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Messages - OM
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851
« on: February 03, 2010, 16:29 »
Anyone expecting fair and honest business practices in thier dealings with Fotolia has not been paying attention the past four years. They have a long history of self serving business practices that have shown little to no regard to the wlefare of their greatest asset (the contributor) and have always paid full service to their greatest concern (their greed)
Fotolia has always been known to bait and switch at the contributors expense.
True enough Bobby but this one really does take the biscuit. In particular it's the sleight of hand (or 'cut by stealth' as another poster put it) that really grates. When is a 'percentage' not actually a percentage? When it's at Fotolia.
Maybe they're are already gearing up to sell the company and both the slow payments and these further erosions of commissions are intended to boost cash and profitability.
You might just have something there. Standard practice at corporations getting ready to sell.
852
« on: February 01, 2010, 14:27 »
OM,
I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere. 
Not sure which Warren he's talking about, mate; there are two of us. 
WarrenP
Oh no, not 2!  Sorry hadn't seen that. I'll go with Warren0909's strategy.
853
« on: February 01, 2010, 14:24 »
OM,
I havent taken all my images off Fotolia ( I need the income !) just took them from exclusive images so I can sell the same images elsewhere.
I understood what you wrote, Warren. I think that is a sensible course for me to follow too. I'm too old to cut off my nose to spite their face.
854
« on: February 01, 2010, 13:52 »
With the deplorable reputation that Fotolia has for communication with its contributors, I'll wait awhile to see what really is happening. If it is a bad as it appears today then I'll be forced to follow in Warren's footsteps.
855
« on: February 01, 2010, 13:19 »
Thanks for posting Warren. I find that last reply showing total disdain for you as contributor/writer of the email and for Fotolia contributors in general. Really rather shocking.
856
« on: February 01, 2010, 13:02 »
Why do I get the impression that at FT the contributor is the enemy. If you look at one of the later posts on their forum by FT UK office, it basically says that they do whatever they want and contributors can like it or lump it. They also insisted that everyone must submit an ITIN for US tax authorities just a few weeks ago. 
857
« on: February 01, 2010, 05:44 »
Cashed out yesterday too............I think for GBP0.75/credit. One small sale today and the credit is indeed now increased GBP 1.00/credit. Ooh, that's nice.
858
« on: January 31, 2010, 05:57 »
If a buyer with subscription buys a 10 credit image of yours, how much do you get as contributor?
You get your percentage of 10 $.96 credits, at the minimum.
Thanks. That seems a decent system for the contributor.
859
« on: January 30, 2010, 17:06 »
sub sites will always be here and growing,that's where all the buyer do most of their shopping. The economy is down and will be for awhile.
You wouldn't know it from my sales. 40% of my sales still come from IS, which doesn't have an "all you can eat" type subscription model at all.
Thanks. I just looked at the IS credits subs system and it it much less generous to the buyer than the 'all you can eat system' of FT. Effectively, you buy credits in bulk and 3 months in advance at a discount of 70% but you have to use your number of credits each day or they turn into pumpkins at midnight.  If a buyer with subscription buys a 10 credit image of yours, how much do you get as contributor?
860
« on: January 30, 2010, 12:34 »
I just can't understand why the subscription sites can't have different prices for different sizes?
Instead of "25 images a day" they could have "50 credits a day". 50 credits could for example mean 50 tiny web images or 5 XL images.
The current situation where a thumbnail costs the same as 20 megapixel image is just insane.
Agree. I just checked at FT to see what you get for the basic subs package: $199 buys you 750 downloads/month, single user and max 'L' format. If used fully, that $199 buys you (depending on the contributor level) a minimum of $5,250 worth of 'L' files at $7 PPD. Should contributor be slightly higher in the pecking order then your advantage as subs buyer becomes a multiple, 2x or 3x of that amount. Dunno if it works in the same way with other RF sites but where else in the world can you get 5K, 10K or 15K worth of goods/services for 200 bucks? What I also haven't figured out is why FT in particular would sell subs to a buyer at $0.27/download and give the contributor a minimum of $0.30 for that same download. Obviously, not all subs buyers extract to the max otherwise subs would be a real loss leader even at the present low rates paid to the contributor. For the present, though, it is no doubt profitable but always at the expense of the contributor. It seems to me that the only way to get better prices for subs would be for many major contributors to opt out of subs at every agency they are at (don't know whether that is possible). Only when subs buyers were faced with a such a depleted stock of the most popular images, the agencies could have their hand forced and have to recognise their contributors for what they are really worth and get a deal which would be less lob sided than the present one.
861
« on: January 30, 2010, 08:04 »
Must be the only industry where the wholesale price is so absurdly out of whack with the retail price.
Especially considering that the buyer can download those L files for the same price(effectively) as XS, M etc.
I'm most surprised that whoever started the subsclub, started with such an exceptionally good deal for the buyers and such a rotten one for the contributors (although contributor rewards have never figured much in the calculations of some sites). Offering an immediate discount of 90%+ for forward payment is not exactly common practice in industry generally.
