MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => General - Top Sites => Topic started by: jamiehooper on February 01, 2015, 01:58
-
This month my earnings from Fotolia stayed ahead of Shutterstock every day, the entire month and finished higher as well by 8%!. (Both closed above my minimum payout.)
I have no explanation.
I have a small portfolio (300-350 images) with more accepted at Shutterstock. And, like most of you, my SS earnings have historically been way, way more than FT, DT, and BS combined.
Until this month.
My SOD have dropped to nothing on SS for the past few months (which was where the earning difference was), but FT just kept on going steady every day.
SS has been dropping the past several months for me; but this really took me by surprise.
Am I all alone in this experience, or have any of the rest of you had similar experiences?
-
No you are not alone, my sales on FT, 123RF and DT have been exceeding those on shutterstock for some time now. I think the search has been adjusted to heavily favor content that reduces shutterstock's "Cost Of Sales".
-
In percentege on earnings : Fotolia 3 Shutter 4
In downloads Fotolia 2 Shutter 3
For me is a question of time. Terrible.
Subscriptions make Shutter nš1
Dollar Club +subscriptions make fotolia future number 1š
-
No change for me. I too have a small portfolio and hardly upload anything these days. January though, will be my first pay-out from Shutterstock in consecutive months. I'm quite pleased with that. Perhaps it should motivate me to shoot some more stock and get uploading again!
-
This month my earnings from Fotolia stayed ahead of Shutterstock every day, the entire month and finished higher as well by 8%!. (Both closed above my minimum payout.)
I have no explanation.
I have a small portfolio (300-350 images) with more accepted at Shutterstock. And, like most of you, my SS earnings have historically been way, way more than FT, DT, and BS combined.
Until this month.
My SOD have dropped to nothing on SS for the past few months (which was where the earning difference was), but FT just kept on going steady every day.
SS has been dropping the past several months for me; but this really took me by surprise.
Am I all alone in this experience, or have any of the rest of you had similar experiences?
Are you opted-in to DPC?
-
Not at all!
Shutter 70%
Fot 20%
the rest is the rest.
That goes for January 2015 and in the past. Its very consistant.
(Contributer since 2007, 2-3000 files.)
-
Congratulations on your good sales on FT. For me Ft made about 8% as much as SS, which is a little below the average of around 10%. This is different from December where it was 24%, but this month it was closer to normal.
-
Shutterstock 53%
Fotolia 4%
-
fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..
otherwise, I don`t see how it is even remotely possible for fotolia to out-perform Shutterstock..
I make more in a weekday on Shutterstock than what I make on fotolia in a month..
fotolia is one of my worst earners, I wouldn't even notice if it goes down..
it's either;
- a vector specific case
or;
- I was too late to join, that I couldn't reach emerald before the thresholds were increased..
whatever it is, this thread is as puzzling for me as they get..
-
fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..
What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.
-
Fotolia is in last place for me. Even BigStock makes more every month. But it might be because I'm not opted into DPC.
-
Fotolia 0%
-
Fotolia isnīt consistently. One month your earnings can be good, the other one the earnings are worst.
Shutterstock is consistently.
Shutterstock: 70%
FT: 15%
Rest is the rest.
-
Are you paid by fotolia?
500% more ss then fotolia, fotolia is not fair agency.
This month my earnings from Fotolia stayed ahead of Shutterstock every day, the entire month and finished higher as well by 8%!. (Both closed above my minimum payout.)
I have no explanation.
I have a small portfolio (300-350 images) with more accepted at Shutterstock. And, like most of you, my SS earnings have historically been way, way more than FT, DT, and BS combined.
Until this month.
My SOD have dropped to nothing on SS for the past few months (which was where the earning difference was), but FT just kept on going steady every day.
SS has been dropping the past several months for me; but this really took me by surprise.
Am I all alone in this experience, or have any of the rest of you had similar experiences?
-
you mention SOD has dropped to nothing months.
which to me tells that your uptick in ss was not due to regular sales like majority of us who consistently make payout with regular dls.
so, removing SOD as someone pointed out before, SOD is not a barometer to measure success as it is more like your life-saving monthly.
i am wrong or not, that your sales without SOD in both ft and ss are not regular.
i say this because as bolsher say is true, ss is consistent. all others is flash in the pan.
correct me if wrong. 8)
-
I'm not with Fotolia, but SS for Jan 2015 was up about 22% over Jan 2014 (with only very minimal uploads last year). I'm at the 38 cent level, so should be seeing a decline if they were favoring new contributors
-
fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..
