MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: a.k.a.-tom on July 29, 2009, 18:35
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Up late, surfing the web as I do occassionaly to see what pops up under my name or company... and I come across this.
Photo Club RF stock photo. Has my pix for sale. At the bottom of the page there is this;
this product uses the Fotolia API, but it is not certified, endorsed or sponsored by Fotolia and Photo Clubs is not affiliated or related to Fotolia.
http://photo-clubs.net/getMediaData.php?id=3488891 (http://photo-clubs.net/getMediaData.php?id=3488891)
And at the top there is a shortcut to Fotolia. What gives? What am I missing? How do I know I'm getting paid?
Hope I haven't missed a thread on this somewhere...8)=tom
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scary !
did you write Fotolia to ask them?
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scary !
did you write Fotolia to ask them?
No.. I just found this nonsense last night.... truth is, I cut my 'folio down to 2 pix on FT a long time ago. When I first joined I ran into problems with my earnings being eaten down my purchases I was supposedly making. I go in and see I bought something. I've never purchased a pic in my life anywhere. If I want a pic of something, I make it.
Happened twice. Big hassle getting that fixed, went as far as phoning ...forgot his name, Chad Bridwell?? to discuss it. I was asked if I had given my passcodes to anyone, was I downloading on a public computer and more nonsense.. I DID get my credits back but not until after Iwas left to feel like I was trying to rip off FT.
I left 2 pix on. One my #2 seller, figured I'd let it sit and as soon as I hit payout, cash in and delete. Well while that pic sells daily on 3-4 sites or more, it doesnt seem to sell at FT. And now I find it on these obscure sites.. and after reading how many have found unacceptable problems with their sales... I gotta wonder ... WTH?
I'm just getting a bit fed up with all the 'behind the scenes', 'dont let the left hand know what the right hand's doing' crap.
Perfect hot example now, StockXpert. WTH?
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............Iwas left to feel like I was trying to rip off FT.
I left 2 pix on. One my #2 seller, figured I'd let it sit and as soon as I hit payout, cash in and delete. Well while that pic sells daily on 3-4 sites or more, it doesnt seem to sell at FT. And now I find it on these obscure sites.. and after reading how many have found unacceptable problems with their sales... I gotta wonder ... WTH?
I'm just getting a bit fed up with all the 'behind the scenes', 'dont let the left hand know what the right hand's doing' crap.
Perfect hot example now, StockXpert. WTH?
y'know , i've been feeling this is getting more ridiculous evryday. i know you from this forum from way back and you don't sound like some 15 yr old greenhorn that grown ups can pull the wool over your eyes. yet, lately, i am getting the impression that some of these CEOs in micro are starting to think we are all just that, 15 yr old greenhorns that they can scr#w around .
first, let's get the subs lower and lower until their commission vanish into thin air. hell, they won't complain. they will say, hey, as long as our dls increase and we still make more money, lower commission from subs , no problem. etc. etc. etc.
can anyone tell me, how truly confident we can be with these clowns running the business ?
tom, like you said, for example StockXpert. also !
everyone's in the dark. oh what, give them a new game to play, and nobody will ask questions.
hell, what has become of this business ?
is anyone listening out there to what we the contributors are saying, or feeling, all these times?
this is too much !
tom, i hope we see some changes soon. with your case and fotolia;
with StockXpert letting us know where t f it's going,
etc..etc...etc..
seems like there's only a handful of us here who is actually asking questions.
i feel like the rest have already been gassed with lithium and being the walking dead with no b#lls to speak up.
that's what happened before , remember. now, we see our earnings moving even lower. that's what happens when the sites know we 're desperate for their money, no matter how little.
shame !
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Puravida... no sir.. I'm batting 60 yrs and I've circled this planet several times, and been up and down just about every road in life....
There's no 'wool pulling' here, some of this is bordering on just plain and simple abuse of business ethics. Some of these outfits are just festering wounds of complete distrust in their contributors. That's how I'm seeing it. 8)=tom
.... probably why FT will be the 3rd I've bailed out on this year.
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I checked and my entire Fotolia portfolio is there, even the pictures that got accepted yesterday. I guess they are a selling partner and they probably mean they are not endorsed by Fotolia because they are an independant entity, not a Fotolia sub-company.
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Puravida... no sir.. I'm batting 60 yrs and I've circled this planet several times, and been up and down just about every road in life....
