MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Dreamstime.com => Topic started by: traveler1116 on September 12, 2009, 12:56
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Just my quick list:
1. 6 months of holding images
2. increased amount of subscription sales
3. falling RPI
4. new pricing policy
5. disabling images not deleting them
6. slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
7. getting images rejected for having a model release
8. locking keywords on basically every image
9. giving away free images
edited because hate is too strong
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Right now, my biggest complaint would be that my sales fell off a cliff in July and haven't seemed to recover. I'm not sure what the reason is. Hopefully, they recover because Dreamstime used to be my solid number 3 earner, but last month they were 4th. This month they may even end up fifth.
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They have been my fifth as well.
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1. Inconsistent sales.
2. Inconsistent image reviews
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Rejections for too many images of the same or similar subjet. >:(
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Just my quick list:
1. 6 months of holding images
2. increased amount of subscription sales
3. falling RPI
4. new pricing policy
5. disabling images not deleting them
6. slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
7. getting images rejected for having a model release
8. locking keywords on basically every image
9. giving away free images
Rather a silly statement isn't it? 'Hate' is a very strong word. Why would they have locked your keywords anyway? It usually only happens when someone is trying to screw them around when they suddenly decide they no longer like the lock-in period.
Personally I think they're an excellent agency who treat their contributors with respect and have always paid the highest % of commission compared to any other significant microstock agency.
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The only thing I hate is subs. Everywhere.
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The only thing I hate is subs. Everywhere.
Sub's would be absolutely fine if only the various agencies had increased package prices at the same rate as have for PPD sales. They're slashing their own throats as well as ours by not doing so.
When SS started they were paying out the same per sale as we were getting for a medium-sized sale at IS (20c). Now we're getting 38c on SS (at most) whereas at IS a medium sale (non-exclusive) pays between 1.14 - 1.80.
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I agree with you ,
although the policy of rejecting an image for having a model release for part of a body is annoying as you sometime don't know where they draw the line.
Rather a silly statement isn't it? 'Hate' is a very strong word. Why would they have locked your keywords anyway? It usually only happens when someone is trying to screw them around when they suddenly decide they no longer like the lock-in period.
Personally I think they're an excellent agency who treat their contributors with respect and have always paid the highest % of commission compared to any other significant microstock agency.
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Personally I think they're an excellent agency who treat their contributors with respect and have always paid the highest % of commission compared to any other significant microstock agency.
+1 !
Seriously, when you compare Dreamstime to their competition they are head and shoulders above most in the way they treat contributors and run their agency.
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I agree with you ,
although the policy of rejecting an image for having a model release for part of a body is annoying as you sometime don't know where they draw the line.
Oh yes __ they can be absurdly pedantic at times!
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I don't hate anything about DT.
For me (and I'm sure many will agree) it's one of the most professionly run sites and I never have had any reason to complain there.
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Personally I think they're an excellent agency who treat their contributors with respect and have always paid the highest % of commission compared to any other significant microstock agency.
+1 !
Seriously, when you compare Dreamstime to their competition they are head and shoulders above most in the way they treat contributors and run their agency.
I agree - I don't see anything to 'hate'.
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I love DT because of it's friendliness and it's willingness to listen to their contributors; i do get the feeling they honestly try to respect us and our wishes...and that's the only reason i haven't ditched them yet.
What i truly hate about them is the sales; somehow DT just doesn't get started for me. I'm into stock for about a year now and DT is the only one lagging really behind in sales. I made $173 in a whole year there, that's a lot less than i make in 1 month on iStock or Shutterstock. It comes even after BigStock in revenue!
I have the feeling i dont get any exposure there (my topseller on every other site has 41 views and 3 sales on DT).
With only 221 pics i'm aware my portfolio is tiny, but it seems to work on the other sites, just not on DT.
Pities :(
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Dude, I don't think it's very healthy to sit around making hate lists. If your relationship is so toxic it's probably a good idea to sever ties and move on.
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I do my best to avoid working for or with people I hate. DT annoys me on rare occasion, and on even rarer occasion I have to express my dissatisfaction. But hate? I save that for the truly deserving.
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I've always been dealt with fairly by Dreamstime. The only complaint I have is about subscriptions, but that's a problem with most of the micros these days.
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Dude, I don't think it's very healthy to sit around making hate lists. If your relationship is so toxic it's probably a good idea to sever ties and move on.
In the process, already spent 4 or 5 hours deleting 25% of my images, only 10+ hours to go sitting here click click write a reason click back click again and start over.
Right now the biggest thing is their changing the pricing policy and not allowing me to opt out or disable my images, stating that the terms say they can change the pricing when and how they want and still keep your images for 6 months. I think that is unfair but it's in their TOS which btw means they could give your images away for nothing and still keep on here for 6 months and while giving away images for free is not realistic they could more likely switch to a more aggressive subscription plan with lower payouts and force you to stay with that.
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Just my quick list:
1. 6 months of holding images
2. increased amount of subscription sales
3. falling RPI
4. new pricing policy
5. disabling images not deleting them
6. slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
7. getting images rejected for having a model release
8. locking keywords on basically every image
9. giving away free images
I don't like
10. Changing policies for old contributors. No possibility to option-in/out or close account when TOS change.
11. Exclusive images - you can check in but cannot check out
12. Assignment images blocked for one year
13. They pay only 25$ for assignment image and in the same time recommend 250$ for others
14. "Selective" forum, what they don't like disappears
15. Very slow earnings compared to IS and SS
16. About 40%!!! commission drop.
17. No information send to contributors about important changes, like new prices policy
18. Lack of information about Partners program
19. Sometimes strange earnings like 0,24. DT team never explain that
20. Usually announces made are not clear, not precise for me. Like politicians speech.
21. Subscriptions not limited in size.
22. "sale is a sale" reasoning
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Personally I think they're an excellent agency who treat their contributors with respect and have always paid the highest % of commission compared to any other significant microstock agency.
+1 !
Seriously, when you compare Dreamstime to their competition they are head and shoulders above most in the way they treat contributors and run their agency.
The thing is, even if fotolia does something terrible I can decide not work with them, when DT does it I cannot decide to leave and to me that makes them way below everyone else, regardless of sales or how responsive they are to some issues or percentage paid.
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Count me another fan of DT. Sub sales, sure I don't like them, but it's a market force that's affecting many of the sites so you can't just punish DT. Not crazy about the upload process, how it ties up my browser... have to wait till the uploads are completed to work in other tabs. But that's just me being lazy and not opening another window to keep working while I wait. What counts is the total dollars in my pockets, and DT has been on a steady rise for me lately, knock on wood.
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Personally I think they're an excellent agency who treat their contributors with respect and have always paid the highest % of commission compared to any other significant microstock agency.
+1 !
Seriously, when you compare Dreamstime to their competition they are head and shoulders above most in the way they treat contributors and run their agency.
+2!
While my sales volume at DT is lower than at other sites, they are my highest RPI even with sub sales - the 19 cent commissions on istock bother me more than the subs commission at DT. But sales aside, I think they are the only site to get the balance just about right between contributors' and buyers' interests. I respect how they run their business.
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I have a great deal of respect for the owners of Dreamstime. Over the years they have always been open and up front about any changes, both good and bad. They treat the contributors with respect, and always respond to questions.
All the sites have the ability to change terms written into the contract, they have to in order to stay in business.
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I have no reason to complain about DT, too. They`re doing a fine job and show respect to interests of buyers as well as contributors.
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I used to like DT a lot but my rejection rate jumped a few months ago and then they announced the commissions cut. It is hard to see how I am going to increase earnings with more rejections and less commission. I am holding off uploading until I can see how this works out.
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I am just a bit concerned because my approval rate is falling down, while it grows up on other sites (except Fotolia). I was a bit scared yesterday when I found portfolio of one artist who joined in march last year (one month after I joined). He has more than 750 files and less than 80 sales!! The strangest thing is, his images are real stock images, and they are very good, so, I asked my self, why he has so poor sales? Let's hope it's not because of approval rate :(
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I have a great deal of respect for the owners of Dreamstime. Over the years they have always been open and up front about any changes, both good and bad. They treat the contributors with respect, and always respond to questions.
All the sites have the ability to change terms written into the contract, they have to in order to stay in business.
Sure they can change all they want and so can every other site, the point is that when they change they don't allow you to opt out of the change or quit your relationship with them. You are stuck and they point to their TOS which says they can change for whatever reason however they want, what if the change next time is to all subscriptions and a ten year lock in period on all images, what can you do? I for one uploaded my images 3 months ago thinking that I would get a certain % of the sale, that changed and now these images are locked in at the lower % for months more.
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I am just a bit concerned because my approval rate is falling down, while it grows up on other sites (except Fotolia). I was a bit scared yesterday when I found portfolio of one artist who joined in march last year (one month after I joined). He has more than 750 files and less than 80 sales!! The strangest thing is, his images are real stock images, and they are very good, so, I asked my self, why he has so poor sales? Let's hope it's not because of approval rate :(
Is the approval rate affecting sales? How and why?
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I also have a good relationship with DT, but then 100% subs this month simply sucks. >:(
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The ToS are basically the same as when you signed up for them 2.5 years ago. There has been a slight decrease in the % commission recently but that has been largely offset by an increase in prices and a substantial increase to the payouts on subs of popular files (which is only just starting to kick in).
My RPD this month is $1.19, about the same as it was at the beginning of the year and higher than it was last year. DT's RPD is still the highest of any other agency. All you have to do is wait until the end of January and you can remove your portfolio.
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I used to like DT a lot but my rejection rate jumped a few months ago and then they announced the commissions cut. It is hard to see how I am going to increase earnings with more rejections and less commission. I am holding off uploading until I can see how this works out.
