Author Topic: Is Dreamstime dying? (Read 91812 times)

fotografer · « **Reply #200 on:** May 28, 2010, 02:42 »

My graph tells a different story. The only reason it seems to go down towards the end was because I had an amazing 3 months in 2009 and then it returned to nearer to normal figures and it goes down at the very end because there is another month to go in this quarter. As you can see by my Dreamstime counter this graph isn't based on low figures. Something seemed to happen at the beginning of 2009 that pushed my image to the front of the searches

Konstantin Sutyagin · « **Reply #201 on:** May 28, 2010, 06:10 »

My stats aren't bad, I think, considering I don't upload much.

click_click · « **Reply #202 on:** May 28, 2010, 07:26 »

Quote from: devon on May 27, 2010, 15:47

Sales at Dreamstime, with over 10000 photos.

What I see when I look at your graph is the last row of dots in Q2 2010.

Your amount of refused images is almost the same like your amount of accepted images. Considering your past approval rate it shows that DT massively changed their acceptance criteria.

It appears that DT wants to start acting like Crestock by accepting "only the best" without the 10 other photos from the same shoot, despite different poses/concepts etc.

Did Yuri, who stopped uploading there, ever elaborate what he meant by saying that DT lacks professionalism?

microstockphoto.co.uk · « **Reply #203 on:** May 28, 2010, 09:54 »

Quote from: devon on May 27, 2010, 15:47

Sales at Dreamstime, with over 10000 photos.

seeing this graph I would say the problem is the grey line - exposure - going down, because they are rejecting more pictures; it happened to me as well

but I wouldn't say they are dying: while some of us are experiencing lower returns lately - there may be other people which are earning more

since in my case the main reason for rejection is too many pictures of the same kind, there's only one think I can do: add more variety in my portfolio; that's what I'm trying to do, and first results are positive, earnings are starting to grow again

epantha · « **Reply #204 on:** May 28, 2010, 10:13 »

Have only been at DT a couple of years and don't upload a lot of photos, only around 12 a week. My uploads are highly variable and my acceptance rate has been going up for the last 8 months. April was a BME and this month is also close to another BME. The big spike in Q2 2009 was caused by a series of fraudulent sales.

Dreamframer · « **Reply #205 on:** May 28, 2010, 10:38 »

My sales are going up actually.

lisafx · « **Reply #206 on:** May 28, 2010, 17:42 »

Still no complaints here either.

I hate to keep bumping this thread because I feel the title is so misleading, but my graph is pretty steady, with only slight fluctuations. March was very good, as always and sales have returned to their normal levels, but not fallen below.

Would I like to see more sales growth rather than steady-as-she-goes? Sure! But I certainly think DT's performance is good.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #207 on:** May 28, 2010, 19:39 »

I am enjoying DT performance, quite new and not a lot of sales but I see a positive action...!

Grandpa · « **Reply #208 on:** May 29, 2010, 04:35 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 28, 2010, 17:42

Still no complaints here either.

I hate to keep bumping this thread because I feel the title is so misleading, but my graph is pretty steady, with only slight fluctuations. March was very good, as always and sales have returned to their normal levels, but not fallen below.

Would I like to see more sales growth rather than steady-as-she-goes? Sure! But I certainly think DT's performance is good.

On your graph i see that your sales in May 2010 are lower as in May 2009, but how much images did you upload last year? With bigger PF you have lower earnings and you say - all is OK! And from beginning subscription on DT part of sales are more, more lower price.

Megastock · « **Reply #209 on:** May 29, 2010, 04:49 »

My sales are definitely on the rise year over year... This May is more than double May 2009 for me, with only half as many images online. I have some ups and downs on a monthly basis, but quarter to quarter things are trending upwards

FD · « **Reply #210 on:** May 29, 2010, 08:04 »

Quote from: Megastock on May 29, 2010, 04:49

My sales are definitely on the rise year over year... This May is more than double May 2009 for me, with only half as many images online.

Yes but you are an exclusive, and the darling of DT

Welcome here Brad. I thought you had a full-time job on the DT-forum.

lisafx · « **Reply #211 on:** May 29, 2010, 11:13 »

Quote from: Grandpa on May 29, 2010, 04:35

On your graph i see that your sales in May 2010 are lower as in May 2009, but how much images did you upload last year? With bigger PF you have lower earnings and you say - all is OK! And from beginning subscription on DT part of sales are more, more lower price.

Well, Grandpa, all is okay relatively speaking. This year seems a bit down from last year across the board for me. Dreamstime isn't faring any worse than most other sites, and much better than some (Istock for example). Don't know if it is the recession dragging on or the dreaded "point of diminishing returns".

If you check out the end-of-month threads you will see that lots of folks who have been at this for years are not seeing much growth or slight backsliding of sales. Only the comparably new portfolios seem to be reporting huge growth, but that is relative to a much lower starting point.

