Author Topic: Just when you thought It couldn't get worse. (Read 63738 times)

Rose Tinted Glasses · « **Reply #100 on:** July 14, 2016, 23:07 »

Quote from: Robin@Symbiostock on July 14, 2016, 22:42

Hi Rinder,

Look, as Andre has alluded to on numerous occasions, which I am firmly in agreement with, if you are someone who wants and intends to truly try to change the state of affairs, it is plainly irresponsible to stand on the sidelines, complain, and wait for someone else to do all the work for you so that you can then hop on the bandwagon.

I'm not saying this is you, but I'm re-iterating that the mentality should not be 'pie in the sky' - it may very well be a 'pie in the sky', but that's not what's important. What's important, for your sanity, for your professional future, is that there is the possibility that it will work, the best possibility, and in pursuing that best possibility, you are doing everything you can to offset this awful progression of contributor extortion.

If you're standing there asking for stats and proof instead of spending $10 a month to get some of your best images on Symbiostock and Symzio, it seems plainly counter-intuitive. I've clearly demonstrated, the entire Symbiostock team has demonstrated, a serious and dedicated desire to create massive and powerful infrastructure that serves to assist professionals exactly like you.

And as predicted, slowly, but surely, people are starting to see some results:

http://www.symbiostock.org/forums/topic/sale/

If you take a look at this, you'll see that it's certainly not earth shattering (yet), but some contributors may be making upwards of 30 to 50 dollars a month on average through these sales. And these are only the contributors that are actively telling us about their sales. Some are on Symzio, some are through their independent sites.

30 to 50 dollars a month is more than a lot of people make through agencies such as Dreamstime, Fotolia, DepositPhotos etc. So you see that it becomes a real and true addition to your agency workflow.

Most importantly:

1) That money is NOT as a result of $0.25 subscriptions. These individuals either made 70% of the sale price, 80% of the sale price, or 100% of the sale price.
2) They know their clients and their clients know them
3) There is nothing but positivity as a result of the sale, because of the aforementioned reasons
4) They control the licensing terms of their media on their independent sites

I urge you to explore, if you are genuinely interested in funneling some of this negative energy into a positive mechanism, a cost effective manner of getting your port on Symbiostock, and join us on the forums, if even on a semi-passive basis. Other contributors and the entire marketing arm of Symbiostock and Symzio will passively promote you as well, as we do each other.

Robin; the first mistake photographers make is to sell their images for a 0.25c royalty and expect results, and applaud it.

You talk of contributor extortion... only so if you allow it, and many have. Why? because the new generation of photographer knows no better. Also agencies today know this, hence the success of the likes of SS.

I am very truly surprised that Rinder even accepted these terms, especially as he claims to be a veteran of this industry. He should know better and never have settled to sell his work for such a pittance.

I am not sure what you are bringing to the table apart from another outlet to have the dream to success.

$30-$50 per month is nothing.

You are selling dreams to wannabee's who are hobbyists at best.

Sorry for the negativity, but the industry is going to walk all over you.

But thousands have, this is the new reality of today's stock industry.

Minsc · « **Reply #101 on:** July 14, 2016, 23:17 »

Quote from: Rinderart on July 14, 2016, 22:54

Quote from: Microstockphoto on July 14, 2016, 19:09
that most popular algorithm changed over a year ago if not longer, has been explained countless times it is not about sales only, but keep complaining about it, that helps

we are sharing the pie with a lot more people than when we joined, simple math, you get less per head, it will never go back to the golden days, accept it or move on

A year ago? Try march 12th 2012 man. Thats when the so called switch was thrown. I dont want less and I won't accept less and I don't want Myself or my friends who have done the work and helped Build SS accept Less.. if you want to be fatalistic about this and say thats the way it is. your part of the Problem.!!! Period. We had the chance to do something 4/5 years ago and we simply didn't we were very Busy trying to stop the DFC at fotolia. which was a joke.. Myself and others could have done so much more. maybe you weren't here then. maybe you were. being anonymous makes it hard to tell. Ya never know if your talking to some veteran or some kid sitting on his parents computer in Tulsa Oklahoma submitting tomatoes.

lets see your port. the work speaks, words don't. Heres Mine.http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?gallery_id=7918 and google.https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=laurin+rinder&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-003

I'm sorry to hear about the drop, but I don't think anyone could have stopped SS, not even an organized group of talented contributors. There are always people ready to take their place. They are over 30,000 contributors on SS right now. Even if 1000 of them leave, there are still 29000 of them.

