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Author Topic: Change in Commission Structure for *ALL* 123RF.com Contributors  (Read 114227 times)

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Microbius

« Reply #101 on: January 05, 2012, 05:53 »
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Nooooooooo please don't base your whole new structure on the experiences of a handful of contributors with very small portfolios (unless of course you are still going to maintain the same high level for the big guys bringing in most of the cash, then go for it  ;D)

« Reply #102 on: January 05, 2012, 06:33 »
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Hi All,

We're running analysis on stats to come up with a fair commission structure.

Do be patient. We will announce more when we've gained upper management buy in.

Thank you very much.

Alex.

You don't need to do analysis for that.
Fair is 50%.
If you want to be fairer, pay 60%. Or 70%. Or even 80%.
There are agencies that do that.

« Reply #103 on: January 05, 2012, 06:46 »
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I didn't get the mail either - I think 123rf might have had a problem with how this mail was sent. And as pointed out, why no site mail on this as well as e-mail? I can't buy the "check your spam filters" when (a) so many didn't get it and (b) I regularly check my spam filters and it wasn't there either.

Important changes like this should be clearly communicated - such as a popup when someone logs in or visits the site, sitemail, some other positive-confirmation method so the agency is sure the contributor has actually received the notification.

I hasn't received anything either. Communicating this change through MSG is totally unprofessional.
Plus this special treatment of MSG contributors is unfair. 

« Reply #104 on: January 05, 2012, 08:13 »
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I have just received an email from 123RF entitled '5 Benefits From Your 123RF Registration In 2012'.  It does not mention the cut in commissions at all.  This shows that emails from 123RF do get through to me in the normal way (this was not in my spam folder or anything, just in my regular mail inbox).

I repeat what others have said - I did not receive the commission cut email from 123RF and yes I have checked my spam and deleted folders.

Now please own up to the fact that this email did not get sent to everyone and you made a mistake.  We are not all making it up!

« Reply #105 on: January 05, 2012, 10:00 »
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Thanks to this ongoing saga I completely lost my trust in 123RF.

« Reply #106 on: January 05, 2012, 10:04 »
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please watch closely what you are doing with this new royalty you are coming up with, I believe 50% is a nice deal, make it to all contributors, think of tomorrow not today

« Reply #107 on: January 06, 2012, 10:13 »
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Nooooooooo please don't base your whole new structure on the experiences of a handful of contributors with very small portfolios (unless of course you are still going to maintain the same high level for the big guys bringing in most of the cash, then go for it  ;D)

luissantos is right - suppose an IS black diamond exclusive decides to give up the crown - would such a person be prepared to earn lower commissions than someone who just happened to have minimum files / sales on an arbitrary date?  Crazy approach.

« Reply #108 on: January 06, 2012, 10:38 »
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I have just received an email from 123RF entitled '5 Benefits From Your 123RF Registration In 2012'.  It does not mention the cut in commissions at all.  This shows that emails from 123RF do get through to me in the normal way (this was not in my spam folder or anything, just in my regular mail inbox).

I repeat what others have said - I did not receive the commission cut email from 123RF and yes I have checked my spam and deleted folders.

Now please own up to the fact that this email did not get sent to everyone and you made a mistake.  We are not all making it up!

I didn't get any e-mail with that title. I just checked (a) my spam folder and (b) my 123rf profile to make sure it showed the correct e-mail address, which it does (I haven't changed it in years) and (c) my site mail at 123rf (the most recent thing is vector price changes from nearly a year ago). Nada.

I used to get newsletters from 123rf via e-mail and haven't had one of those in a long time. Perhaps there's something broken in how communications are being sent out to contributors.

With this many people not getting things 123rf says they're sending, this is more than just a spam filter problem.

Microbius

« Reply #109 on: January 06, 2012, 11:08 »
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Nooooooooo please don't base your whole new structure on the experiences of a handful of contributors with very small portfolios (unless of course you are still going to maintain the same high level for the big guys bringing in most of the cash, then go for it  ;D)

luissantos is right - suppose an IS black diamond exclusive decides to give up the crown - would such a person be prepared to earn lower commissions than someone who just happened to have minimum files / sales on an arbitrary date?  Crazy approach.

After a couple of months the new commission level will seem like the norm at the site for new people. I mean people have been prepared to accept waaaaay less on other sites so I can't see that they would object too much.
I mean most of us still contribute to Fotolia even though some Europeans like me who are stuck on the US site are getting a massive chunk less than someone making the same sales living next door who signed up to the Euro paying site.
I doubt an exclusive's decision to sign up will be based on what some other guy is earning; just how much sense the decision makes financially in an objective sense.

At least 123 has tried to accommodate the people who supported the site in getting  to where it is today by safeguarding their levels.

