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Messages - steheap
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 62
26
« on: July 08, 2021, 10:09 »
Steve is still around - he doesn't come to this forum very often! Shows how slow the business is!
Steve
27
« on: June 06, 2021, 14:23 »
Its only the sales related discussions and only if you are logged in. There was one recently entitled a bit disheartening
Steve
28
« on: June 05, 2021, 16:20 »
I'm actually taking a detour into "Fine Art" and actively trying to boost my print sales on FAA in particular. I've written a couple of posts about what I am doing and learning, and I get more satisfaction when someone buys one of my prints than I do from a hundred downloads on Shutterstock! Here is the first of those posts: https://backyardsilver.com/using-social-media-to-boost-wall-art-sales-on-faa/Steve
29
« on: June 02, 2021, 09:17 »
My own Brutally Boring results for May 2021. Who remembers the days when there was a race to publish the first earnings report each month in this forum and comments would go on for several pages. What a truly boring industry this has become...  More details (if you can work up the enthusiasm) on my blog. https://backyardsilver.com/brutally-boring-stock-photo-earnings-may-2021/Steve
30
« on: May 07, 2021, 10:13 »
No problem, Taras - good luck with it! I had my tongue in my cheek!
Steve
31
« on: May 06, 2021, 13:49 »
Ahhh.... competition for my premium membership. But I only charge $4.99 a month!
Steve
32
« on: May 04, 2021, 10:14 »
My guess is that the Shutterstock admin system has ways to manually change the normal search position of an image or a contributor or (as we suspected in the past) to put newer (lower cost in the old plan) contributors higher in the results. So that admin system gives certain people a lot of power to alter how things are displayed. With all the hacks into company systems recently, it isn't beyond belief that someone has hacked into this admin system to make changes to their or other contributor positions. Not as illegal as stealing money through a hack, but it still could work to generate extra income. Of course, blackmailing an employee would have the same impact. I have no proof that this has been done, or that the contributor we are discussing has done any of this! He might just be a great photographer...
Steve
35
« on: March 19, 2021, 17:02 »
Interesting questions, Matt, and thanks Alex, for the article. Alex and I did have some discussions before the article was published as I was not seeing the decline in anywhere near the terms that Alex was. In fact, in my end of 2020 earnings review: https://backyardsilver.com/annual-review-of-stock-photography-2020/ showed that I reported a small increase in 2020 over 2019 because I refocused and produced new images that were in demand. In that article I did try to explain my thinking and how I approached the different scenarios we face. Even now, I am getting sales because I made some silly IRS checks to represent the new Biden stimulus payments (and some for the change of the tax date in the USA. Simple stuff, but it sells. I'm doing a bit of a reset myself by seeing if I can build some more consistent Print on Demand sales by becoming a heavy Pinterest creator. Who knows - but if you don't try, you don't succeed! Steve
36
« on: March 18, 2021, 09:13 »
Great, thanks Alex. I learned some things!
37
« on: March 10, 2021, 15:53 »
Once upon a time, this would have been a cause for celebration. Now, with Shutterstock, I'm not so sure...
Steve
38
« on: February 16, 2021, 18:46 »
Thanks Mat, yes, my address is correct. I have all the other stock agency tax forms, but not the Adobe one for some reason. I'll definitely sign up for electronic delivery for next year! And thanks, Jo Ann!
Steve
39
« on: February 16, 2021, 11:29 »
Have those people who didn't sign up for the electronic 1099 now received their paper copies? I haven't received mine yet (and no response yet from the Adobe tax team). Just wondering if mine is lost in the mail somewhere.
Steve
40
« on: January 09, 2021, 09:50 »
I finally wrote my own Annual report on stock photography after battling with the loss of three hard drives in my PC - you should read the story on my blog immediately before the Annual report if you ever build your own PC from components. I learned a big big lesson! Anyway, here is the overall picture:  And here is the report: https://backyardsilver.com/annual-review-of-stock-photography-2020/Steve
41
« on: January 02, 2021, 15:17 »
I love these discussions. Stops people from creating images and videos to compete with mine...
42
« on: January 02, 2021, 15:14 »
I agree with Firn - it is unlikely that many people find something on one agency and then go to Bigstock to buy it (and if they did, they will find my image there and presumably buy it there. I never worry about people shopping around. You don't know if they do and you can't do anything about it, so why worry.
43
« on: January 02, 2021, 12:33 »
I put the same images on both sites. If you use Stock Submitter it is zero work and I earned $460 this year - about 5% of my SS earnings
44
« on: December 29, 2020, 16:00 »
And make some Backyard Silver perhaps.... 
45
« on: December 22, 2020, 15:03 »
I can't recall the percentage now, but the downfall was a big change that Google made to their search results in early 2013. As a result of this, the traffic to the site from Google searches was reduced by about 50% and that made it much less attractive. I think the biggest issue that Dan had was that he had to track all the commissions, payout earnings and, in particular, manage the tax aspects of that on his own business.
So the same problem as ever - very difficult to get buyers to the site and the Google changes put the nail in the coffin. It was probably the same changes that Dreamstime sued them about I would guess.
Steve
46
« on: December 20, 2020, 10:48 »
I think that when I had a similar issue in the past, I changed my security settings on the Adobe site to use an authenticator app rather than a text message for 2 stage authentication. That did seem to work OK!
47
« on: December 10, 2020, 10:17 »
They introduced it around the time of their IPO - I believe it was to avoid information about their earnings being made visible to some investors and not to all.
49
« on: November 24, 2020, 10:30 »
About 4 - 6 weeks normally
Steve
50
« on: November 08, 2020, 10:59 »
I think this form is for non-resident aliens or something in the US? I don't know anything about that form.
Steve
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