Quote from: OM on January 21, 2011, 11:51


Little changed from September for emeralds...........except that perhaps min. credit has been revised from 5 to 3.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/why-i-love-fotolia!/

As well as ELS. I originally got 80$ per EL then it went to 74$ and now it has gone down to 37$. On the months where I get  a few it makes a huge difference to earnings.

I would feel much better about this if we had some assurance from Fotolia admin that they do not intend to change the number of downloads needed to advance up a level in rank at any time in the foreseeable future. I'm close enough to emerald where I would be (very resentfully) willing put up with the pay cut until I reach emerald and get my old commission rate restored.

Just curious...do these agencies have sales teams? There is plenty in the announcement about increased marketing but anyone with direct sales experience knows that marketing doesn't amount to wren s**t without people working the phones and meeting face to face with the bean counters.

For Fotolia I can at least say that the German part of it has an office with a sales team. Whether or not that expanded since I saw it last (I visited the agency's Berlin office once a few years back) I do not know though.

I haven't had a sale since I got to within $5 of a payout. That was in early Nov.

Quote from: azurelaroux on January 22, 2011, 04:04
I haven't had a sale since I got to within $5 of a payout. That was in early Nov.

I don't see your portfolio on FT at all - could be why no sales   I tried searching for your user name when the link from the forum didn't work, but that said 0 files found.

Some of the other links in your forum bar no longer go to active portfolios - perhaps it needs an update to remove those no longer applicable?

I must say; upon my request to delete my account, Fotolia offered to pay out even though I have not reached minimum requirement yet. That is a completely different tune to when I closed my account at 123RF. Too bad about Fotolia, really, my images had just started to sell really well there.

Quote from: Fotonaut on January 22, 2011, 09:41
I must say; upon my request to delete my account, Fotolia offered to pay out even though I have not reached minimum requirement yet. That is a completely different tune to when I closed my account at 123RF. Too bad about Fotolia, really, my images had just started to sell really well there.

Go back to them!! there is nothing wrong with FT!  they got plenty of selling power and this cut in commissions, well thats just a few bucks, no more, worse is the carte blanche to all other agencies to do the same. Thats whats damaging, not the money.

Upload to them again, youre silly deleting an account for nothing really.

Quote from: lagereek on January 22, 2011, 10:23
Go back to them!! there is nothing wrong with FT!  they got plenty of selling power and this cut in commissions, well thats just a few bucks, no more, worse is the carte blanche to all other agencies to do the same. Thats whats damaging, not the money.
Upload to them again, youre silly deleting an account for nothing really.

Thank you for the advice, but no thanks.

I have now spent a year testing microstock as a contributor, and find that I do not feel comfortable with the business model. Too much is given away at too low prices and commissions are even declining. Feels like prostitution with age working in my disfavour. Unsustainable.

I am more comfortable with PODs, where my average $5 commission per sale only give use for that particular one time product. No carte blanche on use, no basically free use when downloaded. When the e.g. T-shirt is worn out, another one must be bought. Etc.

Other than that I'll be focusing more on Alamy, other mid- and macrostock options and commissioned work. More focus on raising the bar on my photography skills, less on producing volume and uploading. I don't care if sales volume is lower, or even if short term income is less. I feel more comfortable selling at prices more in tune with how I perceive my work's value.

Dreamstime, BS, Yay, GL, SF and some others will still be on the list (until they too slash commissions). Just to see how things go.

Quote from: lagereek on January 22, 2011, 10:23

Quote from: Fotonaut on January 22, 2011, 09:41
I must say; upon my request to delete my account, Fotolia offered to pay out even though I have not reached minimum requirement yet. That is a completely different tune to when I closed my account at 123RF. Too bad about Fotolia, really, my images had just started to sell really well there.

Go back to them!! there is nothing wrong with FT!  they got plenty of selling power and this cut in commissions, well thats just a few bucks, no more, worse is the carte blanche to all other agencies to do the same. Thats whats damaging, not the money.

Upload to them again, youre silly deleting an account for nothing really.

There is nothing wrong with FT?!! Imho they're about the worst. They ban people and close their accounts when things are posted in their, or other forums which they dont like. They make a lot of sneaky changes and when contributors ask about that the reply is: "why? because we can" (that helpdesk reply is still floating around here somewhere). They have absolutely zero transparency and your commission part depends on where you registered (euro vs dollar). And the list goes on and on. This all BEFORE the istock fiasco. They and their incredible arrogance are the first one i ditched, and im still very happy i did.

Quote from: jsnover on January 22, 2011, 04:23

Quote from: azurelaroux on January 22, 2011, 04:04
I haven't had a sale since I got to within $5 of a payout. That was in early Nov.