Hope that clears it up for you

Kone · « **Reply #212 on:** May 29, 2010, 11:34 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2010, 11:13

Well, Grandpa, all is okay relatively speaking. This year seems a bit down from last year across the board for me. Dreamstime isn't faring any worse than most other sites, and much better than some (Istock for example). Don't know if it is the recession dragging on or the dreaded "point of diminishing returns".
If you check out the end-of-month threads you will see that lots of folks who have been at this for years are not seeing much growth or slight backsliding of sales. Only the comparably new portfolios seem to be reporting huge growth, but that is relative to a much lower starting point.
Hope that clears it up for you

Granpa is right, I too expect more return with more files in my portfolio and if that doesn't happen then I count it as a negative growth.

cthoman · « **Reply #213 on:** May 29, 2010, 11:36 »

For me, I thought Dreamstime was going to challenge IS and SS for top spots, but last summer Dreamstime sales took a big hit. They basically went from being a consistent 20% of my stock income to a consistent 10% in a month. They seem to have stabilized at 10% and seem to be growing with new images. So for me, it really isn't about them dying. It is more about them not growing as fast as I expected and losing ground to other agencies. I know they have made a lot of changes in the last year to royalties, image tiers and price, so I guess that is part of what happened.

lisafx · « **Reply #214 on:** May 29, 2010, 11:36 »

Quote from: Kone on May 29, 2010, 11:34

Granpa is right, I too expect more return with more files in my portfolio and if that doesn't happen then I count it as a negative growth.

Of course it's negative growth. The question wasn't whether there was negative growth, but whether DT is dying. In April 09 Dreamstime was 8% of my total earnings. In April '10 they are still 8% of my earnings.

So is there negative growth of my portfolio? Yes. Is that evidence of DT dying? No. Not in my case. According to my stats they are occupying exactly the same position relative to the other microstock companies that they did a year ago.

Cthoman is right - perhaps the issue with DT is that they haven't lived up to expectations.

click_click · « **Reply #215 on:** May 29, 2010, 11:43 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2010, 11:36

Quote from: Kone on May 29, 2010, 11:34

Granpa is right, I too expect more return with more files in my portfolio and if that doesn't happen then I count it as a negative growth.

Of course it's negative growth. The question wasn't whether their was negative growth, but whether DT is dying. I don't see any evidence from my graph that it's true.

Hmmm, negative growth still sucks though.

Lisa, while your sales graph appears to be going down (as does mine, being with DT for over 5 years now), I wonder how, when or if that graph can ever be pointing upwards again in the foreseeable future. I don't see that (being a realist), so for me, yes DT is dying (sooner or later).

I hope by that time to be a sole RM shooter and don't have to worry about microstock anymore

lisafx · « **Reply #216 on:** May 29, 2010, 11:51 »

Quote from: click_click on May 29, 2010, 11:43

Lisa, while your sales graph appears to be going down (as does mine, being with DT for over 5 years now), I wonder how, when or if that graph can ever be pointing upwards again in the foreseeable future. I don't see that (being a realist), so for me, yes DT is dying (sooner or later).

Click, are you seeing the same trend across all sites, as I am, or is it just on DT?

I wonder if this isn't an indication that microstock in general is bottoming out, rather than just DT specifically. I keep an eye on my "exposure" numbers, and my exposure is steadily shrinking as the collections grow. My measly 100 or so uploads a month are lost in a sea of a hundred thousand or so competing images uploaded every month. Surely that is happening to most of us who are not factory producers...?

Kone · « **Reply #217 on:** May 29, 2010, 12:29 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2010, 11:36

So is there negative growth of my portfolio? Yes. Is that evidence of DT dying? No. Not in my case.

And yes, I know the word "dying" is maybe a little bit too hard but I just used it to attract people to this thread.

I need to do something to attract buyers to buy my images too. LOL

cthoman · « **Reply #218 on:** May 29, 2010, 13:01 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 29, 2010, 11:51

Click, are you seeing the same trend across all sites, as I am, or is it just on DT?

I wonder if part of this is that nobody has really given us a huge raise or bump in a while that wasn't offset by some kind of royalty reduction. IS exclusives got their nice little bump, and I was hoping to see SS react to it. But so far, they haven't blinked.

click_click · « **Reply #219 on:** May 29, 2010, 13:40 »

OK let's hijack this

I've seen this trend basically on all sites.

almost 3 years ago it didn't matter how much or little I upload to SS to maintain my sales - it just plateaued.
Same thing on DT, FT, StockXpert (back then), IS while no additional agency showed significant growth as well.

Think about it: With the rate of new contributors signing up and the upload rate of some of these new photographers it is physically impossible to keep up unless you happen to live in a country with very low cost of living and where you can easily afford to outsource many of the daily chores such as post processing, keywording and uploading.

Yuri took off like a rocket in the early days because he understood that his talent is most efficient behind the camera and not sitting endless hours at the computer uploading and editing images as most of us do. I dare to assume that he made very good money in the very early days that allowed him to pay people without taking on a tremendous financial risk.

