MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Envato => PhotoDune => Topic started by: dpimborough on July 31, 2014, 10:34
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I can't be bothered uploading to this outfit.
Rejection, rejection, rejections ~ I wouldn't mind if they were valid but they really are taking the Michael >:(
So that's it I'm done I'll keep uploading photos to SS and others at least that way I can get some money and where I make more in a single day with the photos that Envato rejected than I make all month with Envato
Ha even Bigstock make more money than Envato :D
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Hi,
I understand rejections can be frustrating. What I'd recommend though, it to send us a support ticket with a link to a few rejections you strongly disagree with and I'll personally have a look at it and provide you with more detailed and constructive feedback (or overturn some images if it ends up that images we're wrongfully rejected). Just like with most sites unfortunately we can't always provide extensive feedback on all rejections (you can imagine with the number of submissions we receive, the time it would take). But we are happy to provide extra feedback when requested.
Thanks for understanding,
Gaby Jalbert
Quality Team Leader | Photodune
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Are there any plans to update the website?
The experience for photo buyers is very poor compared to most other sites.
I do wonder what the commitment from Photodune is for the longterm, the whole site just feels like a discarded experiment of Envato.
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We are aware of many issues, and Envato is deploying a lot of resources right now on Phototune and it's sister sites as well to improve the overall experience both for authors and customers. Unfortunately it doesn't always go as fast as we'd like to, but we're not just talking about improvements, things are actually happening behind the curtains. Stay tuned you should start seeing significant changes in the next months. :)
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I generally don't have a problem with rejections, but suddenly a large number of totally irrational rejections in the last two batches. I guess some new (inexperienced) reviewers were appointed. I usually can't be bothered to query the rejections. In my experience these types of problems are temporary and will resolve itself over time. When that happens I will simply re-submit those rejected images.
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Envato still uses the dreaded similar rejection reason. So technically sound images are rejected and that is, unfortunately, the end of it. And this is not about a different angle of a subject. They have become a lot lot worse than Dreamstime.
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I generally don't have a problem with rejections, but suddenly a large number of totally irrational rejections in the last two batches. I guess some new (inexperienced) reviewers were appointed. I usually can't be bothered to query the rejections. In my experience these types of problems are temporary and will resolve itself over time. When that happens I will simply re-submit those rejected images.
Indeed anywhere humans are involved inconsistencies can happen (same applies to all sites), though we put a lot of effort in reducing them to a minimum and I can assure you we have a team of highly qualified reviewers. Keep in mind that the standards are evolving. Because of the volume of files submitted we can be a bit more selective on certain subjects (then we we're when the site started out 3 years ago) in an effort to make our search results as attractive and relevant as possible to existing and future customers - if the customers are happy and come back for more, chances are you'll be happy too ;)
That said, without links or examples, it's really hard to further comment. But I do invite you to send us a support ticket (instead of re-submitting the rejected images) if you feel your files were wrongfully rejected as it serves 2 purposes:
1. It helps us provide feedback to the reviewer in case where images should have been approved.
2. If your files were rightfully rejected, we can provide more detailed feedback to help improve your acceptance rate.
So it's a win-win situation.
Best regards,
Gaby
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I generally don't have a problem with rejections, but suddenly a large number of totally irrational rejections in the last two batches. I guess some new (inexperienced) reviewers were appointed. I usually can't be bothered to query the rejections. In my experience these types of problems are temporary and will resolve itself over time. When that happens I will simply re-submit those rejected images.
u complain about Envato with inexperienced reviewer? did u see the same issue here by rinderhart
and on SStock own forum? pages and pages of it.
so maybe we are too anal on Envato when Shutterstock contributors have been complaining the same thing there for months. ;)
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I generally don't have a problem with rejections, but suddenly a large number of totally irrational rejections in the last two batches. I guess some new (inexperienced) reviewers were appointed. I usually can't be bothered to query the rejections. In my experience these types of problems are temporary and will resolve itself over time. When that happens I will simply re-submit those rejected images.
u complain about Envato with inexperienced reviewer? did u see the same issue here by rinderhart
and on SStock own forum? pages and pages of it.
so maybe we are too anal on Envato when Shutterstock contributors have been complaining the same thing there for months. ;)
Not with me Shutterstock is running at 100% acceptance for months and prior to that 90 to 95%
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I also don't have a problem with SS or any other agency for that matter, even Envato before the last two batches. Running at an average acceptance rate of 95% on all agencies.
I am doing this since 2006 and all I am sayings is don't over react by a sudden high rejection rate. I have experiences spells like these on most of the other agencies at some point in time. In most cases the problem will resolve itself. The biggest cause of this is often a few individual reviewers that are over critical and they will eventually align themselves with the norm of accurate reviewing or they are being replaced.
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I also don't have a problem with SS or any other agency for that matter, even Envato before the last two batches. Running at an average acceptance rate of 95% on all agencies.
I am doing this since 2006 and all I am sayings is don't over react by a sudden high rejection rate. I have experiences spells like these on most of the other agencies at some point in time. In most cases the problem will resolve itself. The biggest cause of this is often a few individual reviewers that are over critical and they will eventually align themselves with the norm of accurate reviewing or they are being replaced.
