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Messages - dooks

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1
Does anybody know how big this collection is going to be? I'm offered to nominate a huge number of pictures, about 20% of my portfolio. If everybody accepts the offer in full capacity, free section will be so big, noone will need to buy anything anymore. That's what I'm worried about, but maybe I'm wrong and I hope Adobe knows whats it doing.

2
Shutterstock.com / Re: SS continues to deteriorate
« on: December 24, 2019, 12:37 »
With that name, I'm surprised he's not going for 14,400...nomen est omen!  ;)

Took me a while to figure that one. No habla Latin.  :)

Joe is still going for the 10K I hope he makes it, but I want to make it perfectly clear, I think he's misguided to think that the only import fact of microstock is how many images anyone has. I've watched for long enough to see that the plain and obvious answer is not counting how many images but what are the images.

One of the sales mottoes, back when, was don't work harder, work smarter. In Microstock that means uploading good, useful content and not wasting time trying to make number quotas.

I also believe, to each their own, so as independent business people, anyone can do anything they want. Not my business to tell them how, but I can observe and say for myself and many others, uploading 10,000 nice images will earn no more than 500 carefully planned, designed, thoughtful, market appropriate images.

Nevermind...  ;)


That's true. Only a small correction. You described an ideal scenario. It is almost impossible to make a saleable picture without making 10 that don't sell. it is very hard to predict which one would sell from a series, even for seasoned stock photographers.
So, more realistic comparation would be that 10k carefully planned, designed, thoughtful, market appropriate images(from which 500 would sell)  earn more 10k nice images :)

3
General - Top Sites / Re: Shutterstock portfolio interface change
« on: December 09, 2019, 08:39 »
Still a newbie and currently out of SS.

May i ask, what "fresh" content use is for buyer? I mean, e.g. sees and likes to buy a "red rose" from artist A.  Either he/she will search for similars from artist A either will follow a personal link perhaps to make a direct deal. But if he/she search " red rose" how fresh content from artist A  e.g. "christmas tree" help? The most i read here, buyers don't follow or bookmark contributors?

??
Many buyers prefer to search by new images, because that way they know it was not used many times bu others already.
The same way, if eventually they make it to your portfolio, they want this exact same order.

4
General - Top Sites / Re: Shutterstock portfolio interface change
« on: December 08, 2019, 07:48 »
Fair enough. I'd rather not have my best sellers listed on page 1 tho as it makes it easier for copycats and thieves, maybe the most viewed would be a better option as it doesn't necessarily mean they're being downloaded.
I would go even further by saying that I would like that my portfolio is not seen at all ;D, except for the buyers.
But, on the other hand, I regularly check other peoples best sellers for inspiration not for copying, and because of my need as a professional to be up to the trends and the overall market pulse. I guess most of the photographers do the same and that the copycats are in the minority.
So, at the end, having the most downloaded and the most popular options are a good thing.

5
General Stock Discussion / Re: November Earnings Report
« on: December 01, 2019, 05:21 »
Just to correct myself, since a lot of you replied, I used the word dishonest because of my bad English. I was looking for the right word for like 10 minutes, but just couldn't find it. But, you know what I meant. We can agree that the info is hidden and like obljow (or in whatever order you put letters for that word :) ) said - a ten year old should be able to read it. So, my mistake for incorrect wording, I admit.

6
General Stock Discussion / Re: November Earnings Report
« on: November 30, 2019, 14:50 »
Great info, as always.Do you, by any chance, know what we actually earn at Alamy. When I go to Sales history the Amount is actually the price the picture is sold for? And then there is 40% for Alamy and additional 30% if it is a partner sale, which usually is?

Thanks!

What shows up on your dashboard is the gross sale price. To get more details you actually have to go into 1. My Alamy tab 2. Account balance. There you'll be able to see how much each has earned, both as gross and then net...commissions at Alamy are on three different tiers: exclusive sale (50%), or non-exclusive sale (40%) or distribution sale (30%). On that table you'll also see what has been cleared by the client and what is still pending. Hope that helps!
Thank you, it helps a lot. It shows how dishonest Alamy is by hiding the most important information (the amount I earn from a sale) under several clicks and weird and complicated information table. On the front page you are just prompted with gross sale that makes you think that you made a huge sale, since thats what we are used to see on other agencies - the amount we earn.

7
General Stock Discussion / Re: November Earnings Report
« on: November 30, 2019, 07:53 »
Great info, as always.Do you, by any chance, know what we actually earn at Alamy. When I go to Sales history the Amount is actually the price the picture is sold for? And then there is 40% for Alamy and additional 30% if it is a partner sale, which usually is?

8
Again is this for exclusive content only?

And again is this for exclusive content only?

Anyone knows? Mat?

Thanks
Once accepted, you can submit only exclusive content, I guess. At least that's how it works with almost anything outside microstock.

NO. Adobes premium is not exclusive. i,m in
Thank you for the info.
How is it premium then, based on what? And if you can sell the same pictures on other agencies maybe even much cheaper, how do they justify premium prices?

I really asked in up to three emails about the non exclusivity limitation, if there was a maximum or minimum price or any prohibited agency.... and they never answered me. Offset is exclusive to me (for other more fortunate contributors not) and getty is exclusive and abusive for me so those markets in my case were ruled out.
For a similar price you can send the photos to Alamy, upload them to Creative Market at the same price you adobe (and you will never sell any)

Contractually, in my case it was never clear.

