Author Topic: Videoblocks slowdown (Read 25428 times)

Visualab · « **on:** April 14, 2016, 02:33 »

I used to have regulars sales at vb but from 2 months it slowed down to almost no sales...
Anyone is experiecing the same?

Stock_Pro · « **Reply #1 on:** April 14, 2016, 03:57 »

Last month just one sale, this month none.
Me too, I used to have 4-8 per month...
It`s becasue the xompetion between agencies, I think. Nothing is clear in stock, times are changing...

cidepix · « **Reply #2 on:** April 14, 2016, 08:29 »

no..

it's because you all came here to brag about your sales and people who weren't even aware of videoblocks learned about that site which automatically created competition for you..

everybody wants a piece of the pie.. once people hear it's a good site, they will flood that site with their own content..

if you are having great sales on a given site, the most important way to maintain your sales is;

to "not announce that site on public forums"

Mantis · « **Reply #3 on:** April 14, 2016, 08:54 »

3 months no sales, next month 10 sales, next 3 months no sales, next month 10 sales. VERY hard to believe that I would get a good mix of 10 video sales one month then crickets for three months, then a good mix of sales month 4, then crickets again for three months. I am suspicious, but I don't know why yet. Definitely no short term consistency but I am seeing a pattern form.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #4 on:** April 14, 2016, 08:58 »

Quote from: cidepix on April 14, 2016, 08:29

no..

it's because you all came here to brag about your sales and people who weren't even aware of videoblocks learned about that site which automatically created competition for you..

everybody wants a piece of the pie.. once people hear it's a good site, they will flood that site with their own content..

if you are having great sales on a given site, the most important way to maintain your sales is;

to "not announce that site on public forums"

Well said. It's hard to resist the urge to scream out your good sales to the world.

damseremie · « **Reply #5 on:** April 14, 2016, 09:10 »

Weird for me too

Started Stock in January... Had only 70 files on VB... Made 3 sales in February , (one was cancelled after sale for supposed fraudulent card activities).. so 2 sales...
Excited about it, I kept uploading, already doing some optimistic math.. Refreshing my page...
Yet,Crickets in March.. NOT a single download
April is half gone yet nothing still.
Reviews are also now much slower.. i now have 130 clips and 44 awaiting review
I thought i was alone

ccbcc · « **Reply #6 on:** April 14, 2016, 09:34 »

Quote from: cidepix on April 14, 2016, 08:29

no..

it's because you all came here to brag about your sales and people who weren't even aware of videoblocks learned about that site which automatically created competition for you..

everybody wants a piece of the pie.. once people hear it's a good site, they will flood that site with their own content..

if you are having great sales on a given site, the most important way to maintain your sales is;

to "not announce that site on public forums"

More contributors make a site more viable, which leads to more customers, which leads to more sales. VB is doing fine for me this month. But small sites like this one tend to have erratic sales.

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #7 on:** April 14, 2016, 11:11 »

Quote from: ccbcc on April 14, 2016, 09:34

More contributors make a site more viable, which leads to more customers, which leads to more sales.

This is only true up to the point where the database is big enough to attract more customers - after that more contributors just dilute revenue. Maybe VB passed that point.

SquirrelPower · « **Reply #8 on:** April 14, 2016, 12:38 »

Slowing a bit here as well but at least still getting some sales but I have noticed this as well and it's concerning given the loss of Pond5 income. Sales have always been erratic at VB, can go a whole week with nothing and then get 20 sales on a weekend or holiday. Just have to keep uploading everything and make unique content, that's the important thing everywhere these days it seems, unique content or you won't get sales, not better than existing content but stuff that isn't already on the site.

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #9 on:** April 14, 2016, 13:12 »

helloitsme is the cause of your sales decline is my guess

pkphotos · « **Reply #10 on:** April 14, 2016, 13:19 »

Quote from: cidepix on April 14, 2016, 08:29

no..

it's because you all came here to brag about your sales and people who weren't even aware of videoblocks learned about that site which automatically created competition for you..

everybody wants a piece of the pie.. once people hear it's a good site, they will flood that site with their own content..

if you are having great sales on a given site, the most important way to maintain your sales is;

to "not announce that site on public forums"

You're completely right. people just want to brag about their successes and shoot themselves in the foot while they do it. I'm the same though and have been having major success at motion elements and depositphotos while everyone else targets the obvious agencies.

SquirrelPower · « **Reply #11 on:** April 14, 2016, 13:24 »

Quote from: pkphotos on April 14, 2016, 13:19

Quote from: cidepix on April 14, 2016, 08:29
no..

it's because you all came here to brag about your sales and people who weren't even aware of videoblocks learned about that site which automatically created competition for you..

everybody wants a piece of the pie.. once people hear it's a good site, they will flood that site with their own content..

if you are having great sales on a given site, the most important way to maintain your sales is;

to "not announce that site on public forums"

You're completely right. people just want to brag about their successes and shoot themselves in the foot while they do it. I'm the same though and have been having major success at motion elements and depositphotos while everyone else targets the obvious agencies.

Thanks for that, I just started uploading 24/7 to ME, actually I started before you posted this by about a day to be honest due to the pond5 disaster. I've been guilty of the same, posting the good news when good news happens and giving away the store. Human nature though eh?