+1 good point. just bcos it happens to others does not mean it will happen to me and you.
and we have not seen all those rejections. only that when i look at rinderhart's SStockportfolio,
and he is affected, i question the issue. otoh, maybe u did not get Atilla and her breed of mass destruction.
and here's a direct quote from Jo Ann from the other thread ...
I have participated in many threads about problems with SS inspections on non-studio shots of various kinds (and at the moment am taking a break from uploading there as I had just had it with the inconsistent inspection process). You can read them (here and in the SS forums).
no complaints on Envato, bcos i have not tried it.
but re SStock tomfoolery, i will go with Jo Ann and Rinderart
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Actually I never got started with them. After reading about them here on MSG I decided to give them a try. Took forever to come up with that silly .zip file needed for the first submission. Asked if I could do anything else (CD, DVD, Dropbox, etc.) but no, it had to be a .zip file. OK. Then I selected a wide variety of files which all had excellent sales records (100 plus sales minimum and at least one EL each) and had been accepted on all of the other sites I use. Made the .zip file and submitted. Response within 24 hours (quite a bit less if I remember correctly). All rejected for the most ridiculous reasons ... OOF, composition, poor isolation and so on and so forth. Keep in mind that I have been shooting microstock for the past 8 years, commercial photography since the 1970's and taught stock photography at the college level for several years. Plus these images all had excellent track records. I think I've a pretty good idea of what constitutes a decent photograph and how to get it. Pissed me off so I simply told them to take their agency and put it where the sun never shines. Closed my account and never looked back. Would I ever try them again? Doubtful. Unless they got rid of that dumb .zip requirement, I wouldn't even consider it.
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I think the upload process needs to be more streamlined. Currently uploading, then having to select a title for each image and then another step after that is just tedious. I don't get the select title step. Why not upload then go straight to an edit page where you can finish the pics off and then submit. Because of how horrible the upload process is it takes enormous motivation for me to even bother submitting. I think Dreamstime and SS have got it right.
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I agree. The upload process is cumbersome. When an image is rejected for Model Release error (which seems to happen often to me on Envato) there is no ability to attach a revised or new MR to the image which is already on their servers. One has to go through the entire cumbersome process again. I can rarely be bothered to go through the entire shenanigans again - Envato is missing out on some of my best selling work for this reason.
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I think the upload process needs to be more streamlined. ...I think Dreamstime and SS have got it right.
funny, i just finished commenting on P5 needing to streamline their procedure, and thought the same way.. why not do it simply like dt ss ..!!! KISS.
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Photodune has by far one of the easiest uploads. I'm not sure how people are seeing it as complicated.
You upload all your images from shoot X in the images folder, upload all the releases from that shoot in the releases folder and press the process button. Done. no categories, no release matching to images, no clicking on every image.
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Agree!
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Same here. To me, Photodune has one of the easiest and least cumbersome uploading systems out there. I can think of better ways to do the model releases, of course, but other than that, I'm happy with it.
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It's the Model Release thing seems to catch me everytime. Trying to untangle which images had a MR attached and which didn't is just too time consuming...so I let them go..
I wish there was a way of attaching a MR once the image has been uploaded rather than starting from scratch.
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do u get enough sales there to make it worth while uploading?
just asking...
other thing is , this is like a one stop many things to many ppl (photdune audijunglewordpressetcetc), right? story, song, clip, photo, vid,etc..
sort of scattered. i wonder for this reason i ask the first question.
or is it just yet another social media where u gets lots of likes, favorites, with hope that u do them the same.
if it is a social media, it tends not to bring buying clientele in there. hope i don't sound too blunt
but this is the only forum we can find new sites to add for future potent.
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The Poll Chart on the right puts them in about the right place for me..
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Too absurd rejections. You can not demand such quality, then for a few cents of license dollar.
Sorry for my English level.
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Rejection rate of 95% on photodune (in last few months) is insulting for me as photographer. On all other agencies my acceptance rate is 95%, and so it was on photodune until few months ago, until they get worse. And some of the rejected photos are highly sellable on other agencies. I tried to upload and hope this madness will stop, but it continued, so I just stop uploading there. And I suspect I'm not the only one.
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agreed. Their rejections are plentiful and appear to be arbitrary. On almost all other sites I can guess which images might get rejected - there, other than guessing every one will get rejected I have no criteria to judge.
Maybe they think their image library is big enough or who knows. I mostly just fire and forget for submitting there, but when I do look at the rejects it is curious. If they were a bigger earner like SS I'd be pretty annoyed, but luckily they aren't.
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right - the reviewers are incompetent and sales miserable -- deleted my account months ago
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yes - their reviewers make me laugh
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I'm getting OK sales but almost Everything Rejected over the last 3-4 months.
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I quite like photodune.
Easy to upload, and solid results.
Above canstock, deposit, bigstock and alamy for me. And dreamstime. I hate dreamstime.
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I'm done with them too. One of the lowest earning sites of the dozen or so I submit too and the worst acceptance ratio of any of them. Just isn't worth the effort if they are going to reject 90%.
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For whatever it's worth, I recently sent them a site mail about their rejections and I included links to some of my full size images. They did get back to me and agreed with me, accepting 20-30 images that were originally rejected there twice. They said that they would talk to the inspectors. Haven't really had any problems since. This was about 6 weeks ago....Sept 2014.
