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Messages - mwp1969

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176
Adobe Stock / Fotolia Email News and Market Data
« on: December 17, 2009, 10:41 »
Dear Fotolia Contributor,

2009 has been an amazing year for all of us - through aggressive marketing and promotion efforts, we were able to more than double photographer payouts! We're planning on repeating that trend in 2010 - and effective January 1, 2010, we're implementing some changes to help us towards that goal.

File Prices:

While XS downloads will remain at 1 credit, other downloads will increase between 1 and 2 credits per file. In addition, we'll be simplifying the file structure and combining the XXL and XXXL categories. For more information on file pricing, click here.


Commission Structure:

To accomplish our marketing and promotional goals, we've adjusted our artist commission structures. While some levels have increased and others have decreased in terms of percentages, a majority of contributing artists will continue to see increases in the total dollar amounts earned as we are raising prices. In comparison, Fotolia continues to pay artists one of the highest royalty rates in the industry, and we've been cited by many top photographers as one of the fastest growing and most important stock photography sites on the internet! For more information, click here.


Marketing and Promotions:

Fotolia has been aggressively marketing and promoting your images, vectors and videos, both online at various designer sites, and offline in the world's most influential design magazines and tradeshows. Typically, we offer customers a combination of free credits and discount on credits. Rest assured that these discounted and free credits earn you the exact same royalty as regularly priced credits - Fotolia bears the entire cost of the promotion. In 2010, we expect to be even more aggressive in our marketing activities for the entire community's benefit.

Also on their side bar graphics in the email:

"Performance since 2008
+48% New Buyers
+53% Credit Purchases
+54% Contributor Earnings
+57% Contributor Payouts
+203% API Calls
+15 Trade Shows"

END QUOTE



-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

177
123RF / Re: Anyone else having increased sales at 123rf ?
« on: December 16, 2009, 20:53 »
They come and go all the time.  How many is "really"? Its relative to every agency.   For me 1 sale/day :o would be much there. Im about to give up there actually, but its so  easy to upload...


"Really" meant in comparison to itself.  I noticed the following trend of increasing sales on my small portfolio ...

September = decrease from sales in August by about 30%
October      = 1.5x Sept
November   = 3.0x Sept
December   = 6.5x Sept ( 1.6x my prior BME and attained in the first 16 days of the month so far ... )

Since my portfolio is under just under 1000 images I mention it since we have other threads wondering where certain buyer traffic might be heading when certain sites are acquired and / are eliminated or otherwise in question ...

All in all I am pleasantly surprised at the recent increasing sales trend for my portfolio at 123rf.


-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

 

178
123RF / Anyone else having increased sales at 123rf ?
« on: December 16, 2009, 13:39 »
This month my sales at 123rf are really starting to take off. About 60 / 40% Credit to Subs Sales on a portfolio of 943 images.

Has anyone else seen a pick-up in 123rf sales lately?



-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

179
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock Raise & Milestones
« on: December 15, 2009, 10:39 »
this thread keeps coming to the top and I keep thinking we are all getting a raise.!!  ???


Did SS say or was there ever a concrete reason to believe there would be a raise for everyone in 2009 ?

-Mark


There has been a raise every year in the spring, ... maybe since they started, I'm not sure.  Last year was the first year without a raise.



I thought that might have been your assumption, however, this last year included a period of freefall for corporate economies around the world. It was also a time where budget cuts were levied on corporations through layoffs, overhead cost cuts, marketing budget reductions etc ...  

It does not surprise me that SS did not offer what might have previously mistakenly been thought of as being an annual cost-of-living raise (COLA) raise. That being said ... there were many companies across industries that felt it was important to maintain loyalties by continuing to pay dividends and bonuses to its shareholders etc. during these trying times.



-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

 




180
Dreamstime.com / Re: New Pricing from Dreamstime
« on: December 15, 2009, 10:29 »
This looks good.  If Dreamstime finds that everyone switches over to subscription they will be loosing money as well and can put up subscription prices / commissions if they have to.  Dreamstime also has a very fair system of increasing the level of an image even with subscription sales.

If you have an image with 10 sales and the buyer buys a medium resolution license - under the old system it would get you a 5 credit sale.  Under the new system you will be getting a 10 credit sale.  That is a great increase for us!

I still think that Dreamstime's image level system is one of the best.  Great images that sell over and over are boosted into the higher earning bracket and continue to sell at the high price, while other images, perhaps less desirable stay cheaper.  If the cheap images are better they will be very attractive to buyers and will be quickly boosted up to a higher image level.  Since the rank increases are done on a per image basis - not entire portfolio basis, so someone who is new to the site can benefit just as much as someone who has been online for 5 years.

Nicely said Leaf. I also really like the individual image level system and will look forward to higher commissions that will come from the higher pricing across the board.

On another note I already hit BME at DT by the 12th day of this month so I'm having a nice December at DT and overall  ;D

-Mark




181
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock Raise & Milestones
« on: December 15, 2009, 02:26 »
this thread keeps coming to the top and I keep thinking we are all getting a raise.!!  ???

