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Author Topic: Is Dreamstime dying?  (Read 80950 times)

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lisafx

« Reply #250 on: May 30, 2010, 15:28 »
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So if I understand correctly, they are saying that they WILL accept collages, and according to the next-to-last sentence, they are encouraging you to include several shots IN ONE FILE, thereby giving the buyer SEVERAL SHOTS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. Am I interpreting that correctly? Because if I am, it seems like a bad business idea.



Wow, good catch!  Although I have gotten that notice I never bothered to read it to the end.  

I am not completely opposed to collages in principle.  I will sometimes take a group of OLDER images which are no longer selling and put two or three together into a collage to squeeze some more sales out of them.  But I certainly would not do that with NEW images, much less an entire new series.  

How could I ever recover the costs of a shoot that cost me several hundreds of dollars in props, models, and location fees by selling the whole thing as a collage for .35 subscriptions?  Even the old "make it up on volume" argument holds less water as competition continues to grow and download numbers slip.   The collage thing sounds like career suicide to me.

Edited to keep beating this horse... ;)

Another disadvantage to the collage idea is that our images sell based on their impact in thumbnails.  Stitch 15-20 images together and it is practically impossible to see what's there at thumbnail size.

http://www.dreamstime.com/search.php?s_ph=y&s_il=y&s_rf=y&s_ed=y&srh_field=food+collage&firstvalue=food+collage&lastsearchvalue=null&s_sm=all&s_st=new&memso=y&s_cf=1&s_catid=&s_cliid=&s_colid=&memorize_search=1&s_exc=&s_excp=&s_sp=&s_sl1=y&s_sl2=y&s_sl3=y&s_sl4=y&s_sl5=y&s_color1=FFFFFF&s_percent1=10&s_color2=FFFFFF&s_percent2=10&s_rsf=0&s_rst=7&s_clc=y&s_clm=y&s_orp=y&s_ors=y&s_orl=y&s_orw=y
« Last Edit: May 30, 2010, 15:49 by lisafx »


« Reply #251 on: May 30, 2010, 15:58 »
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It's starting to look like all of those foreign sites that are stealing our images.  :-\

« Reply #252 on: June 01, 2010, 06:54 »
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DT is steady enough - but I will be putting that Carribbean cruise on hold for another while!

lisafx

« Reply #253 on: June 01, 2010, 10:16 »
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Just thought I would update this thread.  Before doing my end of the month stats it looked like things were steady at DT relative to the other agencies, but my May 2010 stats compared with May last year show my royalties there have declined by 11% over the past year.  That is more of a decline than at other sites.

My gain or loss from May 09 - May 10 on the various sites:

IS   -7%
SS  -5%
DT -11%

FT +4%
BigStock +20%
123 +5%
CanStockPhoto +62%

« Reply #254 on: June 01, 2010, 11:45 »
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Nice illustration of the situation Lisa. Mine is similar but even more extreme than yours;

IS   -13%
DT  -38%

SS  +11%
FT  +23%
BigStock +44%


When you consider that StockXpert were contributing about 6% to my revenue last year, and presumably their customers must have gone somewhere, then DT doesn't appear to have benefited at all.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2010, 11:49 by gostwyck »

lisafx

« Reply #255 on: June 01, 2010, 12:05 »
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Wow!  That is extreme! Hopefully dollarwise your big gains at FT and SS have offset the losses at DT and IS? 

I agree though, the 7% I am down overall directly corresponds to the amount StockXpert brought in last year.  That loss does not appear to have been made up for in my case. 

« Reply #256 on: June 01, 2010, 12:11 »
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I had been an eternal optimist cheering for DT in this thread, but a terrible April and May have changed my tune.  It's like someone flipped a switch... DT was doing outstanding for me until early April, and the bottom fell out.  My April sales at DT were LESS THAN HALF my March sales.  May was a repeat of April almost to the dollar.  What the heck happened in April to bring such a steep, sudden drop?  And you can't just say "it's the market, increased competition, blah blah blah" because my sales at all the other sites have been either steady (SS, BigStock, 123) or growing rapidly (IS, FT).

