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Author Topic: Self-Hosted at 14.6 - top 5  (Read 32985 times)

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EmberMike

« Reply #100 on: October 27, 2013, 09:18 »
+4
Look around this site and you'll see very few people making anywhere near the average and if there are some doing better than the average almost no one is saying so.  Most people reporting sales appear to be in the $25 or less per month category or are getting one sale of $10. 
There is also a thread started encouraging people to vote for self-hosted "Guys, we need to get in there in droves and report all our SYS sales in the MSG poll. Lets get noticed on the poll and see how many people will jump on board."   Best way to get noticed would be to inflate (or flat out lie about) your numbers to inflate the poll results.
By interest in inflating the poll results I meant a financial interest but clearly there is also an emotional interest and a desire to "get noticed".

I can also look around this site and see very few people reporting the kind of earnings that support the istock exclusive poll result. Should I then assume that many exclusives are liars?

Just because you don't see the evidence you want to see around here doesn't mean anything. People are more secretive about earnings these days than ever before.

Do the poll results get gamed a bit? I'm sure. But on the whole, I doubt a few dishonest people can skew the results so dramatically one way or the other.


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #101 on: October 27, 2013, 09:21 »
0
I can also look around this site and see very few people reporting the kind of earnings that support the istock exclusive poll result. Should I then assume that many exclusives are liars?
Something I've often noticed too.

« Reply #102 on: October 27, 2013, 09:29 »
0
maybe they aren't very active here for some reason, perhaps they go to the polls only

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #103 on: October 27, 2013, 09:35 »
0
maybe they aren't very active here for some reason, perhaps they go to the polls only
Quite.
So why would they do that?

« Reply #104 on: October 27, 2013, 09:48 »
0
maybe they aren't very active here for some reason, perhaps they go to the polls only
Quite.
So why would they do that?

to keep their income more stable even if anonymous here but yep posting at the polls will show otherwise, maybe they just don't want to talk with us, with me in particularly because I am paranoid ;D

« Reply #105 on: October 27, 2013, 10:18 »
0
I can also look around this site and see very few people reporting the kind of earnings that support the istock exclusive poll result.

What kind of earnings support that result. How much money ? How many $ ?

I find it very hard to guess what people are earning. I find it impossible to know whether we are comparing like with like when people talk about increases and decreases in sales.

At the height of the boom I was making about $1 per image per month. Currently I am averaging about  0.65c per image per month I think. That includes Alamy. Increasing the number of images I have at Alamy has marginally increased my income but has also reduced my per image income.

« Reply #106 on: October 27, 2013, 10:41 »
0
Look around this site and you'll see very few people making anywhere near the average and if there are some doing better than the average almost no one is saying so.  Most people reporting sales appear to be in the $25 or less per month category or are getting one sale of $10. 
There is also a thread started encouraging people to vote for self-hosted "Guys, we need to get in there in droves and report all our SYS sales in the MSG poll. Lets get noticed on the poll and see how many people will jump on board."   Best way to get noticed would be to inflate (or flat out lie about) your numbers to inflate the poll results.
By interest in inflating the poll results I meant a financial interest but clearly there is also an emotional interest and a desire to "get noticed".

I can also look around this site and see very few people reporting the kind of earnings that support the istock exclusive poll result. Should I then assume that many exclusives are liars?

Just because you don't see the evidence you want to see around here doesn't mean anything. People are more secretive about earnings these days than ever before.

Do the poll results get gamed a bit? I'm sure. But on the whole, I doubt a few dishonest people can skew the results so dramatically one way or the other.

IS exclusive / self-hosted don't represent the normal cross-section (reasoning contained in earlier posts) of pollsters so numbers will be inflated without anyone actually telling porkies. Based on a very small sample (just Ron) it's probably in the region of 10 for self-hosted, and, based on the fact that big hitters do seem to recover their earnings after dropping the crown, probably in the region of 100 for for exclusives.

« Reply #107 on: October 27, 2013, 17:00 »
-1
.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2014, 08:51 by Audi 5000 »

« Reply #108 on: October 27, 2013, 21:13 »
+6
Re: Hosting costs and not having large portfolios.

