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Messages - fintastique

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 6 7 ... 29
26
General - Top Sites / Re: How many images
« on: December 11, 2008, 11:14 »
A forgotten post of mine which I used to update weekly listing how many images each site has in its portfolio (I have modified the original post to avoid more confusion)


how have things changed in the last 11 months



Istock is pushed back in 4th place and DT surges ahead look out FT

I was updating my microstock guide mainly FT new rankings, so I thought I would resurrect this thread I will try to update it monthly in future.

27
General Stock Discussion / November 2008 earnings breakdown
« on: November 28, 2008, 05:44 »
Now is the winter of my discontent.

Usually I experience a summer slump and December sucks but otherwise a gradual increase throughout the year however I seemed to have peaked in September 2008 and the a downward spiral starts again.

Updated figures

SS  44.3% 3WM08*
DT  17.5% 3WM08
FT  14.3% 2BM08  ;D
StockXpert  6.8%
BS    5.5% 2WM08
123  5.4% WM08
IS    4.8% WM08 no surprise
FP   1.4%

3WM08 3rd worst month 2008
2MB08 2nd Best Month 2008

* actual number of 25/day DLs at SS lowest since February 2007

Only bright spots the exhange rate from $/ is still good for microstock earnings in dollars and VAT (UK sales tax) was reduced today (1st December) to 15% (from 17.5%) so my dollar earnings will go further I expect December will suck as usual so fingers crossed for 2009

28
Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock on Demand sales in October?
« on: November 02, 2008, 08:49 »
If you want to comment on whether the percentage/total increased/decreased from last month which seemed to a better month for some people, feel free below.

For me
August 3% of SS earnings from OD sales
September 9.1% of SS earnings from OD sales
October 9.3% of SS earnings from OD sales but less $$

29
Shutterstock.com / That Shutterstock poll - what did you think?
« on: November 02, 2008, 08:33 »
I am referring to the poll that was sent by e-mail from SS with the chance to win a graphics tablet.  ;D

I saw from another thread quite a few contributors wanted a crack down on contributors spamdexing their images.

I suggested more comprehensive stats well at least being able to click on an image and find out how many DLs and DL/month.

What other things did you suggest/moan about?

I see they were floating the idea of a keywording service like DT have.


30
General Stock Discussion / Re: October 2008 earnings breakdown
« on: October 28, 2008, 09:56 »
For all of you in the UK

1st July $1 = 50p
1st August  $1 = 51p
1st September $1 = 55p
1st October $1 = 56p
28th October $1 = 64p
1st November $1=62p

Obviously PP or MB won't give you that rate

but $1000 of earnings would give you a measely 500 back in July now it would be around the 640  :)

In Euroland

1st July $1 = 63c
1st August  $1 = 64c
1st September $1 = 68c
1st October $1 = 71c
28th October $1 = 80c
1st November $1 = 79c

again $1000 of earnings would give you a mere 630 back in July now it would be around the 800  :)



31
Alamy.com / Re: Alamy Measures - Wow, usefull stuff
« on: October 28, 2008, 09:41 »
I had a look, not overly impressed with all the stats.

Is there any way of seeing for one of your sales what keywords were used to find it? (like at DT)

The other thing I thought was strange that considering the size of the portfolio 13 million how vague/general some of the search terms were.

32
General Stock Discussion / October 2008 earnings breakdown
« on: October 28, 2008, 08:21 »
I know I am very early but I like to start this thread.

Updated Saturday morning

SS 45.5%
DT 17%
FT 11.5%

IS 7.6%
123 6.0%
BigStock 5.3%
StockXpert 5.2%
FP 1.8%

Well I suspected it was not a best month at any site and overall a rather disappointing month, I think I overachieved in September. I usually see a steady increase after the summer slump until Christmas.

The only bright note is that the exchange rate for US dollars to pounds has changed in my favour, hopefully the dollar can remain strong until the agencies send me my money.