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I haven't had an image accepted there for months now. Stopped caring.
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Same issue with their reviewers to a point I have stopped uploading and sales are decreasing. If I cant get my images up and sales are getting worse, they basically are making themselves irrelevant, yet they seem to think they are doing the right thing.
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Sick of. Almost all 100% rejections. I know my images sell well on ss/is and nothing wrong with my technical abilty. I am convinced the reviewers are amateurs.
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No their reviewers are not amateurs, but they have a very strict policy on subject overkill. They dont approve my landscapes anymore as I have enough according to them. Fun part is, I am a landscape photographer, so they basically shut me down.
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No their reviewers are not amateurs, but they have a very strict policy on subject overkill. They dont approve my landscapes anymore as I have enough according to them. Fun part is, I am a landscape photographer, so they basically shut me down.
Very unduly, if today someone who shot landscapes want to sell in Photodune he can't because he missed the first train. The correct will be to take a look at the images thay have and to compare, if today you offer better image they can accept it.
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I haven't had an image accepted there for months now. Stopped caring.
Well I haven't had an image rejected there for months now. Ok maybe 10 out of 1k rejected. Good agency keep uploading
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I haven't had an image accepted there for months now. Stopped caring.
Well I haven't had an image rejected there for months now. Ok maybe 10 out of 1k rejected. Good agency keep uploading
Do you mean now or before the changes there? Please share your last accepted batch to be more concrete. When and what?
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Since the beginning! Changes what changes?
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I upload mostly illustrations to Envato, with a few photos here and there. If most of my uploads were photos, I'd stop uploading altogether.
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I am happy with every new rejection at envato - because it is sooooooooooooo irrelevant
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I haven't had an image accepted there for months now. Stopped caring.
Well I haven't had an image rejected there for months now. Ok maybe 10 out of 1k rejected. Good agency keep uploading
acceptances are really irrelevant --- how many SALES do you get from them?
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I haven't had an image accepted there for months now. Stopped caring.
Well I haven't had an image rejected there for months now. Ok maybe 10 out of 1k rejected. Good agency keep uploading
acceptances are really irrelevant --- how many SALES do you get from them?
10k+ Items 5k+ sales
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I haven't had an image accepted there for months now. Stopped caring.
Well I haven't had an image rejected there for months now. Ok maybe 10 out of 1k rejected. Good agency keep uploading
acceptances are really irrelevant --- how many SALES do you get from them?
I agree. Don't care about acceptance rate, I care about income and photodune generates a couple hundred a month. I'll keep uploading.
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Not completely irrelevant at my current acceptance level I expect my income to stagnate and then decline unlike other sites where I'm still increasing port size at a reasonable rate. Clearly Photodune don't want my style of pics fair enough but the ones that got through seem to sell OK. Luckily their upload process is painless (though a bit odd)
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If you want to see irrational rejections, try stocksy. :)
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If you want to see irrational rejections, try stocksy. :)
I'd be happy to try Stocksy's rejections :)
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Since there's been a few new posts lately I thought I'd provide additional information for those recently joining the thread. :)
First I'd like to thank everyone for your feedback and opinions, they are always valuable in our efforts to continuously improve the overall site experience for both our authors and customers.
Our reviewing team is composed of highly skilled and qualified people. On top of that, they are receiving feedback and tests on a regular basis to make sure they are as consistent as humanly possible. But even with that, if you submit a borderline image, chances are the outcome might vary depending on which reviewer gets the file. Why? Because in those instances, subjectivity will play a larger part in the final decision. Submit a great image or a very bad one and the consistency will be around 100%. We could put together a list of all the guidelines and policies we could think of, but in the end, there's always going to be those files that are right on the fence and could go either way. Aiming for the top is really the best way of getting a consistently high approval rate, staying clear of the borderline images. We do have many authors with 95+% approvals, so it's certainly not out of reach.
It's often tempting to compare rejections from different sites, but it's also important to keep in mind that images that were approved on another site 5-10 years ago (even if they sold well), might not meet their current standards anymore (this is important for those submitting their existing portfolios to Photodune). Just like it's possible that the standards on site X or Y are simply different.
Even with common subjects, we welcome fresh content, we are simply being a bit more selective. Customers like variety, but they also like finding good images without having to go through 500 weaker ones. Adding new content is definitely something we want, as long as it's adding value to the library and not just diluting it.
As you all know, the industry has changed over the past few years and so has the customer expectations. We feel by being slightly more selective, we are not only making the site more attractive and useful to existing and new customers, but as a bonus are also increasing your chances of sales on files that do get approved. Being more lenient would only have the opposite effect.
With all that being said, mistakes can (and will) happen, and if it's the case, like it's been mentioned by a photographer in a previous reply, we will acknowledge it and address the situation.
So bottom line, if you have multiple rejections you strongly disagree with, I re-invite you to contact us and let us know about it with the list of images you think should have been approved. There's 2 possible outcomes:
1. We overturn our initial decision, approve your images and provide feedback to our reviewers.
2. We confirm initial decision was accurate and provide you with personalized feedback so you have all the information required for your future submissions.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best regards,
Gaby Jalbert
Quality Team Leader | Photodune
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I observe higher rejection rates on Photodune than elsewhere too. Not by too much though.