I have had a web hosting account for years and always have at least ONE web site going. If you're hosting with Bluehost, the fees (if you pre-pay) are ridiculously low and I can host multiple sites on the one account. Essentially, setting up a SYS site cost me nothing but time and the add-on I *chose* to purchase. 5 sales of large files will more than cover my start up costs. I chose to use stock royalties to fund it.

Maybe I'll make nothing for a year and one day, one buyer will find me and start using my imagery and licensing directly...instead of through the agencies I currently license through (an ever shrinking number!).  I don't have a large portfolio, my site isn't perfect and there are things I need to adjust...but it is there...it is in less than 2 weeks starting to get traffic and individual images are showing up in searches (judging from my analytics).

I can offer discounts, market directly to buyers and actually *know* where some of my images end up. That is worth it to me. Even better, I can develop relationships with my buyers (assuming they come) and offer better service than I would be able to do through any of the agencies.

And...it was a lot cheaper than the SmugMug account I had for a year that was just a drain on my bank book.

marthamarks

« Reply #109 on: October 27, 2013, 22:54 »
0
Very well said, dianajo.

« Reply #110 on: October 28, 2013, 05:32 »
0
It depends what people report. I only sell RM at Alamy.
However, if I post my Alamy stats, it punts me into iS indie, so now I've stopped posting Alamy figures.
... I added to the September stats and that included Alamy RM. Where are you seeing that it is classing us as independent if we do that ?
Someone asked about it a few months back and Leaf confirmed that the system would do that.

Leaf, is that still the case?

When I report stats in the poll, I also add Alamy RM, and video sales on SS, Pond5 and ClipCanvas (not that I get many, but it does happen...) so presumably I'd get counted as an Indie too, some of the time anyway.

Would it be possible to change this so we can register ourselves as iStock Exclusives somehow in the poll?

Back to topic though - I too think it would be useful if you could separate out Symbiostock and "other self-hosted".

« Reply #111 on: October 28, 2013, 06:09 »
0
It depends what people report. I only sell RM at Alamy.
However, if I post my Alamy stats, it punts me into iS indie, so now I've stopped posting Alamy figures.
... I added to the September stats and that included Alamy RM. Where are you seeing that it is classing us as independent if we do that ?
Someone asked about it a few months back and Leaf confirmed that the system would do that.

Leaf, is that still the case?

When I report stats in the poll, I also add Alamy RM, and video sales on SS, Pond5 and ClipCanvas (not that I get many, but it does happen...) so presumably I'd get counted as an Indie too, some of the time anyway.

Would it be possible to change this so we can register ourselves as iStock Exclusives somehow in the poll?

Back to topic though - I too think it would be useful if you could separate out Symbiostock and "other self-hosted".

Yeah, that is still how it works.  It only counts you as exclusive to iStock if that is the only site you vote on.  It gets rather confusing with all the variations as some people are exclusive with just video or just illustration.  There isn't a different poll for the various media types so most people just lump everything together which makes it tough if you are exclusive for one thing somewhere.  And what about the people who have a few (or a lot) of exclusive images on Dreamstime or Fotolia?  If I made 20 different polls nobody would answer them so I tried to keep it as simple as possible.  It isn't perfect and is simply meant to provide a general guide as to which sites are producing and which aren't.  I feel it does that quite well.

« Reply #112 on: October 28, 2013, 06:23 »
0
OK, thanks.  I'll just report iStock in future then.

« Reply #113 on: October 28, 2013, 15:26 »
0
I have had a Smugmug account for almost a year...
My the best photos were uploaded there, but without any sale, none...
I've spent more than 200 on google ads for nothing...

So maybe "self hosted" is too wide term in this case...
« Last Edit: October 28, 2013, 15:30 by borg »

« Reply #114 on: October 29, 2013, 09:36 »
+1
There are people here that have an interest in inflating the ratings.

It's me. I make money gambling on the poll numbers.  ;)

I just looked at the Vegas line for this week's match up:

Self-Hosted (-8) vs. 123RF

I'm giving the points. Stone Cold Lock of the Week imo.   :P


 

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