MicrostockGroup

Does anyone else have issue with the earnings rates for the new trial level of On Demand subscriptions?

The new trial package ( http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67627 ) is 2 any size for $29, or 5 small/medium for $29.

That makes for an earning percentage of:

	< $500	< $3000	< $10000	$10000+
5/$29	13.97%	18.45%	20.17%	21.38%
2/$29	12.97%	17.10%	18.62%	19.66%

Below is a chart of the earning percentages for the current packages.

	< $500	< $3000	< $10000	$10000+
12/$49	19.84%	26.20%	28.65%	30.37%
5/$49	19.18%	25.31%	27.55%	29.08%
60/$229	21.22%	28.03%	30.66%	32.49%
25/$229	20.52%	27.07%	29.48%	31.11%

Istock's industry low 20% earnings rate was broken with Shutterstock's $49 On Demand package, but only for those with earnings under $500 total.  But their new plan is currently paying out less than istock's rate across the board. 

SS's forum announcement included:


But no details about what sort of adjustments, if any, will be made.  Meanwhile they're taking as much as 87% commission on the sale of your image. (Yes, you made $1.88, and they got a $12.62 commission)

..... and they also dumped lots of money into advertising your image, hosting it, providing not only a searchable database to find it, but also a payment system for buying, etc... Last time I checked, my brother only gets about 20% at Getty for Flickr RF licenses - but all he does is upload his content with basic legal docs and description. He's never ever keyworded a single shot. So what I'm saying is they do a whole bunch for him, and so do the micros, but its probably more in the form of advertising, dealing with customers, etc... as we do a lot of back-end work, but the bonus is we get to control that - and its quality. I think having keyword control is actually very powerful, so I don't begrudge having to do it.

I'm not getting all hot and bothered by this, it's a volume based model anyways, with several purchasing options, furthermore, were headed into what will eventually become a very bad depression, and until hyperinflation hits, prices have to go down, and so will consumer spending. Such is life, I just try to take the best possible position.

BTW, no one ever said they'd dump the old On Demand setup, they can have both at the same time, as they are different.

Not as delicious as non-exclusive where I can sell RF at any price and receive up to 70% commission with some sites

Way overdue.

After most of SS's competitors realized how successful a subscription plan can be they started adopting it.

Now SS realized that that this works the other way around as well.

This new "plan" boils down to a credit based system camouflaged as a subscription.

I'm fine with the quite low commission on that one because SS won't be overwhelmed with customers buying that sort of subscription. Their strong side is the monthly subscription or higher.

They just fill the gap within their own agency to stay competitive with other agencies.