There's no 'wool pulling' here, some of this is bordering on just plain and simple abuse of business ethics. Some of these outfits are just festering wounds of complete distrust in their contributors. That's how I'm seeing it. 8)=tom
.... probably why FT will be the 3rd I've bailed out on this year.
[/quote]
if ever you need some lube, PM m@m .
WOW! at the rate this is going, I'm seriously considering quitting stock photography and becoming a KY lubricant distributor, I have a feeling there's going to be a big demand for the product.
Boy, I'm glad I'm not a Fotolia contributor!----
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I checked and my entire Fotolia portfolio is there, even the pictures that got accepted yesterday. I guess they are a selling partner and they probably mean they are not endorsed by Fotolia because they are an independant entity, not a Fotolia sub-company.
I'm hearing ya, Talanis. But that sounds to me like a father who is giving the local 25 year old hoodlum the go ahead to date his 16 year old virgin daughter...
okay, I exaggerate a bit ;) but not too much. LOL 8)=tom
Sorry for going off so much tonite across the board...must be the chemo hitting the brain today!
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I checked and my entire Fotolia portfolio is there, even the pictures that got accepted yesterday. I guess they are a selling partner and they probably mean they are not endorsed by Fotolia because they are an independant entity, not a Fotolia sub-company.
I'm hearing ya, Talanis. But that sounds to me like a father who is giving the local 25 year old hoodlum the go ahead to date his 16 year old virgin daughter...
okay, I exaggerate a bit ;) but not too much. LOL 8)=tom
Sorry for going off so much tonite across the board...must be the chemo hitting the brain today!
The loophole to all these "screwing around" is that there is no GLOBAL JURISDICTION on the www. If anything, few fraud cases get to be successful in gaining recourses , and the criminal tried and charged.
Closer to home, has anyone followed the recent case with the group of photographers who took Getty to court? Not a peep.
Need we say more?
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Closer to home, has anyone followed the recent case with the group of photographers who took Getty to court? Not a peep.
Need we say more?
Interesting.....
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I am a little confused here: are you surprised about the Fotolia API and the fact that they have this type of redistributors?
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I am a little confused here: are you surprised about the Fotolia API and the fact that they have this type of redistributors?
madelaide.... if it was all up front in plain language, shame on me... I missed it. But to answer your question.. I'm not surprised at anything that comes out of the FT stable. 8)=tom
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Puravida... no sir.. I'm batting 60 yrs and I've circled this planet several times, and been up and down just about every road in life....
There's no 'wool pulling' here, some of this is bordering on just plain and simple abuse of business ethics. Some of these outfits are just festering wounds of complete distrust in their contributors. That's how I'm seeing it. 8)=tom
.... probably why FT will be the 3rd I've bailed out on this year.
if ever you need some lube, PM m@m .
WOW! at the rate this is going, I'm seriously considering quitting stock photography and becoming a KY lubricant distributor, I have a feeling there's going to be a big demand for the product.
Boy, I'm glad I'm not a Fotolia contributor!----
[/quote]
Thanks for the referral Puravida...I'm having a special for FT contributors this month, 2 tubes for the price of one...and there's more... you get a AM/FM radio free of charge with your first order... ;D
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I checked and my entire Fotolia portfolio is there, even the pictures that got accepted yesterday. I guess they are a selling partner and they probably mean they are not endorsed by Fotolia because they are an independant entity, not a Fotolia sub-company.
I'm hearing ya, Talanis. But that sounds to me like a father who is giving the local 25 year old hoodlum the go ahead to date his 16 year old virgin daughter...
okay, I exaggerate a bit ;) but not too much. LOL 8)=tom
Sorry for going off so much tonite across the board...must be the chemo hitting the brain today!
I laughed a lot here because 15 years ago, I was 25 and started dating a 16 years old girl (her parents were cool). It was looking even worse though because I was her volleyball coach. 15 years later, we have two kids together and she is my soulmate ;P
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Thanks for the referral Puravida...I'm having a special for FT contributors this month, 2 tubes for the price of one...and there's more... you get a AM/FM radio free of charge with your first order... ;D
LOL LOL Thanks M@M... I think you may be the perfect replacement for Billy Mays... LOL, right on! 8)=tom
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Puravida... no sir.. I'm batting 60 yrs and I've circled this planet several times, and been up and down just about every road in life....
There's no 'wool pulling' here, some of this is bordering on just plain and simpleabuse of business ethics. Some of these outfits are just festering wounds of complete distrust in their contributors. That's how I'm seeing it. 8)=tom
.... probably why FT will be the 3rd I've bailed out on this year.
