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Messages - qunamax

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 20
1
General - Stock Video / Re: Vertical video sales - anyone?
« on: October 03, 2023, 04:30 »
What about Pond5, does it display correctly?

2
Shutterstock.com / Re: Shutterstock is an embarassment
« on: July 03, 2023, 06:33 »
My SS earnings used to be 15x higher than now, and they just keep nosediving from month to month. Once a good earner, now abomination. Seems like it will join mid-tier agencies soon. Inexcusable.

During this same time, my Adobe Stock earnings has been growing, and Istock has been consistent.

I'm considering to start treating SS like the other mid-tier agencies and completely stop uploading there.

Identical experience for me too.

3
General Photography Discussion / Re: Advice Needed
« on: June 18, 2023, 07:03 »
Hello, I would like an advice since I really don't know what to do. I will try to keep it very short, although the story is a long one to tell fully.

Moved recently in a very rich part of the world and started a photography business in real estate. Very hard to get clients as market is oversaturated, at least here with i am sorry to say - bad photographers. I come with new and modern refreshed look which is over what is here and i was really recognized this. But i dont want to fall appart from the subject.

I recently had a client (a big real estate agency) who wanted an apartment to shoot for them to sell. Its a 500k apartment. The agent was really happy the apartment was an expensive one because of course he would get a larger cut.

He said to me that the shooting is on a Saturday and that he wants the photos ready monday morning that he would post the ad faster. I went there on the Saturday took all the photos in about 1h and with editing by the way i do them so the result would be perfect it took me around 9 more hours. The price i charged was so low i can't even tell the price here. I sent the invoice before the shooting. On Monday, the agent received the photos and thanked me saying that the result is absolutley amazing and he will surely sell the apartment fast and with even more money that he would of wanted to post. Well.....2 weeks past and the agent DID NOT sent me the money (i repeat i am ashamed to say the price i asked and i promissed myself that i would not be doing that again with nobody - i would rather stay home and do nothing than that.)

How would you react to this? What would you do?

Should i lower myself and send messages for him to send me the money? Or should i let it go and never ever have to deal with them?

I really would need an advice and if you need other info please let me know.

Every advice is really appreciated. Thank you.

Ha, where I come that's just a normal business life, you have to call them everyday until they run out excuses and pay. Just call him, nothing low about asking for your money, however low it might be, he should feel low for not paying it. If you want to run your own business you need to learn to be more aggressive even if it's not in your nature, as it stands you are too apologetic, sharks will smell it on you and take advantage of it. You know your worth, own it. Good luck with new business.     

4
Shutterstock.com / Re: Race to level 2
« on: January 20, 2023, 08:17 »
Been to Germany a few weeks ago, there are recycling machines at the super market, you insert one empty plastic bottle and out comes 25 cents, euro 25 cents.

Yes, but it's a deposit system. When you buy a drink in a bottle you have to pay the 25 cents on top fo the price of the drink. So you are only getting back money you had to pay before.

Sure I understand it, for one thing there are no plastic bottles lying around in Germany, unlike in my country, where you could find thousands anywhere you look around (thou if we had those recycling machines in the first place people wouldn't toss them around :( ).

It just made me wonder about SS and 10 cents a download.

5
Shutterstock.com / Re: Race to level 2
« on: January 17, 2023, 21:28 »
Been to Germany a few weeks ago, there are recycling machines at the super market, you insert one empty plastic bottle and out comes 25 cents, euro 25 cents.


6
Adobe Stock / Re: Adobe Stock Free Collection: Video Nominations
« on: November 02, 2022, 08:52 »
So do we know when will the results come out?

Closer to the end of November. Another few weeks, thanks for your patience!

Mat Hayward

Thank you Mat.

7
Adobe Stock / Re: Adobe Stock Free Collection: Video Nominations
« on: November 01, 2022, 07:10 »
So do we know when will the results come out?

8
Adobe Stock / Re: Adobe Stock Free Collection: Video Nominations
« on: October 27, 2022, 08:29 »
They asked for vertical videos claiming they are in high demand. So, I uploaded 100 vertical background animations on July 2022.
Now, in October, most of my vertical videos were selected for the free collection. It doesn't make sense!
They also selected other 997 videos that are in high demand across the other agencies. Many of them have 1, 2 or more downloads at Adobe Stock itself.

Not for me this offer, thanks !

To me it sounded more like that social network vertical stuff is in demand, I don't know, some kind of premade generic reels for "fake" social accounts to use and gain following, rather than animated backgrounds. Not trying to be smart here, just thinking out loud.

9
I have a lot of videos on stock sites. To increase sales, is it worth it to advertise a video somewhere on the Internet with a link to a stock portfolio?

I don't think so, your efforts would be like a grain of sand on a beach compared to marketing that stock sites do on their own anyway. Also if you manage to get someone onto your portfolio, nothing warrants they'll stay there and not just click on similars and you just successfully marketed (wasted time and money) someone else's portfolio.
 

10
I think it's live now, I got the money I can't account for with downloads.

11
Can anyone translate all that please? Are we not having anymore of those cent sales or not?

12
iStockPhoto.com / Re: April statements are in
« on: May 20, 2022, 08:56 »
No surprise there, as I said before, it's either late or early, never on 20th.
Very strong month, all in all IS seems to be the best one for me.

13
I just uploaded 100 pictures to 3 sites, it took me half a day even with the AI keyword tool and stuff, and I have thousands more.
There must be a quicker way to upload these files, what would you recommend?

100 images to 3 sites in half a (working?) day, doesn't sound slow to me at all. That would be 3000 images a month with half a day free time. In a year that's about 36000 images online, that's a serious collection and could make considerable revenue if all other things are sound.

