Author Topic: Canva, what's the plan now? (Read 30627 times)

Justanotherphotographer · « **on:** September 15, 2020, 08:01 »

This really going out to the Canva reps who I know read this forum.

We are approaching the end of the term where they guaranteed out income would be double March's.

I applaud them for putting their money where their mouth is with regards to their belief that there was a huge untapped market of people who would use our images if only they didn’t have pay a dollar for them or whatever (as laughable as this was to those of use who have heard the same thing from agencies multiple times).

But clearly they were wrong. As we predicted downloads increased massively, just not enough to compensate us meaningfully (no where near double income, for some even a sizeable decrease). Leaving us standing still with our work further devalued; sales cannibalised from better paying sites or non subscription downloads on Canva (i.e. same old story).

So what’s the plan? By their own metrics this scheme has absolutely not worked for contributors as expected. Will they now raise their subscription fee to compensate us to a level they themselves defined as fair a few months ago (double our income)? Or was that all just lip service?

marthamarks · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2020, 10:57 »

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on September 15, 2020, 08:01

Or was that all just lip service?

Methinks that's what it was.

Dumc · « **Reply #2 on:** September 15, 2020, 11:17 »

I didn't earn double numbers, but honestly with this new plan, introduced in April or whenever I'm still doing better then before.

cascoly · « **Reply #3 on:** September 15, 2020, 20:04 »

i never made 2x march, but every month it's been enough to double what i made w any other site other than SS

DannyCanva · « **Reply #4 on:** September 24, 2020, 23:49 »

Hey, happy to comment

We've significantly increased payments to contributors since April, even ignoring the 2x guarantee. These increases were to "subscription earnings"; and so it's natural to see download royalty earnings significantly decline; until you get the subscription earnings at the end of each month. The majority of contributors are earning more money than before.

I understand that some aren't. Commenting generally, older content tends to fall out of favour with our users as time goes by, so if you're seeing earning decreases I would suggest seeing whether you can refresh your Canva portfolio with newer shoots. Changes in what Canva users (and the world) searches for also affect this.

The new subscription program has been a success for us, and we hope you see it as the same. We are continuing to work on (and invest a lot of $$$ into) growing Canva Pro, and any increases in subscriptions correspond 1:1 to our royalty pools and your earnings. Our outlook and forecasts are quite positive.

Justanotherphotographer, I'd love to hear why you think it hasn't worked out as expected? Feel free to reply here, or DM me if you'd like to share details privately.

Cheers,
Danny

DannyCanva · « **Reply #5 on:** September 24, 2020, 23:57 »

P.S. I can share increasing diversity and representation in our content is one of our focus areas. Empowering everyone is part of our mission and core values. We'll be testing out modest boosts for diverse imagery in search results, as well as working to add an ethnicity filter in search results (like other stock photography sites).

We are also scaling up template creation for every locale and culture. When we create templates, we often use premium photos from contributors and these can drive a lot of sales/usages/royalties. I would expect diverse content (ethnicity, different cultures, locales) to get a modest boost over the coming months and years.

amabu · « **Reply #6 on:** September 25, 2020, 02:15 »

Hi Danny,

why have you stopped displaying the number of subscription downloads? That makes it very intransparent and is probably the reason why contributors are sceptical.

Yakystockero · « **Reply #7 on:** September 25, 2020, 02:22 »

Well, improving the times in which the new photos are reviewed would be fine, after two months in queue some of my photos have been rejected, while most of them simply continue "In review"

Mir · « **Reply #8 on:** September 25, 2020, 03:56 »

You say to refresh our Canva portfolio with newer shoots.
I have a few images from last year that are still in review.
I stopped uploading because of this, previously I've had images in review for months too, but this is new.
I am never sure what will happen when I upload, not to mention that in the past I've uploaded season specific images and they've been reviewed half a year later.
Do you plan to improve the contributor side?

eyewave · « **Reply #9 on:** September 25, 2020, 07:28 »

Quote from: Yakystockero on September 25, 2020, 02:22

Well, improving the times in which the new photos are reviewed would be fine, after two months in queue some of my photos have been rejected, while most of them simply continue "In review"

Similar here, hundreds of vectors in review for up to six months now, many rejected for no obvious reason (accepted everywhere else), so I stopped uploading anything. Have asked for clarification months ago and was promised that someone would look into the case, but nothing really happens.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #10 on:** September 25, 2020, 10:30 »

Quote from: DannyCanva on September 24, 2020, 23:57

P.S. I can share increasing diversity and representation in our content is one of our focus areas. Empowering everyone is part of our mission and core values. We'll be testing out modest boosts for diverse imagery in search results, as well as working to add an ethnicity filter in search results (like other stock photography sites).

We are also scaling up template creation for every locale and culture. When we create templates, we often use premium photos from contributors and these can drive a lot of sales/usages/royalties. I would expect diverse content (ethnicity, different cultures, locales) to get a modest boost over the coming months and years.

I have seen a very slight increase in income.

When the scheme was being introduced you predicted we would be seeing at least a doubling in income.

My increase is nowhere near that level and it is at the expense of tens of thousands of additional downloads (many time the amount I had before). I know because you initially showed us download numbers and had to delete those stats after seeing how rightly outraged many contributors were at the RPD, less than 5c a download if I remember correctly; fuelling the race to the bottom.

