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Messages - sgoodwin4813
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751
« on: August 28, 2015, 15:50 »
DT used to be good but has died the past few months - almost all subs nowadays and credit sales mostly low value. This month was looking terrible until the past few days when it suddenly picked up a bit. I hope it means a switch but it might just be luck of the draw.
752
« on: August 27, 2015, 11:27 »
To keep up with the market, we reduced commission rates for sales in credits only. However, we raised our prices in credits to compensate lower commission payments. We believe that both parties will benefit in the long run.[/i]
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. They are raising prices - which could bring in more revenue - as a way to keep our earnings the same as they reduce the commission rate, assuming of course that increasing prices doesn't reduce sales. But how is that keeping up with the market? Their e-mail stated, "Our decision was dictated by the requirements of the market and the times, and is intended to change the profitability of the project, with the aim of giving it a new push toward future development." What are the requirements of the market and times? They need to spend more on advertising? What new ads will they be running? Or are they planning a better delivery system? Will "change the profitability" be for our benefit or only for the owners? My interpretation: "We've spent a lot of time developing this company and now we want to cash out while we can". That is exactly what they did at 123rf - there was certainly no improvement in sales after they went to the RC system to cut our commissions. I haven't uploaded anything since January so I guess I'm ahead of the curve in that respect.
753
« on: August 26, 2015, 15:13 »
Thanks. I might need to ask what is going on then.
754
« on: August 26, 2015, 11:03 »
SSTK hit the top ten most shorted stocks on the NYSE a few days ago.
I didn't know that - that is a distinction I assume most companies would want to avoid. Now I'm glad I didn't buy any.
755
« on: August 26, 2015, 11:00 »
I think Canva is good - they are the only agency getting customers by doing something different rather than just cutting prices.
Does anybody know how long reviews are taking these days? I have some submitted ten days ago that now seem to have been removed from the ftp processing queue but still haven't shown up in my portfolio. Not sure if I should worry or am just being impatient.
756
« on: August 25, 2015, 14:15 »
SSTK is now at $30.45 - there was definitely a lot of room to go short on that one.
758
« on: August 25, 2015, 08:23 »
or they are giving up, who knows.
I don't know the answer, but maybe they see the writing on the wall and are just trying to cut costs and extract as much money as they can before turning off the lights. Sales are hanging in there - they are running number three for me so far this month, just ahead of iS - but otherwise they just seem to be coasting. BS, Canstock and DT have all died for sales and seem to be doing the same thing - just hanging on until the end. DT had a big splash with their Google deal but sales have dried up the past couple of months and they are about ready to drop out of the top earners in the poll. I assume we are headed for a shakeout pretty soon where only a few will survive.
759
« on: August 24, 2015, 21:49 »
The current inflation rate in the US is 0.2% so not exactly a big problem. In fact, over the past 100 years in the US there have only been a few years when inflation was really high (e.g., over 10%). In other countries it has been a major problem and still is in some right now, e.g., Brazil where it is close to 10%. However, I don't think inflation has been a factor in the price of stock images either way.
760
« on: August 24, 2015, 12:49 »
Two weeks is way too short a time to be worrying about sales. Different images sell at different rates on various agencies. On average it looks like the action on FT is about 25% of what it is on SS according to the poll on the right. For you, zero sales on 100 images in two weeks is normal. My experience is that images often get DLs faster on SS but FT picks up eventually. For me, I usually earn from 2-7 cents per accepted image per month at FT, which I assume is low. If yours sell at the same rate then no DLs in two weeks with 100 images is about right. Once you have 1000 for a few months you will have a better idea.
761
« on: August 24, 2015, 12:36 »
What's been changed by microstock is the perceived value of the work.
Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, once the price has been lowered then that becomes what something is worth and nobody will want to pay more. That is the biggest problem with the subscription model - individual images no longer have value, their value is only as part of some larger package like phone minutes. I like to cut my morning orange juice with diet soda as a way to reduce calories. For years the price was officially around $1.99 for a 2-liter bottle of brand-name diet soda but there are always sales or discounts making them usually $1.25 or less. The other day I went to the store and there were no discounts, but there is no way I was going to pay $1.99 a bottle when for me the real value is much less. I looked at alternative brands and finally found one that is cheaper. It still was more than I wanted so I only bought one bottle and will check for a lower price next time. The price really makes no difference to me economically, I am just resistant to paying more now that my notion of the value has been reduced. It is the same with microstock. How you raise the price after that I don't know if somebody always sells the product cheaper.
762
« on: August 23, 2015, 10:04 »
And then there's the finance bit, if a company is taking 70% of the price then they have that much more money to spend on marketing, promotions, meetings with buyers etc. So its hard for a new company to retain less money and be more competitive unless we all realize that if we get more money we also have to shoulder some of the marketing responsibility (stocksy did this well, with all the contributors-owners sharing it heavily on social media) maybe we all can do the same for 500px or Pond5 or Canva or Alamy
One problem is that some of them are using their take for CEO bonuses and stock options while their market share decreases. Alamy and 123rf both gave us commission cuts with the promise that their extra take was going for increased marketing for better sales but I didn't notice an increase at either one. At 123 I'm sure it was just for the owners. Alamy gives most of their profits to charity, but it is a charity run by the family that runs the agency. I have tried to find out what the charity supports and what percentage of their money goes to charitable operations versus administration but was not able to find out anything - it may be that the "charity" is mostly for the family and a way of hiding how much they are earning (it also may be perfectly legitimate, I was just surprised that I could find almost nothing about it outside of Alamy). Maybe marketing costs are so high that it is impossible for an agency that charges less than 50% commission to survive - I don't know. Pond5 and featurepics both pay 50%. Featurepics is hanging in there but sales are slow. Canva pays us 35% but they are increasing sales so that is OK - they are the one agency nowadays that really seems to be doing something different to increase customers. I guess the Adobe deal at FT also is a new variant but it hasn't translated into much of an increase so far. The others are mainly just competing on price. Using commission cuts to advertise their low prices, which results in the need for more commission cuts is not a good use of resources IMO.
763
« on: August 22, 2015, 17:22 »
I like the thought, but unfortunately 100% of 0 is still 0, which is what I got.
764
« on: August 20, 2015, 21:04 »
It was only March that Uncle Pete started a thread when SS was approaching 50 million, and now only five months later it is over 60 million and adding over 500,000 per week. At that rate they will add over 26 million per year and the SS database will reach 100 million in only another 1.5 years. Incredible.
When I started in 2009 they had around 4 million I think and they were adding 80,000-100,000 per week which seemed like a lot. Hard to keep up with the current flood.
765
« on: August 20, 2015, 20:40 »
I got the invitation but haven't tried it out. Not sure how it will affect terms for us - I assume it will still be the same at 35 cents a DL.
766
« on: August 19, 2015, 22:12 »
I've been lucky so far but I probably shouldn't leave as much in there as I do - I'll be really annoyed if I lose it because of not transferring it out fast enough. I should probably bite the bullet and pay the conversion fee. Thanks for the reminder.
767
« on: August 19, 2015, 07:13 »
The next step should be to let European contributors get paid in euros rather than forcing you to stay in dollars just because you clicked the wrong link years ago. Grrrrr
Yes, that drives me crazy. Somehow I got signed up to be paid in British pounds, even though I am in the US and signed up on the US site - no idea how that happened. I've asked them several times if it can be changed to dollars and they say it is impossible, even though it should be a very simple programming switch. So now I have more and more British pounds stacking up in my PayPal account every year. At some point I'll have to buy something from Britain or pay the PayPal conversion fee. Very annoying and I don't understand why they can't fix a simple thing like that. At least closing DPC is a positive step - I wish they would solve the currency issue next.
768
« on: August 18, 2015, 12:17 »
I don't think it matters - just use the account you've got.
769
« on: August 17, 2015, 08:32 »
While a certain level of equipment is essential, really the "best" gear for doing microstock is the cheapest that will meet the quality requirements.