33
Illustration - General / Re: IPTC info and vectors
« on: October 14, 2008, 04:59 »
I usually make two JPGs from my eps file one for SS and one for the rest then I select both files and using the Microsoft photo info utility I embed both sets of IPTC data at the same time.

I found that uploading eps and JPG to SS using the HTTP loader was very reliable both files arrive and IPTC data is read. Often I found with FTP one file would get lost and IPTC data would be misread.

34
Dreamstime.com / Re: Dont resubmit a pic
« on: October 09, 2008, 15:29 »
My rule is if I agree with the comment and it is a quick fix I will make adjustments and resubmit otherwise I just annoy them and move on.

35
General Stock Discussion / Re: how to find your stolen images?
« on: October 07, 2008, 13:02 »
I gave TinEye a try

I tried a 1200 x 1600 version of file it failed to find any of the thumbails at about six sites that it has been submitted to and just showed one image featured the same flag by a different creator.

Not very impressed.

36
Dreamstime.com / Re: No Moneybookers on DT
« on: October 07, 2008, 08:31 »
MB is supposedly working again at DT what is the wait between requesting and receiving your payment?

I personally found that MB had a better exchange rate than PP for dollars-> pounds and the money reached my bank account faster when requested

37
Any suggestions which sites to check?

ebay for CDs for sale

other stock sites especially if you don't contribute.

Any other suggestions??



38
General Stock Discussion / Re: your most laughable rejection
« on: October 02, 2008, 08:27 »
I submitted an illustration of Prague castle at sunset showing the spires of St Vitus cathedral which I included in the keywords.

It was rejected for
Your image info contains one or more of the following issues: irrelevant or incomplete title, description/keywords/categories issues, similar/identical title and description, title/description written with capital letters(CAPS LOCK ON).

So I decided to resubmit it after reducing the number of keywords even though I considered all to be relevant.

It was rejected again with the charming

You have submitted this image before and it was refused for the same reason(s). Please ensure that you did fix the problem(s). Do not resubmit images in hopes of reaching a new reviewer. Your account privileges may be disabled if you use this method again

Unfortunately I noticed that using the resubmit button was not the answer as for some reason in the DT database the original keywords had also been editted so it appeared I had I just resubmitted without making ANY changes.

39
Sorry to see I didn't get to start this post this month.  :'(

SS 43.7% BME #

DT 16.6% BME
FT 12.1% BM08

IS 7.6% BM08
BS 6.3%
123 6.3%
StockXpert 5.6%

FP   1.8%

overall BME for microstock

SS breakdown
# 82% 25-A-DAY
     9% on-demand
     6% footage
     2% referrals

Good referral income at DT as one of my referrals was the featured photograper last week


40
Shutterstock.com / Re: Have you all seen this, SS on demand
« on: August 31, 2008, 02:34 »
I eventually read the forum post where it explained the variation in prices for members so time for a new table for my microstock guide.

SS on demand earnings table

scroll up that page for more info

41
General Stock Discussion / August 2008 earnings breakdown
« on: August 31, 2008, 02:20 »
Well hopefully its the end of the Summer slump slightly down on July overall.
I don't expect many sales on a Sunday on the labour day weekend so here goes.

SS 44.7%
DT 17.6% BME

FT  8.6%
StockXpert 8.1% BME #
IS 7.6% BME *

BS 6.7%
123 4.6%

FP 1.7%
CanStockPhoto 0.3%

# disabled subscriptions
* a few video sales helped

42
Dreamstime.com / Re: New earnings schedule at Dreamstime?
« on: August 06, 2008, 07:17 »
I have updated the DT page in my microstock guide including the new pricing structure.

