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Messages - Pauws99
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551
« on: April 06, 2019, 02:20 »
Amazingly I just stumbled over the payment threshold. Its been a while I know they pay by 16th but anyone know if they send any notification or update before sending?
552
« on: April 06, 2019, 01:18 »
... almost double my numbers in the past months ... have you seen the same phenomenon for your portfolio?
How do you know what is being downloaded in March? We don't get that info until around the 21st of the next month. I must be missing something.
You can't see which files sold, but you can see how many are selling in quasi real time fits and starts) in your profile. However the number is obfuscated for exclusives who get two 'counts' per 'plusses sale counting towards the targets.
Sue,
OK, on the esp.gettyimages site I went to my Profile, then Performance, then Downloads and the most recent downloads available are from February ... March is not available.
I must be doing something wrong ... am I looking in the wrong place?
In your account profile you can see "downloads to date" Personally I think its a totally unreliable stat. What you can't see is what has been downloaded in ESP you can see views and interactions. Which gives some kind of overview of activity on your account.
553
« on: April 05, 2019, 11:46 »
For me - $9650/month in royalty sales would be a good wage. Still $3,663 is quite good. I believe after about $3,000/month in sales (at least for north america) - then it starts to become 'livable' if you are living in a small to mid-sized city. Anything above that starts to become fun money 
$3k/month goes long ways in most parts of the world! I'm in Portugal where the minimum wage is relatively low for European standards at $700/month.
$3k/month is a huge salary here. Same goes for microstock hot-spots such as Ukraine and Thailand.
Ah, where I live, $3k usd/month pays the basic bills (living, food, internet, rent - not owning, etc). You need more than that to start to do fun stuff.
$3K income is not $3k salary though....you have the costs associated with producing the work. Paying models, props, travel equipment etc. If you can clear $3k after that I would say in most places i'e not major cities that's plenty for a fairly decent but modest lifestyle.
554
« on: April 05, 2019, 08:52 »
Yeah, unfortunately - they are allowed to do that...
When amazon first started becoming *really* popular (about 10/15 years ago) - a bunch of "internet marketers" popped up "reselling" books claiming to be a "new publisher"...
So they went to the gutenberg press (holding of public domain works) - downloaded tens of thousands of books, slapped their name on it as a "publisher", made 1-2 "edits" (i.e., commentary/intro etc on the book so they could claim it as a "new" book) - and essentially profited off of thousands and thousands of other people's hard work...
I think its not unknown outside this industry...people like "wordsworth classics" publish out of copyright works from the likes of Dickens. Reading Pickwick Papers at the moment ;-).
555
« on: April 05, 2019, 02:41 »
It seems to me yet another example of SSs obsession with quantity over quality. Everytning is done to make uploading as simple as possible. No real entrance exam anymore, no id required, lax inspection standards etc. Filling the site with stuff no one will buy. When will the shareholders wake up to this I wonder?
556
« on: April 04, 2019, 13:24 »
Probably the only thing that would make me contribute to a new agency is an up front payment for images to be paid from in future earnings....then the agency would actually need to deliver on its promises.
Lol. And how much would you want to be paid upfront? For 1 license, for 10, for 100? The agencies have serious expenses to set everything up. They are betting even more than photographers. Can you image the accumulated debt of an agency with this business model before they even get to the market?
I can understand that but given how many agencies there are why would I risk spending time uploading? Most businesses invest in their inventory before selling anything why is stock different?
557
« on: April 04, 2019, 12:23 »
Probably the only thing that would make me contribute to a new agency is an up front payment for images to be paid from in future earnings....then the agency would actually need to deliver on its promises.
558
« on: April 04, 2019, 12:09 »
Agencies and buyers are not the problem, it's contributors who undervalue their work, they could sell at 50% at a reasonable price, but they choose not to.
Really? Are the laws of supply and demand suspended from this marketplace?
I don't follow. If everyone chose to put their work on the highest paying sites then the lower paying sites would go out of business. For the most part they don't own any of the supply, we do. And to add to this, not all content is equal. If there are 1,000,000 images of apples but none of oranges what does supply and demand say about the price of oranges?
They won't all put their photos on the highest priced site will they? Over supply will drive down prices in any market. You could try and choke off supply but I doubt it will happen.
Not necessarily the highest priced, what I said was "highest paying". I meant sites that pay higher royalty rates. Supply is harder to define here not all content is a commodity maybe images of apples are but other subjects aren't. Just because there are millions of apples doesn't mean that will be useful for people looking for oranges.