« Reply #110 on: January 06, 2012, 11:16 »
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I mean most of us still contribute to Fotolia even though some Europeans like me who are stuck on the US site are getting a massive chunk less than someone making the same sales living next door who signed up to the Euro paying site.

sight +1

« Reply #111 on: January 06, 2012, 13:25 »
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The problem is not the change in commission but the total amateurism in the way to communicate this and the attitude towards the international contributors is a shame for a worldwide company. 
1. At first no communication at all only on this msg site there was a first message on this.
2. After some weeks of feedback of the worried users on this forum finally 123rf putted that contributors had received an email on this. I've written an email to the office of 123rf in Belgium an even there they didn't know anything about changes coming up.  Above this  it seems ,although they claim they did send an email(why not mention it from the beginning), nobody received an email after all.
3. Till today nobody knows what the new commission scheme will be. Nothing on the 123rf website, what is the use of having a blog on 123rf anyway ?



 

« Reply #112 on: January 06, 2012, 19:45 »
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Nooooooooo please don't base your whole new structure on the experiences of a handful of contributors with very small portfolios (unless of course you are still going to maintain the same high level for the big guys bringing in most of the cash, then go for it  ;D)

luissantos is right - suppose an IS black diamond exclusive decides to give up the crown - would such a person be prepared to earn lower commissions than someone who just happened to have minimum files / sales on an arbitrary date?  Crazy approach.

After a couple of months the new commission level will seem like the norm at the site for new people. I mean people have been prepared to accept waaaaay less on other sites so I can't see that they would object too much.
I mean most of us still contribute to Fotolia even though some Europeans like me who are stuck on the US site are getting a massive chunk less than someone making the same sales living next door who signed up to the Euro paying site.
I doubt an exclusive's decision to sign up will be based on what some other guy is earning; just how much sense the decision makes financially in an objective sense.

At least 123 has tried to accommodate the people who supported the site in getting  to where it is today by safeguarding their levels.

Maybe youre right and some folks wouldnt mind being treated as 2nd class citizens based on some random criterion.  Personally I dont mind that folks with a track record like yourself get a better return per sale than I do because its based on performance and / or loyalty / exclusivity etc.  However, on pure principle, would not now sign up with this site even though its the next logical choice.  This wont make the slightest difference but there are exponentially more mes than yous in this game so large numbers with similar attitude could make a difference.  Also, consider that folks with very small ports and sales will have made the cut here where exclusive big performers wont.  People are coming away from some sites because they feel that they are being unfairly treated even though it will cause a lot of pain, at least in the short term do you really think they will accept plebeian status where there is absolutely nothing to lose?  Would you?
Completely disagree with 7horses on this one.  The communication is just optics, the problem is an inherently discriminatory commission system.  The only thing that humans hate more than being treated less favourably than their peers is betrayal.

« Reply #113 on: January 07, 2012, 00:45 »
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The 50% commission is something I've always admired, and they proved in my opinion that it is possible to grow in the microstock industry whilst still being fair to their contributors. They have been growing at a fast pace for the last year to 18 months or so.

To me, once an agency gets the buyers/traffic, they've also got us by the balls and can do pretty much what they like, as we'll just keep coming. iStock tries to tout how much they pay to contributors (not the royalty, but the total amount they payout), they obviously don't want to focus on the royalties as they would look bad. Quite simply the more an agency is successful the less percentage they are willing to give us. Why should it be like that, if anything it should work the other way round, they take more when they are starting, once they become successful they give us back more. Obviously I know that is incredibly idealistic and I live in the same world as you do where ideals are laughed at, but in an ideal world that would be the way it should work. It doesn't work like that because businesses have too much free reign to do whatever they choose, even at the expense of what makes them. I touched upon (ranted) about the same subject in a recent blog post, The power of the crowd.

123rf, like the rest of us (and buyers too), have seen just how much istock have been bad mouthed across the web since September 2010, and this must have played a part also in iStock's current decline. They made the wise decision of not upsetting contributors who are already with them, but it was a business decision. I opened my account on 123rf in 2007, this has nothing to do with my loyalty but purely to do when I discovered them and opened my account. It sucks knowing that you get less than others in the same company, doing the same job. There will be plenty of people who won't submit because of this, but probably not enough for 123rf to reverse their decision.

« Reply #114 on: January 07, 2012, 01:34 »
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I didn't receive any email and its not in my spam folder. I'm already well across the line.

Although I'd rather see 50% carried across the board I appreciate that because I have been supporting 123rf over a number of years I'm not losing my % commission.

I think extending the period to get to the threshold would be fair in this instance as clearly alot of people didn't get the communication and may not even know at this moment.

« Reply #115 on: January 22, 2012, 01:18 »
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What does "Have registered with 123RF.com before February 1, 2012." mean?  Do existing members who meet all criteria need to register somewhere?

If not, its kind of confusing. How is it even possible to have 150 accepted images by Jan 9 AND NOT be registered before Feb 1 (I take being registered as meaning a signed up member). What exactly does registered mean ?

 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contributor's Message of the Day

January 18, 2012 - Change in Commission Structure
We will be changing our Contributors commission structure effective February 1, 2012.

