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Author Topic: Do you believe that DT is dying?  (Read 67097 times)

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« on: December 09, 2014, 19:58 »
0
Since May DT has gone south. HUGE drops in Nov and this month.  I think they are losing customers or changed the search and I m on the sh!t end of the stick.



« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2014, 21:24 »
+3
For me, DT is my second highest earner.   Sales have been holding steady, but I've noticed that RPD has been steadily falling for the past two years.

I'd say FT is the one dying.  They used to be my #2, and now they're #4.  (#3 is 123RF, and we all know who #1 is.) 

« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2014, 22:38 »
+3
Sales have declined there all year,  but still better than low tier agencies.  I hope they turn things around cuz they are one of the fairest sites to contribs.

« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2014, 23:53 »
0
I'm not up for sharing the numbers, but here's my DT graph, October 2004 to now (the flatline in the middle is when I was exclusive at iStock)

Beppe Grillo

« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2014, 04:49 »
+6
I don't know why, but these last months the sales always start after the 10th or 15th of the month.
And they are less and less every month despite a growth of my uploads
For me DT is not dying, it is almost dead

We need some adrenaline injection here!

« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2014, 06:43 »
+3
I'm still seeing annual growth but only in small increments - nothing like SS or FT.

DT has always felt like some sort of photo club that happens to sell pictures and has long been outmaneuvered by the rest of the top 4. Even the name, Dreamstime is pony. Or it could be that I have, on average, between 800 and 1,200 fewer files uploaded there thanks to their rotten "similars" policy.


« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2014, 08:12 »
+1
DT just doesn't work for me. For example they rejected my best seller at SS and FT for being "too simple". Besides this, I got a frenzy rejection of 7 whole batches so I dropped them. I get payout at FT every month, but never reached U$ 50 in DT in a whole year. Sure the RPD is nice and maybe it still works for long time contributors because of the search, but one average day at SS is the same as the whole month for DT. It's just not money-wise uploading there.

« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2014, 09:19 »
+2
I'm not up for sharing the numbers, but here's my DT graph, October 2004 to now (the flatline in the middle is when I was exclusive at iStock)


Well your graph as a whole looks like mine, so it's not just me I suspect.  I refuse to upload video there to enhance my income due to their crummy video commissions. Really, though, I think it is the same with most agencies. SS, for example, is growing in terms of revenue but declining in terms of number of downloads.  It's the OD's, SOD's and video sales that give me cyclic bumps in income. Without those SS would be like any other agency. On DT my last 30 sales are 35 cents, then $2, then $2 again, then 25 35 centers. DT is probably pushing subs because my credit sales are almost non-existent. DT may be able to survive this way nicely, but the contributor loses big time. They will soon be supported by college students who make $25 a month and they will be giddy with that much.

« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2014, 10:51 »
+2
As of yesterday I was $3 over what I earned in November.  Not that I'm having a great month, I hadn't had a month worse than Nov 2014 since December 2008.

Phadrea

    This user is banned.
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2014, 12:28 »
+5
Well if they are still around I estimate I could make the payout threshold by around 2017. It's that bad.

« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2014, 18:20 »
+2
DT is my best selling site, it is Shutterstock that has taken a steep dive.

w7lwi

  • Those that don't stand up to evil enable evil.
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2014, 19:48 »
+5
While not in the same league as Shutterstock, DT still does fairly well for me and I take several payouts each year.  This is probably due to a relatively large number of individual sales in the $5 to $10 range each month, along with the usual $0.35 subscription sales and an occasional EL.  So are they dying ... not so far as I am concerned.

« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2014, 12:41 »
+5
I do not believe DT is dying. What I believe is that MS business these days is harder for each individual artist due to hundreds of new artists signing in to the agencies and thousands of new images added to the collections each month. Good for the agencies, bad for each one of us that is always receiving a thinner slice of the pie.
I liked DT a lot. Once, it was my 2nd best after SS. Now, it's sad to see the charts...

Huge drop of sales this year, as can be seen in the quarterly graph. If this trend continues, next year there will be no sales at all.



Compared to December of 2013, this month will end about half way. RPD is dropping a lot as well...



My uploading pace has been steady all the time but review times are so long now that entire batches of themed images miss the season and a chance to be seen and sold.

Overall, I can notice this trend across all sites, being DepositPhotos the only exception, with very shy monthly improvements.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2014, 19:43 by ccaetano »

« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2014, 12:47 »
+10
I was surprised at how many sub sales I get there.  It's just like SS, essentially.  But a lot slower.

« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2014, 13:05 »
0
I was surprised at how many sub sales I get there.  It's just like SS, essentially.  But a lot slower.

