only .30 and 1.02 today. yesterday I had .30 and .40

I'm not sure that my time zone (west coast USA) syncs up with Adobe's days though.

I used to provide feedback for example on their new "improved" contributor interfaces. They never seemed to listen - or at least the interfaces kept getting worse.

ooh boy, exciting news. The support we expect from Envato (I realize your content is what got us started, but we decided you are not suitable - so PFO) will continue under SS.

It is interesting to consider if SS had put more of the $ they used to acquire stuff into treating their contributors better and improving the site and service where they would be now. I think they had a ton of $ from going public and used it to reward the top brass and go on a buying spree. I am guessing it worked ok for them.

Consolidation is not surprising, but I don't see it as a good thing for contributors.

they do their best to hide it since it is usually so sad (if it even works - which is barely, and not for the first week or so of the month when you want to see what happened last month).

https://www.123rf.com/contributor/dashboard

for more detail look at the links on the left - but when going to the specific dates it usually goes to the wrong day - get ready to keep trying. They sell stock about as well as they make the user experience.

I also just had 2 .32 custom sales. a new low for me (I think), no tax withholding. it is a worrying trend if it becomes common.

For starters, there was no microstock before digital, Stock before digital was a completely different entity (and I was not part of it).

I am not sure I am an old timer, but I started in 2006 and would say the main difference for me 2006 to about 2012 was that there was a sense that more work, better equipment, and more images meant more income. Also there was a feeling that at least at some level there was some trickle down from the agency's success to the contributors (at least until IS became unsustainable about 2010).

I remember looking forward to the new levels from SS each year and the feeling that buying new equipment would be paid back fairly quickly and the excitement of uploading a batch to SS and seeing sales of those images in a few hours if not within a day or 2. It's a shame I didn't put more work into it at the time.

I would say time is the biggest factor against making a lot of money at microstock. I have no idea of the actual half life of images, but in general with the same port you will make less money every year from a combination of more competition (both from other artists and thieves and now AI) plus the sites taking a bigger cut either by changing the terms, selling their own material, or through backdoor accounting shenanigans or just lower costs - although inflation seems to make everything more expensive, it doesn't seem to be the case for microstock which keeps getting cheaper either in terms of actual cost or better license deals or more subs for the same amount or all you can eat buffets.

So, if you want to make $ at this you are more likely to do that by working now rather than waiting a while when looking back these will be the good old days. It is sort of like planting a tree, the best time to do it is 10 years ago (or for microstock 15 years ago), but the next best time is now.

Quote from: pancaketom on April 06, 2024, 15:25

I got a big for bigstock adjustment Apr 5 also. I opted out as soon as I was able to last year. I checked again and they opted me back in. So much for transparency and all that. I opted back out again. I wonder how long that will last.

Where is the Big Stock opt out anyway? I can�t find it.

it is hiding under "my account" - "edit profile"

https://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/nearly-1-000-fake-accounts-selling-stolen-photos-discovered/

Quote from: Andrej.S. on March 26, 2024, 14:24

Brutal, how is this even possible? 3 to 4 cents comissions?
What the heck?

I wouldn't be surprised if all agencies are ripping off their contributors since they all have become to greedy.

Didn't we also have the thread about Shutterstock, where even sales were not passed on to the contributors?

IStock states that they pay out almost 2 million a week.
Presumably that's a similar number of sales. So mistakes can happen ...
You probably don't even notice smaller ones and they are simply covered up.

Nobody can check the sales system.

3 or 4 cents has been going on for some time at IS. Check their forum, I think some people have been as low as 2� and that's not Connect, that's a iStock or Getty download.

All agencies have their best self interest to pay us what we are due and not cheat. If someone ever found out there were unpaid downloads, that were paid for and licensed, there would be one heck of a lawsuit, which could destroy the business.

Quote

Didn't we also have the thread about Shutterstock, where even sales were not passed on to the contributors?

Alleged, claimed, unsupported, unless you believe everything you read on an Internet Forum, without any proof?

Correct, nobody can check the sales system. We can't anywhere or for many other business in life. There has to be some trust? If anyone works on a commission basis, they have to believe that the company they work for, is going to be honest and report everything. Otherwise, why start?

I noticed that, as usual, the people who claim SS is a bunch of crooks and insulting us with 10�, don't have an answer to why they are not just as insulted or worse for 3� downloads and connect sales, from iStock? But people flocked away from SS in protest, and formed a coalition, tried a boycott, and two years later can't stop writing hate messages... still work for IS? 

As a note: I still work for both. Yes, I'm insulted, but I'll take the money. 

IS drew first blood - and I removed most of my content there, and if everyone had done that I am pretty sure SS would not have done what they did, but they did.
The SS pulled their money grab. So I turned off my port. If everyone had done that, they would be gone or backtrack, but they didn't and they didn't.

Tragedy of the commons. I am glad I am not relying on this for my food or shelter, although it managed to be over 50% of my income for a brief while.

If your monitor is big enough the option is still there to the right. I'm on my little laptop now, so I can't see it or I'd give you the URL for it.

you can also ctrl -  to make the text small enough that it appears or use the url:

https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/portfolio?limit=100&page=1&sort_by=create_desc

Surprise - big customers get to use our files for free for some uses (planning, mock ups, etc. ) with no watermarks so if they accidentally just go live with it nobody really notices.

The question I have for the people that got heaps of refunds, were your earnings for November oddly high (by about the same amount as the refunds)?

Pretty shoddy on the part of Getty all around.

Small consolation that Getty eats 85% of the refunds.