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VideoBlocks / Re: FTP server not working?
« on: February 20, 2017, 19:39 »
Same here, but also I am getting emails with sales but they are not reflected on the contributor website. Anyone experiencing the same problem?
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VideoBlocks / Re: FTP server not working?« on: February 20, 2017, 19:39 »
Same here, but also I am getting emails with sales but they are not reflected on the contributor website. Anyone experiencing the same problem?
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iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock Royalty Change« on: October 25, 2016, 16:29 »
My current video royalty as a non-exclusive is 17% the new increase will give me 20% or 3% extra. This would be good if the actual commission was competitive i.e. $22 USD for HD and $46 USD for 4k but no we get $12 USD for HD or 4k like jjneff has stated. It is some improvement but far from being competitive. I will continue to avoid uploading new footage until we get competitive revenue as non exclusives in video, it is simply not viable as a single Video Blocks HD sale is worth 4x an iStock HD as non exclusive.
It will be some time before the other royalties in Photo and Vector and their subs start to trickle and impact the graph and see how we have fared there. The whole point of Subs is that owners of the plan squander a big percentage of their daily download allotment so that makes it viable for the companies and us contributors. However it could go terribly wrong with these adjustments. I will wait and see how it evolves before condemning the new breakdown. Thanks to sites like Video Blocks and the new Adobe Stock which mirrors Fotolia, I am having an uptick in sales this year compared to the downward slide the last 5 years. I am close to increasing my revenue by 18% this year which is encouraging. ![]() 53
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock down again? (UK)« on: October 21, 2016, 15:32 »
This is the strongest cyberattack in recent memory according to experts, for us many sites just don't work at all. It is a DNS style attack which kills the ability of routing URL servers to serve users so even when the sites are working we cannot get to them unless we use a direct IP route.
Goes to show how fragile the entire DNS web system is and no dependable redundancy. I think we can kiss most earnings today goodbye. 54
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Letter from Getty: Googles Actions Threaten Creative Livelihoods« on: September 28, 2016, 16:49 »
I signed it, however I feel that Getty takes more out of the pie than most instances of infringement from our revenues.
Working with agencies that offer better royalties are the only sustainable way for me to continue to work today, If I relied on Getty alone I would have thrown in the towel years ago as my revenues would continue to decline month by month. Hopefully they will realize that paying us a fair share goes a long way to make the business stable and more rewarding for both parties in the long term. 55
iStockPhoto.com / Re: photographer-suing-getty-images-1-billion/« on: August 02, 2016, 12:18 »
Getty responds on this Dpreview post:
https://www.dpreview.com/news/3605442413/getty-images-says-1-billion-lawsuit-is-based-on-misconceptions Sounds like Alamy should lawyer up! 56
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Getty e-mail about iStock "Contributor Facing Changes"« on: July 31, 2016, 16:05 »
I canceled video exclusivity in 2010 and it was a great decision by any measure stopped uploading footage then aswell . I remained exclusive in other media until now. If they make royalties 20% for exclusivity then I will become non exclusive on those other media also.
Wonder how all of this will play out. It was so easy to fix back in 2007 when they still controlled most micro and macro but they decided to erode the contrinutors to the bone instead. ![]() 57
VideoBlocks / Re: Tax Withheld rate change?« on: May 17, 2016, 18:36 »
Same here! I am posting my response so you all are informed without the need to contact them. This should be fixed soon:
"Were actually in the process of updating our Tax API to make workflows smoother. Since we have to port all forms, tax percentages have temporarily been reset until our team can update each account. Youll still receive your reduced withholdings and get the 100% commission, so you can disregard this commission error in the email and your Finance page as well update these commissions to reflect the right numbers as soon as possible. Thanks!" 58
Adobe Stock / Has Fotolia Stop Accepting Coin / Currency Videos or Images?« on: April 06, 2016, 21:26 »
Had two rejections for some coin videos due to intellectual property. These are not British pounds but other common currencies available wide spread on the Fotolia site and other sites.
