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Messages - thepokergod

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51
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 Sales Reporting
« on: April 14, 2016, 05:34 »
It's up the spout - no sales have been reported site-wide for 3 days which is very annoying. I and others have badgered support and also posted in the forums, hopefully this gets resolved ASAP since Payday is tomorrow.

52
General - Stock Video / Re: No views on my footage
« on: April 12, 2016, 02:26 »
On Pond5 I believe a view is counted when someone goes to the specific clip page, so mouseover of thumbnails etc aren't counted. The views there also accumulate in increments of 4, so if you clip has 3 views it will still show as 0, hence many people have clips which have sold but show 0 views. Hope that makes sense.


53
General Stock Discussion / Re: Tax Withheld
« on: April 06, 2016, 02:15 »
Due to some changes on my account I forgot to send renewed W-8 tax form at iStock. Now they charged me 30% on US and 28% on NON-US sales.

Is there a chance I can claim back this tax for 2015?


I also had the same issue last month at Shutterstock with the same situation.


Thanks for the help

Have they sent you the payment yet?

I noticed this on one of my statements, contacted them before they made payment, submitted a new W8BEN and got paid in full.

Edit: this was for Getty.

54
General - Stock Video / Re: unstock.io
« on: April 02, 2016, 00:20 »
I've tried their mobile app, and I think there might be something interesting there. I like uploading footage straight from my iphone! LOL!

For $5 per sale the only clips they'd get from me would be of my dog in the park, shot vertically on my iphone  :D

55
General - Stock Video / Re: Shutterstock earnings this month
« on: April 02, 2016, 00:17 »
March was my worst month on Pond5 for over 4 years however SS was my best ever - I just uploaded about 1500 new clips but sales for those haven't really kicked in just yet. 3 or 4 extended license sales also helped bump up the income. April off to a great start too.


56
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 Sales Reporting
« on: April 02, 2016, 00:14 »
If you are in your dashboard, it is updated daily. However, if you click in "financials" it will show your sales in real time.

Is that a new thing? Financials always usually update once a day at 0530 GMT (reports are now an hour earlier, probably because Europe has gone onto summer time.)

The new site is a bit buggy so today's sales are yet to show up in my dashboard but I got email notification and they're showing in financials.

57
Pond5 / Re: Pond 5 review changes
« on: March 27, 2016, 06:56 »
With 600 files video portfolio my last sale was on Feb 29. No sales since the membership program started. Maybe I am a little bit unlucky but I do think there is a shift in sales from the private portfolios to the membership collection.

Weirdly that was the day of my last decent sale before things fell off a clip. One of the admins did post in the P5 forums saying they acknowledged there was some issues and had made some changes and since then a few sales have trickled in but nothing major. Right now March 2016 running at 10% of March 2015 in revenue.

58
General Macrostock / Re: Getty report for Feb 2016
« on: March 26, 2016, 07:15 »
Congratulations Martin on that awesome sale.

Video man myself and an awesome month there it was, with quite a range of royalties though. The largest royalty for a clip was 936x greater then the smallest  :D

59
Pond5 / Re: Pond 5 review changes
« on: March 25, 2016, 04:00 »
I haven't uploaded anything for a while so can't comment on rejections but I've been absolutely hammered in the sales department. Let's just say March 2015 had 26x as much revenue come in compared to March this year, this will be the worst month since 2011 - that's a dramatic drop.

It seems something has changed drastically there, for 5 years I had stellar sales and made a solid income. (Onions yes I know you think I'm a "favourite" but I didn't even have my first email contact with anyone there until this time last year and ironically since then things have slowly faltered and now seriously dropped off a cliff.) I have a feeling a shake up in top management and "suits" coming in may have something to do with it.

If things don't pick up or change drastically soon I'll have a serious rethink of my strategy there. Luckily I'm well spread and don't rely solely on Pond5...

60
Pond5 / Re: Pond 5 review changes
« on: March 12, 2016, 08:05 »
As I said before this is lunacy, they should be culling old crap accepted during the "anything goes" years before rejecting new decent 4K material...

61
Pond5 / Re: Pond 5 review changes
« on: March 07, 2016, 07:39 »
This seems pretty daft especially if they're rejecting new 4K content in preference for older existing HD content.

Pond5 has been around almost 10 years - maybe it's time to start deleting files which are very old (say 8+ years) with no sales to make way for better quality new clips

Wait... is there a cap in uploading?
You saying if we delete old files, new ones will be accepted easier?
btw...I agree on 4K remark.

There's no cap that I know of - was just airing the idea that maybe the curators should start culling all the old unsold crap (of which there is plenty) instead of rejecting new 4K acceptable stuff.

62
Pond5 / Re: Pond 5 review changes
« on: March 04, 2016, 07:43 »
This seems pretty daft especially if they're rejecting new 4K content in preference for older existing HD content.

Pond5 has been around almost 10 years - maybe it's time to start deleting files which are very old (say 8+ years) with no sales to make way for better quality new clips

63
General - Stock Video / Re: www.b-rollstock.com
« on: March 01, 2016, 02:21 »
There are 4-6 clips in a package.

A HD package is $199. We receive 70% for the first two years and after that 55%.
A 4K package is $299. We receive 70% for the first two years and after that 55%.

Considering the effort involved in making the packages this is not worth it.
4-6 4K clips for $299 is nuts.

Likewise - I got an invite from them, thanks for spelling out the deal, I'll pass on this one.

64
General Stock Discussion / Re: New Pond5 and Membership Program
« on: February 26, 2016, 08:55 »
Remember Pond5 is also getting 50% of regular sales so it's still in their interest to promote the main collection. The membership files are also available for regular purchase for those who don't want to subscribe.