Your right.  DT is almost all subs now.  I am lucky to get 1 or 2 credit sales per day there now.  Used to be about half and half as recently as last year.

« Reply #15 on: December 11, 2014, 13:33 »
+2
I was surprised at how many sub sales I get there.  It's just like SS, essentially.  But a lot slower.

It's been mentioned before, but it goes in waves :) I have some pages of 20 sales where 1/20 is a credit sale and then some where 9/20 are credit sales.

Now DT has done away with more money for subscriptions of level 5 images, the only variation in subs is when the $2 royalty ones show up.

However, after you've been there a while (I think you only recently started uploading there) and have a decent number of level 4 and 5 images, the credit sales when they happen produce better royalties - two recent credit sales on level 5 images produced $7.61 royalty for the medium size, and a level 4 extra large $8.31

I'm still thinking DT's pricing is way too complicated (which has hurt volume there) and that they don't have the bonanza of $75+ royalties of SS SOD sales to make up for the many subscriptions.

« Reply #16 on: December 11, 2014, 17:39 »
0
While not in the same league as Shutterstock, DT still does fairly well for me and I take several payouts each year.  This is probably due to a relatively large number of individual sales in the $5 to $10 range each month, along with the usual $0.35 subscription sales and an occasional EL.  So are they dying ... not so far as I am concerned.
Seems about right.  Overall RPI seems to be in slight decline everywhere but IS is the only one that is truly spectacular

« Reply #17 on: December 11, 2014, 18:59 »
0
I too experience a decline in DT sales, but I wouldn't say they're dying. They may still have enough profits, or they can cut costs to survive a little longer. Smaller agencies, on the other hand, may succumb first. Although the smaller companies have less costs to run their business.

« Reply #18 on: December 11, 2014, 23:35 »
+1
Never got to see them alive.... the similars  got me

« Reply #19 on: December 15, 2014, 15:34 »
+2
I've read posts like this long enough to know that different contributors have different experiences. One person's sales have "dropped off a cliff", while someone else's is "best month ever". Perhaps due to the types of images people are producing and buyers are looking for at a particular time.

That said, the reason I took a look at the Dreamstime board is to see if there was a post like this, because my sales have dwindled to almost nothing. (ok...so $0.35 a week isn't exactly nothing.) So, my perception matches others here.

One thing I like to do from time to time is to drop in on the agencies I upload to (SS, DT, BS, & FT), type in main keywords from one of MY images and see what kind of a job their SE does in finding it. Over the past half year or so, I have been unable to find many of my own images using this process on DT. If I can't find my own image, using my own keywords in the meta, how can a buyer?
And don't get me started on their 2 week review process. That may be an indication that they don't have sufficient funds to hire enough reviewers.

 It does make one wonder.

« Reply #20 on: December 15, 2014, 17:13 »
-1
(ok...so $0.35 a week isn't exactly nothing.)

Yeah, it is.  I find more than that in lose change on the street most weeks, and wonder if its even worth the effort to bend over and pick it up.   

Your right that different people have different experiences, but I doubt many would stick around for those returns.  Are you still bothering to upload there for that little money?   

« Reply #21 on: December 15, 2014, 19:04 »
+3
Well, I haven't uploaded to DT for over a month; but my returns on SS and FT still make it worthwhile.
Which makes DT even sadder, since (except for this month) I've uploaded the same images to all.
At this time, I don't see any downside to leaving the DT account open and see what happens.
Hope springs eternal....and I believe in Santy Claus.

« Reply #22 on: December 16, 2014, 00:54 »
+1
Well, I haven't uploaded to DT for over a month; but my returns on SS and FT still make it worthwhile.
Which makes DT even sadder, since (except for this month) I've uploaded the same images to all.
At this time, I don't see any downside to leaving the DT account open and see what happens.
Hope springs eternal....and I believe in Santy Claus.

I would not remove portfolio either.  Lots of trouble to take it down, and like you say, maybe something happens to improve things.  But like you I would not keep uploading for that income.  :)

« Reply #23 on: January 08, 2015, 21:02 »
+1
Funny how we're all so different. DT is far and away my worst performer (my other agencies are SS/IS/BS/FT) and the only reason I haven't dumped DT already is that they don't yet have my full port... I've been working through submitting a backlog of 400-or-so images that are already live with my other agencies, and I thought I should let them run with my full port for a while before making my mind up.

As a rough estimate, DT sales are running at about 1-2% of SS sales for me.

« Reply #24 on: January 09, 2015, 01:32 »
+3
DT has greater ups and downs for me than any other site save Alamy - but after a WME in October, November and December were strong & doing okay this month too, but won't know for sure 'til the end of the month.. The one really frustrating thing lately is it's taking weeks for them to review images.

If you're making sales, I wouldn't pull your port.



 

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