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Messages - pancaketom
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376
« on: January 22, 2021, 19:43 »
December 2020 was only about $800 less than December 2019. Overall, my 2020 year ended up about 11% less than 2019.
January 2021, however, won't come close to January 2020. Although we still have 10 more days, I predict January 2021 will be about $4,500 less than January 2020.
SS really is tanking. While my number of downloads are not too far off the usual, the income per download really is lacking. It seems as of January 1, 2021, I've had a bunch of low-earning sales. I don't think it's all due to the new commission structure. I feel like some deal SS implemented with buyers went into effect this year. A deal we're not privy to.
I think part of the new earnings was just to take more per sale, the other part was to enable them to make sales for much much less but still make money. Before they had to average over at least .25 per image sold and really more likely closer to .38 to make any money for themselves (it was probably closer to over $1 per sale before) , now if they just need to be above .10 - so they can cut their prices over 50% and still make money - now they probably need to make the sale for over about .30 on average. Remember they also get to keep all the unused portion of the subs packs too. Wait until they do the same for video - get ready for your ultra sub .10 video sales.
377
« on: January 21, 2021, 19:53 »
I'm 100% down from last January on SS. Last October was the only month DT seemed to do well for me in a while - and that was still pretty sad.
378
« on: January 21, 2021, 00:26 »
my November subs went up a lot - I think I wrote down what they originally reported, but the current report is definitely more than the 2x that the previous months have been.
379
« on: January 04, 2021, 14:03 »
The way I see it is we continue the long slow slide for contributors - or maybe bumpy not so slow slide. Lower prices, lower percentages, image and video numbers rising a lot faster than sales numbers. Probably a few of the little sites will fold or at least just start coasting - if they don't actually work on anything or advertise they can probably squeeze profit for a long time.
Personally the big 3 for me were Shutterstock, Alamy, and Adobe. They have all dropped, but SS the most - and then I turned things off there for good unless I just decide to suck the last of the pennies out of this business or they change something in how they pay contributors. I see the former as more likely). Both Alamy and SS took a bigger cut of each sale this year, and I see no reason for this trend to not continue.
Canva might be the only bright spot compared to last year - but they are basically just giving images away and not really telling us what we make per "sale". I suspect only a few cents. At least they doubled our March income for the rest of the year - although my actual sales never really hit that point.
The changes have been pretty demoralizing for me. Despite what SS might claim - kicking me in the teeth does not motivate me to produce better content or upload more.
380
« on: December 29, 2020, 19:12 »
I get the login page too, but just use the back arrow on the browser and it usually loads fine (microsoft edge on windohs machine)... eventually.
It is a pita, but not critical.
381
« on: December 21, 2020, 14:53 »
If the agencies keep track of sales the same way they keep track of and report things to us, then you bet they are making all sorts of mistakes. If you point something out to them sometimes they will fix it, and if they overpay us, they will definitely try to claw it back if they can, but I bet there is a lot of error and slop in their systems, especially as they transition to all you can download subs plans.
edited to add - I don't think this is something that is consistently done maliciously or to increase their bottom line, more that the agencies are not 100% accurate at keeping track of things and that for the few cents they or we would gain they are not particularly interested in spending the significant time and $ it would take to fix it.
382
« on: December 09, 2020, 18:19 »
Their own forum is full of posts from people, reporting earnings.
While the first rule of Fight Club may be that you don't talk about Fight Club... I'm assuming you can talk about Fight Club when you're at Fight Club.
Yeah, that's a good one. 
No one has come up with any answer to, why only him, why did Adobe close his account, which isn't closed? And if he's banned at SS why is his account actually active. Just a bit many convoluted contradictions in what he's saying and what's actually current.
And then, I don't post videos to YouTube with my earnings and don't post them on forums, even SS forum  , so actually this warning is kind of wasted on me or anyone else who doesn't do this kind of thing?
Going with your fight club analogy, people still post on blogs, other people on FB and YT and MSG and their own sites, and only this one poor soul has been targeted, for his simple and innocent violation of the rules.
I'll drop this, but one more note, it's in the TOS that we can't post earnings, so who's at fault here? SS for enforcing the contract and TOS that we all agreed with, or the person violating the contract? Why of course it's SS because they are the evil corporation. How dare they enforce the TOS that we all agreed with, when we started as a contributor.
