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Author Topic: Huge increase in subscription commissions!  (Read 34954 times)

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« Reply #75 on: May 14, 2014, 06:12 »
+22
I know we are all frustrated with DPC, but .. er.. isn't this good news?

Fotolia are making it more lucrative to be part of DPC.  Isn't that what we want/wanted?

just asking.....  (goes and hides behind the tomato shield)

No. What I want is strong market players who are willing to raise prices for buyers to decent levels. Not players who are desperate enough to make "subscription" offers which in fact just target regular "Image Pack" buyers from other agencies at a fraction of the cost.

If an agency only sees a price war as a way to win new customers, it means that agency is lacking any other unique selling proposition. It should work on their offer and technology first. That's what I want and that's what I completely miss at Fotolia these days.


« Reply #76 on: May 14, 2014, 06:43 »
+2
Better but it's still bad because when someone buys on demand they will never buy as much as if they had a 25-day subscription. Even if there was a 99 dollar entry it would still not be enough. When you need to pay separately each photo, psychologically the buyer thinks twice because he'll try to save money. In normal subscription packages the option simply isn't there. Not to mention that OD sales that actually pay something elsewhere will vanish in the long term.

« Reply #77 on: May 14, 2014, 07:15 »
+19
I am fairly new at this, but is it the first time I have seen enough shooters band together to produce results, instead of just bickering about it. I find this very encouraging. It is nice to see Fotolia raise some rates, but it's still unclear to me why customers would not migrate to the dollar club, or some derivative  incarnation of it, which is a much better value for them. (Yes, I opted out of the dollar club). I can see there would be some short-term gain for us with the raise, but longer term it is a killer. This is strictly business to me, I have no axe to grind, and I see it as a better business decision to stay opted out. Then again, I don't earn much on Fotolia so it's not that difficult a decision for me. 

EmberMike

« Reply #78 on: May 14, 2014, 07:55 »
+4
...it's still unclear to me why customers would not migrate to the dollar club, or some derivative incarnation of it, which is a much better value for them...

The only reason they wouldn't go to DPC or some similar product is if the selection of images is too poor, in terns of both quality and quantity. So far, I'm not seeing enough of a reduction in either to make me think that most customers will even notice.

Some customers have expressed frustration over picking out an image but then returning later to find that the image is no longer available. But that's just an effect of the mass opt-outs happening over the last couple of weeks. That won't be a common scenario once the dust settles and opt-outs slow to a trickle.

Also, once opt-outs do slow enough, uploads to Fotolia that are to be included in DPC will out-pace opt-outs and DPC will begin to grow.

Even if by some miracle half of the images at FT were opted out of DPC, that still leaves 14 million images at DPC, more than enough to run a stock business and have enough of a selection to keep customers happy.

So I see no reason why more and more customers won't go over to DPC. And I see a lot of reason to believe that many existing customers at other agencies will try out DPC. Fotolia is targeting existing stock image buyers, afterall. They've got a full-page ad in this month's HOW Magazine, a publication for art directors and graphic designers. The HOW Design Live Conference is going on right now and Fotolia is there, surely promoting DPC. They're promoting it in GDUSA, also another design magazine. Those are the ones I know about, who knows how many other promos they're running aimed at the design community.

So it's going to happen, buyers will move some (or all) of their business over to DPC. It probably already is happening. All that's left to figure out is how much this will impact us and the other companies. And that will take time. Maybe as long as a year before we see any quantifiable impact.

« Reply #79 on: May 14, 2014, 08:04 »
+29
I Joined Fotolia 1 month ago.
I was only with Shutterstock since July 2013. I work hard and I am already on the 0.36 club. I think I will be in the .38 club by July 2014.
I heard it would be good to be on more than one site, so I decided to try Dreamtime and Fotolia.
I actually liked Fotolia, they were really fast reviewing my illustrations, they accepted 99 % of my stuff.
I opt out from DPC. I didn't liked at all this story. I earn a lot with my On Demands on Shutterstock and don't want to compete with myself and put our future earnings in serious risk.