Prior to December 2007 an image needed 25 DLs to achieve level 2 status now it only needs 5 downloads and will sell for more credits than before which favours fresh images and unfortunately subscription downloads of very popular images .  >:(

Dreamstime

The eps price has changed to now its double the price of the largest JPG

so if you uploaded a 9mp version you could earn $5 for the eps file but if you only uploaded a 4 mp version your eps will earn you only $3  :(

43
Shutterstock.com / Re: Have you all seen this, SS on demand
« on: August 06, 2008, 05:27 »
Just had my first on demand sale which earnt me $2.85 the uploaded file was 4mp (a 9mp file went elsewhere and SS are selling a uprezzed 16mp version). I only ever had one $5.99 sale at SS sister site.

Not a great % for us but I prefer getting $2.85 instead of 38c rather than 30c instead of $7.50 at another site that a few of us have been complaining about recently.

44
StockXpert.com / Re: StockXpert Images on Photos.com
« on: August 05, 2008, 06:44 »
I had noticed a steady decline in credit sales at StockXpert.

Back in September/October 2007 I had no subscription sales and a healthy number of credit sales, the ratio changed to 2 credit sales for every sub then 1.5 credit for every sub and now in August I have more sub sales than credit sales.

Yesterday at one point I checked my earnings I had 5 sub sales and no credit sales the subs sales were 1 XXL, 2  XL + 2 L

I was particularly annoyed at the XXL sale as it was an original illustration which should have earned $7.50.

At least at Fotolia subscription downloads are capped at L size.

This morning I received the e-mail from StockXpert regarding photos.com I decided to visit the forum and have skimmed through the 6 pages of this thread.

I am thankful of the opt out options I will certainly be using them.

45
General Stock Discussion / July 2008 earnings breakdown
« on: July 31, 2008, 02:41 »
OK July is over so I post my final figures

SS 46.3% BME
DT 16.0% BME*
FT 11.5% BM2008

StockXpert 6.8% BM2008
IS    6.4%

123 5.8%
BS   4.6% WM2008

FP   2.8% BME

CanStockPhoto 0.1%

overall BME for microstock

* Highest number of DLs at DT ever but lots of subscriptions.

BME best month ever
BM2008 best month 2008
WM2008 worst month of 2008

Strange how differently the sites performed on the last day of the month some sites virtually no sales but the busiest day of the month at others



46
Actually SS earnings this month were fairly close to a BME.

Just have been having a closer look at SS in terms of number of downloads Feb was my best month this year in terms of number of DLs there so i divided all the others by Feb's total.

Jan    0.84
Feb    1.00
March 0.94
April   0.86
May   0.76
June  0.71

Looking forward to the autumn with increased DL numbers combined with the 38c per DL.

47
Figures have been updated as June is over

The summer slump seems to have begun at some sites but not others so a fairly average month overall.

SS   47.2%
DT    17.7% *

FT    8.4% #
StockXpert 7.2%
123 6.5%
IS    6.2%
BS   5.9% #

FP   0.6% #

* BME at DT by 22c
# worst month of 2008

For any of you with a video camera I have recently made a webpage comparing the three principle sites selling footage

Micro Stock Footage guide

48
General Stock Discussion / May 2008 earnings breakdown
« on: May 31, 2008, 14:03 »
SS  44.8% BME
DT  16.4% BME
FT   11.1%

BS    7.1%
StockXpert  7.0%
IS     6.5%

123  4.7%
FP     2.1% BME
SPM  0.2%
CanStockPhoto  0.1%

Actually less downloads at Shutterstock than usual but the earnings/DL increased plus extended licences and a run on footage clip downloads brought up the total.

The subscriptions at StockXpert seems to be cutting into my earnings

49
In terms of prices you can compare in my table

price comparison chart

Sorry don't have time for an other comments

50
General Stock Discussion / March 2008 Earnings breakdown
« on: March 31, 2008, 07:31 »
A bit early but I won't be able to start this thread at the appropriate time

SS  42.7%

DT  16.2%
FT   13.0%

StockXpert  7.7%
iS      7.2%
BS     5.8%
123   5.8%

FP     1.5%

Not a bad month but less than February, I am sure Easter is partly to blame

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