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Messages - w7lwi

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1
And just to confuse things further, they did not report my earnings in the correct box.  According to the IRS, sales of stock images are considered royalty payments which belong in 1099-MISC box 2.  For myself, they reported it all in box 7 ... Nonemployee compensation.   >:(

2
For #8, I prefer soft music and red wine.

3
Shutterstock.com / SS stock takes a tumble.
« on: February 27, 2017, 21:33 »
16.68 percent tumble.  Not particularly happy about Jon's comments.

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/0d7eec2b-589e-3f97-8af9-e92897bc677f/why-shutterstock-inc.-stock.html


4
General Stock Discussion / Re: iStock 1099
« on: February 09, 2017, 18:28 »
I received mine in the mail a few weeks back.  It comes from Getty, not iStock.  Check to see if you've received a Getty 1099.  If so, it should have any iStock sales listed.

5
Shutterstock.com / Re: **BAM** NEW DASHBOARD ACTIVE
« on: February 09, 2017, 14:05 »
This may be a dumb question, but how do I go directly from the new dashboard to my port?  There used to be a link on the old dashboard, but I don't see anything now.

6
CanStockPhoto.com / Re: 1099 & Federal ID #
« on: February 09, 2017, 14:02 »
This is a Canadian company.  So far as I know, they do not issue 1099's, at least for contributors in the U.S.  I've been with them for several years and have never received a 1099.

7
General Stock Discussion / Agency Question
« on: February 04, 2017, 14:23 »
I just received a 1099-MISC from Corbis for an amount I have no record of.  In fact I have no record of ever using Corbis for anything.  I know Getty picked up Corbis when they went OOB last year, but I already received my 1099-MISC from them.  The only thing I can think of is this is my final payout from iStock following closing my account; although, why they would use a Corbis 1099 makes no sense.  Anyone have any ideas what's going on here?

8
Canva / Re: Canva Rejection (S)
« on: December 23, 2016, 19:56 »
Up through November of this year, my Canva sales have been running anywhere from 5x to 10x my SS earnings (couple of hundred dollars monthly and up).  This month I won't even make payout.  Something certainly happened on December 1.  That was the point when sales dropped through the floor.  At first I thought it was just seasonal, but December of 2015 was another strong month.  Guess I'll just have to wait and see how 2017 goes.

9
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Multiple refunds for images coming in
« on: December 23, 2016, 19:48 »
I haven't seen a refund notice for the past couple of years.  Now that I requested they close down my port and account today, it will be interesting to see if they start to come in.

Anyone notice a correlation between requesting they close your account and an uptick in refund requests?

10
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Giving myself the gift of no more iStock
« on: December 23, 2016, 19:44 »
Done and done.  Great Christmas and Birthday gift to myself.

11
I'm just curious if anyone has ever seen their work being used? If so, how did you come across it?

Rachel

Printed work is really very difficult to find, also because I try to work with strangers, mainly black ("african descent" "black" "mixed race") people: my sales are mainly in countries (as per SS sales map) in which this "descent" started: Africa.


Actually those sells are not all African, the sale icon just being placed in the middle of the map (if there is no small white dot with it) when the country of purchase cannot be traced. That is Africa in case of Shutterstock map :)

Actually this is only partly correct.  It is true when there is no data available in the metadata as to where the buyer is physically located, the image is placed on the map with it's upper left corner directly over longitude zero, latitude zero.  This default location is off the west coast of Africa in the Atlantic ocean and, as noted, there is no small white dot to indicate this is the proper location of the buyer.  It's just a housekeeping location for images with no GPS data.  It is unfortunate that the back edge (right side) of the image just happens to fall over a portion of west Africa, giving the erroneous impression that the image was purchased in Africa when in reality the odds are it was likely purchased almost anywhere else in the World.