I was looking at my earnings during this month and realized it is not worth the effort to submit to Fotolia or Dreamtime in my case. The time I spent submitting there (17 days, their submit process is really a pain), if I was making new work for Shutterstock alone, I would be earning more with those images than I earn in Fotolia/Dreamstime together.

Well, and then I just read the '5% - 8%' commission thing and the 'oh-now-we-offer-you-a-fantastic-raise-to-20%/25%'

They are so generous with the people who create the images. I wonder what would those company be without our images.

I think they are PARASITES.

How in earth they still have people willing to opt in on DPC is beyond my reasoning.

Sometimes I read that it is impossible to earn a good amount starting now in the microstock industry. They say it is too late. Well, I know it is not true. And I think that if we all opt out from DPC, the future is still good. Don't be fooled by the apocalypse theory, don't let them be successful on making this business a short term thing. Don't prostitute yourself for 5%.

I will leave for now my images on Fotolia, and will not submit one more image. I will center all my work in Shutterstock. Maybe wil try Symbiostock and Stocksy in the future.

I am tired of dishonest people...
 
« Last Edit: May 14, 2014, 09:06 by CatTheCat »

« Reply #80 on: May 14, 2014, 08:49 »
+9
today all my sales were between 0.23 and 0.27, fotolia is lying.

we should get 0.5 for every  M subsricption image and 1 for L !

« Reply #81 on: May 14, 2014, 09:03 »
+4
...
I was only with Shutterstock since July 2013. I work hard and I am already on the 0.33 club. I think I will be in the .38 club by July 2014.
...

Sometimes I read that it is impossible to earn a good amount starting now in the microstock industry. They say it is too late. Well, I know it is not true. And I think that if we all opt out from DPC, the future is still good. Don't be fooled by the apocalypse theory, don't let them be successful on making this business a short term thing. Don't prostitute yourself for 5%.
...

Very nice to hear what you have said above !

« Reply #82 on: May 14, 2014, 09:08 »
0
...
I was only with Shutterstock since July 2013. I work hard and I am already on the 0.33 club. I think I will be in the .38 club by July 2014.
...

Sometimes I read that it is impossible to earn a good amount starting now in the microstock industry. They say it is too late. Well, I know it is not true. And I think that if we all opt out from DPC, the future is still good. Don't be fooled by the apocalypse theory, don't let them be successful on making this business a short term thing. Don't prostitute yourself for 5%.
...

Very nice to hear what you have said above !

:) I am at the .36 club, I edited my post. I wrote it bad.

« Reply #83 on: May 14, 2014, 09:11 »
+1
...
I was only with Shutterstock since July 2013. I work hard and I am already on the 0.33 club. I think I will be in the .38 club by July 2014.
...

Sometimes I read that it is impossible to earn a good amount starting now in the microstock industry. They say it is too late. Well, I know it is not true. And I think that if we all opt out from DPC, the future is still good. Don't be fooled by the apocalypse theory, don't let them be successful on making this business a short term thing. Don't prostitute yourself for 5%.
...

Very nice to hear what you have said above !

:) I am at the .36 club, I edited my post. I wrote it bad.

I can only admire your hardwork and your results :)

Ron

« Reply #84 on: May 14, 2014, 09:31 »
-6
10k in your first year at SS?  You have a port to start with which makes $850 on average from the start?

Sorry off topic. I am just skeptical about such claims.

« Reply #85 on: May 14, 2014, 09:38 »
+13
...it's still unclear to me why customers would not migrate to the dollar club, or some derivative incarnation of it, which is a much better value for them...

The only reason they wouldn't go to DPC or some similar product is if the selection of images is too poor, in terns of both quality and quantity. So far, I'm not seeing enough of a reduction in either to make me think that most customers will even notice.

Some customers have expressed frustration over picking out an image but then returning later to find that the image is no longer available. But that's just an effect of the mass opt-outs happening over the last couple of weeks. That won't be a common scenario once the dust settles and opt-outs slow to a trickle.

Also, once opt-outs do slow enough, uploads to Fotolia that are to be included in DPC will out-pace opt-outs and DPC will begin to grow.