Since I don't have a crew of 2 to 4 people squeezing the most commercial value out of every single image, I produce very low volume but I have to make sure that every single image sells well to break even. For shooters like Lisa with 100+ uploads a month I feel the pain doing it all by yourself - I don't even know how I could cope with that editing workload.

That makes it even worse for me, producing fewer images, but I have to nail those to stay competitive. On the other hand my monthly upload volume is like a water drop in the bush fire - I feel like my exposure is just not there at all. I try to stay positive by keywording as best as possible and watching/analyzing my sales to redirect myself for future projects.

All in all, the Microstock model simply cannot be financially wise for a single photographer (as in having Microstock as your sole income) in the long run. The early birds of us, were having a blast once this industry was born. Now it's "just" work. It creates a lot of pressure now, to produce, produce, produce. The joy of expressing creativity is going downhill.

Anywho, the internet offers many other ventures to sell our stuff so it's not just the micros we have.

Thanks for that. But to enjoy the fun of creating pictures I'd love to work in the RM field some time just to see that buyers do appreciate the value of our work.

lisafx · « **Reply #220 on:** May 29, 2010, 16:40 »

Quote from: click_click on May 29, 2010, 13:40

All in all, the Microstock model simply cannot be financially wise for a single photographer (as in having Microstock as your sole income) in the long run. The early birds of us, were having a blast once this industry was born. Now it's "just" work. It creates a lot of pressure now, to produce, produce, produce. The joy of expressing creativity is going downhill.

All very well stated Click_click. You have given this a lot of thought and, I think, hit the nail on the head. The part I bolded expresses my feelings about microstock exactly.

In my first few years (2006-2007 for example) microstock felt like a license to print money! Seemed like nearly every new series would take off like wildfire. It was very encouraging and made selling on micros lots of fun.

Now watching sales come in on new series is like watching paint dry. If the images sell at all it is in little dribs and drabs. Nothing to give the thrill of accomplishment. It really has become just a job, and a fairly stressful one at that.

Thanks for sharing - it's nice to know I am not the only "old-timer" experiencing this.

Quote from: cthoman on May 29, 2010, 13:01

I wonder if part of this is that nobody has really given us a huge raise or bump in a while that wasn't offset by some kind of royalty reduction. IS exclusives got their nice little bump, and I was hoping to see SS react to it. But so far, they haven't blinked.

^^ This is an excellent point too. No royalty raises in two years at pretty much every site, and royalty drops at some of them. In fairness to SS, I don't see how they can give us a raise when Thinkstock is gunning for them and only pays .25/DL.

Maybe SS should consider just giving a raise to those of us who support them by NOT contributing to TS.

Eireann · « **Reply #221 on:** May 29, 2010, 18:02 »

I was thinking along the same lines Lisa

Actually, I was pushing things a step further. I was meaner.
'Wanna enjoy any kind of SS raises (and that's including the ones you have already earned), then close your account at TStock! Otherwise your payment will be, from now on, a fixed 0.25 cent, just like Getty's.'
I know, I know, it's not going to happen, but who's to stop me from plotting murderous thoughts against ThinkStock?
Anything to help it die already ...

vonkara · « **Reply #222 on:** May 29, 2010, 19:16 »

It's SUPER DEAD

rene · « **Reply #223 on:** May 30, 2010, 01:28 »

I think that rather new DT is born. DT is an old site which has never been very successful for professional photographers - just compare numbers of 20 best exclusives (and non-exclusives) at DT vs IS. Very difficult to live only with DT earnings.
Achilles probably understood that he cannot compete on purely professional basis. So new DT is hobbyists-community-cheerleader site where positive attitude makes everybody feel good. Everybody can feel like an artist and it's well known that usually artist are poor.

Xalanx · « **Reply #224 on:** May 30, 2010, 02:03 »

Quote from: rene on May 30, 2010, 01:28

I think that rather new DT is born. DT is an old site which has never been very successful for professional photographers - just compare numbers of 20 best exclusives (and non-exclusives) at DT vs IS. Very difficult to live only with DT earnings.
Achilles probably understood that he cannot compete on purely professional basis. So new DT is hobbyists-community-cheerleader site where positive attitude makes everybody feel good. Everybody can feel like an artist and it's well known that usually artist are poor.

Interesting point of view. And it's rather adjacent to the fact that many top contributors ceased uploading to them. It's their answer to Dreamstime's "we don't want your 2000 images / month upload rate, we can't market them properly anyway" attitude. And to "Any two shots with the same person displayed are similars. There can be only one." attitude as well.

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Author Topic: Is Dreamstime dying? (Read 91812 times)

fotografer

Konstantin Sutyagin

click_click

microstockphoto.co.uk

epantha

Dreamframer

lisafx

luissantos84

Grandpa

Megastock

FD

lisafx

Kone

cthoman

lisafx

click_click

lisafx

Kone

cthoman

click_click

lisafx

Eireann

vonkara

rene

Xalanx

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