Author Topic: Uploading portfolio to Fotolia - less sales on SS? (Read 5537 times)

suz7 · « **on:** July 09, 2015, 12:17 »

Hi,

I have about 300 images on Shutterstock and am starting to upload the images to Fotolia.

Does anyone have any idea or experience if it could mean a drop in sales at Shutterstock?

It's not that I'm earning a fortune, around $40 a month but am a bit reticent to carry on as I just got a sale on Fotolia for 20 cents, less than the minimum at SS.

(A bit confused with Fotolia's payment system, thought that their rate had been raised to be higher than SS).

Thanks in advance for any opinions
suz

U11 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 09, 2015, 12:20 »

I am getting more sales on SS after I stopped uploading to Fotolia.
It can be because my skills are getting better

roede-orm · « **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2015, 12:32 »

Quote from: suz7 on July 09, 2015, 12:17

Hi,

I have about 300 images on Shutterstock and am starting to upload the images to Fotolia.

Does anyone have any idea or experience if it could mean a drop in sales at Shutterstock?

Don't worry, 300 pics are not relevant. It will probably generate more sales for you, if you load your content up to Fotolia too.

Rage · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2015, 22:30 »

I'm in the same situation, a little less even. Have 400+ pics on iStock and about 70 on SS. just started with fotolia got a couple of 18 cent sales and one 1.5 odd dollar sale. Confused if fotolia is the way to go, but it ranks very high up in the polls.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #4 on:** July 11, 2015, 04:35 »

Quote from: suz7 on July 09, 2015, 12:17

Does anyone have any idea or experience if it could mean a drop in sales at Shutterstock?

Since my RPD on Fotolia is about 50% higher than the one on Shutterstock, I wish it was true.

However, I don't believe it has any impact at all. Customers tend to stay with "their" agency. I doubt anyone would look for my images on other agencies specifically. But I notice that different images sell on different agencies. So any image that I distribute across agencies gets multiple chances to get seen and "get stuck" at the top of some searches.

suz7 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 11, 2015, 09:45 »

Thanks everyone for the advice,

Nice to hear also someone is doing the same, I've got about 70 on Fotolia too.

Hopefully it will generate more sales then, I'm going to go on and put the rest on Fotolia (keywording, ...oof)

suz

Gel-O Shooter · « **Reply #6 on:** July 11, 2015, 12:04 »

My photos were gone from FT during most of June (most of you know why). Not saying it was or wasn't the reason, but...I had my second best month ever on SS. With that said, the "extra" money at SS was only about half what I usually make at FT in a month. So, from my personal experience, uploading to all the other agencies does seem to affect sales at SS, but it appears that you can make a bit more $$ if you're willing to put forth the effort to do so.

Hope this helps, your results may vary, etc, etc.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #7 on:** July 11, 2015, 13:56 »

Quote from: suz7 on July 11, 2015, 09:45

Thanks everyone for the advice,

Nice to hear also someone is doing the same, I've got about 70 on Fotolia too.

Hopefully it will generate more sales then, I'm going to go on and put the rest on Fotolia (keywording, ...oof)

suz

Yes, it is good to have your images on all the top sites, especially SS and FT. Otherwise you are leaving money behind. From your keyword comment I wonder if you are keywording in the iptc data in photoshop, lightroom, or whatever editing program you use. If you put your keywords, title and description in the metadata you only have to do it once cuz the sites will read it when you upload. Big timesaver.

OM · « **Reply #8 on:** July 11, 2015, 14:01 »

Been at FT since 2008 but still only have 600 images there which is 100 more than at SS (since 2012).
Sales at FT have enjoyed a checkered history going up and down as they messed with the search but have never amounted to more than 30% of sales at SS and are presently averaging around 15% of sales at SS. Decided to opt out of DPC because I imagined that could hit sales of ODDs at SS. In recent months, ODD sales have been down anyway but seem to have come back recently. So, no opinion possible. For me FT is just a bit of extra pocket money.

littleny · « **Reply #9 on:** July 16, 2015, 08:46 »

I contribute to both places with about 2500 images in my portfolio. SS has leveled for me in in the last 6 months. Its still my highest producer. FT is rapidly becoming 2nd best producer...IS, DT running behind. I love FT. The reviewers are reasonable. Their support team has reached out to me personally regarding issues I posted on their forum. Theres a human side to FT that many other agencies dont have. AND im selling there.

Noedelhap · « **Reply #10 on:** July 16, 2015, 09:33 »

Quote from: suz7 on July 09, 2015, 12:17

Hi,

I have about 300 images on Shutterstock and am starting to upload the images to Fotolia.

