MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Shutterstock.com => Topic started by: Josephine on July 23, 2020, 08:53
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
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1. Percentages must be a genuine percentage of revenue, not a fictional percentage of some abstract world where subscribers use all their downloads.
2. January reset is insane and needs to go. Rolling 12 month tiers.
Do you think shareholders next year are going to say "yeah we are making enough money now, lets chill with the pressure on contributors"? You understand they are going to take and take until they get push back right? Do you want to push back now or when it is 0.005c per sale?
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
Compared to time, energy and money spend creating work for 10c?
What is the goal of any protest? How realistic are people's actions in these protests?
Is it better to do nothing and continue supporting worse conditions for contributors and ask on forums if it makes sense for others to protest against it?
::)
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What is the final goal of the protest?
My goal is to try to preserve a shred of my self respect. Others may have different goals.
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I think the goal should be to make Shutterstock an irrelevant stock agency with very small collection after most of us unlicense our portfolio.
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
If you don't agree with the protest and enjoy making 10˘ sales, why waste your time trolling here? Troll.
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Realistically now the objective is moving buyers from shutterstock to other. Either through removing content, driving traffic through social media or rating down the platform in all forums.
Understand that shutterstock is not creating demand, just catering to it. Demand will move, it make take time and be hard for us but it will. This is the only fair end we can get.
The alternative is to accept this, set ourselves up for more such cuts by them and other players. Anyway the actual reduction in earning shows just how bad jan will be.
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My goal is to licence my work for a fair royalty
SS does not provide that anymore, therefore I have disabled my entire portfolio, and will likely have to delete it altogether.
I need a sense of value and respect for my works, and for me that means not supporting outfits like SS
If you let people step all over you it never ends well
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I just want to take over the world.
And, man, I'm telling you, girl, it's really time-consuming. Speaking of time-consuming, did you know that influencing opinions is the goal of PR agencies, but the use of false identities and accounts is already a crime in some countries?
:-*
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My goal is to keep Josephine motivated to continue posting pointless needling topics.
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i've stopped upload new contents to SS since july 1.
This is what i can do ATM, but after about 2 months and no words from SS
i'm on doubt that the protest will have some success.
If nothing happen, at the end of july i'll start to upload again to SS
Call me a sheep, or whatever you want, i don't care.
But i think that after my post where i said that i stopped to upload,
i want to be honest and say that i'm starting to upload new content to SS from august 1
Right, wrong? I really don't know, but we are living in a strange time... pandemic, economic crisis, you know...
I haven't a daily job so my goals may be different from yours.
Anyways, best of all for you.
Peace!
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
What is the final SS goal of fighting the protest with irrelevant trolls?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
Revolutions and wars rarely have a final goal at the start. They evolve, mutate and build momentum. The end result can justify the energy and time expended and the blood shed. Who knows what the end result will be but 'times they are a-changin' for sure.
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
My final goal has been met, and that is to get the fk out of SS. I’m sure you are making better money today than ever before, though. So why do you care?
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Not sure this protest is working...SS Wall Street Stock is up 11% for the month of July....That is the money SS is really concerned about...
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Not sure this protest is working...SS Wall Street Stock is up 11% for the month of July....That is the money SS is really concerned about...
Whatever may or may not happen to SS, we who left have our integrity intact.
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+100
Besides the whole market is up 30%+ from March lows - the economic realities will sink in at some point and I wouldn’t be surprised at another pullback at some point in the near future - maybe we’ll even retest the March lows
I’d rather buy gold at this point than SS stock
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
How realistic are you with your life Josephine?
What is the final goal of your comments? :-)
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I only had footage on SS. This month I had 7 sale at 0,84 $ and 3 sales 0,96 $.
This happens before the January new system. At these conditions it's not interesting anymore to have my work on SS. So I deleted all my clips here.
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Got some of those 0.96 sales as well. I always counted on vidoes to bring the month total to a good number. It seems the vol largely remains the same and cost per vid sale dropped by almost 3-4 times.
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
Choosing to not upload to SS and rather support agencies that offer better rates takes less energy and time than wasting effort on an agency that will just cannibalise your sales elsewhere.
