This appears on the Captcha page you get on 123RF every time you try to look at it... I guess it doesn't parse very well , so log in to see in an easier format. (or try to figure out the cut and paste below my comments).

It looks like if you don't get 5,000 RC you will see a cut. If you get 20,000 and up you will see more.

I haven't tried to add up my RC totals according to the chart. I hope they put RC totals on the earnings page (or somewhere else).

Without looking at the fine print I am guessing that this will be a cut for most. (otherwise why do it?).

Under .22 for a sub sale is way too low.




123RF Commission Change

123RF.com will be changing its Contributor Commission Payout on January 1, 2013. From now till then, 123RF.com shall continue paying our Contributors at a rate of:

    50% net value for credits
    $0.36 per download for subscriptions

From January 1, 2013 onwards � 123RF.com shall adopt the new Contributor Commission Payout schedule depicted in the table below:
12 Month Credit Total
Contributor Level
Net Commission
( Credits )
Earnings Per Download
( Subscription )
0 - 249
1
30%
$0.216
250 � 999
2
35%
$0.252
1,000 � 1,999
3
40%
$0.288
2,000 � 4,999
4
45%
$0.324
5,000 � 19,999
5
50%
$0.360
20,000 � 49,999
6
52%
$0.374
50,000 � 99,999
7
54%
$0.389
100,000 � 499,999
8
56%
$0.403
500,000 � 999,999
9
58%
$0.418
1,000,000 and above
10
60%
$0.432

123RF.com shall round the monthly cumulative earnings to the nearest $0.01.

The mechanics of deriving a Contributor�s Commission are as follows:

    At the end of every month, a Contributor�s total credits from all downloads in the previous 12 months shall be summed according to this table:

    Image Size
    Credits
    Subscription
    1
    S
    1
    M
    2
    L
    3
    XL
    4
    XXL
    5
    XXL TIFF
    10
    EPS
    10
    Image Size
    Credits
    100MB TIFF
    20
    200 MB TIFF
    40
    300 MB TIFF
    60
    Print EL
    50
    Electronic EL
    75
    Comprehensive EL
    100
    Multiseat
    25
    The summed credit amount shall determine the Contributor�s Level.
    The Contributor�s level will determine the commissions for each download in the preceding month.

The aim of the new Commission Structure:

    Rewards Contributors who consistently send in quality Content that are in high demand to 123RF.com.
    Takes into account the Contributor�s performance and consistency as well as acknowledge loyalty.
    Takes into account the growth of contributors vs. the growth of sales and the dynamic relationship between the two growth factors.
    Gives a stable, measureable, predictable and most important of all, specific milestones for achieving targets.
    Fosters healthy competition for new and old contributors alike.
    Encourages consistent and sustained uploading of fresh content to 123RF.com.
    Takes into account every seasonal sales variation or fluctuation and changes.

Some Questions & Answers

    What if I don�t have 12 months worth of downloads?
    We shall sum up the previous 12 months, whether or not you have complete 12 months.
    What about refunds, fraudulent downloads and cancellations?
    We understand that refunds, cancellations and fraudulent downloads can be reversed at any time. We shall take all efforts to take these into account, however, once we have tabulated a contributor�s level for the month, it would stay stagnant for the preceding month.
    Would 123RF be amending these figures every year?
    No, we expect this commission structure to be in effect for at least 3 years as we feel stability and predictability are values that our Contributors would appreciate, and 123RF.com has grown to a level that we have a very mature and established Contributor community.
    Is there a possibility that my Contributor Level might drop?
    Yes, your Contributor Level may drop as we take into account your previous performance spanning 12 months.

If you have any further questions, kindly feel free to email [email protected] with your inquiries directly.

As I understood it your portfolio would not be available for sensitive use sales, but otherwise nothing would change if you opted out. I'd like to see a per image opt in or out or at least by model (or model release). I have opted out, but I'd opt in my self portraits if that was an option.

 - and don't be so sure that anyones "real" engineers, etc. couldn't be used for political endorsements or medical ads or online dating endorsements etc.

I just got a .24 sub sale - which I agree is too low. In general I wouldn't say that the $/DL at DT is too low though.

I always thought that the DT algorithm showed too many images from the same author in a row - probably why they have become so anti similars - even when they aren't similar.

The new site looks good, unfortunately my stats graph looks a bit like a bell curve rather than the uphill ramp or hockey stick I'd like to see.

If you are going to keep any images up, I suggest you make them photo + before you start deactivating.

For the reason I suggest something like "the new PP program", or possibly "because IS now takes up to 85% of a sale so buy my images elsewhere for less and I'll still get paid more" I also typed "lobo" as the reason for some.

