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Messages - pancaketom
Pages: 1 ... 3 4 5 6 7 [8] 9 10 11 12 13 ... 88
176
« on: August 17, 2022, 15:38 »
High priced sales pretty much had stopped for me before the 10 cent scheme started. I went from a few a month (with a few 0 months per year) to a few a year, to maybe none the year before they screwed us. That was one of the main reasons I was mostly ok with turning off my port. Also the average RPD drop from ~75 cents to about ~25 cents and the overall income dropping more than 50%.
Before I turned off my port I looked back at some of the good years. Wow, no wonder it was fun and exciting looking at stats back then and all that with a port that was half the size or smaller.
177
« on: August 02, 2022, 15:57 »
I would say turning off SS for your mental health and dignity makes more sense than thinking that it will make Adobe sales go up - although maybe you have content that is unique and in demand and that is actually the case. If so I would definitely turn of SS and Getty and force the buyers to go somewhere you get a better percent and sales aren't quite so cheap.
178
« on: August 02, 2022, 13:08 »
I never got a notification, but I signed in to see how pathetic my earnings were and to opt out. 123RF was once a good earner. After a few rounds of exciting news over the years they are in the lowest tier and off the upload list.
Everyone who doesn't want to give away their work should log in and opt out.
179
« on: August 01, 2022, 13:53 »
I don't know how the details work, but the result is probably more money for Freepik and less for the artists.
180
« on: July 29, 2022, 12:56 »
It is quite simple actually:
Right now inflation for most products is simply caused by production costs rising: The material to produce a product costs more, so do transportation and energy costs.
In 99% of all cases the person/company that produces the product gets to decide the price for which they sell them to end-customers and retailers. Their production costs have risen, so in order to keep the same profit, they sell their product for more.
But Microstock is one of the few industries where the producer - the person who now has higher production costs, for example by higher fuel prices when driving to shooting locations or higher prices for gear - does not get to decide the price. It's the agencies that decide the price and they aren't the ones who have higher porduction costs, so they see no reason to raise prices for end products as, unlike contributors, they have no financial loss due to rising production costs.
That's the whole problem. In microstock producers can't decide their prices. We can't forward our rising expenses to customers and microstock agencies don't have high enough morality standards to do it for us.
I've often thought that.
Train fares go up like clockwork every year, normally by 5 - 10% in the UK.
Petrol has been known to fluctuate by 10% in a week.
Even fast food chains are raising their prices.
Meanwhile MS agents have been terrified to raise prices for years.
How can the price be fixed for so long.
Why is the price the same across the world and not reflect costs in different locations?
not only do prices not go up, they keep going down - or at least the amount the photographer gets keeps going down.
181
« on: July 28, 2022, 14:08 »
Eventually economics will sink the coal industry, but not until a lot more damage. I would say that legislation has made a huge difference in the environment in instances like the clean air act and the clean water act. At a minimum the legislation should stop encouraging damaging technology and practices.
At one time the conservatives and economists agreed that a carbon tax was the way to encourage change. Then when it looked like it could actually pass, they balked (not the economists, the so called conservatives). It is a global problem and local solutions can't fully solve it, but the US (or any other country) could lead the way and show what is possible. There are benefits beyond just dropping CO2 emissions - like not being beholden to say, Russia or Saudi Arabia and not having thousands of extra deaths from air pollution.
182
« on: July 27, 2022, 20:49 »
Thanks for that.
The one thing that really jumps out at me was 2.2 million contributors and 2.1 million buyers.
I guess I am one of those 2.2 again since I have assets at P5.
183
« on: July 15, 2022, 12:28 »
I do not know, but I am guessing that there are companies where the bean counters buy a big sub plan, and the image users are stuck with it - unless the search results get so bad that they complain a lot (either because the images are not there, or the search just sucks due to poor algorithm and spam. It takes a long time for changes to percolate through the system. There are others where the people who choose images choose the site - and there I am guessing the quality of the search results is pretty key. I am always amazed at how bad some of the searches are for specific things at the sites. Some day a site will improve that and it might be a game changer for them.
With my tiny and not very unique portfolio (at least for popular images) I did not see any increase in sales elsewhere when I stopped selling at SS or IS, but I did notice I felt less violated. Sadly they have pretty much ruined the business for me, fortunately I am not dependent on it for food or a roof over my head.
184
« on: July 11, 2022, 15:23 »
I wrote asking about getting 1 cent for sales and got some pap about getting a low percent based on the distributor taking a cut and then alamy taking a cut - no mention about why the sale was so low, so I asked again, the second time I got more pap about how distributors charge what they think is competitive in their market and how wonderful that they are a market that we wouldn't normally reach - I asked what market that was and haven't heard back.
The average return is still pretty good, but going from 50% of sales to 20-40% and these super low sales is pretty discouraging.
185
« on: June 15, 2022, 22:14 »
Ever since they cut our take promising to double our sales (which never happened), I haven't been impressed with them.
186
« on: June 10, 2022, 00:43 »
The last time they "improved" the contributor page it was a much worse page, so why expect anything different with "improvement" 2.0
eventually you will get used to it and then when they "improve" it again you will complain that the old version was better.
187
« on: May 22, 2022, 14:40 »
Are there dark clouds?
dude, there were dark clouds in 2010, we are well beyond dark clouds at this point.
