Author Topic: Image Sales Displaying for Fotolia Affiliate Pixmac (Read 14670 times)

GeoPappas · « **on:** October 31, 2008, 14:06 »

I decided to go back to Pixmac and take a gander.

I found that I have had quite a few sales (according to their site), but I am not seeing them reflected on Fotolia.

For example, if you go to one of my images (for example http://www.pixmac.com/picture/water-drop/000000184443), you will see that it states that I have had a total of 18 sales (on the right side of the screen where it states "Pictures sold: 12").

But that same image is reporting 18 downloads (on the upper right where it states "Downloads: 18"). At first, I thought that this number was the # of downloads from Fotolia, but after checking other files it doesn't match.

If I go through each image that I have, there are a total of 120 downloads reported by Pixmac.

Is anyone else having problems reconciling downloads/sales from Pixmac with sales on Fotolia?

FYI: I have sent Pixmac support an email, so we will see what they say, but I was wondering if anyone else was seeing issues as well.

madelaide · « **Reply #1 on:** October 31, 2008, 18:35 »

I don't know if this is the same thing, but... in Paxxion a buyer can download the same image again within a certain period of time. It does sound still strange here, as this would be a eventual situation, not the regular one.

Have you by chance found 12 different of your images sold?

Regards,
Adelaide

madelaide · « **Reply #2 on:** October 31, 2008, 19:03 »

RGebbiePhoto · « **Reply #3 on:** October 31, 2008, 19:26 »

This was easy for us to check. We don't have a large sales volume at Fotolia.

We have a few pictures that have sales on them.
http://www.pixmac.com/picture/small-black-powder-pistol-angled/000005446216
http://www.pixmac.com/picture/physicians-workspace/000001773555
http://www.pixmac.com/picture/cds-with-jewel-cases/000001217557

I checked our Fotolia sales, and there are no sales there for these images.

I also have only 54 images listed on the site. I have 582 at Fotolia. Does that mean they only have those 54? Or are the rest floating around on the site with no photographer credit?? I'm checkin now....

madelaide · « **Reply #4 on:** October 31, 2008, 19:29 »

Are you sure these are the same ones? Because my FT number match perfectly (at least all I checked, which were almost all).

Regards,
Adelaide

GeoPappas · « **Reply #5 on:** October 31, 2008, 19:51 »

OK, it seems that Pixmac is trying to reporting sales and views from Fotolia.

But why?

Why don't they just report their own sales and views?

This will just make it difficult to actually track any sales from Pixmac.

Are they trying to make buyers think that they are having lots of sales?

RGebbiePhoto · « **Reply #6 on:** October 31, 2008, 20:24 »

Thanks, yes, it seems like they are taking stats from fotolia.

Anyone have any success at getting their images off of this site?

I'm so tired of not being able to trust a site we sign up with. We should be able to sign up and feel confident that we will be paid for our hard work. And the sites should be so thrilled to have us as part of their team, they watch and make sure that we are all fairly paid.

We should not have to accidently find our images at some weird site, then figure out where . the images are coming from. And they should make sure that whatever affiliate programs they set in place, that the correspond to the SAME guidelines we agreed to, and signed up at their site for.

Is that so much to ask?

Maui · « **Reply #7 on:** November 01, 2008, 06:27 »

This site seems to have more than just a few hiccups. I found some of my own images there. If I click on "All pictures of this author" I get a larger list of my pictures, but most of them without thumbnails. What gave me a good scare is that these pictures are listed as "free", what is definitely wrong. Fortunately it doesn't seem possible to download them. (It escapes me why there are listed at all, then.)
Perhaps the site was programmed by the same people who made the FT website

I think I have to keep a close eye on this site.

Smithore · « **Reply #8 on:** November 01, 2008, 07:31 »

If you click on the pictures with no thumbnails, you can notice they have been uploaded the 01-01-1970, glups!!!! $:-\$

Quote

Perhaps the site was programmed by the same people who made the FT website Roll Eyes

Yes, children of bugs are always bugs !!!

