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Messages - Mantis
Pages: 1 ... 10 11 12 13 14 [15] 16 17 18 19 20 ... 219
351
« on: May 30, 2020, 13:51 »
People keep saying (hoping) that customers will go to Adobe. They will go to Istock and Getty, unfortunately. There is bigger possibility for that, it's a bigger stock company.
Why would they go anywhere?
Thats the big question. Why would any of the customers who have learned how to navigate SS, have become accustomed to the service levels at SS leave when their deals will, for all intents and purposes, get sweeter? To me the impact to SS is meaningful defection, solid negative impact on social media and even mainstream media if possible. That might mitigate or soften new future customers from signing up with them. The contributor defection is the biggest hit and it has to be significant to make any real impact. And it has to be high impact portfolios that are big revenue generators for SS. The publicity angle only sticks for a short time. Contributor defection is/can be permanent.
352
« on: May 30, 2020, 13:40 »
gnirtS. ^^^
Well done, you really made an investigation for this!
Agree. Thanks for the work you have done here.
353
« on: May 30, 2020, 13:39 »
Bigstock is dead as it stands. I dont think they could fukc it up anymore.
354
« on: May 30, 2020, 13:37 »
What are the advantages at o5 for exclusivity? Aside from pricing your vids is there search placement advantages, or some other value that goes with putting eggs in one basket?
355
« on: May 29, 2020, 15:07 »
I still upload there even though sales have been low because DT has always been relatively fair. They purposefully cycle their search to ensure a fair shake for contributors. So for a week I get a lot of $2-5 dis and then that is followed by subs. I used to make $200 a month there but now I am * lucky to make $30. I wish they had better video pricing too.
356
« on: May 29, 2020, 14:30 »
What made you post that link? There is nothing in those posts that suggest SS is listening to anything voiced by their contributor community.
357
« on: May 28, 2020, 12:36 »
5000 contributors disabling a port of 5000 images on average is still only 7 or 8 % of the database, which is extremely competitive and loaded with similar images of the same subject anyhow. We can discuss how many contributors will leave and how big or small their portfolio's are, but don't think Shutterstock didn't do the math and didn't calculate the risk or effect. Plenty of people left who don't disable, and prefer earning less instead of getting nothing at all (some really need the money), and of course plenty of people left willing to sell out for 10$c commissions.
That said, gotta stay true to yourself, and for the sake of giving a message and easy my mind by little acts of protest, mine goes down on 1st of June.
This is the calculated approach they have made. It makes no difference if 5-10 percent of the content is deleted. They have plenty of similars to make it up and buyers will just look for and find something other than that other fantastic shot that will satisfy their needs. This game is over. I am saddened for those of you who rely on SS or micro to make a living.
358
« on: May 28, 2020, 11:01 »
Aside from the obvious money grab we contributors will only see our current tier of a short period of time, perhaps a month or two. They are making a calculated move that there are plenty of images in the face of contributor defection. They have just made a move that will force everyone else to respond in kind....
359
« on: May 14, 2020, 12:26 »
Alamy is being relegated from Midstock to Microstock
They've already come out in video stating that they cannot compete with micro stock and have to move elements of their business in that direction. It should be no surprise to anyone who is in this business and follows it.
360
« on: May 04, 2020, 07:56 »
I believe that if you made less than $600 and are in the USA you won't get one.
361
« on: May 04, 2020, 07:53 »
This is my lowest sale to date. I've seen the $1.50 threads but thought I'd just share this anyway. I guess the 90 minutes it took to shoot this clip and the hour to process it is only worth $3.36. Keep up the great work shutterstock.
Here's what SS considers to be worthless. https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1030079846
I just "liked" your comment not because I actually, ya'know, "liked" it but because it reinforced my own personal decision, made 2 weeks ago, to pull my clips out of SS (and, with regrets, Adobe too) and go exclusive with P5.
In the long run, that may have been a mistake on my part, but right now it feels very good.
