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Author Topic: Fotolia cuts commissions again  (Read 66704 times)

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« Reply #75 on: January 20, 2011, 12:10 »
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I received a Fotolia "Hot Shots January 2011" Newsletter. Design - pretty much like Istock's.
Treatment of contributors - pretty much like Istock's.

Did I miss the news where it said: Getty bought Fotolia too?


lagereek

« Reply #76 on: January 20, 2011, 12:16 »
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It may also keep a few from dropping IS exclusivity. 

Bingo. FT just gave istock a nice New Year's gift. Why drop the crown in favor of the competition when the competition is cutting rates too?

Kind of makes microstock in general start to look "unsustainable." Too many more of these cuts and I think I could call it quits and focus entirely on my design business.

exactly!  its a crying shame since I reached Gold and was doing very well with FT. As if it wasnt enough theyve also changed their search and for the worse.

« Reply #77 on: January 20, 2011, 12:18 »
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from 2007 (33%) to 2011 (20%).. this is unbelievable, how can they do this? instead of been once with contributors and tell IS they suck..

rubyroo

« Reply #78 on: January 20, 2011, 12:22 »
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It kind of takes the WOT out of SWOT analysis, doesn't it?   ;)

« Reply #79 on: January 20, 2011, 12:27 »
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It may also keep a few from dropping IS exclusivity. 

Bingo. FT just gave istock a nice New Year's gift. Why drop the crown in favor of the competition when the competition is cutting rates too?

Kind of makes microstock in general start to look "unsustainable." Too many more of these cuts and I think I could call it quits and focus entirely on my design business.

Bingo! Me too, I have already started getting my ducks in a row with my website upgrade and new print materials to start picking up new clients and start forgeting about microstock. I will probably still submit some macro stuff, but I have all but given up on micro.


I imagine the only way to turn this around is to have a union of sorts that can fight it as a whole, but we've discussed this before and it doesn't seem likely because the majority of microstockers are hobbyists and don't want to put in the effort and the ones who do make a living at this or at least a good portion of it (below the elite few mega ports) are a minority so they wouldn't have much say without the mega ports being on board like Yuri, Sean, Lise, Andres etc. but they really don't seem to care or want to cause any waves for themselves, because they don't really get touched in all these cuts as the agencies don't want to piss them off.. So the hobbyists don't really want to put in the effort and the big players I imagine don't want to fight for the other guy's so the small few in the middle that it really makes a difference to are kind of left out to dry even though the hobbyists are out to dry as well they don't care all that much.. It takes the contributors to make a difference as a whole but like it has been said so many times before it will not happen.. So we all watch and bitch as the micro ship sinks..

« Reply #80 on: January 20, 2011, 12:29 »
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Remember Fotolia advertising as the fair treatment agency when iS announced their rate cut. They didn't mention cutting rates two weeks after iS did back then. What effing hypocrisy!  Not that it surprises me. Fotolia was where the pay cutting all began.

« Reply #81 on: January 20, 2011, 12:34 »
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Think on the bright side people.

This move will surely eliminate some of your future competition if your already doing pretty well in micro. If your struggling, this hobby might not be worth your efforts anymore. Everyone acknowledges that this market has too much supply.  

yes, money is the root of all evil.

« Reply #82 on: January 20, 2011, 12:34 »
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So if I understand that * email correctly that all the peeps who are considered little fish (including myself) are getting screwed over while the ones that are on the top tier remain unaffected?  Completely unfair to do that.  At this rate those of us who are little fish won't ever get the chance to become big fish with all the cuts.  I'm still stuck at the white level which is going to make it impossible to attain other levels then?  It sure as hell isn't our fault people are reaching other levels too fast so why punish those of us sell but not a lot?  Course I'm close to payout there and they do this.  Now it's going to take me forever to reach the last $8.00 at this rate.

Are all files like say vectors taking a cut too?  I get mainly subs and vector sales.  I should probably go back and check the links in this thread.  That would f'n suck.

Happy Screw Year...* tossers.

« Reply #83 on: January 20, 2011, 12:47 »
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Cutting thro all the spin I blame the IS/Getty greed fest for this......

Oh well thats SS and Dreamstime getting my best work from now on! 2 DOWN 2 TO GO hope they hold out rather than follow like over zealous sheep   ::)

« Reply #84 on: January 20, 2011, 12:49 »
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Are all files like say vectors taking a cut too?  I get mainly subs and vector sales.  I should probably go back and check the links in this thread.  That would f'n suck.

Happy Screw Year... tossers.


Here's a nice little bit of history:

http://microstock.sys-con.com/node/1225951

I don't think that even mentions the 3% they knocked off royalties in 2009. Also, doesn't mention the vector price cut in 2009 when they switched to a 4-6-8 pricing model instead of all 8 credits.

