|
MicrostockGroup Sponsors
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - Sedge
26
« on: July 18, 2016, 17:57 »
I'm mostly a niche image-maker, and I've seen the same decrease as Rinder and others in this thread. Up until this month, the decrease in both downloads and money had been gradual, but something drastic has been going on in July. It's more than just the summer slowdown. I'm on track to have 50% less downloads than July 2015, and 25% less downloads than last month. My recent daily earnings are roughly the same as what Mantis has stated, quite a substantial decrease from my average. I've been doing this since 2006; long enough to see major trends.
Too many of us are observing the same patterns; something has changed independent of portfolio quality and time of year IMHO.
27
« on: June 02, 2016, 12:20 »
Good article. Any idea if or when they'll be reopening their call to artists?
28
« on: July 06, 2015, 14:56 »
I just had another 60 images deleted from my portfolio over the weekend; extremely discouraging and frustrating! I'm taking a break from Canva until they get their review process sorted out.
29
« on: July 06, 2015, 14:51 »
30
« on: May 25, 2015, 14:49 »
31
« on: March 24, 2015, 21:47 »
w7lwi, did iStock actually threaten to remove your portfolio if you didn't comply with their SEO directive?
32
« on: March 23, 2015, 15:13 »
The redeemed credits bug was once again up to no good last Friday and over the weekend. My royalty rate dropped by 1% and my redeemed credit total dropped by over 1000. They seemed to have fixed it already, and they've pledged to adjust our royalty earnings accordingly. Here's the forum link: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=366093&page=1
33
« on: March 23, 2015, 15:02 »
I'm a bit confused by this thread. I never received an e-mail from iStock requesting to change all my titles and descriptions. So my question is, were all contributors supposed to get this e-mail, or only a select few? I was part of the SEO experiment back in October, but that only involved four images. If anyone could clarify this issue, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance...
34
« on: March 03, 2015, 13:45 »
A little off topic but didn't want to start a new thread. Can any of you Stocksy folks tell me what their file size requirements are? I've looked through both old MSG threads as well as the Stocksy site to no avail. It's probably mentioned somewhere, but I couldn't find it. I'm preparing a submission for this year's "Call to Artists," and want to know what is the minimum file size they'll accept (excluding phone camera files).
Many thanks in advance!
35
« on: February 16, 2015, 13:37 »
At least most of you have had some images reviewed, accepted, and making sales. I submitted 600 of my best images on October 9th and have yet to have a single image reviewed. Very frustrating... 
36
« on: January 08, 2015, 20:38 »
I believe the photographer is not the only defendant.
37
« on: August 09, 2014, 13:29 »
I recently performed a Google image search for my name and found one of my microstock images being sold as a POD canvas wrap on these four websites: Wayfair.com, AllModern.com, Gilt.com, and Wallmart.com. Needless to say I was a bit shocked at this discovery! I eventually determined with certainty that the distribution source was a company called Epic Art, located in Baltimore, Maryland. Strangely, when viewing their website, I was unable to find my image. My next step was to review all my microstock agency sales for any extended licenses for that image that would allow for the reproduction and resale of canvas wraps. The image only had one extended license sale, and after contacting the agency that sold it, they determined that the sale was NOT to Epic Art.
So now I'm looking at a possible copyright infringement and/or liability case. I suspect that Epic Art may have simply purchased a regular subscription or credit license for the image, which I believe for all agencies does NOT allow for the reproduction and resale of an image as a POD canvas wrap, but please correct me if I am mistaken. Wouldn't a company be required to have some type of extended license to resell and distribute a microstock image as a canvas wrap?
I guess my next step would be to contact Epic Art to determine if they purchased a license for my image, and if so exactly what type of license. One interesting aspect is that my name is listed on each site as the artist, so I suspect they did indeed buy a license, but probably not the correct one. So now the next step: Should I contact them directly, or would it be wise to have a lawyer contact them? If this were simply some blogger ripping me off, I'd just ask for an image takedown, but as this involves the selling of prints through some pretty big name outlets, there could be some significant money involved. Then again, perhaps my image has sold poorly, although one of the sites in question had it listed as "Sold Out" (although that seems a bit meaningless for POD distribution).
So what do you think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps someone on MSG has had a similar experience. It's worth mentioning that I'd never considered this image to have any sales value as a stand-alone art piece. I'd always thought of it as just a simple abstract background. It'll be very interesting to see how this case is resolved!
Thanking everyone in advance!
38
« on: August 06, 2014, 16:05 »
Question for Angel:
Can a LEL include canvas prints being sold for resale? I recently found an image of mine being sold as a POD canvas print through a company called Epic Art. And they're apparently reselling the same image through Wallmart and Wayfair. I'm trying to track down the original license before I contact them. I did find a 123RF LEL license sold for this image for which I received $5.63. Still have some research to do though. Thanks...
