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Author Topic: The 3D Studio - anyway selling there?  (Read 31059 times)

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« Reply #75 on: February 10, 2010, 03:47 »
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I got my first sale - $7,20 !
Total active products -   152
Total product views - 7,941


« Reply #76 on: February 10, 2010, 04:57 »
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Matt Anderson from The3dStudio has answered some question on a quick interview I've made with him. Check it out on my blog: http://stockillustrator.blogspot.com/

They still haven't answered the one question I have asked a few times.  When will they stop asking for an ITIN number?  They are the only site asking me for the ITIN number now, there is no way I am spending time and money on that just for them.  I don't want 30% of my earnings withheld when there isn't a need for it.  As soon as they sort that out, I will start uploading.

« Reply #77 on: February 10, 2010, 11:23 »
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I don't want 30% of my earnings withheld,too! On the other sites I lose only 5% on the US sales with no need of ITIN !

« Reply #78 on: February 10, 2010, 11:57 »
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Hi! Got also my first sales at 3D, got 1555 photos there..!

I have signed the contract and I am earning 70%, got 2 L sizes sales, 8.4$ for each!

hope that many come, I have also contacted Matt from 3D and we need the ITIN to get the tax treaty, in my case 10% for Portugal! He said that other agencies that are accepting W8 without ITIN are not following well the law..
 

« Reply #79 on: February 10, 2010, 14:23 »
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Very discouraging:  -30% and -20% here in Bulgaria...  :-\

« Reply #80 on: August 03, 2010, 07:14 »
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Well, it's been a few months since anyone has reported sales on 3D. How is everyone doing?

I started uploading to them about a month and a half ago. In that time, I have had 23,000+ views and not one sale. I am thinking that it was a mistake to upload there. With over 500 photos, I would have expected at least 1 or 2 sales in that time. Soon after I started uploading, I noticed tons of photos going through the q from yuri and iofoto, to mention a few.

I am discouraged with your reports of lack of sales and my own experience and have asked that my port be taken down. I started to delete my own photos, but after about 10 it stopped me and said I had to contact support. So I don't even have control over my own portfolio. There was no mention of having to leave photos up for any specific amount of time, which is why I started uploading. Their review process seems pretty quick, so I don't think a whole lot of time has been invested by reviewers.

For those of you who posted in this thread last year and beginning of 2010, have you seen any substantial increase? Some of you have WAY more images up than I do and are still reporting no sales.

« Reply #81 on: August 03, 2010, 07:25 »
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With 721 files not one sale, repeat zero . . . . . I guess that says 3DS is the wrong place for me.

PS . .  no vectors or 3D renders in my port.

« Reply #82 on: August 03, 2010, 07:36 »
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I stopped uploading there and rarely check the site to see if there are sales.
354 files, 45,047 views and 2 sales since I joined almost a year ago.  ::)

« Reply #83 on: August 03, 2010, 07:42 »
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Close to 1000 photos, more than 85.000 views, one sale in roughly a year....
Disappointing. (Though I will not delete anything, I don't see any harm in letting the portfolio sit there and wait).

m@m

« Reply #84 on: August 03, 2010, 08:09 »
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wrong post!
« Last Edit: August 03, 2010, 08:23 by m@m »

« Reply #85 on: August 03, 2010, 09:44 »
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I got an email to post a reply here to correct some information so wanted to do that really quick...

1. On the W8BEN issue, we have no plans to change this because the IRS has no plans to change this and thus we MUST follow the laws of our country. I'd love to lose the whole tax issue as well but we are required to do it. I've had many CPAs look at this issue now (and have literally paid thousands of dollars to have this investigate) and have talked with the IRS (anyone can call the IRS to get the same info) and the bottom line is that the ONLY way to claim tax treaty benefits for a reduced rate is with an ITIN. The IRS will tell you that if you read Page 5 of the W8BEN directions...

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf

...you will see

You must provide a U.S. TIN if you are:
Claiming benefits under an income tax treaty

...and that's about as clear as it gets. I used the "well, here is what shutter does" and every person tells me "they are wrong". We will watch this issue closely of course.

2. @cclapper We have a system in place called Delete Protection that allows you to add and remove products without any problems at any time. But, it will detect surges in deleting and if a bunch of items are removed all at once it will temporarily stop the deleting to protect the account in case somebody got into your account. We actually added this feature years ago after an incident with an ex deleting their spouses products. We then had to restore some products from a backup to fix the issue so we added that feature and over the years its saved a few of our members from disaster.

You see, in the world of 3D we find that sellers dont really delete many products and most people who sell with us stay with us so its rare when we run into an issue where somebody is removing their entire collection. Personally, even if a collection isnt selling well I always go with the logic of it cant hurt to leave it and see.

3. On that note, I know a lot of people here are starting to see their sales finally pick up and we have a few who arent seeing many or any sales. This is perfectly normal, this is a very tough business to break into and it just takes time and has been part of our business plan from day 1. We are actually ahead of where we planned to be and growing faster than expected as well which is great news. There is a common theme when I see people reporting sales, and thats about the money they make. Even with low sales the amount you make per sale with us is much higher than in most places. Join our loyalty program and you are making $8.40 on each large size sale. We think this is why it only makes sense to stick with us because we are growing fast and getting where we need to be but were not in this to make every rich overnight, thats just not our business model.

