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Author Topic: Fotolia, new prices, the math.  (Read 15951 times)

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« on: April 08, 2009, 06:13 »
0
A full month on Fotolia with the new prices, time to do some math.

Lets start with the division of the different  credits and how much they are represented  :

Februari            March            Result      

1 credit :    18 %         19 %                    + 1 %
2 credit :     8 %         14 %                    + 6 %
3 credit :   17 %         13 % (4 credit now)      -  4 %
4 credit :   11%         12 % (5 credit now)      + 1 %
5 credit :   11 %           6  % (6 credit now)      -  5 %
Subscription :   35 %      36 %                    + 1 %

-   6 credit sales show a big decrease (former 5 credits);
-   5 credit sales stayed almost the same (former 4 credit);
-   4 credit sales also shows a clear drop (former 3 credit);
-   2 credit sales shows a significant increase;
-   1 credit sales, almost the same, slight increase;
-   Subscription sales a slight increase.

Return per image in :

-   February   0.915 $
-   March   0.825 $

There is a clear inclination towards smaller sizes and cheaper prices. As a result, march revenue is  about 10 % lower than February, despite march having about 11 % more image sales. I could deduct without  excess that there is a drop of 21 %.  So far Im not seeing the promised increase.  Selling more images should result in a clear increase, not what Im seeing now.

Patrick H.

Sorry for the rickety layout, made it in office 2007 and just copied over here...
« Last Edit: April 08, 2009, 07:03 by patrick1958 »


« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2009, 10:07 »
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Yes, RPD is creeping down for me over the last 6 months.  I can't believe the amount of subs I've been getting lately.  3-1 subs and then the regular sales mostly seem to be small or extra small!

.57 April (to Apr 8th)
.70 March
.75 Feb
.82 Jan
.80 Dec
.81 Nov
.86 Oct

« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2009, 10:26 »
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Mine is not as clearly defined.

Nov08  0.880
Dec08  0.780
Jan09  0.970
Feb09  0.673
Mar09 0.854

lisafx

« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2009, 10:35 »
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For March my DL's on Fotolia are up 8%  and Royalties up 5%, so I see your point.  RPI is definitely going down a bit.

I am not too worked up about it as long as total $ are going up though.

« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2009, 10:59 »
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For March my DL's on Fotolia are up 8%  and Royalties up 5%, so I see your point.  RPI is definitely going down a bit.

I am not too worked up about it as long as total $ are going up though.
I guess the thing that gets ones' goat is the $$ would indeed be higher if Fotolia didn't greed out and yank $$ out of the fotog.


« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2009, 11:47 »
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I did better with the new pricing and royalties At Fotolia, but I sold a lot of vectors. Unfortunately, Fotolia implemented new lower vector pricing too, so I'm not sure how long "doing better" will last.

If I take out all the vector sales, I still made a little bit more with the new pricing. S and XS were the bulk of my raster downloads, but they didn't earn as much as my M and above downloads.

In the end, the changes didn't make a huge difference for me, but I can definitely see why people are pissed.

« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2009, 17:12 »
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RPD %subs
nov/08 0.66
36
dec/08 0.55
38
jan/09 0.76
24
fev/09 0.57
49
mar/09 0.80
17
apr/09 0.86
10

March was best month in over one year. I can't complain.

« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2009, 00:00 »
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For March my DL's on Fotolia are up 8%  and Royalties up 5%, so I see your point.  RPI is definitely going down a bit.

I am not too worked up about it as long as total $ are going up though.
I guess the thing that gets ones' goat is the $$ would indeed be higher if Fotolia didn't greed out and yank $$ out of the fotog.



Yeah our dollars would be up everywhere if the sites just quit spending money on marketing and distributed it to the contributors.  That would probably last a few months but over time you would have fewer and fewer sales.  Is that a better plan?

fred
« Last Edit: April 09, 2009, 00:31 by Fred »

« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2009, 05:02 »
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I just did a comparison between my March and February numbers
February - 0.89c per download
March - 0.87c per download
How's that for "price increase"  :'(

« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2009, 07:16 »
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Where is Mr. Hayward when you need him?

I'm sure that he could put a positive spin on this.  ;)

« Reply #10 on: April 09, 2009, 07:53 »
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Fred, I think he's referring to the fact that Fotolia specifically reduced contributor commission rates from what they were earlier, not to the general fact that stock agencies take a cut of the sales.

For March my DL's on Fotolia are up 8%  and Royalties up 5%, so I see your point.  RPI is definitely going down a bit.

I am not too worked up about it as long as total $ are going up though.
I guess the thing that gets ones' goat is the $$ would indeed be higher if Fotolia didn't greed out and yank $$ out of the fotog.



