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Messages - cascoly
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26
« on: March 19, 2025, 21:03 »
27
« on: March 04, 2025, 18:43 »
....
I will keep documenting what I do, at least until I reach a reliable 1200-1500 a month. After that I will update in more private circles.
...
i really hope not - i've really enjoyed & learned from your posts
28
« on: March 02, 2025, 15:46 »
A few of my best sellers were removed as "non-compliant" for use of AI. I don't use AI. I never have.
Terrible stuff and totally unfair. I hope you can appeal.
i've had several images labeled as AIgen on several recent batches - support however almost always agrees with the result by changing the rejection reason to 'quality issues' otoh, SS also issues AIgen rejects but support issues a case # and on re-submitting they are accepted
29
« on: February 28, 2025, 17:55 »
There is no way in Germany to own any kind of property or land and not pay local taxes. It is not much though, around 30 euros a month or 300-400 a year. Municipality costs for garbage etc.. are a lot higher and a bigger problem. Plus occasional repairs that we share as owners but can be quite high.
I have around 50sqm, the place is fully paid, no debts.
It is funny what you say about the "dark brown masses" of whatever part of the world you personally don't like.
Here in Europe we think that way about the white hillibilly americans that are part of a cult and happily do their masters bidding and long to live under a king or emperor. Unfortunately they also want gigantic wars with millions dead to fullfill their rapture religious fantasies...they are unbelievably uneducated, can barely read and write but always have an opinion...
The ai youtube spammers are the same people that bring you all the crypto scams and there are also lots of very clueless white people who think ai images is some magic money.n
There is also one very simple reason that ai attracts many people from ultrapoor countries...50 dollars a month can be like 500 in the us midwest or 2000 here in Germany.
So the high volume but low income ports, make a lot of financial sense to that group of producers.
They are just as clueless as the mobile phone crowd that started doing stock 10 years ago.
Microstock are open platforms for total amateurs. But the talent can learn and rise, including the ai talent.
I am not worried about ai producers, like I am not worried about the mobile phone talent. Most will give up in 2 years and only a few that remain will actually be regular producers.
I hate having bestsellers copied, so I hope the new strategy of a long tail plus editorial will lower that problem.
But I am glad you liked my analysis, I am posting here because I know many people who have neglected their ports and are wondering if it is still worth getting in.
However everyones situation is different and what sold well 20 years ago will not sell in the same way today.
Adapt or die like in every business.
./..., {nonsense deleted}
Please don't spam here. There are other threads on this forum, where all the ignored people talk to each other. They'll be happy to talk to you.
i agree - super constanty posts h is racist-conspiratorial idiocy across many threads - and needs to be called out on it
30
« on: February 28, 2025, 17:45 »
another destructive change - it removes what it sees as incorrect keywords but doesnt show the offenders - mine are usually typos, but i can no longer correct them
31
« on: February 21, 2025, 16:49 »
I tried to use the new one but after I entered my description, keywords, category and Illustration file type and tried to submit, most of what I had entered disappeared! I tried doing it in different orders, and saving multiple times during the process but no matter what I did I lost my inputs and couldn't submit. I ended up using the suggestion above about getting to the legacy version via the keywording tool and was able to submit that way. Can anyone advise how to use the new version successfully?
True. The Save button doesn't save. You better enter all the cells at the same time or keywords, categories and location get erased.
not sure why that would happen - do you enter meta on the SS site? My images have meta already, so i'll select a bunch of different images in the same category. all i need to do is click on a category & maybe editorial & submit - all are submtted with their individual meta unchanged i use laptop and desktop, win 11 & edge
32
« on: February 20, 2025, 14:20 »
at < 2 cents / image i use visualmind.ai - it gives excellent descriptions & tags AND adds the meta to the images while also generating a csv that i add to my captions database (i can then recover any image from my 100K image archives in a minute or 2 https://cascoly-images.com/building-a-microstock-tracking-system-part-1 )
33
« on: February 20, 2025, 14:03 »
I tried to use the new one but after I entered my description, keywords, category and Illustration file type and tried to submit, most of what I had entered disappeared!...
one suggestion is to add meta data to your images before uploading - will save time other agency uploads. multiple images w meta have all been easily submitted w the new system
34
« on: February 20, 2025, 13:55 »
There is a tab for now to use legacy, we don't know how long that will stay. There's also a comment tab on top. Try the new and tell them what you think.
legacy's gone now which is sad & the Earnings summary tabs like 'on demand enhanced etc. no longer work. only shows subscription earnings. We have a saying in my part of the world 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'
and it seems there's no longer a 'select all' if it don't stink, don't stir it!
35
« on: February 19, 2025, 22:32 »
Wow check this out... SSTK share price on 19 February 2025 (today) closed at just $26.96.
This is the lowest since 15 February 2013 - 12 years ago!
