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Messages - Elenathewise

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26
My fire went out a long time ago, hope it rekindles soon.



Similar picture here.

27

Just one observation: >$1/photo/month is not uncommon (for SS alone). So, you could make much more than $3-$5/month with quality stuff.

Ummm.... No to the first sentence. Not for SS alone. Yes to the second.
Well, I know a guy who knows a guy who makes more than $1/photo/month.
But you don't have to believe me, because I can't prove it to you, even if it is 100% certain.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

I am not saying you don't "know a guy who knows a guy." You may even know another guy who knows a couple of guys who make $2/photo/month on SS. What I am saying it's not common.

28

Just one observation: >$1/photo/month is not uncommon (for SS alone). So, you could make much more than $3-$5/month with quality stuff.

Ummm.... No to the first sentence. Not for SS alone. Yes to the second.

29
If you click on the date, you see all downloads for today... it's just the earnings stats page and the total doesn't refresh.

30
This probably means that they will be offering discounts on ELs to high-volume customers, and will pay a percentage of what they receive, not fixed $28. Which means we'll most likely see a lot of ELs for less than that. Hopefully, the volume will make up for the difference...

31
Veer / Re: Veer is sold to VCG / Getty Images
« on: January 22, 2016, 14:25 »
It is in the FAQ (see a link in a first message)

Quote
What content will Getty Images represent after the transition?

GI will represent Corbis creative stills, Corbis Motion content, and Corbis archival and documentary content, inclusive of the prestigious Bettmann and Sygma archives, via the GettyImages.com website.

Hmm looks like they'd be dropping Veer then? Unless they categorize it under "creative stills"... Not a lot of difference though, it's not like Veer was earning anything noticeable.

32
Newbie Discussion / Re: A question about flowers..
« on: January 12, 2016, 17:53 »
Absolutely - include all possible plant names in the keywords, customers often look for a specific plant or flower. I had to adjust the descriptions and keywords from my earlier shots to make sure the flowers are described correctly.

33
Shutterstock.com / Re: Very Low sales in 2016?
« on: January 11, 2016, 18:23 »
The answer is very simple and will surprise and shock you:

http://www.backyardsilver.com/2016/01/a-stock-photographers-year/

Steve


Lovely table - enjoyed it!

34
I am a full-time stock photographer. Although I have a degree in physics and math...s? :)
Actually quit a well-paid job to do this full-time.

35
My advice is - whatever your expectations are, lower them.
Unless you understand stock industry really well and able to deliver very large number (hundreds a month) of highest quality sellable images on a regular basis. As a side job, you probably won't be able to pay even for the gear.

36
It's a joke right?

37
Good pic in general - can be better without that rock in upper left corner from composition point of view. (you can clone it out and replace it with some sky).
Other than that - who knows, reviews are so subjective. Maybe reviewer didn't like the models.

38
Photo Critique / Re: what do you think of this photo?
« on: November 06, 2015, 17:30 »
<deleted>

39
Stockmarketer, I've been doing this since 2005. I was ranked number 9 on Fotolia before I hit emerald and then sapphire rank. My portfolio is over 15,000, which is not the biggest out there, but bigger than most. I shoot diverse subjects and constantly looking for new niches. I've been also told by many agencies that I was one of their top contributors. And I see the same trend as you do.
You're saying - our experience can not easily be replaced, sure, that's true, however, they don't need our experience. I worked some time ago for a big very well known corporation that routinely let go experienced people only to replace them with new graduates - you don't have to pay them much, they're still optimistic and energetic and they work their butts off. Of course, their luck of experience and skill results in poor quality of the company's products. But guess what - the company (and many others like that) is still doing thriving business, just because they are huge, and their customers just suck it up - some for not knowing any better, some for lack of an alternative.
Microstock has become big corporate business. We're veterans with lots of skill and experience that nobody really cares about. Agencies are happy with younger less experienced and more enthusiastic crowd submitting maybe not so high quality, but fresh content. It sells. Who is to say they're wrong?
Where does this leave us? We'll see less and less money. But it was a bit naive to think that the ride will last forever. I love making pictures, and I can still support myself with this business. I don't think I can stop doing it even if the big $$$ is not there anymore. I do agree though that it is time to start thinking about new ventures. I just a met a person who teaches stay-home mums some DSLR basics once a week and makes very nice living out of it. Something to think about :-)

40
Canva / Re: After a hiatus, they're deleting approved files again
« on: November 04, 2015, 11:27 »
Look at Sean.  Only because of extreme talent and brains is he able to bounce back, but I bet he and his family lost lots of income having to start over.  And I  know as independent I would be out of business if I lost any of my top selling sites.