Daryl Ray · « **Reply #12 on:** April 14, 2016, 16:35 »

I'd like to thank the members here that clued me into Videoblocks. Made a few grand off that tip so far. Keeping a great company like that a "secret" would be a total d!ck move. The beauty of a place like MSG is that artists can share the good as well as the bad. I know many of you have an instinctual urge to undermine your "competitors" and do nothing but complain, insult and try to drag everyone else down around you. That's a depressingly lonely way to go through life.

pkphotos · « **Reply #13 on:** April 14, 2016, 17:12 »

Quote from: Daryl Ray on April 14, 2016, 16:35

I'd like to thank the members here that clued me into Videoblocks. Made a few grand off that tip so far. Keeping a great company like that a "secret" would be a total d!ck move. The beauty of a place like MSG is that artists can share the good as well as the bad. I know many of you have an instinctual urge to undermine your "competitors" and do nothing but complain, insult and try to drag everyone else down around you. That's a depressingly lonely way to go through life.

It's called protecting your assets and livelihood. I think sharing technical, creative and other ideas and advice is great, but giving financial details of sales is just plain stupid.

Daryl Ray · « **Reply #14 on:** April 14, 2016, 22:00 »

Difference of opinion. This forum is only useful if useful information is being shared. Even good news and positive personal experience. Videoblocks is a great company when it comes to setting precedent for contributor shares of profits. If they succeed, other companies may take notice, if they're smart, and maybe the trend goes towards OUR favor for once. The best thing we can do to protect our assets and livelihood is to encourage the contributor-friendly companies growth. The greedy stock agencies are the enemy, not your fellow contributor.

That is unless of course one has such cliche, unimaginative content that just having more, possibly superior, shots from competition alone takes away all their sales. However, that's not a problem you can solve long-term by being deceptive and hiding the good new companies for "yourself". Better to consider shooting more original ideas. But then again, we might just be talking about self confidence issues, if I were to venture a guess to the type that would live by such a negative philosophy.

Anyways, my sales are great there and I'd encourage more contributors to join.

ccbcc · « **Reply #15 on:** April 15, 2016, 08:24 »

Thank you Daryl.

Make better stuff, but don't fool your fellow contributors. The stock agencies however very much like that divide and conquer strategy.

In fact, how awesome would it be to all be united like a union, and force better contracts from the stock companies?

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #16 on:** April 15, 2016, 09:14 »

Two sales in Feb, two sales in March and two sales so far in April. Never known a site to have such steady sales! I'm assuming that won't go on forever, but seeing as we're only two weeks into April, I'm hoping it might be more than two by the end of the month!

alno · « **Reply #17 on:** April 16, 2016, 10:04 »

I think it is a global trend. The number of clips submitted worldwide grows far more intensively than the number of clips needed in cinema or advertising industry. Shutterstock has about 5 million clips online now. Even if they had 25 million, average movie would not use 25 stock footages instead of 5. There still must be some work for DiCaprio to do

travelstock · « **Reply #18 on:** April 16, 2016, 10:22 »

Quote from: Visualab on April 14, 2016, 02:33

I used to have regulars sales at vb but from 2 months it slowed down to almost no sales...
Anyone is experiecing the same?

Seems to be a very consistent pattern - I hear many people that have unexpectedly high sales early on, only for those to slow down to a trickle. I think its a deliberate ploy on the part of the agency to artificially boost initial sales as a small investment to ensure contributors upload their whole portfolios and encourage others through word of mouth. After a few months it doesn't really matter if sales drop - nobody really pulls their portfolios once they're online.

Mantis · « **Reply #19 on:** April 16, 2016, 10:37 »

Quote from: travelstock on April 16, 2016, 10:22

Quote from: Visualab on April 14, 2016, 02:33
I used to have regulars sales at vb but from 2 months it slowed down to almost no sales...
Anyone is experiecing the same?

Seems to be a very consistent pattern - I hear many people that have unexpectedly high sales early on, only for those to slow down to a trickle. I think its a deliberate ploy on the part of the agency to artificially boost initial sales as a small investment to ensure contributors upload their whole portfolios and encourage others through word of mouth. After a few months it doesn't really matter if sales drop - nobody really pulls their portfolios once they're online.

I agree and I have said this from the first time I nailed 10 sales. VB, who used to participate in here when they wanted content, said that they don't do that. But here's the sticky....I wrote them and asked about how it is possible I could get 10 sales one month and zero sales for three. They responded in the canned way, more diverse port. The following two weeks I got 10 more sales. Now nothing for quite some time, around a month. This "could"be an appeasement where they gave me 10 more artificial sales to calm me down from pulling my port. I do not believe their model is working for we the contributor, but maybe used as a marketing tool to get more "subscriptions"to their Costco type model.

sauletas · « **Reply #20 on:** April 16, 2016, 12:14 »

i get ~3-7 sales a month + 500$ holiday bonus on December.

helloitsme · « **Reply #21 on:** April 16, 2016, 16:33 »

Quote from: Daryl Ray on April 14, 2016, 16:35

I'd like to thank the members here that clued me into Videoblocks. Made a few grand off that tip so far. Keeping a great company like that a "secret" would be a total d!ck move. The beauty of a place like MSG is that artists can share the good as well as the bad. I know many of you have an instinctual urge to undermine your "competitors" and do nothing but complain, insult and try to drag everyone else down around you. That's a depressingly lonely way to go through life.

I totally agree with you!

Minsc · « **Reply #22 on:** April 18, 2016, 11:30 »

Brace yourselves. Videoblocks is all over the news today regarding their support for 360 degree videos.

The secret is out.

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Author Topic: Videoblocks slowdown (Read 25428 times)

Visualab

Stock_Pro

cidepix

Mantis

increasingdifficulty

damseremie

ccbcc

sgoodwin4813

SquirrelPower

Microstockphoto

pkphotos

SquirrelPower

Daryl Ray

pkphotos

Daryl Ray

ccbcc

SpaceStockFootage

alno

travelstock

Mantis

sauletas

helloitsme

Minsc

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