Author Topic: Sales At 123RF (Read 10939 times)

brm1949 · « **on:** May 25, 2010, 04:49 »

Anybody else experiencing a boost in sales at 123RF? Having a BME so far.

epantha · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2010, 05:00 »

3rd BME for me with a general upward trend for the last few months.

noam · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2010, 06:36 »

123RF are doing well for me too lately.

borg · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2010, 06:44 »

Better!

Also muuuch better than BigStock...

Stu99 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 25, 2010, 07:27 »

Last month a BME. This month will be even better, helped with a $50 commission on an editorial EL. I like the direction 123RF is going....up. :-)

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #5 on:** May 25, 2010, 08:45 »

me too.

Stu49 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 25, 2010, 09:08 »

It's absolutely dead here !!!!!!!

Hope it changes !

Dreamframer · « **Reply #7 on:** May 25, 2010, 12:05 »

Boost here too.

FD · « **Reply #8 on:** May 25, 2010, 12:36 »

Quote from: Stu99 on May 25, 2010, 07:27

Last month a BME. This month will be even better, helped with a $50 commission on an editorial EL. I like the direction 123RF is going....up. :-)

Mileage may vary. My last batch was rejected 80% at 123RF, accepted 100% at iStock. I won't be the quality then. As to editorial (my specialty lately, but not in micro) they accepted all. I just feel they are not worth it any more. I deleted my editorial and stopped uploading the rest. They are a candidate for port removal after being 5 years with them. WME. 8.42$ in May, hahahaha. But, mileage may vary. Good luck with them.

fotografer · « **Reply #9 on:** May 25, 2010, 15:12 »

No, it's as bad as usual.

ap · « **Reply #10 on:** May 25, 2010, 15:17 »

Quote from: Stu99 on May 25, 2010, 07:27

Last month a BME. This month will be even better, helped with a $50 commission on an editorial EL. I like the direction 123RF is going....up. :-)

that sounds great. can you elaborate more on your editorial EL? is it part of their new editorial collection?

PixelBitch · « **Reply #11 on:** May 25, 2010, 17:11 »

Sales on 123rf...well praise the Lord...they have been as dead as a dodo for months now

cascoly · « **Reply #12 on:** May 25, 2010, 17:25 »

sales popped a bit, but 123 has been dead so long it may just be gas

s

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #13 on:** June 13, 2010, 13:10 »

Hi All,

Met with them here at Cepic. They seem to understand what they are doing and there are some big changes in Micro coming down the road. Every major agency seems to be following. Looking forward to strong growth in micro over the next couple of years.

Best,
Jonathan

elvinstar · « **Reply #14 on:** June 13, 2010, 14:09 »

Care to elaborate on the "Big changes?"

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #15 on:** June 13, 2010, 14:13 »

Quote from: elvinstar on June 13, 2010, 14:09

Care to elaborate on the "Big changes?"

Yes, please. Or, maybe 123rf would care to share with the rest of us?

$:-\$

FD · « **Reply #16 on:** June 13, 2010, 14:19 »

Quote from: elvinstar on June 13, 2010, 14:09

Care to elaborate on the "Big changes?"

Ellen Boughn hinted at it, and also Yuri Arcurs. The next big change will be free.
Think of all the exposure you will get!

lisafx · « **Reply #17 on:** June 13, 2010, 14:39 »

Quote from: FD-amateur on June 13, 2010, 14:19

Quote from: elvinstar on June 13, 2010, 14:09
Care to elaborate on the "Big changes?"
Ellen Boughn hinted at it, and also Yuri Arcurs. The next big change will be free.
Think of all the exposure you will get!

Yeah, free. Great.

That may mean growth in micro, but unless it translates to growth in my income I'm not interested.

borg · « **Reply #18 on:** June 13, 2010, 16:53 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on June 13, 2010, 13:10

Hi All,

Met with them here at Cepic. They seem to understand what they are doing and there are some big changes in Micro coming down the road. Every major agency seems to be following. Looking forward to strong growth in micro over the next couple of years.

Best,
Jonathan

Please can you explain what do you think under "strong growth in micro"....
Regards

FD · « **Reply #19 on:** June 13, 2010, 22:59 »

Quote from: lisafx on June 13, 2010, 14:39

That may mean growth in micro, but unless it translates to growth in my income I'm not interested.

Nevertheless, Yuri and Ellen, both independently, hinted at it earlier this year. Free can be great to drive traffic, and traffic can be monetized. That's why most MS sites are insisting on free images: they get more traffic. Free can be fine but in that case I want the traffic myself.

Norebbo · « **Reply #20 on:** June 13, 2010, 23:06 »

Quote from: FD-amateur on June 13, 2010, 22:59

Free can be fine but in that case I want the traffic myself.

Bingo. If this is indeed the path we are headed, I'll no longer contribute to any micro websites. My efforts will be focused on my own sites and getting as much traffic of my own as I can.

Oldhand · « **Reply #21 on:** June 14, 2010, 02:38 »

There are a steady stream of hints at the moment, but nothing concrete anyone has been also to expand upon.

No one would leave their pics on a site for free, so there is always going to be a financial incentive for people to upload to micro's.