I contacted support and got this answer: Our acceptance criteria is changing regarding currency. I'm sorry but we cannot accept that content at this time. Kind regards, ______________ Seems that they want no issues with any type of money woes. Much like Photoshop rejects scanning money, Fotolia will become a currency-less stock site. Seems that it is a blanket statement for all of these files. I can understand high resolution bills seen complete but in a video with motion and of coins? Other sites have no problem with these videos. Also of note is that Fotolia lists currency and money as a category in the pull-down menu when keywording. Would love to know your opinion on this. 59
Pond5 / Re: Pond 5 review changes« on: March 10, 2016, 19:51 »
40% rejection after 2 months wait here. I never had that happen at Pond5, usually 100% or 95% approval. Most of the clips are new 4k clips which there is no 4k equivalent on the site. Rejection reasons like :
"Thanks for the upload but we are seeking uniquely original and vibrant content, so we have decided not to include this video as part of our collection.Please let us know if you have any questions" "Thanks for the upload but we have decided not to include this clip as part of our collection. The clip has no motion and looks like still frame. Please let us know if you have any question." This is ridiculous, so locked shots are out, it takes a lot longer to upload and keyword on Pond 5 than most of the other sites, it took 2 months to review or more and then the boatload of arbitrary rejections. Sales have been ok but trending lower compared to other sites. The other sites accepted these clips and have started selling no problem especially the 4k ones. I am disheartened at best and now I am frankly scared of submitting content and waste valuable time in the upload process. I really think they need to rethink this strategy. Maybe they have reached critical mass and do not want to have tons of content as a marketplace and more as a curated collection. 60
123RF / Re: I see tax form 1099 and form 1042-s, What is the second one? Is it a mistake?« on: March 10, 2016, 16:41 »
I made just shy of $600 from them in 2015 however I got paid over $800 from 2014 remaining balances. So I declared the full payout amount 800+ which is what I received. I filed it as other business income as royalties.
I cannot wait for them to get their act together with the forms this year. It is a tiny part of my return and holding would cost me in time and $. My accountant said that if I did not receive a 1099 from them then declaring it as other business income is the way to go. Taxed the same just different form. Maybe next year they will fix the way they file the forms. 61
123RF / Re: I see tax form 1099 and form 1042-s, What is the second one? Is it a mistake?« on: March 03, 2016, 15:26 »
I got an answer back:
Thank you for contacting us. Your Tax Centre page does not have the 1099 Tax statement as you did not incur any withholding tax. We hope this clarifies. ______________ This is wrong, a 1099 must be issued regardless if you had money withheld or not if you reside in the US and had income. I believe they are confused with US tax paperwork over there. This is so frustrating! ![]() 62
123RF / Re: I see tax form 1099 and form 1042-s, What is the second one? Is it a mistake?« on: March 02, 2016, 17:03 »
Crazy, 1099 is for Miscellaneous income reporting including royalties. In the worst case if we do not get a form we have to compute the exact deposits we got as earnings and file that as other income without a form 1099.
Lets hope they get it by March 10th. ![]() 63
123RF / Re: I see tax form 1099 and form 1042-s, What is the second one? Is it a mistake?« on: March 02, 2016, 15:48 »
Can't find my form either, I contacted contributor support days ago and no answer yet. I can't file my return as this is the last site missing the form.
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Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock expands headquarters while contracting our earnings« on: February 29, 2016, 17:33 »
Just wanted to drop by and say that there are many who read these forums and don't post regularly including myself. Thank you for the interesting and important discussions.
As a video only contributor to SS I can say that the trend at least for now is slightly up in sales for 2 years in a row. It may be that there is still some growth left in video compared to photo. 65
General - Stock Video / Re: Revostock Payments« on: October 31, 2015, 03:39 »
If we are not getting paid could we at least declare it as a loss in business income as in a tax loss credit? That could work out.
But we would need Revostock to file some forms to us for the IRS so we could use them in case of an audit. A tax credit is a good way to use this unfortunate situation. 66
General - Stock Video / Re: Revostock Payments« on: October 23, 2015, 04:21 »
I am owed around $400 but hard to tell as they hold all of the stats now. I only have a rough estimate from my spreadsheet that gets near that.