+1
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I am just a bit concerned because my approval rate is falling down, while it grows up on other sites (except Fotolia). I was a bit scared yesterday when I found portfolio of one artist who joined in march last year (one month after I joined). He has more than 750 files and less than 80 sales!! The strangest thing is, his images are real stock images, and they are very good, so, I asked my self, why he has so poor sales? Let's hope it's not because of approval rate :(
Is the approval rate affecting sales? How and why?
No one knows:
o If it's still true today
o To what degree
o At what point AR matters
but it has been stated in the past by DT that approval rating affects placement in the search results.
I've seen guesses of 50%, 60%, 2/3, 70%, and 3/4. But they're all just guesses; no one outside of DT knows the truth. Perhaps only those with a 90% or greater AR gets preferential treatment.
I haven't UL'd there in months, though I was still getting about a 60-70% AR. The uncertainty of how AR may affect sales plus the uncertainty and inconsistency of their reviews led to that decision. At some point, I will try again and see what happens.
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I have 83% AR and my earnings are worse than ever. It is so bad that if my AR was less than 50% I would be earning nothing( in case AR matters).
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I think DT people said few times that AR affects placement in search, but probably very few people outside DT knows if it's true. I won't say "no one" because "no one" almost never applies in reality.
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The ToS are basically the same as when you signed up for them 2.5 years ago. There has been a slight decrease in the % commission recently but that has been largely offset by an increase in prices and a substantial increase to the payouts on subs of popular files (which is only just starting to kick in).
My RPD this month is $1.19, about the same as it was at the beginning of the year and higher than it was last year. DT's RPD is still the highest of any other agency. All you have to do is wait until the end of January and you can remove your portfolio.
Just had a level 2 at maximum size subscription sale for 35 cents, but I guess those files won't go up so much for the offset so far. I also have no level 3 images so I have nothing to look forward to with regard to subscriptions right?
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The only thing I hate is subs. Everywhere.
yep me too.
I've vented about this before but to reiterate subs are far and away the most damaging thing to contributors. They put all the power in the hands of the agency.
No matter how low a pay per download rate is the relationship between contributor and agency is still comparable to the traditional agent client relationship. When you do well the agency does well- they take a percentage.
With subs the opposite is true, the more downloads you get the less they make. This leads to things like Shutterstock allowing unlimited elements in an illustration set for a single download. The less downloads a customer has to make to feel they are getting their money's worth the better. Ideally, as far as the agency is concerned, the customer will pay a (small) fee to have a vast library available to them if and when they need it. The more rarely they actually use it the better. That's why the terms are also designed to discourage stockpiling.
The difficulty is that many contributors at these sites wouldn't get any downloads at all if the marginal cost of downloading their image was greater than zero. This is why you get a lot more sub par content on SS then on other sites and why the subs model will continue to have supporters amongst contributors.
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I think DT people said few times that AR affects placement in search, but probably very few people outside DT knows if it's true. I won't say "no one" because "no one" almost never applies in reality.
I thought it was common knowledge that approval % affects placement, am I wrong? It does make the bad rejections like too many of the same very frustrating. I find it strange that they will take 10,000 single images of one subject from different contributors but won't take 5 from the same one at the same time, if you stagger the uploads then they are fine, what's the logic in that?
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@Traveler: you probably lost all your arguments on the thread you launched on our site, deciding to move the discussion into another negative advertisement against Dreamstime. Shame that you missed to tell me. Were you really looking for an answer
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For everyone misled this was meant to be a constructive criticism and not an attack, here is the original thread on Dreamstime:
http://www.dreamstime.com/forumm_18483_pg1 (http://www.dreamstime.com/forumm_18483_pg1)
@Traveler: don't think I will forget the way you called our community and its admin, many months before (in Febraury 2008!!!). If we were so bad, why did you enable your files? Nobody forced you to. And if you did it back then, why don't you simply respect the term of your contract, then cash out and leave?
I'll reply here as there are other relevant posts, I will try to address on a short note. There are way too many things said above to keep track of each of them. Feel free to send me a private message if any of you have further questions.
1. 6 months of holding images
That is a regular requirement for most stock agencies in the world. It's true that not all microstock agencies have it. It was explained before lots of times. Without its integration several years ago, there will be a monopoly right now.
2. increased amount of subscription sales
Again explained. Total revenue makes up for the difference. Old contributors remember the days that the credit royalty was very low. Nothing strange that subscriptions increase as more price-aware buyers look at microstock. Dreamstime keeps a fair balance between subs and credits using its price structure. As any structure, it is not perfect, we admit.
3. falling RPI
there are top contributors with thousands of images in their portfolio, who have a 60% increase for their RPI. Check the list on the right side of MSG. Dreamstime is a leader and one of the only 3 that show growth in August for the average contributor.
Your mileage may vary, but don't blame the agency for your lack of sales IF it goes fine for the others.
4. new pricing policy
The royalties update follows a price increase. It was announced several months ago (in May), you had plenty of time to adapt.
You knew about the update and still uploaded in June, July and August. Now you changed your mind again and want to disable the files.
The royalties were just slightly decreased, not as announced. When the timing will be right, the royalties would be updated as announced, but only when the contributors revenue don't take a hit.
More details here: http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_18104 (http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_18104)
5. disabling images not deleting them
Contributors may try to delete their whole portfolio after receiving the first refusal they disagree with. Hundreds or thousands of files can go down the drain in a few minutes. Many times contributors re-enable them after they calm down (see your case).
Another case is of photographers trying their luck with other partnership (i.e. exclusivity somewhere else). We're obviously not happy to see it, but respect it. The contributors may return sooner or later and many do. If they return after a few months, they can easily re-enable their portfolio. If it's later they need to start from scratch.
Final decision is up to contributors, we don't touch those files, they are offline. They are permanently deleted after a few months.
6. slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
Similar reasons with the ones above. Images are reviewed one by one, by a reviewer. It takes time and efforts. In many cases it takes more to review a file than to submit it. The disable process is still far easier than the upload.
7. getting images rejected for having a model release
Explained in the past, happens only to body parts that may affect the search engine.
8. locking keywords on basically every image
Required based on our experience with users like you, who tried to put curse words there.
9. giving away free images
Explained before. You're not forced to participate anyway.
10. Changing policies for old contributors. No possibility to option-in/out or close account when TOS change.
You have this possibility at any time as long as you respect the contract. There are also opt-out features on the site (see Alliances section).
You have to understand we are a business and there are rules. They are available at your signup date. None of our rules is uncommon for the industry.
If any of these rules would be abused by us, we wouldn't have contributors' support. We would lose it instantly or after 6 months, doesn't really matter. It would be simply stupid from us to abuse anything. In the end it's good business strategy that keeps agents, contributors and buyers together, not a set of rules.
11. Exclusive images - you can check in but cannot check out
Because it was abused by contributors in the past MANY times. You can still check out by emailing support.
12. Assignment images blocked for one year
That is a requirement for the extra exposure one receives on the homepage, were over 300,000 unique visitors may see your image in a single day. That's about 8-9 M per month.
12 months is not that much anyway, gives us some creative freedom for these (very few) images.
13. They pay only 25$ for assignment image and in the same time recommend 250$ for others
The Assignments portfolio is meant as a motivational tool. We don't make a profit from those files, in fact we lose money. Check its total sales and compare with how much we paid for the files.
14. "Selective" forum, what they don't like disappears
Untrue, only the blatant attacks or abused subjects go off. My presence here is a proof that we have nothing to hide.
15. Very slow earnings compared to IS and SS
That is your own experience.
16. About 40%!!! commission drop.
Again, your own experience. Others see high growth. Again, don't take my word for granted, ask others contributors.
17. No information send to contributors about important changes, like new prices policy
We don't send too many emails because of how many users we have. We don't want to end up being called spammers.
Nothing was launched without a pre-announcement way in advance. The news section highlights those announcements. Let's be honest, no contributor complained that they didn't hear about the changes.
18. Lack of information about Partners program
Whenever we could, we announced them. In many cases the news leaked out. But these strategies are sometimes confidential, for obvious reasons. We have competitors, I'm sure you noticed :)
19. Sometimes strange earnings like 0,24. DT team never explain that
We used to explain every single royalty. it's very difficult today with so many price updates and so many downloads. Too many files are downloaded each day. We cannot track each of them to provide additional details, but the FAQ and our Message boards provide plenty of data you can work with.
In this case, it could've been a very old subscriptions (someone might have purchased a yearly plan) or a subscription royalty affected by a distributor comission fee.
20. Usually announces made are not clear, not precise for me. Like politicians speech.
We have always addressed any questions. I'm sorry if you feel our language is not as clear as possible. I assure you that we do our best to address that. We are aware that messages should be clear and short (unlike this one :) ).
21. Subscriptions not limited in size.
That's part of our current strategy. Things may change in the future.
22. "sale is a sale" reasoning
Isn't a sale a sale? :) That's the microstock spirit. We also agree that it shouldn't go too low and prices should keep up with equipment upgrades and skills improvement. Taking a look at past years RPDs, I dare to say RPD is fair, although it's increase is always welcome, of course.
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The only thing I hate is subs. Everywhere.
yep me too.
I've vented about this before but to reiterate subs are far and away the most damaging thing to contributors. They put all the power in the hands of the agency.
No matter how low a pay per download rate is the relationship between contributor and agency is still comparable to the traditional agent client relationship. When you do well the agency does well- they take a percentage.
With subs the opposite is true, the more downloads you get the less they make. This leads to things like Shutterstock allowing unlimited elements in an illustration set for a single download. The less downloads a customer has to make to feel they are getting their money's worth the better. Ideally, as far as the agency is concerned, the customer will pay a (small) fee to have a vast library available to them if and when they need it. The more rarely they actually use it the better. That's why the terms are also designed to discourage stockpiling.
