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Messages - Stock Wife
1
« on: September 16, 2018, 15:21 »
Hi Matt,
Just out of curiosity, are there any free codes left? I just passed the 300 video uploads mark, but also passed the $500,- mark three weeks ago.
Sjoerd
Wondering the same thing! We earned the photo code back in the first round but just qualified for the whole package and are hoping we did so in time as it's such a nice bonus.
2
« on: September 02, 2018, 18:05 »
I don't do a ton of release work but our shots sell well enough compared to the rest of our portfolio. Now all photos are being rejected for 'Missing Visual Reference.' Is there a new format for releases? Do they expect us to include the model photo ON the release?
Any insights or recommendations for making workflow easier here. I use the same model release for each shot across agencies.
3
« on: April 24, 2018, 10:29 »
One problem with talking about the 'two cent' issue is that there are actually two problems:
1) iStock has the lowest industry commission rate (for non-exclusives)
2) iStock removed the minimum guarantee per sale when they started paying 15% (for non-exclusives) for subscription sales.
The 15% has been around for a long-time and we all know it to be the major cost of working with IS. The new loss of the minimum guarantee is a different problem, and that's what produces the 2 cent sales. I've been carefully tracking my subscription royalties at iStock since they switched to a % on subs rather than the minimum guarantee. I took 4-6 months off from uploading to them to see what happened and have now resumed uploading, including the files that didn't get to iStock during my hiatus.
I hate getting 2 cent sales but I don't get very many and on average, the RPD for my sub sales only hasn't dipped below 50 cents. Which means I am actually getting more from them with the switch than without the switch (otherwise, my RPD for subs would be the minimum price of 28 cents). I don't love it but I can't justify hating it either.
Now, the 15% rate. Yeah, I totally hate that. But I have always known that's what I signed up for.
2c is a minimum guarantee per sale, therefore 2c could be better than 15%. It only kicks in when Istock want to increase market share by offering large discounts on large yearly packs, discounts large enough to mean less than 2c without the minimum guarantee. If they are taking market share your earnings elsewhere is sure to decrease. Shutterstock contributors have already suffered a knock on effect besides losing buyers of large packs to Istock, they followed suit by reducing small packs to On Demand prices or less and giving a percentage to contributors. By putting contributors on a percentage for subs both Istock and Shutterstock can make a profit no matter how much they discount to chase market share, and why not it's mostly our stock they are playing with, no loss to them. So far they have not felt the need to discount as much as they could, but it's only a matter of time. Contributors are complicit by allowing this and by allowing this give permission to agencies to push prices lower. Would you sign up to 15% of heavily discounted subs now?
You are totally right that 2 cents is a minimum guarantee. I thought about correcting the language in my post but was too lazy (sorry). I should have said that IS removed the cap on subscriptions. Subs used to net a guaranteed 28 cents, not under and not over. Switching to the percentage has therefore increased my overall subscription RPD because it used to be 28 cents and is now > 50 cents.
4
« on: April 23, 2018, 08:39 »
One problem with talking about the 'two cent' issue is that there are actually two problems:
1) iStock has the lowest industry commission rate (for non-exclusives)
2) iStock removed the minimum guarantee per sale when they started paying 15% (for non-exclusives) for subscription sales.
The 15% has been around for a long-time and we all know it to be the major cost of working with IS. The new loss of the minimum guarantee is a different problem, and that's what produces the 2 cent sales. I've been carefully tracking my subscription royalties at iStock since they switched to a % on subs rather than the minimum guarantee. I took 4-6 months off from uploading to them to see what happened and have now resumed uploading, including the files that didn't get to iStock during my hiatus.
I hate getting 2 cent sales but I don't get very many and on average, the RPD for my sub sales only hasn't dipped below 50 cents. Which means I am actually getting more from them with the switch than without the switch (otherwise, my RPD for subs would be the minimum price of 28 cents). I don't love it but I can't justify hating it either.
Now, the 15% rate. Yeah, I totally hate that. But I have always known that's what I signed up for.
