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Messages - pancaketom
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701
« on: August 02, 2017, 11:24 »
What is to stop them from upping the subscription cost and lowering the per item cost once they get going?
702
« on: August 01, 2017, 10:27 »
SS was horrible. Lowest RPI ever, I have to go back to Nov 2007 to find a lower month there - that was with less than 1/6 of the images (nearly 1/7).
It wasn't the worst month of the year - in fact there were 2 worse this year. Ok sales at Alamy and a few of my middle sellers kept things from being completely dire, but it is still pretty sad.
703
« on: July 17, 2017, 16:46 »
I think it will be a camera upgrade that will force me to leave the PS universe. I refuse to go to subscription software. Until then an older version does more than I need it to, although I am sure there are some upgrades that would be nice.
704
« on: July 12, 2017, 10:35 »
For July SS is my number 3 agent so far - Sure the ones ahead are due to one off sales, but nearly half way through the month SS should be ahead of them anyway. It isn't.
705
« on: July 09, 2017, 20:00 »
It's time to accept the market we are in and make the most of it, or leave altogether and make a living in a more "fair" market...
Why?
Why should we have to leave altogether? As I said, I don't consider iStock to be worth uploading to any more but I don't feel inclined to leave when I'm still getting a little bit back for effort I made in the past.
I was referring to Microstock altogether and iStock is the pinnacle of the negative side of the conversation - somehow they represent everything wrong in the industry... Weather we like it or not they are one of the major players and also are part of the overall policy making. Having, even a few, commissions of 0.0something is sad and makes me furious but the overall picture is that their model works for both them and us.
I think worth uploading to iStock cause my spread sheet says so and so does for all their contributors. They are not going to change their approach unless the marketplace punish them for being out of balance. As long as they have happy customers, price/quality-wise and happy contributors return-wise they are going to keep on doing what they do, being major players & policy makers.
We either accept it and do the best with it or leave altogether...
What I'm trying to say is that I'm tired of all the nagging about iStock!
are you a vector artist and thus getting 33% more return for every sale than indy photographers do?
706
« on: July 06, 2017, 13:26 »
Hey all,
Do you also get a feeling of excitement in anticipation of seeing your "single & other" download in your earnings summary tab. Usually it's only a few nickels above a standard sub but I'm always hoping it's a $80+ download...it feels kinda like playing a scratch card lottery 
I do, unfortunately, all SOD-s lately are less than 1$
Its a long time since I netted one of those "biggies" 
over a year for me, the Alamy lottery is a lot more fun. (although the monthly total from SS usually beats it)
707
« on: July 04, 2017, 18:09 »
I liked the fact that you could see your totals for images and sales on all the contributor pages. I guess that had to go as all the sites move to make useful information harder to see. sigh.
708
« on: July 03, 2017, 12:57 »
...
what surprises me is for example i uploaded a famous landmark from a big touristic destination, a photo that has 100000 similarities...uploaded in dec 2016 is number 2 in popularity right now in search engine and sell practically 3 times a day since january. i have uploaded other image in 2017 that are now near top of search engine and i sold practically every other day...
according to people they were images that was useless upload due to competition...but they managed to reach top search.
contrary uploaded lifestyle and food photography i had great hope they could become a winner and still they not have a single sale.
so it puzzles me cause everybody tell shot people and lifestyle is the key, while landscape and travel is useless...for me is the contrary right now.
perhaps you are the current beneficiary of some sort of location based preference in the search engine. Enjoy the sales while you get them, because one day that tap might be turned off.
709
« on: June 22, 2017, 14:29 »
I blitzed through the surveys except for the parts where I got to actually type stuff in. I unloaded both barrels there ending with unless you make drastic changes I hope your contributors and buyers all move elsewhere.
710
« on: June 01, 2017, 14:03 »
Nice, I haven't had any big sales in a while so I checked when the last was. One video last July and then some 4.35 last June and before. I have to go back to Feb 2016 for a real bigger sale on SS. (Alamy has taken up some slack, but not enough).
711
« on: June 01, 2017, 12:44 »
Overall back to the pretty poor level things have been at for the last year or so minus the last 3 months (mostly due to good or great Alamy sales).
SS continues to be about 50% of where they were. I haven't had a sale over 2.85 in ages (one video last July and some 4.35s last June). It used to be glaringly obvious what days were weekends looking at the monthly earnings report - now not so much and it isn't because the weekend sales are up.
Also a number of the lower sellers were 0 sales last month - FP, SF, GL.
Of course I have no idea about IS, but a few .01 sales won't make much difference.
712
« on: May 30, 2017, 15:11 »
For several years I have been uploading very little, and surprisingly my monthly earnings continued to move within a very narrow band. There was an amount which I identified as "my minimum" and my monthly earnings usually were within the range: minimum + around 15%. Sometimes a fluke at the end of the month could have made it: minimum + 20%. I could not complain about it because I wasn't uploading very actively. If a had an excellent start of the month, later weeks sucked really bad.
Call it a cap, or "more even distribution of revenue", I didn't mind it.
The problem for me is that in November somehow they "seem to have suddenly lowered my minimum amount" by about 25-30%. My monthly earnings still move within a surprisingly narrow range, but this range is much lower than in the past and that sucks.
or maybe they just gave a boost to newer images at that time and since all your images were older...
713
« on: May 24, 2017, 09:46 »
what scale did they use on the total $ paid out graph? it looks like 10M per horizontal line near the top, but what is it at the bottom?
