Author Topic: How are you doing at BigStock? (Read 52123 times)

WarrenPrice · « **on:** May 12, 2009, 18:10 »

I am feeling totally inadequate. After nearly a year with BS, I have a grand total of $6 in sales. My portfolio is not large, only recently reaching 130, but surely I should expect more than $6. Is anyone else willing to admit their lack of sales?

lisafx · « **Reply #1 on:** May 12, 2009, 18:23 »

I usually do okay there, but this last week they seem to have fallen off a cliff. Wonder if there was a search engine change or if sales are just off there.

KB · « **Reply #2 on:** May 12, 2009, 18:40 »

Some people seem to do terribly there, for some reason. They are almost always my #6 best performing site, though sometimes they will pop up a bit higher. Generally I get about 4% - 6% of my monthly earnings from them.

Last month I had a spectacularly good BME (by over 40% by count, by over 100% by $ -- but I had 2 ELs which certainly impacted the latter a lot).

This month, as Lisa has mentioned, they are doing spectacularly poorly. Through yesterday, with more than 33% of the month gone, I'd earned about 5% of last month's BME, and about 10% of a normal month.

m@m · « **Reply #3 on:** May 12, 2009, 18:41 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 12, 2009, 18:23

I usually do okay there, but this last week they seem to have fallen off a cliff. Wonder if there was a search engine change or if sales are just off there.

I've also notice a drop in sales, I don't have a big portfolio with them, around 180 pics, but up to maybe a couple of weeks ago the sales where steady, now dead!...also being getting more rejections from them than usual, mind you, photos that are accepted by IS and DT. I hope they don't get weird on us, I really like BigStock.

willie · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2009, 18:44 »

they don't sell as much, but i am glad they don't pay 30 cents a dl. for that alone, if i were elsewhere i would have to had sold 100 subs, to earn the same $$$

lisafx · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2009, 18:59 »

I am kind of relieved to see I am not the only one getting this big drop in DL's at BigStock this month. When that happens you always wonder if suddenly their buyers just hate your images.

At least I am in good company it seems.

gostwyck · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:04 »

Quote from: Perseus on May 12, 2009, 18:44

they don't sell as much, but i am glad they don't pay 30 cents a dl. for that alone, if i were elsewhere i would have to had sold 100 subs, to earn the same $$$

They're running at 2% of my total and are overall very disappointing.

Btw, and this is important, what do you think the commission percentage is at BigStock?

50% or thereabouts? WRONG __ it can be as low as 20% per sale.

If my memory serves me correct, they started out paying 50% per credit when credits cost $1 or less __ now they pay a fixed 50c per credit although most credits probably cost far more than $1.

Credits in packages of less than 10 actually cost $2.50 a pop __ we get 50c of that so there's the 20% level. We only get the full 50% (which I suspect most of assumed we were earning) on packages of 300 credits which also cost $300.

I feel that BigStock has done a rather sneaky thing there and, because most people don't take too much notice of them, they've managed to slip in under the radar.

I did some number crunching recently and according to my calculations working backwards on known figures BigStock actually has higher annual sales than StockXpert (believe it or not!). They just pay out a heck of a lot less to us.

lisafx · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:06 »

Thanks for posting Gostwyck. I had no idea. Not good news at all.

m@m · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:16 »

Wow, thanks gostwyck for letting us know this...no good news at all lisa.
BTW, welcome to MSG Perseus.

KB · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:18 »

Quote from: gostwyck on May 12, 2009, 19:04

Btw, and this is important, what do you think the commission percentage is at BigStock?

50% or thereabouts? WRONG __ it can be as low as 20% per sale.

Very interesting; I certainly did think they were still paying us 50%. Thanks for posting that.

Even so, though, I note that BigStock continues to be my #1 site based on RPD (rev per DL). Imagine what it would be if they did pay a straight 50% as they used to do.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:23 »

Glad I asked the question. I don't feel any better but the info is enlightening.
Not necessarily in a bad way. I don't remember getting less than 50 cents for an image? Not that I've sold very many.

m@m · « **Reply #11 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:26 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 12, 2009, 18:59

I am kind of relieved to see I am not the only one getting this big drop in DL's at BigStock this month. When that happens you always wonder if suddenly their buyers just hate your images.

