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Messages - sharpshot
Pages: 1 ... 14 15 16 17 18 [19] 20 21 22 23 24 ... 263
451
« on: November 16, 2016, 04:54 »
After getting rid of a lot of contributors by making the tax situation unclear, this will probably get rid of a lot of buyers. Just look how badly GLStockImages did when they stopped new submissions.
452
« on: November 16, 2016, 04:46 »
Perhaps its microstock style images of people that don't sell well on Alamy? My microstock images sell better than my editorial images that are exclusive on Alamy. I don't mind doing the keywords because other people don't bother and it makes it easier for me to sell.
Alamy sales are above DT, FT and 123RF for me. Unlike most of the microstock sites, I feel that it's worth uploading new images to Alamy. They don't sink without trace like they are currently doing with SS.
453
« on: November 15, 2016, 13:45 »
I would rather sign a petition asking buyers to not use Getty/istock because we will no longer be able to afford to supply new images to them.
454
« on: November 14, 2016, 11:49 »
That's good to know, tried the same thing. No idea why all sales, even on the 3rd party sites stopped. They used to be a good site but I can't believe that huge list of 3rd party sites all stopped selling. I'm uploading directly to one of those sites and get sales, so something is wrong.
455
« on: November 14, 2016, 11:25 »
What happens if they ignore this petition? I think the only way they would take any notice is if enough of us were willing to take down all our images, otherwise they can get away with ignoring it. Deactivation day failed a few years ago because people were still making good money with them but now I think the time has come when we need to do more than just sign a petition.
456
« on: November 09, 2016, 05:02 »
Maybe they are going to use all the money on a wall between Trump tower and the SS HQ 
457
« on: November 09, 2016, 04:51 »
I go this one wrong. It dawned on me this week that Clinton was going to lose. Hope it wont damage the US based microstock sites. They will be paying less taxes (if they pay any now ).
458
« on: November 09, 2016, 04:33 »
I still can't quite believe that so few people made a stand when they cut below 20%. That was the final straw for me, all my best selling images were deactivated and I haven't uploaded anything new for years.
If Getty had the choice of paying us 30% or having no images to sell, what would they choose? If they chose to have no images to sell, that would send buyers to sites that pay us more. Isn't that the worst that could happen if we all decided not to put up with less than 20%? Obviously this is different for exclusives but they don't seem to have as many of them as they used to.
Fully agree.
Typical case of Prisoner's Dilemma:
"I know we're all better off if we all leave. But if I silently stay while others leave, I will have less competition, so I am better off".
Unability to cooperate due to the theoretical possibility to gain by not cooperating...
Hopefully istock have proven that staying with them didn't make things better. I think my earnings went up on other sites when I deactivated all my best selling images, it looks like most buyers search for images on more than one site. All the time I would of spent uploading to istock went on uploading to Alamy and they now make as much as I was getting from istock when they had my full portfolio. It feels much more satisfying working with a site that has a 50/50 split.
459
« on: November 09, 2016, 04:07 »
Self hosted in the poll results is for people who have their own personal sites. A few make money but I think most people will find it difficult to make much more than they spend on hosting and advertising.
460
« on: November 08, 2016, 11:54 »
dont forget: "fair pay" depends on where you live.
Greetings from Zimbabwe
Now I understand. If you come from a country that has had a $100 trillion banknote microstock sites must seem amazing.
461
« on: November 08, 2016, 11:37 »
I cannot change the company policy. I can either agree or disagree like in any other business. If I am an employee and dont like my company, I better quit. If I am self employed and my customer does not pay me what I want, I better look for another opportunity.
There have been many times in the past when enough of us have complained and we have changed a company policy. Ignoring problems would of made us a lot worse off and sometimes it also benefits a site, if we see problems that they haven't thought of.
462
« on: November 08, 2016, 10:44 »
I still can't quite believe that so few people made a stand when they cut below 20%. That was the final straw for me, all my best selling images were deactivated and I haven't uploaded anything new for years.
If Getty had the choice of paying us 30% or having no images to sell, what would they choose? If they chose to have no images to sell, that would send buyers to sites that pay us more. Isn't that the worst that could happen if we all decided not to put up with less than 20%? Obviously this is different for exclusives but they don't seem to have as many of them as they used to.
463
« on: November 08, 2016, 10:18 »
What means quality to me as an illustrator?
Number one is Innovation, I have to produce new and better ideas than others.
I have to accept that I have hundred of thousands of competitors world wide.
I have to do extensive studies on present keyword trends. And I have to avoid common and boring keywords. This takes plenty of time! Its horrible, its boring, I hate it!
I have to be perfect in Adobe Illustrator.
I have to archive a very high acceptance rate.
I need good communication skills when I get in contact with agencies.
I must be addicted to the job I am doing.
I have to produce 100 images to get around 5 top sellers. Every day is a hard days work.
