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Messages - cthoman
Pages: 1 ... 32 33 34 35 36 [37] 38 39 40 41 42 ... 145
901
« on: October 02, 2013, 11:10 »
I suspect that ppl are more likely to vote in the poll when their results for the month are better than expected. But when results are disappointing ppl don't feel like voting. This could cause swings in the results to be more drastic, but the poll would still reflect the up and down trends.
You may be right, but I pretty much thought most of us on this forum voted whether we had a good month or a bad one. Tyler's poll may be criticized by some, but his year end summary is the most useful gauge of the trends and health of the industry that currently exists.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it's a bit of a civic duty to vote each month.
Yeah, I vote despite whether it is a good or bad month. I still don't see how all those Symbiostock people don't push the Self-Hosted into the numbered area. I guess a lot of people don't vote at all.
902
« on: October 02, 2013, 10:04 »
Get a room you two. 
903
« on: October 01, 2013, 10:53 »
I'm frustrated and annoyed. The first half of the year was going great. I was having some of my best months ever. Now, things look like they are back at 2011 rebuilding levels. This seems to be the way things are going. I feel like I'm plugging holes in a dam. You get one plugged, then another one pops up. Shutterstock has basically gotten to the point where I'm not sure they are worth it (very similar to iStock when I left there). I can't say I'm doing well enough everywhere else though to give up the little amount they provide. Maybe, I should just go get a job and stop worrying about all this garbage. 
904
« on: September 30, 2013, 13:01 »
I'm really disappointed that they're going into vectors. I think one of the biggest reasons for the decline of stock photography is the "everyone selling everything to everyone" syndrome. Agencies are giving up everything that made them distinctive or gave them identity.
It's as if every retail store became a giant Walmart.
I agree, but I think photos are the anchor on the market's neck not vectors.
905
« on: September 30, 2013, 12:59 »
How do they manage to exist?
906
« on: September 30, 2013, 10:13 »
I guess I'll have to look at Alamy again. I thought the lack of vectors before didn't make it a very appealing agency, so this looks like a good move.
I have my raster versions on alamy and do not recommend it personally..
poll results are misleading.. alamy is below veer for me.. and that is consistent..
of course results may vary, but I think alamy ranks high on MSG polls, due to photographer votes..
I am actually getting ready to write them off soon.. just want my personal sites to reach a certain level of success..
their payment threshold is $175 and you have to wait for "at least 45 days" for sales to clear.. it makes it very complicated to leave them because when you reach $175 and decide that you are leaving there will very likely be some uncleared payments that they won't pay you for months after you left..
let's say you have $195 in you account.. $175 is cleared.. $20 uncleared.. they will pay that $175 automatically at the end of the month.. you can not just remove your images and wait for that $20 to clear.. because If you remove your images, and they pay you that $175, you will never reach the minimum payment threshold again even if that $20 clears..
Not sure if they would honor that $20.. it is just too complicated.. awful system they have there..
Thanks. I'll definitely have to keep that in mind.
907
« on: September 29, 2013, 10:48 »
I guess I'll have to look at Alamy again. I thought the lack of vectors before didn't make it a very appealing agency, so this looks like a good move.
908
« on: September 26, 2013, 11:43 »
40k is an average weekend for me, please! 
Can you adopt me?
909
« on: September 26, 2013, 11:02 »
Top tier to me would be measured by meeting an actual number, for instance a site that averaged over $300/month.
Whose numbers are we going by? Making over $300 at DT a month doesn't sound unreasonable to me, but somebody else might struggle to make that. Then, there are probably people that make multiple times more than that.
910
« on: September 26, 2013, 09:05 »
DT has been neck and neck with SS the last 2 months for me. They haven't really been growing though. SS has just been shrinking. I guess that is what happens when you don't upload for 3 years.
911
« on: September 25, 2013, 12:52 »
Oh? So your insurance against a drop at SS is invest your time and effort into 20 other sites that already stink and are destined to fail even worse? Is that it? 
I don't have an answer that will work for everyone. I'm focused mostly on my own site. I also have two other agencies that I really like and trust. I've tried to work hard for those 3 places to be the definitive places to buy my work. Unfortunately, that only makes up 56% of my total, so I still have to rely on the major agencies for the rest. I still look out for new agencies, but I'm pretty particular about what I want from them. I've seen my own site grow from nothing, so I think it is possible for other sites to spring from nowhere as well. That said, there is nothing wrong with just sticking to the big guys. It just scares me when people start talking about the large percentage of their earnings from SS. Especially since mine have been dwindling for a few years.
912
« on: September 25, 2013, 10:30 »
My future is I keep getting more money and more downloads every year from SS. What's wrong with that?
Nope, that's your present.
"Present performance is no guarantee of future growth" as many people have found for a while on iS, and the same is starting to be reported now from some SS contributors.
When some people started to report falling-off sales at iS, they were greeted by a lot of, "I'm selling fine - you can't be uploading the right stuff/enough stuff/high enough quality stuff" by some of the same people who have either now left exclusivity there or left iS altogether.
Those who don't learn from history (which could be SS, vide the changes to TOS thread, or their contributors) are condemned to repeat it.
Exactly! Things may continue to go well there, but if they don't... What's the saying? Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
913
« on: September 24, 2013, 23:39 »
Because you are competing with yourself, based on price and supporting the parasites that drive down prices, and pay you almost nothing. This dilutes the sales and makes the best agencies weaker. That, and I feel that for the returns, it's a waste of time and energy. Take the best earners, if your personal high point is ten, then fine, you like working long hours for $100 a year? Better might be, four, that's a nice diverse group, with a proven track record. {opinion}
But if you want numbers, add the five top agencies on the right and then the next 16 (all the rest that have numbers) and see how much the bottom 16 earn, added together.
