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Messages - rene
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226
« on: March 02, 2010, 22:08 »
Serban proudly announced:"We are 2 million"
Just curious how many of accounts have been opened by freebies' and 2cts keywords spamming hunters. Maybe only reason of this flagging system is to have as many as possible registered user?
227
« on: February 26, 2010, 20:40 »
Over 90% of images at DT are level 1 (official DT numbers) - so we can say that non exclusive commission is 30% for images directly sold by DT. Per definition, higher level images sell much more, or they wouldn't be higher level. The bulk of my income on DT comes from higher level images. The level one sales I consider as a stepping stone to higher levels, so I don't care if they are 30 or 40%. Every sale is a sale, a step on the ladder to the real earnings level 3 and up. Anybody can reach that, even a beginner, because the perks are image-related and not-contributor related. And even if it is only 30%, why do you take 20% from IS (with no perks at all for independents) or from FT?
You have perfectly assimilated dual DT language. When a buyer says: "you images are too expensive" - Seban responds : not true, huge majority (90%) of them are level 1. When a contributor says : you pay only 30% for huge majority of my images - Seban responds : not true, focus on higher level images and forget 90% of others. So FD-amateur, if I delete 90% of my portfolio (level 1) what would you respond to the unhappy buyer?
228
« on: February 25, 2010, 20:46 »
Over 90% of images at DT are level 1 (official DT numbers) - so we can say that non exclusive commission is 30% for images directly sold by DT.
For partner sales it's another story. If partner's commission is 50% our commission will be only 15%.
I hope that this system is not applicable to "selling rights"...
229
« on: February 20, 2010, 16:33 »
I don't like getting the deductions either, but frankly I get more at IS than FT.
Very strange. There is NO refund for credit card's fraud at IS. They pay us even if they are not payed.
230
« on: February 02, 2010, 21:24 »
What happens at Fotolia its just unacceptable. If we do nothing
I was thinking what we can do against them. In my case its simple, in few months Ill be exclusive at IS. But everybody cannot do this.
They act like terrorists so discussion with them is pointless. In my opinion just stopping uploading in not very efficient. So what else? I have few ideas (maybe not very clever):
- uploading batch(s) of 100 crap images. All will be rejected, reviewing costs will hurt FT
- spread bad (but true) information about dishonest behavior of FT. Allmost everybody has his own site, have different accounts at popular sites (Facebook, If Fotolia is associated with tags like thief, dishonest in Google research some serious companies will hesitate before buying images.
- There are many copyright infringement case with FT images (logos, copyrighted designs, places) If we contact a legal department of involved company FT lawyers will have a lot of work
- FT withhold 28% of all commissions from some contributors (even from no US sales). Is this tax transferred or they keep it in this case they are in trouble. Can we check it?
Do you have any ideas?
231
« on: February 01, 2010, 06:36 »
Fotolia paying me more? I doubt.
I think they will rather find a new way to take more from us, like refund on 100% of commission on which 30% of tax was withhold.
232
« on: January 27, 2010, 04:49 »
I'll go exclusive with IS.
Ones exclusive I can sell at:
Istock (including Vetta)
Photos.com
Getty images
Alamy but only RM
Any others agencies to add at this list?
Thanks
233
« on: January 19, 2010, 07:57 »
Thank you all. I\'ll follow your advices.
234
« on: January 18, 2010, 09:56 »
I'm preparing my "stock" business card in different languages. I have some trouble to write English version - my English is very poor. The main purpose is to tempt models and restaurant chefs to work with me. I was thinking about something like this:
Do you need nice photos? Do you want to immortalize your creation, a special event? Are you interested in modeling for stock photography? If your project interested me and we work together you'll receive images from the photo session for your personal use for free
I'm worried about errors. I'd be very grateful if someone can give me any advice.
Thank you in advance.
235
« on: January 13, 2010, 20:32 »
I\'m only on Pond5, IS and SS. I was at Fotolia but I\'ve deleted all videos after introduction of 3,5$ commission for HD videos. Pond is from far the best for me, then IS and SS.
236
« on: January 12, 2010, 20:54 »
Ahhh, thanks a lot for that info gostwyck!
Yeah i\'m absolutely thrilled and euphoric about earning $0,35 for a TIFF!!
 \
Quite the contrary...
