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Messages - KuriousKat

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1
Received $60.97 for the Contributor fund today.
I'm not complaining about the extra money, but my choice actually looked like this:

Maybe it's some sort of recurring usage from prior to when we had an opt-out option?

2
Adobe Stock / Re: what comes after "1 year ago"?
« on: March 05, 2024, 04:16 »
I have the same problem. Some photos that have been sitting in the queue for a couple of months have suddenly jumped from 'Submitted 2 months ago' to 'Submitted 1 year ago'.

3
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock DataSet images not deleting
« on: February 05, 2024, 18:29 »
Hello all, i am opted in for data set contribution for rejected images. But i have had several rejections which are easily passable after tweaking. But since 2 weeks, the images in the data set collection won't delete, no matter how much i try. Do you encounter the same problem? Ty

Yep, same problem. I thought I'd deleted one, as it said something about 24 hours to remove, but it keeps coming back. I've been trying for several days, but it just won't go.

4
Shutterstock.com / Re: Payout issue but can't contact SS
« on: January 19, 2024, 05:25 »
I've been having an issue related to payouts. I tried to contact them using the form in Support Center & Contact Us seciton but I encounter an error (a generic message just saying there was an error) every time I hit "Submit".

It's been like this for the past two months and I missed receiving my payout two months in a row.

Is there any other way to contact them? Perhaps an email address to which I can directly write?

Send an email to [email protected]

5
Shutterstock.com / Re: Fraud account on Shutterstock.
« on: January 15, 2024, 14:53 »


Judging by those who smugly announce their earnings on FaceBook groups, I'd say that plenty make some decent money before being shut down. The fraudsters also recommend setting up multiple accounts in various family member names, so that if one gets shut down, everything is not lost.


And you believe them?  :) SS has shut down family members because of IP address, camera data and computer sharing. It's not as easy as some FB brag.

...

What FB group, I'd love to go read what they have to brag about. I can't understand how thieves, with collected images, make more than people here who are smart and work hard?

Family members don't necessarily live at the same address or share an IP, and I know for a fact of some contributors doing this. As I also know of legitimate contributors  running two separate accounts from the same IP.

The thieves make money because they skim off better content. We all know that, as a general rule, 20% of the images make 80% of the money, but if they are selecting the best images, then they can certainly increase the sales percentage in their favour. It's always been quality over quantity, so if you steal 50 spectacular images, then they are likely to make more than a beginner with 50 snapshots of his back yard.

I'm sure people wouldn't keep contributing if they weren't earning anything as, even with stolen content, you still have to upload it. If you only make a dollar a week, then people wouldn't bother.

If you then add on the number of 'free trial' accounts that only download this content, then it doesn't take long to start earning.

Bottom line, I don't care whether it is lucrative for them or not, but I care about a database being flooded with stolen content that heavily competes against the legitimate stuff.

As for the FaceBook group, search Shutterstock Contributors, Shutterstock Contributors Worldwide, etc. There are loads of groups, and they all have a smattering of crooks bragging about their successes.

7
Shutterstock.com / Re: Fraud account on Shutterstock.
« on: January 14, 2024, 03:53 »
A few more here:


https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Graphic+Idp (25)

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/santosh+rajawat (3)

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Dairvi (1005)

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/imitrieagar (520)

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/rustipic

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Richard+Store


https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Bangedy (33)

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/MD+ASHIQUL+ISLAM+KHOKA (168)

It's a cat and mouse game.  Probably many of the same repeat fraudsters keep doing this again and again somewhere in the world where cost of living is low.

True and some of them work harder at it, until they get shut down. I still wonder if they ever make payout, or if it's just a stupid cat and mouse, and the only ones who lose, are the artists whose images are stolen?

Judging by those who smugly announce their earnings on FaceBook groups, I'd say that plenty make some decent money before being shut down. The fraudsters also recommend setting up multiple accounts in various family member names, so that if one gets shut down, everything is not lost.

Once you start looking for similars, it's a rabbit hole, and you might find the same image, with minor changes, in several different accounts. It becomes difficult to figure out where the original has come from, but each account that gets closed is just the tip of the iceberg.

I'm sure those with only a page of images don't make much, unless they get a lucky large sale, but some of these portfolios are quite big, and have been online for some time.

This, for example:

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Dairvi

Over a thousand quality images covering major holidays and events, and from the ID numbers, the first were uploaded in March 2023. The 90 day wait period has long since passed, so even at $100 a month earnings, this contributor has potentially made $1000 or more.


9
Shutterstock.com / Re: You climbed to a higher level!
« on: January 05, 2024, 04:42 »
Can someone please advise me how I can disable my portfolio in SS? Thanks.

In your profile settings.

Thanks. I went to the profile page, and disabled "data licensing", but still kept the "video licensing" for the time being.

I am going to see if deleting "data licensing" can stop those 0.25 per clip sales. If they continue, I will disable "video licensing" as well.

It won't stop the .25c sales, which are customer downloads, and not related to Data Licensing.

10
Image Sleuth / Re: images stolen on shutterstock
« on: December 27, 2023, 11:43 »

11
Shutterstock.com / Re: SS just screwed up the site again
« on: December 15, 2023, 04:06 »


ETA 1: I see what was wrong. Where you could previously accept keywords it identified as spelling error (such as a real and actual place / location name) you can seemingly accept this is correct but it won't allow you to save, so the workaround is to remove the keyword from the list. Otherwise you can still copy and paste the keywords. - you just press the plus sign at right. Just need to keep the place name in the title but not in the keywords. Hopefully it is still searchable. Other update is descriptions have a 150 character limit down from 200 characters.


