I am just curious on how many folks have the required 5,000 images in your portfolio's to keep your current pay rate of 50%? I only have 1,000 thus a pay cut soon to come. I would consider 5K image portfolios a veteran (at least 3 or more years in the business)...

it ain´t about the amount of files, they are looking into the amount of sales (credits)

You neither need 5000 images nor 5000 sales. Read the price info page again. This is also discussed here:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/which-sites-did-you-gave-up-on/75/

I am just over 1000 credits for this year so far and I am not one of the big players around here. Will surely not be able to top the 2000 mark to get to level 4 (45%). SO I can be sure of 40% (level 3). Thus 20% drop in my commission from 50% to 40%. That's going to hurt! 

I am more screwed than I thought - I have only 218 downloads thus level one payout 

Quote from: tab62 on August 27, 2012, 20:01
I am more screwed than I thought - I have only 218 downloads thus level one payout 

Again, 1 dl is not necessarily 1 credit. Look at their credit table to establish your credits based on the type of downloads and only then you can calculate your level.

Thanks CD!


Just did the cal I have 372 points thus a level two at 35% a nice 15% pay cut! Let's see my day time job I haven't got a raise in three years and now pay cuts on my part time job- gotta love it. 

Not too concerned about it. Just waiting for payout and then dropping them. Got enough money sitting there that I do not want to walk and loose it. Maybe I should write them and see if they would pay me early if I decide to close out.

Quote from: tab62 on August 27, 2012, 21:49
Thanks CD!


Just did the cal I have 372 points thus a level two at 35% a nice 15% pay cut! Let's see my day time job I haven't got a raise in three years and now pay cuts on my part time job- gotta love it.

That equates to a 30% drop in income.

How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.

Looks like I will be keeping my current commission for next year.  If that goes down, I will rethink selling there.  But for now sales are pretty good so no reason to leave them. 

Sales have been steady and growing a bit but not enough to get me anywhere near the current commission level.  I've moved from the basement to the next level but won't get higher than that unless things really take off.

They are my #3 seller right now but that's definately going to change if they stick with this currently planned commission structure.  It's particularly demoralizing after they floated the first (short lived) commission change they put out there that basically grandfathered in all but the very newest contributors at the current rates, then they pulled that back and threw out this new plan that requires a very big portfolio or a portfolio that commands a lot of larger file sizes to get those RC's up to where we're at now.  I'm definately not feeling the love here.

I'll most likely be deleting my video port there, if they decide to go through with the planned commission change for video contributors too. They didn't even start selling videos until March, and sales have been worse than Revostock (my previous worst performing site). Add to that a cut in the originally promised commission that encouraged me to upload in the first place, and I'll be out of there. Otherwise I'd be content to keep the files there, hoping sales might improve. I've stopped UL'ing feeling it isn't fair to either of us to waste resources if I'm going to pull them at year's end.

Quote from: stan on August 27, 2012, 22:35
How can you check your number of RCs? I haven't found that option.

Look at the calc. tables they supply and check your DL stats YTD (quantities) for every dl type. Use the table to calc. your credits per type as per their table. Add all together and establish your Level from the level table.

 I took my payout and left.  It was not just the paycut, but the shabby way that they handled it.

"Hi All,

Thanks for the comments and warnings, we will take everything into advisement. No I wasn't paid (not by the competition) or given a script, everything here reflects what my views are.  Nobody likes change, and although it was truly hard to accept some of the criticism that were offered - Nonetheless, I can't thank you enough for your thoughts, opinions and ideas.

Do allow me to address some of the concerns that were brought up:

1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.
2. On the operations side, we are hiring - hiring takes time, training takes even more time. We're looking to eliminate long queues and try to accept content in real time as we span the operations to work 24 hours from Monday to Friday.
3. We have plans to improve the contributors site but at the moment, improving features on the customer and sales functions, as well as rolling out new products take higher priority. We're hiring more IT personnel to cope with the expanded scope of responsibilities and hope to achieve a good balanced site.

Rome was not built in a day and I have to ask for your further understanding. We are achieving our milestones month on month, and I believe you too will enjoy higher sales volume in the days to come. I earnestly hope that you'll continue to be a contributor even after the implementation date. Only time will tell what decision you'll eventually make. But do factor in the growth if you're plugging the figures into your spreadsheet while determining your future levels.

Lastly, I do hope that everyone here enjoys the fruits of their labor earning more than 50% commissions from 123RF in 10 months time.

Thank you very much,

Alex."

I can tell you that for me nothing has changed AT ALL in terms of commissions in 2012.  Still the same flat monthly sales with a lot of new uploads, around 300 more added since the announcement.  I am speaking only for me, of course, and I am sure there are those who will give 123 a big whoooray on sales, but I bet the lions share of contributors haven't seen squat and won't.  What they will see is commissions go down while 123 enjoys a goof chunk of artificial profits at our expense.

I'm pretty much in the middle of the 50% rate. I find it hard to get too riled up about the changes given what people accept from other sites.

Might just scrape into the 50% but 45% for sure so not terribly concerned yet.

My "goal" was 40%, but I need some kind of "divine intervention"...

The "sales boost" that I was expecting never happen,  like was on FT, SS.

I should have worked, instead believing on statistics.

I tracking in at 45%.  Commission cuts suck.  I hate it.  We deserve better. 

As newbie I will probably drop to 30%, with the small port and low sales, they will become a none earner. I will probably drop them untill I have better HCV photos.

Top Tier - Big 4 
Shutterstock 100   
iStock 55.6   
Fotolia 33.8   
Dreamstime 24.9   

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Middle Tier
DepositPhotos 19.2   
123RF 17.4 


Interesting to see where they will end after the price cut

looking at my own numbers a contributor needs to do around 1930$ to keep the 50% royalties (160.8$ per month)

I have around 50% subs

52% - 7721$ (643$ per month)
54% - 19303$ (1608$ per month)
56% - 38k $ (3166$ per month)
58% - 190k $ (15833$ per month)

I believe this says it all

Quote from: Mantis on August 28, 2012, 12:41

1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.

So they're earning more and more and still that isn't enough for them, so they have to take money from our own cut. Does he know he doesn't make any sense? Does he even care if it does, since he knows the vast majority won't quit.

2009 - 83.22$
2010 - 306.49$
2011 - 808.75$ (67.40$/month)
2012 - 623.82$ (77.98$/month)

no double

will make it to the 45% (I guess)

Quote from: stan on August 28, 2012, 14:46

Quote from: Mantis on August 28, 2012, 12:41

1. With regards to sales, we're looking to more than double the figure. 2011 was great for us, we're looking to make 2012 greater. Ultimately your sales as a whole will more than just improve. We are having month after month of improving sales, spurred on by the growth - We are spending more on advertising and promotions than ever before with more campaigns coming up soon, we're allocating a large proportion of sales revenue into various marketing channels and this is bearing fruit - I believe that most have enjoyed the increased sales throughout 2011. We're not slowing down on this.

So they're earning more and more and still that isn't enough for them, so they have to take money from our own cut. Does he know he doesn't make any sense? Does he even care if it does, since he knows the vast majority won't quit.

Sounds just like iStock, report increasing and fantastic profits, but to help us survive, we're going to need all you contributors take a pay cut.