MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: takestock on September 06, 2008, 10:25
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Due to consistently dismal sales, I haven't uploaded to a particular site for a number of months now.
This site is outside the "Big 6" and also "Up & Coming".
Since stopping, my sales have ceased also.
The thing is, I'm not too far off my first payout.
If I decide to close my account of course I will forfeit my current balance.
Is that what they are waiting for? - Yes - it's one way of making money for them. Get fed up, stop uploading and quit.
The integrity of sites was recently touched on here at MSG and I feel it's something we all should keep an eye on.
After all, we upload with blind faith and hope and trust we will get a fair deal.
Have you a similar experience of this? or what are your views.
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I know it's not in their overall best interest, but the sites should consider doing payouts below their normal cutoff for a processing fee. So if their payout is $50 and you request the $42 in your account, you get $37 (they charge you a $5 processing fee).
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If I were you, I'd either let it continue to sit there until you reach a payout or upload just a few images to spur some sales. I did that with StockXpert and BigStock. Once I reached a payout, I deleted my images and cancelled my accounts. I also cancelled 123RF and lost the money I had accrued there, but it was less than $10.
If you're near a payout, don't give up and let them keep the money.
Just my 2 cents.
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Several of the photos I uploaded at first to microstock sites were just "gathering dust" in my computer or backup CDs. One of them I particularly shot for a joke that I never carried out, and it has turned to be one of the best sellers.
OTOH, I see some sites have more or less constant sales, while others take "jumps" after several days - some of them months - of inactivity.
So my point is, what's the trouble of letting them sit around there, instead of your hard disk? I think they will eventually pay off, and you already went through selecting, keywording, etc...
My $0.02
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I dont think any of the big 6 are likely to be slowing down your sales so that they can keep you from reaching $100 or whatever. i did notice that after an upload holiday of 6 months that istock sales dropped noticeably, and picked back up after i started to upload again
why delete your accounts? unless you are going for exclusivity somewhere else why not just leave them online even if they only trickle a few dollars a month? once keyworded most of the work involved was in the uploading to the various sites.