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Author Topic: Fotolia: New Subscription Commissions  (Read 59824 times)

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« Reply #150 on: August 18, 2011, 16:20 »
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Quote
I actually don't like this idea about setting up another agent.  But it's better than going to another existing agent for 50%.  My solution isn't another agent.  My solution is everyone selling direct with their own stores yet pulled together in one search engine.  My solution wouldn't cost much and it would pretty much run itself.  My solution would earn you 100%.  My solution gives you full control of your own images. My solution would allow us to still upload to agents but agents would be kept in check.  My solution wouldn't ... ahh I can't give too much away :)  

My solution probably wouldn't hurt the existing micros so much... maybe the really greedy ones.  Overall it could save the industry.  

You say that your idea isn't setting up another agent. But you describe an idea, where everyone is his own agent. Everyone makes his own prices and everyone will be in competition with everyone. And because you are in competition worldwide, you are in competition with people in US, Europe, China, India, Africa. There are countries, where living is not so expensive like in US or Germany.

What will one do if he can't sell his images? My experience in other industries is: He will lower the price. What will you have to do then? You will lower your prices too!!! Or you will have to change your business, because you can't earn your living. Remember - that's business as usual.

You say that agents would be kept in check. By what? By higher prices? My experience in other industries is: Buyers will not pay higher prices. By lower prices? When you lower your prices you do just the same like FT and the result is just the same. But you have done it on your own. Is this your solution of full control of your own images?

You say that your solution would earn me 100%. Remember: At last 100% of nothing is nothing.

Don't be angry, pseudoanonymous, but your ideas are not realistic. Dream on.

I don't say "do nothing". My suggestion is something like "agent hopping". I posted it yesterday.


« Reply #151 on: August 18, 2011, 16:29 »
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I must of not understood the changes correctly because i just earned $2.7 for subscription based HD purchase. It used to be a painful 3.5 but now this....I thought that HD files were no longer available under the subscription plan.

If this is indeed true i am opting out. This is becoming rediculous.

« Reply #152 on: August 18, 2011, 16:45 »
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...
Such a thing will never happen. I have never seen Yuri protesting or trying to change the industry for the better, (he could, if he wanted to), and I highly doubt big names will ever unite and act in unison.
...

@Eireann:
Look at Yuri's website. There you can read, that he has been working on a selling platform for the direct selling of the YA collection of images, videos, vectors, etc. since some years. Maybe he doesn't want to change the industry for the better, but it seems that he wants to change his business for the better.

CD123

« Reply #153 on: August 18, 2011, 19:20 »
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Sorry that I do not elaborate on who is insulting who above, just want to interrupt the academic discussion to mention that it seems like V3 of the website went active today.....

« Reply #154 on: August 18, 2011, 21:51 »
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the back and forth insulting, portfolio bashing and criticizing posts have been removed.

« Reply #155 on: August 19, 2011, 00:31 »
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alright... new start for everyone  ;)

TheSmilingAssassin

    This user is banned.
« Reply #156 on: August 19, 2011, 00:51 »
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alright... new start for everyone  ;)

Translation:  "Welcome to the IS forum.  Knock yourselves out  ;)"

 ;D

helix7

« Reply #157 on: August 19, 2011, 11:35 »
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Man, this thread has taken some strange turns.

I know the post deletions were necessary to keep order around here, but anyone who read those posts before they were gone will know what I'm talking about. It's disappointing, to say the least, to see a major microstock event organizer bashing contributors for being upset by pay cuts.

« Reply #158 on: August 19, 2011, 13:57 »
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Man, this thread has taken some strange turns.

Yeah, it seems to have died now though!!!

Anybody know if you close your account with FT that they pay you out on earnings up to date, even if you haven't got to the payout level? I was just about to fire off an email to FT to close my account when I suddenly thought 'what happens to my earnings'. If they don't pay out then I will probably wait till I get to another payout before closing the account.

« Reply #159 on: August 19, 2011, 14:15 »
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i should apologize to all who had to wade through that. i really should have just used the ignore button but i have very little tolerance to people that think they are better than others and feel the need to belittle them while at the same time think that they are actually helping anyone out. There will be newbies reading this forum that have no idea whats going on and would take whatever she said to be the truth.

grp_photo

« Reply #160 on: August 19, 2011, 15:09 »
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It's disappointing, to say the least, to see a major microstock event organizer bashing contributors for being upset by pay cuts.
+1
but I think he is disappointed because of the little interest in his expo and so he saw a chance to bash microstockers, but nobody asked him to make an expo If he would asked me in advance I would have said to him that it is not a good idea and most people are not willing to spend so much money on a expo let alone travel-cost.....

