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Messages - Uncle Pete
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101
« on: March 17, 2024, 12:43 »
Coming Monday, the 18th. But I thought I'd just jump ahead and start the thread. 
102
« on: March 17, 2024, 12:40 »
A STANDARD IMAGE LICENSE grants you the right to use Images:
Printed in physical form as part of product packaging and labeling, letterhead and business cards, point of sale advertising, CD and DVD cover art, or in the advertising and copy of tangible media, including magazines, newspapers, and books provided no Image is reproduced more than 500,000 times in the aggregate
https://www.shutterstock.com/license
Brutal and I wondered why the heck no one is buying extended licenses for like 80 bucks anymore like in 2012 -2014.
10 cent for half a million prints.
My ELs in the last year have been for $10 to $16. Nothing like they used to be and not as many. 2017 or 2018 they went to a percentage, I saw the last Standard $28 EL, which is what they were before that. But the $28 was the EL license, I never saw anything more. OD or Single I saw some higher numbers. Now those have dropped to about the same as subs.
103
« on: March 15, 2024, 13:21 »
Congratulations on the book cover. If it was really SS for $1.88 you have my sincere sympathy. Since it's a cover, and some places list credits for photos or the cover, there shouldn't be any doubt, if you can find those credits.
104
« on: March 15, 2024, 13:14 »
But I have completely written off iStock for myself. I only reach the payout limit here every 1-2 years.
It's a shame because of all the upload work, but it doesn't really upset me. It works better for others, so it's down to my port.
That's an amusing point. With the same images for myself, on IS and DT, I cash out once a year, pretty regularly on IS. I'm just making it to $75 on DT, I went back to them, in March of 2018. Five Years, $75!  💩 And DT takes the editorial! Different images, different results, there's something.
105
« on: March 14, 2024, 12:04 »
Please note that we cannot lower the payment threshold as we have the largest number of contributors in stock photography, hence such adjustment would increase the logistics and slow down payments, making the process slower and more expensive for all contributors.
What a lame excuse from DT. A $100 treshold is insanely high for a low-tier agency and they should suck up the cost. If they can't afford that or make it work logistically, I wonder how they're managing their business.
If they lowered the threshold to $50 they would have about 10,000 requests for the money and then those people would close their accounts. This has nothing to do with processing speed, after that, because no matter what the threshold, it would even out. But the overwhelming number of people between $50 and $100 would certainly bring a heavy number of requests. The people who run DT are smart and they know that too many contributors would cash out and leave. This is just a way to slow that process and hang on to as many photos as possible. Some people do cash out a few times a year, my compliments to them for having the right images for DT, to make it work.
106
« on: March 14, 2024, 11:34 »
Shutterstock is sinking,Istock cannot be trusted,I know you are thinking of reactivating your port in Istock,but I warn you that you cannot trust Istock,they deleted 4000 of my contents in one click,years of work,nights without sleeping,and then suddenly from one day to another they sent me an email,in which they had already made their decision regarding an issue,which in reality did not exist,and they didn't even ask me if I had anything to say about it and I lost years of work,and a good part of my earnings from one day to another.
What was the issue that didn't really exist? Mine wasn't quite as bad and I still have the account. You don't say if they closed your account or removed images? My loss was 3,657 images that were Editorial when Getty took over and decided the iStock images were competition for the Getty photographers. So off with our heads.  Some of those images, still show on DM in my top 25 for income and it has been years now. Similar for audio, which I had a few that did some business, until Getty decided to end that and hire a private supplier. I'll answer the OP question, even if that's a long gone issue and it seems reviews are much better now. TWO. 
107
« on: March 10, 2024, 13:15 »
I stopped uploading about a year ago because their "ai" sucked at "analyzing" photos, and would spend hours uploading only to have it automatically reject a bunch of stuff. Then, of course - there was also the dishonest tactic (among others) of selling people's data first, THEN saying "oh now you can opt out!". They also didn't honor if you said no, you didn't want the money - you wanted your data (their response was 'oops SORREeee!') so obviously totally 100% dishonest tactic.
Outside of the stopped uploading, you're batting 1000 on the situation. But the question was what do I do, now that SS earnings in a month or two are about the same as I used to make in a week. 1. I already did the work, I have new images now and then. Keeping them on my computer only hurts me, SS couldn't care less. I'd only hurt myself by not uploading or by closing my account.
108
« on: March 10, 2024, 13:10 »
Interesting to read that many are currently similarly stuck at 80 to 90 USD.
Dreamstime states as of March 2024 there are more than 1.2 million contributing photographers.
