The subject pretty much says it all, I got a 1099 in the mail today from DT with my address and account name, but a different person's name and TIN and the $ amount was not correct for me either.  I did check to W-9 on file at DT and it is correct. I sent them an e-mail so I guess I'll see what they say. I hope my name SS# and $ amount wasn't sent to someone else.

The subject pretty much covers it - 2 sales for the month, both distributor, both for 0.46 of which I get 0.14 - in the details they say RF and "China"

Maybe it is time to finally kill distributor sales - in the past they have mostly been low (< $20), but I don't think I have ever had one under $1 net before. I guess now that we only get 40% of regular sales the distributor sales aren't so much lower, but they have moved from good microstock levels to poor microstock levels.

Overall for the year they are doing about as well as any other site, but that isn't saying much anymore.

In the last 2 days I have had a One-Design sale listed as A$1.00 with .25 royalty and 2 sales listed as R$5.00 with .48 royalty listed , I was wondering if anyone has heard what is up with this or had similar.

I got an e-mail from them...

I got a sub sale for .70 and thought this might actually bring this month up, but then I got one for .35 and figured I guess not - plus I am pretty sure that we don't get 50% from sub sales. If it is like SS - more like 30% Still, it would be nice to get full royalty if I get any sales before it is over.

Hello, does anyone remember what exactly was in the old terms or what has changed in their new terms?

One thing strikes me - 16 e  "You may bear some or all expenses incurred by us in paying monies to you."

does that mean we will have to pay any paypal fees in addition to 67% to them?

Also they can clawback basically any time.


for all I know these were in there before, but I don't know for sure. Any time sites change things they need to post the old and new next to each other or bold any changes. For some reason it seems like every time something changes it makes things worse for us.

It was a nice one too, except for the cut from 60% to 50%. Sigh. Must all sites do this?

My last Alamy sale was through a distributor and the distributor got 40%, Alamy got 20%, and I got 40%. The sale price was $49.35 so my cut is $19.74 which still beats most other sites by a mile but it isn't the 60% I know and love. I was wondering how many others have had distributor sales and if they end up being a significant percentage of total sales (this is my first, but I haven't had very many Alamy sales).

Is there a new property release policy? I recently had an image of a power plant rejected for no property release - (this is an exterior view from across a major highway). I looked on the 123 site and in a brief search could not find a power plant image with a property release. On the blog they had some PR guidelines...

"    Any Interior of properties  that is individually owned or by an Organization.

    Places that require an entrance fee (eg ; Museums, War Memorial Sites, Theaters, Music Halls, Performing Art Centers, Amusement Park Rides)

    Any Building Exterior that is famous for its architectural design and is a Main Focus of the Image

    Any property that is governed by its local law or UNESCO World Heritage Committee (exceptions: Statue of Liberty, Big Ben Clock Tower, The Eiffel Tower in the Daytime)

    Statues below 70 years ( built AFTER 1950s)

    Cruise and Cargo Ships with visible logo, initials or numbers

    Paintings, Murals or any kind of artwork (Hand-drawn/painted) by other person(s) and yourself
"

It seems like the power plant isn't included in this list, but I could be wrong. Pretty much everything that isn't natural or before 1923 but not famous now requires a PR?

This seems like a major policy change if it is in fact true and pretty much limits us to nature pics and nudes.

I just noticed that the SS darkroom now shows the keywords used to find the images.

It shows the top 5 keywords used and the percentage for each of them. No real surprises in my short look at it, but many many of the searches seem to be just one word as I suspected. Not only because the chances that a multiple keyword search is used enough to show up in the top 5 is lower and because I think buyers tend to try one word, then if they don't see an image they like in the first few pages then they try more words.

In any case, this is more potentially interesting and useful data from SS. Thanks.

for the past few days I've gotten this message
"Upload Stopped
Sorry to inform that uploads will be temporarily stopped to facilitate a scheduled maintenance of our storage system. "

when I try to process my ftp images. Do others get this and does anyone know how long this temporary event is?

Because I was curious and couldn't find it easily listed anywhere I went and calculated the range of credit costs and return per credit for sales at Dreamstime. This is for 2010 credits, older credits may be worth more or less. These are for non exclusive images.

maximum cost is 1.25/credit - max return 50% = .62 per credit

minimum cost is .77/credit, min return  30% = .23 per credit

for subs packages the return varies from .35 to 1.05 and the cheapest the buyers could get the images are about .20 per image. The most expensive for maxing out a subscription is around .43 per image. obviously DT is not expecting anyone to use all of their subs.

If I am wrong with my calculations, please correct me.

--=Tom