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Messages - robynmac
1
« on: February 25, 2014, 15:58 »
Personally, I am more skeptical than angry. The amount they are claiming as overpayment, in my case, is more that I expected, given usual pp performance. It would go a long way toward relieving my skepticism if there were an itemized dated list of the specific overpayment amount and an explanation as to why these were not legitimate sales.
One reason I did not initially think there was anything amiss with the high numbers in September and October was that there was a corresponding drop in sales at istock. It was reasonable to assume there might have been some targeted promotion to get istock buyers to try TS out.
Even with the 1571.00 "overpayment" my monthly totals for istock and PP combined were down from previous months.
Lisa, that was my thinking as well, when I saw the increase in PP sales, which appeared to be compensating somewhat for declining iStock sales. Now I have to pay back $1513, with no explanation of how this figure was worked out. So I'm skeptical, but also angry... 
2
« on: January 01, 2014, 04:59 »
Anyone else experiencing a drop in commission rate for 2014, despite the message that rates would be grandfathered?
3
« on: November 12, 2013, 17:50 »
I joined Fotolia in 2006, and am Emerald in rank. My sales graph for FT shows a perfect bell curve from 2006 to now - sales initially grew rapidly, peaking in 2010, and have since declined just as dramatically, currently back to my 2008 levels and still falling. Since the decline started my sales have not improved at all whether I've uploaded regularly or not.
I'm very glad for all the newer contributors who are doing well - just a word of warning that you should be wary of doing too well - if you work like crazy and manage to climb their mountain, instead of supporting your efforts they give you a boot up the backside and push you back down the other side. Oh, and they deny doing it, of course.
To be honest I doubt if they've done themselves any favours either. Most times that significant contributors lose out then so does the agency. I suspect that one of the major reasons that Yuri and Andres recently defected to 'pretend exclusivity' was their inability to grow their income at FT. If they, like you and I, were back down to 2008 levels of sales then it is hardly surprising.
You make good points. I live in hope that as a company they achieve the level of success they deserve. 
4
« on: November 12, 2013, 15:19 »
I joined Fotolia in 2006, and am Emerald in rank. My sales graph for FT shows a perfect bell curve from 2006 to now - sales initially grew rapidly, peaking in 2010, and have since declined just as dramatically, currently back to my 2008 levels and still falling. Since the decline started my sales have not improved at all whether I've uploaded regularly or not.
I'm very glad for all the newer contributors who are doing well - just a word of warning that you should be wary of doing too well - if you work like crazy and manage to climb their mountain, instead of supporting your efforts they give you a boot up the backside and push you back down the other side. Oh, and they deny doing it, of course.
5
« on: June 13, 2013, 16:11 »
if i remember correct, photo+ will go to signature and E+ go to signature+. Only those non exclusive photo+ files performing very well will go to signature+ and very well selling non exclusive files to signature.
Correct me please if i am wrong.
None of my photo+ files have been moved to signature or signature+. They have all been moved back to the main collection, including all my best performing files. In fact, when I sort my images by collection, the only options in the drop down box are Main and Value Bin. So I'd be interested to know what the criteria are for moving non-exclusive files to signature or signature+. What's the definition of "high performing" and "very high performing"? Are there any non-exclusives out there who have had images moved to signature or signature+?
6
« on: December 16, 2012, 05:00 »
You should have an option 1000+. My 7day ranking has just started to creep above that magical mark...  . Used to be between 25-60.
7
« 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.
8
« 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.
9
« on: October 24, 2012, 17:17 »
Robyn, thanks for posting. Your sales trajectory on FT exactly mirrors my experience. I hadn't bothered contacting them about it because I assumed they wouldn't give a rats a$$. Sorry to hear that's the case.
Very sad...
10
« on: October 24, 2012, 16:07 »
I've been Emerald since March, 2010, and have a portfolio of 4,700+ images. Current overall rank 66 (was up to about 45), 7 day rank 696. My sales graph speaks for itself:  If current trends continue, my earnings will shortly drop back to what they were in early 2008. Last month my Fotolia earnings represented only 7% of my total, down from a high of 28% in 2010. I've had some correspondence with Fotolia about the precipitous fall in sales. Responses were along the lines of: there's lots more competition/not same business as 2 years ago/"if you want to stay in the game you need to upload amazing images every day." Didn't address the issue at all, really, or acknowledge any specific problems with their search. It's all my own fault, apparently. But I know that's not the case, because my sales on other sites have generally held up well (particularly SS and DT and until very recently IS). This is what I think FT really meant to say: "Yes, we know we changed our search algorithm and that this has ^%*&&d a lot of higher-ranked contributors who have generated the most revenue for us over many years. But our bottom line is fine, so we don't really care. It's easier to just shove the blame on the contributors rather than do anything to rectify the problem. We have plenty of other contributors coming on board who we can milk until it's their turn to be tossed aside." So, I'm very happy for all Fotolia contributors who are experiencing increasing sales - you must be the ones uploading "amazing images every day..."  Just a word of warning: Make the most of it, but don't expect it to last! Unless of course you manage to stay "in the club", which I obviously haven't.
11
« on: September 03, 2012, 01:02 »
absolute rank: 74 relative rank: 1240
two years ago: absolute (overall) 43 relative (weekly) 85
I stopped to care about FT already since last year... May even close the account overall at the year end, as others here are considering too...