What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.
When fotolia, - a supposedly big 4 site -, makes half the amount of bigstock, canstock and envato; and is on par with the likes of yay, gl, veer etc. you know something is not right.. I make regular monthly payouts even on low earners and bottom feeders.. when you have as much data as I do, it is pretty easy to spot that something is weird.. poll results are very accurate for me except fotolia..
-
Fotolia 0%
Same for me
-
Fotolia 0%
Same for me
And me!
-
Fotolia 0%
Same for me
And me!
Did you all get booted from Fotolia?
http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/)
-
fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..
What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.
When fotolia, - a supposedly big 4 site -, makes half the amount of bigstock, canstock and envato; and is on par with the likes of yay, gl, veer etc. you know something is not right.. I make regular monthly payouts even on low earners and bottom feeders.. when you have as much data as I do, it is pretty easy to spot that something is weird.. poll results are very accurate for me except fotolia..
So with all this "data" you have you werenīt able to find out that FT is big in EUROPE and not the US? Fotolia is the No.2 agency for most european contributers.
"Local" images get a better search placement. If a european buyers searches for "money" he wants to see and not $ images. Thatīs the same at pretty much every agency. There is no need for conspiracy theories about "special treatments".
-
Fotolia is at 3 for me maybe cos I'm European
-
fotolia must be giving some contributors better search placement or some other kind of special treatment..
What makes you think other agencies don't do that? It's all about special treatments in stock.
Always amazes me that contributors that have been at this for many years still have no clue how this business works.
When fotolia, - a supposedly big 4 site -, makes half the amount of bigstock, canstock and envato; and is on par with the likes of yay, gl, veer etc. you know something is not right.. I make regular monthly payouts even on low earners and bottom feeders.. when you have as much data as I do, it is pretty easy to spot that something is weird.. poll results are very accurate for me except fotolia..
So with all this "data" you have you werenīt able to find out that FT is big in EUROPE and not the US? Fotolia is the No.2 agency for most european contributers.
"Local" images get a better search placement. If a european buyers searches for "money" he wants to see and not $ images. Thatīs the same at pretty much every agency. There is no need for conspiracy theories about "special treatments".
a "great post" full of unsupported assumptions..
1- I am not a US person
2- I don't have localized content.. If anything, I probably have "one of the most universal" ports around.. if I do have some local content, it is european..
3- My US sales on Shutterstock (for example) are less than 1/3 of my total SS sales.. most sales come from Europe and other parts of the world..
4- also, I have enough sales on my personal "sites" to clearly see that my sales are universal, not local.. the same image gets about the same attention on all parts of the world..
if anything, your post totally supports my opinion.. fotolia is the only agency that delivers strange results..
you are bound to think like me when you are making regular monthly payouts on low earners and fotolia is hardly on par with those smaller players.. surely it's not the content.. bad content doesn't make monthly payouts on low earners..
I may be wrong about "special treatment and placement" but there must be a logical explanation and yours is not a good one in this case..
-
Last month Fotolia was 90% of my SS income. When selling photos they sometimes outsell SS anyway, it is just the video income that keeps SS ahead of the others.
I think European artists have an advantage because Europe is still their main market, also many people here send a lot of exclusive content to Fotolia and that pulls up the overall visibility. There are many artists in Germany who believe Fotolia is a homegrown German agency, but that is because they are so heavily visible in all things photography over here.
Will be interesting to see how they develop now that Adobe has taken over.
eta: I am not opted in to dpc.
-
I'm also from EU and I noticed a significant increase in sales for FT !
-
Fotolia 0%
Same for me
And me!
Did you all get booted from Fotolia?
[url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/[/url] ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/[/url])
I did. But they beat me to it. I had planned to get out of their crummy agency once i got back from a road trip i was on but in the middle of that trip "the chad" beat me to it.
-
Fotolia 0%
Same for me
And me!
Did you all get booted from Fotolia?
[url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/[/url] ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/[/url])
I did. But they beat me to it. I had planned to get out of their crummy agency once i got back from a road trip i was on but in the middle of that trip "the chad" beat me to it.
I can not say that I blame you for wanting to drop them, sorry you did not beat them to it.
Based on their not so honorable actions over time, I cringe when I see them beat out earnings on sites which treat their contributors better.
-
I can't imagine a parallel universe exists where Fotolia could possibly outsell Shutterstock?
-
I can't imagine a parallel universe exists where Fotolia could possibly outsell Shutterstock?