Remember 500PX? They're gaining ground again. Their traffic dropped after the royalty cut. That was in June. Now their traffic is the highest it has ever been. There is simply no stopping most agencies...unless it's Getty cause they like to shoot themselves on the foot constantly.

I think we like to see ourselves as bigger and more important than we really are. We're all contributors, playing by the same rules, feeding the same machine. I don't think anger and negativity is the solution. Anger clouds the mind, misdirect priorities and makes you lose motivation.

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #102 on:** July 14, 2016, 23:47 »

rinderart, this dicussion has nothing to do with what ones port looks like, you slag off newbies without seeing their port, someone trying to get in doesnt count. if youd paid attention to what i post here youd also known i hve been around for a lot longer, maybe just as long as you. and i know for fact that you were moaning about your footballers image had dropped a lot later than march 2012, i cant be bothered to look up your comments on the ss forum. as for building up ss, no one is entitled to anything, if you dont understand that more images and more people is less earnings per head, you will keep getting disappointed, and if you are sooooooo worried about contributor well being, why are you submitting to dp and bragging about how good they are for you ..........selling off your work through api at 3% royalty !!!!!!!!!! you talk from your behind,

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #103 on:** July 14, 2016, 23:48 »

minsc, 100000, not 30000,

thats, what I mean people dont seem to get that if you triple the suppliers, your part is one third

Edited

Microstockphoto · « **Reply #104 on:** July 14, 2016, 23:50 »

symbiostock is funny, they sell work of copycats,,, my word

sharpshot · « **Reply #105 on:** July 15, 2016, 04:24 »

SS is still way ahead in the earnings ratings here, so I do think earnings are being spread out more than they were a few years ago. Was there ever a time when we really had the power to do much with sites that we don't own? We could get together and buy a controlling stake in one of the smaller sites. I don't like Symbiostock, tried it and it didn't work for me.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #106 on:** July 15, 2016, 04:31 »

Quote from: sharpshot on July 15, 2016, 04:24

SS is still way ahead in the earnings ratings here, so I do think earnings are being spread out more than they were a few years ago. Was there ever a time when we really had the power to do much with sites that we don't own? We could get together and buy a controlling stake in one of the smaller sites. I don't like Symbiostock, tried it and it didn't work for me.

Spreading out the earnings isn't by definition a "bad thing" some people might say the "established" players had in their own way with their images unduly prominent.

ngaga35 · « **Reply #107 on:** July 15, 2016, 06:33 »

After this couple of months I don't think it will be!!

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increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #108 on:** July 15, 2016, 07:10 »

Quote from: Rose Tinted Glasses on July 14, 2016, 10:52

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on July 14, 2016, 10:14

The simple truth is that the tools are now available to almost anyone who wants to record music or take professional quality pictures. That was not the case 20-30 years ago when the so called veterans started and there was virtually no competition compared to today.

You are joking right? or is this just your complete inexperience talking? The competition was much more fierce 20-30 years ago than today.
.....
Back in the good old days if you got 10% acceptance on any agency your were doing well, now if you are getting one image rejected it's an ordeal that fills pages of "support" on forums from the "pros".

So you're telling me there were MORE people all over the world trying to make a living doing stock photography 30 years ago than today?

I didn't say anything about how easy or not it is/was to get stuff accepted. There are WAY more stock photographers today and everyone is competing against the entire world. How is that NOT more competition???

Sure, there is a lot of crap, but among the hundreds of thousands of contributors there is some true talent that would never have had the chance of even talking to an agency 30 years ago. Do you think a kid from nowhere in Russia even had the chance to get into a New York agency? Today, those kids can, and some of them have talent.

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #109 on:** July 15, 2016, 07:27 »

Quote from: Mantis on July 14, 2016, 20:14

Quote from: Tara on July 14, 2016, 19:43
Then what is the problem with differences between sales July and June. It's very big differences!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is a big difference for me...WAYYYYY down. Today I made $12 with 5000 assets.

This kind of ties into the other comments I made about getting to the point of it not being worth it. I only have a few hundred images on SS. It took a ton of time to create, edit, keyword, upload, and then go through all of the SS configuration stuff to get the images live. It must have been a massive effort and expense to do 5,000 images.

I'm not directing this question at you but in general for all people who are getting similar results. Is this level of effort worth the return for you?