But there are some unique and likable things on Photodune I think... easy upload, rating systems, stable customer base among all marketplaces. It is the only website where customers contacted me directly with special requests. That I like. :)
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......
It's often tempting to compare rejections from different sites, but it's also important to keep in mind that images that were approved on another site 5-10 years ago (even if they sold well), might not meet their current standards anymore (this is important for those submitting their existing portfolios to Photodune). Just like it's possible that the standards on site X or Y are simply different.
nice try to divert criticism but I don't think anyone here was using old submissions as a comparison-- we're talking about CURRENT submissions that are accepted AND sold by other agencies, but are bulk rejected by photodune
....We feel by being slightly more selective, we are not only making the site more attractive and useful to existing and new customers, but as a bonus are also increasing your chances of sales on files that do get approved. Being more lenient would only have the opposite effect.....
would be nice if that were the case BUT
doubling a 0% sales rate doesn't help anyone -- just as others have reported here - I had more sales on most & featurepics than photodune ever managed to produce
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So bottom line, if you have multiple rejections you strongly disagree with, I re-invite you to contact us and let us know about it with the list of images you think should have been approved. There's 2 possible outcomes:
1. We overturn our initial decision, approve your images and provide feedback to our reviewers.
2. We confirm initial decision was accurate and provide you with personalized feedback so you have all the information required for your future submissions.
Quite honestly: Ain't nobody got time for that. If you were Shutterstock, sure, I might bother. But for Photodune's 1-2 sales per month? Meh. If you can't get reviewing right the first time, you missed out.
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Gaby, the problem is that for you a landscape photo is a landscape photo. You dont care about the location it was shot at. Problem with that is, for you every mountain looks the same, for a local its a completely different mountain every time. You just run through a batch of landscape images and hit reject 97 times after you approved 3. Even if the images are from a different area in the country all together. Same goes for vertical and horizontal shots. If you are this superb agency you want to be, then you might start to consider that buyers need vertical and horizontal orientation. Those are not duplicate images. I always love the blah blah from these self claimed 'experienced' people missing out on basic facts and really have little clue about what they are doing or whats going on a few levels below their paycheck.
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These guys are incompetent. I thought I had my issues resolved with them and bam, rejecting good images. One was "too much black space. 1/3 of the image has black space for copy. I guess they expect us to crop to one pixel above the subject. Forget it.
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......
It's often tempting to compare rejections from different sites, but it's also important to keep in mind that images that were approved on another site 5-10 years ago (even if they sold well), might not meet their current standards anymore (this is important for those submitting their existing portfolios to Photodune). Just like it's possible that the standards on site X or Y are simply different.
nice try to divert criticism but I don't think anyone here was using old submissions as a comparison-- we're talking about CURRENT submissions that are accepted AND sold by other agencies, but are bulk rejected by photodune
....We feel by being slightly more selective, we are not only making the site more attractive and useful to existing and new customers, but as a bonus are also increasing your chances of sales on files that do get approved. Being more lenient would only have the opposite effect.....
would be nice if that were the case BUT
doubling a 0% sales rate doesn't help anyone -- just as others have reported here - I had more sales on most & featurepics than photodune ever managed to produce
Genuinely, there was no intention to divert criticism. With all due respect, "Just like it's possible that the standards on site X or Y are simply different." was also mentioned in my post.
Authors submitting existing portfolios to Photodune (often including files from 2005 or older) is quite frequent and it's why I felt that part was also relevant.
Regarding sales, Photodune is still fairly young compared to sites that have been around for 10+ years. And even so, many authors are doing quite well. Now we're certainly not saying everything is perfect, we acknowledge that. Although it's not always visible from the outside, you can all rest assured that significant resources are working on improving the site, on all fronts.
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I am submitting brand new images, my acceptance ratio went from 90% to 20%. You can spin it anyway you like, but thats what it is, just spin.
And dont give me other sites have different standards crap, images are good or they are not. These image get 100% acceptance ACROSS THE BOARD.
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Another thing, I loved Photodune, sales were slow but regular, slow growth, easy submit process. Always been positive about you guys, until you became the evil brother of Fotolia. You are alienating contributors, how is that good for business??
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I'm leaving the files I have there as sales are steady, if not all that high in volume, but I don't upload there any more.
Earlier this year I submitted a batch of images (30 or so I think) and I believe only 2 or three were accepted. I've no idea what the rejection reasons were as there's no record of that on the site. It's irrelevant anyway - Shutterstock is selling them and PhotoDune isn't. Shutterstock can sell over 20x what PhotoDune does in a month, so if I were to use a yardstick as to whose reviewers to try and cater to...
Any agency is entitled to set whatever standards they want to, but if, at some point, you wonder why some people don't enter your contests or don't upload any more you might take a look at your reviewing process as one of the factors.
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A bit relieved to hear it isn't just me.. :-\
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"As you all know, the industry has changed over the past few years and so has the customer expectations. We feel by being slightly more selective, we are not only making the site more attractive and useful to existing and new customers, but as a bonus are also increasing your chances of sales on files that do get approved. Being more lenient would only have the opposite effect."