See image below and check their other periods at www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=sstk where every period is in the red.
Clearly their poor treatment of contributors has not helped Shutterstock Inc and when they turned off a lot of contributors, they just up and walked out the door... and a lot of customers walked out with them.
And here we are today with falling sales, commissions and earnings, and the terminal decline in SSTK share price.
no support for any of that - if low payments to artists was a factor, would expect the stock to rise! many other factors at work, none related to the small number of artists who have withdrawn - competition, rise of aigen which SS has refused to accept, decreased demand... etc
36
« on: February 14, 2025, 21:24 »
...
Well, if you look at it that way, RPD is as important as volume. Both go together in terms of
earnings. And earnings in relation to effort is what really counts if you see it as a business. In other words, how much do I earn at an ency against which effort. In that regard, submitting to Adobe or Shutterstock is more or less comparable. iStock requires more effort Motion Array even more. ...
again, RPD is worthless as a measure of usefulness or performance- my RPD from alamy is $30 but actual % of my income is < 5%. similarly, pond RPD has varied from $2 to $15 but overall income is again < 10% since actual sales (ie INCOME) is just a blip (tho welcome) on monthly sales if RPD were important i'd be concentrating on alamy & pond rather than AS & SS which provide 90% of my income. i heartily endorse those who make their decisions based on RPD since it pays for my additional international travel!
37
« on: February 14, 2025, 16:13 »
RPD matters because it represents the average price that you sell your work for. Microstock is a business and, in a business, you can't work out if you are making money if you don't know what your sales price is.
you need more than sales price to determine if you're making money. again, my AS RPD is 2-3x that of SS but SS brings in more cash , often 2x or more. so reporting JUST RPD is meaningless - at best, it's only half the equation - you need to consider actual income = RPD * sales.
38
« on: February 13, 2025, 19:43 »
What really matters in the end is the bottom line.
RPD is one way of understanding changes to the bottom line - double your images and double your sales but bottom line is unchanged - it probably is because the RPD has dropped. If you double your images and sales number doesn't change but RPD is the same - it is probably due to falling sales per image and not RPD. ....
but the RPD is irrelevant - your examples are correct, but cherry picked - my AS RPD has always been 2-3x SS RPD but SS h as consistently produced 2x the $ which is the only metric I'm concerned with. i submit same images to both, but many fewer accepted by AS since they don't take editorial (i do try to not upload editorials to AS but sometimes it's just easier to l et them reject them, since AS often accepts images (cafes, crowd scenes, people in bkgd ) that SS considers editorial bottom line - SS pays more bills than AS, no matter what the RPD says. everything else is window dressing & bragging rights
39
« on: February 13, 2025, 14:09 »
Upload small batches is the way to go
tried that -- unfortunately ,if one file fails anywhere, any other batches also fail
40
« on: February 13, 2025, 14:07 »
For me, volume on Shutterstock is pretty good and well ahead of this point in 2024. RPD, however, is poor so far and well behind 2024. So plenty of low value sales and I need a few higher value ones to pull the RPD up. But early days still.
why care about RPD? would you rather have an RPD of .90 and sales of $50 or an RPD of .25 and $100 sales?
41
« on: February 09, 2025, 22:02 »
.....
however,as I said,I will add 300 contents this year for the bonus contributor,in case I want to continue next year,if I start to see better results I will start again.
beyond January,even February up to now is the same as last year,on 8 February 2024 I had 2 more sales than today 8 February 2025,so what do I do here?I keep adding content and instead of selling more I also sell less?
then the strange thing is in recent years I have uploaded less but I had greater growth between one year and another,while last year I have uploaded more,but instead there has been no growth so far this year....
+300 isn't going to do much for the CB - even if all 300 are eligible (and actually accepted for bonus is even less)
your approach to microstock is unrealistic - why do you think your previous sales should predict future sales? it's not 'strange' - it's the market. just because you THINK you should do better doesnt make it so. everyone else seems to be reporting decreased slaes and/or income - why should your port be any different?
but who ever said mine should be different? YOU did!!
...
I am more than sure that many should sell more than they sell.
but I'm not talking about others,everyone knows their own,I'm talking about my portfolio and I tell you that I should sell at least 2-3 times more than I sell.
...
WHY should they sell better?? you keep saying this but have given no reason WHY they should sell better other than your solipsistic opinion that your images are better than the competition?
42
« on: February 08, 2025, 19:22 »
.....
however,as I said,I will add 300 contents this year for the bonus contributor,in case I want to continue next year,if I start to see better results I will start again.
beyond January,even February up to now is the same as last year,on 8 February 2024 I had 2 more sales than today 8 February 2025,so what do I do here?I keep adding content and instead of selling more I also sell less?
then the strange thing is in recent years I have uploaded less but I had greater growth between one year and another,while last year I have uploaded more,but instead there has been no growth so far this year....