Yes, that sums it up perfectly! Microstock = micro earnings = micro expenses if you want to stay in the black. Only spend more if you are reasonably sure you can make back the expense.
770
« on: August 14, 2015, 08:40 »
..these people that try to migrate to capitalist countries - like Syrians today - are forced by pure capitalism, war is one of the main tools of capitalism, everything is much more linked than it looks on the surface...
...we will have revolutions for sure - what kind and what will be the next "solution" - I don t know...
That is nonsense - capitalism has nothing to do with wars. Certainly some capitalists have benefitted greatly from wars but most would say that war is bad for business and therefore against their self interest (getting back to the theme Zero Talent likes to bring up). In Syria the problems are caused by the dictator Assad and ISIS. Do you think ISIS is setting up a capitalist society? Certainly not! Religion is the biggest cause of wars, not capitalism. If we could get rid of religion then we could reduce differences between societies and the cause for many wars would go away immediately. Unfortunately I don't see that happening any time soon.
771
« on: August 14, 2015, 08:18 »
I've noticed the same thing - often a lag and then they start to sell. Looks like you had a good time in Hawaii.
772
« on: August 13, 2015, 09:10 »
It depends on if you are doing family vacation snapshots or travel shots for stock. I always bring a travel tripod and plan shots for stock when I am traveling, whether it is for vacation or my real job, but of course it is not necessary and too much trouble for family snapshots. To compare the lenses you could try here ( http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-XR-Di-II-Lens-Review.aspx). Not sure if that is the Tamron you are looking at, but it does have some comparisons with other brands and he talks about its strengths and weaknesses versus the Canon and others. The guy at The Digital Picture does a great job with gear reviews and is the first place I look to for unbiased reviews. Good luck!
773
« on: August 13, 2015, 08:59 »
..today's capitalist world is a world without a shred of humanity - we will have in the future a lot of violence... and revolutions...
I wouldn't go quite that far - there are still many people trying to make a positive difference and capitalist economies are the best we have. Thousands of people are dying every year trying to migrate to capitalist countries where they will have a chance at improving their lives. Unfortunately, violence and revolution seem to be a part of human nature - we have had those in abundance for the past 6000 years of recorded history and presumably long before that. With constantly increasing populations conflict is inevitable regardless of the political system. However, I agree that the system nowadays in the US at least is tilted far too much towards the wealthy. If something doesn't change we will end up with a two-tiered society of owners versus renters - maybe we are there already. Hopefully it won't take a violent revolution to fix it.
774
« on: August 13, 2015, 08:39 »
I hope he gets nominated and separates the Pubs, Then Hillary will win hands down. LOL I wouldn't be surprised if she put him up to it. Perfect Move.lol.
back to topic. shares Plummet.
Trump definitely makes things interesting. It's possible he actually thinks he has a chance of winning, or maybe it's all just for publicity and a way to feed his evidently limitless ego. He has said he likes Hillary and that the economy does much better under Democrats so maybe part of his goal is to try to make sure Hillary can win - assuming she gets the nomination instead of Bernie Sanders. The fact that so many Republicans in Iowa seriously support Trump is shocking - I assume it indicates a backlash against the ruling families and I'm all for that, just wish there was a realistic candidate. If we end up with Bernie running against Donald that would certainly say that the People are tired of politics as usual. SSTK at just under $33 this morning. With a P/E over 56 it still seems a bit overpriced to me but getting close. Wish I had bought some at the beginning and sold at the peak. I would definitely buy Canva now if they were public - they still seem to be on the upswing.
775
« on: August 12, 2015, 17:21 »
The Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 is a great all-purpose lens. I carry that plus the 10-22 and together they cover most everything for the kind of photography you mentioned.
This is a very nice solution. How sharp do you feel these lens both are? Do you get sharp related rejections on them?
Both are quite sharp, particularly the 17-55. That still doesn't stop focus rejections but should help keep them low. If you have a stationary subject you can always use stacking to keep everything in focus. That is usually too much trouble for landscapes but I do it occasionally if the front-to-back distance is very large.
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