I got paid today, but I'm using Skrill

Mobile sites like 20twenty and EyeEm but not Snapwire, I don't get them. I have the feeling they don't want any new photographers and always have the same people getting nominated.
Westend61 for macro, they distribute to Offset, Getty, Fotolia and others as well and accepts mobile.
I always find keywording too troublesome at Alamy, my portfolio there is tiny and sales are almost absent. Not sure if they change the keywording procedure at Alamy nowadays.
In order of importance for me at the moment: Westend61, Getty, mobile, microstock agencies with Westend61 getting my best images and microstock my worst.

The 50 cents a month rent price for all downloads, is what pond5 said publicly.

That statement is not actually 100% correct - it's close but no cigar.

Contributors can only discuss what the agency and the participating contributors tell them[/color].

It's a pity contributors are discussing - quite vehemently - without the full facts.

If there is more to the deal and contributors get additional income depending on sales, it will change the discussion[/color].

It would, but things haven't panned out yet so it's not yet a game changer that's missing - just accuracy and knowledge of all the possibilities.

But you can�t blame contributors if pond5 spreads misinformation about their new project[/color].

People, even those who've signed the membership agreement, haven't bothered to read it properly. P5, to my knowledge, have not spread any misinformation. Just ask the people who've given you the information, to have another read of their contract and this time to pay attention. As I say, this is not - yet anyway - much of a game changer but it is a facet that the screamers on the forums haven't paid any attention to.

The fact remains, that the membership program is a "6 dollar per download" club and that is what will affect sales behaviour and has all non participating contributors rightly worried about an abrupt crash in stock video[/color].

Sure does and it has changed things, and redistributed money.
I was there before, during and after the good times of the stills - it will be the same with video: only the time-spans will be much, much shorter.
The good times of video are still here right now - obviously not by the guys who post on the forum but certainly by some who don't. Next year - who knows. Could this membership scheme have hastened undesirable effects in the marketplace? I would tend to say probably and feel for the guys whose sales have plummeted - it was abrupt and brutal.

The membership scheme has indeed affected sales but I am still getting plenty of full sales from videos that are in the scheme - I'm pleased about that and surprised. 

But with all the other abrupt changes, 100% rejections, widespread reported drop in downloads, the new "impress our employees policy" etc...it is just one more abrupt bizzarre strangeness that makes it feel like the pond5 that we knew has disappeared[/color].

That's for sure. I think some of the rejections I've read about have been bizarre - but - can all these contributors look themselves in the mirror and say "All the clips I submitted were well shot, stabilized, without unnecessary similars, properly color-balanced, exposed and focused in the correct place, saleable subjects shot better than present library ones, safe colors, good quality without artifacts and uprezzing and from a camera sensor that's capable, etc, etc. 

And the old pond5 is hard to replace, it will take time until another agency takes the position of pond5 in the marketplace. But somebody will do it, and for many it is a wake up call to explore more agencies and diversify[/color].

This has happened since time immemorial in stock photography - you need to develop strong business strategies. 
Diversification should be done at the beginning of ones career not as a late crisis management. This is a business after all - adapt or die; that goes for quality of videos and selling strategies.

Of course P5 can do whatever they want, I got paid out today and it might well be the last, I won't submit to them anymore.
If they reject an award winning image (as a test) for noise and saying I should consider getting a camera with a better quality sensor I know they are not taking contributors seriously. Btw the image was taken with a Nikon D810 at ISO64 during bright daylight.

Same here, closed my account and never looked back.

If it flashes and counting down, it means it will self destruct

firewall, i still get the occasional white balance off rejects over at ss

Resubmitting should get it accepted

With the rejection rates at CS I am starting to feel like SS never rejects a thing.  :-)
If sales were great at CS I could understand them being so picky� wasn't crestock kinda like that?

SS hardly rejects nowadays. Just about any other agency rejects more

Congrats, that's a great sale!

Quote from: Firewall on May 02, 2016, 07:44

I noticed when my video sales at P5 stopped, SS sales went up. My guess is most of their video customers went to SS. Not sure about Fotolia, I don't upload there.

Btw I'm not as pessimistic as SquirrelPower, I think they go bankrupt in January after the Christmas dip hits P5.
Unless the exodus of all customers comes first 

Anyway it's no use uploading, even if it gets accepted there will be nobody left to buy.

If your sales and others sales have stopped already then that means the exodus of customers has already begun.  Maybe of not bankruptcy or closing they will sell the company, I think acquisition or merger is what they are hoping for or even planning now.  The investors put in $60 million, they have now realized the previous management team wasn't generating a hope in hell of making that money back plus profit and installed a new management team, this new team changed direction and others have reported major increases in sales at SS and Videoblocks as well so I think the buyers started leaving awhile ago.

Almost no one is buying video or photos there anymore now let alone next January.  If not bankruptcy I would say a merger or acquisition by August. 

I wonder how much of that $60 million is even left.  The previous management team might have made mistakes but these new ones are something else and have no clue and want to make the site a boutique art house, I say you make more money by trying to be everything to all people, get all the buyers you can not just one segment of the market.

Sad to see the best and most artist friendly and revenue producing site go, I know that know your onions will disagree with me on that one but for some of us Pond 5 was #1 for a long time and the others not so good.  Bad news that's for sure.

I heard some people still report sales, a few customers are still there. The question is more how fast before all of them are gone and once a customer is gone, they will be gone forever.

I think they got the new CEO to aim for IPO or to sell it. But at this rate only a fool would want to buy or merge with P5.
With 60 million they can operate for some time. In a couple of months we will probably get a notice they will be lowering commissions. Then they hope their sales will go up for the Holiday season, only to find out their customers and contributors all took off and that's when they will file for bankruptcy.
If I were working for P5, I would start looking for a new job.

Quote from: Dumc on April 30, 2016, 02:38

I've seen it. They were reviewed while I was uploading them.
Anway, fast review has probably something to do with people avoidng to submit on weekend because of that reviwer that works only on saturdays and sundays and rejects everything.

Lately I've been uploading on weekends and pictures were reviewed on Monday and almost everything passed, until last weekend. It was reviewed immediately and almost everything declined. I guess the bad-ass reviewer has reached another level of bad-assness and just decline immediately everything which is not produced with leica glass, fullframe camera and studio lightning.

I must have had the same reviewer. Last weekend was the first in a long time my images were rejected. Resubmitted and accepted a few days later.

I  have severe problems with  my  arms  and  I  am  only uploading  to 4 agencies.  Would it be better  to go with just one exclusive  in order to get more paid?  If yes which one?  I  do like DT because they tell me what's wrong with my photos.  I  get views on DT but hardly any on Fotolia. No sales yet.  Would it be best to go exclusive  with SS ?

Not sure if uploading to many agencies is the answer. You have to find the balance between the time and effort spent uploading and the sales.
I stopped uploading to many low earners and will probably delete them once I reach payout, including DT.
All my best images go to macrostock, the rest goes to SS, FT, Alamy and some mobile sites.

CTO and founder no 2 is gone too....WOW!
Anyone left there?

We should leave as well.
Their rejections don't make any sense at all, it's like they are saying we want you to go away.
Besides Videoblocks, can anybody recommend another agency?