So bottom line, if you have multiple rejections you strongly disagree with, I re-invite you to contact us and let us know about it with the list of images you think should have been approved. There's 2 possible outcomes:
1. We overturn our initial decision, approve your images and provide feedback to our reviewers.
2. We confirm initial decision was accurate and provide you with personalized feedback so you have all the information required for your future submissions.
The problem is this Gaby
1. I don't have the time to constantly email Envato to query rejections. At the rate you guys reject I would spend all my time emailing and little else"
2. Customer expectations may be higher but lets face it Envato are still paying less than the price of a MaccaD Happy Meal for these "higher quality standards"
If you were paying a couple of hundred bucks per sale I'd understand your principle.
You earn me 0.59% of my overall turnover with 16 agencies so it is not worth spending any more of 60 hours a week I put in to this business trying to convince Envato to do anymore than they are doing which is rejecting and rejecting and rejecting ;)
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My acceptance rate is, I guess, around 95%. I guess I provide what they consider their library needs.
Sales could be better, but having in mind that I signed up to PhotoDune (and CanStock) in order to replace BigStock (where I quit uploading because of poor results) and already have 4-6 times more revenue from PD alone, I can't say I'm not pleased.
Maybe PD has a specific demographic they cater to, I guess their reviewers are not mentally handicapped, but provide feedback depending on the needs of the library and pre-selected criteria. PD to me seems like a very modern agency going in the right direction, and I'm pumped to see what new they have in store. Hopefully some spending will also go to marketing, so we see an additional boost of sales. :)
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"As you all know, the industry has changed over the past few years and so has the customer expectations. We feel by being slightly more selective, we are not only making the site more attractive and useful to existing and new customers, but as a bonus are also increasing your chances of sales on files that do get approved. Being more lenient would only have the opposite effect."
So bottom line, if you have multiple rejections you strongly disagree with, I re-invite you to contact us and let us know about it with the list of images you think should have been approved. There's 2 possible outcomes:
1. We overturn our initial decision, approve your images and provide feedback to our reviewers.
2. We confirm initial decision was accurate and provide you with personalized feedback so you have all the information required for your future submissions.
The problem is this Gaby
1. I don't have the time to constantly email Envato to query rejections. At the rate you guys reject I would spend all my time emailing and little else"
2. Customer expectations may be higher but lets face it Envato are still paying less than the price of a MaccaD Happy Meal for these "higher quality standards"
If you were paying a couple of hundred bucks per sale I'd understand your principle.
You earn me 0.59% of my overall turnover with 16 agencies so it is not worth spending any more of 60 hours a week I put in to this business trying to convince Envato to do anymore than they are doing which is rejecting and rejecting and rejecting ;)
Fair enough, at least you know the option is always there. :) The vast majority of authors that contacted us in the last few months have been pleased with the outcome. They either got their images overturned or they were provided with more personalized feedback that helped them improve their acceptance rate.
Quite understandably, nobody likes getting their images rejected. It would make things so much easier for everyone, even more so for our reviewers, if we approved every submitted file. While many authors would be thrilled at first they probably wouldn't be too pleased with the resultant a year or 2 down the road...
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My acceptance rate is, I guess, around 95%. I guess I provide what they consider their library needs.
Sales could be better, but having in mind that I signed up to PhotoDune (and CanStock) in order to replace BigStock (where I quit uploading because of poor results) and already have 4-6 times more revenue from PD alone, I can't say I'm not pleased.
Maybe PD has a specific demographic they cater to, I guess their reviewers are not mentally handicapped, but provide feedback depending on the needs of the library and pre-selected criteria. PD to me seems like a very modern agency going in the right direction, and I'm pumped to see what new they have in store. Hopefully some spending will also go to marketing, so we see an additional boost of sales. :)
It's nice to also hear from those having a positive experience. I'm pretty confident you'll be pleased with what the future holds. :)
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A bit relieved to hear it isn't just me.. :-\
Me too...
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"As you all know, the industry has changed over the past few years and so has the customer expectations. We feel by being slightly more selective, we are not only making the site more attractive and useful to existing and new customers, but as a bonus are also increasing your chances of sales on files that do get approved. Being more lenient would only have the opposite effect."
So bottom line, if you have multiple rejections you strongly disagree with, I re-invite you to contact us and let us know about it with the list of images you think should have been approved. There's 2 possible outcomes:
1. We overturn our initial decision, approve your images and provide feedback to our reviewers.
2. We confirm initial decision was accurate and provide you with personalized feedback so you have all the information required for your future submissions.
The problem is this Gaby
1. I don't have the time to constantly email Envato to query rejections. At the rate you guys reject I would spend all my time emailing and little else"
2. Customer expectations may be higher but lets face it Envato are still paying less than the price of a MaccaD Happy Meal for these "higher quality standards"
If you were paying a couple of hundred bucks per sale I'd understand your principle.
You earn me 0.59% of my overall turnover with 16 agencies so it is not worth spending any more of 60 hours a week I put in to this business trying to convince Envato to do anymore than they are doing which is rejecting and rejecting and rejecting ;)
Fair enough, at least you know the option is always there. :) The vast majority of authors that contacted us in the last few months have been pleased with the outcome. They either got their images overturned or they were provided with more personalized feedback that helped them improve their acceptance rate.