Assuming there are probably 200 thousand contributors in the same situation like us, this would equal almost 20 million USD in unpaid revenues.
With the current high interest rates on the market this is a good sum to invest.
Sounds like a kind of business model.
Only if it is legal to invest the money. If it's illegal or they make bad investments, we're even more screwed. Investments aren't always profitable. I don't agree that it's a good business model and I don't think it's legal either.
109
« on: March 10, 2024, 12:46 »
You are absolutely right, I didn't even take seosonal search patterns into account.
These will certainly also influence the image rankings.
I think it's a shame that Adobe doesn't show the daily top 100 or at least top 20 search pattern like google does it in the search bar.
Or top searches of the week, month, etc.
Would be very useful and you would save a lot of time instead of trying out which content is in demand or only guessing if you have the right keywords.
Seasonal patterns created by the agency favoring seasonal topics, not just us or buyers searching.
Alamy measures tells you the data you want about customer searches. I don't know why that wouldn't be helpful for all agencies? https://www.alamy.com/Customersearch/Customersearchhistory.aspx
That is, if you believe it's actually helpful. My opinion is, most searched words, doesn't equal most sold image subjects. Some of the most searched words from people who study what's most common, are irrelevant and absurd. Most searched words just doesn't equal most sold photo subjects.
Most sold images, doesn't always mean the same will be most sold in the near future. Maybe yes, but not always. Trends are yes, images, by specific subjects, not so much.
Create your best, look for things that aren't common or over produced, if you do shoot something that's "popular" try to make yours better than anything else available or at least worthy of the best of the best. Most searched words isn't the answer to anything useful.
The data from Alamy while interesting, can't really be applied to other agencies because it seems to be primarily editorial (unless, of course, you do editorial). (I.e., looking @ most of the search terms there - it's all specific names of people, artists, sports people, etc).
True but also if you look for most searched words on SS, they aren't most sold keywords. Alamy is good for Sold Keywords, and from my perspective that means, for most of them, there's no future or current need, in something that's already been downloaded. With all the other tricks and angles, it's always going to come down to best images that a particular customer needs. https://xpiksapp.com/blog/top-100-queries-shutterstock/Let me quote and take out the ones that he thinks aren't so good. There are not 1 or 2, but whooping 12 great content opportunities only within these first hundred most popular queries! Those are queries that are used by customers most of the times and still have relatively low competition. Out of these 12, there are few outstanding ones:
large question mark, 2.2K existing results
bmi chart, 528 existing results having 11K traffic
whatsapp logo, 4K existing results
pink dino, 3.4K existing results with 9K traffic
twitter logo, 6.5K existing results and 5.9K traffic
radha krishna, 4.6K existing results
female pooping, 1.7K existing results
curly braces, 3.4K existing resultsKeep in mind that's based on scraped data. Which one of those do you want to create and upload, because it's a popular search term. Which one is a "Great Opportunity"? I can make more shooting my breakfast than those.
110
« on: March 09, 2024, 12:25 »
You signed up with the site when these payment terms were clearly stated - no changes, no subterfuge. Making totally false statements about the agency doesn't help anyone.
Thank you Jo Ann, that's exactly the point.
If one is struggling to reach the payout limit, it might be the wrong agency for the portfolio.
Both good points, and when I reach $100 in 2027 I'm cashing out.  DT has always been upfront and fair to us. I suspect they have so many people at between $50 and $100 that it would be a great burden to change and have all those people, decide to cash out and leave, at the same time. That's all just how Microstock has changed, but DT holds their original contract TOS. Their choice. As far as past experience, accounting and the laws, money held for commissions, cannot be invested or used, and is a liability, not an asset. The recent changes to the public corporations like Adobe and SS, are better for their bottom line on the annual and quarterly reports. DT reports to no one. But either way, holding our money is not something they would want to do, for financial gains. In the US and DT says they are in the US, it's illegal to use escrow money for any other purpose, you can only hold it for the person that owns the money. So the repeated accusations that somewhere isn't paying us, because they invest or get interest, is flawed. What we consider fair or not fair, in 2024, I signed up in 2009 and that's what the terms were. DT has changed nothing.
111
« on: March 09, 2024, 11:59 »
You are absolutely right, I didn't even take seosonal search patterns into account.
These will certainly also influence the image rankings.
I think it's a shame that Adobe doesn't show the daily top 100 or at least top 20 search pattern like google does it in the search bar.
Or top searches of the week, month, etc.
Would be very useful and you would save a lot of time instead of trying out which content is in demand or only guessing if you have the right keywords.