12
Shutterstock.com / Re: Quarterly results
« on: November 04, 2016, 20:37 »
And SSTK stock tanked on the earnings announcement.  Dropped over 6 points to the upper 40's (48.xx).  A drop in excess of 10%. According to one analysis, their earnings went up but total sales went down.  If they are losing sales, but increasing profits, that points to inroads from competitors and reducing the cost of sales (sales from newbies is only one of many possibilities).

13
Shutterstock.com / Re: Map is broken?
« on: August 31, 2016, 20:43 »
Here's the latest word from Kate at SS.

Hi,

Our download activity map is now working as expected. Thank for your patience.

The recent issue was that the map was also including re-downloads and watermarked preview images in the display.

Please let us know if you see any other unusual map activity.

Thanks,

Kate

14
GLStock / Re: GL News
« on: August 16, 2016, 20:38 »

To GL,
Just a side issue question.  In January of this year I sent an e-mail to GL requesting my account be closed and all images removed.  I received no reply and a couple of months later I noticed everything seemed to still be up (looking from the contributor's side only).  At that time I sent a second e-mail with the same request, noting that a sale had been made some time after the initial request to close my account had been sent.  I still have received no response from GL and as far as I can tell everything is still active.  I can't look from the buyer's side, so this may not be accurate; however, since I'm still receiving GL e-mail notices, such as this one, I must still be in the database somewhere.  Could you please take a look and see what may be happening.  GL account name is raptor.
Thanks,

I will go ahead and remove your portfolio.  We took over the business a couple of weeks ago, so I apologize if your message(s) were not addressed sooner.  Please just confirm via PM that you would like your account removed and that you would like to be unsubscribed from our email list.  Thank you!

----


Thank you.  What e-mail address should I use?

15
Shutterstock.com / Re: SSTK stock hits new high
« on: August 16, 2016, 20:32 »
May be getting close to the time to "short" their stock.

16
Shutterstock.com / Re: SS Clawback
« on: August 16, 2016, 20:28 »
Gonna have to start calling them iSS.

Don't you mean ISIS?

17
GLStock / Re: GL News
« on: August 16, 2016, 12:00 »
To GL,
Just a side issue question.  In January of this year I sent an e-mail to GL requesting my account be closed and all images removed.  I received no reply and a couple of months later I noticed everything seemed to still be up (looking from the contributor's side only).  At that time I sent a second e-mail with the same request, noting that a sale had been made some time after the initial request to close my account had been sent.  I still have received no response from GL and as far as I can tell everything is still active.  I can't look from the buyer's side, so this may not be accurate; however, since I'm still receiving GL e-mail notices, such as this one, I must still be in the database somewhere.  Could you please take a look and see what may be happening.  GL account name is raptor.
Thanks,

18
I was going back and forth whether or not to leave IS now, or wait, as some have mentioned, and see what life holds after the big G.  However, after checking this week's sales and finding I had a whopping $0.05 to show for the entire week, it seems rather pointless to hang around any longer.  That sure as hell isn't going to get any better under a Getty regime, so why put up with the aggravation to no purpose.  I used to make multiple monthly payouts and, at one point, was seriously considering going exclusive.  Thank heavens I never went there.  Now I can say good riddance with a clear conscience.

19
the most downloads come from europe and the states, at 5pm in the US theres basically no one working till 9am in europe.

your statements are emotional rather than factual

I wondered if anyone else would pick up on this ridiculous statement.  Talk about non factual.  Perhaps your port only sells at the times you note, but others are much more diversified. 

Assuming you mean 5pm at SS HQ, that's 2PM on the west coast, middle of the working day.  It's also the start of the day in Australia and other Pacific nations and people in eastern Asia are just waking up, preparing to start their days.  I have sales from all over the globe, including the above mentioned Pacific nations, as well as much of Asia and the Indian sub-continent.  I assume much of these come before 9am in Europe.  Which brings up the question what do you mean by "Europe?"  There are three to four different time zones across the European continent, so which do you mean?  By the time it's 9am in London, people in other parts of Europe have already been at work for some time.