I stopped uploading content because I make more money with microstock than with any kind of premium. Upload some family photos that i dont want in micro.
Thank you for the quick response.
For example, I contribute to a "macrostock" agency and they ask for content exclusivity. On the other hand, I send my microstock files to EyeEm and if accepted for their Getty portfolio these files are sold side by side with  the "macrostock" agency  files. And the "macrostock" agency sends their files to, like, 50 partners, Adobe, Offset and Getty being among them. So no exclusivity condition put on them. The whole stock market looks like a complete mess and most of the agencies are asking for premium prices for files that don't justify those prices at all. At the end, as weird as it sounds, microstock market seems to be the most honest and straigthforward  market out there.

9
Again is this for exclusive content only?

And again is this for exclusive content only?

Anyone knows? Mat?

Thanks
Once accepted, you can submit only exclusive content, I guess. At least that's how it works with almost anything outside microstock.

NO. Adobes premium is not exclusive. i,m in
Thank you for the info.
How is it premium then, based on what? And if you can sell the same pictures on other agencies maybe even much cheaper, how do they justify premium prices?

10
Again is this for exclusive content only?

And again is this for exclusive content only?

Anyone knows? Mat?

Thanks
Once accepted, you can submit only exclusive content, I guess. At least that's how it works with almost anything outside microstock.

11
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Royalty stats out.
« on: November 20, 2019, 10:44 »
Since I have no expenses, it is great.

12
Anything on this?  I haven't gotten any further emails or any other details.  Has anyone?
Nothing yet. I hope Mat will update the info soon.

13
Shutterstock.com / Re: Zero sales of new files
« on: November 15, 2019, 02:48 »
.
Another good point.

14
Shutterstock.com / Re: Zero sales of new files
« on: November 03, 2019, 13:07 »
.
Good point.

15
Isn't EyeEm already doing this in our behalf?

16
Shutterstock.com / Re: Zero sales of new files
« on: October 23, 2019, 04:11 »
.
Well, another good point.

17
Shutterstock.com / Re: Zero sales of new files
« on: October 16, 2019, 13:19 »
Thank you all for your answers. I'm not usually posting or panicking about short term trends, but I just had a big production that was mostly uploaded during this dead (for new uploads) month, so I'm seriously demotivated now.

18
Shutterstock.com / Zero sales of new files
« on: October 16, 2019, 06:04 »
I'm tracking my sales thanks to Catalog Manager, and  I found out that  the last few batches, which is about a last month period, had literally zero sales till now. It never happened before. It is a lot of pictures with a good potential and it looks like they were just thrown down the hole. Wasted pictures, wasted time, I don't think these pictures will recover ever.
Does anybody have the same problem?

19
General Stock Discussion / Re: Deposit Photos Issue
« on: August 10, 2019, 09:57 »
That's an "issue"?  ??? But for what it's worth, no, my reports from DP vary from day to day. Sometimes three. Sometimes one. Sometimes two. They're low on the totem pole but they've always been a consistent, steady seller for me. I think when buyers are looking for something less "mainstream" they seek out images from less popular agencies.
Yes, they are steady sellers and I keep uploading there. But less mainstream, i don't think so, those are the same pictures like everywhere else, the same contributors uploading the same batches.
What I don't like is their blog they send to contributors. It is written by some arrogant teenagers that don't have a clue about stock photography, constantly making a joke out of the genre. Like it is a cliche, it should be more realistic and artsy. And it comes from Depositphotos which is a synonymous for cheap stock?! And they send it to contributors, laughing to their faces?! Written by some momy's and daddy's girls, that never had to make a living from stock photography?! It is complete disaster, unprofessional and idiotic.
https://blog.depositphotos.com/stock-photo-cliches.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blog_digest_august19_sel&utm_term=button1&utm_content=en
https://blog.depositphotos.com/test-which-stock-photography-cliche-are-you.html
https://depositphotos.com/reinventing

20
Theres a tool on this site that does the job just fine

https://microstockgroup.com/tools/keyword.php
I find it useless lately, I explained why in the original post. It doesn't mean it won't turn the other way around some day.
Thanks for the suggestion anyway!

21
...i use Xpiks , it is nice
I'll take a look, thanks!

22
The one I like at the moment is this: https://imstocker.com/en/keyworder

It does search multiple agencies and it is easy to select the images that are closest to yours. Then picking the keywords from the ordered list is very smooth. I think you end up with a good selection of keywords and then you can add your own specific ones to that before uploading.

Steve
Thank you, that's what I was looking for.
The selection of images is much better and closer to a given keyword.

23
I just asked a straightforward question. Please don't. Do you want me to beg you?

24
I've been using Microstock group keywording tool for more than, well, I don't know, 5-10 years, I from the beginning.
Unfortunately, it is becoming useless thanks to the horrible algorithm at Shutterstock that pushes a bunch of similars from a few  amateur photographers to the front page (which is what Microstockgroup keywording tool uses for keyword selection - the page one, I think), I just can't pick up proper keywords using the tool.
Can you please recommend some good keywording tool that extracts information from, for example, Adobe, and not Shutterstock?
Thanks in advance!
This is also to moderator Leaf - can you improve the keywording tool by using Adobe, because Shutterstock Relevant is ridicuolus at the moment?

25
If istock is thinking your contend would doing well exclusive they will contact you.
It ist quite hard to get an exclusive contract at istock nowadays.
I don't know what you are shooting. But shooting lifestyle makes it easier to get an exclusive contract.
Good luck.
Thank you for the info!

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