Seasonal patterns created by the agency favoring seasonal topics, not just us or buyers searching. Alamy measures tells you the data you want about customer searches. I don't know why that wouldn't be helpful for all agencies? https://www.alamy.com/Customersearch/Customersearchhistory.aspxThat is, if you believe it's actually helpful. My opinion is, most searched words, doesn't equal most sold image subjects. Some of the most searched words from people who study what's most common, are irrelevant and absurd. Most searched words just doesn't equal most sold photo subjects. Most sold images, doesn't always mean the same will be most sold in the near future. Maybe yes, but not always. Trends are yes, images, by specific subjects, not so much. Create your best, look for things that aren't common or over produced, if you do shoot something that's "popular" try to make yours better than anything else available or at least worthy of the best of the best. Most searched words isn't the answer to anything useful.
112
« on: March 08, 2024, 16:48 »
Adobe Stock clearly state they give a boost in sales to its active contributors, meaning that if you upload 10 images a day for 20 days, you will get a boost over a contributor who uploads 200 images in one go and then stops uploading for the next 19 days.
Really, they say that? Where? What makes active? One a week, ten a week, ten a month...
Basically every chance they have when interacting with us, contributors, on forums or Discords. As to the second question, I always thought it's not about the numbers, but the action itself - as long as you keep submitting, you are considered an "active" contributor, no matter how many files. But since we don't know how their algorithms work, your guess is as good as mine.
So my one upload a week, makes me active and I get ranked better than someone sitting on their easy chair on a beach, sipping a Pina Colada and eating Bon Bons? Well dang me, I'm doing something right for a change. My 200 isolated tomato photos are each unique and original and with great sales potential.
Oh not my game plan, I upload one a week, so I'm "active". 
113
« on: March 08, 2024, 16:42 »
Highest position = 97 79 (last 12 months), annual low of around 900 and currently 337 but improving still. A steady avg of around 400. Lifetime Rank 494. 20k images sole trader.
That is worth quoting for the turn of the page. 400 is a very nice number.
114
« on: March 08, 2024, 16:38 »
For what I can see the "custom license" earning for contributors is not really "fluctuating": at the contrary it decreases regularly from january 1st
It started with about 1,47$, then started decreasing and it had never went back to that price
I can't see a single sale with a higher amount than the previous ones.
I think that summarized the situation pretty well. We start at a higher number each year in January and then it adjusts down by March to a stable value, that continues for the rest of the year. 
115
« on: March 08, 2024, 16:24 »
One thing I find funny is people need to use words correctly. The "training" is "stealing". Call it for what it is. The "ai" (which is not true ai, but essentially sophisticated theft & pattern re-arrangment) STEALS images. They need data to STEAL. If it doesn't have data to steal, then it can't "train".
Is training stealing when they pay for the image use?
116
« on: March 07, 2024, 13:10 »
Thank you for the information.
What does customers response mean?
How many customers how often viewed the image with the same searched keyword order of the image during the first 30 days?
It's currently a dumb thing.
They should replace the algorithm by letting the AI identify and describe the images and their content, so the customers could search more precisly.
/Edit:
Well probably the algorithm will remain a business secret.
Found various statements.
On the offical blog it is stated that titles are not used for rankings.
https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2019/06/18/stock-keywording-tips)
On the developer blog it is stated that they already use AI since several years to increase the variety of search results.
https://blog.developer.adobe.com/evaluating-addressing-position-bias-in-adobe-stock-search-9807b11ee268
You are welcome and thanks for the additional. "Do not spam keywords irrelevant keywords can actually hurt your visibility on the Stock site." The whole article about position bias was interesting. Yes, Titles are not searchable in Adobe Stock. I assume you mean the same thing when you say image rank as search discovery? But not searchable means much more. If you have a word in the title and not in the keywords, it's not going to be seen in a search for that word. Which images come up on the first pages, is something different. "What does customers response mean?" yet another mystery in the secret system that determines image rank. We don't know, they aren't telling. No agency gives up their "secret sauce" recipe. The assumption that it's views and sales, or how many related word matches, is like saying, to make soup, you need to add water. Everything after the basics is what makes the search what it is. Those basic starters aren't the intricate and complex answer. 12-13 years ago, you could pretty much see that IS and SS were based on the time on the system divided by sales. On IS a new image with one day and one sale, would leap to the front. Then after a week, no more sales, it would start to drop and after a month, if no more downloads, would fall back in the general pages. SS until they fixed the search (a view depending on who you are) to avoid some of the bias, someone who had an image up since the first years of SS, with lots of downloads, would be on page one, and the rest of us,could get into that page. Kind of a king of the hill situation, where top images, stayed on top, and got more downloads, because they were on top. Sometime years back, they changed everything, you might find the threads about how "I've been on page one for years and now I'm on page 12!" That's life. The favorites with an unfair advantage, got adjusted. The search changes, or can, by location, season, specific keywords, simple one would be, St. Patrick's Day will be higher now and Easter will get a priority. In a month, they will drop down and some other events or holidays will be raised and favored. Everything is always changing, so how would someone know what it is? If you go to church every day and pray that your images move high up of the algorithm they will eventually rise. If you pray, you will be listened. That's what I was told since I was a child.