The difficulty is that many contributors at these sites wouldn't get any downloads at all if the marginal cost of downloading their image was greater than zero. This is why you get a lot more sub par content on SS then on other sites and why the subs model will continue to have supporters amongst contributors.
They subs royalties, at least with us, use the 50% as reference for the royalty rate. In fact, it's very likely that after this change (level-based pricing) the average royalties for non exclusive images are above 50%, meaning they actually pay better than the regular credit based downloads.
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Thanks for replying to my post. I want to make clear that this isn't an attack on DT in particular. I reserve most of the venom for SS for opening up this market and softening us up for the rest of the agencies to follow suit.
My issue with subs is not how much is offered per download. It is that my work is being represented by someone who no longer has my best interests in mind. In fact as far as subs go the opposite is true. The agency and contributor's interests are no longer aligned. This means that what should be a symbiotic relationship becomes a parasitic one, this can only lead to very bad things for contributors.
Again, at least DT and others still have a majority of per download sales, so our interests are somewhat relevant to the powers that be.
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Well I do appreciate (honestly) your reply to the issues although I do find many of them lacking:
1. 6 month locking: you stopped the monopoly, that's your reason? As long as you are looking out for us even if we didn't ask or don't want your help then we should be thankful for this?
2. subs: Things were worse before is your answer so whatever we get now that is better is good? I think we deserve better.
4. new pricing policy: it was announced in may so you have enough time to adjust? I cant do math well but I think may is less than 6 months ago so how would I adjust my portfolio to not be a part of this?
http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_18104 (http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_18104) this is the thread from Aug.12, but that's close enough to May I guess. I just looked through the archives of announcements, there was no announcement in may on specifics of the change, just an announcement that there would be one that we wouldn't be happy about.
6. slow disabling process: it takes a long time to review so we should take a long time to disable them and it's faster than uploading? are you saying we get punished because it takes a long time to review and that if it's better than terrible we should be happy (seems like a trend, sale is a sale reasoning)
9. free images: you don't have to participate. true we don't but when I see similar images for free that I am offering for sale I know I won't get one sale from them, hurts sales for me even without participating especially when there are so many
10. changing policies with no way to opt out for 6 months: none is uncommon for the industry? the industry is microstock photography I assume and the other agencies you are talking about are the ones talked about on here IS, SS, Fotolia, Stockxpert, 123rf, Crestock, Cutcaster, Veer correct? None of these has the 6 month policy (only BigStock has 90 day policy), I must not understand what industry you are talking about or I must have misread the TOS or you are lying.
21. subs can be maximum size: current policy. well bad policy that's all
22. sale is a sale: you said it is. not very encouraging for contributors, at least not for me
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I hate their inconsistent reviews: You get 2 or 3 pics rejected for "too similar" and you see a batch of 30 pictures of the same dog in different positions approved, you got sunsets,flowers, beaches, trees.... rejected for "not stock oriented" "or we are not looking this" and you see recently approved a lot of sunsets, flowers, beaches or trees and sometimes in a poor quality. This pisses me off.......is unfair when you see lots and lots of your pics refused for silly things and at the same time you see entire batches of similar approved or dull pics also approved
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I would like an answer: is DT favouring some photographers and being hars with others in approvals and rejections stuff? Why they say "this landscape, we have too much or is not stock oriented" and then you make a search and see recent approved pictures very similar to the landscape that they refused you?
Why they say "we are not looking for" to a lot of images and then you see lots of that kind of images approved?? this is very unfair, do you have a preferences system towards photographers and treat very well to ones and very bad to anothers? I have seen a lot of pictures of a concrete fruits very very similar approved and got some australian view refused for "similar" and they weren't
I got a lot of forest picz refused and saw a lot of forests approved similar to mine
I HATE THIS!!
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I dont like their inconsistent sales, their unreliable search engine (keywords), and the fact that they give priority to production companies (free advertising, featured photographer of the month, only showing top 10 busy photographers).
What makes it worse is the fact that they used to be a top agency, but they dont seem fair anymore. At least at shutterstock when your upload a lot you are guranteed some downloads from that batch, but with Dreamstime, you could go 3 months before any of your new images from a particular batch has been bought.
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What do I strongly dislike about Dreamstime?
I initially started to dislike Dreamstime when it introduced subscription plans and only wanted to hear what it wanted to hear in the forum. I don't read their forum anymore. I hope it no longer is the case.
In the recent few months, their rejections don't make sense. This issue has been well discussed in other threads. I rarely upload there anymore.
The sales have not increased in the past year even though my portfolio was getting bigger.
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With Dreamstime my average RPD for the last 12 months is $1.30 and it is $1.60 for this month. It has steadily increased since I have been with them end of 2005. Revenue and sales have steadily increased as well. My acceptance ratio for the last 12 months is 88.8% on 282 images submitted. Total with them now 1054. I have nothing to dislike about them as they have showed steady growth so far. Sure I do get rejections once in a while but I adapt. To me as long as my revenue keep on increasing for the amount of effort I put in, they can do whatever legal thing they want. It is the quality of your effort that matters and how much of it you put in. The majority rule and if most of us were unhappy about their business then they would not last long would they? Denis
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@ Achilles
Congratulation, like always an excellent reply. You are very intelligent but, in my opinion, you still make some ‘political’ mistakes. Dreamstime have potential to be great site. Stopping play "silent changes" and “fine print contract” game can be only benefit for you.
“1. 6 months of holding images
That is a regular requirement for most stock agencies in the world. It's true that not all microstock agencies have it. It was explained before lots of times. Without its integration several years ago, there will be a monopoly right now.”
-You are microstock agency. Comparing you to stock agencies is not relevant.
In microstock world you have the longest holding images period. Ok, it’s not completely true- there is still Albumo-but do you want to compare you to Albumo?
“10. Changing policies for old contributors. No possibility to option-in/out or close account when TOS change.
You have this possibility at any time as long as you respect the contract. There are also opt-out features on the site (see Alliances section).
You have to understand we are a business and there are rules. They are available at your signup date. None of our rules is uncommon for the industry.
If any of these rules would be abused by us, we wouldn't have contributors' support. We would lose it instantly or after 6 months, doesn't really matter. It would be simply stupid from us to abuse anything. In the end it's good business strategy that keeps agents, contributors and buyers together, not a set of rules.”
To be honest 6 months holding period is ok for me. I knew about that. What is not normal that you don’t propose possibility to get out is policies drastically change like subscriptions introducing and decreasing commission from 50 to 30%. This is not fair and even maybe not legal in some countries.
Why read contract, why agree with your policies if it means NOTHING. It’s only one way contract, you can do what you want and we don’t even have possibility to leave if we don’t agree with NEW terms. You know that a lot of people don’t read your TOS. I did, but I’ve never imagine that I signed blank check. Can you built honest and perennial business with this principle? Do you want to “trap” contributors. If they are happy they will not leave. .
Short story:
One day a door-to-door vendor sold to my 82 years old grand mother one year Internet connection. She has not computer and not even once touch a keyboard. Why she bought it? The vendor was a charming guy, he said it was a good deal. She signed the contract without reading. We try to cancel subscription, impossible, the contract was legal.
“11. Exclusive images - you can check in but cannot check out
Because it was abused by contributors in the past MANY times. You can still check out by emailing support.”
Before it was possible, than you changed it without any notice. And the page looks the same so you check in thinking that you can change your mind like before but it’s too late. Why you don’t inform us to avoid this kind of surprise? So if tomorrow bad contributors “abuse” (check out) you will, in silence, block it for 1 year?
15. Very slow earnings compared to IS and SS
That is your own experience.
Exactly, I'm talking about things I know. Not about rumors.
“16. About 40%!!! commission drop.
Again, your own experience. Others see high growth. Again, don't take my word for granted, ask others contributors.”
I’m not talking about my earnings. I’m talking about decreasing our commission from 50% to 30% for 1 level images files (huge majority in my case). About 40% drop. Never heard about something similar.
“17. No information send to contributors about important changes, like new prices policy
We don't send too many emails because of how many users we have. We don't want to end up being called spammers.
Nothing was launched without a pre-announcement way in advance. The news section highlights those announcements. Let's be honest, no contributor complained that they didn't hear about the changes.”
Spammers ? Seriously, you send acceptance emails all the time and you worry about spam for one email, most important for us information?
“18. Lack of information about Partners program
Whenever we could, we announced them. In many cases the news leaked out. But these strategies are sometimes confidential, for obvious reasons. We have competitors, I'm sure you noticed ”
Don’t interested about your confidential strategies. But I’m highly interested about places where my images are send. Do you heard about countries that don’t respect copyright? You should communicate about OUR commission too, min and max.
“19. Sometimes strange earnings like 0,24. DT team never explain that
We used to explain every single royalty. it's very difficult today with so many price updates and so many downloads. Too many files are downloaded each day. We cannot track each of them to provide additional details, but the FAQ and our Message boards provide plenty of data you can work with.
In this case, it could've been a very old subscriptions (someone might have purchased a yearly plan) or a subscription royalty affected by a distributor comission fee.”
I was there when subscriptions stared. Never heard 0.24. Never mind, why not to inform about all amount still available?
“22. "sale is a sale" reasoning
Isn't a sale a sale? That's the microstock spirit. We also agree that it shouldn't go too low and prices should keep up with equipment upgrades and skills improvement. Taking a look at past years RPDs, I dare to say RPD is fair, although it's increase is always welcome, of course.”
Exactly, probably contributors invest much more money in this business than you do. New contributors are always enthusiastic but they get older. One day it stops to be fun and economic question become pertinent. Personally, I don’t care about tear sheet game, never try to find any of my images in use. Only $ count. I prefer lose a sale than a sale for nothing.