5
« on: April 02, 2018, 15:56 »
Any photo sales at all? I've got 350 images up there, and nary a peep. Should I keep wasting my time?
We had a photo sale in February. I uploaded 100-200 images there just to see what would happen, then found this thread and figured I'd never sell anything. But one came in. So now I am uploading more because I won't get many sales with such a small percentage of my portfolio online. I'm not going out my way to upload there, just sending new batches there when I upload to other places. The sale was for $3.99 minus a 15 cent cc transaction fee netting me $3.84.
6
« on: March 17, 2018, 19:54 »
My latest uploads have come in and show being reviewed but several batches that I uploaded during that mystery month still have not come in.
Just an update. I don't keep track of the dates I upload files so I will just have to redo everything I don't see reviewed.
7
« on: January 22, 2018, 12:06 »
Wow, the poll really is useless. It tells us nothing more or less than relative ranking. The numbers are pointless.
Leaf, please consider chatting with me to update what the poll means! Why not reconsider just making this straightforward?
Seriously, he says, "even if they were numbers, they would be inaccurate." Well, these rankings are also inaccurate, and to the same degree that the income numbers would be if that were what was presented.
8
« on: January 21, 2018, 18:28 »
Every survey is biased by the fact that people have to be honest. History suggests people may be snarkier here than in other surveys (i.e., they might lie).
But they question is, I think, what these numbers are supposed to represent.
And I think that I know the answer to that from contributing to the poll for about 2 years now: The numbers represent the average income (in dollars) of the number of contributors who report for that agency. As of the moment I type this, 124 have 'voted' for Shutterstock, so 72.8 should be the average income made my those people.
There is a major catch in this, and in my opinion (my real life job is research frequently using surveys), the biggest flaw in this poll is actually that the numbers used to capture income require rounding up or down. So if I make 8 dollars on 123 this month, I say I made 10. Or if made 12 dollars, I also say 10. You could assume rounding up or down gets spread out evenly but who knows. And the intervals between options get larger as you go up in voting.
All that said, I think these numbers represent average income from a site in a given month.
9
« on: December 09, 2017, 10:35 »
Got a no... Guess need to start collecting for next year
I'm so sorry. Your pictures are very good.
Please, could you say which day and month you received the email confirming that your application was complete? It is to calculate how many more days I have to wait for the answer. Thank you very much!
Just got it yesterday.
Best of luck to you. Do help us get better if you get in
Thank you so much, but I was asking about the day the waiting time began; the day you received the email confirming that your application was complete and the waiting time began. It is to have an idea of how much time they take to respond.
The delay has been really variable. They are not processing applications in order or using a standard delay. So you can't estimate. You'll just have to wait. Best as I can tell, the longer you are waiting, the better (the closer to getting in you are).
10
« on: December 07, 2017, 13:24 »
Rejected a month ago. Added applications images back into my regular uploads.
Happy to say my application images are all currently selling well instead of waiting for evaluation at Stocksy.
This is a really long time for contributors to be holding up valuable images!
11
« on: November 29, 2017, 09:38 »
I did that for awhile and they send me couple of "warning" emails that my images don't have the categories ..
Now I don't submit all the pictures to them, I don't have much sales there compared to other "top" agencies.
Thanks--this is the kind of thing I was hoping we'd hear about before we went too far down this route. For better or worse, we don't submit our similar images together and instead spread them out over time. So the script is brilliant but maybe not a good solution for us. Thanks for the thoughts!
12
« on: November 28, 2017, 19:34 »
My husband just discovered he can submit images through DT's iPad app. When he does so, he doesn't have to select categories! This is an amazing discovery as it could save SO MUCH TIME. Is there a real downside to this? The images wouldn't have categories but would have keywords obviously.
Any thoughts on this?
14
« on: November 07, 2017, 14:09 »
Got rejection today. After nearly 2 months of waiting. Relieved to be able to move on with the images but disappointed not to get some firsthand experience on the site.