« Reply #161 on: August 19, 2011, 15:27 »
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fotolia has officially become the 2nd site I will tell my customers to stay away from when purchasing stock..

spread the word, you will see, it is effective in the long run! tell everyone that these sites are awful and they don't respect their suppliers..

« Reply #162 on: August 19, 2011, 15:36 »
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Yeah, it seems to have died now though!!!
...

Yes, and that's allright. The name of this topic is: "Fotolia: New Subscription Commissions". In the meantime most of the contributers at FT have noticed this. And the discussion here turned in "What to do against lowering the commissions by FT".

But that's not only a problem at FT. It's the problem at other agents too. And there we have another topic: "How to fight against lower and lower commissions!?" at
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/how-to-fight-against-lower-and-lower-commisions!/.

So let's go on there.

« Reply #163 on: August 20, 2011, 02:02 »
0
...
Such a thing will never happen. I have never seen Yuri protesting or trying to change the industry for the better, (he could, if he wanted to), and I highly doubt big names will ever unite and act in unison.
...

@Eireann:
Look at Yuri's website. There you can read, that he has been working on a selling platform for the direct selling of the YA collection of images, videos, vectors, etc. since some years. Maybe he doesn't want to change the industry for the better, but it seems that he wants to change his business for the better.

Yuri is the only one who actually gets and increase in subscription royalties from this. He hasn't suffered cuts in any of the previous ones either - mostly just increases. Obviously he's communicating in a way that his interests are looked after. Its naive to think that anyone but Yuri benefits from his efforts in this industry. He's smart, but his motives aren't altruistic. You can bet that he has sweetheart deals in every one of the agencies that are cutting contributors commissions, with the possible exceptions of iStock and Shutterstock that ensure he gets a higher commission, search placement preference and frequently profile links ont he front page of a site.

If people here are looking for a knight in shining white armour, they're going to have to look elsewhere.

« Reply #164 on: August 20, 2011, 03:15 »
0
...
Such a thing will never happen. I have never seen Yuri protesting or trying to change the industry for the better, (he could, if he wanted to), and I highly doubt big names will ever unite and act in unison.
...

@Eireann:
Look at Yuri's website. There you can read, that he has been working on a selling platform for the direct selling of the YA collection of images, videos, vectors, etc. since some years. Maybe he doesn't want to change the industry for the better, but it seems that he wants to change his business for the better.

If people here are looking for a knight in shining white armour, they're going to have to look elsewhere.

@holgs:
Nobody here looks for a white knight, especially no white knight, who wants to change his business for the better (in the meaning of "his better"). Have a look at the other topic: "How to fight against lower and lower commissions!?" at http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/how-to-fight-against-lower-and-lower-commisions!/ and try to follow the discussion there.

OM

« Reply #165 on: August 20, 2011, 04:24 »
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Noticed this link below........'Fotolia raised subscription prices'.......2008.

http://www.stockphototalk.com/phototalk/2008/06/fotolia.html

Backt o the future.  ;)

« Reply #166 on: August 20, 2011, 07:04 »
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@holgs:
Nobody here looks for a white knight, especially no white knight, who wants to change his business for the better (in the meaning of "his better"). Have a look at the other topic: "How to fight against lower and lower commissions!?" at http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/how-to-fight-against-lower-and-lower-commisions!/ and try to follow the discussion there.


@Ralf you've probably missed about 3 years of discussions on this exact same topic. I don't think its inappropriate to respond to comments on the thread that they're made. Every time one of the agencies - and lets face it Fotolia has cut commissions more often than anyone - cuts their commissions one of these threads starts that doesn't go anywhere. Given that this is manly a non-istock-exclusive forum, the thread inevitably turns into an anti-istock sentiment, which at the moment I don't have energy for. Yes the commission is as low as 15% for non-exclusives (which for the record I don't agree with) but for many exclusives its still the best way of maximising their income. 

I've already taken about the only step that was available to me to increase my % commission, my total income and my revenue per Download. For me that was going exclusive on iStock. Obviously that's not a popular option around here at the moment. Minimum subscription prices on the partner program are 0.40 which is higher than on any of the other agencies. A bad month on iStock is currently higher than my previous BME as an independent, and my total portfolio size is still about 30% smaller than it was on sites like SS. Nevertheless I'm not oblivious to what else is going on in the industry - what happens on one site often has a flow-on effect elsewhere. Perversely contributors leaving iStock exclusivity probably gives Fotolia more room to move in further cutting commissions.

If I was still on Fotolia, my percentage as a silver level contributor would now be between 14-23% for credit downloads made in Euros (which are the overwhelming majority of sales), and back down to 29c for subscriptions (I shudder to think what percentage that is). An entry level non-exclusive there would be getting as little as 11% on some Euro credit sales.

