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Author Topic: How are you doing at BigStock?  (Read 51858 times)

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« Reply #25 on: May 13, 2009, 08:07 »
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Nice to see everybody can figure out their own way of screwing the contributors. BigStock went unnoticed as they are a low earner.

fotolia does it, BigStock does it, all of them do.. but When I focus on veer like in the other thread, then I am a sinner because I said "let's stop veer in advance, before they get millions of images". I never went in a rant, I just wanted to close the gates to more of the same. The reason I didn't mention other sites like BigStock and fotolia was because they already have millions of images, not because I am loving them!

anyway guys, stop going in a rant against BigStock  :D  At the end of the day, they still pay better than IS, right? What a good example for all of us! IS?! ;D


« Reply #26 on: May 13, 2009, 08:27 »
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anyway guys, stop going in a rant against BigStock  :D  At the end of the day, they still pay better than IS, right? What a good example for all of us! IS?! ;D

Not necessarily __ we have no way of knowing what the average payout level is. For all we know it may be little better than 20%.

At least IS can justify the low payout level by all the marketing, etc that really does generate the money. IS are generating more than 20x more income for me with my portfolio than BigStock.

It seems to me with BigStock we have the worst of all worlds __ very low payout percentage with very few sales. The site is generating $M's for it's owners though.

« Reply #27 on: May 13, 2009, 09:18 »
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anyway guys, stop going in a rant against BigStock  :D  At the end of the day, they still pay better than IS, right? What a good example for all of us! IS?! ;D

Not necessarily __ we have no way of knowing what the average payout level is. For all we know it may be little better than 20%.

At least IS can justify the low payout level by all the marketing, etc that really does generate the money. IS are generating more than 20x more income for me with my portfolio than BigStock.

It seems to me with BigStock we have the worst of all worlds __ very low payout percentage with very few sales. The site is generating $M's for it's owners though.
OMG
Now I understand why I earn 0.5-2$ at BigStock. I though this was slow but the honest site.
I agree with Gostwyck, BigStock is the worst site (ex-aequo with Crestock)

gbcimages

« Reply #28 on: May 13, 2009, 09:24 »
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Out of 500+ images I had one dl of .50  on 4/22. So you can see my sales  are not good at the present.

karensuki

  • Dreaming
« Reply #29 on: May 13, 2009, 09:53 »
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I've had a $3.00 usd sale and a $0.50usd sale.

But then I'm still in the "thrilled someone found my images among the millions online" stage...

« Reply #30 on: May 13, 2009, 11:21 »
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I have $7 in sales this month with about 180 images, already tied for my BME.  I started uploading in January.

« Reply #31 on: May 13, 2009, 11:37 »
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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?

Because every good month I've had on BS is followed by 2 weak months, the first of which will is usually 50% of the high month.  Lat month was a BME by a couple $ and in May if sales keep at this pace I will drop to 31% of my high on the last rotation. 

« Reply #32 on: May 13, 2009, 12:09 »
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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.

I see your point now, however this is exactly what it reads in their FAQ - they don't say 50% commission, but 50c per credit.  I suppose the 2.50 credit is very rare, maybe even the US$2 credit - these must be very occasional buyers.  I believe our commission there is probably on the 30-40%, au pair with FT or above.

« Reply #33 on: May 13, 2009, 12:18 »
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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.

I see your point now, however this is exactly what it reads in their FAQ - they don't say 50% commission, but 50c per credit.  I suppose the 2.50 credit is very rare, maybe even the US$2 credit - these must be very occasional buyers.  I believe our commission there is probably on the 30-40%, au pair with FT or above.

Perharps I am not as involved in the arithmetic of it all. Coming from a different background, I don't pay much attention to anything other then the bottom line. Sure, the %age sounds wonderful if raised to a level we all feel great, but like it or not, you can easily find other sites to contribute if the criterion of a higher percentage or per sale is that vital to you.
In my case, I'd still prefer seeing I earned $1 -2 per download. How much BigStock earns is irrelevant to me, so long as they don't roll over and die.

« Reply #34 on: May 18, 2009, 19:32 »
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Hi all.... I just wanted to take a second to address recent posts here wondering if anything is wrong at BigStockPhoto.   Good news - BigStockPhoto is doing great. We are in absolutely no danger, we're financially strong, and to boot, we've seen new all-time record sales figures this year already.

One thing we've always been good at is controlling costs, and we continue to run a very healthy lean, mean organization.