Exact same thing used to be said in relation to iS and SS, stranger things have happened.
-
Fotolia 0%
Same for me
And me!
Did you all get booted from Fotolia?
[url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/[/url] ([url]http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/fotolia-still-at-it-they-closed-my-account/[/url])
I left FT on my own like many others who wouldn't take the insulting owners anymore.
-
Left FT - they still owe me $ and promised to send it but never did - I'll be really bummed if they outdo SS because they are terrible to deal with. Just my opinion. It will be interesting to watch now that they're aligned with Adobe but I hate that people can license through DPC and use them in images for resale - I just can't wrap my head around allowing that. When I got $4 for my first extended license there, I knew I'd made a mistake signing up with them. If you're at a higher level though if I recall you can set your EL prices higher and if you opt out of DPC I would imagine it's a viable alternative for some.
Best of luck to the OP - hope you keep doing well there. Everyone's portfolio is different. I have a tiny port at DT (<200 images) and beat the average here every month - even in bad months. That's why all these places are still in business - they must be licensing someone's work.
-
I can't imagine a parallel universe exists where Fotolia could possibly outsell Shutterstock?
FT is not outselling SS for me, but each month my income from FT grows and each month is lower on SS. I wish the reverse is true.
-
Last month Fotolia made me more money than SS by 10%, but less downloads 38%.
-
I am EU and FT is now at 1/4th of my normal earnings for the last couple of months so no, EU doesn't get better treatment.
One day I'll kick them too if they keep this up.
-
I left FT on my own like many others who wouldn't take the insulting owners anymore.
+1
And, more importantly, because I was no longer reasonably certain that they were honest in their financial dealings with me and other contributors (a complaint I've never had against iStock, for example, despite disliking many policies that iS have imposed).
-
"Fotolia beats Shutterstock" - not in my Universe, although I do subscribe to the multiple universe/dimension theory.
FT are performing very well and I enjoyed a BME there in January - but they are still being comprehensively beaten into third place. Let's see what those hippies over at Adobe can do.
-
FT is still far down from IS and SS for me...
-
Wow! What a wonderful and varied collection of responses! Thank you all!
I guess it just underlines what we all kinda know. Our different experiences may be due to the type of images (subject matter and the "story" the image tells.) And, I think it also shows that in microstock, the only important comparison you can make is how your own portfolio does in relation to your own history.
This is not to say that sales trends don't exist; but that they probably don't give us a complete picture. Still, very helpful. (When I began submitting a couple of years ago, thanks to this board you can bet I DID NOT begin with Canstock or Envato!)
To answer on question, yes, I did opt out of the dollar club. No thank you.
Also, the January sales I gave were the result of a "perfect storm of FT doing better and SS doing worse. Also, a few of my best sellers at FT were rejected by SS.
But, as I mentioned in my original post, I think a lot of that was getting no SOD from FT. One $28 sale REALLY changes things! And in fact, now (a week into February) the trend continued with FT staying about 10% more in sales every day than SS. But that changed yesterday when I got a $28 sale on SS. Game over for this month. I can't see FT catching up, so SS is back in first place for me. Still, for the second month in a row, even at this early date, it looks like I'll make my minimum from FT in one month.
So, I dunno. Maybe Adobe plays into this somehow. Guess we'll all have to stay tuned for that one.
-
I am from Europe. When Fotolia joins Adobe my sales constantly decline ..
In last week my 7 day rank fall from 300 to 1200!! From 230+ sold photos to only 30 sold photos on week. Strange, very strange!
In last month I upload more than 80 high quality photos but only few photos accepted. They rejected almost all, reason similar images. Very frustrating. Is this happend only me or have someone else this problems too?
Shutterstock is OK!
Sorry for bad english.
-
I didn't have similars ever rejected at FT. But I didn't upload yet this month. No problems in January tho.
-
In 2014, FT makes 18% of the money that SS made. In 2/15, it is 67 %. So, FT is improving for me.
-
This month my earnings from Fotolia stayed ahead of Shutterstock every day, the entire month and finished higher as well by 8%!. (Both closed above my minimum payout.)
I have no explanation.
I have a small portfolio (300-350 images) with more accepted at Shutterstock. And, like most of you, my SS earnings have historically been way, way more than FT, DT, and BS combined.
Until this month.
My SOD have dropped to nothing on SS for the past few months (which was where the earning difference was), but FT just kept on going steady every day.
SS has been dropping the past several months for me; but this really took me by surprise.
Am I all alone in this experience, or have any of the rest of you had similar experiences?