I'd love to see that graph have a linear or other reasonable axis and include SS take plus total number of sales plus total number of images for sale. Also a breakout of video would be interesting.
I guess whoever was saying it is all going to Europe wasn't so far off.
714
« on: May 17, 2017, 12:27 »
Thanks for sharing. I started about the same time, but with photography and significantly less talent, effort, and success. My best years were 2011-2013 and since then I have been less motivated and had lower expectations. I have managed to get some other income opportunities with my photography but it wasn't through microstock (although I certainly learned an awful lot from Microsoft University).
I figure there will be a fairly long glide path for my micro income, partly effected by my work in it but also on search changes and how many others get demotivated and stop.
715
« on: May 11, 2017, 11:07 »
The link worked for me.
Do you really need pictures of people shaking hands?
Also it seems a bit ambitious to expect us to get model releases for city and tourist location crowds and property releases for the latest tech and major city buildings.
Still, it is good to see what is said to be needed (I still am doubtful about the handshakes).
Also as far as I can tell when they say "authentic" they usually mean "authentically beautiful people in poses that look like they aren't poses".
716
« on: May 09, 2017, 18:37 »
I got 1 download over the weekend. Pretty demotivating.
717
« on: May 09, 2017, 16:05 »
My "revenue" there is already over last year (my take might not be because of the distributor cut). My sales are pretty infrequent and random, so some months 0, some months up to 5 or 6. This month 0 so far.
718
« on: May 06, 2017, 16:13 »
also remember that SS accepts editorial, but Fot does not.
What surprises me is the difference between iS exclusive and non-exclusive in the table.
I am guessing that most who aren't doing fairly well at IS have quit exclusivity by now. Most who have quit exclusivity are not uploading much there anymore so sales are pretty poor for them. If your SS went from $1000/mo to $300/mo you are going to be upset and complaining about it - meanwhile FT goes from $200 to $250 so they still are lower but you aren't complaining about them...
719
« on: May 05, 2017, 12:43 »
I used to upload however many pics I had ready (none to 20 plus a week) to SS to have them accepted Sun night / Monday morning. Of course that timing didn't always work out. Now I still try to do that but with less success and care - more like Mantis - I upload the pics I want to when I feel like it. I don't think this helps my income any, but the big drop was while I was still uploading. From time to time I get inspired to do more work, and sometimes I am busy with other stuff and ignore stock (at least the processing and uploading) for months on end. (this is 99% photos). As far as I can tell the number and timing of uploads only has a vague and long term effect on my sales. (unlike years ago when uploading a batch of images would result in an immediate bump of sales of those images and perhaps older ones too).
The timing on SS has been weird lately - uploaded Sat evening - accepted in minutes. Uploaded Sun Morning - partly accepted Thursday afternoon. So much for that batch.
Perhaps I should try the PixelBytes strategy.
720
« on: May 04, 2017, 00:01 »
3X what I got last month will bring me back up to the good old days. woo yay (if only it were true)
They really should have taken another 2 or 3 minutes to include an explanation of why the first e-mail was wrong and that the second one was the correct amount and all we would get.
721
« on: May 02, 2017, 15:25 »
While submitting an image today I've noticed that the free section is turned on.
I had turned it off previously and it was off by default.
I've checked my previous files and it seems it was turned on for some time.
I am not sure how this happened.
How do we tell if this is turned on? especially for past images that might have been submitted that way?
722
« on: May 01, 2017, 11:14 »
It actually just loaded for me -on firefox- for the first time in a few days. I just assumed it had more to do with my horrible internet than SS, but when I did try it with decent wifi Saturday it didn't load either.
I was actually able to do everything I needed to do, but it is easier when the page loads.
Last week uploads were accepted within a few hours on Sat. Sunday uploads weren't reviewed until Thursday.
723
« on: May 01, 2017, 10:48 »
Better than I expected - mostly due to a few big Alamy sales. SS was pretty horrible (about 1/3 of my 2012 average there) but actually beat an even worse December. Pretty much every site that matters was either close to or less than March, but March was good. Adobe was rising nicely but went down in April.
The thing that worries me is that it is just a few somewhat random sales that account for making this a decent month. The total # of sales at sites like SS are down a lot.
724
« on: April 29, 2017, 15:03 »
good - I got some big value Alamy sales
Bad - the biggest 2 were distribution - so I get 40% less
good - many more weekend days than 2 a week
bad - that is based on SS sales
Good - I got to play with my friend's full frame camera
bad - now I want one
Good - March was my best month in $ in over a year
Bad - April is looking really bad other than Alamy
good - lots of wildflowers out and about right now
bad - it has been really windy which makes photos frustrating except in full sun
Actually other than SS things have been going pretty well.
725
« on: April 25, 2017, 14:47 »
I can compare 10 and 1, that doesn't mean that 1 is a good deal for me.
I wish they had some real info - I would be for it if it was the only way to sell high $ sales on Adobe - otherwise every time I only get a cut of a cut it hurts. So if Adobe sells for 100$ and P5 get 30$ and I get 15 - it is like selling on Istock.
If we upload to P5 first and then to Adobe or FT does that mean that they will remove the P5 images as we upload to Adobe/FT, or does that mean they will take the P5 images and not our Adobe/FT uploads?
I wouldn't be surprised if IS puts our stuff on Getty which puts it on one of their private collections which puts it on another one each skimming up to 85% each time and we get a few cents. Thanks for the "exciting opportunity".
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