Author Topic: Dreamstime- Poor Sales (Read 35205 times)

nicku · « **Reply #25 on:** June 12, 2013, 15:58 »

Quote from: tab62 on June 11, 2013, 15:33

Okay, please tell me that I am the only one that is doing poorly on DT? The last six weeks have been dismal. Maybe I am in slump ( I have about 1,400 images on their site)...

T

+1.... DT is going down for me

and i have 1600+ images online there. I sell 3x on FT compared with DT.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #26 on:** June 12, 2013, 16:04 »

Quote from: stockastic on June 12, 2013, 15:57

Quote from: heywoody on June 12, 2013, 15:32
Like for like, this is a relatively good deal, especially for the small guy.

But it feels like a cheat. You see your images climb the levels, and they dangle those nice returns in front of you, but the reality is that you seldom see them - the sales are mostly subs. And they show you the size, giving you the added pleasure of knowing that your level 5 image just sold at maximum size, and you get 35 cents. If you look just at the overall numbers compared to other sites, returns are typical, bu psychologically it's a total fail. You can't shake the feeling that the buyer who wanted your best image at full size would certainly have paid a few dollars for it.

I believe the problem is that you, myself and many other haven't felt any love from DT, our portfolio never took off for buyers and perform poorly, maybe because of its quality/commercial value

while other have a 2/3$ RPD

edited: typo

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #27 on:** June 12, 2013, 17:05 »

Isn't the relevant figure the change in RPD? My RPD is about $1.30, which is a bit less than in the first six months of last year but not much different from the overall picture for 2010, 11 and 12. I have to go back to 2009 to see a clear increase in RPD (about $1.10 back then).
My conclusion is that all the levels, and the progress files make through them to higher price points, have been completely negated by the subscription programme. And that is despite the way files have been bumped up into higher levels by the last couple of adjustments to the scheme.

gostwyck · « **Reply #28 on:** June 12, 2013, 17:11 »

Quote from: stockastic on June 12, 2013, 15:57

Quote from: heywoody on June 12, 2013, 15:32
Like for like, this is a relatively good deal, especially for the small guy.

But it feels like a cheat. You see your images climb the levels, and they dangle those nice returns in front of you, but the reality is that you seldom see them - the sales are mostly subs. And they show you the size, giving you the added pleasure of knowing that your level 5 image just sold at maximum size, and you get 35 cents. If you look just at the overall numbers compared to other sites, returns are typical, bu psychologically it's a total fail. You can't shake the feeling that the buyer who wanted your best image at full size would certainly have paid a few dollars for it.

What utter nonsense. How can you say it "feels like a cheat" to you when DT has the highest RPD (for non-newbies anyway) of any microstock agency? Sure, they sell subs at 35c, but that's actually more than most other agencies pay, including FT and TS.

The truth is that anyone can sell $5 notes for $4. DT has to be applauded for selling our work, on average, for more $'s per sale than any other microstock agency.

That's quite a feat considering that DT started out as the bargain-basement of microstock, with all images priced at $1 (at maximum size) and contributors receiving 50c per sale. My own RPD with DT nowadays is about $2.38. DT have been very successful in developing their business model. How dare you call them "cheats".

stockastic · « **Reply #29 on:** June 12, 2013, 17:13 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on June 12, 2013, 17:05

My conclusion is that all the levels, and the progress files make through them to higher price points, have been completely negated by the subscription programme.

That's what I think too, although obviously YMMV. It would at least seem a little fair-er, if your subscription returns increased in proportion to the level - i.e. a level 5 image sold via subscription nets you 50 cents instead of 35 - not much better, but at least something...

heywoody · « **Reply #30 on:** June 12, 2013, 17:30 »

Quote from: stockastic on June 12, 2013, 15:57

Quote from: heywoody on June 12, 2013, 15:32
Like for like, this is a relatively good deal, especially for the small guy.

But it feels like a cheat. You see your images climb the levels, and they dangle those nice returns in front of you, but the reality is that you seldom see them - the sales are mostly subs. And they show you the size, giving you the added pleasure of knowing that your level 5 image just sold at maximum size, and you get 35 cents. If you look just at the overall numbers compared to other sites, returns are typical, bu psychologically it's a total fail. You can't shake the feeling that the buyer who wanted your best image at full size would certainly have paid a few dollars for it.