4. Ive actually had 2 people tell me they want to leave because we are adding people like Yuri and iofoto (many others on the way!) and that theyll get buried and never see sales. I explained to them both that the exact opposite is true because big names bring in both buyers and sellers and that allows for fast growth all around. Weve already seen direct impact from the addition of large collections that has brought in many more sellers and many new buyers that we otherwise wouldnt have. These buyers dont just buy from these big collections and instead the sales are evenly spread around to many collections (big and small). Its the support from these big names that will end up helping us all.

« Reply #86 on: August 03, 2010, 10:22 »
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Have you asked the IRS why shutterstock, veer, bigstock and fotolia don't ask for an ITIN number?  They must have some arrangement with the IRS, I still don't see why your site can't do the same.  There are lots of us that wont get an ITIN number, it is time consuming, costly and we already have to deal with our own countries tax regulations.

« Reply #87 on: August 03, 2010, 10:42 »
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I started uploading files there a couple months ago. About 1100 images uploaded so far, 50000+ views and one sale.

It's not performing as well as I had hoped, but I am not planning on deleting any of my files.

« Reply #88 on: August 03, 2010, 10:59 »
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@sharpshot: The IRS won't discuss any other company, but even our CPA's said something like "I wouldn't want to be shutter when they get an audit". My understanding is that taxes and W8BENs are fairly new to shutter and if that is the case they may have just done it wrong. My experience has taught me that in these businesses (in 3D as well) that one company does something and the rest blindly follow under the assumption that the other company "must know what they are talking about". I see time and time again. I suppose somebody could ask shutter why they don't require the ITIN when Page 5 of the W8BEN directions clearly say you do, maybe they have offices outside the USA and sales are done outside...I really have no idea as I know nothing about those companies. For us, we have to do what the IRS and our CPA's tell us.

Getting the ITIN isn't a fun thing but most tell me it wasn't nearly as bad as they expected it to be. Of course, some don't realize they don't have to get one if they accept the 30% tax. Sounds bad but keep in mind the 30% tax is ONLY on orders placed by USA customers. Non-USA orders are NEVER taxed. For most this isn't a huge deal since around 25%-ish of our total orders are from USA customers. Personally, I'd get the ITIN as I don't like the IRS having my money but there are options :)

You can also sell and get sales without anything, that gives you an option to see if you want to get an ITIN or not. Since our reports show you where the order came from (by country) you'll even know what you will pay in tax (if you accept the 30%) before you get paid out. I've had others worry about this as well only to find that 90% or more of theirs sales came from non-USA customers and thus it was a non-issue for them.

@Norebbo: We really appreciate your support! It's contributors like you who are in this for the long haul that we love to have and how we really will change the way stock is bought and sold.

« Reply #89 on: August 03, 2010, 11:04 »
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Thank you for the explanation about the deletion of files, Matt. That makes perfect sense.

I appreciate your responding here as well as by email.

« Reply #90 on: August 04, 2010, 02:51 »
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119 products over 12,000 views and no sales.  I'm not uploading my entire port just my photos and certain large raster files because files that I have say like web buttons I'd rather sell as vector and not jpg.  And until that changes I'm not uploading those.

*sigh*

This site, Cutcaster (I pulled my port down) and Big Stock are the only ones I haven't had a sale on...yet.  We'll see.  Maybe I need to start doing 3d as well but it's just a * high learning curve esp. when you're doing it on your own.

« Reply #91 on: October 08, 2010, 09:40 »
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I joined two weeks ago and have had two sales of 1.80 each and are seeing thousands of views on my 1000+ images. I wonder how that works? I have many more to upload but when I have uploaded my last batch I will wait untill I see some more action in buying. Anyone seen any sales there the last month?

« Reply #92 on: October 08, 2010, 09:44 »
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Views are very high, sales are rather low.
I joined them in August 2009, had my first sale in December, then nothing. Last month suddenly two sales (one $1,20, one $7,20).
As submission is easy, the commission is fair and they are rather new in selling photos, I'll hang in there and continue to upload.

m@m

« Reply #93 on: October 08, 2010, 09:57 »
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I got a few sales at the beginning, but not a single one in many many moons...but hey, I've got 60K views with 500+ photos on the site, I which I could take those views to the bank...LOL

IMO a complete waste of time and effort, have not uploaded anything there for a long time, and probably won't ever again unless sales and not views start coming in.

« Reply #94 on: October 08, 2010, 11:17 »
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I quit uploading.  Since right now they still don't accept vectors they don't have my entire port.  It mainly consists of backgrounds and some photos that I've done.  Over 17,000 views with 133 images but not one sale...yet.  I'll upload again once I see some life.

LSD72

  • My Bologna has a first name...
« Reply #95 on: October 08, 2010, 11:40 »
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I got $9 sale last month. I still upload there due to ... instant acceptance and no minimum payout level. You get paid each month as long as you got something in your account. Even though they dont sell like SS...I still like how they handle the contributors.

Plus I am working on learning Z Brush for 3D so its a place I can sell models if I get the hang of it.

« Reply #96 on: October 08, 2010, 12:05 »
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I was selling there until all y'all joined. LOL

3ds is up & down but that's the company I refer buyers to.  Good money there - and easy to link in.  I like them and hope they keep growing.

« Reply #97 on: October 08, 2010, 12:24 »
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I was selling there until all y'all joined. LOL
+1  ;) Why couldn't we keep it just secret?  ::)


 

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