Quite understandably, nobody likes getting their images rejected. It would make things so much easier for everyone, even more so for our reviewers, if we approved every submitted file. While many authors would be thrilled at first they probably wouldn't be too pleased with the resultant a year or 2 down the road...
It's not the "nobody likes getting their images rejected" don't kid a kidder! ::)
The trouble is that I look at the Photodune offerings and they are not Stocksy or Offset styled images the bulk of them are just the run of the mill stock schlock that you pick up anywhere.
And the other thing is you do a few searches on PD and all the best match images look horribly similar in some cases just clone after clone of the same angle lighting and set up.
It smells of formulaic target fixation
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We mentioned being slightly more selective on abundant subjects, not that we we're competing with Stocksy or Offset. If it was the case, our standards and prices would reflect that.
We acknowledge that our search results need some attention. This is just one of the many things we are currently planning to address. As you can imagine, many of these changes require a lot of analysis and planning (based on real data) to be done properly so the most significant results will be visible in the long run.
The reality is whatever site you look at, not one of them will please 100% of it's authors. Pick any site and some will feel the standards are too high or, yes, even too low. Some wish the prices we're higher or lower, etc. And it's quite normal considering the variety of authors submitting images that goes from hobbyists to large studios. On top of that, some work in specific niches while others are producing more standard content where the competition is extremely high.
Rest assured our authors are valued immensely in all our decisions. Does this mean we'll make 100% of our authors happy? Realistically, probably not. That said, I'm very confident in the opportunities Photodune presents (currently and in the future) to a very large number of authors. But obviously in the end, each author decides which site is worth investing in, based on their own results.
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I usually just lurk, read and enjoy this forum without commenting. This however is an exception due to the frustration with Photodune.
I`ve got over 27,000 accepted images/clips with 12 agencies so must be doing something right. Photodune went from accepting everything to accepting virtually nothing. As it amounts to less than 1% of my revenue it is simply not worth me wasting the time in uploading.
I would be worried if it was Shutterstock, iStock, Alamy, FT, DT, 123 and Pond 5 [95% of my sales] but they are not.
There will be no more uploading from me until I see evidence via this forum that things have changed.
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As you can see from the replies from PD its all to deaf ears
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Not sure why, but I am still getting almost all my submissions accepted at Photodune. My works are nothing special, so I don't understand why so many others are getting a lot of rejections. Just thought I would say something to give balance to the discussion.
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Not sure why, but I am still getting almost all my submissions accepted at Photodune. My works are nothing special, so I don't understand why so many others are getting a lot of rejections. Just thought I would say something to give balance to the discussion.
Post a link to your portfolio, please
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Not sure why, but I am still getting almost all my submissions accepted at Photodune. My works are nothing special, so I don't understand why so many others are getting a lot of rejections. Just thought I would say something to give balance to the discussion.
Post a link to your portfolio, please
I choose to be anonymous on this forum.
You are free to disbelieve me if you want.
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Not sure why, but I am still getting almost all my submissions accepted at Photodune. My works are nothing special, so I don't understand why so many others are getting a lot of rejections. Just thought I would say something to give balance to the discussion.
Post a link to your portfolio, please
I choose to be anonymous on this forum.
You are free to disbelieve me if you want.
No, not about to disbelieve. Just to got the idea what accept and what reject now. But it's your right to be anonymous.
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Not sure why, but I am still getting almost all my submissions accepted at Photodune. My works are nothing special, so I don't understand why so many others are getting a lot of rejections. Just thought I would say something to give balance to the discussion.
I need to become a different photographer to get stuff accepted. I know what they are looking for. Thats what I meant earlier. I need to change my subject to something else. Its like asking a car designer to start designing motor bikes. If they would bring in money like SS I would do it, but they dont. So I stop submitting.
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Not sure why, but I am still getting almost all my submissions accepted at Photodune. My works are nothing special, so I don't understand why so many others are getting a lot of rejections. Just thought I would say something to give balance to the discussion.
I need to become a different photographer to get stuff accepted. I know what they are looking for. Thats what I meant earlier. I need to change my subject to something else. Its like asking a car designer to start designing motor bikes. If they would bring in money like SS I would do it, but they dont. So I stop submitting.
They are a site I only check once a month or so. If I make $50 I'm lucky. If I make $75, I know it's a one-off. You're right. If the ROI was worth it I would jump through another hoop or two, but adding 1000 files with essentially no growth tells me a lot. Those same images get me more sales elsewhere, so perhaps I'm missing the needs of their target market.
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Unfortunately we're not able to accept your submission at this time as we feel the image composition is not quite strong enough.
But still strong enough to sell on other sites. Utterly frustrating !
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The last few hundred pictures that Envato rejected already earned me over $250 at Shutterstock alone, where the composition is obviously strong enough.
Seems like last summer's madness at Shutterstock, which is now (almost) over, at least for me.
But - as an independent artist - I am happy that buyers are finding my pictures at other sites that usually pay more than Photodune. Envato, please continue to reject everything!
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A model release for a food stall at an outdoor market with no people in shot. Images rejected for not being strong enough composition, saleable enough etc. it's a joke and quite insulting. These images are among my top selling on ss. To me they seem very naive in thier judjment.