Probably the best thing about becoming exclusive was being able to delete my portfolio on FT - in hindsight I wish I'd done it when they announced their first round of cuts.

Xalanx

« Reply #167 on: August 20, 2011, 07:13 »
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Question for those who dropped fotolia in the past (not recently): did you see an increase in sales at the other agencies? I would think it should be a visible gain, because of not spreading your images on fotolia and all its countless affiliates throughout the world.

« Reply #168 on: August 20, 2011, 07:58 »
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Question for those who dropped fotolia in the past (not recently): did you see an increase in sales at the other agencies? I would think it should be a visible gain, because of not spreading your images on fotolia and all its countless affiliates throughout the world.
I ditched them almost 2 years ago and still am very happy i did. Dont recall really if my sales on other sites went up dramatically (probably didnt otherwise i'd remember ;)) but i find it very relieving to see my pics are away from all those sketchy 'partnersites' which made me feel MY pics were only 1 step away from being public domain and totally out of my control.

« Reply #169 on: August 20, 2011, 08:43 »
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@holgs:
Nobody here looks for a white knight, especially no white knight, who wants to change his business for the better (in the meaning of "his better"). Have a look at the other topic: "How to fight against lower and lower commissions!?" at http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/how-to-fight-against-lower-and-lower-commisions!/ and try to follow the discussion there.


@Ralf you've probably missed about 3 years of discussions on this exact same topic. I don't think its inappropriate to respond to comments on the thread that they're made. Every time one of the agencies - and lets face it Fotolia has cut commissions more often than anyone - cuts their commissions one of these threads starts that doesn't go anywhere. Given that this is manly a non-istock-exclusive forum, the thread inevitably turns into an anti-istock sentiment, which at the moment I don't have energy for. Yes the commission is as low as 15% for non-exclusives (which for the record I don't agree with) but for many exclusives its still the best way of maximising their income. 

I've already taken about the only step that was available to me to increase my % commission, my total income and my revenue per Download. For me that was going exclusive on iStock. Obviously that's not a popular option around here at the moment. Minimum subscription prices on the partner program are 0.40 which is higher than on any of the other agencies. A bad month on iStock is currently higher than my previous BME as an independent, and my total portfolio size is still about 30% smaller than it was on sites like SS. Nevertheless I'm not oblivious to what else is going on in the industry - what happens on one site often has a flow-on effect elsewhere. Perversely contributors leaving iStock exclusivity probably gives Fotolia more room to move in further cutting commissions.

If I was still on Fotolia, my percentage as a silver level contributor would now be between 14-23% for credit downloads made in Euros (which are the overwhelming majority of sales), and back down to 29c for subscriptions (I shudder to think what percentage that is). An entry level non-exclusive there would be getting as little as 11% on some Euro credit sales.

Probably the best thing about becoming exclusive was being able to delete my portfolio on FT - in hindsight I wish I'd done it when they announced their first round of cuts.


well said!

fritz

  • I love Tom and Jerry music

« Reply #170 on: August 20, 2011, 16:43 »
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Just keeps on going downhill :(

I have 1100 pics and HD video ready to pull anyone up for it, gathering a few/lot could be interesting to see the amount files we could end up with.

B
And I have 1,728 files ready to pull. Let's Count!

« Reply #171 on: August 22, 2011, 06:28 »
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Just got Fotolia's newsletter with the following quote:

This subscription, the cheapest on the market, will allow you to download images in the best definition available (1 download), vectors (now 1 download instead of previously 3) and videos in Big Web size (now 5 downloads instead of previously 10).

Yeah, and at who's expense!!!

Problem now is, are the other agencies going to compete with FT's new "lowest in the market" subscription rates by putting theirs down, and will we see our commissions being cut elsewhere because of it.  :(

grp_photo

« Reply #172 on: August 22, 2011, 06:47 »
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Problem now is, are the other agencies going to compete with FT's new "lowest in the market" subscription rates by putting theirs down, and will we see our commissions being cut elsewhere because of it.  :(
+1 but maybe it is good thing that the subscription model will become unsustainable for all contributors because the subscription model itself sucks deeply.

« Reply #173 on: August 22, 2011, 06:54 »
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I have no problem with subscriptions but I don't like the low commissions and not knowing what percentage we receive.

I hope this doesn't work for FT, they seem to be losing ground.  I'm sure most buyers find microstock cheap enough already and are more interested in finding the right images.  They will have much more success with shutterstock.

Xalanx

« Reply #174 on: August 22, 2011, 08:46 »
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Does anybody have an avalanche of maximum size sub sales since they started this v3? I can hardly spot a regular sale these days and they're mostly small size.


 

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