You are probably correct for most of us stating that the majority of sales come from the US and Europe.  However, for myself at least, I'd estimate the between 10 and 20 percent of my sales come from other areas of the world.  So while you are snuggled tightly in bed, dreaming of all the EL's and SOD's to come, the rest of the world's several billion people are hard at work, including, for some of them at least, buying images from SS and other agencies.

20
Let's do a search for pets on a Getty and SS site:
http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?search_source=base_lohp&searchterm=pets
http://www.gettyimages.com/photos/pet?family=creative&license=rf&phrase=pet&sort=best&excludenudity=true#license

One can argue that images on SS have more commercial appeal with quality to match. Pros and talented semi-pros are making SS looking better by the day and I don't think anyone can stop it. That is what happens with any competitive environment, regardless of field.


Is it just me or do the Getty images look a bit dull/washed out compared to the SS images?  On my monitor at least, SS looks both cleaner and brighter.

21
Shutterstock.com / Re: Changes at the top
« on: July 16, 2016, 20:23 »
Based on the lousy tech cr*p we've seen at SS over the last 1-2 years, this could turn out to be a major plus for us. Assuming, of course, upper management actually makes an effort to find somebody who knows and cares enough to fix it.

Otherwise, we're likely to see SS continue its slow, relentless swirl around the toilet bowl.

They must be taking their cue from some of the major sports teams.  If they have a bad season, fire the coach.  I doubt if Mr. Anshu actually got his hands dirty with hands-on programming.  What they really need to do is sack all their IT techs and bring in ones that know what they are doing.  I recall a few years back there was a notice sent out from Calgary that IS was letting all their IT people go.  I think this was a consolidation with Getty.  You may recall, there was a lot of grief in the contributor world around the same time about piss-poor programming at IS.  Well, now we know where they all moved to.   :o

22
Last month, IS was number 9 out of the 10 sites I submit to.  If I'm lucky, I may get one payout a year these days.  Didn't used to be this way, with monthly payouts, but no more.  I plan on dumping the entire site in the next few days.  With the 30 day waiting period, I have no idea what Getty would do if the end of the 30 day period happened to fall on August 21.  Just no longer trustworthy.  Maybe they should change their name to Clintonstock.  >:(

23
iStockPhoto.com / Re: In Light of Getty's Policy Change
« on: July 15, 2016, 10:44 »
What is the proper procedure to close an account at IS?  Do I just send an e-mail to support and they will remove all images or must I delete each image first and then send an e-mail?

24
There was a time SS was the undisputed leader for me.  No other site even came close.  Today, those times have come and gone.  For my situation, FT has been erratic.  Some months they exceed SS (in dollars because that's the ultimate bottom line for most of us).  Other times they fall quite a bit short.  Using the first 11 days of July as an example, and SS as my benchmark, FT is presently running about 1/3 of SS earnings.  Last month, they were about 10% higher.  Note I do have a smaller portfolio on FT as I've only been with them about a year.  As SS sales have been steadily coming down, other sites have been rising, in my case most notably Canva.  Since July 1, they are now better than 300% of SS sales and they typically outsell SS on a month-to-month basis.  And in this case I only have a portfolio roughly 25% the size of the one I have on SS.  Also beating SS this month has been 123RF.  However, this is an outlier, most likely due to a PEL sale and I expect total earnings to fall below SS by month's end.

As I said, this is only my experience and is likely unique to me.  The images I send to Canva are mostly tailored to their client base.  I usually send the same images to SS and other sites, but since no one else takes PNG images, these must all be submitted as isolated JPEG's.   Bottom line, if and until SS shakes off the typical lethargy that seems to come from going public, other sites with innovative ideas and approaches will continue to grow and nip at their heels until they inevitably overtake the leader.  Then it becomes a question of whether SS can rise like a Phoenix once again, or go the way of other sites before it into mediocrity and stagnation.

25
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock upload not working
« on: July 10, 2016, 13:16 »
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with stockuploader.  I use Filezilla along with Firefox for all my FTP uploads. To date, never had a problem with this combination.

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