Yes, I admit, I think that's intended as humor and it's also true. Since we have no control, we can pray, or burn incense, or sacrifice chocolate chip cookies to our inner sales hunger. The answer is, best keywords, best images, upload quality with proper tags, sit back and hope for the best. Worrying, conspiracies, trying to play the system, and many other side efforts, are mostly useless and a waste of time and energy.
117
« on: March 06, 2024, 16:17 »
Slow start this week. It's depressing.
Mystery solved: accounts can share a rank!
If 10 people had the same number of sales, of course. But not 10,000 people having the same number of sales at this level. Maybe at the very bottom, it's possible 10,000 contributors share a rank with 0 sale.
That's true, but people with 0 sales do not get a rank. Look on Monday morning, just after Midnight. No sales, No rank. Can you tell how many total contributors Adobe has?
Not really. We don't know anything about artist account numbers either. But if mine is 13-14 years old and 205931477 and yours in new, subtract and see how many new users since 2010. There are all kinds of pitfalls in trying to estimate how many users. Active users or dormant people who once uploaded, or DOA accounts of people who signed up and never upload or had any images accepted. 205 million? JoAnn's ID number is so low that Adobe software doesn't recognize her sometimes. Not enough digits. Here's a number that might be of interest? In 2018 on Shutterstock, there were 17,877 artists who had 1,000 or more images. But SS said how many millions of contributors they had signed up. I can't give a good answer, but I think what you would want to know is, how many active users and "active" would be our definition. Should we say, uploaded 20 images in 2023, or 100, or  That's pretty minimal and that's your competition. That and up. All of this is difficult to understand or define with any accuracy. That's why there are so many guesses and assumptions on the forum. We just don't know, and they (Adobe) aren't telling. Good Luck, your main concern, and I don't mean this in a smart ass manner, you should be looking at what you produce and upload and your sales, and worried less about how images are ranked in a search, or how many images your competition has, or who or how many others are doing the same thing. Unlike many other businesses, knowing your competition in stock, isn't really useful for making yourself better or more money. Knowing what sells, yes of course, but not who or how many? Your most important knowledge and information should be, how to make good and useful images that buyers want to download. And maybe as you move along, what is a waste of time, shooting, uploading and editing, because there's not enough demand?
118
« on: March 06, 2024, 15:47 »
Adobe Stock clearly state they give a boost in sales to its active contributors, meaning that if you upload 10 images a day for 20 days, you will get a boost over a contributor who uploads 200 images in one go and then stops uploading for the next 19 days.
Really, they say that? Where? What makes active? One a week, ten a week, ten a month...
119
« on: March 06, 2024, 15:36 »
Just wondering if people with a higher acceptance ratio find their images higher up the algorithm?
Just a thought
Its not a higher acceptance rate, but your weekly standings score that pushes your images to clients.
Weekly Standings mean nothing. They are only for our own information.
Where did you get this information, that they are artist or image rank?
Because after a successful week all of the sudden old images that I never sold before are somehow visible in searches and get sales. What changes? Definitely not my acceptance rate. If not successful ranking, what do you think it is then?
Do you know how Adobe decides whose images to show in searches?
One of my new Easter bunnies image with 1 sale is on page 3 now. So search is not only based on sales of that particular image or keywords/title -
I don't claim to know how ranking works for the search, sales, or matches, or featured because of the season, but I do know it's NOT based on your artist rank. Did you see what Mat posted? No.
