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Messages - Minsc
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 23
26
« on: April 06, 2022, 21:32 »
I don’t have a problem with reordering keywords. I think it’s great we can prioritize our keywords. It makes the images more relevant and generates more success for people who are willing to put in the work.
27
« on: September 08, 2021, 20:31 »
I used to make a decent amount per month from 123RF.
September 2021 is on pace to being the worst month since September 2017. They are seriously declining.
28
« on: April 24, 2021, 19:47 »
After a few months, I'm starting to notice a real decline. April is going to end with the worst month I had since 2017. January - slightly below average. February - Worst month since 2017. March - Below average despite a strong start. April - On pace to be worse than February 2021. Something is definitely going on over there that's causing the decline in sales. Maybe it's an algorithm change, but I think it could be a Google algorithm change. I think this image kinda of explains it: https://i.imgur.com/xgU97OF.pngThe site has been declining since last year. They were ranked 850 last April and 900 in November 2020. Right now they're 1,110. Their traffic had a sizeable decline in the last 4 months.
29
« on: March 04, 2021, 00:28 »
I had an average January, but a weak February. March is off to a good start and it's on pace to matching my best months.
30
« on: March 04, 2021, 00:21 »
I signed up earlier today. I heard they are very selective. They only seem to accept artists with a strong presence in social media... and I don't have a strong presence in social media. We'll see what happens.
31
« on: March 04, 2021, 00:17 »
What SS did was evil. It comes from a very dark place where only sociopaths dare the tread.
They were already making a lot of money, so they didn't need to cut artist commissions. They did it purely out of greed in the middle of a pandemic, while putting out phony virtue about BLM and social justice.
I honestly hope SS a quick death and Adobe Stock take their place at the top. At least Adobe have an incentive to keep artists happy because their biggest source of revenue comes from artists using their software. Shutterstock provide nothing else.
32
« on: February 22, 2021, 17:50 »
Mine is an LLC as I am a portrait photographer and this is just a side gig so I just incorporate this income into my shopping cart system and it is categorized by stock and per agency each month. I pay taxes on it just as I do the other income.
Do you have a separate banking account for your own business or do you roll it into your personal checking account? What are taxes and fees like? I know you have to pay an incorporation fee every year. Do you pay more taxes after incorporation? And finally what state are you incorporated in? I heard Delaware is a popular state.
33
« on: February 22, 2021, 17:31 »
Has anyone registered their stock business as a LLC in the U.S.?
I've been thinking about it a lot lately since my little stock business is growing in scale. If you're incorporated, I would like to know about your experience.
- Do you pay more taxes / less taxes in general?
- What are the benefits of being a LLC? What are the pros and cons?
34
« on: January 29, 2021, 15:59 »
With a couple days left, it looks like I'll be down about 30% on SS compared to January 2019.
35
« on: January 13, 2021, 00:21 »
My worst start to the year since 2016.
Not only on SS but on all sites.
We'll see.....
I feel the same way. The only outlier is Adobe Stock. I think some companies canceled their stock subscription plans at the end of the year to save money. Many smaller companies are struggling right now, so let's hope for a semblance of normalcy later in the year.
36
« on: December 02, 2020, 22:31 »
Shutterstock & COVID-19 sucked the life out of the industry. It's not easy to find motivation when all we want is for the world to get back to normal again.
37
« on: August 10, 2020, 14:44 »
I'm in the same position. June was fine, but July took a big hit. I'm on Level 6 and it didn't make any difference. Still down about 20-25%.
I've stopped uploading to SS and I hope their portfolio goes stale in a few years with fewer and fewer quality contributors uploading to their site. AS has been killing it lately.
I've always been a optimist, but the SS royalty changed took the motivation out of me. If I do produce new content, SS will not be getting any of it. In fact, I'd consider Istock before SS.
38
« on: July 01, 2020, 15:18 »
I contacted a seller yesterday who was reselling some derivatives of my vector work. I said it's not permitted to (re)sell (altered versions of) my work, even with a license. She said she did buy an RF license but misread the terms. She apologized and removed the items from her shop.