One tiny edit, is that this wasn't in the TOS when I signed up. I don't remember when they added it, but it was one of their "take it or leave" changes to the TOS as they went from somewhat contributor friendly and an ok place to sell images to what they are now.
383
« on: December 03, 2020, 20:31 »
As others have said - the drops at pretty much all the agencies have killed most of my motivation, SS was just the last straw after a long string of kicks to delicate parts and gradually decreasing sales.
Recently as part of another effort I have been going through my old records all the way past my microstock days. From about 2007 to 2013 or so there were interesting little notes about BME and BDE and other milestones. I had BDEs that rival entire months this year. I check every day or few days when I am online, but usually I don't have much to add to any threads, so I don't. I think some of the rise and fall of microstock was unavoidable simply based on the numbers, but it could have been a whole lot better with a few decent agencies shaping the overall business instead of what happened.
I turned my SS port back on to get to a payout for December and the rest of my $ and to see how things were there - pretty sad - but it is turning off before the new year unless SS makes some changes.
384
« on: December 03, 2020, 20:17 »
I suggest a 50/50 split with SS - so calculate that out based on what tier you are. Probably about twice what they are offering you.
385
« on: November 02, 2020, 14:41 »
Nice work Steve, I remember a long time ago (pre 2010 or so) we had similar sized ports and sales #s - although the better results seemed to come from different agencies. Since then you have continued to work hard and reap the rewards, I have mostly coasted and my results reflect that (down a lot). I do wonder how much more you would be making now if things hadn't changed so much - or even if the agencies didn't get so greedy.
386
« on: October 22, 2020, 01:37 »
Do Canva actually answer their contact forms ....  ?
They answered me now, my question from August 31, about payment. Ok, they did not really answer, but replied. Reading the first sentence made me burst out laughing.
"Hi there, we haven't heard from you in a while. If you would like to keep this request open or if you would like additional information, just reply.
Otherwise, this issue will be closed on our side in 2 days. Feel free to open another request if you run into another issue!"
yup, I got that one after waiting a few months - they sent it at the start of a long weekend. I saw it a few days later.
387
« on: October 16, 2020, 15:48 »
Interesting reading about this initiative. The intersectionality of my specific demographic makes me think that this initiative is in no way available or meant for me, but I wonder about offering some $ to produce some content to be given away for free. I suspect I'd take it if offered, but as usual the details are in the fine print - for instance does all content have to go exclusively to Adobe to be given away for free? At some level that would be pretty serious exploitation (I'm not saying it is, but the specifics are pretty important here).
My gut reaction is giving away quality content for free will do more to hurt the creators than any initiative that benefits a select few.
388
« on: October 15, 2020, 10:36 »
Thank you all! In the interview with Alex, he explained many of these things. Our profit per sale has dropped by about 8% since the new system. We sell a lot of $0.1, but the more expensive photos make up for it a little bit.
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2020/10/06/interview-with-aaron-amat-super-microstock-producer-1-4m-images/
Saludos compaeros
wow, so even very large sellers still saw a drop - that really shows that even the 40% high contributor level was a money grab by SS, and every level below that is so much more (plus the January reset - although YOU should climb the levels quickly at this rate). in other news - congrats - that is the fruit of a whole lot of work - especially now.
389
« on: October 14, 2020, 13:54 »
Contributor relations are non-existent!
https://www.canva.com/p/username/ will take you to your portfolio and you can see how many images they say you have
I get a 404 error page not found when I try that.
you have to replace "username" with your username
other than that look at one of your images and then up in the right hand you will see your user name .. click on that and it will take you to your portfolio
The top right hand corner will tell you how many images you have
I did change the username - and used to click on my username on an image to get to the portfolio but that stopped working months ago - but it worked again this time (and the link was my username with a 2) thanks
390
« on: October 13, 2020, 16:21 »
Contributor relations are non-existent!
https://www.canva.com/p/username/ will take you to your portfolio and you can see how many images they say you have
I get a 404 error page not found when I try that.
391
« on: October 08, 2020, 16:49 »
I have made more this month so far than last month - actually a few good sales in the first few days did that, which goes to show how poor sales are in general there. In general if I have a good RPD I have a better month there - and when it is low (mostly low subs) I do worse. That said I have noticed a number of the higher % sales - eg .38 instead of .35 and 2.20 instead of 2.00
Overall my lifetime earnings vs time looks like a bell curve.