I tend to think we all make a decision based on what works for us. (or should). If I had images that were hard to produce and therefore scarce I wouldn't be putting them on Microstock. Microstock is just one sales channel.
559
« on: April 04, 2019, 11:53 »
This metric on its own would not really feature in my decision. What is important to me is a convincing plan to find buyers and the potential return in $$$. 50% of one sale at $1. Isn't as good as 25% of $10. Attracting contributors if you design a pain free uploading process isn't a problem. Attracting buyers in a massively competitive industry is.
560
« on: April 04, 2019, 11:49 »
I don't follow. If everyone chose to put their work on the highest paying sites then the lower paying sites would go out of business. For the most part they don't own any of the supply, we do.
In theory. It really sounds great.
But you can't have one perfect store where every customer would be happy to shop forever and the management won't go crazy next month for whatever reasons.
It's an utopia.
I'm not saying that. If lots of people move to a higher paying site then other sites will pay more to stop losing content, a race to the top instead of a race to the bottom.
The risk is that buyers will find the content they need from lower paying sites and move there. That seems to be the more likely outcome based on the evidence.
561
« on: April 04, 2019, 11:40 »
Agencies and buyers are not the problem, it's contributors who undervalue their work, they could sell at 50% at a reasonable price, but they choose not to.
Really? Are the laws of supply and demand suspended from this marketplace?
I don't follow. If everyone chose to put their work on the highest paying sites then the lower paying sites would go out of business. For the most part they don't own any of the supply, we do. And to add to this, not all content is equal. If there are 1,000,000 images of apples but none of oranges what does supply and demand say about the price of oranges?
They won't all put their photos on the highest priced site will they? Over supply will drive down prices in any market. You could try and choke off supply but I doubt it will happen.
562
« on: April 04, 2019, 10:34 »
Agencies and buyers are not the problem, it's contributors who undervalue their work, they could sell at 50% at a reasonable price, but they choose not to.
Really? Are the laws of supply and demand suspended from this marketplace?
563
« on: April 04, 2019, 09:43 »
Seems to me these "solutions" are getting more and more complex. I think the best that could be realistically hoped for is some kind of "fair trader" certificate where members of the "club" only upload to those agencies. Even then I doubt we could agree on the criteria for that to be honest.
I agree, basically I am fine the way things are.
But if you really want to change something, or have a stocksy for the masses, you have to be really very specific and come up with a real plan.
Otherwise, you can just post a list somewhere: agencies we like...please upload here...
If people only want to rant together, fine. But I think it would also be unteresting to hear something more specific.
You will not get any improvements, if there is no plan and people dont know what they want.
THe other part of this would to be engage with sites so they could use an "ethical trader" type logo. In the UK and I dare say other countries we have a "fair trade" logo. Only if buyers showed some sympathy to the cause could this have an effect.
564
« on: April 04, 2019, 09:24 »
I am pricing my photos at $10 which is fair and they can buy cheaper at lower Res. I still get 50% which is good for me so to me it is very worth it. Now if a lot of artist did the same then where do you think buyers would go? The whole problem with this is that people don't value their work because it is so easy to take a digital picture. Now getting a model and property release is harder and should be valued more! I am an old pro at this by now and don't have trouble making decisions nor do I have trouble changing my mind if I am not happy!
The point is though it doesn't matter what you price them at if no one wants to buy them from that site. I can get why people would see a case for video as Pond5 seem to understand that market very well. From what I can see for stills they are hugely down the pecking order.
565
« on: April 04, 2019, 07:48 »
Here is a lot of newbies who can look up to them as authorities
I find it hard to believe that people deciding to enter the Stock world come with no knowledge or search for authorities.
Both newbies and old-time contributors know that there is the actual production world where everything has a price tag
and the "I got five stars in my photo" dream one where people do look for authorities, exposure, and don't care for actual money rather than fame.
Just my impression, I may be wrong. Eitherway we are (?) all adults and take responsibilities of our actions.
There are a lot of "newbies" who come into this with wildly optimistic beliefs about what they can earn and next to no knowledge of the industry. But yes people are responsible for their own research and decisions of course.
566
« on: April 04, 2019, 07:00 »
For me photo is a very very small% of what I do in stock. I am a video producer. Now for business outside of stock I do a LOT of photography. I am just tired of the penny sales so just using Pond5 to set my prices. Probably will never see a sale agin but I don't really care.