14
To me it's a challenge. All the whining about 10 cent sales is a waste of time.
Complaining about rejections is a waste of time.
In short, complaining is a waste of time.
The challenge for me is to overcome.
Marines are taught to improvise, adapt, and overcome all obstacles.
I think that's a good attitude.
I don't care to read about the whines. All forums are full of them.
I want to read about success stories not bs
My income kept going up after the dime hair cut. Then I hit a plateau.
I stopped uploading because I hit a block.
Now I'm back to taking pictures and uploading. It's fun!
I enjoy the challenge.
Here's the thing for me, Stock Performer tells me I'm in the top 80% on downloads.
But I'm only in the top 30% on income and now I'm in the top 60% on uploads.
The problem is obvious. I need to create more images people want to pay for.
So that's what I'm working on now. Yes, upload, upload, upload. Dimes add up.
On Shutterstock I don't upload on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Like everyone else I'm
tired of the goofy judges that reject everything. So I don't bother with that.
On comparing agencies. Yes, Adobe, Dreamstime, 123RF and so on pay more for pictures but
in the final analysis Shutterstock pays more at the end of the month because they sell a hell of a lot more.
Wirestock started out good but now has gone off the rails.
Adobe pays me more for the thousand or so images I have with them.
Yeah, even Dreamstime gives me greater earnings than Wirestock.
Anyway, that's how it works for me. How other people work is their business..
I'm not on forums much anymore because it's a waste of time reading all the whining.
I do a lot of research and try to keep my eye on the ball.
What I don't know is what pictures bring in the big bucks. I've not discovered
that secret yet. So that's the challenge for me.
People are free to cut off their noses to spite their face but Shutterstock rules.
If you can get on with Stocksy because they pay well and work with photographers.
Good luck and upload, upload, upload.
No I won't upload, upload, upload to SS because I don't like to be paid dimes, dimes, dimes when my time, effort, equipment, models and ... worth tens of thousands of dollars, dollars, dollars.
And no it's not fun anymore because if you continue to upload, upload, upload soon the dimes will become nickels and soon after nickels will become pennies.
Speaking about what is a waste of time - shooting, processing, keywording, and uploading thousands of LCV images is the biggest waste of time.

Not taking sides, but in defense of Upload, maybe a change of strategy, less expensive gear, no payed models just friends and family and other "real" people, more CGI (Blender is free) less photography, etc. 

15
Shutterstock.com / Re: SS strict rejection policy
« on: May 04, 2022, 05:35 »
Well, I must be one of the lucky ones, as about 90% of my submissions get through first time. I can normally guess which ones wont. Those shots normally contain water and foliage, that the AI classes as noise or focus issues.

Are you guys sure that the problem is in the AI? If that's the case, then that AI is faulty.

It's not faulty, it's just not very intelligent. 

16
I've been lurking in this forum for a while now, and it was very depressing lol.
It seems like the microstock market is a sinking ship, and I was really serious about starting to upload some of my art, but I don't know anymore.
Maybe people only post when they are unhappy and want to complain and successful people are silent lol. Can anyone tell some recent success story?

The longer you wait the less sense it makes. Just go do it today and see how it goes for you from there.

17
Adobe Stock / Re: Time for a redesign?
« on: March 30, 2022, 08:06 »
I think it would already help A LOT if, whenever you have pushed one keyword to the top, the whole page would not also jump back to the top so that you have to scroll through all keywords again. That's really the only thing that annoys me and takes up more time than it needs to.

That and that randomly some random action just automatically sorts them alphabetically.

18
iStockPhoto.com / Re: February statements are in
« on: March 21, 2022, 13:30 »
Really mediocre month for me, usually IS is my top, low number of downloads. Still better than SS regarding both downloads and returns but both way below AS in returns where every other sale is 0.99 or more.

19
Off Topic / Re: Russian photographers should be banned!
« on: March 09, 2022, 08:42 »
Yeah, because them Russian photographers have been the most vocal when it comes to pushing for war?

Yeah, I heard that Russian secret photographic group actually forced Putin into war, threatening to blind him with Godox flash. 

20
Shutterstock.com / Re: Adult content not showing in port
« on: February 22, 2022, 12:45 »
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the way I remember it, mature content is hidden by default and you have to unhide it when seraching for content in the search options, but you don't have an option to make mature content visible in individual contributors' ports, just on the overall search page.
It's one of many mistakes on Shutterstock they either don't care to fix or are not aware off, since there is no communication possible between ocntributors and Shutterstock staff.

Thank you, that makes sense, i'll try searching for it from buyer side.
Edit: You are correct, it is as you described.

21
Shutterstock.com / Adult content not showing in port
« on: February 22, 2022, 08:01 »
Recently I uploaded some images to SS which I marked as adult/mature content in additional options and they were accepted, yet I don't see them showing up in my port. Is this some kind of normal behavior? I don't see any option to make such content visible.

22
Shutterstock.com / Re: Review Inspection time very long
« on: February 21, 2022, 07:33 »
Five days unacceptable? Remember when IS reviews took 20+ days?

23
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Januray 2022 royalties are posted
« on: February 20, 2022, 15:42 »
Decent month, wasn't expecting due to holidays.

24
General - Top Sites / Re: copy keywords from other people ?
« on: February 03, 2022, 09:03 »
Of course keywords are not copyrighted, they are just common words not intellectual property.
You should definitely observe and study how people keyword their successful assets, that's how you learn, especially if you are not native English speaker.
Also there are many keywording tools made just for that.
All that said, I don't think it'll do you any good in sales if you simply right out copy keywords from other images without adding your unique ones. 

25
I think it simply doesn't work as intended, rather than deliberate fraud.

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