Does anyone have any idea or experience if it could mean a drop in sales at Shutterstock?

Generally speaking, no. Otherwise that would mean being an independent contributor is not worth it and everyone would be better off being exclusive. Surely there are some buyers who shop around, looking for the cheapest deal, but I believe most buyers tend to buy at the agency they're familiar and happy with.
Uploading to multiple agencies means more exposure, therefore you'll get more sales.

tickstock · « **Reply #11 on:** July 16, 2015, 09:45 »

The drop in sales is going to come from buyers switching but the more people who contribute to fotolia will make that transition more likely.
"55% of Shutterstock users indicated they would shift usage from Shutterstock to Adobe Stock if features were offered in the Adobe Creative Cloud that made importing images easier."
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2015/07/14/morgan-stanley-highlights-seven-e-commerce-and-media-stocks/

About fotolia's "higher" rate, subs don't go by a percentage they are lower than SS's rate until you get 1,000,000 sales, yep one million. The other sales at Adobe are priced much lower than SS so even if the rate is a tiny bit higher earnings per sale are substantially lower. Fotolia's growth is not going to come from the Fotolia website, that will probably shrink or even disappear in time, the growth will come from the Adobe site with it's lower pricing.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #12 on:** July 16, 2015, 10:01 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on July 11, 2015, 13:56

Quote from: suz7 on July 11, 2015, 09:45
Thanks everyone for the advice,
Nice to hear also someone is doing the same, I've got about 70 on Fotolia too.
Hopefully it will generate more sales then, I'm going to go on and put the rest on Fotolia (keywording, ...oof)suz

Yes, it is good to have your images on all the top sites, especially SS and FT. Otherwise you are leaving money behind. From your keyword comment I wonder if you are keywording in the iptc data in photoshop, lightroom, or whatever editing program you use. If you put your keywords, title and description in the metadata you only have to do it once cuz the sites will read it when you upload. Big timesaver.

agree 100% with PB. before the funny stuff started with ss and going public , i would totally disagree with PixelBytes to "cannibalize" your portfolio. but now, i sense if you put all your eggs in the ss basket u will encourage ss to stoop to shareholders and scr*w us contributors.
they do it anyway, so to ensure a future for ourselves we have to support their competition.
but not dreamstime because they have be in comatose too long.

cobalt · « **Reply #13 on:** July 16, 2015, 10:03 »

Like others have said, different things sell on different agencies. And customers will tend to the agency they have a contract with, basically shutterstock, adobe and istock are all different marketplaces.

mcuda · « **Reply #14 on:** July 16, 2015, 10:09 »

SS is down and FT is up. I attribute this to the marketing blitz done by Adobe recently. This blitz included adding the marketing to the creative cloud. I mostly do wildlife and nature so I sell quite a bit this time of year compared to other times. July is a bigger month for me but SS has totally gone into the crapper. I am even seeing extended sales in FT. Everything turned upside down. How it falls...

1. FT
2. IS
3. DT
4. SS

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

sharpshot · « **Reply #15 on:** July 16, 2015, 10:13 »

SS is down but my FT sales are still almost dead, not seen any improvement since they were taken over.

cobalt · « **Reply #16 on:** July 16, 2015, 10:30 »

I am not seeing any improvement on my fotolia sales for now. all very quiet.

jamiehooper · « **Reply #17 on:** July 16, 2015, 15:49 »

This month my sales from FT and SS are running neck and neck. (As I write, they are only .96 apart.) I've been watching my FT sales climb each month for the past 6 months and SS declining. SS is still my best agency though, even with the decline (disappearance?) of the SODs I used to get.

One more thing:
The payment level of of my sales on FT are .29 ea. and .36 ea. for SS. I sell more images on FT, but that small price difference adds up.

tickstock · « **Reply #18 on:** July 16, 2015, 16:02 »

Keep at it, once you get 250,000 sales at fotolia you'll be up to .37. But by then I guess you'll have reached .38 at Shutterstock so you might just have to wait till you hit 1,000,000 sales but then you'll be making 2 cents more per sale from Fotolia.

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Author Topic: Uploading portfolio to Fotolia - less sales on SS? (Read 5537 times)

suz7

U11

roede-orm

Rage

MichaelJayFoto

suz7

Gel-O Shooter

PixelBytes

OM

littleny

Noedelhap

tickstock

etudiante_rapide

cobalt

mcuda

sharpshot

cobalt

jamiehooper

tickstock

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