And all that is pointless if the agencies don't pay enough for your work. I know a lot of people have no reason to complain but if we all just accepted sites doing what istock have done to us, there would be no point in working hard at this.
464
« on: November 05, 2016, 12:31 »
I wont be signing a petition to keep 15 to 20% when other sites pay 30 to 50%. They used to have an excuse when they had high sales volume but now that's gone, they seem like a waste of time for non-exclusives.
465
« on: November 04, 2016, 04:36 »
Managed to start deactivating. When are they stopping us deactivating?
According to iStock some time in August 
Must be the first time their complete incompetence has been to my advantage
466
« on: November 03, 2016, 07:03 »
Managed to start deactivating. When are they stopping us deactivating?
467
« on: November 03, 2016, 06:59 »
Seems like a total waste of time for non-exclusives. I think deactivating images or closing accounts is more likely to make buyers look at other sites. If istock can get away with 15% for so many years, they will always find enough mugs to supply them but hopefully they wont supply what buyers want and they will go elsewhere.
468
« on: November 01, 2016, 14:10 »
Shutterstock was down a bit but it depends on those big sales now and I didn't get many last month. One of the lower sites in the poll here made more than SS for the first time. Don't really want to say what site it was because I am quite happy if most people are ignoring them Alamy were good in October.
469
« on: November 01, 2016, 05:32 »
Good luck Anna! however there is something strange going on at Adobe. A friend of mine with nearly 5000 files turned Emerald just two weeks ago and suddenly it could go like twelve hours without a download and earnings were really down.
He wrote to the admin asking what was going on and the reply was basically like take it or leave it.
He has exactly the same mirrored portfolio at SS and the sales are coming in all the time approx ten times more then Adobe. Can it really be that much difference?
I didn't get anywhere near emerald but was doing well a few years ago when suddenly my sales collapsed. Years later I still sell very little with them compared to the other sites.
470
« on: October 30, 2016, 14:11 »
What's up with their royalty free editorial? Wasn't it supposed to come in September?
I dont think a date was given but does seem to be taking a long time....
They first mentioned that the new tools were "soon" to be released back in March. They then said that they are "in the final stages of testing" these tools" back in September. It seems the have the most stretched definition of "soon" I've ever come across  I know it's important to iron out things before releasing them, but first, companies with such potential can mobilize and release new products/tools within relatively short period of time, and secondly, no one can make a perfect bug-less IT product, you have to go through the beta mode and iron it out with the help of users; why wait so long?
And why announcing the news if things are not ready at all? Liars
They are more truthful than most of the sites I use that either keep us in the dark or tell us something good is going to happen only to find it's actually bad news. Having seen how long it took them to start selling video after they started hinting about it, I no longer think anything is going to happen quickly. It would be good if they could work faster after hinting about it but I really don't mind.
471
« on: October 30, 2016, 13:52 »
I deactivated all my best images years ago but thought I would deactivate some more and I can't even log in. Will try again tomorrow.
472
« on: October 29, 2016, 11:25 »
Every time they pay us less, they lose lots of images that might be just what their buyers want and can be found on their rival sites. They lose buyers when we tell them how little istock pay and how only amateurs will do microstock if sites keep almost all the money. If if doesn't make a difference, I wonder why istock are doing so badly?
If they want to make more money, they should try paying us more.
473
« on: October 19, 2016, 05:39 »
Some of my new images sell but not in anywhere near the amounts they used to. Looks like the only option is to upload images that are better than they already have or are of subjects that have little competition but still interest buyers. Neither of those options is easy and I have found it hard to motivate myself to upload new images. I can survive on my earnings from old images but if that continues to decline, I'm sure I will have to get back in to uploading new images. However hard I try to find something as good as stock photography to make money from, there's nothing quite like it for me.
474
« on: October 19, 2016, 05:31 »
What I don't understand is that if what Canva are doing is working well, why aren't Shutterstock and the other big sites offering the same thing? I like Canva from the contributors point of view, really interesting to see how my images are being used in designs and they sell a lot. I just can't understand why the big sites haven't reacted to this. Are they becoming like Getty were when istock was starting to become a threat and they ignored it for too long?
Also strange how Canva never makes it in to the poll results here. I don't bother doing the poll most months, perhaps all the other people doing well with them don't bother either? They would be in second place for me.
475
« on: October 18, 2016, 04:17 »
I haven't noticed much suffering so far. Some prices have gone up but I'm making more money from most of the sites that pay in dollars and euros.
I can see the benefits of being in the EU but there was no compromises made when huge numbers of people started moving from the less well off economies to the wealthier countries. It was perceived as being a problem, even if there were benefits. If the UK now ends up outside the single market, I think business rates will be cut to make sure that the European businesses don't leave. It looks like more countries will leave the EU if they don't make sensible reforms. While I'm disappointed that the UK is leaving the EU, I'm more disappointed that they didn't try harder to keep us in it.
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