Tom, you have a logical fallacy there. Some businesses have no ethics whatever, nor do they know or care what ethics are, so how can they abuse what they don't have? Those businesses simply keep raping their victims repeatedly and get all they can out of them, regardless of how loudly they scream, until the victims fight back hard enough as a group (one or two fighting back are easy to eliminate). Then they will back off and look for another way to rape them that doesn't elicit strong fighting or screaming at first, and so on and so on. However, the good news is that most if not all victims are free to run away. It just seems that some are afraid to, which indicates severe emotional disturbance. And some just don't care at all.
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...one or two fighting back are easy to eliminate).
... the good news is that most if not all victims are free to run away.
It just seems that some are afraid to, which indicates severe emotional disturbance.
And some just don't care at all.
So true. Good point . 8)
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I laughed a lot here because 15 years ago, I was 25 and started dating a 16 years old girl (her parents were cool). It was looking even worse though because I was her volleyball coach. 15 years later, we have two kids together and she is my soulmate ;P
Congrats on the long happy marriage!
Gotta say I doubt I would be such a "cool" parent if I were in your in-law's shoes though.
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Hi everyone,
I've been following this forum for about 1 month. Very interesting.
It seems all Fotolia's portfolios can be found at http://photo-clubs.net/ (http://photo-clubs.net/)
I was very scared at the beginning, but I clicked on a download button and I was forwarded to Fotolia website. So, I don't think we are loosing sales from such site. It's seem to be just a gate to enter Fotolia
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Congrats on the long happy marriage!
Gotta say I doubt I would be such a "cool" parent if I were in your in-law's shoes though.
You know what? I'm not sure I will be that cool either if my daughter brings home an old guy too... lol
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Congrats on the long happy marriage!
Gotta say I doubt I would be such a "cool" parent if I were in your in-law's shoes though.
You know what? I'm not sure I will be that cool either if my daughter brings home an old guy too... lol
LOL, glad I am not the only one. Amazing how your perspective changes when you are a parent!!
When I was 17 I had a 26 year old boyfriend. ;D
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deleted by me... no sense making myself look more moronic than I already am :)
oh boy, thanks for watching my six, talanis!!! 8)=tom
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zWell, your maths were better than hers since 100 minutes at 45¢ is 45$ and not 450$ :)
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zWell, your maths were better than hers since 100 minutes at 45¢ is 45$ and not 450$ :)
God.... the chemo is affecting my brain.... LOL. Holy smokes, I cant believe I sat there and didnt realize what she said....am I a moron or what. glad she wasnt selling prime building land in Florida................ none-the-less, I suppose I still got a deal LOL LOL....
Thank you, sir. I may need you to accept all my incoming calls for the next 6 weeks while I go thru therapy...my brain has changed to oatmeal.. ha ha ha ha..
I suppose that answers the question I posed at the start of the thread... 8)=tom
It's me.. :D
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a.k.a.-tom you are my new hero with your excellent positive attitude. :D :D :D
Thank you, sir. I may need you to accept all my incoming calls for the next 6 weeks while I go thru therapy...my brain has changed to oatmeal.. ha ha ha ha..
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I am a little confused here: are you surprised about the Fotolia API and the fact that they have this type of redistributors?
madelaide.... if it was all up front in plain language, shame on me... I missed it. But to answer your question.. I'm not surprised at anything that comes out of the FT stable. 8)=tom
Tom, many FT partners have already been "found" here at MSG, that's why I was surprised with your surprise. :)
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a.k.a.-tom you are my new hero with your excellent positive attitude. :D :D :D
:D Thanks fotografer... But I'm not all that special. I just try to keep it all balanced and in perspective... easiest way to do that is look around and.... ...it's not hard to find someone that has problems worse than I do.
In my case, I was fortunate to catch it in the very beginning... stage one and localized.. so it's not all that hard to be positive when you're looking at a 95-100% cure.
When I sit in that clinic for the chemo and look around... I count my blessings. My heart is torn in two when I look at many of the others sitting around me with far less hope than I. Sad, sad thing. ... Thanks for the support none-the-less, my friend, it is appreciated very much! Tom
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On the contrary Tom, YOU ARE! a very special person, positive people like yourself are rare now days, that's why you will always win regardless of what low curve life may throw at you...my prayers are with you buddy!