Did SS say or was there ever a concrete reason to believe there would be a raise for everyone in 2009 ?

-Mark

182
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock Raise & Milestones
« on: December 14, 2009, 16:18 »
I am also wondering what percentage of SS members actually make it to that first raise ?

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

 

183
"If you had non-duplicated files opted into subscriptions on StockXpert, please feel free to upload them to your existing portfolio on iStockphoto to continue their subscription sales."


In my case I have more images online at StockXpert than at IS. It sounds like those images that are unique to StockXpert that are not cuurently approved at IS must be uploaded to IS in order to be considered for sale ... Will they continue to sell on StockXpert if I don't do this?

On another note: Will this new Getty subscription site become a true competitor to Shutterstock's subscription business model ? I can only imagine this is would just be damaging and have a direct impatct to the contributor commission structure across multiple agencies in the long run ...

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com
 

184
4700+ images and no sales in 6 months...strange because I used to get at least 2 a month.  I don't know what the heck happened to the buyers there.


I did have a drop off in sales there for many months. This was across the time they were rolling out their new version and such ... but I recently had a sale to break the dry streak. Again ... at midstock pricing levels I can wait ...

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

185
StockXpert.com / Getty Subscription Site to replace JIUnlimited
« on: December 14, 2009, 12:34 »
Received the following today from StockXpert regarding the future of JIUnlimited and Getty's announced subscription site ...


Start Quote:

Hello mwp1969,

We have news for all StockXpert contributors regarding the future of JIUnlimited.

A new Getty Images subscription site will launch early 2010 and will take the place of the current JIUnlimited.

We have updated the StockXpert end user license agreement summary table to include the new Getty Images subscription site. You can see the new table here http://www.stockxpert.com/lpages/contrib ...

The royalty for subscription sales at the new site will be $0.25 per download and a 20% royalty on all single image sales.

We will be migrating certain StockXpert content over to this new site. Depending on your preference settings and if you contribute to iStockphoto, you will fall into one of three groups:

Group one Opted-in to Subscriptions and EL's on StockXpert
If, as of November 5, 2009, you have opted-in for both Subscriptions and Extended Licenses, and you do not have content on iStockphoto, your StockXpert content on JIUnlimited will be migrated automatically to the new site. You will receive an email in early January with the file numbers of each image migrated.

Group two Opted-out of Subscriptions and/or EL's on StockXpert
If, as of November 5, 2009, you were not opted-in for Subscriptions and/or Extended Licenses, and you have no content on iStockphoto, your StockXpert content will not be added to this new site. If you would like to have your content available, enable both Subscriptions and Extended Licenses in your profile. We will be doing another migration of StockXpert content in Spring 2010 and will add your content then.

Group three Joint StockXpert and iStock Contributor
If you are currently an iStockphoto contributor and have files already opted-in to the iStock Partner Program, iStock files will appear on the new Getty Images subscription site when it launches in early 2010. If you had non-duplicated files opted into subscriptions on StockXpert, please feel free to upload them to your existing portfolio on iStockphoto to continue their subscription sales.

All Groups
In order to determine duplication between StockXpert and iStockphoto, we compared email addresses. If you used different email address for your accounts, we may have missed you in our matching. If you used different email addresses for each account, please follow this link and login at iStock so we can match up your accounts http://www.istockphoto.com/stockxpert?SX ...

We encourage everyone who hasn't done so to become a contributor at iStockphoto. As an iStock contributor you can continue to sell at Photos.com, as well as the new Getty Images subscription site when it launches, through their Partner Program. Join iStockphoto here http://www.istockphoto.com/stockxpert?SX ...

If you aren't interested in having your non-duplicated StockXpert images at this new site, you can always go to your profile http://www.stockxpert.com/user/edit_prof .. (point #7) and opt out. Please opt out before December 31, 2009 if you don't want us to move any of your images to the new site.

We'd like to thank you again for your continued patience and support. We will stay in touch with more news as we're able.

End Quote


-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com




186
Reason no. 22:     I met Stacey (Suwanneeredhead) the love of my life on MP ... We were two of the very first Americans submitting to their site ;) We were married in 2008 and just passed our 1 year wedding anniversary so I always may be more than just a little on the positive biased side towards MostPhotos.

Reason no. 23:  I've had 5 sales there at 12.5 Euros a pop and 12 Referral Sales which pay 1.0 Euro each.

I now have over 1000 images on line with them and will continue to submit as they continue to grow their business.

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com


187
Yaymicro / Who has had sales at YayMicro ?
« on: December 13, 2009, 14:28 »
I am curious ... who has had any sales at YaMicro?

I have 292 images online there currently and I am in the process of uploading  another 800 or so to them. I am still waiting on my first sale there ...

-Mark
http://markwpayne.wordpress.com

188
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock Raise & Milestones
« on: December 10, 2009, 12:11 »
Got that first OD Sales after my SS pay raise.  $2.48 is a very nice increase  :D

I hope the ODs don't go away again ...

-Mark

189
Adobe Stock / Re: FT rank
« on: December 02, 2009, 20:29 »
Looks like your numbers are moving in the right direction, Mark :)

Unlike mine.  My overall rank is higher than my 7 days rank, and has been for some time. 