My opt in process was pretty friendly - files older than a year with two or less sales and below a price point which I was able to define.

To opt out you need 120 days notice I believe.

 ::)

I would be very surprised that your opt in process went unfriendly!  ;)

Here is why...P5 knows you well and promotes you exclusively!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWaoAB_gDU

Am I going to be a regular target of your anonymous trolling on this forum every time I post in a Pond5 related thread? When you say "promotes exclusively" I guess you mean alongside the 19 other artists they profiled as well as other's whose clips are regularly featured on the homepage.

Disgruntled ex-employee?

65
General Stock Discussion / Re: New Pond5 and Membership Program
« on: February 26, 2016, 02:58 »
Remember Pond5 is also getting 50% of regular sales so it's still in their interest to promote the main collection. The membership files are also available for regular purchase for those who don't want to subscribe.

My opt in process was pretty friendly - files older than a year with two or less sales and below a price point which I was able to define.

To opt out you need 120 days notice I believe.

66
... I had a large number or Rights Ready sales amounting to mere pennies - $0.04, $0.10 etc which came from an outfit called Wochit....

If you look at Wochit's pricing it's a subscription where you make 4 videos a month for $30 or 15 for $100 (there is a custom option but they don't publish prices)

https://www.wochit.com/pricing/

They offer unrestricted access to music clips and video for those 4 or 10 videos, so whatever portion of the $7.50 or $6.67 goes to royalties might be shared, but I still don't see how you get to 10 cent royalties. In other words Wochit prices are low, but it still seems like the creator is getting next to nothing. Even if 10 cents is 20% of what Getty receives, 50 cent royalty out of $7.50 paid by the buyer?

They also allow the video to be used to generate ad revenue - not sure what the standards are but it almost seems like the type of use that should require an extended license. Is this a standard right to offer with a royalty free video?

"How can I monetize the online videos I make?

Small and large businesses alike find great value in creating videos that generate revenue they run ads against the videos (selling pre-roll on videos uploaded to their sites or monetizing on YouTube). You can do this as well. Once you create a video and click Publish, the video is yours to utilize. Wochit also has partnerships with syndication platforms like AOL.On, Yahoo!, Inform and others which enable further distribution and yes, revenue. For more information please have a look at our terms and conditions or contact support."

Thanks for that insight into WoChit Jo Ann - hopefully they don't appear on my monthly statements again in the future!

67
General - Stock Video / Re: How THIS can be? Editorial related
« on: February 20, 2016, 07:35 »
Yup, also known as DV Archive - big collection over most of the agencies made up of 120+ contributors. There are some great clips in that collection.

Those older clips are public domain or the rights to them have been purchased hence they're legally on sale as editorial.

68
Better royalties in January (statement just came through.) None of the silly pennies like in December.

January was generally quiet but Getty came through better than expected.

69
I believe Pond5 also removed all video clips containing Carnival Cruise ships.

70
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 review times
« on: February 17, 2016, 09:13 »
Likewise, review times don't bother me - Pond5 isn't the place to sell dated editorial footage and besides it usually takes at least 6 months for new footage to start selling, more often longer.

Good to see Pond5 now firmly in the Top Tier - Big 4 in the poll results. Plenty of people making good money there and all these folks bailing because they can't wait, well that's good for the rest of us in the long run  :D

Says James Reynolds, Pond5 promoter who happen to get a nice promos every now and then via P5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWaoAB_gDU

https://twitter.com/pond5/status/693484078020972544

https://www.facebook.com/pond5/posts/10153912253614777

Nobody who wish well to the company should say that long reviews of clips and ID checks are OK.

p.s. Great footage, btw!


Maybe I should clarify, by review times I mean footage review times. I can't speak for the ID situation since I'm not affected but I sympathise with those whose portfolios have been suspended etc.

I'm not a "Pond5 promoter" since the bulk of my income is derived from direct sales and I'd much rather people licensed directly from me - but even if I was my point still stands. Stock is a long haul game and decent clips can and will make money for many years so I don't understand the big hurrah over the long queue right now. Heck, this week I sold a clip I shot almost 10 years ago.


71
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 review times
« on: February 17, 2016, 00:32 »
Likewise, review times don't bother me - Pond5 isn't the place to sell dated editorial footage and besides it usually takes at least 6 months for new footage to start selling, more often longer.

Good to see Pond5 now firmly in the Top Tier - Big 4 in the poll results. Plenty of people making good money there and all these folks bailing because they can't wait, well that's good for the rest of us in the long run  :D

72
General Stock Discussion / Re: Have you seen your footage on tv?
« on: February 17, 2016, 00:12 »
Pretty regularly - if there's a show on disasters, extreme weather or climate change I keep an eye out for my shots.

73
Thanks for sharing your experiences so far with AdWords - it's something I'm considering doing too since I sell a very niche footage type too, but I'm yet to take the plunge.

Looks like the negative keywords could be just as important as the regular ones - look forward to hearing what others have to say on the matter.

74
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 review times
« on: February 09, 2016, 08:55 »
The delays are most likely due to curators' time being used up working on the new subscription program collection. Once that's implemented I wouldn't be surprised to see the review time decrease significantly.

Making money from stock footage requires a heavy investment of time and work - those giving up and throwing in the towel due to a 2 month wait are probably better off doing something else.

75
General - Stock Video / Re: Editorial content: Iraqis and Syrians
« on: February 04, 2016, 08:55 »
I don't think the troubles in that region are going away any time soon so I believe any content you shoot there could be of value. Will you have access to battle scarred areas, military bases or personnel? That kind of footage is pretty rare so would definitely be worth something.

Goes without saying safe travels!

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