Thank you so much for posting this. I thought I was the only one. I had posted in another thread that my overall rank (absolute) is 35 and my weekly rank (relative) has climbed to 635.
It really has me discouraged to the point that if I don't see significant improvement over the next couple of months I may give up on Fotolia altogether.
My experience is similar to yours, Lisa - my overall rank has slumped to 65, my weekly rank is also over 600. My earnings last month were down 60% on August, 2011, and 70% on August, 2010. I was led to believe that people who upload regularly would be better placed in the search. I've been uploading like crazy, but it doesn't seem to have any effect at all. The trend is still sharply down. I think that emerald+ contributors got the best of the search in 2010, but that FT has swung the pendulum far too much the other way since then. Of course they don't care so long as they're still making money. FT earnings were only 7% of my total last month (down from a high of 28% a couple of years ago), so I'm also thinking of giving up on them if the downward trend continues.
12
« on: June 22, 2012, 17:17 »
All I know for sure is that so far in June, 2012 I've earned less than 15% of what I made on FT in June, 2010.  FT doesn't seem to give a flying proverbial that they are messing with people's livelihoods.
13
« on: June 11, 2012, 00:37 »
I shall contact FT support and ask for the official line on singular/plural keywords. Very frustrating!
14
« on: June 10, 2012, 20:30 »
I just realised today (after almost 6 years of contributing to FT), that their search engine doesn't automatically add the plural to keywords. I guess I should have known, but somehow this has escaped me. Only realised because I did a test search on a new image of mine of a bowl of kalamata olives. Searching using "olives" didn't bring up the image at all, because I had only included "olive" in the keywords. And of course you can't edit keywords on FT... Grrr. But I'm mystified - I have some images of euros where once again I only included the singular in my keywords, yet searching for "euros" plural did bring them up.  Does anyone know what the rule is supposed to be regarding singular/plural keywords on FT? Do you include both where appropriate? I can't find any info on it on FT.
15
« on: June 10, 2012, 20:10 »
Great tool! Thanks a lot for all the hard work putting it together. May I ask how often you plan on updating the stats?
16
« on: June 03, 2012, 17:10 »
^^Thanks Mantis and OM for the compliment - much appreciated!
17
« on: June 02, 2012, 21:08 »
My 7 day rank has declined to 64, and my overall rank to 590. Sales in May, 2012 were down 58% on May, 2011!! Earnings on FT now comprise only 7% of my total, down from a high of 28% two years ago. According to FT, the decline is due to "competition within FT", and that "...it really comes down to awesome images." That's b*&()t. I'd say that at best it's due to a screwed up search engine, and a site that doesn't care two hoots about (previously) top-selling contributors.
18
« on: April 27, 2012, 23:36 »
I've gotten a few $18 single image downloads. Very nice way to fatten the daily tally!
I had five $18 sales this week, much to my surprise - very nice!  It is particularly reassuring at a time when my sales on FT continue their downward spiral.
19
« on: April 12, 2012, 18:29 »
Lisa, it's interesting that our stats are so close. Also reassuring to know others are experiencing the same Fotolia deep dark hole... I just checked my seven day ranking and it's sitting on 570 - eegads!!! It used to be between 30-60. I've stopped uploading new stuff at FT for the time being, because of the lack of views/sales.
20
« on: March 19, 2012, 15:58 »
I'm seeing a rise in sales this month. I am assuming there has been a recent shift in the search algorithm as the images that are selling for me more consistently are from a different era than what has been selling in recent months. Not my newest images but newer images all the same.
I hope you're right, Mat - I'm yet to see it. Very discouraging to see new images disappear down a deep dark hole...
21
« on: March 19, 2012, 15:49 »
I see, DT is holding its own. I guess that lost FT percentage went to SS...
Yes. Thank goodness for SS!
22
« on: March 19, 2012, 15:28 »
...Now, with most sales being subs, funny, I hadn't bothered with Fotolia, when I did a year or so ago nearly every sale was a sub. (Glad I canned them)
My experience is similar to Lisa's. e.g. for me $$ for Feb 2012 were down more than 50% on Feb 2011.  I've experimented with changes in price, and it's made no noticeable difference. Very sad. Every month I think it can't get any worse, but somehow it does...
What about DT? Because most ppl see a downward trend there, but an upward at FT. It always looked to me like those 2 agencies were somehow connected, my sales were always almost identical, but in the last 2 months I'm experiencing the same trend most ppl are.
Here are some stats showing the percentage of my total earnings from DT and FT: 2010 2011 2012 dt 12% 13% 12% ft 23% 16% 11% So, DT has remained fairly steady (bit of a decline over the last couple of months), but FT has declined dramatically.
23
« on: March 19, 2012, 03:29 »
...Now, with most sales being subs, funny, I hadn't bothered with Fotolia, when I did a year or so ago nearly every sale was a sub. (Glad I canned them)
My experience is similar to Lisa's. e.g. for me $$ for Feb 2012 were down more than 50% on Feb 2011. I've experimented with changes in price, and it's made no noticeable difference. Very sad. Every month I think it can't get any worse, but somehow it does...
24
« on: February 24, 2012, 21:24 »
Just started getting PP downloads for 1st January. Phew!
25
« on: February 21, 2012, 14:56 »
In February, 2011 we didn't receive any PP earnings at all. We were paid for January and February in March, 2011. I hope there's no repeat of that this year!
we could place some bets
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