FWIW, we just sold a photo on a trad for GBP824, of which we got half. We have only 4 photos on this particular site, and they have been there for three years, but none of them would ever have been accepted on the micros, and they sure would not have sold.

We also made about $US1000 on Alamy. Not much from around 300 images, but they also have been there for a while, and the great thing is, they don't seem to age anything like so fast as they do on the micros.

We have decided to add more to the trads.  Anything that you think will sell only a few times isn't worth putting on the micros.

Hmmm, when I think about it, that means most of ours should never have gone to the micros:-)

Linda

Opted out.

Yuri Arcurs
Freezingpictures
GeoPappas
Smithore
rene
sharpshot
ldambies
epixx
latex
FlemishDreams.
RTimages
Vonkara
helix7
Travelling-light

We opted out of StockXpert subs from the start.
We also downsize to SS.
We are thinking hard about DT, which used to be a favourite site. Haven't uploaded anything to them, so far this year.

Yuri may have a point as to how many DL SS customers make, but his arithmetic is wrong.
A subscription costs $199 for one month.
For that, you can DL up to 750 images.
Let's say you take Yuri's lowest guess, 15%.
That means you DL 112 images in a month.
$199 /112 = $1.78 per image, NOT $5/$6.

If you take more than 15%, you pay less per image.
If you take a subscription for more than one month, you pay less.
So if Yuri is correct, the least subscribers pay for an image is $1.78.
We get 30 cents, which is 17%.
Obviously, the more a subscriber DL's, the higher is our per centage.

It's that time of year for stats, so I took a look at ours, and was surprised at my results.

I separated SS from all the other sites, and calculated the average amount per DL for the other sites, against SS payout:-

2005  All sites except SS, average per DL   39 cents
          Shutterstock                                       20 cents - just over half 

2006  All sites except SS, average per DL    54 cents
          Shutterstock                                        26 cents - just under half

2007 All sites except SS, average per DL      83 cents
         Shutterstock                                          31 cents - a lot less than half 


So, Shutterstock is definitely falling behind on returns per DL.  I was very surprised to get these results. Has anyone else got similar?

Linda
 

This comment from Steve-oh in the original thread is interesting:-

"We get feedback to the site about offering subscriptions, and at the tradeshows I've attended people ask about subscription. When we say no we don't offer it, they go somewhere else. They don't just go PPD with us."

Where do they currently go?

I hope Jo Ann is right and that everyone does make more money with this scheme, but that isn't happening at DT. Still, thanks to StockXpert for giving the option to opt out.
Linda

Guys,

to address your concerns about your XL and XXL files, our experience has been (with Photos.com and LiquidLibrary subscription offerings) that the most popular download size for subscribers is medium size. Very few download the larger file sizes.

-Steve

Steve, this has not been our experience at DT.  Almost all subscription DL there are maximum size.
DT ignored most photographers' wishes when they brought in their subscription plan - many of us would have found it more acceptable if they had limited the size of DL allowed by subscription. Hopefully you will not go the same route.
I don't believe this will increase earnings for photographers.  It may grab a slice of Shutterstock's pie for StockXpert, but it won't be good for us.
We will not be uploading to StockXpert until we hear more details. If we don't like what we hear, we will delete our portfolio.
Linda & Colin