Good example - Sean, even after losing his Istock account, is not hiding behind some anonymous handle, and still posting under his own name. Something to respect and look up to, no?

41
General - Top Sites / Re: What . happened with SS sales????
« on: November 02, 2015, 18:56 »
Hmmm... I am a long time contributor to SS and have a quite a big portfolio with pretty good sales. I usually can see the trends and seasonal fluctuations. What happens now is sudden drastic and was unexpected and it seems it is not general to all of us. Maybe I am the victim of a search engine reshuffle. I am still very worried. SS is the last ship I could have a trust in. The rest of the agencies are not more than just floating little lifeboats.

Nitor - what I see is lower sales in October (vs. September) across (almost) all agencies I submit to. Looks like sales just slowed down in October in general, which I agree is quite unusual. For SS, I saw 20% less compared to October 2014. Let's hope the sales will pick up this month:)
With big portfolio it doesn't matter if you submitted new images or not, since percentage-wise it doesn't make much difference, so what we see is actual fluctuations of sales. Someone able to add a significant chunk to his portfolio will see growth. If I add 100 images a month to my 15000 it would be 0.6%. Someone adding 100 images to his portfolio of 200 will see an increase of  50% and will report a BME. Comparing changes in income for a month is meaningless unless you know everyone's portfolio size and how many (and what kind of) images they added recently.
So yes, sales were down, but I don't think there is anything to really worry about (yet:))

42
Canva / Re: After a hiatus, they're deleting approved files again
« on: November 02, 2015, 15:33 »
I just received a note from Lee that someone had pointed him to this post and they're closing my Canva account - "You are no longer welcome as a Canva contributor"

So anyone who wants to stay with Canva would do well to take this warning shot and remember to keep your mouth closed in public places about them or their actions.

I seem somehow to have this affect on agencies :)

Hi Jo Ann, it would probably be a better idea to try to sort things out with an agency before posting about an issue on public forum - give them a chance to explain or fix issues. Agencies do care about their public image and most will work with you to resolve things. I actually had a very pleasant experience dealing with Canva - they are *the good guys* in my book:) Some agencies take forever to respond to inquiries and it takes a lot of patience to work on resolving them, but in the end it's worth it (for example, I just got a resolution of a problem with one of the sites and it took 3 months - however, the issue is resolved so there is no need to go public about it).

shame, elena, deep shame...on you...

Ummm.... shame on me for what? For having a good working relationship with an agency? Or for saying that some issues should be discussed in private first before getting it out on a public forum?  I am amazed how many people here demand openness and publicity about every hiccup an agency may have while hiding behind completely anonymous handles. I am not and never will be ashamed of expressing my opinions.

43
No noticeable change for me on FT. Actually 15% down this month compared to September.
People reporting a "jump" - are we talking regular sales or is it due to ELs?

44
Elenathewise you have been fairly critical of ss and dt lately surely you must have sympathy for jo ann instead and understand where she's coming from

Of course running into such trouble with an agency is not fun. I think Jo Ann knows that I only suggested a possible reason an agency would be unhappy with a contributor's conduct. I don't know the details of Jo Ann's situation and I personally had nothing but pleasant experience dealing with Canva.
The nature of this business though is that we don't owe the agencies anything and they don't really owe anything to us. One of the parties can decide to stop working with the other, for any reason, any time. I know many people who pulled their portfolios from some agencies (I did that to a couple of agencies too), and noone here is saying it's not ok to do and calling these people nasty names.
As to DT and SS - yes I did express unhappiness with declining sales on DT and some SS reviews, however, let's make this clear: it would be ridiculous of me to demand that DT changes their search order so my files would sell better. And if SS decides to use automated reviews (or whatever is the cause of some unreasonable rejections) it's their business and I can only hope they'd improve it. We can not really demand anything from our distribution partners (stock agencies) - we can only try to find some common ground or, if that's not possible, choose not to work with them.
We all sometimes express our frustrations, and it's perfectly understandable, lots of threads here are about that. Venting helps. As long as we're realistic and fair.