188
« on: May 05, 2022, 00:41 »
The only way SS would increase commissions is if its in their business interest to do so. Very few folks left when they cut commissions. As far as theyre concerned, lower commissions doesnt hurt their business.
Agreed. I would like to see them do something to stop their download numbers from slipping....and maybe get them to increase??
The only way they are going to get DL numbers to go up is to charge less - and pay you less and no - you won't make up the difference in volume. If they can't treat artists right I hope they crash and burn.
189
« on: May 03, 2022, 19:28 »
I guess his damage is done - on to destroy something else.
190
« on: April 27, 2022, 21:28 »
I found that happened to me when SS screwed us. I still submit stock, but I haven't done 100% stock stuff in a while and the numbers are way down.
191
« on: April 26, 2022, 22:27 »
I bet SS will try to pay them 10 cents per infringement. I hope they get totally cleaned out.
192
« on: April 21, 2022, 19:19 »
Especially at the level of most SS contributors - money will make you happier.
193
« on: April 20, 2022, 00:36 »
Mine this month are .35, .42 or $2. Even back to the beginning of the year, nothing below .35, highest $5.79 (looks like a one-time sale XS image, 11 credits). I noticed that at least one image that has had 225 DLs & so is Level 5, still earns only .35 at the low end - I guess they must have done away with the levels earning more at some point? I don't really remember.
Yes, they stopped charging more credits and paying more for higher level sub sales a long time ago. The all too rare credit sales cost more and you get a higher percentage if they are a higher level.
194
« on: April 18, 2022, 16:19 »
A long time ago there were some very discounted credits being used - resulting in very low sale prices and even lower returns - especially for level 0 pics. If the credits never expire I am guessing there are a few still out there. Almost all sales are .35 these days - although I did have a $17.25 50 credit sale this month.
195
« on: April 16, 2022, 22:10 »
I see a sub from 2010. Wow, we got .36 for subs back then. My 2021 refund is only for .216. I don't feel like my income is doubling,
196
« on: April 14, 2022, 01:38 »
I think as long as they charge something more than regular use and especially more than subs prices this is probably a good idea (and pay the artist enough), otherwise any user could just figure IF they get caught they can just buy a license, so why bother up front.
197
« on: April 13, 2022, 13:21 »
Maybe they are only going after exclusive content (which they do have) or they employ some sort of digital watermark - which wouldn't be hard to do at least for un-compressed images but they would have had to start doing this from the beginning which I doubt they did do or they would have been going after infringers earlier. In any case going after non-exclusive images that have been out in the wild for ages would be pretty hard. Although they do have a record of all the refunded image sales, so maybe they can go after them if they are still in use. If I had an illegal use I'd just say I bought it from Lucky Oliver or something like that.
In my very limited searching for my own images it seems like sometimes there was a legitimate use - often with a weird crop, and then a heap of copies of that very same crop - often in blogs that were not in English. I don't see them collecting much from those places even at under a dollar.
198
« on: April 12, 2022, 00:22 »
I remember someone else asked about this- I think the subject of the thread was "is shutterstock a scam" or something like that. Seems a little dishonest to me, especially if they do this to buyers.
199
« on: April 10, 2022, 21:55 »
I think there is still money on the table. Just depends on your expectations really. I have been in micro since 2005ish, mostly with food and minerals. Income steadily decreased over time and I stopped taking photos in 2018 for many reasons.
About a year and a half ago, I pulled all my work from every stock site (about 12k photos), then uploaded 6500 to Wirestock without any restrictions. Then I simply sat back and forgot about it. Doing it this way took away all my stressing, and interestingly, took away all the history of my images (best sellers, etc) since they are basically "new" with Wirestock.
So for a "new" contributor, I make anywhere between 0 and 80 dollars a day. If you average it out, maybe 6-8 bucks a day. That doesn't count the thousand or so I pulled with Instant pay. Remember, I have done nothing in almost 4 years.
If you've already done all the work, its just free money. If you do the research and planning that some other successful people here do, you can make a lot more.
my portfolio: wirestock dot io/terry.davis1/portfolio
Nice mineral pics. (in a previous life I was a geologist). I have a few mineral images that never sold much, and a few rock pics that have sold a bit better but not well. I wonder if going the wirestock route was better or worse than just letting everything ride. Probably less work total with wirestock though. I started in 2006, but really started uploading a little more seriously in 2007. For me, 2010 or whenever it was Istock/Getty changed was the end of them and 2012 was the high point overall. I quit SS when they went 10 cent and my income there dropped in half again. I still collect $ and upload from time to time but mostly images I am taking anyway or something I just see when I am out with my camera. I very rarely actually set up and take pics just for micro anymore. I certainly wouldn't be getting into this if I was starting now although there is still money to be made. Demand is as high as ever, but nowhere near the supply. Not only are sales much less in number, but the compensation is much lower than it was in the 2008 or so to 2017 time period. I think with the skills and work required to do well now you could do much better with something else.
200
« on: April 08, 2022, 17:58 »
they say "Wed love to hear your feedback on the new site as you use it"
For their last "improvement" on the contributor side they added all sorts of stuff contributors didn't really care about and got rid of some things they did with as far as I could tell no response to feedback or support from contributors. All I really care about is being treated reasonably and making a decent return. SS completely failed on both of those.
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