I\'m not sure what the big deal is? Can\'t anyone convert a jpeg into a tiff? I\'m sure a lot of people do convert your photos to tiffs, so they can use them for print. It\'s not like they are selling your raw files.
It\'s only about money. It makes no sense to download more expensive, often upsized, bigger tiff file - without any quality gain. But it can work with some customers that are not paying attention on fine prints (they thinking buying real, good quality tiff file). This is why the information about artificial upsizing was removed - they hope to see people in a hurry fall into the trap.
237
« on: January 06, 2010, 01:15 »
Getting back to the OP ....
I\'ve always wondered how others vote on this poll. Myself, I assign 10 to my #1, 9 to my #2, 8 to my #3, etc.
I wish there was a better, more accurate way to reflect reality. But if I assigned by percentages [80% = 8] IS would get a 3, SS a 2, and everyone else a 1. Obviously that\'s no good.
So how do YOU answer this poll?
I had updated my system. Now I\'m answering like that: Total earnings divided by site number = average site performance = 5 note Example for 600$ (total earnings) from 6 sites - site with 100$ get 5 site with 200$ get 6 site with 300$ get 7 site with 400$ get 8 site with 500$ get 9 site with 600$ get 10 site with 80$ get 4 site with 60$ get 3 site with 40$ get 2 Dt get 1.......... not true, just kidding;-0
238
« on: January 05, 2010, 11:09 »
However they increased prices and changed Image Levels structure to benefit us. And if I remember correctly you too wanted to go exclusive with IS, just like Rene.
I\'m beginning to think that this is a common syndrome.
Not to worry though. It (mostly) affects people who want to go exclusive with IS.
I had a feeling that something was wrong with me. Now I know, thank you Eireann, that I\'m suffering from \'common IS syndrome\'. Let\'s be more serious. In my portfolio almost 90% of images are level 1- it means in 9 cases out of 10 DT get 70% and I get 30% -- HUGE benefit for the agency not for the contributor Increased prices is not a present. DT benefit from this much more then us. For example if credit value increase 10 cts, 7 goes to DT\'s pocket and only 3 in mine. So I cannot find one reason to say thank you Dreamstime.
239
« on: January 04, 2010, 11:36 »
My decision about exclusivity was made a while ago now, but in addition to all the positives in IS\\\'s column while weighing pros and cons, there was a pile of negatives from truly awful and and contributor-hostile behavior at various sites. FT\\\'s behavior since that time hasn\\\'t gotten any better  . As soon as one agency\\\'s antics were addressed, another turned around followed suit. Certainly FT\\\'s success combined with ongoing pullback of contributor royalties and benefits sets an environment that gives shelter to other agencies to follow along.
I don\\\'t see iStock contributors as serfs, and if you wanted some evidence for that I\\\'d suggest the fact that we got some changes in the proposed royalty shifts (cannister changes) by voicing our views loudly. If we were serfs they\\\'d just have thrown more slop buckets on us and let us be unhappy
I realize that many folks just won\\\'t work with only one agency on principle, which I understand, but contiuing to support an agency that doesn\\\'t treat you right only encourages the agency to treat you badly yet again.
Jsnover, you are my hero. Like always I agree with everything you say.
240
« on: January 04, 2010, 11:29 »
Can you please tell Oleg\'s children to stop playing with the server?
My withholdings tax have been changed (in one day) from 28% to 39% then to 43% and now they are 28% on ALL downloads! --> They should be 30% only on US transactions.
I just got email from FT about free section: \"your files have to stay at least 18 months in this section\". In the same time the site\'s page says \"your files have to stay 5 years\"
In the begging it was funny but now it\'s too much.
Thanks.
241
« on: January 03, 2010, 19:04 »
Hi Rene,
I seem to remember reading many of your posts regarding DT before. You didn\\\'t really like them.
What\\\'s the sudden change? Are you worried about them now?
DT is the only one agency that increased prices this year and didn\\\'t lower our commissions at the same time.
That\\\'s something to keep in mind.
@ Eireann Ha ha it\\\'s even worst, there is no micro site I like. But with DT and FT is different - I don\\\'t trust them. I don\\\'t worry about DT, I only worry about my money - my relation with sites is purely business relation. If Dt goes down buyers will not disappear, they will go to another site so there\\\'s nothing to worry. DT decreased our commission from 50 to 30% - that\\\'s something to keep in mind.