Anyone care to enlighten us motals futher?

Oldhand

FD · « **Reply #22 on:** June 14, 2010, 04:08 »

Quote from: Oldhand on June 14, 2010, 02:38

There are a steady stream of hints at the moment, but nothing concrete anyone has been also to expand upon.

You won't hear much from both gurus since there is money involved. Nobody offers business plans for free. But there is some deep truth in think of all the exposure you will get. No stock site will tell you what its basic business plan is. Keeping contributors happy with a feelgood forum is one of the tactics, and telling that free images on the site are good for everybody. Yeah right. Even ShutterStock will start a "free" site to tap that resource, and would STX ever have taken off without the free twin site?

Free is about the most mesmerizing keyword on Google. A working model rests on several pillars, and one can be to offer second-grade image content for free, along with paying prime image content and text info. Another pillar is selected ads, without becoming a linkfarm, what Google hates. Then there are referrals, but make it look more like a product placement than like a blunt hook.

Most of all, Google likes text content. The bots can't even see images, only text. I have thousands of editorials that will not fly on micro, but I have a nice story to tell with it, along with valuable info about local travel, prices, dos and don'ts. I'm not going to waste that content on crowd-sourcing sites like Virtualtourist, although I can trow them some bones to drive traffic to myself. Along with that content, I can do a quick edit on technically sub-par images and resize them to 1000px so it looks good enough. All that content is free. My port on microstock will never be free, of course.
It all takes some basic SEO in designing your site. I just had a look on Google (fresh browser) for stock photo waterfalls business nature, and lo and belo, I'm on page #1 position 6 just under the big guys (agencies).

I made one very bad mistake, in hindsight, when I had a slashdotted blog years ago (about the fusion area between tech, politics and society) with up till 6,000 unique visitors per day. The mistake was to put it on the free Blogger platform, and suddenly my blog was overwhelmed with ads and popups from blogger itself and I never saw a cent - of course. I won't let others reap the rewards of my work any more.

A hint from Ellen's blog about the past New Media Conference in Dublin:

Quote

A sad but true fact is that many photographers will leave professional photography behind and seek new challenges over the next months and years. Some will go completely broke while they wait for the business to return to previous levels. But others, and I hope you are one of them, will discover how they can use their skill and expertise in a related field. (I don’t think salvation for most lies in transitioning to video.)

Oldhand · « **Reply #23 on:** June 14, 2010, 05:29 »

Pretty much concurs with my current thinking.

I am unfortunately not savvy with web bogging, traffic, etc, etc. I take pictures people want. They are becoming increasingly difficult to market, and for me there will be a cut off point where I return to alternative employment, leaving the full time macro and micro world behind.

I think this may be sooner than later.

Oldhand

brookefuller · « **Reply #24 on:** June 14, 2010, 15:59 »

Mine are up too ... !

I have been donating a few images a month there which I think is helping, but there is really no way to know. As long as sales are up, I am happy.

click_click · « **Reply #25 on:** June 14, 2010, 21:32 »

Oh come on.

Yeah fine, for the big dogs or the contributors pumping images online by the hundreds every month this "free idea" may work to an extent. But hobbyists and part-timers will just get suffocated along the way.

Sure does free stuff generate a lot of traffic and the agencies will monetize that but that doesn't necessarily mean that we will see a cut of that.

It's already "bad" enough, having to produce like an idiot to stay in the game (as a full timer) - now the agencies wanna start the free thing?

The sickest part is that along the way there will always be enough newbies discovering the microstock world thinking they can make a killing until they realize a couple years down the road that it's just not paying off. In those two years the agencies just milked them dry and leave those burnt out but the agencies will keep going with a continuous flow of decent content.

Although there is still a significant amount of mediocre content being approved it has to be noted that a lot of very good stuff is represented at the micros in the meantime. Lots of 16MP+ with pro lighting and pro models - so the agencies really feel that this is working well for the high rollers?

I guess they all just assume that those contributors already have endorsements with Nikon, Canon or Hasselblad, besides running a studio somewhere also offering portraits or wedding services while contributing to some Macros on the side. Geez - welcome to the world of photography in the 21st century.

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #26 on:** July 08, 2010, 11:13 »

Hi FD,

I can't share what is taking place but some of you might know by now, and it isn't free images.

Best,
Jonathan

ellenboughn · « **Reply #27 on:** August 10, 2010, 09:15 »

In the statement from my blog quoted above, I meant that some photographers...and here I was referring to assignment photographers...will find other avenues for revenue. For some it will be adding video to their kit, others will simply leave the industry, but in no way do I see that a total migration of assignment photographers to video will pull all out of the perfect storm of events that is depressing the assignment world presently.

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Author Topic: Sales At 123RF (Read 10939 times)

brm1949

epantha

noam

borg

Stu99

WarrenPrice

Stu49

Dreamframer

FD

fotografer

ap

PixelBitch

cascoly

Jonathan Ross

elvinstar

WarrenPrice

FD

lisafx

borg

FD

Norebbo

Oldhand

FD

Oldhand

brookefuller

click_click

Jonathan Ross

ellenboughn

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