Quote from: cobalt on March 11, 2024, 16:35
I just had a bunch of files accepted with a lot of spring/easter content..and...had sales immediately!

I was so scared it would be approved after spring.

The longer inspections take, the more difficult it is to time it.

my queue is empty except for 9 images that have been stuck for months (reported in a separate thread).  it seems review times are finally back to reasonable 1-3 day levels (at least for photo/video, no idea about ai stuff).

Quote from: blvdone on March 11, 2024, 17:27

Quote from: yuriy on March 11, 2024, 16:26

Quote from: blvdone on March 11, 2024, 12:23
Slow start this week.  I'm just not good at this.  I should quit.
10,000 photos now.  0 video.  I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.

agreed, you're not very good at this.  i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.

Yeah, definitely I'm not an expert like you are.  I really suck despite doing stock videos since 2011.  I would love to learn from you!!!

you can sign up for my course, "i earned $10k a week doing stock for an hr in my spare time."  i'll PM you the link and a 10% off promo code, i'm sure it'll help.

Quote from: Pacesetter on March 11, 2024, 17:00

Quote from: cobalt on March 11, 2024, 16:47

Quote from: Pacesetter on March 11, 2024, 16:43

Quote from: yuriy on March 11, 2024, 16:26

Quote from: blvdone on March 11, 2024, 12:23
Slow start this week.  I'm just not good at this.  I should quit.
10,000 photos now.  0 video.  I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.

agreed, you're not very good at this.  i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.

I think he makes up for it with exclusive Pond5 sales. How's your Pond5 sales blvdone? You must be earning at least 1,000 to 2,000 each month with your ports?

I sincerely hope that it is much, much more for him.

His port is huge and he sets high quality prices.

It should be a full time production income at least.

I might be inspired to go Pond5 exclusive if blvdone could show his results given how he feels his performance is poor on Adobe, it would be an inspiration to get a glimpse on his Pond5 success strategy.

all i've heard about p5 recently is sales have nosedived since the takeover.  i currently have $0 lifetime sales and have stopped uploading months ago.  i'd be surprised if it was different for exclusives though i'm sure a much larger port will still earn a few crumbs.

Quote from: blvdone on March 11, 2024, 12:23
Slow start this week.  I'm just not good at this.  I should quit.
10,000 photos now.  0 video.  I deleted 7,000 videos one by one for hours last May when RPD kept going down to ridiculous cheap price.

agreed, you're not very good at this.  i've never seen anyone recommend deleting content to increase sales so i'm not surprised it's not working for you.

Is it normal to have never received anything from the "contributor fund?"  I didn't even opt out of the data crap they're doing now and have a bunch of images in there.  Most of my portfolio is on the younger side but I have some images in my port that are about 2 years old.

and just to confirm for the folks with the ability to provide answers.  these were not images that you uploaded 3 months ago but only submitted yesterday right?  they've been hanging on the vine for some time waiting to be picked?

correct @Her Ugliness, these were submitted months ago but got lost under the couch cushions.  i currently have 6 images in this state plus 1 that says "2 months ago."

is it one decade ago?

Quote from: Brasilnut on March 01, 2024, 16:33
"Not great, not terrible..."

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2024/02/29/february-2024-brutally-honest-earnings-report/

thanks for sharing, this is useful. appreciate seeing the best sellers and the shots you have in the archangel slideshow are terrific.

i asked around the forum to see if anyone had luck with any of the "lesser" agencies and this one seemed to come up a few times.  over the last month i've added close to half of my portfolio.  i've gotten 3 sales for RPD of $.90.  early impressions is it seems promising though unlikely to be a huge money maker.  my opinion is if you contribute to shutterstock to get $.10 you might as well contribute to dreamstime.  at the rate SS is decelerating i'd be shocked if i earned more there than on DT come end of year despite smaller portfolio and shorter time spent on the platform.

looks like i qualified which is great but seems no adobe products exist for linux    i was kind of excited to try lightroom but not sure i'll enjoy the experience if i have to use in on some ancient laptop i dust off.  is there a web version of anything out there?