If nothing change, probably next year I’ll be exclusive at IS. I don’t like this idea but I dislike much more what happens at Dreamstime and Fotolia. I have possibility to make interesting (but costly) images that I cannot sell at subscription price. I like a lot Vetta collection.
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Excellent points, Rene. I started to write but I think you touched the most points so I'll leave it, there's no need to add anything.
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Rene, I agree completely too.
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everything else is ok except the photos review is very inconsistent and the 5 words photo description process.
and i always get failure in my ftp upload
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I'd like Mr Achilles to give a explanation about inconsistent reviews and answer if they are favouring some photographers approving them more pics than others
thank'u
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No, there are no favors for some contributors against others. There are top contributors who saw huge batches being refused because of a small accident. Same rules apply for everyone. I'm not reviewing my own images and I'm getting my share of refusals. See them as a learning curve. Nobody wants to harm you. It's far more difficult to refuse an image.
The review process is not perfect and we're aware of that. Inconsistent reviews may appear for files that are close to the refusal limit anyway. An editor may approve what other will refuse. We're not robots.
While it's true that some files may produce a few sales, I doubt that any of the refused ones would become high level popular files. And those gems should be your goal. Just having your images accepted will mean nothing if they don't produce enough sales.
Refusals are extremely diverse from one image to the other, from one contributor to the next. We realize that and we provide a response to each and every reasonable email we receive about refusals. We can stay and talk the whole day about refusals, but generic conversations will not help you. Simply reply to the refusal email, state why do you feel the image is good and you will receive a second review and/or additional explanation. Can't get any more simple than that, honestly.
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1. It's your opinion that is not relevant. It is for us and for our positioning within the market.
10. We're not enforcing any drastical change instantly and we leave plenty of time to adapt. At this time the royalty dropped in an average that is less than 5-10% for most contributors. Those rates were announced but not fully performed. You can see my announcement in that thread about what was performed When they will be, it could be well over the 6 months limit since the initial announcement.
I'm sympathetic about your issue with your grandmother, however is not really the same case. We will try to keep your comments in mind for the future, there is always room for improvement.
11. You can simply email us, it's in fact much easier than going through the images and cancel exclusivity one by one.
When a security measure is enforced you don't want to make it public. There is no inconvenience for honest users, emailing us works much faster than clicking those checkboxes.
17. will address that as well. with 1,600,000 emails in our database we're reluctant sending emails for every announcement, but it was not the case here. I don't really think we were not transparent or tried to hide it in any way, please be reasonable.
18. can you give me examples where you can see what a distributor makes? I find Dreamstime to be among the most transparent agencies.
19. The amount of such subscribers is very small. Again, your own download may have been the result of something else. What I can assure you is that the royalty you got was according to the one advertised on the Sell your images page.
22. it's your right to do what you think is best for you. As long as we stay within our contract's rules, it's also our right to do what we consider best for our community (buyers, contributors and the agency). The agency's role after driving buyers to the site is to try to define the best compromise between the buyer and the contributor.
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1. It's your opinion that is not relevant. It is for us and for our positioning within the market.
10. We're not enforcing any drastical change instantly and we leave plenty of time to adapt. At this time the royalty dropped in an average that is less than 5-10% for most contributors. Those rates were announced but not fully performed. You can see my announcement in that thread about what was performed When they will be, it could be well over the 6 months limit since the initial announcement.
I'm sympathetic about your issue with your grandmother, however is not really the same case. We will try to keep your comments in mind for the future, there is always room for improvement.
11. You can simply email us, it's in fact much easier than going through the images and cancel exclusivity one by one.
When a security measure is enforced you don't want to make it public. There is no inconvenience for honest users, emailing us works much faster than clicking those checkboxes.
17. will address that as well. with 1,600,000 emails in our database we're reluctant sending emails for every announcement, but it was not the case here. I don't really think we were not transparent or tried to hide it in any way, please be reasonable.
18. can you give me examples where you can see what a distributor makes? I find Dreamstime to be among the most transparent agencies.
19. The amount of such subscribers is very small. Again, your own download may have been the result of something else. What I can assure you is that the royalty you got was according to the one advertised on the Sell your images page.
22. it's your right to do what you think is best for you. As long as we stay within our contract's rules, it's also our right to do what we consider best for our community (buyers, contributors and the agency). The agency's role after driving buyers to the site is to try to define the best compromise between the buyer and the contributor.
Achilles, thank you for spending time writing these lines. But if you cannot respond to some questions, simply ignore them. ;D
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Refusals are extremely diverse from one image to the other, from one contributor to the next. We realize that and we provide a response to each and every reasonable email we receive about refusals. We can stay and talk the whole day about refusals, but generic conversations will not help you. Simply reply to the refusal email, state why do you feel the image is good and you will receive a second review and/or additional explanation. Can't get any more simple than that, honestly.
This works pretty well: I often ask for a description of the problem when I can't get it my self and the response never failed to arrive. I've learnt a lot through this, in fact my AR has been raising to above 70% steadily (roughly 90% in the last three months). Excellent tool.
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Personally I dislike the idea of being locked in for 6mths or the disabling process - especially if I'm in the sort of mood where exclusivity at IS sounds appealing - but then I do the calculations and IS exclusivity never really seems to come out on top, so its not really an issue at the moment.
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Absolutely! Achilles is the most hands on of all the site owners, by far.
Whether or not you agree with the reasons offered, at least contributors to Dreamstime are given the respect of honest and thoughtful answers to questions and concerns.
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Absolutely! Achilles is the most hands on of all the site owners, by far.
Whether or not you agree with the reasons offered, at least contributors to Dreamstime are given the respect of honest and thoughtful answers to questions and concerns.
well put
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Absolutely! Achilles is the most hands on of all the site owners, by far.
Whether or not you agree with the reasons offered, at least contributors to Dreamstime are given the respect of honest and thoughtful answers to questions and concerns.
Lisa, it’s amazing how our perceptions can be different. Maybe you haven't read all threads.
Actually I think that Achilles judiciously avoid to respond majority of embarrassing questions. I took only two examples:
“17. No information send to contributors about important changes, like new prices policy
We don't send too many emails because of how many users we have. We don't want to end up being called spammers.
Nothing was launched without a pre-announcement way in advance. The news section highlights those announcements. Let's be honest, no contributor complained that they didn't hear about the changes.”
Question: Spammers ? Seriously, you send acceptance emails all the time and you worry about spam for one email, most important for us information?
Response: will address that as well. with 1,600,000 emails in our database we're reluctant sending emails for every announcement, but it was not the case here. I don't really think we were not transparent or tried to hide it in any way, please be reasonable.
“18. Lack of information about Partners program
Whenever we could, we announced them. In many cases the news leaked out. But these strategies are sometimes confidential, for obvious reasons. We have competitors, I'm sure you noticed ”
Question :Don’t interested about your confidential strategies. But I’m highly interested about places where my images are send. Do you heard about countries that don’t respect copyright? You should communicate about OUR commission too, min and max.
Response: can you give me examples where you can see what a distributor makes? I find Dreamstime to be among the most transparent agencies.
BTW, I always checked in for monthly newsletter. Never got it. But acceptance/rejections emails work well.
For me DT is not credible any more.
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Absolutely! Achilles is the most hands on of all the site owners, by far.
Whether or not you agree with the reasons offered, at least contributors to Dreamstime are given the respect of honest and thoughtful answers to questions and concerns.
+1.
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I recently received a very detailed response to a rejection email I sent to DT. It was about similiar images. The email was well thought out and really helped me get a handle on exactly what I need to do to avoid these type of rejections in the future.
I have to say I'm VERY pleased with this type of attention & helpfulness. ;D
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Achilles is the Big Boss of dreamstime ;D ;D and it's very nice from him to come here and give explanation to the posts.
Fotolia staff could learn from him ;D
just my 2 cents
PS. Is there any other stock page moderator/admin who is registered here?
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I know that John Griffin is here.
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The Veer guys are here regularly
MatHayward doesn't work for fotolia, but moderates on their forum and often posts on behalf of them.
steve-oh posted for StockXpert but has since given up his position there and no one has taken his spot here (and probably no one will after it has been purcahsed by iStock)
alex123rf posts for 123RF but he hasn't been around for a couple months.
Duncan_CSP the owner of Canstock is registered here but last posted in July
Josh was a rep for Crestock and posted quite a bit, but has given up his position at Crestock and no one has taken his place here.
Panthermedia and Zymmetrical both have reps, as well as John Griffin from Cutcaster (like elvinstar mentioned)
The 3dStudio has posted a bit here in the past in regards to the various threads about them.
MostPhotos has a rep + a few more of the smaller sites have popped on here.
But in regards to the big 6 Achilles is for sure the only owner that posts here - so be nice to him :). He is doing us a service by answering our questions.
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That they just rejected 30 images of mine.
A city and bridge skyline pictures with logo's removed.
All the same rejection message:
The image contains elements that might be protected by copyright/trademark (logos, brands, specific buildings etc.), can identify a property/product (letters, numbers), or could raise usage problems, therefore it doesn't qualify as a RF stock image. Analyze the photo closely and remove these elements if possible or try to obtain a property release. Read more: http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_148 (http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_148)
I hate when that happens and i could not be bothered to re-upload the images
At least they are accepted at all other agencies, so i suppose its their loss.
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Wow...
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Personally I dislike the idea of being locked in for 6mths or the disabling process - especially if I'm in the sort of mood where exclusivity at IS sounds appealing - but then I do the calculations and IS exclusivity never really seems to come out on top, so its not really an issue at the moment.
Too bad I missed you in Colombia, where are you now? I'm in Shanghai, China in case you make it this way. I don't think IS will make up the money but the time saved (especially overseas on a laptop), opportunities for Getty and such, and all of the changing policies that I don't like ( at DT and FT have pushed me away from them and I would rather stop contributing to those sites, although I still like 123rf and SS) have now made me decide to that with just IS, SS, and 123rf I would be better as an exclusive. Hope all is well with you and if you are in Lima say hi to our friends at family backpackers hostel.