1 el makes FT beat SS and the haters get all excited.
-
fotolia is 20-25% of SS, landscapes could me much lover
-
"Fotolia beats Shutterstock" Not for me. SS 1 Fotolia 3 or some times 4 place. And let me say in comparison SS FT the deficient system of manage pictures after submission and the inconsistent criteria from FT revisors. Some of my best selling files at SS were rejected by FT. I think they never will be better than SS for contributors at least.
-
Some of my best selling files at SS were rejected by FT. I think they never will be better than SS for contributors at least.
The opposite is also valid
-
Fotolia beats shutterstock, second month in a row.
Earnings 14% more, sales 14% less.
-
First; i hate Fotolia and Shutter: these two agencies invented ways to pay less for our work...
All microstocker from europe who i know are growing in fotolia more han Shutter.
Why people are Shutter fan and them cry when they rejects photos for stupid reasons?
Now thanks to shutter the average price of a photo is 40 cents and thanks to fotolia can buy a photo for a dollar.
And both are successful and are imitated
-
I have had a couple of ELs in the last few days and even otherwise much more sales as before. Ask me why, but it's sure: something has changed :( :o
-
First; i hate Fotolia and Shutter: these two agencies invented ways to pay less for our work...
All microstocker from europe who i know are growing in fotolia more han Shutter.
Why people are Shutter fan and them cry when they rejects photos for stupid reasons?
Now thinks to shutter the average price of a photo is 40 cents and thanks to fotolia can buy a photo for a dollar.
And both are successful and are imitated
Yes and no. If I summed my total stock income in recent years, Shutterstock leads by a wide margin. This is the point, and no other agency has beaten Shutterstock so far.
-
I guess the FT rising is also due to Euro currency fall! Recently the customers with $ could buy 1 credit 10-15% cheaper then last year!
-
123RF beats Fotolia in my case, go figure! Shutterstock leads the pack of course.
I think I'm about done with this stock photography business. 4 years of getting it up the ass is enough for me, time to pull my pants back up and move on. I wanted more out of this (full-time for life) but that's impossible with the way these agencies operate.
Good luck though lads, you're gonna need it!
-
I guess the FT rising is also due to Euro currency fall! Recently the customers with $ could buy 1 credit 10-15% cheaper then last year!
I don't think that has any impact, as FT sells credits in different currencies. US$ buyers pay 1$ per credit, while Euro buyers pay 1 Euro per credit.
So changing currency rates don't influence buyer behaviour. It does change profits for FT though (it's getting less expensive for them to sell Euro-contributor content to the US*, and more expensive to sell US-contributor content to Euro buyers).
*They're making sure that this does not happen. I have a photo that sells pretty well (for my standards), is on the first row of results (changing between first and third place) for it's main keyword (a search with more than 3000 results) on the German site.
It's nowhere to be found on the first couple of hundred results on the US site.
And that's not a language problem, it's number one on the UK site.
-
Fotolia beats Shutterstock
Not really, not even close, not even in the slightest
Shutterstock 94.1
Fotolia 33
However they do beat IS
Fotolia 33
iStock 30.5
-
fotolia is about 15% of my SS earnings
-
Partly agree with @ogm! But in my case Shutterstock totally beats Fotolia!
-
.
-
Fotolia 10% of Shutterstock earnings but growing in the last 2 months
Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk
-
For me FT is 0% of SS ;D ;D
-
FL got me 65% of SS.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
123RF beats Fotolia in my case, go figure! Shutterstock leads the pack of course.
I think I'm about done with this stock photography business. 4 years of getting it up the ass is enough for me, time to pull my pants back up and move on. I wanted more out of this (full-time for life) but that's impossible with the way these agencies operate.
Good luck though lads, you're gonna need it!
Don't let us stop you, please leave now, and MSG to. Good luck.
For me FT is 0% of SS ;D ;D
Mine to +
-
123RF beats Fotolia in my case, go figure! Shutterstock leads the pack of course.
I think I'm about done with this stock photography business. 4 years of getting it up the ass is enough for me, time to pull my pants back up and move on. I wanted more out of this (full-time for life) but that's impossible with the way these agencies operate.
Good luck though lads, you're gonna need it!
Don't let us stop you, please leave now, and MSG to. Good luck.
For me FT is 0% of SS ;D ;D
Mine to +
Principally when somebody sale non exclusive images and say that "For me FT is 0%" he should not be proud of that, but to be worried that he lost money. It's not about the name Fotolia this is a principal question valid for every one of the top agencies.