Quote from: Noedelhap on February 13, 2024, 22:40
I find it hard to believe a major agency would so blatantly and obviously pocket royalties belong to the contributor. Because the legal consequences would be huge if this was found to be true. Would they risk it for a few cents per sale?
I wouldn't be surprised if either one of the following scenarios is true:
1) The claim is a lie
2) The 'control purchase' was not conducted properly or one of the buyers made a mistake
3) The sale was delayed due to a system error or some flagging and will show up sooner or later

You must have been very surprised to learn Enron was cooking the books.  Giant companies cheat and lie all the time.  They are seldom caught because there is negligible oversight.  We have no access to sales data apart from what SS or other agencies tell us and they have a very good incentive to lie.  The best we can do is conduct these risky unscientific experiments to try to get a little more data.  I'm not saying OP's post proves anything but its one more data point than we had before and you're welcome to believe it or not.  I'm tempted to try it myself but I earn so little from SS that it would cost nearly all my earnings to buy a single pack.

Quote from: cobalt on February 12, 2024, 21:23
istock

Instead of mass uploads, try 25 absolute best files that will be superb bestsellers. Make it your absolute standout best looking portfolio.

i've seen a bunch of comments recently that it's quality over quantity which is certainly at least partially true.  however i've found many of my "bestsellers" are not what i thought would sell and some files i almost threw in the trash have received a few downloads as well.  you may be different but i'm definitely not the buyer of my own work and can only sort of guess at what they want.  i've had cell phone snapshots sell pretty well and (in my opinion) much better photos that i spent more time on just sit there collecting dust. 

if i was giving advice to a new person i'd say try everything and see what sticks.

you two should start your own topic to yell at each other since you're both ignoring the "ignore" button

I see, my portfolio is rather young so I think I'm experiencing the same as many other contributors.  How would you rank the agencies just for the last year?

Quote from: Wilm on January 26, 2024, 11:49
Images only - no videos - all time income - SS set to 100

SS = 100 (1349 images, RPD 0.68)
AS = 92.7 (1554 images, RPD 1.19)
iS = 38.2 (956 images, RPD 0.71)
123 = 16 (1540 images, RPD 0.86)
DT = 8 (1393 images, RPD 1.25)
DP = 6 (1185 images, RPD 0.44)

closed accounts
CS = 4
BS = 2

Its interesting that there are a handful people in the forum reporting SS as their #1.  I'm sure it has something to do with what subjects they photograph and I'm guessing it's due to small numbers of large sales.  For what its worth here's my estimate of my own agencies (multiply everything by 3.3333 if you'd like SS as 100  ):

AS: 100
Istock: 60
SS: 30
Alamy: 0
P5: 0

Did just sign up to DT so I'll report back if I feel like it was worth it.  Will prob slowly shove like 30% of my better images in there and see how it does.  Is Canva invite only or closed to new contributors?  Not sure that one's worth it but I can try a small batch and see.

Quote from: cobalt on January 25, 2024, 17:29
You can people on mute, then you don't see their comments.

oh sweet, thanks cobalt!  just noticed the "ignore" button.  solved my problem 

Quote from: stoker2014 on January 25, 2024, 11:40

Quote from: Abdo on January 24, 2024, 23:12
my gut told me to report to them what happend to check if that's okay and normal, then they will thank you for the good work and for increasing their profits!

I never write to Adobe, there are a lot of inadequate people there who, instead of solving the problem, start looking for some problems or violations in your account, portfolio. And there are a lot of Russians working in Adobe.
Have you been unblocked?

i wish there was a way to automatically block forum contributions from posters with inadequate critical thinking abilities but alas...