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What I like about DT is that criticism actually gets responded to by someone with authority.
Personally I dislike the idea of being locked in for 6mths or the disabling process - especially if I'm in the sort of mood where exclusivity at IS sounds appealing - but then I do the calculations and IS exclusivity never really seems to come out on top, so its not really an issue at the moment.
Too bad I missed you in Colombia, where are you now? I'm in Shanghai, China in case you make it this way. I don't think IS will make up the money but the time saved (especially overseas on a laptop), opportunities for Getty and such, and all of the changing policies that I don't like ( at DT and FT have pushed me away from them and I would rather stop contributing to those sites, although I still like 123rf and SS) have now made me decide to that with just IS, SS, and 123rf I would be better as an exclusive. Hope all is well with you and if you are in Lima say hi to our friends at family backpackers hostel.
I'm in Argentina now - and will probably be here for a few months. Might have to catch you on the next time around - what's the plans after Shanghai?
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Two weeks here of "learning" mandarin and then 2.5 months traveling around before another 3 in India then Europe for a few days or until the money runs out. Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA. BTW did you stop uploading, I haven't seen any new images for a while?
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@Traveler1116
I'm in Asia too. What about creating FT-DT fun club? Send you PM
Sorry for hijacking this thread
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Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA.
Patagonia is really amazing, both in Argentina and Chile (I had an awesome time in Torres del Paine), but September and October are, if I am not mistaken, the windiest months there.
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Maybe I don't understand the whole property release business. This thing is handmade and a work of art and took her weeks to complete but now I have a rejection because I attached a property release from the artisan. I've had release rejections for feet with soccer balls and I can understand that - but if they don't want a release for this I'm not sure I understand the property releases at all - they are surely not just for real estate?
- Still scratching my head.
(http://thumb1.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/78164/78164,1252821558,1/stock-photo-a-handmade-quilt-in-stained-glass-pattern-36957973.jpg)
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Maybe I don't understand the whole property release business.
([url]http://thumb1.shutterstock.com.edgesuite.net/display_pic_with_logo/78164/78164,1252821558,1/stock-photo-a-handmade-quilt-in-stained-glass-pattern-36957973.jpg[/url])
Clearly you understand it better than this reviewer did. Which is no big surprise to me. Many of the DT & FT reviewers seem to know less about the "rules" (be they technical or legal) than many contributors do.
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@Traveler1116
I'm in Asia too. What about creating FT-DT fun club? Send you PM
Sorry for hijacking this thread
I'll try to meet you tomorrow we may go to a water town, not sure what that means but I'll be back in Shanghai for the evening either way and am always up for meeting fellow stock photographers. Keep in touch.
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Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA.
Patagonia is really amazing, both in Argentina and Chile (I had an awesome time in Torres del Paine), but September and October are, if I am not mistaken, the windiest months there.
Yeah that may be true, I was there in March with amazing weather. Too bad I only had the G9, the started out with less than amazing weather so I didn't bring my real camera. I wish I had seen Torres Del Paine everyone said it's better than el chalten and chalten was absolutely amazing, so it must be great.
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I wish I had seen Torres Del Paine everyone said it's better than el chalten and chalten was absolutely amazing, so it must be great.
It is awesome: http://www.mariaadelaidesilva.net/travel/patagonia/ (http://www.mariaadelaidesilva.net/travel/patagonia/)
Forgive me for the quality of the scans, I had a faulty monitor then, and so I did the wrong adjustments.
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Yep, looks great. I guess it's good to miss a few things, then you have a reason to go back again.
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Rejections for too many images of the same or similar subjet. >:(
Yes! I agree! One of my best sellers reached level 2 with a couple of weeks and the price went up. I submitted another image, similar subject but different colors and arrangements because I wanted to have a cheaper alternative in my portfolio. It was refused....
Another thing I do not like is the inconsistent reviewing: two of the same serie: one is rejected because it shouldn't be a RF image with low commercial value and should contain copyrighted material etc. The second one was from a different angle and was approved. With in a week it was sold so how low is it's commercial value?
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this?
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^^Î'd have a lot more to add to that thread than to this one :)
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this?
Nah it's ok to say somethings that you like, I don't really like much at all there anymore. They pay a good percentage (oops that was before subscriptions and when they lowered it from 50% to 30% for credit sales), they reply to you fast (half the time telling you it doesn't matter what you say: "it's in the TOS", "a sale is a sale", or something condescending, hmm what else do I like...? They listen to contributors? If you say something they like then sure they do.
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this?
i'm sure many people would join in if you started that thread. It is not by chance that they are one of the most well liked companies.
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Traveller111, why do you keep your account at DreamsTime if you hate them? shouldn't be better for 'u to be exclusive to another angecy?
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Traveller111, why do you keep your account at DreamsTime if you hate them? shouldn't be better for 'u to be exclusive to another angecy?
They changed their pricing and now I can't leave until the six months is up, I stopped uploading when they lowered prices but I still have to keep my images up for the time even though they changed the pricing. I also have to wait for BigStock to finish the 3 months but thats ok it's up soon and I can leave them now if I want but they were never that bad so I have kept all my images up there, I am down to 280 images at DT mostly level 2 because they get a little better to the original amount I agreed to when I signed up for DT. They said it's in the TOS that "we can change whatever policy about pricing for whatever reason & you have to keep images up for 6 months no matter what" that's the basic gist of their replies. I don't want to work with them anymore and I really don't want to get stuck for 6 months the next time they change their prices to screw us. I have no level 3 images which get a higher % of subs sales, I have only done a little over 1000 dollars with them so they aren't very important to me and the new pricing does nothing but hurt my RPI.
But to answer your question, as soon as I can get away I will. Their new policies that I can't do anything about, except remove all my selling images so that neither me nor DT makes money, which is a terrible place for this company to put contributors in. There are a lot of people that have chosen to get no sales while waiting for the 6 months to end rather than make some money for a company they don't like and that doesn't treat them fairly at all. I am one of them. If you contribute there and plan on staying with them no matter what they do then they are maybe the 3rd, 4th or 5th best.
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i swear i must have garnered some good karma for even wanting to start another thread. i had an extra large sales at dt immediately after weeks of no activity. someone up there is watching. ::)
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i swear i must have garnered some good karma for even wanting to start another thread. i had an extra large sales at dt immediately after weeks of no activity. someone up there is watching. ::)
Imagine what happens if you actually start the thread!
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i swear i must have garnered some good karma for even wanting to start another thread. i had an extra large sales at dt immediately after weeks of no activity. someone up there is watching. ::)
Imagine what happens if you actually start the thread!
:D
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i swear i must have garnered some good karma for even wanting to start another thread. i had an extra large sales at dt immediately after weeks of no activity. someone up there is watching. ::)
I had 2 maximum size sales of level 2 images today for .35 cents today, someone must be watching me too.
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
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I had 2 maximum size sales of level 2 images today for .35 cents today, someone must be watching me too.
mine were credit sales. they're watching you for the wrong reasons. :P
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
This is one of the biggest reasons I feel pushed to IS exclusivity even though I know I'll lose a little money. Their response was that they sent out a message, 5 months ago or so(I think achilles said may, much less than 6 months in advance), that said they might change their pricing but they weren't sure how so therefore I had enough time to "adjust" my uploading. That's the kind of crap that just annoys . out of me I stopped uploading as soon as i saw the details and still have to wait 3 months.
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My RPD for Sept. has fallen to Dec. 08 levels. ??? Was this caused by their recent changes?
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My RPD for Sept. has fallen to Dec. 08 levels. ??? Was this caused by their recent changes?
they lowered the percentage for level one from 50% to 30% and subs are around 40% of my total sales
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this?
Me too. The things I like about Dreamstime would fill up a thread pretty fast. They remain my favorite agency :D
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this?
Me too. The things I like about Dreamstime would fill up a thread pretty fast. They remain my favorite agency :D
But something is keeping you back from being exclusive there, I assume there is something you at least moderately dislike? I really did like DT a while ago but this stupid 6 month thing is so crazy that I couldn't possibly think of staying any longer. I'm not at all pleased about the new pricing and the reasoning that this is better for us, I have no level 3 images and I'm at least equal in sales to many of the people that post here. There has not been a huge increase in sales and weren't the levels supposed to be easier to get? I thought they had mentioned something about one sale getting you to level 2 or am I wrong about that?
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to be quite honest, dt only accounts between 8-20% of total sales, which seems to be the same for others. so, it wouldn't make sense to go 'exclusive' at that level, unless you really, really like dt and doing it for purely sentimental reasons (which we will go into detail on another thread).
does dt make up a large % of sales for you?, if not, why get into a tizzy over such a small % of your portfolio? concentrate on the big fish, bro...
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to be quite honest, dt only accounts between 8-20% of total sales, which seems to be the same for others. so, it wouldn't make sense to go 'exclusive' at that level, unless you really, really like dt and doing it for purely sentimental reasons (which we will go into detail on another thread).
does dt make up a large % of sales for you?, if not, why get into a tizzy over such a small % of your portfolio? concentrate on the big fish, bro...
Trying not to sound like a jerk but did you read the earlier posts. They changed their pricing from 50 to 30% and I stopped uploading but I have to keep the remaining very few images on their for 6 months. I have deleted almost my whole portfolio so that they (and in turn I) won't make any money from them, if I'm going to get 30% then I might as well be exclusive at IStock which has higher prices, more sales, and no subscription sales. If I could leave now I would but they said that according to their TOS that they can change the prices for any reason and you have to keep images up for 6 months. Their answer was that we can do what we want and you cannot do anything about it for six months. Then their owner (?) achilles said that in may (not six months ago) I could have "adjusted" my uploading to deal with the change that they might announce, nothing was announced then. This is not a good business and not looking out for you.