Yeah our dollars would be up everywhere if the sites just quit spending money on marketing and distributed it to the contributors.  That would probably last a few months but over time you would have fewer and fewer sales.  Is that a better plan?

fred


« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2009, 09:32 »
0
For March my DL's on Fotolia are up 8%  and Royalties up 5%, so I see your point.  RPI is definitely going down a bit.

I am not too worked up about it as long as total $ are going up though.
I guess the thing that gets ones' goat is the $$ would indeed be higher if Fotolia didn't greed out and yank $$ out of the fotog.



Yeah our dollars would be up everywhere if the sites just quit spending money on marketing and distributed it to the contributors.  That would probably last a few months but over time you would have fewer and fewer sales.  Is that a better plan?
fred

I believe that Fotolia keeps somewhere between 60 and 70% of each transaction. According to you Fred, I am supposed count myself lucky that they don't keep more. In the past few months Fotolia has devised two sneaky methods to retain more of  OUR earnings. The first was increasing the number of downloads to attain the various ratings and the other was an increase the price of OUR images but decrease the commissions. Now in this thread, people are posting their experience with earnings since the inception of the second claw back method. If Fotolia can't advertise with huge commission they already retain then maybe they should go under. However I think it is just a matter of greed.

Peter

Milinz

« Reply #12 on: April 09, 2009, 09:43 »
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They are just watching all contributors who are good with $0.25 and similar commissions on some other sites... If that trend with uploading at low commission sites continues, we all will have less and less earnings on such big agencies... Due to they really can lower our commissions in accordance with our willing to get any than some sales with any than decent earnings!

It all depends of us and people who say 'never mind - I am fine with $0.20 - $0.30 earnings per download'...

Just think! Time is passing, competition growing and there are also some agencies with 'best of the best images for dimes'...

« Reply #13 on: April 09, 2009, 10:25 »
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I suggest you just look to the past to see the future. Look at the history of the stock industry and you will find most of the answers you are looking for.

« Reply #14 on: April 09, 2009, 10:39 »
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I believe that Fotolia keeps somewhere between 60 and 70% of each transaction. According to you Fred, I am supposed count myself lucky that they don't keep more. In the past few months Fotolia has devised two sneaky methods to retain more of  OUR earnings. The first was increasing the number of downloads to attain the various ratings and the other was an increase the price of OUR images but decrease the commissions. Now in this thread, people are posting their experience with earnings since the inception of the second claw back method. If Fotolia can't advertise with huge commission they already retain then maybe they should go under. However I think it is just a matter of greed.

Peter


And don't forget that they took away the referral program without letting us know so we would keep all of our FT banners on our websites.

« Reply #15 on: April 09, 2009, 12:57 »
0
For March my DL's on Fotolia are up 8%  and Royalties up 5%, so I see your point.  RPI is definitely going down a bit.

I am not too worked up about it as long as total $ are going up though.
I guess the thing that gets ones' goat is the $$ would indeed be higher if Fotolia didn't greed out and yank $$ out of the fotog.



Yeah our dollars would be up everywhere if the sites just quit spending money on marketing and distributed it to the contributors.  That would probably last a few months but over time you would have fewer and fewer sales.  Is that a better plan?
fred

I believe that Fotolia keeps somewhere between 60 and 70% of each transaction. According to you Fred, I am supposed count myself lucky that they don't keep more. In the past few months Fotolia has devised two sneaky methods to retain more of  OUR earnings. The first was increasing the number of downloads to attain the various ratings and the other was an increase the price of OUR images but decrease the commissions. Now in this thread, people are posting their experience with earnings since the inception of the second claw back method. If Fotolia can't advertise with huge commission they already retain then maybe they should go under. However I think it is just a matter of greed.

Peter

Do the math.  SS keeps a higher percentage of each sale.  Why aren't more people complaining about that?  How is FT supposed to compete when SS has such an advantage?  At least FT tells us exactly how much they are taking. They show views and dls for every image.  Try getting that information from SS and others.

fred

lisafx

« Reply #16 on: April 09, 2009, 13:10 »
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I guess the thing that gets ones' goat is the $$ would indeed be higher if Fotolia didn't greed out and yank $$ out of the fotog.



I know where you are coming from on this.  I was disappointed that the commissions were lowered too. 

Unfortunately it seems like you have to pick your battles in this business and this hasn't been disasterous incomewise, so I am trying not to get too worked up over it. 

« Reply #17 on: April 09, 2009, 14:19 »
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The only math I need to know is that I would be making A LOT MORE if Fibtolia hadn't decreased their commissions


batman

« Reply #18 on: April 09, 2009, 14:51 »
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I know where you are coming from on this.  I was disappointed that the commissions were lowered too. 

