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Messages - Findura

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76
Two to three times a year I have a big picture sale at SS.
This month I got $70 for a picture.
This will greatly increase my august RPD.

77
Pond 5 commission $7.20 from HD like GPP license from list price $18 /my price is $ 79.00 for  HD/ ????

I also have lower sales and also over $100. The quantity and average value are interesting and for me they are ok with my older exclusive account (since 2019).
In my young non-exclusive account (since 2021) there are very few GPP sales so far.

78
General Stock Discussion / Re: Question about Microstock Poll
« on: August 11, 2022, 07:18 »
The numbers are the vote.
If want to submit a vote, you have to go to Polls/Submit Vote on the menu bar at the top of the site.

I didn't know that until today. Thanks.

79
General Stock Discussion / Re: Question about Microstock Poll
« on: August 11, 2022, 05:04 »
Yes. I see numbers.
And where is the vote?

80
General Stock Discussion / Re: Question about Microstock Poll
« on: August 11, 2022, 04:49 »
Just curious -- when (if ever) do you choose to vote in the poll provided on this site?
What poll? I have read about it a few times in some threads, but I have never seen this poll.

81
Every day I delete about 200-400 videos at pond5. Pond5 is history for me.
Why?
P5 is a fair agency and very good at selling videos.
GPP is not dead. Only Adobe is no longer there.
We don't know how many GPP sales were from AS and how many were from the rest of the world.
P5 writes GPP remains strong :
https://contributor.pond5.com/2022/07/08/adobe-partnership-termination/

I'm curious about the GPP sales numbers without AS.
Let's see if GPP stays really strong. I hope so.

82
Adobe Stock / Re: AS rejections
« on: August 10, 2022, 04:29 »
Don't be surprised. The agencies have too many pictures. They are saturated.
Even Pond5 is rejecting photos as of this year. On the grounds that they now have more than 10 million images ...
https://www.microstockgroup.com/pond5/pond5-image-rejections/

83
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 has joined Shutterstock
« on: August 09, 2022, 07:16 »
Do we have any alternative for editorial videos?

Besides SS and P5 also AS, Depositphotos and G/iStock are seemingly possible via Wirestock.
You can choose these agencies in WS, but I don't know if the videos are really accepted there.
At SS you can theoretically also upload directly, but for me all editorial photos and videos are rejected at the moment.
AS does not directly take editorial videos.
Whether Depositphotos and G/iStock take editorial videos on direct upload, I don't know.

My opinion, it was not a good idea to close your P5 account.
Occasionally there are very low royalties because of special rates, but most of the time it is the promised 60% (exclusive).


84
Adobe Stock / Re: AS rejections
« on: August 09, 2022, 04:52 »
Be glad that AS only rejects your media.
AS deleted my portfolio after 3 years for no apparent reason and they do not respond to my email questions.
THAT is annoying.

85
Adobe Stock / Re: AS rejections
« on: August 09, 2022, 04:48 »
A year or so it was SS and then stops just as suddenly.  Just frustrating.
SS stopped rejections? Not with me. They reject more and more, all my editorial photos and videos.
And if something others isn't rejected, it takes about 3 days for it to be accepted. Before 2021 it took 5 minutes.

86
General Stock Discussion / Re: This month's sales
« on: August 08, 2022, 05:35 »
July was my worst month this year.
SS was very good, but P5 was significantly worse and had almost no subscription sales.
AS is down because they deleted my portfolio after 3 years of work.

SS Pictures RPD : $0,25
SS Videos RPD : $13,56

P5 Videos Exclusive RPD : $22,13 (marketplace) / $8,31 (subs)
P5 Videos Non-Exclusive RPD : $11,60 (marketplace) / $12,80 (subs)

87
I would also tell my friend that microstock is a business.
And that people are used in a business and are also exploited.
That there are businesses that can be regulated by contract and that there is no contract in the microstock business.
That a contributor works under conditions today that can be changed by the agency tomorrow.
That a contributor can earn something, but that he can also lose all his work with an agency if the agency goes bankrupt or deletes the portfolio.
That there are agencies that delete a contributor's portfolio because they don't like it anymore, and they don't even answer a mail from the contributor. And that even though the contributor has software subscriptions with the agency in question and pays monthly!
That the microstock business is an ugly business.
That a photographer/filmmaker must not think about the ugly business if he wants to continue to practice his hobby.