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...sounds like my credit card company...
however, you may have acted on principal, but the end result just were of no benefit to you. to be fair, is does have subscription sales and the commission on the per pic sold is the highest at dt.
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quote Posted by: traveler1116
...and not looking out for you.
...sounds like my credit card company...
Lol. It's business, no one looks out for you. Like any company, the company comes first.
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@Traveller111 - Have DT changed their prices or something and has this affected you in some way? Why not tell us all about it?
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.
i think their commission dropped from 50 to 30%.
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.
Thanks __ my tongue was firmly in my cheek. I was pointing out that he's overstated his case about 45x both here and on the DT forums over the last couple of weeks and yet is still going.
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:D :D
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traveller1116, i see what you feel...if you don't have money pendig to request...have you raised baout "breaking their rules" intentionally in order to get your account cancelled? I mean... not doing anything illegal of course ;D but arguing with the admins , discussing their policies and critizising them at blogs and forums, uploading all youir refused files and leting them know (I read about people having their accounts removed for doing that),etc... getting them angry ;D ;D ;D
Of course if you are planning in a future to return to DT DON'T do that ;D ;D ;D
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...sounds like my credit card company...
however, you may have acted on principal, but the end result just were of no benefit to you. to be fair, is does have subscription sales and the commission on the per pic sold is the highest at dt.
IS subs don't really seem to affect anything, they still use an almost regular credit price for those, it's not a huge difference and I don't (or anyone else i think) get a lot of them. 30% is hardly the highest anymore is it? I think 123rf is still 50% right?
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traveller1116, i see what you feel...if you don't have money pendig to request...have you raised baout "breaking their rules" intentionally in order to get your account cancelled? I mean... not doing anything illegal of course ;D but arguing with the admins , discussing their policies and critizising them at blogs and forums, uploading all youir refused files and leting them know (I read about people having their accounts removed for doing that),etc... getting them angry ;D ;D ;D
Of course if you are planning in a future to return to DT DON'T do that ;D ;D ;D
I have argued with admins, and have relayed the response ( TOS says: we can do what we want, change price for any reason and you have to keep images on for 6 months), breaking their rules just causes them to lock all keywords and descriptions forever, mine have been locked for over a year, I have written on their forum and been banned from them before (i'm not now, but i will if I say what I want) for saying that everyone should protest their policy of "holding images hostage", I don't want to upload refused images because who knows if they will accept one and then I have to wait 6 more months to get out. They are a little erratic with their reviews but most companies are to an extent, if they get angry they will just block your posting privledges and then make you wait it out so there isn't much point in that. That's why I chose to post my issues here.
The thing is they have shown that they want ME more than I want them, they won't ban me forever because they need CONTRIBUTORS to make money. We should all realize this and stop putting up with these kind of terrible policies.
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.
Thanks __ my tongue was firmly in my cheek. I was pointing out that he's overstated his case about 45x both here and on the DT forums over the last couple of weeks and yet is still going.
If its not an issue for you to get the commission dropped from 50% to 30% then I say good for you. For me it's an issue that really bothers me, why are you saying that it has been said way too much? I find it strange that you can honestly say that you don't care if your % of earnings has been dropped by 40%. Please explain what is overstated: they changed the % I get when I uploaded and I can't delete my images because of that(if any company besides BigStock does that I can leave them.
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you'll need to read his earlier posts.
Thanks __ my tongue was firmly in my cheek. I was pointing out that he's overstated his case about 45x both here and on the DT forums over the last couple of weeks and yet is still going.
If its not an issue for you to get the commission dropped from 50% to 30% then I say good for you. For me it's an issue that really bothers me, why are you saying that it has been said way too much (i only said I couldn't delete any images on the DT forums, they fixed that)? I find it strange that you can honestly say that you don't care if your % of earnings has been dropped by 40%. Please explain what is overstated: they changed the % I get when I uploaded and I can't delete my images because of that(if any company besides BigStock does that I can leave them.
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Two weeks here of "learning" mandarin and then 2.5 months traveling around before another 3 in India then Europe for a few days or until the money runs out. Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA. BTW did you stop uploading, I haven't seen any new images for a while?
Yep... just to get the thread back off topic... I stopped uploading for about 6 weeks while at Machu Picchu and in Bolivia - I'm now in Buenos Aires for at least a month to do a bit of work. Finally have some files back in my upload que and will be working through a backlog of about 400 photos, so there should be plenty of new photos online soon ;)
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Two weeks here of "learning" mandarin and then 2.5 months traveling around before another 3 in India then Europe for a few days or until the money runs out. Go to patagonia, el chalten is amazing if you get good weather (a big if), but I think it was the most amazing place we went in the six months in SA. BTW did you stop uploading, I haven't seen any new images for a while?
Yep... just to get the thread back off topic... I stopped uploading for about 6 weeks while at Machu Picchu and in Bolivia - I'm now in Buenos Aires for at least a month to do a bit of work. Finally have some files back in my upload que and will be working through a backlog of about 400 photos, so there should be plenty of new photos online soon ;)
Good, can't wait to see them. Enjoy Argentina.
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning. As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.
And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive. I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.
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I like Dreamtime too! Level 5 imagery pays well and often.
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning. As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.
And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive. I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.
I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning. As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.
And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive. I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.
I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).
From the point of view of contract law, you're probably right - if someone felt strongly enough about the issue to challenge DT on the lock-in having significantly changed their terms, they'd probably be successful. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you've already accepted the new terms by submitting more images. Problem is that most independent contributors are pretty much locked in through circumstances anyhow, and mostly don't want to - or can't- now change.
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning. As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.
And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive. I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.
I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).
From the point of view of contract law, you're probably right - if someone felt strongly enough about the issue to challenge DT on the lock-in having significantly changed their terms, they'd probably be successful. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you've already accepted the new terms by submitting more images. Problem is that most independent contributors are pretty much locked in through circumstances anyhow, and mostly don't want to - or can't- now change.
My guess is that I am not locked legally locked into these terms either and have not uploaded since the change in policy was made official, but dreamstime is an eastern european company I think so I don't have much choice in terms of legal recourse. I have voiced my concerns with them and they have totally ignored me, that's why I feel as though my only choice is to tell as many people as I can that I don't like or trust this company. It's sad really that they can be so unbending on something that at least to me seems so wrong, they can use the TOS to justify absolutely anything as they have said before. I just hope I get out before they do anything else worse to us (like a 1 year lockin period or lowering commissions to 20%, it's in the TOS "we can change anything for any reason"). Well I hope someone has listened and at least thought a bit more before continuing with them and Holgs have fun down there.
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Traveller might be onto something here. If DT has a 6 month rule to delete your photos, they should really have a 6 month notice with price changes. I have to say they give us better notice than most of the others - like FT. Oh, I forgot - they don't give notice, we just find out policy changes by accident.
In all fairness Dreamstime has done a very good job of communicating changes and giving fair warning. As most of us have experienced, there has been fairly recent history of sites making major changes to both pricing and contributors share without any warning and news of the changes only coming long AFTER the change, if at all.
And yes I like Dreamstime, but why I am not exclusive there... because it simply doesn't make sense to be exclusive. Even if I liked 100% of the things Dreamstime did, I wouldn't be exclusive. I make more money submitting to multiple agencies.
I find DT okay, but I think 'fair warning' should be at least the same as the lock-in period. You can't have your cake and eat it too (I've never really understood that phrase, surely the reason you would want cake is to eat it???).
From the point of view of contract law, you're probably right - if someone felt strongly enough about the issue to challenge DT on the lock-in having significantly changed their terms, they'd probably be successful. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you've already accepted the new terms by submitting more images. Problem is that most independent contributors are pretty much locked in through circumstances anyhow, and mostly don't want to - or can't- now change.
I just hope I get out before they do anything else worse to us (like a 1 year lockin period or lowering commissions to 20%, it's in the TOS "we can change anything for any reason"). Well I hope someone has listened and at least thought a bit more before continuing with them and Holgs have fun down there.
Yikes I hope not too :o I'm serving my time out there too!
Actually they could surely only change the lockin for new images following an announcement?
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I too have been thinking lately about starting to pull out of DT because of the 6-month period. If a better way to market my images suddenly comes along, I don't want them locked in at DT for 6 months. That's a totally unreasonable condition and had I not been such a clueless newbie at the start, I wouldn't have signed on with DT because of it.
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If a better way to market my images suddenly comes along, I don't want them locked in at DT for 6 months.
it would only make sense if the new market requires your exclusivity. otherwise, why not collect the pennies till your time is up? (why do you all sound like jailbirds?)
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it would only make sense if the new market requires your exclusivity.
... or if a new site could bring me significantly higher prices, and I didn't want to compete with myself for the first 6 months.
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abimages, they said to me and it's in their TOS that they can change anything at anytime for any reason and you will be bound to it, I really doubt this is legal anywhere but they would really need to piss off a lot of people before they got sued.
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I'm pulling images. Too many subscription sales... which would be Fine, but they only pay minimum amount for both small and large images. IStock pays more for large / x-large subscriptions.
Just my quick list:
1. 6 months of holding images
2. increased amount of subscription sales
3. falling RPI
4. new pricing policy
5. disabling images not deleting them
6. slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
7. getting images rejected for having a model release
8. locking keywords on basically every image
9. giving away free images
edited because hate is too strong
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... or if a new site could bring me significantly higher prices,....
Do you actually forsee this in the future? Call me pesimistic, but I dont!
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is anyone up for a thread on 'things you like about dreamstime?' there are a few off the top of my head. but will get i get stoned if i do this?