+300 isn't going to do much for the CB - even if all 300 are eligible (and actually accepted for bonus is even less) your approach to microstock is unrealistic - why do you think your previous sales should predict future sales? it's not 'strange' - it's the market. just because you THINK you should do better doesnt make it so. everyone else seems to be reporting decreased slaes and/or income - why should your port be any different?
43
« on: February 07, 2025, 18:55 »
...
I,on the other hand,think I'll stop here,because it's not possible to sell so little with my portfolio.
{ME: obviously it IS possible because that's whatv's happening}
I understand that I can't sell 10 times more but I should sell at least 2-3 times more.
..
I really lack visibility,and I think that continuing to upload will only further dilute my portfolio.
n order to gain visibility.
Of course the new uploads bring visibility,but I certainly can't continue with these results.
the number of sales is too low for my portfolio,and the sales generated by the new content do not add to the sales I already make with the old content,but rather replace it.
...
the last statement has no credibibilty why do you keep saying your work should sell so much more? what sets your images apart from the rest of us? leaving your portfolio is unlikely to increase visibility - esp'ly since buyers are looking for specific images & don't care who created them.
44
« on: February 02, 2025, 15:10 »
it is an interesting thread. Now we need to hear from the people with stellar sales on ss or where ss is outselling adobe.
...
here are my agency sales in $ for last 3 years - black is SS, blue is AS - AS has gained on SS mostly as a result of bulk payouts (non-DL - contributor & dataset training) but usually lags behind.  here's the 3 year totals - yellow is monthly, orange is 3 mo running avg - 2024 was about 20% drop from 2023, again mostly due to non-DL payouts in 2023  these results demonstrate why even monthly $ aren't predictive - and tracking daily or even weekly sales is meaningless
45
« on: January 31, 2025, 17:27 »
in 1972 Taiwan was controlled by Chiang Kai Shek' authoritarian Nationalists (over objections from indigenous Taiwanese) & had claimed the UN seat of China after being defeated & ejected from mainland China the late 40's. returning the UN seat to the control of actual 'China' was an example of Kissinger's 'realpolitik'
46
« on: January 29, 2025, 20:22 »
...
70% of the immigrants came in through New York city. Most of the rest came in on the West coast. In 1892, the federal government opened a new immigration processing center on Ellis Island in New York harbor. All of my Grandparents came in through Ellis Island. ...
My answer, which I know is just too simple and ignores the politics, division, special interest groups, debate and all the potential conflicts, would be create a new amendment that says, The 14th amendments does not apply to anyone, giving birth to a child, if they are here illegally. Done, door closed, all the appropriate protections remain in place.
my grandparents came thru in 1900 also - but in the 1920's immigration from southern Europe (non-aryan!) was mostly stopped until the 60s good luck in getting any amendment passed w a 2/3 senate vote in current climate! much less 3/4 states - the ERA amendment was active for over 20 yrs & couldn't get enough states to accept it - today it wouldn't even pass congress
47
« on: January 29, 2025, 13:49 »
Do you have to caption your own work?
.... and they ask me to caption it. Those are the ones I make stuff up for - I think one I said was a clandestine drug deal.
it's not for training, as there's no way to verify the info entered .. i just randomly hit the keyboard to create, eg, " uhhio ouiuin ijin mi mmip " and it's always accepted. obviously no one's going to read it
48
« on: January 29, 2025, 13:45 »
Trump also denies citizenship to children born in the US to immigrants,which goes against the US Constitution,I think he forgot that the USA exists because of immigrants.
Not from all immigrants, but only from illegal immigrants.
...
Laws change as the times change. The old rules about birth right citizens, needs to be revised to eliminate anyone illegal who comes here, just to give birth, which makes their child a citizen. The law was to protect new immigrants, here legally, who were not a citizen yet and welcome new citizen children to the country....
it's neither a rule or a law it's the 14th amendment to the constitution and no one can change or ignore it w/o another amendment - which takes 2/3 vote in congress & 3/4 of states to approve. at the time it passed, there was no such thing as an illegal immigrant; rather the 14th amendment was one of the 3 important amendments passed after the civil war - it was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of people recently freed from slavery
49
« on: January 29, 2025, 13:36 »
.... Biden said things to Putin, and nobody knows what things he said to Putin, but it's possible that one of the things he might have said to Putin is that 'you have the green light to ...
...
in fact it's been normal for every other president for meetings to be recorded and transcripts recorded. but trump had many meetings that were never recorded & nothing is known about major discussions w world leaders
50
« on: January 26, 2025, 14:25 »
.....
Trump is right about one thing in my opinion,we must invest more in the defense system,more in the military industry.
.../
but trump wants to have the US ABANDON NATO and other treaties we have while appointing incompetent cabinet positions &getting rid of generals who disagree with him
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