Regarding uploading: we are about to unveil a total overhaul to the image submission user interface and process. It's been long due and we listened to you, and got busy. Uploading and submitting, especially if your images are already meta tagged, will be a breeze.

Regarding the 7 word description requirement we have, you have to understand that without a that description, your image is just a set of keywords - just like thousands of other images. Since you can't stuff your keywords, you need a way to let a person searching know that your image is MOSTLY a photo of a business man in a blue shirt with a coffee cup, for example. Without that short blurb, those critical keywords "business, man, blue, shirt, coffee, cup" don't get any extra weight. But with that phrase, we are able to weight those words a little extra to know that your image is a good result when those keywords are searched. So we feel it's important to enter good keywords, good title, and a good short description that really tells us what the image is.

This helps us deliver your image to the searcher at the right time because not every keyword should have equal weight. Hope that all makes sense.

That said, we are considering making this optional, as we know some people get frustrated with it. But my advice is to include the short description as it helps your image get found when the buyers need it...

As far as some of you seeing lower sales lately: it's incredibly hard to know for sure why you might see a dip, while some other site shows a rise for you. Perhaps we had a lot of really premium images uploaded by some of the most popular contributors this month, and these new images are causing more competition for your portfolio.

The answer for a sales dip would probably be slightly different for each contributor if we could figure it out one contributor at a time... there are so many factors that play into your monthly sales.   Don't let your skills stagnate either. Notice how guys like Yuri Arcurs continue to tweak their work, find new verticals to shoot for, etc. The most successful shooters don't sit still and they grow with the market.

All I can say for sure is that traffic is up over the last few months, sales generally strong, and many new features and innovations being unleashed over the coming months. Things look great.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, and your contribution to BigStockPhoto.

Best regards,
Tim Donahue
Founder
BigStockPhoto.com

« Reply #35 on: May 18, 2009, 19:38 »
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I'm confused, are we talking with Tim or Dawn? :)

Nevertheless, thanks for the update.  It is interesting to know that you use description for relevance.  I personally think this is a smart choice.

« Reply #36 on: May 18, 2009, 19:44 »
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How about some statistics? I only know how little downloads I have. How about how little views? At least this would give me info about direction my portfolio is going. Maybe stats per period of time also :-)

m@m

« Reply #37 on: May 18, 2009, 21:24 »
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Dawn, is the search rotation going to improve at all with all of these new changes coming to BigStock?...I think that if the search rotation system were to be improved, then maybe sales would be spread out a little better among us, the "regular photographers" and the new group of popular contributors with premium photos that have join the site, in the past month.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2009, 21:50 by m@m »

« Reply #38 on: May 18, 2009, 23:32 »
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   Good news - BigStockPhoto is doing great. We are in absolutely no danger, we're financially strong, and to boot, we've seen new all-time record sales figures this year already.
You are doing great, I suppose that paying us 20%  helps.

« Reply #39 on: May 19, 2009, 00:33 »
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At least I am in good company it seems.

Although in general I seem to bad company  ;) BigStock was very slow for me too in May. On average 1-2 sales per day, I had a dry spell of 5 days last week between May 5 and 11. Normally half or more of my downloads were from the 10 same images, in a port of 1000+ - then, earlier this year I suddenly started selling newer images too. Since early April, it seems I'm back to default. My bet is they were playing with the search engine. Up till now, May has been a very slow month in general, and BigStock is still alive and kicking - no surprises, no fancy buyouts, moderate but steady sales for years.

« Reply #40 on: May 19, 2009, 00:52 »
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It is interesting to know that you use description for relevance.  I personally think this is a smart choice.

They do that already for years.  ;)
Dreamstime does it too now, but a little angel just whispered in my ear that DT was the second  ::) :P

« Reply #41 on: May 19, 2009, 02:50 »
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Hi all.... I just wanted to take a second to address recent posts here wondering if anything is wrong at BigStockPhoto.   Good news - BigStockPhoto is doing great. We are in absolutely no danger, we're financially strong, and to boot, we've seen new all-time record sales figures this year already.

One thing we've always been good at is controlling costs, and we continue to run a very healthy lean, mean organization.


Thanks for the update Tim. I am annoyed though that despite the length of your post you have avoided discussing the important issue of commission percentage and why you have been slowly reducing it over the last couple of years.