88
Get into Microstock ...
... if photography or filming is your favorite activity,
... if you don't do it primarily for the money,
... if you don't care that agencies lower the royalties for contributors every year, so you earn the same or less despite having more media in your portfolio,
... if instead of recognition from the agencies you get a blocked portfolio because you have submitted too many similar works, or for some other reason, but which is not given to you,
... if you have a tendency to masochism

89
I can't recommend anyone to upload their videos to Adobe Stock.
The royalties have decreased a lot since the introduction of the new subscription. 2,80 instead of 28 for a video clip.
I also found out that AS closed my portfolio after 3 years. And AS does not answer any mail from me asking for the reason.
AS is the most unfair stock agency from my point of view.

90
Pond5 / Re: no subscription sales at pond5 in june
« on: July 16, 2022, 08:40 »
It's weird.  I've never opted in any of my clips to subscription (membership) program, but I just saw on 7/15 a few subscription earnings of $30.80 each on Pond5.  How that happened???  I don't know.

Interesting. That probably means that all videos are now available for subscription users.

I also have some subscriptions on 7/15.
I guess these are supposed to be the subscriptions collected in the previous month?
Then I would have some sales in June after all, but very very little.
As much as 2020 when I just started uploading videos to P5, about 20% of what I expected.

Strange amounts of money: $3.93 and $18.81 in my exclusive account and $6.41 in my non-exclusive account.

I wonder a lot.

91
Right now it will be Adobe and pond5 where the pros upload.

I don't think professionals upload anywhere anymore.
AS has too few DL's and now also reduced revenues with the introduction of subscriptions.

And P5 was bought by SS, which is a reason to wait and see what changes there will be.
One change I could already notice: there were NO subscription sales in my P5 portfolio in June. Neither in my exclusive account nor in my non-exclusive account.
I can't believe it.
But I didn't receive any money, so I have to believe it.

There is also a technical change since july. P5 subscription sales are now showing in the dashboard, but only as $$. No indication of what media was sold.
Previously, subscription sales were nowhere to be seen.
I had to ask Pond5 by email, and then got the item numbers of the sold media.

92
Pond5 / no subscription sales at pond5 in june
« on: July 16, 2022, 03:50 »
Did you receive your revenue for subscription sales yesterday?
I have not received any revenue for my exclusive account and I have not received any revenue for my non-exclusive account.

This has never happened before. Except in the very beginning when I started with my portfolios.

93
or I may have to make a decision to turn off my photos on Shutterstock and see if photo sales on Adobe Stock increases.

Adobe Stock is not the cure for more revenue or more downloads.
1) You are now selling videos for 2.80. Before it was 28,-.
2) You sell only one image/video when Shutterstock sells 10 images/videos.
3) Adobe Stock closes portfolios if they don't like the contributor. They closed my portfolio and won't tell me why.

94
Adobe Stock / Adobe Stock has locked my account
« on: June 29, 2022, 08:40 »
Adobe Stock has blocked my account for more than a month.
I have done nothing illegal and have written several times to AS.
They ignore me.

Three years of work deleted with one click from AS. 2000 pictures and 1000 videos.

AS never sold well for me. revenue was only about one tenth of what SS sells for me.
Still, it is very annoying for me that AS has blocked my account.

Is anyone still thinking if it is worth uploading media to AS ?
I say NO!!! It is not worth it. It is wasted time. And if you are unlucky, you will get a kick like I got.

I had not uploaded any media to AS for several months.
I wonder if that was a reason for the account suspension?
Besides, the customers of AS can buy my viedeos also at p5 (GPP deal). If AS deletes my videos on their server, then they can save storage space and their customers can still buy my videos because they are redirected to p5.
I wonder if that was a reason for the account suspension?


95
When you start out with stock photography, you think you have nothing to lose.
But this is a mistake.

Agencies know how photographers think and they use the mentality of photographers and videographers. That's the basis of their business model.
Contributors don't have a contract with the agencies. The agencies can do whatever they want. And they do what they want.