RGebbiePhoto · « **Reply #9 on:** November 01, 2008, 14:09 »

What a lot of people didn't see was this:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=3105.0
in Particular, this post:
bolis

New Member

« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2008, 06:06 »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I recommend you Pixmac (www.pixmac.com). It is new microstock agency. It provides interesting pictures from $0.5 and good earnings for photographers.

One month ago, they had zero images. So either Fotolia gave them an instant zap of all of their images and stats, or this new company stole them.

I'm still waiting for a response from either company.

madelaide · « **Reply #10 on:** November 01, 2008, 14:27 »

I said in another thread that this "bolis" posted this type of msg about pixmac in many forum sites. He is probably the person behind pixmac. Given pixmac is able to track also the number of dlds each image has in FT, I suppose they are a legitimate partner.

Regards,
Adelaide

madelaide · « **Reply #11 on:** November 01, 2008, 14:57 »

Quote from: Maui on November 01, 2008, 06:27

If I click on "All pictures of this author" I get a larger list of my pictures, but most of them without thumbnails. What gave me a good scare is that these pictures are listed as "free", what is definitely wrong.

Where do you see this, under each thumb? Mine all show "Buy (1)" with a shopping cart. Maybe you have these images free in FT?

I noticed some images in the site with "Buy (0.5)", and they have a XS size available for 1 credit, which is cheaper that FT and the photog is not from FT, or at least the image wasn't taken from FT (example).

Also I noticed a "Buy (2)", with prices starting at 2 credits (example). Checked this at FT and the member is a bronze exclusive, so it seems pixmac is taking FT data very correctly.

Does anyone know how would these partner sales appear in our FT sales reports?

Regards,
Adelaide

le_cyclope · « **Reply #12 on:** November 01, 2008, 15:56 »

Quote from: RGebbiePhoto on October 31, 2008, 20:24

Thanks, yes, it seems like they are taking stats from fotolia.

I don't get it, from my «portfolio» in this site, there is no correspondance between their so-call downloads and downloads from Fotolia...

Claude

madelaide · « **Reply #13 on:** November 01, 2008, 18:58 »

I asked in the forum, one of the moderators (Mat Hayward) confirmed Pixmac is a FT partner.

http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=152662

Regards,
Adelaide

leaf · « **Reply #14 on:** November 02, 2008, 05:13 »

thanks for starting the thread there. It is nice that Mat replied, but it would sure be nice to get a little more information about it. Fotolia doesn't seem too eager to share how it all works, how we are getting paid, if the pricing is the same, how the images are chosen etc... .?!

the was one guy in the fotolia thread who said he had an image that was being given away on pixmax .. I don't know if it is true or not, and I tried to find it but couldn't as there was still quite a few bugs on pixmac.. hmmm

madelaide · « **Reply #15 on:** November 02, 2008, 07:29 »

There are some complaints about free images, and also a person whose minimum price increase in FT, but not yet in Pixmac.

I feel the thread will soon be purged.

Regards,
Adelaide

dirkr · « **Reply #16 on:** November 02, 2008, 12:10 »

I opened a similar thread on the German FT forum, let's see how long that lives.
About two weaks ago I sent a message to FT support asking about pixmac. They closed the ticket with one sentence saying "we will answer soon".
It is just like Fotolia has always been, not responsive at all.

Maui · « **Reply #17 on:** November 02, 2008, 14:18 »

I sent an email to Pixmac and asked for an explanation for the "free" pictures. Let's see if I get a reply.

madelaide · « **Reply #18 on:** November 03, 2008, 17:44 »

Quote

Hello Fotolians,

Pixmac has not been live very long. I just learned about it from the President of Fotolia last week. It is not my deal so I don't have all the details now. However they are a partner using the Fotolia Reseller API. If an image is downloaded by a pixmac customer the API collects the money from the partner Fotolia account and the artist is paid a commission. I will get more details for you.

Chad Bridwell
Director of US Operations
Fotolia.com

leaf · « **Reply #19 on:** November 03, 2008, 17:48 »

thanks for the quote. nice to see an 'official' statement on the matter.

dirkr · « **Reply #20 on:** November 03, 2008, 18:00 »

similar messages from the German FT team on the German board.
I'm still waiting for some explanations, but at least FT responded.