If you are happy with how it is going why do you feel the need to now hide how much you are selling our content for? How about some transparency then we can make an informed decision about which work to supply you with.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #11 on:** September 25, 2020, 11:19 »

Here is the quote from the email convincing us to stay with the program:

"Will my earnings drop after the guarantee period?
We expect your actual earnings to exceed the guarantee, especially by the end of the guarantee period"

So your "I'd love to hear why you think it hasn't worked out as expected?" sounds a bit condescending in that context no? or are you saying that income has more than doubled for most contributors?

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #12 on:** September 25, 2020, 11:26 »

Your prediction/ expectation was absolutely not that you'd "significantly increased payments to contributors since April" but that you would more than double our income (also meaningless without telling us how many more contributors there are).

I guess that's why I said things haven't worked out as expected, because you told us specifically what was expected and things haven't worked out that way. Was it really necessary phrase it "love to hear why" in that context? Almost sounds like gaslighting in that context no?

cascoly · « **Reply #13 on:** September 25, 2020, 17:32 »

Quote from: DannyCanva on September 24, 2020, 23:57

...

We are also scaling up template creation for every locale and culture. When we create templates, we often use premium photos from contributors and these can drive a lot of sales/usages/royalties. I would expect diverse content (ethnicity, different cultures, locales) to get a modest boost over the coming months and years.

if this is true why was i told my submissions from Bhutan, India, and Morocco were not relevant anymore?

otoh, subs have increased my earnings over last year by 2x, but are about the same as Mar 2020. my main concern is what happens after the guarantee period?

Chichikov · « **Reply #14 on:** September 26, 2020, 06:49 »

Quote from: Mir on September 25, 2020, 03:56

You say to refresh our Canva portfolio with newer shoots.
I have a few images from last year that are still in review.
I stopped uploading because of this, previously I've had images in review for months too, but this is new.
I am never sure what will happen when I upload, not to mention that in the past I've uploaded season specific images and they've been reviewed half a year later.
Do you plan to improve the contributor side?

Quote from: eyewave on September 25, 2020, 07:28

Quote from: Yakystockero on September 25, 2020, 02:22
Well, improving the times in which the new photos are reviewed would be fine, after two months in queue some of my photos have been rejected, while most of them simply continue "In review"

Similar here, hundreds of vectors in review for up to six months now, many rejected for no obvious reason (accepted everywhere else), so I stopped uploading anything. Have asked for clarification months ago and was promised that someone would look into the case, but nothing really happens.

Same here!

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #15 on:** September 26, 2020, 08:03 »

Did y’all know there’s a huge group of people who use canva to create simple designs which they offer for sale as digital downloads on Etsy? Nothing extra to the contributor.

Photobomb · « **Reply #16 on:** September 26, 2020, 10:38 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 26, 2020, 08:03

Did y’all know there’s a huge group of people who use canva to create simple designs which they offer for sale as digital downloads on Etsy? Nothing extra to the contributor.

No!
Thanks for the heads up - Do you have a link?

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #17 on:** September 26, 2020, 12:54 »

Lurk in the FB group “digital passive income”.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #18 on:** September 27, 2020, 07:07 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 26, 2020, 12:54

Lurk in the FB group “digital passive income”.

Don't fall into the YouTube rabbit-hole of people telling eachother how to do this. It's infuriating. Thanks for letting us know.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #19 on:** September 27, 2020, 09:06 »

I mean, apparently the Canva license allows it, but I don’t think most realize that.

ShadySue · « **Reply #20 on:** September 27, 2020, 09:10 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 27, 2020, 09:06

I mean, apparently the Canva license allows it, but I don’t think most realize that.

I actually thought that was one of Canva's main 'markets'.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #21 on:** September 28, 2020, 02:48 »

Reading into it a bit I am not sure the license does allow it. The templates being sold I think should have watermarked images unless they are from canva's own free collection?

Maybe the rep can clear this up!

Milleflore · « **Reply #22 on:** September 28, 2020, 15:56 »

I saw this come up on my Twitter feed last night and then came over to see what MSG forum was saying about Canva, and lo-and-behold you were talking about the same thing.

https://twitter.com/jennymarston_xo/status/1310647966601011200

https://twitter.com/jennymarston_xo

This is huge competition to us. I see these Canva templates all over Pinterest and being used on bloggers sites instead of professional photography.

Is this just another way to rip off the poor old photographer once again?

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #23 on:** September 28, 2020, 16:01 »

"I saw this come up on my Twitter feed last night"

Boy, that really seems like it cheapens the whole idea of ... creativity?

Milleflore · « **Reply #24 on:** September 28, 2020, 16:35 »

The bloggers market is a HUGE market nowadays, especially with the large rise of Mom Bloggers. See Pinterest's research stats released in 2019:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/pinterest-statistics-for-business/

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Author Topic: Canva, what's the plan now? (Read 30627 times)

Justanotherphotographer

marthamarks

Dumc

cascoly

DannyCanva

DannyCanva

amabu

Yakystockero

Mir

eyewave

Justanotherphotographer

Justanotherphotographer

Justanotherphotographer

cascoly

Chichikov

Sean Locke Photography

Photobomb

Sean Locke Photography

Justanotherphotographer

Sean Locke Photography

ShadySue

Justanotherphotographer

Milleflore

Sean Locke Photography

Milleflore

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