Since going exclusive for video (what we mainly do now) at P5 we have been getting steady $40 - $50 sales. We upload to one place and get comparable commissions from AS which which they have a distribution agreement anyway. That saves time and energy.
Our overall earnings have been up on the same period last year.
While I personally always wanted SS to come around on their crazy ideas, I've realised that they are really no great loss. Maybe a bit of pain in the beginning - but ultimately the future without SS looks far brighter than hanging around while they destroy the value of our work. They can keep their 10c thanks - or whatever scraps they are throwing to the dogs for video licenses now.
The goal is quite simple - to get more for your work. Perhaps in there should also be to protect the value of what you have worked so hard to produce.
1) If you can, keep your portfolio down at SS and build better value elsewhere.
2) If you are not in a position to shut down SS earnings, stop uploading to them. Pretty soon other agencies will replace them if you cut the flow of fresh new work to SS.
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In the same boat as you Hard in the beggining but so satifying when all those 40$+ sales are rolling in. Good riddance to those scavengers and also to the people that support them with their work.
Choosing to not upload to SS and rather support agencies that offer better rates takes less energy and time than wasting effort on an agency that will just cannibalise your sales elsewhere.
Since going exclusive for video (what we mainly do now) at P5 we have been getting steady $40 - $50 sales. We upload to one place and get comparable commissions from AS which which they have a distribution agreement anyway. That saves time and energy.
Our overall earnings have been up on the same period last year.
While I personally always wanted SS to come around on their crazy ideas, I've realised that they are really no great loss. Maybe a bit of pain in the beginning - but ultimately the future without SS looks far brighter than hanging around while they destroy the value of our work. They can keep their 10c thanks - or whatever scraps they are throwing to the dogs for video licenses
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
I think the goal must be to make SS re-consider the new earnings structure.
In principle I'm OK with levels based on 12 month sales, but I'm not OK with the January reset.
I think the payment for subscription sales is unfair. 10 cent minimum is rediculous.
Levels should be combined for images and footage.
I don't expect SS to return to the old earnings structure. But I hope they will at least drop the January reset, and also give us a share of the un-used subscription downloads.
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
Since going exclusive for video (what we mainly do now) at P5 we have been getting steady $40 - $50 sales. We upload to one place and get comparable commissions from AS which which they have a distribution agreement anyway. That saves time and energy.
Are you guys talking gross or net?
So far my clip sales (subs) at Adobe have been for around $30 so I'm starting to wonder if I would make more money going exclusive at P5 and use Adobe as distributor instead of direct.
How are you clips priced at P5? I see many underselling with $25 to $50 for 4K clips which is another good way to destroy this market.
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Are you guys talking gross or net?
Net.
We priced our HD files at $69 and 4K at $169 - so 70% of that.
We are in a bit of a location niche though and have maintained better pricing so far. Smiling caucasian woman eating an apple, perhaps not so much.
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Are you guys talking gross or net?
Net.
We priced our HD files at $69 and 4K at $169 - so 70% of that.
We are in a bit of a location niche though and have maintained better pricing so far. Smiling caucasian woman eating an apple, perhaps not so much.
Smart, just under the SS pricing and no crazy video subscribtion to boot.
One question, do editorial clips on Pond5 also get reflected on Adobe? Also what do you get after both agencies take their cut
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WRT editorial, I'd be happy to be wrong, but I don't think so. That's an interesting question. Obviously if they did it would be a workaround for editorial footage on AS. I'm not sure if I have any editorial video that I could check with.
Anyone else exclusive to P5 that has editorial video? Does it show up at AS?
I understand what you get from an AS sale on P5 to be largely comparable to what you would get from AS by yourself. Seems to make sense with what I can piece together so far. That said, it's going to take a bit of time for videos distributed through P5 to find their way back up the database at AS. Sales from AS are likely to be slow while that happens.
Has anyone had any success through Vimeo Stock? As I understand it, P5 supplies to them too. How would we know if there were sales from them anyway?
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Notice that whoever this idiot is never really comes back to have a conversation. They pose a question and then never respond back. My definition of a troll.
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I don't expect SS to return to the old earnings structure. But I hope they will at least drop the January reset, and also give us a share of the un-used subscription downloads.