Maui · « **Reply #21 on:** November 04, 2008, 04:26 »

Quote from: Maui on November 02, 2008, 14:18

I sent an email to Pixmac and asked for an explanation for the "free" pictures. Let's see if I get a reply.

I did not get a reply, but they removed my images that were marked as "free". So for the time being I am satisfied.

GeoPappas · « **Reply #22 on:** November 05, 2008, 11:33 »

It took them a few days, but I finally got the following reply from Pixmac.

Hi,
those numbers are sums we got from Fotolia. We see now that displaying them is confusing for photographers so we will put them out and we will display only our numbers - sums of downloads from our pages as soon as possible.
We are sorry for this inconvinience,
thank you for your patience,

Lucie

madelaide · « **Reply #23 on:** November 05, 2008, 15:26 »

Quoting two messages from the FT forum, one from a member and one from a reply received from Pixmac:

Quote

Okay, I decided to buy some credits with Pixmac and buy one of my photos to test. I chose a photo that is displaying at Pixmac for a starting price of 2 credits, the same file here at Fotolia starts at 3 credits. I was concerned that selling a photo through Pixmac displayed at a lower price would result in me earning a lower amount. This is not the case. The sale came through at Fotolia instantly and I received the same amount I would have done if it was directly through Fotolia.

I bought an extra small size (or 0.1 Mpix as Pixmac calls it) at Pixmac for 2 credits.
The file shows in my account here at Fotolia as a sale to pixmac.com for a sale price of 3 credits. My commission is 1.62 credits which is normal for a sale of this size and priced at 3 credits.

I am happy now and I hope this will reassure others with similar concerns.

Quote

Hello,
Pixmac has a partnership with Fotolia and besides its own collection features also the collection of Fotolia - we are Fotolia´s reseller. We do not have any hires of Fotolia´s pictures - by each download we send the request to Fotolia, which means, that all downloads are registered in Fotolia and you will also get your commission from Fotolia. All pictures from Fotolia we sell and display with the same price like Fotolia. If the price by your picture differes from the price on Fotolia, please give us the url or the image ID, than we can check it.

I believe there should be some type of FT participation in a beta-version before any affiliate site goes live. The current case shows how uncomfortable this may be.

Regards,
Adelaide

GeoPappas · « **Reply #24 on:** November 05, 2008, 17:46 »

Quote from: madelaide on November 05, 2008, 15:26

Quoting two messages from the FT forum, one from a member and one from a reply received from Pixmac:

Quote
Okay, I decided to buy some credits with Pixmac and buy one of my photos to test. I chose a photo that is displaying at Pixmac for a starting price of 2 credits, the same file here at Fotolia starts at 3 credits. I was concerned that selling a photo through Pixmac displayed at a lower price would result in me earning a lower amount. This is not the case. The sale came through at Fotolia instantly and I received the same amount I would have done if it was directly through Fotolia.

I bought an extra small size (or 0.1 Mpix as Pixmac calls it) at Pixmac for 2 credits.
The file shows in my account here at Fotolia as a sale to pixmac.com for a sale price of 3 credits. My commission is 1.62 credits which is normal for a sale of this size and priced at 3 credits.

I am happy now and I hope this will reassure others with similar concerns.

The thing that baffles me is why couldn't Fotolia have spend 5 minutes typing up a response that would have basically said this from the beginning?

Why do sites keep their contributors in the dark? Keeping people in the dark just makes them feel suspicious.

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Author Topic: Image Sales Displaying for Fotolia Affiliate Pixmac (Read 14670 times)

GeoPappas

madelaide

madelaide

RGebbiePhoto

madelaide

GeoPappas

RGebbiePhoto

Maui

Smithore

RGebbiePhoto

madelaide

madelaide

le_cyclope

madelaide

leaf

madelaide

dirkr

Maui

madelaide

leaf

dirkr

Maui

GeoPappas

madelaide

GeoPappas

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