Thanks for sharing your experience, which left me with a sad, sour taste in my mouth. Why bother?
ETA: Your hyperlapse is wonderful, BTW. Congratulations on doing such beautiful work.
How many clips is your port? I have been contemplating removing from SS as well and the few I have on IS.
About 650-700 clips, give or take a couple dozen from one site to another.
Thanks for that. I'm just not sure P5 will get me the return I need just to break even, let alone get more octane out of sales.
362
« on: May 03, 2020, 16:45 »
This is my lowest sale to date. I've seen the $1.50 threads but thought I'd just share this anyway. I guess the 90 minutes it took to shoot this clip and the hour to process it is only worth $3.36. Keep up the great work shutterstock.
Here's what SS considers to be worthless. https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1030079846
I just "liked" your comment not because I actually, ya'know, "liked" it but because it reinforced my own personal decision, made 2 weeks ago, to pull my clips out of SS (and, with regrets, Adobe too) and go exclusive with P5.
In the long run, that may have been a mistake on my part, but right now it feels very good.
Thanks for sharing your experience, which left me with a sad, sour taste in my mouth. Why bother?
ETA: Your hyperlapse is wonderful, BTW. Congratulations on doing such beautiful work.
How many clips is your port? I have been contemplating removing from SS as well and the few I have on IS.
363
« on: April 26, 2020, 08:23 »
I don't know if all of his portfolio is lifted from other artists, I just know that three of mine were. SS took those three down after I reported it.
What is stunning to me is that SS only took down your three clips, and not closed that FKR's account.
364
« on: April 11, 2020, 20:01 »
Online only. Never received one in the mail.
365
« on: April 03, 2020, 08:05 »
123 sucks anyway. I may have sold 2 clips in the last year. Been waiting for them to shut down altogether. Takes 2-3 months to get a $50 payout. But it does sound like they are going to have an exclusive collection by invite only. Wonder what that's all about?
366
« on: March 20, 2020, 18:25 »
Anyone actually receive the payment yet?
367
« on: February 02, 2020, 13:08 »
I just purchased some higher ND filters to shoot long exposures with the MAP2. That will be a real test of the drone's stability using the gimbal.
Long exposure? The longest exposure I could achieve without motion blur was 1/4s.
That's fantastic, but it doesn't qualify as long exposure, in my opinion.
I'll be testing 1/2 to 1 sec. That will, of course, need to have some stable air.
368
« on: February 02, 2020, 09:22 »
Yes, I agree - the aperture makes a big difference. However, it seems the sweet spot for sharpness is around F4 and down at F11 it gets pretty soft. So I was trying to balance getting moving items still in my photos with the smooth video and keeping the aperture around F4! I did take some dusk shots and good pretty sharp results with a shutter speed of 1 second. Any slower than that and I did see motion blur in my photos. So you are probably right about the still shots at 1/50th being OK. I was in Hawaii with the drone and so it was very bright. I used the ND16 with polarizer and usually ended up with 1/50th second at F2.8 or F4 - somewhere around there. Perhaps the ND8 would have been a better choice. Still learning every day!
Steve
I was going to reply to your first question, but Increasing difficulty said exactly was I was going to say and I perfectly agree with all he said.
The only small difference is that I use two ND+polirizer filters: a ND 16 for most situations in video, and a ND64 for time lapses and video in extremely bright situations
I could not live without my ND filters on my Mavic 2 Pro. My ND 8 is on most of the time, but not all. I think including a segment on ND filters would be helpful since those who don't know better might shoot video at f11 @ 400th shutter speed in bright conditions to get exposure right for video. My sweet spot for sharpness is F4 @1/60th. Even 1/50th is very good. Stills shot at that are crisp and sharp as ID stated (wide and far should be easy to get sharp). I just purchased some higher ND filters to shoot long exposures with the MAP2. That will be a real test of the drone's stability using the gimbal.