As to whether contributors can do much about it, I don't know. Sometimes after getting a subs sale from a new image, I get some downloads of the same image for regular rates (XL) which dissuades me from removing my contributions to subs. Do subs act as badly paid advertising for an image? Don't know that either. I agree that the minimum reward for a subs sale should be more in the region of $1, rather than the 30 cents it is now. On the other hand, if the buyer were only able to download to "M" as a maximum size in subs, I think that this may encourage more PPD's for the larger sizes from the same subs buyers.
Ideally, subs would disappear overnight but lacking that option (which is unrealistic), I could live with a system in which subs were limited to M max and, that should the subscription customer require a larger file for download, they could do this at a not too substantial discount to the PPD rate.
But as I'm fairly new to all this WTHDIK.
862
« on: January 21, 2010, 12:15 »
My acceptance rate on FT is pretty good these days and better than 6 months ago.
Rejection reason "quality of image" at FT does not mean what photographers think that it means. It means they don't think the image is "commercial" enough ie they doubt it will sell.
I'm not sure but I think that rejection on the grounds of technical quality actually states that they found the 'technical quality' insufficient for FT.......usually followed with a whole list of things that could be wrong with the image eg blurry, out of focus etc.
864
« on: October 08, 2009, 07:41 »
The only occasions on which I've had images rejected during uploading was due to the images' non-compliance with the Fotolia format. The shots were JPEG's but below 4 megapixels. The computer rejects these automatically by not uploading them at all..
865
« on: October 02, 2009, 05:06 »
Thanks leaf. Stoopid of me to post that...works the same if a US buyer buys an image through FT.com.
Posted a query about PhotoClubs on the FTeu message board last night but it's vanished this morning.
No trace of the message.
866
« on: October 01, 2009, 19:35 »
Up late, surfing the web as I do occassionaly to see what pops up under my name or company... and I come across this.
Photo Club RF stock photo. Has my pix for sale. At the bottom of the page there is this;
this product uses the Fotolia API, but it is not certified, endorsed or sponsored by Fotolia and Photo Clubs is not affiliated or related to Fotolia.
http://photo-clubs.net/getMediaData.php?id=3488891
And at the top there is a shortcut to Fotolia. What gives? What am I missing? How do I know I'm getting paid?
Hope I haven't missed a thread on this somewhere... =tom
Thanks for that tip. I went to their site and searched for one of my very few images on my Fotolia Europe site. I found it complete with a pricing in USD. One problem.........all my images are priced in Euro on the Fotolia site. So.......how does someone buy one of my images there (on Photo Club) in USD credits when my pricing is in Euro credits.The credits on Photo Club go 1,2,4,5 in USD and my credits on FT are the same but in Euro. So, that means, as an exclusive FT contributor, I get paid 60 Eurocents when a buyer pays $1 = 69 Eurocents. I didn't think that microstock agencies worked for such a small margin........maybe that's the reason the file sold like hot cakes for the first month and then abruptly halted. Dunno..........maybe I'll risk getting banned and broach the subject on FT.
867
« on: August 27, 2009, 16:39 »
Most people starting out in photography as a profession need to get some cash flow going and stock/micro can take a long time to build up before the payments arrive on a regular basis. Do something else first to guarantee a regular income and see if you have the time/desire and innate ability to do it once you are earning money some other way. Stock is essentially a medium-term investment in your future and not an immediate cash flow generator.
868
« on: August 12, 2009, 19:35 »
I couldn't find out how much a "premium" account costs?
I don't think a premium account costs anything. I got a 'merchant'/premium account when I was doing some trading on eBay. I didn't bother to change the account but that has always charged me 3-4% on incoming payments and 3-4% on exchange of currency. It is a lot and it is probably the reason that Eurozone people use bank transfer because that is free between Euro countries. It's not much help but id on't know if there are any much cheaper alternatives between non-common currency areas.
869
« on: June 23, 2009, 12:10 »
Someone doing something already. Price of a credit on UK goes from 60p to 75p per 1st July.
Oh, maybe that message was only intended for buyers and not subscribers but since I'm both............
870
« on: June 11, 2009, 19:36 »
Get old scanner, Win 98, old printer and PS 5LE.no probs!
871
« on: June 11, 2009, 19:10 »
Get a lightly-used Canon 5D and 50mm f1.8 lens + adapter for old Olympus OM/or Leica R lenses. Those lenses now cost buttons on feebay (stay away from the real exotica) and as long as you don't mind manual, stop-down operation, you're init2winit for optical quality.IMHO.
872
« on: May 08, 2009, 19:57 »
Dunno if already mentioned:
http://www.snapixel.com/
Own site, their bandwidth, 60/40 split...60 to contributor and basic credit is one Euro/$1.34US.
Anyone know about them?
Yes we have!...do a search on a previous thread on them.
"Please don't bring them back, unles they've something new to show and offer"
Oh well.
873
« on: May 08, 2009, 19:56 »
deleted
874
« on: May 08, 2009, 19:56 »
Dunno if already mentioned:
http://www.snapixel.com/
Own site, their bandwidth, 60/40 split...60 to contributor and basic credit is one Euro/$1.34US.
Anyone know about them?
Yes we have!...do a search on a previous thread on them.
"Please don't bring them back, unles they've something new to show and offer"
875
« on: May 08, 2009, 17:31 »
Dunno if already mentioned: http://www.snapixel.com/Own site, their bandwidth, 60/40 split...60 to contributor and basic credit is one Euro/$1.34US. Anyone know about them?
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