Even if by some miracle half of the images at FT were opted out of DPC, that still leaves 14 million images at DPC, more than enough to run a stock business and have enough of a selection to keep customers happy.

So I see no reason why more and more customers won't go over to DPC. And I see a lot of reason to believe that many existing customers at other agencies will try out DPC. Fotolia is targeting existing stock image buyers, afterall. They've got a full-page ad in this month's HOW Magazine, a publication for art directors and graphic designers. The HOW Design Live Conference is going on right now and Fotolia is there, surely promoting DPC. They're promoting it in GDUSA, also another design magazine. Those are the ones I know about, who knows how many other promos they're running aimed at the design community.

So it's going to happen, buyers will move some (or all) of their business over to DPC. It probably already is happening. All that's left to figure out is how much this will impact us and the other companies. And that will take time. Maybe as long as a year before we see any quantifiable impact.

Not all images are created equal. Most of the people opting out are the most active and best contributors. Only about 1 in 10 shots in a stock agency really ever sell, you have millions of sub par images, millions of low resolution images shot in 2005, you have people who have never logged in for years. The 6.5 million images taken off of DPC is possibly over 50% of actual good content. That is a huge impact.

« Reply #86 on: May 14, 2014, 09:43 »
+7
10k in your first year at SS?  You have a port to start with which makes $850 on average from the start?

Sorry off topic. I am just skeptical about such claims.

First month (July 2013) I made $30, in April (last month) I made $1400.
And don't ask to see my portfolio. The reality is I am not here to prove anything and I am not here looking for copy-cats.
What I can tell is I mainly make 3d render and vectors. I try to make the best quality I can. I think it is the best way to compete. And I believe I can improve even more...


I can only admire your hardwork and your results :)

Thank you  :)


The combined increase in commissions and in additional sales from the added source of DPC if you make the choice to opt in I predict will blow your mind. 

....

Fotolia is going the other direction
....

That was a very good laugh, thank you.  ;D


Ron

« Reply #87 on: May 14, 2014, 09:46 »
0
Well, thats quite an achievement then. I am glad you are not a photographer, otherwise my self confidence would have hit an all time low  ;)

PS: How many vectors are in your port if you dont mind me asking?

« Reply #88 on: May 14, 2014, 09:53 »
+6
Well, thats quite an achievement then. I am glad you are not a photographer, otherwise my self confidence would have hit an all time low  ;)

PS: How many vectors are in your port if you dont mind me asking?

I have a total of 2400 images (400 are vectors) - approximately.
I work 12-14 hours per day, monday to sunday.

« Reply #89 on: May 14, 2014, 10:07 »
+7
Get real, a "HUGE" increase of a tiny amount is still a tiny amount.

dpimborough

« Reply #90 on: May 14, 2014, 10:07 »
+1
Well, thats quite an achievement then. I am glad you are not a photographer, otherwise my self confidence would have hit an all time low  ;)

PS: How many vectors are in your port if you dont mind me asking?

I have a total of 2400 images (400 are vectors) - approximately.
I work 12-14 hours per day, monday to sunday.

Living the dream :)

Ron

« Reply #91 on: May 14, 2014, 10:15 »
0
Well, thats quite an achievement then. I am glad you are not a photographer, otherwise my self confidence would have hit an all time low  ;)

PS: How many vectors are in your port if you dont mind me asking?

I have a total of 2400 images (400 are vectors) - approximately.
I work 12-14 hours per day, monday to sunday.
Well, kudos to you then. Thats quite an effort.

« Reply #92 on: May 14, 2014, 16:17 »
+3
I haven't been following this DPC thing so dumb question - is this an opt in / opt out thing & how do we know if we have been automatically opted in?


Everyone's automatically opted in. You have to opt out, which only became an option after the peasants revolted (and a very hard to find option).


Cheers for that.  You're not kidding on the hard to find bit, buggered if I can see it...


Go to your Contributor page (http://us.fotolia.com/Contributor is mine).
Under My Account, select My Profile (https://us.fotolia.com/Member/Modify).
Select Contributor Parameters (https://us.fotolia.com/Member/Modify/Contributor).
Find Sell my files on DPC and click Modify.


