They are worthless.  I went from $100 a month with 3000 images to $20 a month with almost 4000 images.  I only cash out once a year there. Not worth my time. I keep my stuff there because i am in the bridge club, so uploads are easy.

The down 40% seems to be the magical number for those being with SS for more then 7 years. The new order it seems. I am not all that bothered since others are making it up but still.

I am not down with ss but thats only because i entered video. Without that i would be down about 35-40 percent. Miraculously my ss video makes up 1/3 of my income there. It is a battle for sure to maintain an expected payout amount

Woo-hoo, it works! Thanks Mantis!
 

You are welcome.

When I click on the footage to upload, it directly says - failed file transfer

I think thats because you need to choose the footage directory. Their system puts you in the root directory and you have to click into the footage directory then upload.

Out of curiosity, why are you uploading videos to iStockphoto? Don't they pay something like $5-$7 for HD video clips?

For me, I haven't uploaded any footage to them in 8 months since this 15% decision.

Quote from: whystock on May 12, 2017, 05:27

What would be the point in uploading hundreds of the same plain colour backgrounds like this? Surely these don't sell and how do they get accepted? https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Aperture75?page=1&sort=newest&safe=true&search_source=base_gallery&language=en

The point is so shutterstock can tell shareholders that their collection has grown 60% in the last year.

Right.  Most publicly traded companies have to report to the Street to convince them they are a good buy.  Things like content, for which SS defines as a KPI, are important selling points to Wall Street because they can spin it any way they want......to fit any narrative that convinces the Street that they are strong, growing and a continued innovative leader in this industry.

Sales have always been slow there. They are a rather quiet company but I will say that Duncan has always responded to my emails and been fairly realistic.  I really wish him and Peter were able to team up and have the cash to go head to head with the other micros. They are two pretty honest and fair people when comparing them to the bigger players.  So I stuck with CanStockPhoto even though I only make $20 to $60 a month there.  They pay 50% (as far as I can tell) but they do sort of hide their sales schemes as pointed out in another thread here on MSG.  I know in that case Duncan said they have always done that and it is nothing new....someone just pointed it out and we discussed it here.

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on May 11, 2017, 15:35

"Contributors are required to keep at least seventy (60%) percent of their portfolio online with Lifeographies.com for a period of at least one (1) year. You may disable all files older than six months from the date of review at any time. You will be allowed to disable a total of thirty (40%) percent of your total Media submitted within the past one (1) year. Media that was disabled and then enabled again will be counted as new submissions, no matter of their original upload date."

Come on.  Really?

Hi Sean,

Yes it is true.
Thanks for your reply.

Lifeographies Team.


Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Excellent. I won't be uploading. Thanks for being unrealistic.

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 05, 2017, 04:25

Ask yourself this:

Do I need money NOW?

What is this clip likely to earn over the next 5 years?

Can I redo something similar without too much effort?

Quote from: Noedelhap on May 05, 2017, 04:16

Let me be the first to say: charge $5K or more. Keep in mind that if the full rights to an image (photo or illustration) can be sold for a couple of thousands, then a well shot video should be worth much more than that.

Take the expected revenue for the clip for the next 3-5 years, triple that and add some markup. Otherwise, what's the point, right?

Also consider who you're selling to and what they plan to do with it. They're not requesting a buyout for nothing. Bigger companies can afford more. All in all, don't cut yourself short.

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on May 05, 2017, 03:19

I'd take current sales for a year, or extrapolate to get a years worth of figures... multiply it by four and that's probably a reasonable price. Two years would probably be fair, but then your also adding a bit of a markup and accounting for if your clip becomes more popular over time.

You'll probably get a bunch of people saying you should charge $5K, but how realistic is it anybody is going to pay that? They'd be cheaper hiring a professional to shoot it for them. And if it's making you $25 to $50 a month then that's maybe a bit extreme.

Take the $1K or whatever it works out to, go and shoot a new version of the clip, and everyone's a winner!

Thank you guys for all the input, I appreciate it so much. Honestly, at first I think I'm going to charge them $500. After hearing all your opinions most likely I'll be more confident to go over $1K.

A lot of the strategy around hooking the customer is whether they are conditioned by $79 pricing.  If you doubled or even tripled the price they might bite. If there are a lot of similar clips then the customer is less likely to bite with any higher pricing. If you simply don't care whether you sell it or not, charge whatever - $1000 or $2000 or whatever. And if they buy it, great. Like others have said, consider its salability over a period. I would then double that. So if the clip sells 4x per year at $79, I would use (4x79)*5=$1580.

Dt blows

someone steal 800 of your images pl.fotolia.com/p/206732155

Good catch!!

Mine used to be very consistent, weekly in fact.  But since agencies keep screwing with our content, have horrible inspections (weed collection, for example), allow keyword spamming, reducing the value of our work and, overall, making it next to impossible to give a hoot anymore, I upload when I want and I don't do studio commercial shooting anymore.  I just shoot pretty scenery and upload when I have a few minutes. Discipline doesn't really matter anymore.

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