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Messages - Mantis

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176
123RF / Re: Trends to Upload for September e-mail from 123RF
« on: September 09, 2021, 09:31 »
I used to make a decent amount per month from 123RF.

September 2021 is on pace to being the worst month since September 2017. They are seriously declining.

Same here.  Somewhere between $200-$300 a month has morphed into $10 to $20 a month.

177
Shutterstock.com / Re: Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
« on: September 03, 2021, 09:55 »
All these things in the USA are hilarious.

I don't know how you can even talk.

We use sign language now.

I submitted my middle finger a few years back and it was rejected  :(

Same here. Never made it into their collection.

178
Shutterstock.com / Re: Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
« on: September 03, 2021, 08:39 »
All these things in the USA are hilarious.

I don't know how you can even talk.

We use sign language now.

179
Another 8 rejected.  How moronic.

I also had eight killed today and another dozen over the last week or so.  Stupid.  One is a businessman with a noose around his neck.  Inappropriate.

180
Excellent review.

181
Same here.  Standard reject reason for shots taken and submitted 10 years ago.

182
Alamy.com / Re: Have you received Alamy Payment?
« on: August 24, 2021, 08:07 »
Hi there,

Calling this fraud etc is a touch strong I feel - this was an issue with Paypal and the way they updated the security settings around how they process our payments. Once we knew the scope of the delay, we've emailed all those paid via paypal to update them about the delay.

We've checked this payment for you and can see it has been sent. We enquired with Paypal and they confirmed the funds are there but they haven't yet been claimed by you. A screenshot was sent to you earlier from the CR team.

Best wishes

James Allsworth
Head of Content

All anyone has to do is email Alamy. I did. Was very polite and got a very polite email back saying that they are having technical issues but give us a day or two.  Low and behold my payment came through a day or two late.  No biggie.

183
From $400 last period to $280 this period. Fluctuates a lot from month to month.

right that's why it's silly to extrapolate from 12 or2 months for most of us - it's a Poisson distribution and a running average (3-6 mo_) is a better indicator. individual months typically graph as a sawtooth range, not a smooth curve

with a small portfolio, the effects are magnified
Indeed. It's sawtooth (poisson) all the time.  There is, for me, typically a $50 to $150 delta from month to month. Looking at CY 2020, sales were lower but to your point:

Average: $242
Median: $238
Range: $170-$329 (Here's my $150 delta)

184
From $400 last period to $280 this period. Fluctuates a lot from month to month.

185
Image Sleuth / Re: Another blatant thief at Shutterstock
« on: August 19, 2021, 10:10 »
Thanks Motionjunky
Ideally, there would be something to do maybe with Stock Coalition, making a deal with dedicated attorneys that could sue and make a permanent work of watching thieves around platforms/world, but would be lots of energy, time and mostly $$

Does the Stock Coalition even exist any more?  There's no activity on the website.  The last news update is over a year old.

I left the Facebook group about six months ago. There wasn't really much they were doing with respect to the original formation.  Good that they tried but there just wasn't any meat to the actions. Not their fault.  Only so much contributors can do without universally pulling all content and we know how that goes.

186
Upgrade if it's something you want and can afford.  But if you are using MS for the decision diamond then only you can make that call.  None of us knows how much you make from MS, but my guess is that there are very few who make enough money to use MS as the decision diamond for new gear purchases.  I have a day job.  I buy gear when I want it. If it's expensive, then I budget for it, setting a little aside each paycheck.  I really never buy anything specifically for MS anymore aside from perhaps some cheap props.  My income in MS has gone from about $4k a month to $1k a month and keeps going down.  How could I justify buying new gear for MS with that kind of trend? So from my lens, if I was basing a purchase decision on MS alone, new gear would get nixed.  Your mileage may vary.
$1k a month, woow, that's a lot of money, i make barely almost $50 a month i'm very screwed in microstock, but thanks to God, my main income is not microstock.

a vast majority of us make money outside of the MS business for sure.  Just a few years ago some folks thought about quitting their day job to do MS full time--- we all know that they are still working their day jobs...
I agree. that is my MS income. I just did a commissioned shoot for a church. Pretty easy $500 job.  Had a recent magazine cover and that was another $500 or thereabouts. But in the end, when it comes to MS alone, it's a deal killer for new gear.  I know people who quit their day jobs and went MS full time. Two that I know of both had to get new jobs.  And one is a very accomplished photographer.  The last time I spoke with them they went into wedding photography and that, too, fizzled.

