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Author Topic: Is Dreamstime dying?  (Read 80957 times)

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« on: March 26, 2010, 08:45 »
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I remember the same thing happened with another agency (StockXpert). The sales decreased slowly and then they sold the agency at the end.
Last year, especially the last three months, had very slow earnings. I used to make three to four times more with a port of 3000 images, than what I'm making now with a port of 5000 images.
My RPD droped from $1.28 (in 2008) to $0.91 (and I see significant drop last three months)

I was wondering what is your experience like with Dreamstime?

Kone


« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2010, 08:53 »
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Not for me. March was BME for me as far as RPD in the past year.

« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2010, 08:59 »
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Not for me. March was BME for me as far as RPD in the past year.


Maybe it's just me?

Kone

« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2010, 09:25 »
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remember these three words: ebb and flow

« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2010, 09:34 »
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It's been BME after BME for me at Dreamstime, but then, I still have a fairly young port (started about 15 months ago).  The new pricing and levels seems to have helped me a great deal.  Looking at the revenue and sales stats on DT's own chart, my sales are steadily going up slightly each month, but the revenue growth is increasing by a greater amount, suggesting my pics are increasing in levels and earning more RPI each month.

RT


« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2010, 09:38 »
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DT's going up for me although not at the same rate as the top 3

« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2010, 09:52 »
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Static for me both in terms of revenue and RPD whilst everywhere else is booming.

DT have been slowly slipping backwards in comparison to IS, SS and FT for some years now and that trend is continuing. They are projected to be just 10.2% of my earnings this month compared to 12.4% in March 2009, 13.5% in 2008 and 15.1% in 2007.

I'm especially disappointed that the reduction of our commissions does not appear to have resulted in increased marketing/sales. Just more money for them. Maybe they are gearing up their exit strategy?

microstockphoto.co.uk

« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2010, 09:52 »
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DT is growing slower than other major sites for me as well

but I do attribute this to their higher rejection rate lately (expecially for similarity); I wound't say they're dying

« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2010, 10:05 »
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DT should be doing much better this year, with all the extra cash they have taken from us by lowering commissions and with one of their rival sites, StockXpert closing.  I am seeing strong sales with SS and istock but DT are behind my 2009 earnings.  I think their rejections policy is partly to blame.  It stops me uploading everything there, because search placement is influenced by the number of rejections.  So DT end up with less images, they earn less, I earn less and the buyers have less images to chose from.

« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2010, 10:08 »
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DT this month should end up about 30% more than previous BME.
They are usually trailing well behind in 4th place but this month are in 2nd place at the moment ahead of SS and IS.

« Reply #10 on: March 26, 2010, 10:32 »
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remember these three words: ebb and flow

I'm glad (almost) everybody else seems to be doing well - for me it's not ebb and flow at DT, but ebb and ebb - and some more ebb :P

« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2010, 10:40 »
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Quote
Static for me both in terms of revenue and RPD whilst everywhere else is booming.

But this makes total sense to me that some are showing ups and some are showing downs. We all know that our ports do well in some markets at certain times of the year and don't do well on other sites. That's the whole point of remaining independent and spreading ports across different markets. It's kind of like watching your 401k on a daily basis or getting on the scales every day to weigh yourself. Don't do it, you'll make yourself crazy. You have to look at the overall, quarterly or yearly view, not a weekly view. IMHO.

But with all the changes, I am sure some folks will see declines where previously they did well and vice versa. I am seeing declines on IS, when really, I was expecting jumps since the cost of exclusive files went up.

Some people like roller coasters, others get sick and hurl.

« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2010, 11:08 »
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DT this month should end up about 30% more than previous BME.
They are usually trailing well behind in 4th place but this month are in 2nd place at the moment ahead of SS and IS.

yeah this month they are heading for a new BME

« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2010, 11:24 »
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remember these three words: ebb and flow

I'm glad (almost) everybody else seems to be doing well - for me it's not ebb and flow at DT, but ebb and ebb - and some more ebb :P

Yea, me too. :(

Thanks all to reply

Kone

« Reply #14 on: March 26, 2010, 11:25 »
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DT this month should end up about 30% more than previous BME.
They are usually trailing well behind in 4th place but this month are in 2nd place at the moment ahead of SS and IS.

yeah this month they are heading for a new BME

For me WME

Kone

gbcimages

« Reply #15 on: March 26, 2010, 11:29 »
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kinda slow for me

« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2010, 12:39 »
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DT was slow and lackassed last year for me, but this year it's really doing well for me.
no, not enough to make me jump for joy to run naked in the streets, (no micro does that for me, lol)..
but it performs best of all. even IS and FT is slow compared to DT .
the only one site that was better than DT was StockXpert before Getty killed it.

for IS, i assume it 's because i cannot upload fast enough to get my portfolio size to be as large as DT to make it as good performing as DT today. esp. for now , the review time is back to slow and lackassed, after having one miraculous week of super fast review at IS earlier this month.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2010, 12:43 by PERSEUS »

« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2010, 13:00 »
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Static for me both in terms of revenue and RPD whilst everywhere else is booming.

