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Author Topic: Dreamstime dropped to Middle tier??  (Read 13840 times)

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Rinderart

« on: October 06, 2015, 14:54 »
0
WOW, Thats a first..


« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2015, 15:10 »
+1
WOW, Thats a first..

Yup - was just looking at my earnings history there. Scary picture - I am right now at 30% of what I used to earn there... while growing my portfolio. I think I will hold off uploads until I see an upswing of that curve. Right now it's just not worth the time.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2015, 15:13 by Elenathewise »

Rinderart

« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2015, 15:28 »
+2
I agree fellow Old Timer.DT at one time was a major Player for me. with half the Images I have.The boys got fairly wealthy on us. Maybe they just don't wanna play anymore?

« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2015, 16:06 »
+1
DT year to year comparison --
2009 +71% vs 2008
2010 +13% vs 2009
2011 +29% vs 2010
2012 +12% vs 2011
2013 +7% vs 2012
2014 +6% vs 2013
2015 -9% vs 2014 (thru Sept)

« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2015, 16:33 »
0
Actually 2 of the top 4 are really middle tier - DT have dropped to 5 because pond seems to have moved higher than I remember

« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2015, 16:43 »
+3
I agree fellow Old Timer.DT at one time was a major Player for me. with half the Images I have.The boys got fairly wealthy on us. Maybe they just don't wanna play anymore?
Not sure. Could be they are losing market share or could be their search results manipulation - didn't they say they "rotate" contributors, so everyone's getting an equal "opportunity" in search results... which could result in everyone's getting equally sad returns...

« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2015, 20:14 »
+5
I agree fellow Old Timer.DT at one time was a major Player for me. with half the Images I have.The boys got fairly wealthy on us. Maybe they just don't wanna play anymore?
Not sure. Could be they are losing market share or could be their search results manipulation - didn't they say they "rotate" contributors, so everyone's getting an equal "opportunity" in search results... which could result in everyone's getting equally sad returns...

My income was cut literally in half in July. I emailed them last week and they told me they made a "permanent search adjustment to make it fairer for all contributors". So their message to me was that its the new norm, get used to it.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2015, 21:51 by Mantis »

« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2015, 21:20 »
+1
Perhaps buyers want more choice.  Perhaps buyers want the simulars they have been rejecting. 
« Last Edit: October 07, 2015, 00:12 by trek »

Hongover

« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2015, 21:49 »
+3
Dreamstime rejects way too many images. They think everybody wants complex vectors, but that's far from the truth. Buyers want everything, from simple to complex to practical. They lost a huge part of the market to other sites because they refuse to support it.

Admittedly, I've had the best month so far, but they're still way behind Fotolia and the top dogs.

« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2015, 22:10 »
+4
On the other hand they also seem to accept quite a lot of poor quality stuff.  Looking through the latest uploads I see lots of pictures that are dull, poor lighting, poor composition, LCV.  Even looking at some searches by 'relevance' shows work of questionable quality.

I like Dreamstime because they are honest and trustworthy.  However, the management haven't got the entrepreneur spirit that Istock, Shutterstock and Fotolia had, and Dreamstime simply failed to make the same growth as the others during those years when the market was hot.  Now they appear to be copying the others by going for massive portfolio growth.  But without customer growth all that will happen is massive dilution of every portfolio and incomes will decline for everyone.

« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2015, 22:28 »
+1
Everyone's mileage will vary.

My DT numbers tell a different story.  They're solidly my #3 and have been for several years.  Trend line is healthy.

Rinderart

« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2015, 23:44 »
0
Seems your in the minority. as they have dropped and not even top 4 anymore. Enjoy it my friend.
 A few years ago 500/600 a month was easy. 2000 more images and Lucky If 1/3 that. All I know.This entire business from the start for me has been about cost effectiveness as per time spent.that has switched for me to FT.

« Reply #12 on: October 07, 2015, 01:10 »
0
Never been top 4 for me number 5 and slowly declining with the odd flicker of hope from time to time. Think with fotolia upping its game they may become one of the first casualties.

« Reply #13 on: October 07, 2015, 01:22 »
+2
I am not surprised. They have been on autopilot far too long.

« Reply #14 on: October 07, 2015, 01:53 »
0
They seems to be back at top tier, but for how long....?

« Reply #15 on: October 07, 2015, 03:13 »
+4
They seems to be back at top tier, but for how long....?
The poll here is totally irrelevant and I must say, it's very misleading, especially for new contributors. With just a few votes, everybody interested can push the results up.
In the last two month (for me) Dt should be in low earners category, almost as ineffective as CT.