So you agree then it seems uploading images there is a bad option.
567
« on: April 04, 2019, 02:00 »
Seems to me these "solutions" are getting more and more complex. I think the best that could be realistically hoped for is some kind of "fair trader" certificate where members of the "club" only upload to those agencies. Even then I doubt we could agree on the criteria for that to be honest.
568
« on: April 04, 2019, 01:39 »
Since trying exclusive with Pond5 I am uploading my images as exclusive there as well now. I spoke to them on the phone about doing the same for photo and promoting it and they were interested. Not a bad option.
Going exclusive with images on a site that sells almost zero photos sounds like a risky strategy to me.
569
« on: April 03, 2019, 17:19 »
I believe it should be a place that offers inspections. You have to protect the customer from our mistakes and make sure there is a minimum level of quality. Also if the place offers legal guarantuees with an extended license that would be useful for the customer as well. Also somebody with professional international accounting, especially for eu sales tax and also data protection regulation
So I do believe it would need to be some kind of existing stock agency that would welcome exclusive content from people who are ready to self market via social media.
These things dont come for free.
Surely the only agency that would make this even remotely viable in the current climate would be adobe? If you wanted to do this I don't think there is anything to stop people forming a co-operative and submitting exclusive work to them now is there? The only issue would be sharing the spoils.
570
« on: April 03, 2019, 01:57 »
Wow, this thread has gotten long quickly.
In the world of microstock, I'm still a newbie. But I have already learned in 6 months these things:
1. I'm not going to bother with an agency who has no problem paying me $.03 for a sale of my photo. (iStock - I'm not uploading to them anymore)
2. With the advent of better cameras on smart phones, people all over the world can make a decent photo. BUT, if the content of your photo isn't valuable to someone else, then it won't ever sell.
3. I feel like the mass uploading of junk from people referenced in point #2 will eventually burn itself out. If you're making crap and no one buys it, how long will you continue to do it? My guess is that maybe a year at best.
4. People have short memories these days and even less patience. I think people making quality photos who put care and concern about the content and quality will continue to do well. I always ask myself... if I were in marketing, would I use this? Is the quality good enough? Does this photo tell a story or convey an emotion? If I answer no to any of those questions, then I don't invest the time in uploading and keywording it.
5. Buyers of microstock will look for other agencies if they can't find the content they need on the "regular" sites. So if an agency like SS becomes too filled with garbage those buyers might go elsewhere. Loyalty to a brand is fleeting, especially when you can't deliver a quality product anymore.
I do think there is still money to be made in microstock. And there probably always will... for those who provide quality content.
Mostly I agree it seems to me though that buyers are very loyal perhaps surprisingly. Remember though for corporate buyers switching agencies may need to go through lots of committees and those actually buying are probably required to use a restricted list of companies. Going "off piste" and buying from a different source can cause the bean counters all sorts of headaches.
571
« on: April 01, 2019, 12:56 »
And yet...I sell, nearly every day with only 1400 photos and 800 videos online and sometimes I dont upload for weeks or months.
There must be something to their software that seems to be able to present content that buyers really need or prefers portfolios with a healthy sales to upload volume.
One thing that sometimes gets overlooked is the simple fact buyers will only ever buy what they need despite all the conspiracy theories. I'm surprised my sales hold up as well as they do. I only regard myself as reasonably competent but in the last few years the standard of what now gets accepted is risible.
572
« on: April 01, 2019, 02:51 »
Hmmm...virtually impossible to find Canstock via search engine this morning. Reviews of it, questions about it but NO IT! Wonder if all goes well......
Funnily enough just had my best month on there since last June. I can treat myself to two coffees!
573
« on: March 30, 2019, 10:56 »
They pay "up to" 30% so a the actual amount is probably somewhere in the middle. But I think we agree for all its many faults and it seeming to be staggering somewhat in recent times it remains the biggest earner for the majority of contributors. If it we easy to run a business to compete with them and pay out more then they would have more competition. Plenty of people on here seem to know how to do it...perhaps they should and make a packet.
574
« on: March 29, 2019, 09:18 »
This old thread popped up, and I realized it might be relevant for some. Same old comments even 9 years ago... Race to the bottom, too much competition, evil agencies...
So, anyone still doing stock from the beginning of this thread (2010)?
It seems the imminent death of the industry may be somewhat exaggerated.
575
« on: March 29, 2019, 08:18 »
nope if anything slightly down
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