369
« on: January 18, 2020, 08:21 »
I closed my account there. They make you keep any clip that has sold for I think three years.....yes, it's in the fine print. So while I still have my account there I deleted every clip that has not sold and removed the keywords from those that have sold. Effectively done with them. Maybe 5 sales a year.
370
« on: January 18, 2020, 08:19 »
80/20 rule, Jan is historically slow, at least in the USA. At my company about 1/3 of 3000 people took the week of jan 1 off. Some of those are our image buyers. So extrapolate that across the US and one could reasonable say we're ramping back up for the year. You will probably start to see an uptick on the back half of Jan.
371
« on: January 18, 2020, 08:15 »
My 12 month range with IS is $600 to $160. I made $247 in Dec. Of the 12 data points eight were in the ~$200 to $300 range. So average for me.
372
« on: December 30, 2019, 19:22 »
They are selling our products too cheap.
Really?
Shutterstock :
ID Earnings Downloads
143379691 $0.38 1
Deposit:
FILE ID FILE NAME DATE SIZE METHOD EARNED BEFORE TAX TAX WITHHELD NET EARNED
28378823 blablabla.jpg Dec.20, 2019 - Subscription Plan $0.38 $0 (0%) $0.38
The original topic was about prices, not royalties, but even if we compared royalties, I assume you realize the above isn't the whole story, and thus not a reasonable comparison.
I have never supplied DepositPhotos - not ethical in their approach when they first contacted me plus their history as a file sharing site - but if I look at December for SS, my return per download is 98.8 cents (and I get 38 cents per sub same as everyone else in the top tier)
Anyone want to share DepositPhotos' RPD for December 2019 (on a decent number of sales)?
134 dl. 28 cents RPD
373
« on: December 22, 2019, 10:02 »
I got paid on Friday. This month last year I made $650 and this year it was $220 if that tells you anything.
374
« on: December 22, 2019, 10:00 »
That's your call. We don't know what your X axis is, but if it's beefy, why quit? All of micro stock is going down the toilet, and I consider Alamy mostly MS. My sales there swing wildly. I could make zero in one month and $800 the next. Knowing that I just let my stuff ride for those good months, but set my expectations to zero. You've got to decide what you want out of Alamy and if that income does not fit your value proposition then dump them. But anyone in MS today is scratching and clawing for every penny they can get before they can't get anymore. I have left many MS agencies over the years for revenue purposes because they did not fit my minimum needs, which I'll admit today have dropped significantly over the years. I just sold a cover photo for a travel magazine and made as much in that one sale as I do on SS in a month. I'm doing more and more outside of MS because my value proposition is almost fully eroded, but I do hang on...it helps pay my estimated taxes:)
375
« on: December 07, 2019, 20:24 »
The site is of course being actively run. I have not had time to actively post here or work on any significant changes to the site, but we make all payments that are requested once meeting our $50 threshold.
@ Niserin, please PM me your username or email address and I will look into your request. It's possible that since this post we've already addressed it, but I am not finding a username under "niserin" so unsure of your account credentials with us.
@ Me - I'm sorry to hear that, under my ownership I have paid out all payments requested in a timely manner. I don't imagine that was any time recent, but I'm happy to discuss further.
@ Stocktastic, I'm sorry to see any contributor account go, but being realistic with the nature of sales volume for many contributors, I of course understand it. I welcome all contributors to continue uploading, or to keep their portfolios on account. At the end of the day, even when an image doesn't sell, we incur costs of hosting the images, but that is not necessarily a reflection of the contributors work.
If anybody has any questions, you can always email me at [email protected]. I receive the emails directly to my phone and always try to respond same day.
Thanks,
Phil Shapiro
Absolute joke. Your site generated maybe $3 to $5 a month, so an average portfolio size of 3,000 has to wait for 10-17 months to make payout. I get it that others' mileage may vary but the relativeness of my post is the point I'm making. This is why I bailed.
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