Actually I have nothing for either, except the navigation and design which I like on DT. Nothing that I strongly dislike, it's a little to heavy for my taste. ;D
Since the thread has moved into removed images, why do they all show as disabled, after I waited 6 months so I could delete them, including one that was disabled and I re-activated which started the clock all over again.
They are all still there? When do files get removed, instead of de-activated? It makes me wonder.
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But something is keeping you back from being exclusive there, I assume there is something you at least moderately dislike?
Sorry to disappoint, but the reason I am not exclusive anywhere has nothing to do with how much I "like" a site. It is a purely financial decision.
I continue to be happy with Dreamstime for all the reasons previously stated, but they are currently only around 11% of my earnings. So no, I am not tempted to be exclusive there.
My top seller, Istock, is under 40% of earnings so I won't be going exclusive there either in case you were going to ask ;)
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Last 20 sales: 10 subscription sales, 8 of those at large or maximum size, and 6 of them level 2. Not much more to say I guess, but weren't we told that higher levels would be easier to reach? My RPD is down to 88 cents now from last year at 1.12 and down from last few months by at least 13%. This even though I have deleted most of my level one files (down from over 1300 files to under 300 now), my RPD should be much higher since most of my files are level 2 now. Compare that with RPD at Istock of 1.85.
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BME for me with 1.3 RPD. Very pleased with DT all-around.
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Since the thread has moved into removed images, why do they all show as disabled, after I waited 6 months so I could delete them
Achilles has addressed this issue on a number of occasions including on this thread (http://www.dreamstime.com/forumm_9740_pg2).
licensed files and all activity needs to be referred in the future, should such need arise (let's assume a buyer disputes one of your files) ... the high res files are deleted, permanently. What we keep in reference to your account is your past activity. And that's for internal reference, nothing is public.
I'm very happy with my current arrangements. Which is fortunate because I doubt there would be a way back to DT for me and all the countless other people who argued with them about the 6 months. I rather doubt they welcome people back after a fight.
So here is my advice: Do not fall out with them over the 6 month thing. You will not win the debate and you will end up feeling frustrated and a bit stupid. And one day you might want to go back. It is never a good idea to fall out with people when you go in different directions.
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So here is my advice: Do not fall out with them over the 6 month thing. You will not win the debate and you will end up feeling frustrated and a bit stupid.
I think this is a good example of how we get gradually beaten down by these companies, with their "because we can" and "take it or leave it" attitudes. If Dreamstime has unanswerable legal arguments backing up this policy, why don't other agencies have the same requirement?
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So here is my advice: Do not fall out with them over the 6 month thing. You will not win the debate and you will end up feeling frustrated and a bit stupid.
I think this is a good example of how we get gradually beaten down by these companies, with their "because we can" and "take it or leave it" attitudes. If Dreamstime has unanswerable legal arguments backing up this policy, why don't other agencies have the same requirement?
And don't worry if you fall out with them, they will "allow" you back. You should remember that they need your images as much as we need them, I think they need us more. We are allowing them to sell our images and that is the only way they make a penny.
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So here is my advice: Do not fall out with them over the 6 month thing. You will not win the debate and you will end up feeling frustrated and a bit stupid.
I think this is a good example of how we get gradually beaten down by these companies, with their "because we can" and "take it or leave it" attitudes. If Dreamstime has unanswerable legal arguments backing up this policy, why don't other agencies have the same requirement?
Well I did not intend what I wrote to be a good example, or any sort of example, of that. Perhaps I am getting lost in translation.
My intended point was non contentious: in the full context I was saying simply that life is much easier not arguing with people. It applies with all of the agencies. One day you might want to go back somewhere. I got cross with DT because they wouldn't let me go early. It was pointless. It was a few years ago. I certainly would not have got legal with them since I have no doubt that they have checked their facts.
FWIW I do think the 6 month lock in works to their detriment in terms of how they are perceived. I would certainly advise people coming in to microstock from the mainstream (and newbies to a lesser degree) against going with them until they have had a chance to get a sense of the business. Six months is decades in internet years.
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So here is my advice: Do not fall out with them over the 6 month thing. You will not win the debate and you will end up feeling frustrated and a bit stupid.
I think this is a good example of how we get gradually beaten down by these companies, with their "because we can" and "take it or leave it" attitudes. If Dreamstime has unanswerable legal arguments backing up this policy, why don't other agencies have the same requirement?
Well I did not intend what I wrote to be a good example, or any sort of example, of that. Perhaps I am getting lost in translation.
My intended point was non contentious: in the full context I was saying simply that life is much easier not arguing with people. It applies with all of the agencies. One day you might want to go back somewhere. I got cross with DT because they wouldn't let me go early. It was pointless. It was a few years ago. I certainly would not have got legal with them since I have no doubt that they have checked their facts.
FWIW I do think the 6 month lock in works to their detriment in terms of how they are perceived. I would certainly advise people coming in to microstock from the mainstream (and newbies to a lesser degree) against going with them until they have had a chance to get a sense of the business. Six months is decades in internet years.
You give them a lot more credit than I do. I doubt it's legal to force us to keep our images there while changing the % they pay us, just because they say they can do anything they want doesn't always make it so. It is easier to sit back and take unfair policies, but I'd rather have newbies understand what they are getting into if DT won't listen to me. You are right, 6 months is an eternity when just recently Stockxpert, SV, and Bigstock were bought up not to mention all of the other changes going on within other agencies. I have for the last year been telling everyone I talk to about joining MS to watch out for DT and BigStock because of their lockin policies, I wasn't at all prepared for the "highest percentage paying agency", like DT was saying, to change their policy without offering us a way to opt out. Now I will just tell everyone I know to not use them at all just in case they change their policies again.
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Quite ironic me, of all people, playing devil's advocate on behalf of DT.
I think my advice stands. Even if you feel a bit trapped short term, don't argue with them. You might want to re activate your account and start uploading again one day. And I doubt they will want you back if you had a big todo with them previously.
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Yes, I agree that arguing with DT is futile and counterproductive. Bottom line - once they have your images there's nothing you can do to force them to delete or disable them. Unless you're a major contributor to DT's bottom line, you have no leverage.
I too would advise any new contributors to avoid DT unless they drop this requirement. And I'm not expecting DT to change anything.
At some point, when all we're getting are 25 cent (make that 10 cent) subscription sales on these sites, I'll probably give up on microstock. I hope by that point some other marketing channel presents itself. Right now I'm watching my average return on DT, trying to decide if I want to keep submitting new images, in view of the 6 month requirement.
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You will never get 25 cent or 10 cent subscription sales. Prices are on the rise and they will not go backward. These big boys are all just measuring the temperature right now. IS introduced a good subs program, DT made the first move and introduced a tiered subs program and SS has raised their prices every year but this 2009, and that was a good stand considering the economy. FT introduce the Premium plan (yet, not so great for us). YES, a new agency will come along and offer a worse deal. But - how many here will be joining these new agencies? The agencies with the crappy returns won't get YOU or ME to contribute, sure they'll get the Mom with a new Rebel, but that doesn't mean they will find buyers for the amateur photos. The top 4 will not be lowering rates. If anything, they have introduced smaller sizes, not smaller prices. The other 3 or 4 might try to introduce some riddiculous scheme to inch forward in the market, but they do so at the risk of every last one of us leaving them. If 123 suddenly paid you 10 cents for subs, would you stay? Face it, if you are like me, my top 4 sites earn more than 80% of my micro earnings. I could drop the bottom sites and not see much of a dip in earnings. They aren't going to be stupid.
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Pixart, we're already getting 25 cent subscription sales. In fact on SS, that's all I get. But, I appreciate your optimism and who knows, you might be right.
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Not to mention, IS/Getty getting rid of JIU and photo.com subs via StockXpert at 30 cents (already too low) and giving us the opportunity to sell them at those places for 25 cents. >:(
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Not to mention, IS/Getty getting rid of JIU and photo.com subs via StockXpert at 30 cents (already too low) and giving us the opportunity to sell them at those places for 25 cents. >:(
That's not actually happened yet, although it was announced months ago, and not even a firm date when it will. Clearly there are more issues or difficulties (or maybe it will contribute less to the bottom-line) than originally planned. Keep 'em crossed.
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Quite ironic me, of all people, playing devil's advocate on behalf of DT.
I think my advice stands. Even if you feel a bit trapped short term, don't argue with them. You might want to re activate your account and start uploading again one day. And I doubt they will want you back if you had a big todo with them previously.
Yeah, it says a lot about the mood here lately that reasonable advice which basically translates to "Don't burn your bridges" could be considered controversial ;)
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Pixart, we're already getting 25 cent subscription sales. In fact on SS, that's all I get. But, I appreciate your optimism and who knows, you might be right.
Thanks for setting me straight stocktastic, I was only thinking of my experience. I think I made 20 cents, but sales were so strong back then it didn't take long at all to get a bump in earnings. Now, that's much harder because either (a) more photographers are diluting the sales; or (b) they don't have the sales they used to (c) combination of (a)&(b). I am still at least 4 months away from my next bump in earnings at SS. I have one referral who has really, really nice model released photos and he doesn't even sell every day. If he joined when I did he would have been a star and done very well - but these days it must be discouraging. Thankfully there is still a reward for sticking with them.
Then there's Crestock.... I don't contribute there so I will censor my true feelings about their 25 cent subs:) And I did not opt-in for the IS/Jupiter deal. At least I had a choice.
Anyhow - these are legitimate businesses that exist only to make a profit. The industry is still young, but it is showing signs of maturity. The top 4 are leaving the others in the dust and can now raise their prices, introduce "Vetta" and premium collections. The biggest problem for us is to keep mass producing amazing quality photos to get a piece of that pie. RPD may be getting higher, but sales may be lower = the plateau that many are experiencing.