« Reply #257 on: June 01, 2010, 12:24 »
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Sales have been down in general the last few months across the board.  But what I find interesting is that among the top 6, only Dreamstime is down year over year (June 09 - May 10 vs. June 08 - May 09).  Shutterstock's up 11%, iStock's up 21%, Fotolia & BigStock 15%, and 123RF a whopping 153%.  But DT's down 5% over the same period.  That's cause for concern, especially given their attitude toward image series.  As others have said, if you shoot with models and have expenses, getting a large series is the only way to make it pay.

« Reply #258 on: June 01, 2010, 12:29 »
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I had been an eternal optimist cheering for DT in this thread, but a terrible April and May have changed my tune.  It's like someone flipped a switch... DT was doing outstanding for me until early April, and the bottom fell out.  My April sales at DT were LESS THAN HALF my March sales.  May was a repeat of April almost to the dollar.  What the heck happened in April to bring such a steep, sudden drop?  And you can't just say "it's the market, increased competition, blah blah blah" because my sales at all the other sites have been either steady (SS, BigStock, 123) or growing rapidly (IS, FT).

That's my experience too. Someone apparently 'flipping a switch' to turn on/off my sales seems to happen all the time at DT __ a couple of good weeks here and there followed by a month of virtually nothing. It's happening more often and getting more extreme in the effect it has too.

The last month I had fewer sales than May was back in ... wait for it ... October 2005. I kid you not. Back then I only had about 20% of the portfolio I have now.

Dreamstime is most definitely dying on it's arse for me.

« Reply #259 on: June 01, 2010, 12:47 »
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Well, here are my stats:

IS   about the same
SS  +36%

DT  23%
BigStock  33%


Quote
Sales have been down in general the last few months across the board.  But what I find interesting is that among the top 6, only Dreamstime is down year over year (June 09 - May 10 vs. June 08 - May 09).  Shutterstock's up 11%, iStock's up 21%, Fotolia & BigStock 15%, and 123RF a whopping 153%.  But DT's down 5% over the same period.  That's cause for concern, especially given their attitude toward image series.  As others have said, if you shoot with models and have expenses, getting a large series is the only way to make it pay.

I have not found that to be true for me at DT. Since May of 2006, my sales have been increasing in May, except from May 2009 to May 2010.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2010, 12:53 by cclapper »

« Reply #260 on: June 01, 2010, 14:04 »
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When this was posted in March my sales were normal, if not a little down but nothing out of the ordinary, April same thing, but May my sales just dropped. Down 50% from my average, didn't even make enough to cash out this month, first time that has happened since early 2006. ouch. All the other site about average.

« Reply #261 on: June 01, 2010, 15:34 »
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Well here's the kicker for me... I had a BME at dreamstime this month in terms of amount of files sold. BUT actual sales revenue was down 30%! Grrrrr!

ap

« Reply #262 on: June 01, 2010, 15:43 »
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this is very strange, but not only did i have the bme in may, but sales are triple april's and 70% of is. this is after dt went into a coma five months ago, only starting to pull out in march. i have to say the patient is very much alive and kicking.

KB

« Reply #263 on: June 01, 2010, 15:54 »
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I'll post on the positive side, too. The numbers are crazy in % change over last year, despite the fact that my total income (sum of all sites) was very steady.

FT -35%
BigStock -43%

IS  + 3%
 SS +21%
DT +75%

« Reply #264 on: June 01, 2010, 16:33 »
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Yes, way down with DT and this is the first month in years that I did not make enough to cash out. I am short $4 this month.
All the other sites are about 15% down.

« Reply #265 on: June 01, 2010, 16:59 »
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I had my best month in the past nine months at DT, and my worst in IS in the same period. 

Comparing to May 09, IS is about the same, DT about 10%less, FT almost 40% less.


 

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