In the past, even without sales, I could see many views on new uploads, while in the last two month view are as sparse as at CT. That clearly means no exposure.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2015, 03:40 by Dodie »

« Reply #16 on: October 07, 2015, 05:45 »
+1
They seems to be back at top tier, but for how long....?
The poll here is totally irrelevant and I must say, it's very misleading, especially for new contributors. With just a few votes, everybody interested can push the results up.
In the last two month (for me) Dt should be in low earners category, almost as ineffective as CT.






In the past, even without sales, I could see many views on new uploads, while in the last two month view are as sparse as at CT. That clearly means no exposure.

It may be but no more misleading than any individual's experience. For me its roughly correct. If any one knows any better source I would love to know.

« Reply #17 on: October 07, 2015, 08:44 »
0
They seems to be back at top tier, but for how long....?
The poll here is totally irrelevant and I must say, it's very misleading, especially for new contributors. With just a few votes, everybody interested can push the results up.
In the last two month (for me) Dt should be in low earners category, almost as ineffective as CT.






In the past, even without sales, I could see many views on new uploads, while in the last two month view are as sparse as at CT. That clearly means no exposure.

It may be but no more misleading than any individual's experience. For me its roughly correct. If any one knows any better source I would love to know.
Aren't votes "any individual's experience" as well?

I was talking about DT being in top-tier (and I quoted), not the rest of the agencies.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2015, 08:54 by Dodie »

« Reply #18 on: October 07, 2015, 08:51 »
+2
They seems to be back at top tier, but for how long....?
The poll here is totally irrelevant and I must say, it's very misleading, especially for new contributors. With just a few votes, everybody interested can push the results up.
In the last two month (for me) Dt should be in low earners category, almost as ineffective as CT.

In the past, even without sales, I could see many views on new uploads, while in the last two month view are as sparse as at CT. That clearly means no exposure.

It may be but no more misleading than any individual's experience. For me its roughly correct. If any one knows any better source I would love to know.

Yeah, percentage of income is roughly correct for me as well. And it's not just few votes, there need to be at least 50 votes.

« Reply #19 on: October 07, 2015, 12:18 »
+1
I agree fellow Old Timer.DT at one time was a major Player for me. with half the Images I have.The boys got fairly wealthy on us. Maybe they just don't wanna play anymore?
Not sure. Could be they are losing market share or could be their search results manipulation - didn't they say they "rotate" contributors, so everyone's getting an equal "opportunity" in search results... which could result in everyone's getting equally sad returns...

My income was cut literally in half in July. I emailed them last week and they told me they made a "permanent search adjustment to make it fairer for all contributors". So their message to me was that its the new norm, get used to it.

Great, now we have socialism even in private companies. No wonder DT is fading away.

dbvirago

« Reply #20 on: October 07, 2015, 12:56 »
+2
A slight decline for me over the years, but still stays solid in 2nd place behind SS.

« Reply #21 on: October 07, 2015, 13:12 »
0
At least in the past the DT search has been too influenced by the contributor so that if you had a heap of pictures in the same search they would all come in a row. This makes similars annoying so instead of fixing the search they didn't accept what they thought were similars.  I am guessing the search became too much of a positive feedback system with new images never seeing the light of day, so rather than fix that, they started rotating portfolios.  While these fixes sort of hide the problem, they don't really fix it and in the long run are detrimental.

DT has had some really poor months for me, but they usually are in the top 2 to 4.

marthamarks

« Reply #22 on: October 07, 2015, 13:14 »
+1
A slight decline for me over the years, but still stays solid in 2nd place behind SS.

This has been my situation too for a long time.

But Adobe/FT is rising fast for me right now, despite being new there and still on the bottom tier. (And that's going to change very soon.) I'm pleased with what Adobe's doing with FT.

« Reply #23 on: October 07, 2015, 13:45 »
+4
I agree fellow Old Timer.DT at one time was a major Player for me. with half the Images I have.The boys got fairly wealthy on us. Maybe they just don't wanna play anymore?
Not sure. Could be they are losing market share or could be their search results manipulation - didn't they say they "rotate" contributors, so everyone's getting an equal "opportunity" in search results... which could result in everyone's getting equally sad returns...

My income was cut literally in half in July. I emailed them last week and they told me they made a "permanent search adjustment to make it fairer for all contributors". So their message to me was that its the new norm, get used to it.

Gee, and here I  thought FAIR was everyone having a chance to earn their way up on merits.  Now I learn at DT they redefine fair to cut the legs out of high performing files and contributors.   Fair is suppose to be reward in line with effort.  Not at DT anymore.  This sounds more like communism then fairness, In agreement with my definition of fair, I guess DT don't get any more of my files.

Justanotherphotographer

« Reply #24 on: October 07, 2015, 14:03 »
0
DT are doing fine for me. Slow increase in sales over the months/ years. If there's a general trend I would say that it's less sales on the smaller sites and more on the big ones. Of these DT is the only one offering a decent rpd. The main problem is the decline in IS income/ appalling compensation for contributors.


 

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