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I'm not an economist. But I'm picturing a strip mall with 4 stores, all selling the exact same products. They've reduced the prices of those products down to commodity levels, all 4 basically the same, and they're attempting to compete by offering complicated "subscription" plans.
How can any of the microstocks start raising prices unless they differentiate themselves in some way?
All I can think of is better keywording, reduced duplication, improved search results.
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How can any of the microstocks start raising prices unless they differentiate themselves in some way?
All I can think of is better keywording, reduced duplication, improved search results.
I think you just outlined iStock's business plan in one sentence. ;D
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Since the thread has moved into removed images, why do they all show as disabled, after I waited 6 months so I could delete them
Achilles has addressed this issue on a number of occasions including on this thread ([url]http://www.dreamstime.com/forumm_9740_pg2[/url]).
licensed files and all activity needs to be referred in the future, should such need arise (let's assume a buyer disputes one of your files) ... the high res files are deleted, permanently. What we keep in reference to your account is your past activity. And that's for internal reference, nothing is public.
I'm very happy with my current arrangements. Which is fortunate because I doubt there would be a way back to DT for me and all the countless other people who argued with them about the 6 months. I rather doubt they welcome people back after a fight.
So here is my advice: Do not fall out with them over the 6 month thing. You will not win the debate and you will end up feeling frustrated and a bit stupid. And one day you might want to go back. It is never a good idea to fall out with people when you go in different directions.
I have no argument with them, I waited and removed the dormant files and duds. I left the files that have sold and those that may sell. I was just not understanding how they could deactivate a file, not delete it and when I re-activated it, months later, it was there again, full resolution. Like magic. So it must not be deleted?
"Achilles has addressed this issue on a number of occasions..." is not an answer
Which brings up the same question. When do the hi-res files actually get deleted? ???
Hmm, no real answer from anyone? Must be a tough question. ;D
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I'm not an economist. But I'm picturing a strip mall with 4 stores, all selling the exact same products. They've reduced the prices of those products down to commodity levels, all 4 basically the same, and they're attempting to compete by offering complicated "subscription" plans.
How can any of the microstocks start raising prices unless they differentiate themselves in some way?
All I can think of is better keywording, reduced duplication, improved search results.
I think most buyers stick with the site they are used to unless they can't find what they want. Prices are so low at the moment, it doesn't seem to be a big issue. When I look at my portfolio on a few sites, it looks quite different. Some of my best sellers are rejected by some sites, they all have their own style and they are not selling the exact same images. The search is different on all the sites and images that make the front pages on some sites are hard to find on others. The difference isn't as big as I would like, hopefully all the big sites will start a premium collection and offer image exclusivity, that would make a real difference.
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Stock sites should delete all crap they accepted years ago, snap shots,pics with poor background removal, dark pictures,etc. They should do a big clean up and accept more pictures on what they consider "very well covered" by cleaning old and crap ones
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Stock sites should delete all crap they accepted years ago, snap shots,pics with poor background removal, dark pictures,etc. They should do a big clean up and accept more pictures on what they consider "very well covered" by cleaning old and crap ones
Does Istock still move poor sellers to the dollar bin? I don't have any there, but I believe they used to approach the artist when a photo has no sales for a year or maybe 2 years and this gives the photo a new chance for downloads.
FT tells you that your photo has had 24 months with no sales and suggest you add it to the free photos section. I would rather delete it, or just let it sit there.
The other sites should really do something similar. In a way I like it that FT automatically doesn't delete the files, but maybe they should.
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Just my quick list:
1. 6 months of holding images
2. increased amount of subscription sales
3. falling RPI
4. new pricing policy
5. disabling images not deleting them
6. slowest disabling process for images, having to put a reason for each one
7. getting images rejected for having a model release
8. locking keywords on basically every image
9. giving away free images
I don't like
10. Changing policies for old contributors. No possibility to option-in/out or close account when TOS change.
11. Exclusive images - you can check in but cannot check out
12. Assignment images blocked for one year
13. They pay only 25$ for assignment image and in the same time recommend 250$ for others
14. "Selective" forum, what they don't like disappears
15. Very slow earnings compared to IS and SS
16. About 40%!!! commission drop.
17. No information send to contributors about important changes, like new prices policy
18. Lack of information about Partners program
19. Sometimes strange earnings like 0,24. DT team never explain that
20. Usually announces made are not clear, not precise for me. Like politicians speech.
21. Subscriptions not limited in size.
22. "sale is a sale" reasoning
$100 minimum payout, low sales and subs, add up to they keep all the money for new photogs and never pay them because they never reach payout.
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I really like Dreamstime just not the constant sub sales but apart from that its one of my fave sites :)
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Topic: What do you strongly dislike about Dreamstime?
I strongly dislike the time it takes for payout - normally within 48 hours - should be within 24 hours! ;)
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Topic: What do you strongly dislike about Dreamstime?
I strongly dislike the time it takes for payout - normally within 48 hours - should be within 24 hours! ;)
The payouts for me are only an issue with IS, sometimes more than 2 a week is a pain but for DT you must be doing very well if this is an issue. You don't have your portfolio listed so we can't see what is making you 100 bucks a day, but good job if you are. All the terrible things about dreamstime being said (and I have a ton to say), they do payout faster than most sites but it doesn't make up for how long it takes to get there or all the other bs they do.
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Uhhhmm... The ;) after his post "complaining" about waiting 48 hours for payouts was a pretty good indicator that he wasn't serious.
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Treveler it's a shame you have such a personal dislike for DT - I appreciate your work and have purchased a number of your files over the past year or so from DT ... I will miss your portfolio - we as a matter of principle don't buy from istock (among other reasons so little of istock's purchase price goes to the contributor) ... but good luck to you in the future.
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Treveler it's a shame you have such a personal dislike for DT - I appreciate your work and have purchased a number of your files over the past year or so from DT ... I will miss your portfolio - we as a matter of principle don't buy from istock (among other reasons so little of istock's purchase price goes to the contributor) ... but good luck to you in the future.
Thanks for the kind words, DT is not better than IS now in terms of % for contributors and in fact going exclusive will get 30% from IS which would be the same for a vast majority of files sold and there will be no sub sales and if in the future IS changes it's policy I can always put my pictures back on other sites (not DT though).
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Well, I tried to promise myself I would stop complaining about things, but this got under my skin a little. Dreamstime wants us to NOT add the keyword "vector" to our illustrations until after the eps file is approved. Here's the thread for anyone interested:
http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_18912 (http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_18912)
I'm sick of arguing about silly things like this, so I'm just going to roll my eyes and move on. I'll just add that to my growing list of how to prep my illustrations for each different agency. Maybe it is time for iSyndica.
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Treveler it's a shame you have such a personal dislike for DT - I appreciate your work and have purchased a number of your files over the past year or so from DT ... I will miss your portfolio - we as a matter of principle don't buy from istock (among other reasons so little of istock's purchase price goes to the contributor) ... but good luck to you in the future.
Thanks for the kind words, DT is not better than IS now in terms of % for contributors and in fact going exclusive will get 30% from IS which would be the same for a vast majority of files sold and there will be no sub sales and if in the future IS changes it's policy I can always put my pictures back on other sites (not DT though).
I'm also on my way to be exclusive on IS. Even if DT is giving more % I have a strong feeling that I still get less unless my image is level 3. I talk about subscription who have become around half of my sales. That's why most of the other sales are small sizes.
Also I don't know why exactly but I see lots of portfolios with more images than sales there. The dilution effect is strong on DT as their relevency search is not working to put any good seller up in the search. That make sale potential weak unless you have thousand of pictures to get more exposure. I don't like that, as it favor quantity over quality.
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Dreamstime is great I make enough to buy my equipment people are great.
But the only thing that really bugs me is selling additional files as subscription.
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Last 20 sales: 10 subscription sales, 8 of those at large or maximum size, and 6 of them level 2. Not much more to say I guess, but weren't we told that higher levels would be easier to reach? My RPD is down to 88 cents now from last year at 1.12 and down from last few months by at least 13%. This even though I have deleted most of my level one files (down from over 1300 files to under 300 now), my RPD should be much higher since most of my files are level 2 now. Compare that with RPD at Istock of 1.85.
I thought the same thing, but when I ran the numbers, my average sale from 06-08 was actually lower than my 09 average. And although Oct has fallen flat, this will definitely be a better year than last with one BME and overall totals steady to climbing.
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Last 20 sales: 10 subscription sales, 8 of those at large or maximum size, and 6 of them level 2. Not much more to say I guess, but weren't we told that higher levels would be easier to reach? My RPD is down to 88 cents now from last year at 1.12 and down from last few months by at least 13%. This even though I have deleted most of my level one files (down from over 1300 files to under 300 now), my RPD should be much higher since most of my files are level 2 now. Compare that with RPD at Istock of 1.85.
I thought the same thing, but when I ran the numbers, my average sale from 06-08 was actually lower than my 09 average. And although Oct has fallen flat, this will definitely be a better year than last with one BME and overall totals steady to climbing.
Two weeks later update: RPD is now .85 and 12 out of my last 20 sales were 35 cent subscription sales (60%), my portfolio has been decreased from 1300 images to 146 with almost all level one images that I can delete, deleted leaving a very high percentage of level 2 images. This should have increased my RPD but lowered overall sales, it has lowered overall sales and RPD and increased the % of subscriptions. My RPD at IS is at 1.60 (no els and only 1 video sale this month yet which is why it's lower so far) while at SS it's .50 but with 20 times the volume of DT.
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You can add to this list new "database cleaning" - in the reality they want force us to give them images for free.
Diminishing our commission from 50 to 30% was not enough? >:(
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http://www.microstockgroup.com/dreamstime-com/%27dreamstime-ups-collection-of-free-images%27/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/dreamstime-com/%27dreamstime-ups-collection-of-free-images%27/)
More free images.