Mantis · « **Reply #110 on:** July 15, 2016, 07:56 »

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 15, 2016, 07:27

Quote from: Mantis on July 14, 2016, 20:14
Quote from: Tara on July 14, 2016, 19:43
Then what is the problem with differences between sales July and June. It's very big differences!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is a big difference for me...WAYYYYY down. Today I made $12 with 5000 assets.

This kind of ties into the other comments I made about getting to the point of it not being worth it. I only have a few hundred images on SS. It took a ton of time to create, edit, keyword, upload, and then go through all of the SS configuration stuff to get the images live. It must have been a massive effort and expense to do 5,000 images.

I'm not directing this question at you but in general for all people who are getting similar results. Is this level of effort worth the return for you?

No. In fact I haven't done a still studio shoot for micro in nearly two years. I have personally been shooting video in the last two years because it is fun and I make more than 38 cents a DL. But to your point, it is not worth the time to set up shoots, especially if they require funding. I do plan on shooting in the studio soon just because I miss it, but not because I feel the need to develop new content. Your point is spot on as far as I'm concerned. To be honest, there was a time I would spend $100's a month on props. Those days are long gone.

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #111 on:** July 15, 2016, 09:58 »

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 15, 2016, 07:27

Quote from: Mantis on July 14, 2016, 20:14
Quote from: Tara on July 14, 2016, 19:43
Then what is the problem with differences between sales July and June. It's very big differences!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is a big difference for me...WAYYYYY down. Today I made $12 with 5000 assets.

This kind of ties into the other comments I made about getting to the point of it not being worth it. I only have a few hundred images on SS. It took a ton of time to create, edit, keyword, upload, and then go through all of the SS configuration stuff to get the images live. It must have been a massive effort and expense to do 5,000 images.

I'm not directing this question at you but in general for all people who are getting similar results. Is this level of effort worth the return for you?

yes, i am from your school of thought. i remember in your istock days too, you were saying the same thing. 5,000 is alot for me too, never mind 70,000.

all in all if you consider 70,000 with 20 agnecies to earn 350k a year or so extrapolating mantis and tara 5,000+- @ 100 a day 36k p.a.
i can see the possibility of pushing 5k images to ss to earn 36k
but if i had to create 70k , would the time, expense and effort be better paid
pushing photos outside of microstock???

didn't Yuri once said he was at one point reaching a 20% net profit of 350K?
would that really be viable?
i am interested to invite Mr Arcurs back here to see if he is still making 20% net these days.

then again, if i were Mr. Arcurs, i would have branch out a long time ago
and say eff..it to all this bs!!!

Zero Talent · « **Reply #112 on:** July 15, 2016, 10:36 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 14, 2016, 14:06

Quote from: Minsc on July 14, 2016, 13:32
OK, sales are down. What is your solution? complaining alone isn't going to solve anything, it never does and it never will.

Nobody is entitled to anything. Millennials are not entitled to a job because they have a degree. The veterans are not entitled to better sales because they were there first. "The World is Flat" is a great book detailing the leveling of the playing due to ease of access to education & technology.

No matter how good we are, we can always improve and gain different perspectives. Competition is one of the great constants of life. Just recently, some Amazon seller was complaining about how Chinese sellers are producing similar products and destroying her sales. The other day, a woman told me how a guy dumped her to date another woman. And just yesterday, we had to reject 5 designers because we made an offer to a more talented designer.

There are solutions to competition. Work hard, come up with new ideas, learn new skills, keep up with market trends, or enter new markets. And yes, I subscribe to my own advice.

So true!

Besides, for me, May was a massive BME. June, a massive second best.
AND the first 2 weeks of July are much better than the average: I got almost daily, either ELs (even more than 1) or large SODs (even more than 1) or clip sales (even more than 1) or even combinations of the above.

Whatever SS did, may they continue to do more of the same, because that really works very well for me!

Short update, in line with the above: today's 5 x $24 SODs makes today a good day by most standards, especially when all these sales come from port slightly larger than 800 items.
July is definitely on track to be a good month. Sorry guys, but I can't be happier than this with SS performance!

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #113 on:** July 15, 2016, 10:43 »

Quote from: Mantis on July 15, 2016, 07:56

I do plan on shooting in the studio soon just because I miss it, but not because I feel the need to develop new content. Your point is spot on as far as I'm concerned. To be honest, there was a time I would spend $100's a month on props. Those days are long gone.

me??? i am just looking to buy weed. it's illegal in my country so very hush hush, and an old f@rt going around asking for weed is too conspicuous.
the way i figure , this should be the best win win solution for most of us old-f@rts..