Every Contributor should always remember that they have less value than a slave because they sold themselves to the agencies for so little. In the beginning you start with $0.00 and think you can only win because of it. But this is a mistake.
You lose time, hope, the joy of photography and more. Every year the royalties are cut and you get less and less money for more and more work. But this is not the worst.
One push of a button and your portfolio at the agency is locked and you can't do anything about it. The agencies take all your pictures and videos and then they block your access. No matter how many years you've worked for them. Agencies are not interested in contributors. They only care about profits.

A slave still had an owner (when there were slaves) who cared about the slave's health because he had invested money in him.  So the slave had value.
A Contributor has NO value for the agencies. The agencies have nothing invested in the contributors.

The stock business is worse than a waste of time.
My advice to anyone who wants to get started. Don't get involved with it.
You have no idea how it feels when you have worked hard for many years and suddenly an agency blocks your account even though you have never done anything illegal. You don't know what it's like and you don't want to know.

96
Can anyone tell some recent success story?

Yes, I can tell a success story.

Once upon a time, three years ago. I was so poor but very talented in photography. Then I read something on the internet about stock photography and soon found agencies that allowed me to upload my brilliant photos and videos on their website.
From then on, my money in my bank account grew with each passing day. It grew and grew and I became richer and richer.
Several times a month my bank calls me and tries to persuade me to invest because there are such huge amounts of funds sitting around unused in my account.
I buy at least one property a month and occasionally a few plots of land, but it is impossible to spend all the money I earn from microstock.
After all, I still have a full-time job to do : photography. So I don't have much time to shop around.

If stock agencies didn't regularly cut artist royalties in half, thirds and tenths, I'd probably get even more calls from my bank with investment offers and have to buy even more real estate and gold bullion. That would cost me even more time.

I also don't want to buy a new car every day. I have my Mercedes-AMG One, which I drive when I'm in a hurry. And I have my Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which I drive when I have a lot of time and want to be comfortable. I don't want to have more cars than that.

So from that side, it's a big advantage for me as a contributor that I get less royalties from the stock agencies every year.
The constant royalty cuts are the main reason why all Contributors are successful.
And every contributor should always consider this fact and be grateful.


97
I started supplying SS in 2019. Revenue went steadily up or sideways. But the start of this year was a gigantic drop. I started seriously thinking about what I was doing and came to the conclusion that I shouldn't be doing this anymore.
That being said, SS rejects 90% of all uploaded media. Even if I were as stupid as I was a few months ago, even then I wouldn't be able to supply SS because they reject almost all media, signaling that they don't want any more media.

AS is quite bad. Video revenue is down to 1/10. From 28,- to 2,80 for footage.

It was very very stupid of me to get involved with this business of stock photos and stock videos.
And I'm glad that SS rejects so many media, because it made it easier for me to jump off.


98
At least two of the biggest and most well-known stock agencies are now aggressively acquiring content ownership by buying out photographers' portfolios.
Shutterstock buys Pond5. That's the one agency.
And what other agency is also buying portfolios?

99
Shutterstock.com / Re: Pending and Reviewed Disappeared?
« on: March 24, 2022, 07:50 »
95% of the submitted media are rejected by SS.
And the accepted media do not appear in the portfolio.
What does the crystal ball say about this? Does anyone have one?

100
In our country there is a saying : "When the goats are saturated, they start to grumble". The word "grumbling" is to be understood in the sense of dissatisfaction, displeasure, bad mood.
I think SS is "saturated." They've had enough, they don't want any more media. Maybe it's too much work for them? Maybe they only want to sell what has already been uploaded?

For many months SS has been rejecting about 95% of an uploaded series. I stopped uploading new media two months ago. Then I tried again a few days ago. But I have no chance anymore. Only 1 media from a series is sometimes accepted, but most of the time everything is rejected. The reason given is 'noise' which is not true and absurd.
I'm not uploading anything now, I'm sure SS doesn't want anything anymore.
I guess SS would prefer to close the gates and just spend time selling their stocked media.


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