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Its dissapointing for me as they reject nearly everything I submit yet those that do sneak through sell OK. Before this inspection madness started I had high hopes for this site. If it wasn't so easy to upload they'd be even nearer the bottom of my priority list.
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They are acting as an agency but calling themselves marketplace to avoid tax obligations. The reviews should be abandoned if they were a marketplace. They can cut cost of inspecting images and reduce their cut. But I will keep on dreaming.
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I just uploaded 50 images and got 45 rejected. Nothing there has changed. Not going to email them, fk it. They dont make me much no how.
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Not sure what type of images they are rejecting but my current acceptance rate is slightly over 98% with 3,180 accepted images in my portfolio.
I shoot almost all my images in my studio so that might be part of the reason. I know FT is also harsh on shots outside the studio at least in my experience.
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The vast majority of my shots are not studio type shots they are much tougher on me than fotolia who can be quite picky but tend not to reject whole batches
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I'm not with Envato and I don't know them but I'm reading about tax problem and big rejections and I need to ask you here - what is so exceptional with them that you try so hard to have your work on Envato? What makes it worth the time and work? Do they sell so much or for a lot $? What is the secret to bother with all this problems? If I'm correct they are pretty new in the market? May I please in short word? :)
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Easy to upload, reasonable sales and were rising in chart and up until I guess a year ago reasonable acceptance rate. As I said going down my priorities but better than e.g veer, Zoonar, Yay for me.
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I'm not with Envato and I don't know them but I'm reading about tax problem and big rejections and I need to ask you here - what is so exceptional with them that you try so hard to have your work on Envato? What makes it worth the time and work? Do they sell so much or for a lot $? What is the secret to bother with all this problems? If I'm correct they are pretty new in the market? May I please in short word? :)
Nothing special. Just another low tier agency. That's why people are so amazed at he high reject rate. For me, some of my best selling stuff (non studio) they refuse to take. So I sometimes wonder why they are even in business. Are they in it to make money? Are they in it to attract a buyer-base who might be interested in something other than studio shot images? Apparently not. Very close minded on market breadth. I make that statement based on the high reject rate of non studio work. But I will keep my account open and since they have not grown for me in years I will upload and whatever they take great. But I'm no longer fighting rejections via email. Waste of time.
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Maybe they think the quality of their images is "high end". Not planning to waste time trying to find out
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I'm done. Just emailed them:
I need to have my Envato author account closed. In light of the recent change to invoicing buyers on my behalf and having me act as the direct seller (and having to assume all related responsibilities regarding the added work of tracking sales and expensing author fees), I can no longer work with Envato. I am deeply concerned about this new method of processing sales, particularly as it relates to the amount of work I would need to take on just to adequately track income and expenses. My current commission doesn't support this kind of relationship with Envato, where Envato ceases to act like a true agent but expects to continue to take an agency-size percentage of each sale.
Please advise on how soon my account can be closed and when I can expect to receive my final payment.
Thank you
I don't have the patience anymore to deal with these kinds of companies.
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I'm done. Just emailed them:
I need to have my Envato author account closed. In light of the recent change to invoicing buyers on my behalf and having me act as the direct seller (and having to assume all related responsibilities regarding the added work of tracking sales and expensing author fees), I can no longer work with Envato. I am deeply concerned about this new method of processing sales, particularly as it relates to the amount of work I would need to take on just to adequately track income and expenses. My current commission doesn't support this kind of relationship with Envato, where Envato ceases to act like a true agent but expects to continue to take an agency-size percentage of each sale.
Please advise on how soon my account can be closed and when I can expect to receive my final payment.
Thank you
I don't have the patience anymore to deal with these kinds of companies.
Hats off to you, Mike.
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Easy to upload so why not ? Also, they do make some sales for me. Just had another whole batch bar one rejected. Clowns.
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For me their return per accepted image is similar to BS and CS and uploading is easy so I put them on the end of the upload list. If their rejections annoy me too much I stop uploading for a while, but then usually start again when I get some sales. They are a better earner than most of the other low-tier sites and require almost no additional time so why not?
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Of the smaller newer agencies they make me the most money. Usually between $200-300 per month. Enough that I will miss it if I have to drop them, but if they are gonna break my balls with this new system I might have to quit them anyways.
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Of the smaller newer agencies they make me the most money. Usually between $200-300 per month. Enough that I will miss it if I have to drop them, but if they are gonna break my balls with this new system I might have to quit them anyways.
That's about where I'm at. Wasn't making quite that much per month lately, but close to it. The loss of income will sting a bit, but I don't see any other way. I can't keep working with a company that runs things like this.
Really I was a bit on the fence before this "who is the seller" issue, to be fair. I had stopped uploading already, but I would have been content to just let things stay up there in the current system. I'd even have uploaded more if they had been more willing to work on pricing things better. But this whole mess is just a complete turn in the wrong direction. So like a Shark Tank shark, I'm out.
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Could somebody explain the difference from before (I've never sold at Envato)? As I understand Envato pays the VAT, so what's the difference?