Lets see bottom 16 = 57. Hey look, SS does that by themselves? Top five = 146 is almost triple. HOLY COW!
So why did you want to work and upload to the top 21 sites?
That and with less sites, you might have better control over who's selling what and where things are being partnered from.
Personally? Top Two and Alamy because of what Alamy handles in the way of Editorial. But some people are on 50 sites and quite happy.
Hey guys,
what is the downside of uploading to 20 sites instead of just uploading to the top tiers?
If your future is anything like my present at Shutterstock, then you may want to prepare for it. I'm just saying.
914
« on: September 24, 2013, 22:37 »
This attempt to restrict what contributors can say about their personal earnings in public strike me as unclear, unjustified, unnecessary and unenforceable.
Obviously this backed up by a thinly veiled threat to close the account of any "violator" who can be identified.
Seems like someone at SS just decided their image was a bit too friendly and easygoing, and it was time to start acting like a big company.
Sorry mate, and as much as I usually respect your opinions, I think in this case we're all reading way too much into this. SS just don't want detailed information about sales being leaked to the competition. And nor should we. The last thing we want is places like FT, for example, undercutting those SOD licenses that SS keeps coming up with.
This supposed 'restriction' is necessary to protect our incomes as well as SS's.
I haven't seen anything that in any way, shape or form has answered my questions about it all. So, I remain concerned.
915
« on: September 23, 2013, 23:47 »
Great questions Leaf. Also, are you going to boot us from the site if we don't comply? Are you going to scour the internet for previous violations and punish those as well? It's a huge can of worms, so we need more information.
I also noticed the deleting items wasn't addressed. Can you still close your account in 90 days?
916
« on: September 23, 2013, 09:51 »
I don't know for sure that streaming is the best solution for our industry, but it's the best we at YAY could think of.
There is always doing the opposite. Selling less for more. I'm 3 years into that philosophy, and I've enjoyed the results. It's just a shame so many other companies and contributors are working against me because I know it could be even better.
917
« on: September 23, 2013, 09:46 »
Which are the best ones? I think experimenting is the only way to find that out.
918
« on: September 21, 2013, 10:46 »
I just saw the mention of Spotify, so I'll just comment on that.
I am a happy Spotify user and a customer. As a customer I think it is an awesome service. As for the business side, I think it is one of the dumbest ideas in recent years.
Top musicians make some peanuts there while Spotify just generates losses for the owners.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/31/4575506/spotify-doubled-revenue-in-2012-but-losses-grow
To cut a long story short, since I have Spotify I don't remember the last time when I bought a CD or MP3.
Cheers
I might be the Spotify exception where I listen to albums I already own, so I guess those artists are making money on me twice. I suppose I've been buying less new albums though. As far as Yay, I put in my request to close my account. Those .15 Euro sales were the last straw for me. I don't even want to see how this new thing materializes.
919
« on: September 19, 2013, 14:13 »
Seriously
What did you do Before you started selling Stock Photos?
I sold illustrations and did graphic design... Oh wait, I still do that. Does that mean I can continue to complain?
920
« on: September 18, 2013, 15:16 »
Yes. Yay. I guess I went into my partner settings and Yay subs was checked. I try to keep everything unchecked, but every time I go in there something new is checked. I think I'm pretty much done there.
921
« on: September 18, 2013, 13:30 »
I got a couple 0.15 royalties this month. Am I going to have to drop another site? 
922
« on: September 18, 2013, 11:49 »
it's early days, but if you're interested in setting up your own site, there's no comparison between sym and ktools, faa, smugmug and all the others
I'd probably go with Symbio if I were starting a site today, but I think I'd take the Pepsi challenge with my Ktools site.
923
« on: September 18, 2013, 11:45 »
Adobe acquired Macromedia with good product called Lightroom which allow them to enter niche they were not present before. Now they dominated this market and no competitor can get close to their product because they used code from other product that was already dominant. Soon they will kill off competitors there too. Nobody can stop then unless they collapse which might be beneficial to customers. When Kodak bankrupted its products did not go away. Other companies picked up bits and pieces and nobody cries after fallen giant.
I think the thing is a lot of those acquisitions weren't bad for consumers. Instead of having to buy Dreamweaver or Flash separately, you could get it bundled. Same thing with the fall of Quark. Not saying it is all roses, but it used to cost a bunch to buy all this software (even in box form) from a multitude of companies.
924
« on: September 18, 2013, 11:06 »
"You may remove Content from your account at any time, provided that in any ninety (90) day period, you remove no more than (i) 100 items of Content and (ii) 10% of your Content, whichever is greater."
That's a little disturbing. I assume if you are closing your entire account, then it is still the 90 days it says above that in the TOS. But, that might need some clarification from the powers that be. Also, does anyone know if you can still disable your portfolio or did they kill that feature?
925
« on: September 18, 2013, 10:26 »
At Pond5 only new sets of EPS+JPG in a ZIP are working now. You would be able to attach files together later on (attach EPS files to existing JPGs).
At Pixmac everything is working correctly and your content should already be mirorred at Pond5.
So my suggestion is to keep it this way and upload new vectors to Pond5 directly.
That's kind of a pain. I guess I'll have to find a script to bundle them. OK. I uploaded a test file. None of my tags imported. Then, I had to swap out my semi colons for commas to paste them in. I also couldn't find any info on what type of file I'd uploaded (other than a zip), so I wasn't sure if I did it right. Finally, I found a lot of the input fields on the site kind of buggy. I needed to click on them several times or they'd freeze up. It's been a while since I uploaded somewhere new. I forgot what a joy it is.
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