242
« on: January 03, 2010, 10:22 »
So they don\\\'t deduct 30% of ALL your sales !! I think that\\\'s why ! \\\
The US IRS can\\\'t do that anyways. The US has no ground taxing a non-US alien in his own country for what another non-US alien in his own country buys. The only thing they can do is tax the agency itself on its profits, if it resides in the US. So filling in that form without ITIN number was totally useless if Fotolia doesn\\\'t go the SS, BigStock or Veer way.
This might be the sore point. FT probably has been audited by the IRS and it turned out they didn\\\'t declare their profits, or not enough of them. As a consequence, they now have a cash flow problem since their cost/income tables don\\\'t hold any more. What they do is just throw the burden of their taxes on the contributor to keep their financial structure healthy.
It\' seems impossible but I\'m afraid you are right. They deducted 30% of all my January sales (4) and I have no US sales in my stats. Bandidos. If it\'s true I\'ll delete my portfolio from FT (like I already did for videos) - not a big lose, anyway I\'ll probably go exclusive at IS in few months.
243
« on: January 03, 2010, 10:08 »
DT\'s system is better.
244
« on: January 03, 2010, 10:07 »
What happens at DT (even Stockxpert seems do better)? Third (consequential) month Dreamstime has \\\"red arrow\\\" in poll results.
My numbers are bad, RPI dropped below 1$ for last 3 months (never happend before), 50% dls less.
How about your results?
245
« on: December 20, 2009, 01:34 »
I will probably go exclusive.
Don't like what happens at DT and FT. I don't trust them.
I like Vetta concept. I can provide higher quality images but I will never accept to sell them at subscription or regular low mikrostock prices. I can take a risk to invest lot of money only if I don't have impression to be stupid making presents to arrogant sites owners.
Only one site makes me hesitate : SS. Even if I hate subscription I always found SS fair,transparent and clear. No surprises and no fine print traps here.
The time when I was happy to see my image published is over. I don't care anymore. Only money count and IS always was my best selling site. I'm very surprised how huge can be difference in earning between sites. This month IS gives me 10x more than DT! Maybe there is some kind of contributor preference in best match engine that each site has given us in the beginning. So maybe if later I change my mind and become non-exclusive again my ranking will improve on other sites - while I will start re-uploading with much better images than I took few years ago.
246
« on: December 15, 2009, 06:35 »
Jon should give a raise only to contributors who don't accept to sell for less than 0.35$ on competitors sites (me). 
247
« on: December 15, 2009, 06:17 »
Bigstockphoto was always very low earner for me, but I had a payment almost every month. In December I have 0 dls. It has never happen before (I'm here for over 2 years). Looks like BS is slow dying.
248
« on: December 14, 2009, 07:07 »
Another change without any notice given to us.
"These files have had no sales on Fotolia over the past 24 months.
You have the possibility to add them to the Fotolia free files API and earn 0.5 credits by doing so.
Your files will then remain in that section for a period of 5 years and will be available for downloads through the Fotolia free files API."
Free section has increased from 18 to 60 months!
I start to hate this kind of silent changes. Fotolia and Dreamstime are champions in this.
249
« on: December 12, 2009, 12:40 »
I haven't found any way to list all files and have them all display with month uploaded, but there may be some method for doing this.
You can see all files from your portfolio (not only one month) with this link: http://www.123rf.com/submit/myuploaded.php?display=a With this link I deleted my images very fast
250
« on: November 25, 2009, 23:34 »
One buyer is complying about no clear information on upsized files on DT forum: Originally posted by Sleamey:
Quoted Message: I just wonder where is the word "UPSIZED" (preferably big, bold & red) marking the upsized versions on the RF tab???
So I DO want a feature to hide (or, at least, to mark) all upsized versions, 'cause I DONT need them at all and it's really really annoying to switch to the EL tab to check original resolution. Tangie's (DT admin) response: " We do not have such feature for the time being but we will make sure to keep your suggestion in mind for future site improvements. " What hypocrisy - this information was there before. Dt removed it in September. I like this reply from Achilles too: "If you look at the size in MP first, then you can easily spot the size that comes closer to it. Not extremely user-friendly, but keeps our mind more active  ) "
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