At least I am in good company it seems.

No buyer could hate your work lisa, you must have an excellent portfolio by what I have seen.

madelaide · « **Reply #12 on:** May 12, 2009, 19:53 »

Hmm, I get some US$1 and even US$2 per image.

Added: from their FAQ:

Quote

How much can I earn?
There is unlimited potential for earning. We pay at this time $0.50 commission per credit spent for standard images. Special licensed images is slightly different. But standard images sell for between 1 and 6 credits, so you earn from 50 centst to $3.00 per download.

Pixart · « **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2009, 21:14 »

They seem to have some strange search rotation that moves much more slowly than any other site. Last month I had a BME (but still nothing to brag about) and this month it seems they perhaps went out of business. I don't expect much for sales before July.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2009, 21:25 »

Quote from: Pixart on May 12, 2009, 21:14

They seem to have some strange search rotation that moves much more slowly than any other site. Last month I had a BME (but still nothing to brag about) and this month it seems they perhaps went out of business. I don't expect much for sales before July.

[/b]

Why do you say that, pixart?

sharpshot · « **Reply #15 on:** May 13, 2009, 02:30 »

Looks like gostwyck is correct.

1 credit can cost $2.50, so we should see some $1.25, £2.50 and $5 sales, if we were getting 50% commission. All we get is 50 cents per credit. I want 50% of the sale price. I would much prefer the buyers went to sites that pay me much more per download. Looks like BigStock is going to lose my new uploads.

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/core.php?showpage=howitworks

ibogdan · « **Reply #16 on:** May 13, 2009, 03:02 »

I'm at them since august 08 and still no payout with portfolio around 400+ images.
Disappointing

etienjones · « **Reply #17 on:** May 13, 2009, 03:45 »

Like all the other stock sites, they are getting picky in my opinion. Just had 9 out of 10 images rejected for weird reasons. I am still sitting on a 60% acceptance overall . . . I know, this isn't great, but I am working on it . . . .

E

Milinz · « **Reply #18 on:** May 13, 2009, 05:15 »

Hmmm....

I didn't looked at maths... But, interesting info here!

madelaide · « **Reply #19 on:** May 13, 2009, 05:44 »

Am I the only one getting US$1 and US$2?

DrC · « **Reply #20 on:** May 13, 2009, 05:46 »

I'm with them since Aug 06 and my total earnings from the very first sale until now is about the same of what I make in one month in SS. And I have over 1000 images in both sites.
It is my lowest earner of the 7 I'm in and I'm not going to upload new images for a while. It's not worth the effort.

sharpshot · « **Reply #21 on:** May 13, 2009, 06:37 »

Quote from: madelaide on May 13, 2009, 05:44

Am I the only one getting US$1 and US$2?

I get those too but a 4 credit image can cost the buyer between $4 and $10, so $2 might only be 20% commission.

Magnum · « **Reply #22 on:** May 13, 2009, 07:36 »

Low sales and irritating cathegories. And above that 7 words minimum for description. Defenitly not worth the extra work as it is now... I also have problems navigating the site. weird layout/menus. I don´t spend much time there though.

Dreamframer · « **Reply #23 on:** May 13, 2009, 07:42 »

I have several sales for $ 2 most of them are $ 0,5, and some of them are $ 1

ljooc · « **Reply #24 on:** May 13, 2009, 07:50 »

I have about 200 images with them, I think I made payout only 3x since joining them a year and a half ago. Sales definitely have fallen off sharply. It was steady until Feb this year, March not a single download, April 2 dns, May so far none.

Like Madelaide, I have always gotten no less than $0.50 and many times $1/download. In the past I have had a few $3.

Am not sure what is happening to that site, they are probably having a tough time competing with the big ones in this tough economic climate. I have not uploaded any new stuffs for a long time. I would agree uploading has always been tedious i.e. categories/keyword as mentioned by someone. I like the low payout though

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Author Topic: How are you doing at BigStock? (Read 52123 times)

WarrenPrice

lisafx

KB

m@m

willie

lisafx

gostwyck

lisafx

m@m

KB

WarrenPrice

m@m

madelaide

Pixart

WarrenPrice

sharpshot

ibogdan

etienjones

Milinz

madelaide

DrC

sharpshot

Magnum

Dreamframer

ljooc

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