Hello MSGers!

It has been an extremely good year so far and to document this we are today celebrating our 8 millionth image on www.depositphotos.com. So thanks again to all you contributors for making Depositphotos the fastest growing microstock agency in the world.

Also, we are introducing a brand new feature that improves the lightbox functionality. Check it out:

http://blog.depositphotos.com/depositphotos-reaches-8-million-high-quality-images-and-introduces-brand-new-lightbox-functionality.html

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, June 21, 2012 � Depositphotos, the fastest growing microstock agency in the world, surpassed the 8 million image milestone. And in addition to reaching new heights, Depositphotos unveiled brand-new lightbox operating features.

Among the authors who helped Depositphotos� library grow by another million images are such world-renowned photographers as WaveBreakMedia, Pressmaster, Life on White, PHB.CZ and Nagib.

�High quality images, variety and freshness of presented content is what our clients value the most,� says Vadim Nekhai, Chief Marketing Officer of Depositphotos. �And this is the main reason why we spend so much time trying to attract the most professional contributors from around the world.�

That's great news for you!  Personally, your low prices coupled with the fact that you can only attract buyers by giving away our images for free and paying us a sub sale for them is hardly worth celebrating.  

You also encourage copyright theft on Pinterest so I'll be closing my account after my next payout.  That will be one less annoying micro I need to worry about and it'll be my turn to pop open the champagne bottle.

So congrats!  

That's great news for you!  Personally, your low prices coupled with the fact that you can only attract buyers by giving away our images for free and paying us a sub sale for them is hardly worth celebrating.  

You also encourage copyright theft on Pinterest so I'll be closing my account after my next payout.  That will be one less annoying micro I need to worry about and it'll be my turn to pop open the champagne bottle.

So congrats!  

+1

Congratulations!

I know I am usually one of the first to throw a wet blanket, but no complaints from me about DP.  It is indeed growing fast, along with my income there. They have surpassed most of the lower tier sites I contribute to in both sales and $.  

Yes, I would love to see prices rise, of course, and I expect they will as they become more established.  The Pinterest thing is a concern at several of the sites, so not unique to DP.  

But overall, upload is easy, the site is attracting buyers, income is rising, payouts are fast and hassle free, and customer service is very responsive.  

Congratulations on a great year Marius!  

Three of them and I'll be dropping them all. 

Is it indeed a fast growing site, Lisa?  How many of your downloads are subscriptions and how many of those are from the free subscription plan that DP offers new buyers?  If there's potential for real growth, I might stick it out, provided they lose the Pinterest button. 

I have lost my mojo with DP.  All the promises of special placement seems to have dropped off the face of the planet, like my sales.  First three months was pretty decent, then a nose dive just like Evil Kenevil in Snake Canyon.

Quote from: grafix04 on June 21, 2012, 21:33

Three of them and I'll be dropping them all. 

Is it indeed a fast growing site, Lisa?  How many of your downloads are subscriptions and how many of those are from the free subscription plan that DP offers new buyers?  If there's potential for real growth, I might stick it out, provided they lose the Pinterest button. 

You are either less dependent on stock income, or a lot braver than me.  I could not afford to drop the three sites that are allowing pinterest. 

As for sub sales, I just checked and 30% of my sales are credit sales.  But since I am selling on other sub sites, I don't hold that against DP.  Their subs royalties are within the accepted standards. 

How many of them are from the free packages?  I have no idea.  Is there any way to tell?  FWIW, I am very pleased that when DP offers a discount, they pay us the full royalty we should have gotten. I see that as a big positive, not a negative.   Some other sites make contributors eat the cost of their self-promotion. 

I'm not trying to persuade you to feel differently BTW. You are entitled to your opinion.  I'm just explaining why I feel good about DP. 

Being dependent on microstock is not the same thing as being dependent on Deposit Photos.  Not yet anyway.  I have to ask myself whether I want to stick around and eventually become dependent on them.  I have to ask myself how will their success effect the other micros that are currently more profitable (for me).  I've just had a closer look at their subscription deals and I don't like what I see.  It's a fantastic deal for buyers but a terrible deal for us.  Most buyers won't purchase a credit package when DP offers three day subs.  There is also a big incentive for both credit and subs buyers to move from other micros and become sub buyers at DP.  If that happens, how will that effect me?  What will that do to my microstock income overall that I'm currently dependent on?
 
I'm trying to move away from micro because, as I see it, there are far too many micro photographers out there who don't think too far into the future and are bringing down prices further.  Selling at these excessively cheap agents means losing more money elsewhere.  I believe this is what is happening with DT.  They've gone the other direction, raising prices too high, forcing their buyers to leave since they have such cheaper alternatives elsewhere.  As DP's gallery grows, the problem will only get worse and then we'll be complaining about our income at other agencies tanking � even more than we do now.

It's not about being brave either, it's about planning the future.  I don't see much of a future in microstock.  Not one that I can remain dependent on.  I think it's more brave to stay with agents like DP because it means diminishing income elsewhere.  I also believe it's more brave to keep your eggs in one basket (microstock) and not consider alternatives.  I'm not that brave.  I like my money too much to give it up like that.

I'm not trying to persuade you or anyone else either.  I've been around long enough to know that photographers will do whatever they want to do, even if it means shooting themselves in the foot.  This is the problem with most photographers.  For some reason they believe a new agency equates to additional income.  More agents doesn't equal more buyers.  More agents means a different mix of income sources and more agents like DP means changing the mix to increase lower income sources.  I definitely don't want that. 

So I'm not trying to persuade you because I know that's impossible (and would only frustrate me further). I too am explaining why I don't feel good about them.  I don't want to see DP become successful because their success means my demise.  I'll be pulling my portfolio after the next payout.  This way I'll have the right to shift the blame from me to you and others like you when my income is lost on my best sites.  You and others won't blame yourselves.  You'll blame the micro who was driven south because of your support for sites like DT.  Please don't get offended or take what I wrote as personal.  It's not personal at all.  Just like you, I have to make decisions that I can live with.  Even though our decisions effect everyone else, your business is still your business.  I don't have to like it though because it effects me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter about it.  It's forced me to come up with a contingency plan, so when the micro industry becomes too bad (and it will), I'll at least have alternative income coming in.

DP has the lowest RPD of all the sites for me (consistently less than 50c per download, even FL is considerably higher) so my feelings are mixed at best. I am thinking about reducing their total number of images by a few thousand in fact.

Just as well then that I care far more about R than about RPD.  This month DP is #4 for me in revenue at 12% of my total, behind SS (30%), 123RF (15%), and iS (13%).  I often get bursts of sales from the same shoot, one of the reasons Dreamstime's no similars policy bugs me.  (Bugs me even more when I get several sales at DT from the same shoot, but I digress.)

Point is, my revenue at DP is up 5X year over year.  Their submission process is among the least painful.  They accept nearly everything I submit, which, I grant, have all been vetted by SS before DP sees them.  Given past results, I'm looking forward to what another year brings.

That's great that you are growing with them.  Hope that continues and they continue gaining momentum....for the rest of our sakes

congrats... depositephotos has grown a lot in few years... wish you ppl cross the milestone of many top agencies too.
Although as others said regarding the price factors for contributors I will agree to it...