15
« on: October 20, 2017, 09:22 »
IFthe poll is accurate, the most interesting thing I see is that most people are making over $1.00 per image per year. Indeed, well over half should be making over $1.50 per image per year. I had seen in several discussions lately that $1.00-$1.50 per image per year was attainable with a really good portfolio. Either most people on here are really good or the estimate of what a really good portfolio is should be higher (like $2.00 per image per year?)
16
« on: October 19, 2017, 19:15 »
I have submitted an application and some images with people
I have the releases but did not upload the releases with my application, as I remeber reading somewhere that they are not required unless the images are approved and you become a member of Stocksy.
Just want a confirmation if this is correct, or are the releases required beforehand!
Thanks!
1) Why would they say it if it is not true? 2) Why would you not submit a release if you know how to? I know it's a pain, but don't you want to show that you know how to manage the details of submitting content? Why not put your best foot forward.
17
« on: September 18, 2017, 19:08 »
Submitted an application this weekend. Now we wait.
Wanted to say a big thank you to Sean Locke for so patiently responding to the many questions and comments here.
18
« on: September 07, 2017, 09:34 »
Photos also have a similar thing going on. Uploaded photos are not appearing in the portfolio even after multiple days. I haven't tracked it so I don't know if it's weeks or just days, but it's definitely more than typical delay.
19
« on: August 20, 2017, 08:58 »
BME on IS. Mostly due to an $80 subscription royalty. I had <20 images get less than .28 cents (and some of those were Getty sales) but I have to say that the $80 sub really goes a long way into reducing my grumbles about their system. My average sub sale since they implemented the system is over 50 cents, nearly twice what I would have gotten with a flat rate.
That $80 subscription royalty is probably a mistake and expect a refund next month!
Could be but I have had plenty of over $20 royalties over subs over the last few months.
20
« on: August 19, 2017, 13:25 »
BME on IS. Mostly due to an $80 subscription royalty. I had <20 images get less than .28 cents (and some of those were Getty sales) but I have to say that the $80 sub really goes a long way into reducing my grumbles about their system. My average sub sale since they implemented the system is over 50 cents, nearly twice what I would have gotten with a flat rate.
**Update: I just checked my raw file today instead of todayis20 and realized that this $80 was from Getty not the sub package. My average is still over 50 cents per sub, better than the nonexclusive rate of 28 cents. But I didn't want to leave inaccurate info posted.
21
« on: August 15, 2017, 08:27 »
I like IS for images. Have been keeping a careful eye on average price per subscription but even with some really low commissions, my average is over 28 cents (which used to be the average). Many people will tell you to run from IS and for video, that very well may be true. IS is a pain for uploading.
We have the opposite numbers as you >3000 images and ~500 videos. We like 123 because it is easy for uploading (not categories, no keyword matching nightmares!) but our video sales are very slow there. With your bigger port, you might have better luck (and your port is likely better than our simple video clips).
All this to say, I'd go 123 with all of your files and maybe consider IS for your photos only.
22
« on: June 15, 2017, 08:32 »
Yup, it started crashing on me this morning, too (both paid and free versions). It was working from 6 am (EST) to about 8 and then started crashing.
23
« on: May 28, 2017, 06:45 »
I am still getting sales but my portfolio of 180+ pages is currently showing only 1 page for the last 12 hours (at least). Anyone else?
24
« on: May 17, 2017, 07:56 »
Editorial is a very small percentage of our portfolio (<5%) but I don't usually have problems with captions at SS. This week I got a rejection on the only editorial image I uploaded for the same reason as you and like you, it doesn't make sense based on my past experiences. So you're not alone. I'm planning on reviewing/updating it and then resubmitting.
25
« on: May 11, 2017, 10:29 »
Now that it's been a few months since this announcement went into effect, I'm noticing another glitch. The amount they withhold for taxes stays in my account balance. Eventually, I will have over $100 in my account each month simply because it is taxes. So do I get paid based on my new sales (sales of at least $100) or do I get paid based on my account balance? When will the taxes withheld be taken out of my account (if ever)? It's a very strange system for sure.
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