« Reply #85 on: January 20, 2011, 13:07 »
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Remember Fotolia advertising as the fair treatment agency when iS announced their rate cut. They didn't mention cutting rates two weeks after iS did back then. What effing hypocrisy!  Not that it surprises me. Fotolia was where the pay cutting all began.


and I believe some IS exclusives left and now this..

« Reply #86 on: January 20, 2011, 13:33 »
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Every time percents get cut it seems we need a quickie math refresher for us number-challenged artists....for all those that are referring to this as a 5% cut...that is NOT correct.  Your commission percent is 5% less, but to find out how much less your earnings would be simply divide your old percent by your new percent. For example if you are going from 25% to 20%  that is 20/25=.80 or a 20% cut! So a 5 point drop in your overall commission really translates to 20% less earnings!  That is a huge drop.

This is outrageous! Usually when any other company anounces record profits they also anounce a small raise for their employees not a pay-cut.

I think the only thing we can do short of forming an artists guild/union with price standards, would be to publicly thank and support those companies that have not made cuts. Could you imagine if in the wake of all these cuts if some company (DT or SS) had the nerve to actually raise commissions, you would see every single microstocker flock to their site immediately, its such a no brainer business decision you would have every single microstock photographer flocking to that site.  You would instantly become the number one microstock site overnight. That is all it would take to have professional photographers start referring clients to your site. A 10% increase in commission's could easily bring way more than 10% more business to your site, not to mention what the positive vibe would do for word of mouth advertising and contributers productivity. Come on SS and dreamstime ...step to the plate...show us what you are really made of do you want to be number one or do you want to force your contributers to all quit uploading to micro and start applying to the macros...the amateur days are long over and the work is now good enough to be put up on macros who pay good commissions.  Alamy is not even really a macro since it sells $5 images now and it still maintains giving their photographers 60% of the commission as opposed to 12% or whatever it is now.   Fotolia just made the worst business decision ever! Just when disgruntled istockers were looking for other more fair agencies to go with they chose to be greedy.

Edit: for bad math earlier  :-[
« Last Edit: January 20, 2011, 23:11 by lightscribe »

« Reply #87 on: January 20, 2011, 13:37 »
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<.. snip..>

I think the only thing we can do short of forming an artists guild/union with price standards, would be to publicly thank and support those companies that have not made cuts. Could you imagine if in the wake of all these cuts if some company (DT or SS) had the nerve to actually raise commissions, you would see every single microstocker flock to their site immediately, its such a no brainer business decision you would have every single microstock photographer flocking to that site.  You would instantly become the number one microstock site overnight. That is all it would take to have professional photographers start referring clients to your site. A 10% increase in commission's could easily bring way more than 10% more business to your site, not to mention what the positive vibe would do for word of mouth advertising and contributers productivity. Come on SS and dreamstime ...step to the plate...show us what you are really made of do you want to be number one or do you want to force your contributers to all quit uploading to micro and start applying to the macros...the amateur days are long over and the work is now good enough to be put up on macros who pay good commissions.  Alamy is not even really a macro since it sells $5 images now and it still maintains giving their photographers 60% of the commission as opposed to 12% or whatever it is now.   Fotolia just made the worst business decision ever! Just when disgruntled istockers were looking for other more fair agencies to go with they chose to be greedy.

exactly what I was thinking. 

« Reply #88 on: January 20, 2011, 13:41 »
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The worst cast scenario is this

Buyer buys credits in Euro with the smallest package size .. which is now 1.20 Euro /credit for 25 credits ($1.61860 USD/credit)

The buyer then buys an image from a white ranked photographer with a USA account and the photographer gets (with 2011 commissions) 20% of a credit, which is US$1.00, so $0.20

So the buyer spent $1.62 and the photographer gets $0.20 = 12.3%

Here is the blog post explaining it in a bit more detail
with more calculations (albeit older numbers)


It's about time someone with a bit of web-programming skills come up with online calculator to calculate our real Fotolia comission %. We can check the US sales % in stats, put it in online calculator alone with Fotolia rank and have our real cut calculated.

Fotonaut

« Reply #89 on: January 20, 2011, 13:43 »
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Request to delete my Fotolia account sent. 38 euro credits forfeited. Whatever. One year into microstock sure has been waste of time, not many agencies left on my list.

CCK

« Reply #90 on: January 20, 2011, 13:50 »
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Request to delete my Fotolia account sent. 38 euro credits forfeited. Whatever. One year into microstock sure has been waste of time, not many agencies left on my list.

Have they changed their policy on payout as well? With FT you could always request a payout even before you reach the payout amout, you just forfeited a percentage of your money.