Heres what you need to know:

All existing contributors shall continue to enjoy the current 50% nett commission share ONLY IF they fulfill ALL of the following criteria.:
Have registered with 123RF.com before February 1, 2012.
Have at least 150 accepted images in their respective portfolios by January 9, 2012.
Have had a minimum of 10 paid downloads by January 27, 2012.
All new contributors who start submitting images to 123RF.com AFTER January 27, 2012 OR do not meet all the criteria above shall be enrolled under the new commission structure.
For our veteran contributors who have been supporting us all this while, we thank you for your support and we will try our best to grow the business further in 2012. We will also try our very best to maintain the levels of 50% nett commission to you for as long as possible.

ruxpriencdiam

    This user is banned.
  • Location. Third stone from the sun
« Reply #116 on: January 22, 2012, 08:16 »
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It doesn't make any sense at all!

Be registered by the 1st of February but have to have had 150 images approved by the 9th of January??????

I believe if you weren't registered before the 9th of January there would be no way to get 150 images approved by then!

And then having to have had 10 downloads by the 27th of January!

That's 2.5 weeks after you would have had to have had 159 images online so they better be dam good or you are SOL!

Either way it sounds as if they are out after really big time Microstock photogs that are above the rest and are now going to treat the rest as just that "the rest".

Even if some of the big dogs didn't make it in time they will now be small dogs because of the requirements.

Flat out discrimination the way i see it.

Perhaps a little more clarification would be nice because the statement  doesn't make any sense at all!

« Reply #117 on: January 22, 2012, 18:08 »
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To be fair, I do feel like 123RF gave us plenty of opportunity to meet the requirement. I found out about the change on this site on 2012-01-01 and uploaded my port over the next several days. The uploaded images were reviewed over the next five days and I met my sales quota by the 2012-01-09 deadline.

Meeting the stated quota's was easily doable, even if you had a small port and little more than a week to upload them.

dmg

« Reply #118 on: January 23, 2012, 07:39 »
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Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum and it is sad that it must be on this occasion.
I've been with them since 2006 and had nearly 1500 images there. in September last year I have
deleted images that were not selling and ended up with 90 files.
After that clean up my earnings went from a pay every two months to almost nothing.
As there is no way to restore my deleted images and there are massive rejections on a new ones
I am left with no other choice but to delete all the rest of images from that agency
and close my account as I already did with IS.       

« Reply #119 on: January 23, 2012, 09:40 »
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Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum and it is sad that it must be on this occasion.
I've been with them since 2006 and had nearly 1500 images there. in September last year I have
deleted images that were not selling and ended up with 90 files.
After that clean up my earnings went from a pay every two months to almost nothing.
As there is no way to restore my deleted images and there are massive rejections on a new ones
I am left with no other choice but to delete all the rest of images from that agency
and close my account as I already did with IS.       

You had 1500 images and you deleted 1410 of them? It seems to me you didn't really want to make any money there anyway.

« Reply #120 on: January 23, 2012, 09:53 »
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in September last year I have deleted images that were not selling and ended up with 90 files.
After that clean up my earnings went from a pay every two months to almost nothing.      

I am completely baffled when I hear of people deleting "non-selling" images in their ports with the expectation that this will somehow drive more sales.

Can someone explain how this is supposed to work?

The only thing this might do to help someone feel better is drive up RPI, but this would be an artificial way to get there.  I use RPI as a valuable tool to tell me if I am uploading the right stuff that people want, but it only works if I don't try to pull tricks like deleting the non-selling stuff.  

But RPI is not a number that pays the bills.  So how does deleting images help you, exactly?   I don't expect dmg to answer, since this obviously hasn't worked for him, but has this actually ever worked for ANYONE?
« Last Edit: January 23, 2012, 09:57 by stockmarketer »

ruxpriencdiam

    This user is banned.
  • Location. Third stone from the sun
« Reply #121 on: January 23, 2012, 10:13 »
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Never ever delete images!

« Reply #122 on: January 23, 2012, 10:29 »
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you had the "trouble" to upload/approve them and after that you delete them?? thats insane really.. one thing is to quit on the agency because of royalties or other strong attitude from them, if not its just nuts :/

dmg

« Reply #123 on: January 23, 2012, 10:34 »
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in September last year I have deleted images that were not selling and ended up with 90 files.
After that clean up my earnings went from a pay every two months to almost nothing.      

I am completely baffled when I hear of people deleting "non-selling" images in their ports with the expectation that this will somehow drive more sales.

Can someone explain how this is supposed to work?

The only thing this might do to help someone feel better is drive up RPI, but this would be an artificial way to get there.  I use RPI as a valuable tool to tell me if I am uploading the right stuff that people want, but it only works if I don't try to pull tricks like deleting the non-selling stuff.  

But RPI is not a number that pays the bills.  So how does deleting images help you, exactly?   I don't expect dmg to answer, since this obviously hasn't worked for him, but has this actually ever worked for ANYONE?
Well, I had a "plan" that I don't want to go into details of it now. It wasn't to drive more sales on my mind when I was doing that.
The reason I am talking about it now is to show that deleting non-selling images not only kills sales
but may also bring such unexpected results as in this case.

dmg

« Reply #124 on: January 23, 2012, 10:43 »
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you had the "trouble" to upload/approve them and after that you delete them?? thats insane really.. one thing is to quit on the agency because of royalties or other strong attitude from them, if not its just nuts :/
Yes, you are perfectly right. That's why I am going to quit now because of royalties  >:(


 

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