It kinda does ok but I guess it depends on how you look at it. I've had a few sub sales of level 5 images over that last few days but had a single > $8 for one today (more than earnings this month so far on 123). The same images sell for pennies (and only pennies) on FT and 123 all the time so I tend to look at these as a bit of a bonus. The fact that you can get the odd larger than usual commission makes DT (and SS) more "interesting" than the others.

stockastic · « **Reply #31 on:** June 12, 2013, 17:34 »

Quote from: heywoody on June 12, 2013, 17:30

The fact that you can get the odd larger than usual commission makes DT (and SS) more "interesting" than the others.

Absolutely true. The occasional 'big' sales are what keep us there. Hey I never said these guys were dumb. :-)

lisafx · « **Reply #32 on:** June 12, 2013, 19:24 »

Quote from: gostwyck on June 12, 2013, 17:11

DT has to be applauded for selling our work, on average, for more $'s per sale than any other microstock agency.

This sums up my feelings as well.

My RPD at DT climbed significantly a couple of years ago and has remained steady since then, in spite of subs. And they are one of the two sites in the big 4 whom I have not seen drastic overall earnings drops from.

wordplanet · « **Reply #33 on:** June 13, 2013, 01:51 »

My RPD keeps going up there - up well over 100% from 2011 and up ~40% from 2012. QTR4 2012 and QTR1 2013 are significantly higher than anytime in the past, so it's not all doom and gloom.

Sure, I'm bummed that extended licenses only get me $15-16 (even $28 on SS is peanuts but that's the nature of the beast) but those $7-9+ regular sales of Level 4s & 5s are still happening & despite the 35-42 cent subs of those same images, my RPD continues to rise. It is disheartening to get $9.22 one day for an extralarge and then see that same level 5 net me 42 cents a day later at the same size (as happened this week). (But even more distressing to see Alamy license a photo for $260 (when I got 60%), then see Alamy license the same photo for <$2 dollars, and see SS license it for 33 cents. If Alamy licenses the same photo for $1.61 one day and $260 the next, I have no problem licensing RF files there and on the micros. Unfortunately, they don't have the volume for those piddly sales to add up.

Through April 2012 subs were earning 84 cents, now it's 42 cents - that's a drag - I guess I missed that memo - but even with 38 subs out of 52 licenses, the image I mentioned above has earned me over $95 on DT so far - and it was a simple experiment with my lensbaby that the other sites rejected & it would never have passed Alamy's IQ.

It does seem to be feast or famine over there but I haven't added anything new in quite a while. If I upload a bunch of new stuff I usually see a jump in sales. My port is too small to be statistically significant. But what seemed like a slump early this year is really pretty steady and gaining with no effort on my part.

Dismal month all around so far. No direct stock photo sales yet to put me over the top like the past two months. DT is out in front at the moment but it is a very sorry little pack they are leading this month, thou there's still time for it to turn around (they need an icon for fingers crossed on here x?)

The sites do have buyers with different tastes. I guess that's why a port with <150 photos can still find lots of buyers despite the millions of photos they have to look at.

nicku · « **Reply #34 on:** June 13, 2013, 02:06 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on June 12, 2013, 16:04

Quote from: stockastic on June 12, 2013, 15:57
Quote from: heywoody on June 12, 2013, 15:32
Like for like, this is a relatively good deal, especially for the small guy.

But it feels like a cheat. You see your images climb the levels, and they dangle those nice returns in front of you, but the reality is that you seldom see them - the sales are mostly subs. And they show you the size, giving you the added pleasure of knowing that your level 5 image just sold at maximum size, and you get 35 cents. If you look just at the overall numbers compared to other sites, returns are typical, bu psychologically it's a total fail. You can't shake the feeling that the buyer who wanted your best image at full size would certainly have paid a few dollars for it.

I believe the problem is that you, myself and many other haven't felt any love from DT, our portfolio never took off for buyers and perform poorly, maybe because of its quality/commercial value

while other have a 2/3$ RPD

edited: typo

I disagree... poorly quality/commercial value doesn't always explain why THE SAME images sells very good on 123RF and FT ( don't mention SS ) and poorly on DT.
In my opinion DT is constantly loosing market share While FT , SS and 123RF are gaining more and more costumers,

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Author Topic: Dreamstime- Poor Sales (Read 35205 times)

nicku

luissantos84

BaldricksTrousers

gostwyck

stockastic

heywoody

stockastic

lisafx

wordplanet

nicku

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