392
« on: October 06, 2020, 12:56 »
I am not very fond of their contributor relations.
I tried to find out how many images I have selling there (does anyone know how to do that other than just counting them in the portfolio or going through all the pages of accepted and not accepted images?) I asked a number of times and never got an answer, a few times they sent me something (probably automatic) saying they consider the request closed even though they didn't answer the question. Since they have a completely opaque and seemingly random submission and review system and are known to delete previously accepted images I have no idea how many are available for sale.
Don't get me started on how they change the numbers for the subs program and don't tell us how many or what images sell there. I guess after seeing how well they doubled earnings this month (hopefully better than 123RF did) I'll have to decide what to do.
393
« on: September 21, 2020, 12:27 »
After a microsoft windows update that seemed to change edge too (or maybe they changed the name) Adobe works again - I was trying to go straight to the page from a link, when that didn't work I tried a few other things without success. In any case it works again now and the problem was probably all or mostly on my end.
394
« on: September 16, 2020, 20:22 »
I never understood their acceptance or rejection criteria either. I haven't even bothered trying to send them anything since their latest "exciting" news. They have a history of randomly un accepting previously accepted images. I don't even know how many I have for sale there or any way of determining how many I do other than going through the list of accepted and not accepted images. "service" is completely useless. After a random amount of time they send you a non answer and say the case is closed or else they ignore the questions completely.
395
« on: September 15, 2020, 16:30 »
Nothing but a blank page for anything ...contributor.adobe. on Microsoft edge for the last few days. I know it is a lame browser, but I delete all my cookies etc. from firefox on a very regular basis, so it is nice to use a browser I leave them on for microstock sites.
Adobe contributor site does load on firefox for me.
396
« on: July 29, 2020, 18:54 »
I would only add that it is mostly short term stock performance that is rewarded - leads to short term thinking.
397
« on: July 27, 2020, 21:56 »
I am guessing that the huge sellers are making more at SS with many lower priced subs offset by enough higher priced sales. My guess is that the break even from the new and old schemes is for sellers that hit level 5 sometime mid year. If you have content that sells more smaller sales schemes as opposed to the bigger subs packs level 4 contributors might break even too. I welcome real data from sellers that are still there. Although I would love to have seen 100% port disabling and SS walking things back I know that won't happen.
The other thing with this new scheme is it opens SS up to offering more and more lower priced sales because they can pass the low prices on now. Before there was a .25 to .38 floor now there is a .10 floor. Sadly that race to the bottom will effect everyone at SS or not. The reset in January and assuming 100% subs use for calculating payment is just a money grab.
398
« on: July 24, 2020, 15:02 »
Interesting different source of data. It was nice when you could actually see the SS search data and it would have been interesting to compare these 2 different ways of getting at what people search for on SS. I wonder if clickstream is running on the corporate computers that do a lot of the buying on a site like SS. Then again - since the huge corporate accounts yield 10cent subs, who wants to cater to them anyway.
I think you need more than to know that there are a lot of searches for something to make images that will appear on the first few pages of a search and thus will be seen - especially for anything that has over a quarter of a million results on SS already. Still, if there are that many images and they aren't searched for, there is no point in making more images.
399
« on: July 20, 2020, 19:58 »
June 2020 subs are posted in my account. Just the $ amount, not the total # of DL so we don't get to see how many cents we got per DL (if it even is a cent). My total is slightly less than May and slightly more than April.
spoiler - my total $ is not double March or any other month this year.
(edited because for no good reason I wrote March twice instead of May and April)
400
« on: July 20, 2020, 18:55 »
In general we are supplying something that is for the most part hugely oversupplied.
I am surprised that places overhaul the contributor side of their web sites without really talking to any contributors (that is what it seems like anyway). Some examples - the DT graph default is stacked bars - what a completely useless way of showing data that I can't imagine anyone that actually wants to get information from the graph would select - and yet that is the default.
I can understand why they don't make little tweaks that are requested - that could be a lot more work than it is worth, but when they do go making changes it is almost like they scrap what is useful and expand what isn't. I'm sure they are spending a lot of $ on making these changes, so you would think they would do a tiny bit of research on what would actually be helpful or useful.
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