45
I just received a note from Lee that someone had pointed him to this post and they're closing my Canva account - "You are no longer welcome as a Canva contributor"

So anyone who wants to stay with Canva would do well to take this warning shot and remember to keep your mouth closed in public places about them or their actions.

I seem somehow to have this affect on agencies :)

Hi Jo Ann, it would probably be a better idea to try to sort things out with an agency before posting about an issue on public forum - give them a chance to explain or fix issues. Agencies do care about their public image and most will work with you to resolve things. I actually had a very pleasant experience dealing with Canva - they are *the good guys* in my book:) Some agencies take forever to respond to inquiries and it takes a lot of patience to work on resolving them, but in the end it's worth it (for example, I just got a resolution of a problem with one of the sites and it took 3 months - however, the issue is resolved so there is no need to go public about it).

46
General Stock Discussion / Re: Is Shutterstock for real???
« on: October 22, 2015, 21:24 »
You have to retain a sense of humour in this game - just had 17 out of 20 rejected on SS mostly for OOF. Meanwhile on RF123 had 2 rejected - one of them for OOF - guess what? - one of the three accepted on SS. (and I very rarely get /cant remember the last oof on RF)

They're probably using some kind of software that clearly still needs a lot of improvements. I had rejections for OOF recently too - and trust me, after 10 years in this business and 15,000 images I can tell if an image is in focus or not. Funny thing I didn't even get upset this time - just laughed (honestly). All images accepted everywhere else of course...
I have a couple of very nice new shoots that I can't even make myself to start processing. Where will I send them? SS will reject all but one for OOF (and will give away that one as a giant preview), DT won't sell a single image, Alamy too, on FT they'll earn a few cents and disappear somewhere deep in the database, Istock won't sell much either, Getty will just give away for free for anyone to use as they please.... I am so tired of this game.

47
Shutterstock.com / Re: Large image previews on SS ?
« on: October 21, 2015, 11:28 »
Holy crap.

48

I was thinking I had to compete with micro prices. But now I see I should really be competing with macro prices. Some people  are willing to pay $500 for my vectors on Shutterstock. I think that's the direction to go in. Thanks for your advice here.

That's exactly how I felt before, too! And then I realized what amount of unimaginable crap micro agencies are still accepting every day, and also raised prices on my own website. And seriously, regardless if OP's post is truthful or not, pulling my port from many places where my stuff is sold for subscription pennies alongside someone's phone snaps did cross my mind.  One thing for sure, I will be extremely selective to where I submit my new content.

49
Print on Demand Forum / Re: Best sites for selling Prints
« on: October 09, 2015, 14:59 »
I've had multiple sales on redbubble where I have a very small portfolio, one large sale on Crated, and have some UK friends who sell a lot on P4  - I make the most on FAA - I'm not on zazzle - that's it for my experience.

Interested to know other's experience.

Has anyone heard of eagalart? They look to be a new Canadian site.


What's P4?



Elena, I assume Wordplanet is referring to Photos4me.com (a British POD site). I have no experience of them so cannot add any opinion of them. Kind regards, David.
http://www.photo4me.com/Images/Icons/photo4me-logo-150-55.png


Ah I see - thanks very much David!

50
General Stock Discussion / Re: Is Shutterstock for real???
« on: October 09, 2015, 14:51 »
You can't take this business serious anymore.

Agree 100%. It's a circus.
Where to go though? I wasn't happy with Getty either - actually closed my account there. Returns weren't impressive, and them giving away my work was even less impressive.

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