It is quite painful though. I opened them all in new tabs and then deactivated one tab at a time pasting in the reason.

Things can take a while to get indexed and percolate through the servers etc. First things will show up in your port and searched under "new" then after they are visible to a general search you can see them in the catalog manager too.

Hopefully they have fixed the bug where new files would show up briefly and then disappear for a few days.

Quote from: michealo on January 12, 2012, 05:55

As for what customers expect that is largely irrelevant they don't own companies, shareholders do. It's naive to imagine that companies exist for the benefit of their customers or employees, smart companies realise that they have to keep those stakeholders happy to prosper but that is a side issue.

I don't know if this is directed at me or someone else, but I would suggest it is "naive" of Istock to imagine it can keep making profits for their shareholders when they are hemorrhaging buyers.  It's not a side issue, it's the central issue.  You seem to have it bassackwards.   

Companies like Istock don't produce anything.  They are middle-men who exist to provide a service - enabling buyers to find a product, and transferring money received from buyers to the producers of that product.  For which they take an obscene cut, BTW.  Istock is failing miserably on both fronts.

They still seem to be doing ok on the "taking an obscene cut" front though.

I think what happened is they got lots more images faster than they got new buyers.

There are a few things about GL I really like -
1. FTP is quick and easy and there aren't lots of categories etc. etc. to mess with
2. you can set a higher image price - I haven't done this, but it is a nice option
3. the people working there actually listen to us and communication is clear and goes both ways
4. the commission % is nice
5. A number of the images accepted into the GL collection are images that I particularly liked but other sites rejected - they aren't all the same old same old.

Sales there lately haven't been as good as they were in mid 2011 when I had a few EL sales (I joined in early 2011), but they do continue. I fear that customers haven't kept up with the massive influx of new images but hopefully with all of the new content the customers will follow.

^^^^^ Maybe it is a fiendish new crowdsourcing review model?

speaking of model - that guy looks familiar.

It was the math that drove me insane. Little hypothetical gems like this:

Let's say you bring in 100K in sales and make 18% of that, it's 18K a year ($1500 a month). Although you are a fairly successful contributor, your 18K (pre-tax/pre-expenses) income isn't going to get you very far in the US. How did 100K turn into 18K? That's when it hits you that IS is taking 82K of your 100K booty...

82K? Seriously? What are they doing with all that? Advertising?

If that's the case, then shouldn't there be a billboard somewhere with you sitting atop a throned pyramid in golden sun god robes with some sort of tagline extolling your photography or illustrative godliness? (I want chiseled abs on my billboard. Maybe a panther or a dragon. There has to be some scantily clad women as well. Definitely some lightning bolts too as I call the thunder for my throng of adoring worshipers below.)

By this time, my brain has gone from simmering to boiling and I'm wondering why anybody is there as an independent. Doesn't Yuri have a calculator? Doesn't he want an awesome billboard too? He could buy a lot of billboards.  

I agree completely. I had a nice sale on Alamy and when I calculated my share it was noticeably smaller - then I started thinking about all the other sites which took a higher % - Imagine if IS posted the actual sale price. I'd look at it and think - sweet, a 20$ sale - oh, never mind I only get 3.20 $   (or 3$ if you were at 15%)

I stopped uploading when they made the RC announcement. I deactivated just under 95% of my port at the end of Sept 2011. I left a mix of random "crapstock" and images that either seemed to be selling ok at IS and nowhere else or didn't get accepted other places. I made them all P+ too before I deactivated the rest.

As expected, sales dropped a lot. However the next 2 months were BMEs at SS (lots of sales plus OD and EL sales) and both beat any previous month overall. I won't pretend that I had any buyers leave IS to get my stuff elsewhere, but I will say that it is nice to be able to somewhat ignore most of the drama at IS these days. I would love for them to get their act together and treat buyers and contributors in a reasonable fashion, but to be perfectly honest I have no reason to believe that will happen unless IS gets sold to someone else (and even then it would be unlikely). December was down somewhat, but that is usually the case for me and it was pretty much offset by good Alamy sales.

The lower IS sales get the easier it will be for indies to just give up on them completely.

I continued to not upload anything and deactivated almost 95% of my portfolio there right before the forced PP migration (that has only barely started, but that is another story).

I guess that is option "L" in the poll.

Is this the same portfolio that is at other micro sites? - in which case I can see why they would do that. If it is a different portfolio but they are doing this merely because you sell other stuff as micro that is another story - and guaranteed to keep you selling micro and thus competing with higher priced offerings no matter how good the images are.