DT have been slowly slipping backwards in comparison to IS, SS and FT for some years now and that trend is continuing. They are projected to be just 10.2% of my earnings this month compared to 12.4% in March 2009, 13.5% in 2008 and 15.1% in 2007.

I'm especially disappointed that the reduction of our commissions does not appear to have resulted in increased marketing/sales. Just more money for them. Maybe they are gearing up their exit strategy?

Yup I am seeing the same trend. Not big drop, but slowly declining. It's not a good trend, hopefully they can pick up momentum with economy improving.  I see noticeable increase in sales on Fotolia and IS (well on IS maybe because I finally managed to get a sizable portfolio online with their upload limits), SS is not quite "booming" but at least pretty consistent.

ap

« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2010, 13:34 »
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it's been a downward trajectory for me, even though they were very good to me in the beginning and my approval rate has always been very good. so, i wonder if they're just for beginners?

in comparison, IS is highly consistent, reflecting the growth of my portfolio to the t. ss is a rocket, leaping by over 100% each month. ft is just weird. i'm sure this can all change within the wink of the eye.

**even as we speak, just got an extra large dl on dt. maybe whining helps.  ;D
« Last Edit: March 26, 2010, 14:27 by ap »

« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2010, 13:35 »
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Also much slower than usual...

lisafx

« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2010, 14:16 »
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I had seen the same slight decline, but this month my sales seem to be turning around.  Nothing dramatic, but better than any since November.  Certainly from my experience it doesn't appear they are struggling in any way. 

Frankly, with my sales having stagnated pretty much across the board, it's more likely to be the law of diminishing returns than anything specific to DT.

« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2010, 15:20 »
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Hi everyone,

First, I apologize that I was away for some time.
Thanks to everyone for their time.
I will not respond to everyone individually, but I'll do it like this.

As I see most of you are pleased with DT, so that makes me a little happy. On the other hand, there are several of us who are not thrilled with the DT sales at the moment. So we must do something to fix it.
Most of you say that the March is BME so far, which is really surprising me, but my earnings in March (so far) are showing just one-third of the income I had before at the same time for the same period. And as I said before, the whole last year was bad.

@ PowerDroit

Yes it has happened to me before, each new month was the BME until I came to 4-5 K images in my portfolio, and then it started to  slow down last year, but at acceptable level. But now sales have gone down more to a level of concern. My acceptance rate is over 90% what is making me more puzzled than before.

@ RT

Thank you and I am glad that you can say that.

@ Gostwyck

Very nice, all the best. There are not many people that can say that.
As far as I can see, the last year was better in all agencies for about 20-25%.
I don't see why agencies need more money for advertising, I guess they cut our commissions for their personal needs. I also think that is the wrong way of doing it and they should increase prices instead. Reducing prices is a not long-term solution.

@ microstockphoto.co.uk

No, not dying of course, I used the word just to attract attention.
I did not notice an increase in rejection, but this is why I am worried. Maybe they are losing customers? But looking at the answers that others have given me, they are telling me that I made a mistake somewhere and nothing else.

@ sharpshot

Yes, and I think the same but it doesn't go that way.
I also see a significant jump in earnings on SS and IS in the past few months, but it is too early for any forecast, at the same time, DT and BigStock are going down. But it seems that in the microstock industry, while one stock moves up, second goes down (as someone already said).
I'm not sure if the reason for this is a increase in rejections, but something definitely smells.

@ fotografer

Very good.
How many images do you have with them, if it's not secret?

@ cclapper

Thanks for answering.
I know that the microstock business sometimes goes down and up again and I have experienced this too many times but the numbers are telling me that DT sales are only going down. I am not panicking, only trying to find an answer to my slowdown. I have been doing this for five years and it has never before happened that one agency's sales have drastically reduced while others' sales are increasing, without something serious happening. If so then it is as I said, the situation StockXpert, but it seems that I have somehow done this all to myself.

@ PERSEUS

Yes, Dreamstime never actually earned a lot per month, they were always somewhere in the middle and they were stable.


Kone

« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2010, 15:23 »
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ups
« Last Edit: March 26, 2010, 15:27 by Kone »

« Reply #23 on: March 26, 2010, 15:24 »
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it's been a downward trajectory for me, even though they were very good to me in the beginning and my approval rate has always been very good. so, i wonder if they're just for beginners?

in comparison, IS is highly consistent, reflecting the growth of my portfolio to the t. ss is a rocket, leaping by over 100% each month. ft is just weird. i'm sure this can all change within the wink of the eye.

**even as we speak, just got an extra large dl on dt. maybe whining helps.  ;D

Have you noticed that there are more and more $0.35 and even $0.27 lately? I used to have a few subs but lately there are more subs than regular sales and don't remember last time I had an ES.

Kone

« Reply #24 on: March 26, 2010, 15:25 »
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I had seen the same slight decline, but this month my sales seem to be turning around.  Nothing dramatic, but better than any since November.  Certainly from my experience it doesn't appear they are struggling in any way. 

Frankly, with my sales having stagnated pretty much across the board, it's more likely to be the law of diminishing returns than anything specific to DT.

I hope that you are right Lisa and that I will soon see an increase in my sales too.

Kone


 

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