Unfortunately it seems like you have to pick your battles in this business and this hasn't been disasterous incomewise, so I am trying not to get too worked up over it. 

Good point lisafx. No reason to get all riled up with moot calculations when all that matters is that Fotolia sells .  Look right and choose from the list leaf has for you
if you want a bigger percentage in commission. If you're not happy with the commission why are you still with Fotolia. pfft !  8 ::)
« Last Edit: April 09, 2009, 14:55 by batman »

« Reply #19 on: April 09, 2009, 15:45 »
0
I believe that Fotolia keeps somewhere between 60 and 70% of each transaction. According to you Fred, I am supposed count myself lucky that they don't keep more. In the past few months Fotolia has devised two sneaky methods to retain more of  OUR earnings. The first was increasing the number of downloads to attain the various ratings and the other was an increase the price of OUR images but decrease the commissions. Now in this thread, people are posting their experience with earnings since the inception of the second claw back method. If Fotolia can't advertise with huge commission they already retain then maybe they should go under. However I think it is just a matter of greed.

Peter


And don't forget that they took away the referral program without letting us know so we would keep all of our FT banners on our websites.

And that's not all.
1 fotolia credit in Europe costs 1 Euro. But most of us, submitters, have 1 fotolia credit value set to $1 USD. So when European customers spends 1 credit on a photo Fotolia gets 1 Euro = $1.31 USD and I get 34 US cents. That makes the actual comission from all European sales about 26%.

« Reply #20 on: April 09, 2009, 16:22 »
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The only math I need to know is that I would be making A LOT MORE if Fibtolia hadn't decreased their commissions

In my case, had sales been exactly the same, I would have earned 10% less in March and 13% less in April.  I don't like to say that, but in my case the new plan, together with more sales and a drastic reduction in subs, made earnings much higher (total and RPD).

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #21 on: April 09, 2009, 18:36 »
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I know where you are coming from on this.  I was disappointed that the commissions were lowered too. 

Unfortunately it seems like you have to pick your battles in this business and this hasn't been disasterous incomewise, so I am trying not to get too worked up over it. 

Good point lisafx. No reason to get all riled up with moot calculations when all that matters is that Fotolia sells .  Look right and choose from the list leaf has for you
if you want a bigger percentage in commission. If you're not happy with the commission why are you still with Fotolia. pfft !  8 ::)

I'm not sure why things should be black and white in these circumstances. How can someone get their earnings reduced and like it? Is that honestly what you think? Liking and disliking it, staying and leaving; they are two different things. I just don't see the link. It's always about earnings, i won't argue there, but when someone does something to lessen those earnings I can't help but get miffed.

donding

  • Think before you speak
« Reply #22 on: April 09, 2009, 19:23 »
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Well let's do it in dollars and cents....I made a total of:
March   $1.50 for 4 sales
Febuary $2.08 for 6 sales
January $1.29 for 2 sales
December $2.64 for 2 sales
Hmmm....wonder where all the money is going....I don't make much at all with Fotolia and never have but all the rest of them I do...
I was looking at some of your portfolio's and there are some of you that have great looking one's but as for number of downloads...it doesn't show much...maybe it's their search engine.....or is it that they have totally different type of buyers
Also I think Fotolia wouldn't be hurting so much financially if they'd open their eyes up and really look at their rejections and realize to make money in this business you gotta have inventory just like in any successful retail industry. I really think they need to take some business courses so they learn how to run a successful business.
"Business goes where it's well invited and stays where it is well treated"
Donna

« Reply #23 on: April 10, 2009, 00:51 »
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Why do you assume that fotolia are hurting financially?  I made a lot more there the  last few months than I did on any other site and I have been in contact with a couple of other  people in the top hundred ranking and they are saying the same. If it's true that the top 20% make 80% of the earnings then Fotolia is doing fine compared to the other sites.  My RPD went down last month but earnings were at an all time high, if that was a result of the money we got deducted being used for extra advertising then I'm all for it.  I've said before that what is important to me is the total earnings at the end of the month not how  the calculation is made to get it.


Also I think Fotolia wouldn't be hurting so much financially if they'd open their eyes up and
Donna

« Reply #24 on: April 10, 2009, 03:15 »
0
...My RPD went down last month but earnings were at an all time high, if that was a result of the money we got deducted being used for extra advertising then I'm all for it.  I've said before that what is important to me is the total earnings at the end of the month not how  the calculation is made to get it.

Would you still be happy if say one agency almost monopolize the microstock business as a result of constantly lowering commissions and aggressive marketing? Do you think they will increase commissions once they have the whole market to themselves, or lower them again since there is no competition left?  ;D


 

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