I tested this, and was able to mark the perceived misspelt word by clicking on it and marking it as 'this is correct'. I was then able to save and submit.

12
Some 1400 of my images are there via Canstock. I have emailed and ask for their immediate removal.

Do we know of any other Canstock partners? If this agency still has the content, the images could be on many other sites.

13
I also received my final payment.

Thank you, Canstock, for dealing with this closure in a professional manner. So many sites have just disappeared over the years, taking our hard earned cash with them. The final payment is appreciated.

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D OH Noooooo! It was so funny to read you

Why?

14
I also received my final payment.

Thank you, Canstock, for dealing with this closure in a professional manner. So many sites have just disappeared over the years, taking our hard earned cash with them. The final payment is appreciated.

15
General Stock Discussion / Re: Shutterstock Service Email
« on: November 30, 2023, 08:55 »
It's all OK for me.

It sounds like a local display problem, so best to clear cache/cookies or try with a different browser.

After doing the above, try this link:

https://submit.shutterstock.com/en/dashboard

If it doesn't work, then you can email Shutterstock support, rather than using the web contact page.

[email protected]

Thanks! I'll give this a try.

c h e e r s
fred

Hope you get things resolved OK.

16
General Stock Discussion / Re: Shutterstock Service Email
« on: November 29, 2023, 11:09 »
It's all OK for me.

It sounds like a local display problem, so best to clear cache/cookies or try with a different browser.

After doing the above, try this link:

https://submit.shutterstock.com/en/dashboard

If it doesn't work, then you can email Shutterstock support, rather than using the web contact page.

[email protected]

17
Alamy.com / Re: anybody received their Alamy payment in November?
« on: November 16, 2023, 03:40 »
Yes, I got paid on the 10th of November.

18
I've also experienced similar inconsistencies. I've had times where I've submitted two images of the same subject from a different angle and/or crop, and one is approved but the other doesn't meet the requirements. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

19
I tested it and it did very well, so I signed up.

However, now I have 400 images a month, or so I thought. However, each time I make a change and generate the keywords again, it uses another credit. One image has cost me 4 credits because I wanted to tweak the results.

It's very misleading to say that you have credits to keyword 400 images a month, when that isn't really the case.


20
@Jo Ann, DepositPhoto don't accept AI content. Initially they did accept it, but then it was all removed.

21
How do you know that anything has changed and that data has been erased? Do you mean a search of your own portfolio or a search of the whole collection?

22
Had this a few weeks ago. Also changed mine. Make sure you go via the site just in case

Agreed - I got the email last week, but changed via the site and not the link.

23
Canva / Re: Canva July sales are in, and it's not good
« on: September 18, 2023, 09:56 »
I can get an image on Canva and then spend 3 hours doing a template with it. Creates a lot of traffic, doesn't mean anyone gets extra sales. So that Canva has more traffic than Shutterstock does really not say much about how sucessfull it is for contributors comapare dto other agencies.

You can do the same on Shutterstock these days, but I appreciate your point about them being essentially different entities.

My point is that earnings are suddenly dropping like a stone.

I don't fully understand how pay is calculated for 'applies' and 'exports' but, looking at the exports for last month, and dividing the earnings I received by the number of times an image was exported, I earned 0.5c per image. When I started with them, I earned 35c per image.

The company is valued at $46 billion, which is hardly surprising if they are giving away our assets for less than a cent.

24
Canva / Re: Canva July sales are in, and it's not good
« on: September 18, 2023, 05:47 »
Yes, Canva gets several times the web traffic of Shutterstock. 5x as much according to sites like "similarweb".

I am not sure whether web traffic is what you can compare to each other, because Shutterstock is only a microstock agency, while Canva is also a graphic design tool, so part of the traffic is not generated by customers buying images, but using the tools.

I know there are some people who say Canva was their best earner, but if you look at the poll, Canva does not even make it into the top 10 in terms of revenue. I know if you have the right graphics you can probably make a lot of money.
When I signed up with Canva, they told me that they would not accept my images on white background, but that I should make them transparent pngs, because these were the images that would get sold the most on Canva. So, for example, if you have a lot of transparent pngs you will probably do much better there than someone doing travel photos. That's why I think Canva is one of the top earners for some contributors, but not for most. It's just not your typical microstock agency.

I agree that it's not your typical agency, but the design tool drives traffic that requires images/graphics, and these are almost all licensed from the images available in the database. The tool has proved to be so successful, that Shutterstock and other agencies now have similar integrated tools, because the model works.

I don't have any images on white and I've been with Canva since day one. At the beginning, you could submit such images and they had staff who were cutting them out from the background before publishing them. The reality was that such submission sat in the review queue for months on end, so it quickly became clear that you either needed to submit ready prepared png cutouts or not bother, (but I don't even think png submissions were even an option at the start). I had very few images on white, so I didn't bother to submit those, and just uploaded my standard stock images - a mixture of food and drink, backgrounds, travel, wildlife, and a very small collections of people and lifestyle.

However, from an earnings point of view, I've always done pretty well, with Canva  being somewhere in my top 4 each month since 2014 - they've never topped Shutterstock, but often beat Istock or Adobe, and were way higher than other mid-tear sites, such as Dreamstime, 123RF, Depositphotos, etc.

Now my year to date earnings for this year are only 25% of the same period last year.

That's a huge drop.


25
Canva / Re: Canva July sales are in, and it's not good
« on: September 17, 2023, 16:45 »
All these small agencies will eventually go out of business because greed and AI

Canva is a very long way from being a 'small agency'.

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