I don't see your portfolio on FT at all - could be why no sales   I tried searching for your user name when the link from the forum didn't work, but that said 0 files found.

Some of the other links in your forum bar no longer go to active portfolios - perhaps it needs an update to remove those no longer applicable?

That's weird. The links all have my user name "azurelaroux" listed. No idea why they wouldn't work.

Quote from: azurelaroux on January 22, 2011, 19:09
That's weird. The links all have my user name "azurelaroux" listed. No idea why they wouldn't work.

Fotolia uses user #, not username.  For example, this link to my portfolio works: http://us.fotolia.com/p/3824.

http://google.com/#q=site:fotolia.com+azurelaroux

I just noticed that there was a thread at the FT forum about the cuts and it has removed... Typical FT!

I haven't noticed a change yet so does anyone know when this is supposed to take effect?  I haven't seen a change in royalties with the downloads I've gotten since the announcement and I can't seem to find that information anywhere as it wasn't in the newsletter either.

Quote from: Anita Potter on January 24, 2011, 15:32
I haven't noticed a change yet so does anyone know when this is supposed to take effect?  I haven't seen a change in royalties with the downloads I've gotten since the announcement and I can't seem to find that information anywhere as it wasn't in the newsletter either.

this minute, just had one great 23%.. less than when I started at 25%.. just awesome!

It's live, had two sales today, both at the reduced rates. 

Yes - it's live. I just celebrated it with the first X-license in ages. $25 for me instead of $31 - well money isn't going to make me happy, anyway.

No, wait, that was at that other place... 

I'm $5 shy of a payout. Guess I'll wait it out and then make a final decision once I hit that.

Maybe I did see it today.  Had a sub sale for .25 but I've had that before this month.  Ahhhh this is really friggen confusing.  I too am close to payout so I'll wait as I need that money for bills.

The thread has been closed by Fotolia and I have been banned from the Forum for being a little bit to firm ..... no rule broken as far as I know (maybe they just made a new rule up !!).

I have to be careful what I say here as the last thing I want happening is my portfolio being pulled by them so will leave it at that ...... this is one of the reasons I havent posted here in a long time :-(

Take care ( all those who matter anyway!!)

Warren

Quote from: warren0909 on January 24, 2011, 20:14
The thread has been closed by Fotolia and I have been banned from the Forum for being a little bit to firm ..... no rule broken as far as I know (maybe they just made a new rule up !!).

I have to be careful what I say here as the last thing I want happening is my portfolio being pulled by them so will leave it at that ...... this is one of the reasons I havent posted here in a long time :-(

Take care ( all those who matter anyway!!)

Warren

I am disgusted how fotolia acts.
And 25% royalties is too low to motivate me to upload new images.
Also RPD at fotolia is lowest of all agencies where I am contributing.

Quote from: warren0909 on January 24, 2011, 20:14
The thread has been closed by Fotolia and I have been banned from the Forum for being a little bit to firm ..... no rule broken as far as I know (maybe they just made a new rule up !!).

I have to be careful what I say here as the last thing I want happening is my portfolio being pulled by them so will leave it at that ...... this is one of the reasons I havent posted here in a long time :-(

Which is why a number of long term contributors with good size portfolios are anonymous here - they don't want to put their income at risk given the extraordinarily broad notion FT has of what speech they should be able to control. It's not a good situation, but you're wise to be cautious.

Now I really noticed it with a new file upload.  When I clicked on the extended license button it said 8 and not 10.  Guess it's not just my imagination anymore.

Will see how things fair with them in the next few months.  I'm due for the unsold files section come this June (2 years with no files sold) so I'm not making any decisions on anything.

I'm still having a hard time understanding the statistical data of how much it's going down.  Can someone way smarter than me put something up that's in like dollars and cents?  I've never been good with statistics esp. with percentages.  What makes it harder is that they have so many different subscription models I can't figure out where I'm losing at.

Quote from: Anita Potter on January 24, 2011, 22:41
Now I really noticed it with a new file upload.  When I clicked on the extended license button it said 8 and not 10.  Guess it's not just my imagination anymore.

Will see how things fair with them in the next few months.  I'm due for the unsold files section come this June (2 years with no files sold) so I'm not making any decisions on anything.

I'm still having a hard time understanding the statistical data of how much it's going down.  Can someone way smarter than me put something up that's in like dollars and cents?  I've never been good with statistics esp. with percentages.  What makes it harder is that they have so many different subscription models I can't figure out where I'm losing at.

your earnings have dropped by around 20% depending on what level you are at.  So if you made $100/month you will now make $80  It is a bit more complicated than that but for the most part you will be losing 20 cents on the dollar.