39
« on: May 27, 2014, 17:10 »
I think they've only done one day so far (the 9th).
41
« on: April 26, 2014, 21:26 »
Les, thanks for posting these Topaz discounts. I purchased both the sharpening and denoise plug-ins, and wouldn't have known about either if you hadn't posted on MSG.
42
« on: April 03, 2014, 19:04 »
I rarely upload to FT (or pay much attention to them, for that matter), but I just uploaded a new image and set the Extended License "Credit Price" to 100. The web form accepted the amount and changed the "Your Revenue (Credit)" column to 25 as expected; I then accepted the "Contract Conditions" and clicked on the Update button. Just as the page was changing it looked like the "Credit Price" had reverted back to 20! I couldn't verify this since it's a new upload, and it can't be edited until it's been reviewed, but this got me thinking about my other images. I started clicking on the Edit link on a variety of images in my portfolio, and found to my horror and amazement that they were ALL set to 20 for an Extended License! I then attempted to make corrections to all these files: I'd set the EL amount to 100, the page would accept it, I'd click "Update;" everything would seem fine. But when I'd go back to each image to confirm my changes, I'd see that the EL amount had reset once again to the lowest value. Needless to say, this is very upsetting!
I reviewed the Fotolia forum prior to writing this post and couldn't find anyone describing a similar situation. Have Fotolia changed their policy re: Extended License price setting? You'd think that if I wasn't eligible for the 100 "Credit Price," the web form wouldn't allow me to change the value. I know I've had Extended License sales in the past for 100 credits for which I received $25. Now it seems my whole portfolio has been set to 20 Credits for an EL, for which I'd only earn $5.00.
Maybe I'm missing something or doing something wrong, or missed an announcement? I tried a different browser with the same results. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Any input/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
43
« on: March 18, 2014, 00:21 »
February was down about $150 from January, and the first week of January was somewhat slow. February's PP total was my lowest by far in over a year. Very suspicious...
44
« on: March 17, 2014, 18:16 »
Thanks Ron...
45
« on: March 17, 2014, 00:21 »
Mantis, excuse my ignorance but what is BOPIS? I looked through 3 pages of a Google search and all I could find was a spicy Filipino dish.
46
« on: March 14, 2014, 18:31 »
Alex, a couple of quick questions:
1) I see that 500px is interested in exclusive imagery for their Prime collection. I'm interested in uploading images that would be exclusive to 500px for possible inclusion in Prime. Is there anyway I can label those specific images "Exclusive," as part of the upload process? Might save some time during the "Invitation" review period.
2) For the exclusive images I'll be uploading to be considered for Prime, would it be preferable to NOT enable personal downloads (just for those images) in my store?
Thanks...
47
« on: March 13, 2014, 13:21 »
Joshua, any reply yet from iStock? I'm very interested in how they respond, as it's very unclear how much we actually make for a PP extended license sale. Have you been able to confirm that your originally recorded extended license PP sales were mistakes, as was claimed by iStock? I hope you're able to get some clear and definitive answers! (not holding my breath, though)...
48
« on: February 24, 2014, 22:25 »
Over Payment Total = over $900 Monthly Recoup Amount = over $150  Quote from: Elenathewise on Today at 20:36 "Same here. The other thing - I looked at my totals for Sept/Oct 2013 and they are actually LOWER than for the other months of the year. And based on previous years sales are usually HIGHER during this time. So there was no unusual spike in earnings, just the opposite. It looks to me they have no clue who was overpaid and how much and just randomly distributing the pain."
I'm seeing the exact same pattern. I added up my posted PP sales for Sept. and Oct. and subtracted the recoupment value. The average sales totals for the two months in question are now below my sales totals from both August and November. Although possible, it's statistically improbable. I created a CR contact ticket requesting an accounting and verification of iStock's purported recoupment "value." I suspect this "value" may actually be an estimate (or possibly a half-assed guess). I strongly urge everyone to check your statistics and send iStock a CR ticket if your recoupment value is suspect. They don't call Elena "the wise" for nothing... P.S. For what it's worth, my portfolio is under 1000 images.
49
« on: January 22, 2014, 21:36 »
Not fixed here. FF, Chrome, and Safari... nada Captcha.
50
« on: January 03, 2014, 19:25 »
Lobo just started a new thread on iStock's PP forum. Here's the full quote: We've established that there were some irregularities with Oct(Sept) and Nov(Oct) Partner Program royalties. We've been investigating these irregularities and hope to have additional information some time next week. What this means is the royalty payments for September and October are being reviewed at this time. We will have an update on this issue next week.I've got a bad feeling about this...
|
Sponsors
Microstock Poll Results
Sponsors
|
Show Posts