Anyway, both FT and iS have changed from top agencies 3 years ago to about no 8 and 9 on my list now. Not woth uploading anymore. My top 3 are SS, Zoonar and DT at the moment (in that order).

« Reply #91 on: January 20, 2011, 14:09 »
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I may be wrong, but did I notice correctly that the subscription royalties did NOT go down? 
I cannot find the old charts, but right now (I'm gold) I get 0.33 and 0.38, and the new charts show the same.
If that's correct, then the lowering of the royalty % will only affect half of my sales (and probably everybody's sales), since about 50% of my Fotolia sales are subscriptions.
Wrong calculation?

« Reply #92 on: January 20, 2011, 14:11 »
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Great, at 21267 downloads I was close to rising to emerald. The last time I got close they moved the target further away, and now I get shafted once again. I'm considering stopping all uploads to Fotolia, I haven't decided yet. If I didn't need the money I would take down my entire portfolio on both IS and FT. If I find a way to compensate for the potential drop in income, I will leave both sites altogether.

lagereek

« Reply #93 on: January 20, 2011, 14:33 »
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Im erasing over 1300 images over the weekend, so is another 5 to 8 Golds in Scandinavia, England and Germany. We will join up with IS.  Why??  well for starters, why set the bar at Emeralds? cheaper then Gold on the stock-market, also, you cant trust the game any more. FT, made that an infamnia, which means an impossibillity to remain.

We had time over for IS, given the fact they were the first ones, this however? no! no way, its upstart mentality.

« Reply #94 on: January 20, 2011, 14:39 »
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Im erasing over 1300 images over the weekend, so is another 5 to 8 Golds in Scandinavia, England and Germany. We will join up with IS.  Why??  well for starters, why set the bar at Emeralds? cheaper then Gold on the stock-market, also, you cant trust the game any more. FT, made that an infamnia, which means an impossibillity to remain.

We had time over for IS, given the fact they were the first ones, this however? no! no way, its upstart mentality.

As a fellow gold I feel the opposite is true - for me, at least. All this commission cutting has shown me just how risky it is to go exclusive with any agency. You can't trust any of them, least of all IS.

« Reply #95 on: January 20, 2011, 14:53 »
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Im erasing over 1300 images over the weekend, so is another 5 to 8 Golds in Scandinavia, England and Germany. We will join up with IS.  Why??  well for starters, why set the bar at Emeralds? cheaper then Gold on the stock-market, also, you cant trust the game any more. FT, made that an infamnia, which means an impossibillity to remain.

We had time over for IS, given the fact they were the first ones, this however? no! no way, its upstart mentality.

It's a perfect domino effect for IS. IS cuts commissions, then others do the same and in the end more exclusive content falls into IS hands like ripe apples from a tree.

lagereek

« Reply #96 on: January 20, 2011, 14:57 »
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Im erasing over 1300 images over the weekend, so is another 5 to 8 Golds in Scandinavia, England and Germany. We will join up with IS.  Why??  well for starters, why set the bar at Emeralds? cheaper then Gold on the stock-market, also, you cant trust the game any more. FT, made that an infamnia, which means an impossibillity to remain.

We had time over for IS, given the fact they were the first ones, this however? no! no way, its upstart mentality.

It's a perfect domino effect for IS. IS cuts commissions, then others do the same and in the end more exclusive content falls into IS hands like ripe apples from a tree.

Well good luck to them in that case,  FT loss and IS gain!  sorry but FT hasnt got the same clout as IS.

« Reply #97 on: January 20, 2011, 14:59 »
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Are all files like say vectors taking a cut too?  I get mainly subs and vector sales.  I should probably go back and check the links in this thread.  That would f'n suck.

Happy Screw Year... tossers.


Here's a nice little bit of history:

http://microstock.sys-con.com/node/1225951

I don't think that even mentions the 3% they knocked off royalties in 2009. Also, doesn't mention the vector price cut in 2009 when they switched to a 4-6-8 pricing model instead of all 8 credits.


Okay that's just extremely confusing.  Is there a way to tell if we have a 4, 6 or 8 vector?  I'm gonna have to go look. *edit* I see it a lot of 4s and one 6 so far in my looking.

Which leads me to another question...is this effective now or at a later date?

« Reply #98 on: January 20, 2011, 15:02 »
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We had time over for IS, given the fact they were the first ones, this however? no! no way, its upstart mentality.

From what I recall FT started this all - first they moved the goalposts to move up a level, then they dropped the commissions, then DT followed, then IS followed, now back to FT. will DT follow for round 2? I sure hope not.

Sorry if you meant IS was the first microstock, not the first to drop commissions.

« Reply #99 on: January 20, 2011, 15:04 »
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I just hope Shutterstock will not do that. I am am almost certain Dreamstime will not do that (though who knows)

Didn't DT cut commissions last year? :-\


 

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