that Photodune hasn't really taken off in the same way.

I've seen the threads about pricing structure, author fees etc, and I understand the concerns. However it does seem that the net payment to suppliers is around 35% which doesn't seem too unreasonable.

But what I find confusing is that Photodune only appears to have 7 million or so images. The various factories and large suppliers appear to have given this one a miss. Prices seem low - is that one of the reasons? From the poll it appears that Photodune is ranked similarly to BigStock, yet Bigstock seems to be attracting millions of images each month and Photodune very little.

Is there something I've missed here? Is Photodune really that bad that nobody wants to upload there?

Mantis · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2015, 18:49 »

Waste of time.

noodle · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2015, 19:17 »

Their sales are skinny

marthamarks · « **Reply #3 on:** March 20, 2015, 20:12 »

I came and left with hardly a ripple, not for PhotoDune and certainly not for myself.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #4 on:** March 20, 2015, 22:32 »

I have worries about their new tax scheme, which is explained in the other thread. But for income, they are about equal to Bigstock, which means I get between $200-$300 a month there. A bit over 5k photos.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #5 on:** March 20, 2015, 23:23 »

It's hard to generalize from my experience - I just left them, having started there in November 2011 - but for me:

1. Sales were pretty regular and consistent, but low. It never grew (they launched in August 2011), I think because it really didn't fit with their business model.

2. Their reviewing is outsourced and wildly inconsistent.

3. Their upload process - particularly with model and property releases - is idiosyncratic and requires you to batch up images by model release(s)

4. Their prices were low and royalties low-ish (36% now, was 33%; at first they tried 25% and too many potential contributors told them that wasn't going to fly). Their extended licenses were so insanely cheap, many (including me) opted out. I think they really wanted those so other marketplace owners could put photos in their bundles, but photo contributors were understandably a lot less enthusiastic about helping other people make more money.

5. The insanity of their recent invoice changes (long story) was just the last straw for me. I'd rearrange a few things for a good site or one that was promising, but not one that seemed content to bump along the lower tiers, never really going anywhere.

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 21, 2015, 01:34 »

What the others have said, and I will reiterate that their reviewing is bizarre with very high rejection rates of quality images that sell fine elsewhere

cidepix · « **Reply #7 on:** March 21, 2015, 18:12 »

I agree with most of the things mentioned..

I should just add that on the contrary to what OP said, their audio business is not what made them.. they are all about themeforest..

that is their goldmine.. without themeforest, they wouldn't be nearly as big..

Smilla · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2015, 04:20 »

I was with them a year and earnt about $300 dollars with 6k images. Lowest earner for me and this new VAT invoice fiasco added an unpleasant accounting worry so I'm deleting account.

Mantis · « **Reply #9 on:** March 22, 2015, 09:04 »

I make about $30 a month with 3k images. But I made $30 a month with 500 images and the revenue never grew after that. So I upload there when I have time, but no longer challenge their stupid rejections. PD is in the top 3-4 that I am considering chopping. I have some other metrics that have to be hit elsewhere before I do.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2015, 13:39 »

I had high hopes when I first started uploading here - if you don't need Releases straightforward and although the reviewers could be idiosyncratic I got a reasonable acceptance rate -and reasonable sales now I hardly get anything accepted, sales are still not awful but no growth as my portfolio is static. I wonder if anyone other than a Mstock star could get near to building a decent portfolio starting from now.

garth11 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 22, 2015, 15:04 »

low sales and high rejection rate...

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Author Topic: Envato Photodune: what's the skinny? (Read 3949 times)

hatman12

Mantis

noodle

marthamarks

PixelBytes

Jo Ann Snover

sgoodwin4813

cidepix

Smilla

Mantis

Pauws99

garth11

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