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A unilateral suspension of the introduction of the new EU VAT laws for micro businesses and sole traders
Petition to sign - https://www.change.org/p/pierre-moscovici-a-unilateral-suspension-of-the-introduction-of-the-new-eu-vat-laws-for-micro-businesses-and-sole-traders (https://www.change.org/p/pierre-moscovici-a-unilateral-suspension-of-the-introduction-of-the-new-eu-vat-laws-for-micro-businesses-and-sole-traders)
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My rejections are pretty low at PD (till now anyway) so no complaints about that! However some months ago I found my b&w images getting rejected for some reason. So I sent an email pointing out that the b&w's had been getting steady downloads from my port in past. Hopefully that helped reduce b&w rejections - haven't tracked it.
The tax issue relating to their re-structure is another story and one that keeps concerning me .. esp since I'm based in Europe. Waiting and watching for the moment, since don't really understand if there's reason for concern yet ..
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I find them quite insulting when they reject a strong image, good lighting on the basis of poor composition and poor lighting. They really are amateur clowns and now absolutely nothing about photography. I am convinced they turn down good images because they are compertition to their own work.
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
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I find them quite insulting when they reject a strong image, good lighting on the basis of poor composition and poor lighting. They really are amateur clowns and now absolutely nothing about photography. I am convinced they turn down good images because they are compertition to their own work.
Thats the problem, they have raised the bar and reject perfectly good images. Instead of saying that they have enough already, they say the image is crap. I have had many chats with Gaby (good guy), and its clear photodune's strategy is to have only great images and no over-abundance. Thats a good thing, problem is they tell you your image sucks, and they sell close to nothing. For me it became a numbers game to increase my sales. They dont want that, fair enough, its their agency. Problem is that they really are a market place taking a ridiculous amount of commission. Because of their remarkably poor decisions and poor businessmanship they stooped as low as DP and FT.
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
Hmm, an approval rate of 96% doesnt do any good if you dont get sales...
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
Hmm, an approval rate of 96% doesnt do any good if you dont get sales...
I do get sales 6k+(dl) according to their Top Authors statistics :)
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
Hmm, an approval rate of 96% doesnt do any good if you dont get sales...
I do get sales 6k+ :)
6K+ what? Gross, net, annually, monthly?
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
Hmm, an approval rate of 96% doesnt do any good if you dont get sales...
I do get sales 6k+ :)
6K+ what? Gross, net, annually, monthly?
http://photodune.net/author/top_authors (http://photodune.net/author/top_authors)
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
Hmm, an approval rate of 96% doesnt do any good if you dont get sales...
I do get sales 6k+ :)
6K+ what? Gross, net, annually, monthly?
[url]http://photodune.net/author/top_authors[/url] ([url]http://photodune.net/author/top_authors[/url])
Ok, thats life time sales then.
I have 449 sales, and 1552 items. So about 29% of my port sold. This means I am just as good as several top 10 sellers. 8)
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I am at a loss as to know what they want. They are pretty mcuh rejecting everything now.
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Can't complain! Approval rate at PD is 96% :) easy upload,fast review only sales could be better...
Hmm, an approval rate of 96% doesnt do any good if you dont get sales...
I do get sales 6k+ :)
6K+ what? Gross, net, annually, monthly?
[url]http://photodune.net/author/top_authors[/url] ([url]http://photodune.net/author/top_authors[/url])
Yuri didn't even sell twenty times more than me :)
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This is what all my Photodune emails look like when coming in from reviewers.
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
Unfortunately your submission
So all my SS submissions came in today 100% passed. I know which site knows something about photography and it isn't PD. Clowns.
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During all years in micros i had such situation with different sites: periodically they try to reject exactly what is already accepted by competitors. This is for software, not for a human reviewer. When such period comes, i change a little titles and keywords, then it pass. May be now they compare image thumbs too.
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I'll take a break from uploading to Photodune! All of a sudden hardly anything is being accepted, even proven winners that are still being downloaded at the other top sites! I also know how imagery is being used in layouts because my profession is Graphics Design for 30+ years!
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Weird. I get pretty much everything accepted. Out of portfolio of cca. 500 photos only few were rejected.
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Weird. I get pretty much everything accepted. Out of portfolio of cca. 500 photos only few were rejected.
I guess you have what they are looking for! ;)
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As long as I don't submit craps , I really expect some reason stated for the rejection. It's not too much to ask considering the time I've spent uploading there :(
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I am at a 80% rejection rate with no sales - port online is only 450 or so, so I'll leave it for a bit...
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Just had 2 out of 40 accepted possibly the two most boring/predictable stocky looking pics of the batch and one of them was technically borderline I felt. If it weren't so easy to upload no way would I bother. But when files do slip by the border guards they tend to sell reasonably.
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Envato left a bad taste in my mouth when I started contributing there. Their upload process had too many hoops to jump through, and very few sales... so I stopped and never really looked back. Not everyone has time for a complicated upload process.
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Its only complicated if you need releases - I gave up on that >:(
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Through FTP one of the quickest submission flows
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Still the rejections keep on coming. Also SS has gone the same way of late. These reviewers are out of control.
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Funny this thread was bumped. I was looking for it as well. I have submitted 16 studio shots. Models on white. 100% accepted.
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Just had a few accepted!!! The more stocky and cliched (and dull/boring) the more likely to be accepted nothing to do with technical quality methinks