- get some weed
- photograph it... (set it on self timer and multiple shooting all day, continuous 24 hours or until battery runs out)
- smoke some
- wake up next morning, or when battery is dead
-upload all the photos to ss

your weed images will get you back into earning $$$ again

send ss a bunch of weed complimentary to thank them .

win win solution, everybody's happy!!!

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #114 on:** July 15, 2016, 10:45 »

btw,
anybody knows where to score some grass???

Astonished · « **Reply #115 on:** July 15, 2016, 10:59 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 15, 2016, 10:45

btw,
anybody knows where to score some grass???

You can get it legally in the Netherlands, in a coffeeshop where they sell everything but coffee

Mrblues101 · « **Reply #116 on:** July 15, 2016, 11:23 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 15, 2016, 10:45

btw,
anybody knows where to score some grass???

Ask him:

http://www.shutterstock.com/g/JeremyNathan?page=1&safesearch=1&sort_method=newest

Mantis · « **Reply #117 on:** July 15, 2016, 11:24 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 15, 2016, 10:43

Quote from: Mantis on July 15, 2016, 07:56
I do plan on shooting in the studio soon just because I miss it, but not because I feel the need to develop new content. Your point is spot on as far as I'm concerned. To be honest, there was a time I would spend $100's a month on props. Those days are long gone.

me??? i am just looking to buy weed. it's illegal in my country so very hush hush, and an old f@rt going around asking for weed is too conspicuous.
the way i figure , this should be the best win win solution for most of us old-f@rts..

- get some weed
- photograph it... (set it on self timer and multiple shooting all day, continuous 24 hours or until battery runs out)
- smoke some
- wake up next morning, or when battery is dead
-upload all the photos to ss

your weed images will get you back into earning $$$ again

send ss a bunch of weed complimentary to thank them .

win win solution, everybody's happy!!!

ROFLMAO. Good post.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #118 on:** July 15, 2016, 12:34 »

Quote from: Zero Talent on July 15, 2016, 10:36

Short update, in line with the above: today's 5 x $24 SODs makes today a good day by most standards, especially when all these sales come from port slightly larger than 800 items.
July is definitely on track to be a good month. Sorry guys, but I can't be happier than this with SS performance!

July is already BME for me at SS thanks to some nice footage sales (some 4k). Hopefully it goes on like this. VB fell off the planet though for some reason...

ngaga35 · « **Reply #119 on:** July 15, 2016, 13:50 »

How do you have bme, and the rest of us wme. I' talking about years. I do not understand?

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noodle · « **Reply #120 on:** July 15, 2016, 14:45 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 15, 2016, 10:45

btw,
anybody knows where to score some grass???

You wont find any weed here, but you will find a lot of dickweeds...

Pauws99 · « **Reply #121 on:** July 15, 2016, 15:55 »

Quote from: Tara on July 15, 2016, 13:50

How do you have bme, and the rest of us wme. I' talking about years. I do not understand?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If "everyone" is having a wme and shutterstocks income is increasing which it has consistently reported then its hardly surprising that some people are having bme's. They must be selling someones pics.

Zero Talent · « **Reply #122 on:** July 15, 2016, 17:55 »

Quote from: Tara on July 15, 2016, 13:50

How do you have bme, and the rest of us wme. I' talking about years. I do not understand?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To continue the "logic" of this thread, we have BMEs and very good months because the search algorithm has been changed in our favor

It is definitively NOT because some picture or video is more in demand than other.

Elenathewise · « **Reply #123 on:** July 15, 2016, 20:38 »

Doing microstock since 2005, 15000 images in portfolio. 60% down from normal earnings this July. June wasn't stellar either but this is special.

AlessandraRC · « **Reply #124 on:** July 15, 2016, 21:04 »

I have been on stock for six months and I a already tired of Laurin's ranting. Laurin, how many problems in stock have you solved by ranting? Move on man! You are better than this!

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Author Topic: Just when you thought It couldn't get worse. (Read 63738 times)

Rose Tinted Glasses

Minsc

Microstockphoto

Microstockphoto

Microstockphoto

sharpshot

Pauws99

ngaga35

increasingdifficulty

PaulieWalnuts

Mantis

etudiante_rapide

Zero Talent

etudiante_rapide

etudiante_rapide

Astonished

Mrblues101

Mantis

increasingdifficulty

ngaga35

noodle

Pauws99

Zero Talent

Elenathewise

AlessandraRC

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