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 09, 2024, 18:06

Quote from: yuriy on January 07, 2024, 04:19
judging by the poll the main agencies are adobe, shutter and istock.  if those were the 3 you were contributing to would you consider adding any more?  personally i contributed some to pond5 and alamy and have exactly $0 to show for it so i gave up on those two.  wondering if any of the smaller ones are gaining any traction to maybe try to diversify and see what happens.

Looking for gold on a sandy beach? Maybe you are thinking there's some undiscovered oasis in the desert of Microstock? Depending on if you make video, and there are good answers from others, for photo only, you've got it. Adobe, SS, and IS.

The only other that might be of interest, in my experience and opinion, is DT. They are reasonable about what they accept, the reviews are reliable and fast. You're going to need thousands of images to make any consistent level of downloads. Like others, most of mine are 35¢ subs. Minimum payout is $100 which seems to make it a long time.

That's the only agency I'd suggest to someone looking for more income. I wouldn't add P5, Alamy, DP, or 123RF. Maybe years ago, but now, they are Microscopic Stock.  If you do video, see what others have written.

Quote from: pancaketom on January 09, 2024, 16:52
I would leave 123RF off any list of best agencies unless you are asking about 5 or more years ago.

Alamy still sells ok for me, although down last year, and what they have been doing isn't very encouraging.

DT remains steady, and they haven't screwed contributors in a long time, but they are also pretty small compared to AS, SS, and IS. Almost all sales there are .35 subs.

Did you mean DP?  Seems they have the history of shady deals and nasty tricks. Yes, Alamy has gone from interesting money, into to more sales, less money.

I guess what I'm looking for is one more website to constantly reload the contributor summary page on.  Seems to me it's pretty clearly AS in first place, istock in a distant 2nd and SS is trying to win the race for last place (for photo and a little video).  If I'm going to waste time submitting to SS maybe I can waste a little more at dreamstime or depositphoto or something?  Seems dreamstime is the consensus 4th least worst?  Correct me if I'm wrong.

istock sales for december are up and i'm pleased to report my biggest ever image sale ($52.50) helping make it by far my biggest agency for the month.  adobe 2nd and a decent though underwhelming month at SS.

i was kind of ignoring the super selective ones (stocksy, storyblocks) as they don't let many folks (prob like me) in

judging by the poll the main agencies are adobe, shutter and istock.  if those were the 3 you were contributing to would you consider adding any more?  personally i contributed some to pond5 and alamy and have exactly $0 to show for it so i gave up on those two.  wondering if any of the smaller ones are gaining any traction to maybe try to diversify and see what happens.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on January 04, 2024, 18:50

Quote from: cascoly on January 03, 2024, 19:38
What is active? 20 is hardly a big number?

The problem is it may be a calendar year between when you submit the assets and when they are reviewed.  We would need a clarification on timing.

the title in youtube says october, fyi and thanks for posting.

Quote from: stoker2014 on December 31, 2023, 11:23

Quote from: yuriy on December 30, 2023, 21:43

Quote from: stoker2014 on December 29, 2023, 13:26
The idiocy of the Russians is that they officially celebrate the New Year on January 1st, and celebrate Christmas on January 7th. In a fascist and Na.zi country in which the Orthodox caliphate is developing, such perversions are considered the norm.

just so we're all clear... celebrating holidays across two different calendars is what you found to take issue with?  quite a shameful perversion indeed.  you've got some strange takes, man, stay off the bottle.

You are probably Russian, because you didn't even understand what I wrote. 
Again. All normal people celebrate Christmas first, and then celebrate the New Year. But the Russian orcs, of course, cannot understand this. For Russians, the New Year begins at the beginning, and then the birth of Chri.st later. Which is idiocy, perversion and indicates a very strong mental retardation of the Russians and their slave mentality and subordination to their kings and war criminals like putin and the head of their criminal church, Gundyaev (KGB agent).
Russians are genetic slaves and alcoholics.

this nonsense is exactly what i deserve trying to argue with an idiot.  my mistake.  happy holidays!