187
Upgrade if it's something you want and can afford.  But if you are using MS for the decision diamond then only you can make that call.  None of us knows how much you make from MS, but my guess is that there are very few who make enough money to use MS as the decision diamond for new gear purchases.  I have a day job.  I buy gear when I want it. If it's expensive, then I budget for it, setting a little aside each paycheck.  I really never buy anything specifically for MS anymore aside from perhaps some cheap props.  My income in MS has gone from about $4k a month to $1k a month and keeps going down.  How could I justify buying new gear for MS with that kind of trend? So from my lens, if I was basing a purchase decision on MS alone, new gear would get nixed.  Your mileage may vary.

189
Image Sleuth / Re: Another blatant thief at Shutterstock
« on: August 03, 2021, 08:41 »
And after weeks of patience this is the answer oh these *insult removed* :
...

If you misrepresent that material is infringing, Shutterstock may terminate your Shutterstock account, or you may face other legal consequences.

...
Why don't they* do that to actual infringers also? And publicise that they're doing it?

*And all the other agencies/distributors.
...
Imagine the other way... I file a complaint, the account is shut down, while it's investigated. Would you like that? Guilty and convicted without any sort of fairness and trial? So the problem is, SS must have too many complaints stacked up and they are slow to complete the due diligence, before they can terminate someones source of income.

What's obvious for us, on the surface, has more complicated, legal implications. And they can't just close an account because of an accusation.

That's not what I meant.
They're saying they may take legal action over false accusations, to discourage people from making them.
Why don't they also take legal action over proven image theft? (to discourage people from doing it)

I found on of my BSs on iS on Flickr with some bloke claiming copyright. When I filled in the form to make a complaint, it said they would send the accusee my email address, which I thought was bizarre (but I sent a potentially throwaway addy). No word back, but there's a blank where the photo was and a note that it's under investigation for copyright infringement. (Maybe linking to my image on Getty scared them, or maybe it's automatic, but was blanked within 24 hrs.) This guy's whole port appears to be 'lifted', some with accreditation, most (that I checked) not.
And now more exciting news, guess what?:
1. They haven't suspended the thief's portfolio, they just deleted the images I listed to them and let the portfolio online, but better than that,
2. They have deleted my original images!!! and the duplicate online. They deserve a premium gold award for this, I can't believe it ! :-(
Any action with lawyer will take years, money, energy, and even if I delete my account, the duplicate portfolio will continue having a good time. Shutterstock is thievesland, a true paradise!
Reel Anger.... >{

This is why I believe that SS is trying to milk what they can. If they could act to remove your images from the thief's port, then they could have just as easily removed the port. That conscious decision tells me volumes about what SS is now all about.

190
Dreamstime.com / Re: New with Dreamstime
« on: July 28, 2021, 08:40 »
I am planing to upload 10k photos and 20k videos to Dreamstime

Is it worth doing it?


Simple answer. No.

Basically, what she said.  I do not have videos on DT but I have about 3500 images.  I make about $300 a year. I used to make almost that a month.  Other people with better ports might make more but here's a starting point for you.  So, from my own personal experience I would not spend the time uploading there, especially video as DT is not known as a go-to for video.

191
General Stock Discussion / Re: Is Shelma1 okay?
« on: July 23, 2021, 07:50 »
She made a post on her Facebook page on July 3, so she is probably okay. I know she was getting heavily involved with the Stock Coalition, but I've since left that group and have not been following new posts.  SC was really of no benefit to me.

192
CanStockPhoto.com / Another exciting news email
« on: July 20, 2021, 15:16 »
From CANSTOCK

We have some exciting updates we wanted to let you know about.