-Mat Hayward
Did you watch the webinar about image rank and how it works? There were two of them. After both webinars, here's what I think they have told us. This is after listening to the discussions of all three people from Adobe and making text notes. In Order... 1) Images initially get ranked by customer response during the first 30 days. Your keywords and title are most important during that time. 2) After 30 days, changing the keywords or order, will not have much effect on image rank, from the customers. There are other factors that still can move an image up or down. 3) Adding detailed information, location, keywords or concept word combinations, will still help get an image found. Updating older images may not change the rank, but it will make the image more searchable. 4) Categories are not very important Repeated many times, and the way I have viewed keywords and titles. Please understand these are paraphrased quotes, not exact word for word. But they represent what Judy and Mat said: Only use relevant keywords you don't need to have 49 keywords, only the appropriate keywords. "If you were looking for this image, would you use this word to find it?" "If you searched a word, would you expect to see this image?" "Is this something I'd expect to see for this search term." If customers are looking at images and they are not a good match for the words included, the rank will be dropped. Anyone who includes words that are not relevant, will be hurting the image rank, and that rank will be attached to that image, pretty much fixed at that rank, after 30 days. Watch Please? This comes from Adobe not someone who just thinks they see something. Adobe Stock searchHi Everyone,
I've scheduled a webinar with our Senior Product Manager in charge of search this Thursday, February 27 at 2:30PM PST. It would be great if you can attend. We'll do our best to take as many questions as possible during our 45-60 minute conversation about Adobe Stock search. How you can use the tools to your advantage as a contributor at Adobe Stock. I hope to see you there!
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/search-tips-and-tricks
Mat Hayward
120
« on: March 05, 2024, 12:23 »
I will check my screenshots from the happy days. That would be really interesting, if you get into the top 1000 the ranking is real?
dec 26 pos 253, dec 28 pos 263
I dont know why I cannot upload my screenshots? I keep getting an error message.
The highest that I noticed was 800. (I have to click something specific for my rank to show - lifetime or weekly - at times I cant make it to appear, even in the same week. Maybe its a bug)
This website doesnt accept.jpeg, but only accepts.jpg It also accepts png even they are in larger format. I actually have to go to photoshop to convert the file - a pain.
I'm trying to understand what you wrote? Here's what the site accepts: Allowed file types: doc, gif, jpg, mpg, pdf, png, txt, zip Restrictions: 4 per post, maximum total size 2000KB, maximum individual size 500KB This could be important... maximum individual size 500KBHere's what I think is the lowest position is, which could be thousands of people. No downloads will show - - - at the beginning of the week.
121
« on: March 04, 2024, 13:00 »
Hi, does ftp uploading work on Dreamstime? I get "530 Login incorrect." while trying to use filezilla. I'm 100% sure I'm using right credentials - took the user id as login and my password but it won't connect.
Does it look like this? The settings?  Good Luck: https://www.dreamstime.com/ftp_instructions
122
« on: March 04, 2024, 12:41 »
since the rankings are based on download numbers it makes sense that there will be a lot of people sharing ranks, especially at the middle of the bell curve for download numbers. There probably aren't that many people getting over a few 100 images a week (see previous post for how many), but in there are probably a lot of people getting the exact same number of downloads in the 10-50 range.
Yes, just imagine how many people have (making up a number) 20 DLs this week. The system at Adobe isn't going to make a group for 20-21-22-23-24 Etc. Many people, and I'm one, if I look right now at my weekly rank, it's just showing - - - and I know someone who has a lifetime that's that, because she hasn't made enough sales yet to be ranked at all. It's just a relative number to tell us, personally, how we are doing, compared to other people. And the fact that someone might have 30,000 images or 3,000 and someone else has 30, the rank is meaningless.
123
« on: March 04, 2024, 12:32 »
Basic bad economics and a bad plan. If anyone thinks raising the prices will make more money or lowering the prices on AI will help us, that's terrible.
The effect would be, driving customers away to a cheaper AI product and away from more expensive real photos.
The way to make more for us would be, raise the prices on AI, so customers who shop, will buy the real thing, for less. But that's not going to happen.
124
« on: March 04, 2024, 12:23 »
Just wondering if people with a higher acceptance ratio find their images higher up the algorithm?
Just a thought
Its not a higher acceptance rate, but your weekly standings score that pushes your images to clients.
Weekly Standings mean nothing. They are only for our own information. Where did you get this information, that they are artist or image rank?
125
« on: March 04, 2024, 12:18 »
DT doesnt use the description or subject from meta data
For me it does.
I have embedded titel, description and keywords in my metadata and all I have to do with Dreamstime is select the category. That's why I do not understand why people here say the upload process was compilcated. It was even easier when they auto-detected the categoeries, all you had to do was click on submit, but unfortunately that does not work anymore.
I agree, and I don't understand. The auto select categories has to be turned on, each session. I use my own keywords, title and description. I don't do hundreds at a time, so that could be different. But the same keywords, title and description are used for every other site, except Adobe, where I have to remove the Title. But I uploaded three images this morning. DT reads all the data... All I had to do was look at the words and categories and click submit. Basically three clicks and they were all in review. No I don't use their auto keywords, it just makes a mess of things.
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