I just noticed this on the side of the page

Site   Earnings Rating
Top Tier - Big 4
Shutterstock   100 
iStock   50.4 
Fotolia   33.9 
DepositPhotos   23.2 

Middle Tier
Dreamstime   23 


Thats a major upset, no? Expected maybe, but I am still surprised. Also DP doesnt seem to do that well for me, with almost 500 photos online. The fact that they made top tier surprises me even more.

However, this is the first time in 5 months I see a major shift on that list.

The next big downwards shift might come in January when 123 lowers their royalties and people drop them?

I also noticed the drop of BS which is  making sense. I always figured they were positioned too high on the list.

I'm really surprised about that. DT has dropped way down for me but still gives me 8x more earnings than Deposit and Bigstock and 123rf give me 2-3 times more than Deposit.

It's FT for me, down to 7th place last month. Really though how relevant is the designation top tier/middle tier/low earners?

I think we've jumped the gun on early analysis of that list in the past.  Give more people time to weigh in and you'll probably see DT and DP switch places back to where they're supposed to be.

Whoops... looks like it just happened.

My own rankings would be this way:

SS
FT
DT
IS

123
DP
CanStockPhoto
BP

SF
GL
VR
CR

Gotcha... I jumped the gun...

Quote from: Phil on September 01, 2012, 11:33
It's FT for me, down to 7th place last month. Really though how relevant is the designation top tier/middle tier/low earners?

Are you uploading much lately?  Over half my sales are on images uploaded in the last couple of months.

Dt on the slide dp on the rise but Dt still many times the income right now.

DT has been pretty stable for me.  Where I've seen a change is the growth of 123RF and DP, and slow growth at PD.  Last month my order was SS, 123RF, DP, iS, PD, DT.  A big factor in my change is that DT has upload limits.  The others don't, aside from iS where I stopped uploading ages ago.

For me its

SS
123
FT
CanStockPhoto
DP
DT - but stopped uploading because of their ridiculous review process and upload system

For me, DT is solidly in 2nd place while IS sets a new low each month. Earning 3x IS on Canstock and 4x on BigStock

How do we place vote again?  When I hit "more poll results" I go straight to the Forum page with all categories displayed. 

Edit:  okay, there it is on the top under polls.  I could vote, but the first page is blank (I.E)

I'm not surprised by this. DT is on the high end of pricing, especially for files with a high ranking. People are very aware of pricing options these days, more so than ever before. A few years ago, some buyers didn't know that microstock existed outside of istock. Now it's a different story. So no wonder people are leaving DT like they are istock.

My top 8 are:

SS
GR
FT
DT
Veer
123RF
istock
GL

DT and FT switched places for me. I suspect that slide will continue. Veer is coming on like a bat out of hell for me. BME in August by a lot. GR is a big surprise, too. That week of 70% royalties was nice, but even without that GR would still sit comfortably in 2nd place for me.

Quote from: Pixart on September 01, 2012, 17:52
How do we place vote again?  When I hit "more poll results" I go straight to the Forum page with all categories displayed. 

Edit:  okay, there it is on the top under polls.  I could vote, but the first page is blank (I.E)

There must be an IE bug I have to work out :S

Quote from: Phil on September 01, 2012, 11:33
It's FT for me, down to 7th place last month. Really though how relevant is the designation top tier/middle tier/low earners?

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I am starting to have a persecution complex on Fotolia.  My overall rank is 35 and my 7 day rank is 635!  Even considering that there may be some talented new sellers or some existing contributors have stepped up their game a lot, that kind of drop seems unlikely to happen organically. 

Quote from: leaf on September 01, 2012, 18:54

Quote from: Pixart on September 01, 2012, 17:52
How do we place vote again?  When I hit "more poll results" I go straight to the Forum page with all categories displayed. 

Edit:  okay, there it is on the top under polls.  I could vote, but the first page is blank (I.E)

There must be an IE bug I have to work out :S

I have the same problem in Chrome

Quote from: Poncke on September 01, 2012, 21:23

Quote from: leaf on September 01, 2012, 18:54

Quote from: Pixart on September 01, 2012, 17:52
How do we place vote again?  When I hit "more poll results" I go straight to the Forum page with all categories displayed. 

Edit:  okay, there it is on the top under polls.  I could vote, but the first page is blank (I.E)

There must be an IE bug I have to work out :S

I have the same problem in Chrome

ok thanks, I'll try to figure out a fix on monday

Quote from: fotografer on September 01, 2012, 08:46
... DT ....   but still gives me 8x more earnings than Deposit and Bigstock and 123rf give me 2-3 times more than Deposit.

+1

the power of depositphotos somehow seems to be way overstated here on msg.

Quote from: dreamstock on September 02, 2012, 07:40

the power of depositphotos somehow seems to be way overstated here on msg.

I believe you're wrong about that.  Assuming everyone has been honest about their results, it just suggests that DP performs differently for different groups of submitters.  The poll tracks with my own experience, except that lately DP has outperformed DT.  I attribute that to DT's upload limits.  Your mileage may differ.

Quote from: disorderly on September 02, 2012, 15:13

Quote from: dreamstock on September 02, 2012, 07:40

the power of depositphotos somehow seems to be way overstated here on msg.

I believe you're wrong about that.  Assuming everyone has been honest about their results, it just suggests that DP performs differently for different groups of submitters.  The poll tracks with my own experience, except that lately DP has outperformed DT.  I attribute that to DT's upload limits.  Your mileage may differ.

I'd agree with that.  Fotolia for some is down in 7th place while for others it's in first place.  The results on the right are a 3 month average but if you look at the graph http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?page=PollResults which shows each month's raw data, DepositPhotos is really on the rise.

Dreamstime is still one of my Big 4, but their performance is falling too much lately.

My TOP 8:
1) Shutter
2) Istock
3) Fotolia
4) Dreamstime
5) Deposit
6) Canstock
7) 123RF
Photodune

Quote from: soma on September 04, 2012, 08:43
Dreamstime is still one of my Big 4, but their performance is falling too much lately.

My TOP 8:
1) Shutter
2) Istock
3) Fotolia
4) Dreamstime
5) Deposit
6) Canstock
7) 123RF
Photodune

I have a scenario that just seems warped:

SS: 800-1k a month
IS: $600 a month (IS + TS)
DT: ~$150 a month

All others (FT, BigStock, DP, PD, CanStockPhoto, 123) well below DT by $50-$100 bucks.