Exclusive License Purchases

Weve launched the ability for you to sell exclusive rights to your content, with the ability to set prices in advance or allow customers to inquire about a price. The entire process takes place directly through our site, with us collecting the payment up-front in escrow and crediting your account once the agreement is signed.

The next time you log in, youll be asked if youd like to offer exclusive license purchases. Click yes and all your images will have the ability for customers to request a price to purchase the exclusive rights from you. Optionally, you can also pre-set the selling price for the exclusive rights for each of your images.

Hire an Expert

A common question we get from customers is how they can hire an artist for custom work or for altering existing images. There is a considerable demand for hiring artists for custom work, and until now we didnt have a good way to facilitate these requests. That all changes today!

Were now launching a new interface that allows you to work directly with customers to provide alterations to your existing content, and create new custom content on request. The entire process takes place directly through the site, with us collecting the payment up-front from the customer and holding it in escrow until the work is completed. You control what you charge, what services you provide, and have the ability to opt-out or decline requests.

The next time you log in, youll be asked if youd like to offer alteration requests. Click yes and all your images will give customers the ability to request a quote for custom alterations.  Youll also be invited to create packaged services that you provide (e.g. business cards, custom characters, product photos, etc.), which will be specially featured for customers looking for those types of services.

Notifications by Text/SMS

For both exclusive license requests and custom work requests, youll want to be notified as soon as a customer contacts you. To help enable this, you can now get text/SMS notifications as soon as you receive a message. To add your number, go to My Account -> Contributor Preferences.

Video Purchase Options

Over the coming months we will be launching additional options for customers to purchase footage files. By offering more options for videos to be purchased, we expect to increase video sales volume and ultimately increase commissions paid to videographers. To facilitate this, as of August 1st we will be switching from the existing rigid fixed dollar commission to a percentage of what the customer paid. This will allow us to test different pricing options to maximize your earnings. See below for details.

Payout Schedule Changes

For exclusive licenses and custom work, the commission is unchanged from our present Custom Licenses (e.g. exclusive rights, logos, etc.) category of 50%. But for clarity, the commission category will be renamed to Exclusive Licenses, Custom Licenses, and Custom Work. Also, we are removing the previous upsampled TIFF download size and replacing it with an equivalent dimension XXL JPG.


193
There just seems to be something missing here.  P5 doesn't just "lose an account" then say, oh well, sorry.  If accounts mysteriously disappear like you say P5 claims, they would be all over it to resolve why.  You think they'd be concerned about other accounts mysteriously disappearing and that is a major concern as a stock agency.  I am not saying you're wrong, but I just don't think we're hearing the whole story.

194
Pond5 / Re: How has Pond5 been in 2021?
« on: July 10, 2021, 07:29 »
I am at 50% of where I usually am.  In fact, every site is way down mid year compared to same period last year.  With the world economy opening back up I am surprised that I'm not at least even with last year.

195
Image Sleuth / Re: Another blatant thief at Shutterstock
« on: June 30, 2021, 18:00 »
Wow u found one. Give me 20 minutes and I can find at least 10!

What a stupid reply. He's just trying to be helpful.

197
I exited from there.  No sales and too many technical glitches. Upload is not friendly. Not worth the time.

Yeah, it is a bit difficult to submit tbh. I was just curious if it still is worth it, you say not :)

Yes, 2-4 sales a year is all I got.

198
I've been there since 2012 and while I still sell a few, it's never turned into much.  The site is now  flooded with images from big sellers like Getty and Conde Nast and the search is a hopeless mess.  They've also earned an F rating from the BBB.

actually the Search functions are horrible in pretty much all the major PODs.

no surprise for their bad BBB rating, it was a fly by night company from the beginning and not much has changed.

Agree. They had a chance to become a great POD site. 

199
Pond5 / Re: How has Pond5 been in 2021?
« on: June 12, 2021, 08:49 »
My exclusive account has been a disappointment. Even though I give my best clips to it, there have been few sales.

That's because they do not give you search position advantages and that is also why I did not seek any exclusivity.

200
I exited from there.  No sales and too many technical glitches. Upload is not friendly. Not worth the time.

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