I mentioned in another thread I had a portfolio glitch a few years ago and sales have plummeted since (literally more than 10 fold). Their IT support absolutely sucks. Raise a ticket with them if you like, but be ready for them to lose it repeatedly and have to start from scratch every few weeks.

Do you have sales right now?

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on August 21, 2023, 05:54

I mentioned in another thread I had a portfolio glitch a few years ago and sales have plummeted since (literally more than 10 fold). Their IT support absolutely sucks. Raise a ticket with them if you like, but be ready for them to lose it repeatedly and have to start from scratch every few weeks.

me too (it was in 2018). Never recovered the loss, despite the help of support. I think i'll close my account before the end of the year.
The support confirmed the glitch, most of my portfolio was (and is) 'invisible'.

I think that was around the same time as mine!

me too.

For me even the sales on SS have stopped for a few days... I have never had anything like this happen before. Augus in general is a slow sales month but it seemed like it wasn't quite like this.

The only place I can see sales is Adobe... For now at least...

 

me too.

Ooh, this looks bad . Now to think of it...mine is similar.

123rf has been dead for a few years. I have almost no downloads anymore. Either nothing is bought there anymore - then they'll go bankrupt soon and close up store, or they continue to sell and don't pass it on to us. It is no longer comprehensible for the contributors anyway.

I remember one time a while ago (some time after 2015 but before 2020) trying to figure out how many pics I had at 123RF and only about half of them showed up in search. I think they fixed that eventually, but really ever since they promised a doubling of sales (when they cut our take significantly) they have just been going downhill. They are a shadow of their former self, and I should probably just figure out how to delete my port and close it.

Don't even get me started on their pathetic contributor portal - so many problems with it.

They noticed a drop in sales, cut our commissions to stay afloat and then sales dwindled even further. They'll never recover from this: too much competition and 123RF has nothing unique to offer to customers.

123rf: from more than $200 sometimes to less than $5 everytime, by month. 

Same here.

It seems to me that I am one of the few for whom this is developing the other way around.
Since 2023, the revenues are getting better - we are not talking about huge amounts, but maybe $250 a year, but the trend is upwards.

Nice. I saw 123RF growing consistently for years. When other people were complaining about falling sales I was in your position. It was only after the glitch that my sales plumeted. This isn't a theory in my case. Buyers literally couldn't see my work in detail or know they were going to get the file if they tried to buy it because thumbnails were leading to blank pages for half my portfolio, and all my best sellers.

Their tech support really is almost non-existent. I tried for years to get it sorted and they would constantly "lose" the ticket each time when I got back to them after several weeks. By the time that was more less sorted I had new glitch. Going through the same nonsense with them again now.

Hi,
I have a portfolio of 1000 images at 123rf. I've had regular sales, small amounts since I signed up. But for the past 3 months I've noticed a drop in sales, especially since June  . I asked the site if my portfolio was still visible and they said it was.
But by doing my own research, I may have found the reason for this drop in sales. Since June, 123rf has implemented an AI-assisted search. And in the search bar, AI search is activated by default. I compared a keyword search with and without AI, and found that my images completely disappeared from the results with a search WITH AI! My best-selling images are no longer visible even after 20 pages of results...
A search without AI brings them back, but not as well as before!

I wonder if some of you could do some research along these lines and see if it's the same for you?

They are currently putting all their money on AI and promoting AI content, so expect your non-AI portfolios to lose more and more exposure.

123RF is desperately trying to stay relevant. They failed at selling our usual content in the past couple of years and now hope to regain market share by focusing on AI; the irony is that they'll struggle all the same because their competitors are also allowing AI content. They won't last.

Well stated!