Bottom line: if you ever find your items on Etsy, try contacting the shop owner and politely but sternly explain the situation. That might be more effective than contacting Etsy with a DMCA.
It's a mixed bag. Some people will take it down. Some people gave me a hard time, asking for evidence of ownership or copyright. Some people think they own the artwork because they made slight changes to it. Some people just refuse to take it down. The people who refused to take it down forced me to file DMCA take down notices. Even then, some of them file counter claims and gave fake contact information (Shop in US, but their address is some random place in Europe). I've gotten tired of contacting the shop owners. It's a waste of my time. Nowadays, I just file take DMCA take notices and let Etsy sort them out.
39
« on: July 01, 2020, 15:10 »
May $0.62
June $0.59
Surprisingly, it didn't fall too much in June. My total revenue only went down about 5% overall, which isn't bad. I had a lot of large SODs to offset the lower subs. I'm making more on ELs and some large OD/SODs because of the commission change.
I don't know if it'll hold up this month. If the ELs and large OD/SODs stop coming in, I'm going to see a bigger decline in July.
40
« on: June 29, 2020, 14:28 »
Whether you sell on Esty or not, some sellers are probably still selling your content. That place is a infringement hotbed and the sellers abuse counter-infringement system like crazy. I keep killing the roaches and they come back like every few weeks.
41
« on: June 12, 2020, 02:11 »
It looks like the earnings of the big players will not drop that much. They have strong portfolios (should we use stock market term all weather portfolio) and it is also possible that SS is fine tuning search engine to drive more traffic to them, so they would not leave. All of them are now "shocked" and "insulted" and "humiliated" with 10 cent sales, but in reality all they (and all of us, lets face it) only care about overall income, not RPD. Why I think that? Pure logic - 38cents was already so low it could also be called insulting and humiliating. All microstock concept is based on that. So, they won't care is it 10 or 5 or 1 cent as long as the overall income is satisfying. SS will take care that income doesn't drop that drastically, and everything will be the way it used to be. and the small contributors? Who cares about them.
It's a 30-40% drop for level 6 contributors. My original math from before the start day was way off. What SS doing is abhorrent.
42
« on: June 03, 2020, 16:54 »
One of the side effects I've noticed is that I get more for EL and large SODs.
I believe the large SODs were previously $75. Now it's $96. We just need more of these to offset the sub losses.
43
« on: June 02, 2020, 01:04 »
I'm looking at 10 downloads right now and they're all under 20 cents each. It's more than a 50% decrease. It's heartbreaking to look it.
I may keep my portfolio there, but they're not getting another upload from me. What they did is sickening.
45
« on: June 01, 2020, 15:34 »
Based on the first day sales under the new system, SS just improved their revenue by about 100%.
Tomorrow is going to be brutal since the system will be place for the full day. Even Level 6 contributors are seeing their revenue drop by at least 50% in some cases.
47
« on: May 28, 2020, 21:12 »
25,000 clips is nearly impossible. There are probably less than 50 contributors that sell that much.
48
« on: May 26, 2020, 13:52 »
Anyone has info on how this will affect On Demand downloads, as well as ELs?
49
« on: May 26, 2020, 13:00 »
This is going to be brutal for new contributors. Some people will struggle to reach level 5 (2,500 downloads) and only long-time contributors will be able to reach level 6 (25,000). This kind of structure would benefit contributors who are doing well and punish contributors who are starting out or struggling.
Successful contributors can potentially reach level 5 in a few weeks and reach level 6 in a few months. And extra 5% for the rest of the year would mean successful contributors could earn 1% to 4% extra per year.
For struggling contributors, it's going to cut their earnings by up to around 30%. SS is trying to make extra money off the back of these contributors, which basically make up over 99% of the contributors.
SS is really f'ed up to do something like this.
50
« on: May 10, 2020, 03:59 »
I think a lot of companies are just cutting back and some are canceling microstock subscriptions or reducing budget.
My sales are down 5% to 10%. I would be down more if it wasn’t buoyed by Coronavirus-themed content. With companies like Lyft, Uber and AirBnB laying off people and reducing marketing department headcount, they’re also probably cutting budgets.
This will be new normal until the economy rebounds again, but things will probably get worse better it gets better.
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