I OCRd the Text Image placeholder at the site: "Unfortunately, there is never a good time to end a business, especially one that has been around almost 10 years as RevoStock has. I started RevoStock in 2006, excited about bringing the microstock idea to the world of video. Along the way, Revo brought many firsts including the first site to succesfully offer both audio and video, the first site to sell After Effects Templates and the first site to offer FlexFile custom encoding. We stayed a small company but were able to grow fast in spite of the fact that we did not have any outside funding. However, starting in 2012, our struggle with a Patent Troll (a company that buys or acquires broad patents they can use to sue as many companies as possible) was the beginning of a very difficult period our small company simply was not able to rebound from. While the lawsuit was dismissed after 2 years, the scars left from this struggle made it equally difficult to get the funding we needed to recover and thus continue growing and innovating. If you are not familiar with the unfair damage Patent Trolls are causing to small companies like ours, I encourage you to watch John Oliver's (HBO) recent piece unmasking the ways Patent Trolls kill small businesses and stifle innovation. I am deeply grateful to our talented producers who, following this suit, gave us a chance at recovery and I am very sorry we were not able to see it through. Thank you so much for your talent. I know how much time, effort and trust you have put into me and RevoStock and while I labored until the end to deliver a solution, I deeply regret that it wasn't possible. I am also thankful to all of the customers who have supported us all these years and come to us for your stock media needs. Thank you so much for choosing us. It has been an honor to serve you and interact with you. The last few months have been rocky for us and I hope our reputation might stand on our previous nine years of service. We are currently working on securing a partnership for both our RevoStock producers and customers with one of the many other quality media marketplaces that will honor your current relationship with RevoStock in the best way possible. We will be sending out an email to this effect as soon as there are more details to be had. - Craig Lillard (Founder, RevoStock) " It will be interesting what that partnership looks like and if we will have access to retroactive payments. Our content has been used and clients were charged for it. They should have never used contributor payment as a means for sustainability. This is a really awful situation and having complete site blackout is unnerving. Maybe Revo will be absorbed by a bigger competitor and have it as a side collection. I highly doubt payments outstanding will be honored now. My guess is that Craig is filing Chapter 11 as so to gain the protections it grants. Sad state of affairs I feel bad for all involved as no real solution was found to keep it afloat. ![]() 67
General - Stock Video / Re: Revostock Payments« on: August 17, 2015, 16:52 »
I guess everyone has seen the latest blog post about the situation at Revostock but here it is just in case:
http://www.revostock.com/ProducerNews.html?ID=256 Now It does look like there is light at the end of the tunnel and I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait a bit more. I appreciate the direct communication and feel more optimistic about the whole thing! 68
General - Stock Video / Re: Slow motion 720 vs upsized to 1080« on: July 28, 2015, 17:04 »
Just upload it at the original size. Buyers can scale up or down as they please. You wouldn't sell a car cover for a pickup truck that only fits a VW beetle right? Check the list at hispeedcams.com for cameras that shoot slow motion on a budget if you need higher resolution.
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General - Stock Video / Re: VideoBlocks has become my #3 earner in June. This month on much higher pace!« on: July 24, 2015, 13:58 »
Doing good at Videoblocks this month 4 sales which beats last month at 0. I'm impressed about their execution in such a short time and the way the website works, it is very easy and intuitive. I have only ported 10% of my portfolio so far this is encouraging!
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General Stock Discussion / Re: Agency Significantly Owned by Contributors« on: July 14, 2015, 16:49 »
I think SS is still overvalued with a huge P/E Ratio. It still has a way to go to stabilize. I would maybe buy at $25 http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=SSTK+Interactive#{"showArea":false,"showLine":false,"lineWidth":"2","showCandle":true,"lineType":"candle","range":"5y","allowChartStacking":true}
If you want to have a long term stock this is not the one. I am an owner in Oils at the moment as they are on multi year lows and pay huge dividends. Shell for example is paying 6.4% dividend now and it is at a 3 year low. I don't see much enthusiasm for this GDI Media deal, wonder what the game plan is. 71
General Stock Discussion / Re: Agency Significantly Owned by Contributors« on: July 13, 2015, 14:33 »
Just got the same invitation message, wonder if anyone has signed up or become an investor?
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General - Stock Video / Re: VideoBlocks sales nearly tripled in June from May. I'm happy.« on: July 09, 2015, 12:41 »
Got a sale in May and none in June but just got another sale Today. I'm continuing to upload slowly but surely. It makes sense to support people that are good to artists IMO.
On another note the way they have the site working is in my view one of the best stock sites ever for submitting content. Right to the point and little hassle. Whomever designed it knew well what he/she was doing in respects to uploading procedures. 73
General - Stock Video / Re: Revostock Payments« on: July 08, 2015, 20:42 »
I am owed about $300 since March, I think they need a little more time to get their footing. I keep selling clips which means its alive. Lets hope they can get out of the bind and move forward and eventually finalize payments.
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General - Stock Video / Re: 100% commission site VideoBlocks opened! I see a few major content producers.« on: April 22, 2015, 13:43 »
I decided to give them a go and started uploading video today. If the business model works out all for the better. Wish them success!
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iStockPhoto.com / Re: Getty profits decline on poor istock performance« on: February 27, 2015, 20:37 »
Bill Gates's - Corbis could buy them up Reduce redundancy and just become stronger in the process. Since they are unprofitable as far as I know it could mean a way for them to be so.
If I had the cash I would buy Getty but I would turn it into a fair commission and fair for clients price place. Which in turn would probably run me to the ground as the debt is so high, it would take years for it to change enough with clients to turn the necessary profit to dig out. Whomever buys it has to have a way to pay the debt outside of the ability of the company itself to do so. Pay the debt with outside cash or an IPO and then restructure and fix it from within. Then it can fundamentaly change for the better and turn a profit. |
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