When I first signed up to BigStock the commission level was 50%. Full stop. Period. I am not aware of any announcements or emails to contributors indicating that commissions were to be reduced and can now be as little as 20%. Judging by the surprised responses from senior contributors earlier in this thread, when I pointed out what the current payout levels actually are, I clearly wasn't alone.

Why have commissions been lowered and are we to expect our share of the revenue (generated with our work) to be reduced yet further over forthcoming years?

Why can't you be honest and fair to the contributors, that are providing you with a very profitable business, by stating an exact percentage commission like every other agency does on non-subscription sales?

Due to the low % commissions, combined with low sales, I have decided to not waste my time any further by uploading to BigStock. In particular I feel disappointed and annoyed about the sneaky way that commissions have been reduced and I no longer trust the management of BigStock.

« Reply #42 on: May 19, 2009, 04:16 »
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Very slooww almost 700 pics on line and $ 5-10 a month, Crestock with less than 200 pictures is doing better enough said.....

« Reply #43 on: May 19, 2009, 04:45 »
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I agree with gostwyck, the low commissions need to be talked about.  The high earning sites can get away with lower commissions because they spend lots on advertising and bring in the buyers but I will have to consider if it is worth continuing with BigStock for less than 50%.  What is all the extra money being spent on?  If my earnings were improving, then I might agree to taking a lower % but they are not.

lisafx

« Reply #44 on: May 19, 2009, 11:25 »
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Thanks for the update Tim.  Good news on streamlining the upload process.   

To be honest, though, the decline of sales and commissions is more of an issue IMO.

I am concerned about the lower % too.   My average sale on BigStock nets me 83 cents.  That is on the extreme low end of what I get on PPD sites.  Only subscription sites are a lower RPI.

I am also very concerned about sales falloff.  With over 4500 diverse images I am not one of the small or specialized portfolios that is generally very affected by sales fluctuations.  Some of the others posting in this thread are high volume sellers too.  To assume this sales drop is just affecting the mid to low level contributors would not be correct. 

« Reply #45 on: May 19, 2009, 11:34 »
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I am also very concerned about sales falloff.  With over 4500 diverse images I am not one of the small or specialized portfolios that is generally very affected by sales fluctuations.  Some of the others posting in this thread are high volume sellers too.  To assume this sales drop is just affecting the mid to low level contributors would not be correct. 

Same here Lisa...

Patrick H.

gbcimages

« Reply #46 on: May 19, 2009, 11:34 »
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like i said I have a little over 500 images and only two sales this month. It must be my type of images .

« Reply #47 on: May 19, 2009, 12:12 »
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To be honest, though, the decline of sales and commissions is more of an issue IMO.

I am concerned about the lower % too.   

Exactly.

Just two years ago BigStock were averaging about 6-7% of my total revenue, neck-and-neck with StockXpert at the time. Nowadays BigStock are down to 2% and fading fast whilst StockXpert has remained unchanged at 7%.

I am increasingly concerned that BigStock is now being run as a get-rich-quick scheme for the owners. Commissions have been lowered by stealth and there's not much evidence of significant investment in the site itself or marketing the library. This apparent short-term greed combined with the less than opaque attitude of the management towards their contributors is a worrying sign IMHO. They haven't even bothered to reply/post in their own forums for weeks. Hmm.

« Reply #48 on: May 19, 2009, 12:25 »
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When I first signed up to BigStock the commission level was 50%. Full stop. Period. I am not aware of any announcements or emails to contributors indicating that commissions were to be reduced and can now be as little as 20%. Judging by the surprised responses from senior contributors earlier in this thread, when I pointed out what the current payout levels actually are, I clearly wasn't alone.

Is that so? I'm on BigStock since August 2005 and I thought it still was 50%. How dit that happen? I didn't see any announcement like from DT when they made a major change (actually improvement) on their commission scheme.  :o

m@m

« Reply #49 on: May 19, 2009, 14:49 »
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So it seems that BS have being BSing all of us for a long time with commissions, and they still have the guts to come into this forum and brag about how well they're doing and how strong the site is, as Dawn said "One thing we've always been good at is controlling costs, and we continue to run a very healthy lean, mean organization" Yeah! I'll bet, controlling our commissions without letting us know of any change, and making the owners of the site rich. You know what, as gostwyck mention, I also no longer trust the management of BigStock, or their sneaky ways, with that said, I will no longer upload to BigStock (fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!!!).  >:(


 

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