I wonder how long I can continue to undersell each week before my overall rank changes...?  Not that I am complaining.  Even though I am losing ground proportionally I still had a BME on Fotolia in November :D

Thanks Lisa. I've been uploading furiously there lately as sales have started picking up there for me recently when compared to previous months ...

-Mark


190
Adobe Stock / Re: FT rank
« on: December 02, 2009, 15:25 »
Nov. 9th Update:

Overall      15550
7 Day          9180
Online Files:  119
Sales:             71


*Dec. 2nd Update

Overall     15450
7 Day         7300
Online Files: 189
Sales:           79

-Mark


191
General Stock Discussion / Re: November 2009 Earnings
« on: December 01, 2009, 11:33 »
A BME for me overall  ;D

In order of earnings:

SS = BME
DT = BME
IS  = BME
FT = 2nd Best month
123rf = Not BME but came in ahead of BigStock which is a step up for them ...
BigStock = Sales 1/2 of Sept. & Oct. (no SS effect yet ... )

Special Notes:
My BME at SS was prior to landing an EL ...
Sale at MP at its midstock pricing levels which is more than ELs on several sites.

-Mark

192
Hit my 500th SS approval today. I feel I am starting to find my stride with this last 100 + approvals happening in around four weeks ...

Back to uploading.

-Mark

193
Site Related / Re: What are those symbols under our username?
« on: November 29, 2009, 00:19 »
Leaf,

I have a couple of questions and comparisons to offer regarding your methodology for attaining these guage levels. Would the following examples be considered equal using the current methodology?

Person #1 DT Portfolio:                       Person #2 DT Portfolio
351 images +  549 sales = 900            850 images + 50 sales = 900

Person #1  IS Portfolio:                        Person #2 IS Portfolio
332 images + 1176 sales = 1508          1100 images + 408 sales = 1508

What is the scale and is it relative to the growing number of images in everyone's portfolios? To put another way ... is it grading by the curve?

Shouldn't there be some weighting more to sales in relation to portfolio size? A person that sells 3x as much with the same portfolio size would seem to have figured something out right ... am I correct?

Also is it possible to put something out that can be pulled from SS? Perhaps portfolio size if not sales? Since SS seems to be a numbers game for the subscription model I would find this to relevant data.

Lastly since my own gauges are pegged to the bottom please disregard my questions and comparisons as this entire discussion will self-destruct in 5 seconds ... because I am not worthy to have this discussion ... :o

-Mark




194

+35   (Approved at iStock at the end of April and a couple of months of not uploading there.  Backlog of 400+ to submit restricted by upload limits)  Uploading 15 a week once again ...

New Total: 37548

195
iStockPhoto.com / Re: How much do you like Istockphoto?
« on: November 28, 2009, 23:38 »
The 15 image upload limit is very restrictive. This hurts me as I currently appx. 400+ image backlog waiting to be uploaded into their queue. 

On the upside my sales on my small portfolio of images have been growing. Each of the my last three months has been higher than the preceding month.

In comparision:

My SS Portfolio: 485
My IS Portfolio:    35 (Application approved at the end of April)

I will keep uploading there as fast as the upload restrictions will allow ...

-Mark

 




196
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock Raise & Milestones
« on: November 27, 2009, 19:43 »
No, there is no raise for ELs.
Full Shutterstock royalty schedule: http://submit.shutterstock.com/earnings_schedule.mhtml


Thanks for the link. Now its time to get game on for that next level $3000 threshold for the next raise at SS.

-Mark

197
Shutterstock.com / Re: ODs are back at Shutterstock
« on: November 27, 2009, 14:06 »
I just got an OD at my new commission rate of $2.48 so I am very happy that they appear to be here to stay at least for now ...

-Mark

198
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock Raise & Milestones
« on: November 27, 2009, 14:04 »
I see that even though it wasn't mentioned in my SS email that the raise applies to the OD sales as well. I received confirmation of continued OD sales with a sale at the new commission rate of 2.48.

 Very nice   ;D

I wonder if the Raise applies to ELs  :o ?

-Mark

199
:-[

I have had about 5 uploads of a total of about 60 images that have been sitting there and not been reviewed since 1 Nov.  Then all of a sudden they review ALL of them.  Only one gets accepted and all the rest get rejected!!  Each with the same rejection that they are not looking for that kind of image???

Same photos accepted and selling at other sites??

I have never had a problem like this with this site.  Its weird.  I wonder what is going on.

Stacey (suwanneeredhead) and I just had the same thing happen to both of us with very large batches uploaded over different days and after long waits for the photos to be approved (graphics were cherry picked approved early on) there were mass rejections often with one approval out of an entire batch of 15 or 20. We're talking around 100 photos with blanket rejections between the two of us and the reviews happened at the same time ...

I too am wondering what is happening between them and IS ...

-Mark


200
Shutterstock.com / Re: ODs are back at Shutterstock
« on: November 26, 2009, 22:50 »
Perhaps everyone raising their voices here on MSG made an impact ?

-Mark

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