MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => 123RF => Topic started by: Justanotherphotographer on March 01, 2021, 06:00
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My earnings have dropped to lows I haven't seen in ten years over the last two months. I appreciate times are hard for a lot of the agencies but this is really weird...
Anyone else had a similar experience?
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Same here just 3 sales worth 65 cents in total for all of February. :P
123RF are dead they just haven't stopped twitching yet ;D
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lowest total ever.
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13 sales for $3,82 in february 21
(even lower: 2 sales fr $0,43 in january 21)
But 123rf never performed well on my images
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January 1/2 of normal
February 1/5 of normal
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Have they just killed their ads or somethging? I was making a four figure sum there most months, it's a huge drop for me and a LOT more sudden than anywhere else. Probably the fastest drop I have seen since starting in the industry. Very strange...
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I hope they didn't calculate all sales yet
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I hope they didn't calculate all sales yet
The drop started January for me. A few mores trickled in a few days after the start of the month but sadly just a drip. I find it very suspicious.
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Exactly 1/2 of previous floating average. Very strange and bad...
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January and February combined together were my two best first and second month together since 2016.
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My earnings have dropped to lows I haven't seen in ten years over the last two months. I appreciate times are hard for a lot of the agencies but this is really weird...
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Same here, about half what it has been.
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The graph on the front page is showing February $0 for me, but the earning page shows me at more than double January ($22, don't get excited), which is a 10 month high.
"I was making a four figure sum there most months"
Wow.
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123rf's parent company, Inmagine, has been trying to branch out for the last several years - they were going to go public, they were going to become a design platform, the Netflix of images (Stock Unlimited) etc. They are focused elsewhere. The latest is a platform Designs.ai - think Canva.
Here's an article about this and the pricing page - no idea what the 123rf contributor makes for the images included in the subscriptions to Designs.ai. The "unlimited" images probably come from Stock Unlimited.
https://kr-asia.com/this-company-makes-content-production-easier-with-ai-qa-with-designs-ai-ceo-warren-leow (https://kr-asia.com/this-company-makes-content-production-easier-with-ai-qa-with-designs-ai-ceo-warren-leow)
https://designs.ai/en/pricing (https://designs.ai/en/pricing)
There was an infomercial/review of the platform here
https://lionbridge.ai/articles/can-ai-improve-graphic-design-a-review-of-designs-ai/ (https://lionbridge.ai/articles/can-ai-improve-graphic-design-a-review-of-designs-ai/)
Obviously I can't know that the nosedive at 123rf is connected to Inmagine building other businesses, but it's a reasonable guess.
Couple of additional articles about the company:
https://www.inmagine.com/how-inmagine-is-googlising-its-workplace/ (https://www.inmagine.com/how-inmagine-is-googlising-its-workplace/)
https://www.marketing-interactive.com/opinion-re-inmagine-creative-processes (https://www.marketing-interactive.com/opinion-re-inmagine-creative-processes)
It would also be worth any current contributors finding out what they get paid when an image is licensed through Designs.ai - remember when they tried to say that sales through Inmagine were "partner" sales, leaving contributors with a lower share of the sale?
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They nosedived a few years ago after their version of an RC scheme and lies about doubling our sales. Since then they have been bouncing around near the bottom with a "good" month every once in a while. No real difference this year, but sales are so low I probably wouldn't notice anyway.
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I had an exceptional Month January and a better than average February maybe a freak or maybe they've messed with the algolrithm which has gone in my favour.
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Okay. Now I am even more suspicious. I am on a higher tier. I wonder if they have fiddled the algorithm to favour contributors getting a lower commission?
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The graph on the front page is showing February $0 for me, but the earning page shows me at more than double January ($22, don't get excited), which is a 10 month high.
"I was making a four figure sum there most months"
Wow.
Yup, just checked four figures all but 12 months out of the last 60, and all those were very close apart from January and February, which are down 50%. Lowest since 2012. They either have a massive drop in traffic or they have royally screwed people like me in the algorithm.
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It’s funny that ‘Justanotherphotographer’ had written this as I was just looking to close my account after 10 years, I’m still dithering as to whether to do this, or just let it sit there.
I have always had a payout from them every month, except from the beginning of this year.
I wrote them a email in the middle of Feb asking why they had refunded a download from 2017, I have had no reply.
In the past, this is about 5 or 6 years ago, I had numerous vector logo’s that I had designed that sold really well, one of them selling 4 or 5 times a week, then out of the blue they deleted all contributor logo’s, replacing them with designs they owned, these where absolute rubbish; they had commissioned the production of a massive collection of childlike logo’s, pages and pages of them.
After about a year they allowed the contributors to re-upload their logo’s again, I strongly suspect that their logo’s didn’t sell, but in doing this with their greed, they had killed that market and reloading all my previous logo’s these don’t sell very much.
I get more refunds on them then any other site, and I believe that these are not so much refunds but a fraud, they are basically taking our cash and using the refunds as a cover story.
They have also continued to cut the commissions on several occasions in the last couple of years.
I’m not sure if I want my Portfolio on a site run by crooks.
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I had an average January, but a weak February. March is off to a good start and it's on pace to matching my best months.
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After a few months, I'm starting to notice a real decline. April is going to end with the worst month I had since 2017.
January - slightly below average.
February - Worst month since 2017.
March - Below average despite a strong start.
April - On pace to be worse than February 2021.
Something is definitely going on over there that's causing the decline in sales. Maybe it's an algorithm change, but I think it could be a Google algorithm change. I think this image kinda of explains it:
https://i.imgur.com/xgU97OF.png
The site has been declining since last year. They were ranked 850 last April and 900 in November 2020. Right now they're 1,110. Their traffic had a sizeable decline in the last 4 months.
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I gave up on 123rf some years ago at their best I made $200 in a year (in 2016) then it started to slide to $75 by 2019
the 21 cent royalties and extended QC times really decided for me in the end.
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123rf support is almost non existent