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simple abuse of business ethics
As the economy goes further down the toilet, more and more of this is happening, and not just with microstock sites. Employers are free to rip off their employees however they want, and a lot of employees are shaking in their shoes over losing their jobs and they are willing to go along with whatever is dealt to them. And the ones that don't put up with it, well, when they look around behind them, nobody is there.
If there is going to be any change in microstock, many, many people are going to have to be willing to go without supper for awhile. And I just don't think that will happen. Let me know if it does, I'm there.
It all boils down to the whole corporate America's mantra nowadays...the guys at the top travel in style, the guys doing the work can't even afford a car.
Sorry for the rant...this hit a personal note.
edit: Fotolia...I bailed a long time ago. Sounds like a made a wise decision for once. Tom...my thoughts are with you. Glad you caught it early. Hang in there.
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so is Photo Clubs a legitimate reseller/redistributor of Fotolia's, or are all our files stolen?
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Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression that anybody who has a web site can use Fotolia's API to sell Fotolia images on their web site.
Preferably it should be a site dedicated to stock images to make it worthwhile for the visitor but as far as I can see, it's totally legitimate.
Fotolia's API registers all sales and directs payouts and commissions to everybody involved.
I thought this is an interesting way of letting others do the marketing. Why not? It gives our images more exposure and we may even make an occasional sale from these sites.
Who's getting hurt?
I've also found many distributors from Fotolia that no one knew about but they all turned out to be for real. Whether it is worth for those people who run the API on their web site is a totally different story though and not my problem whatsoever.
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Who's getting hurt?
From a previous thread here, I got the impression that these resellers have access to all images and not just thumbs - this would be a major concern. Isn't that correct?
Maybe there are two categories of resellers, one that can simply create a virtual store redirecting to Fotolia itself, others like Pixmac which have their own site, search tools, and redistribute FT images. The latter would be my concern.
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Who's getting hurt?
From a previous thread here, I got the impression that these resellers have access to all images and not just thumbs - this would be a major concern. Isn't that correct?
Maybe there are two categories of resellers, one that can simply create a virtual store redirecting to Fotolia itself, others like Pixmac which have their own site, search tools, and redistribute FT images. The latter would be my concern.
I remember vaguely that Chad from Fotolia did make a statement about that in regards to one of their distributors. I'm pretty sure that any transaction outside of Fotolia are secured by their API which means that no high-res images are released directly to their distributors.
Of course it would be more than stupid if Fotolia handed their entire collection over to all their distributors HOPING that they report back all sales. I can not imagine that a company of that size would act so naive.
I'm trying to dig out Chad's statement mentioned above. I hope I can find it.
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Up late, surfing the web as I do occassionaly to see what pops up under my name or company... and I come across this.
Photo Club RF stock photo. Has my pix for sale. At the bottom of the page there is this;
this product uses the Fotolia API, but it is not certified, endorsed or sponsored by Fotolia and Photo Clubs is not affiliated or related to Fotolia.
[url]http://photo-clubs.net/getMediaData.php?id=3488891[/url] ([url]http://photo-clubs.net/getMediaData.php?id=3488891[/url])
And at the top there is a shortcut to Fotolia. What gives? What am I missing? How do I know I'm getting paid?
Hope I haven't missed a thread on this somewhere...8)=tom
Thanks for that tip. I went to their site and searched for one of my very few images on my Fotolia Europe site. I found it complete with a pricing in USD. One problem.........all my images are priced in Euro on the Fotolia site. So.......how does someone buy one of my images there (on Photo Club) in USD credits when my pricing is in Euro credits.The credits on Photo Club go 1,2,4,5 in USD and my credits on FT are the same but in Euro. So, that means, as an exclusive FT contributor, I get paid 60 Eurocents when a buyer pays $1 = 69 Eurocents. I didn't think that microstock agencies worked for such a small margin........maybe that's the reason the file sold like hot cakes for the first month and then abruptly halted. Dunno..........maybe I'll risk getting banned and broach the subject on FT.
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depending on where the customers is on Fotolia, they purchase in either $$ or Euro direct on the fotolia site and you get paid in the currency that your account is based on. There have been a few threads about this before albeit a while ago now.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/different-fotolia-payout-in-different-countries/ (http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/different-fotolia-payout-in-different-countries/)
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Thanks leaf. Stoopid of me to post that...works the same if a US buyer buys an image through FT.com.
Posted a query about PhotoClubs on the FTeu message board last night but it's vanished this morning.
No trace of the message.