Thanks man, would NEVER have seen that (the link just looks like an option to add a phone number)

OM

« Reply #93 on: May 14, 2014, 19:04 »
+11
I Joined Fotolia 1 month ago.
I was only with Shutterstock since July 2013. I work hard and I am already on the 0.36 club. I think I will be in the .38 club by July 2014.
I heard it would be good to be on more than one site, so I decided to try Dreamtime and Fotolia.
I actually liked Fotolia, they were really fast reviewing my illustrations, they accepted 99 % of my stuff.
I opt out from DPC. I didn't liked at all this story. I earn a lot with my On Demands on Shutterstock and don't want to compete with myself and put our future earnings in serious risk.

Well, and then I just read the '5% - 8%' commission thing and the 'oh-now-we-offer-you-a-fantastic-raise-to-20%/25%'

They are so generous with the people who create the images. I wonder what would those company be without our images.

I think they are PARASITES.

How in earth they still have people willing to opt in on DPC is beyond my reasoning.

Sometimes I read that it is impossible to earn a good amount starting now in the microstock industry. They say it is too late. Well, I know it is not true. And I think that if we all opt out from DPC, the future is still good. Don't be fooled by the apocalypse theory, don't let them be successful on making this business a short term thing. Don't prostitute yourself for 5%.

I will leave for now my images on Fotolia, and will not submit one more image. I will center all my work in Shutterstock. Maybe wil try Symbiostock and Stocksy in the future.

I am tired of dishonest people...

Exactly my reasoning for opting out of DPC...potential loss of ODD sales at SS.

It was only recently that I realised that FT was offering 'credit packages' dubbed as 'subscription packages' ($25 for 5XXL). I'm sure that these too will be taking some sales away from the genuine credit packages at SS....and how generous of FT to now pay 20% to DPC optoutees on these packages instead of the usual subs rate. I was wondering where my increased ratio of subs sales payments (0.29 credits) was coming from. It was coming from those $5 XXL downloads for which I got 29 cents

Trouble with FT has always been lack of communication on changes that adversely affect contributors and excessive cheerleading for any changes supposedly beneficial to contributors. They (FT) always have the advantage unless you visit the site every day to discover what new and wondrous packages they've invented for the customer. Then you have to try to work out how that latest deal for the customer is going to screw you.

So, whilst I'll leave what I have at FT for the time being and wait to see how things develop, I'll stop uploading and issue a warning to myself...they're just one further misstep away from me deleting everything there.

« Reply #94 on: May 14, 2014, 20:00 »
+5
If FT isn't on super double secret probation by now, they should be.

gillian vann

  • *Gillian*
« Reply #95 on: May 14, 2014, 21:46 »
+8
Look the truth in the eye - Fotolia came to a death agony, more than 6,500,000 images opted-out of DPC and the number keeps growing. Do you really think that you can return that many images back to DPC with the help of this news?


The difference is CHOICE.

 So if Fotolia had invited me into the DPC, offered me an individual opt in, a bonus for those who opt in everything...that would have been the right way, the professional way to do it.



I like what Jasmin had to say here, that if we could perhaps offer our $1 files into DPC we might participate, something like the dollar bin iS used to have,  but a shot that took me ages to get, and ages to edit, is worth more than this!

« Reply #96 on: May 15, 2014, 03:53 »
+1
today all my sales were between 0.23 and 0.27, fotolia is lying.

we should get 0.5 for every  M subsricption image and 1 for L !


yeah, same stuff here, they need to update that and the pricing page as well (http://us.fotolia.com/Info/Contributors/ImagesPricing)

« Reply #97 on: May 15, 2014, 03:55 »
0
I had a couple of subs for 40 cents.

« Reply #98 on: May 15, 2014, 04:00 »
+1
I had a couple of subs for 40 cents.

maybe I am having buyers that get all their plans but even if so it looks like a lot of bad luck, not one different from 29 cents

« Reply #99 on: May 15, 2014, 04:22 »
+3
Every sub 29 Cents here too. Not seeing anything of the "huge increase in subscription commissions". Nothing. Ziltch...


 

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