That would be nice but quite problematic and even the contributors would probably not be totally OK with that. If the image is bought in the beginning of one-year plan, you would have to wait one year to get your money because nobody will know how much will be unused.
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I will enable my video licensing again if they create "opt out" option for their video subscription. Until then, I'll be happy with having only Pond5 and Adobe Stock.
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Notice that whoever this idiot is never really comes back to have a conversation. They pose a question and then never respond back. My definition of a troll.
Notice also how those questions are really positioned as statements. It's not really someone wanting to get an answer.
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Notice that whoever this idiot is never really comes back to have a conversation. They pose a question and then never respond back. My definition of a troll.
Notice also how those questions are really positioned as statements. It's not really someone wanting to get an answer.
Well stated.
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It is a pity for people who continue to upload their work to Shutterstock. Sometimes this is a very complex work, clearly not worth 10 cents. But smart people say that the whole world is gradually moving towards a slave-owning society. To replace capitalism.
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... But smart people say that the whole world is gradually moving towards a slave-owning society. To replace capitalism.
here we go again w the slave talk
smart people?? who???
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I think he means big thinkers.
i can point some names towards that thinking but you actually have to read a lot. Probably you are more a visual person like i am. To save you time maybe you read the new book from Slavoj Zizek called "Pandemic! : COVID-19 Shakes the World" where he talks about global barbarism or Yanis Varoufakis with "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future".
you can also follow both this guys in youtube. zizek have its own channel and varoufakis appear in Dim25 channel.
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BTW for those interest....
Tomorrow "Josephine friends" of SS will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the results of 2nd quarterly report . The conference call can be accessed in the U.S. at (844) 634-1442 or outside the U.S. at (615) 247-0239 with the conference ID# 2957776. A live audio webcast of the call will also be available on Shutterstock's website at http://investor.shutterstock.com (http://investor.shutterstock.com).
Following completion of the call, a recorded replay of the webcast will be available in the investor relations section of Shutterstock's website. A telephone replay of the call will also be available until August 4, 2020 in the U.S. at (855) 859-2056 or outside the U.S. at (404) 537-3406 with the conference ID# 2957776
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It is a pity for people who continue to upload their work to Shutterstock. Sometimes this is a very complex work, clearly not worth 10 cents. But smart people say that the whole world is gradually moving towards a slave-owning society. To replace capitalism.
Capitalism supports modern slavery and of course slavery isn't uploading photos to SS and being paid a few cents. That's not slavery. This is slavery:
https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/ (https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/)
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It is a pity for people who continue to upload their work to Shutterstock. Sometimes this is a very complex work, clearly not worth 10 cents. But smart people say that the whole world is gradually moving towards a slave-owning society. To replace capitalism.
Capitalism supports modern slavery and of course slavery isn't uploading photos to SS and being paid a few cents. That's not slavery. This is slavery:
https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/ (https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/)
Yes though I'm not sure Capitalism is any worse than other economic/political arrangements in this respect. I think what we see at Shutterstock and similar crowd sourcing enterprises is an extreme form of capitalism with an unbalanced market. Globalisation and technology will probably see this happen in many other knoweledge based markets.
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BTW for those interest....
Tomorrow "Josephine friends" of SS will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the results of 2nd quarterly report . The conference call can be accessed in the U.S. at (844) 634-1442 or outside the U.S. at (615) 247-0239 with the conference ID# 2957776. A live audio webcast of the call will also be available on Shutterstock's website at [url]http://investor.shutterstock.com[/url] ([url]http://investor.shutterstock.com[/url]).
Following completion of the call, a recorded replay of the webcast will be available in the investor relations section of Shutterstock's website. A telephone replay of the call will also be available until August 4, 2020 in the U.S. at (855) 859-2056 or outside the U.S. at (404) 537-3406 with the conference ID# 2957776
This should be interesting, I'm sure they have a cover story prepared
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WRT editorial, I'd be happy to be wrong, but I don't think so. That's an interesting question. Obviously if they did it would be a workaround for editorial footage on AS. I'm not sure if I have any editorial video that I could check with.
Anyone else exclusive to P5 that has editorial video? Does it show up at AS?
I understand what you get from an AS sale on P5 to be largely comparable to what you would get from AS by yourself. Seems to make sense with what I can piece together so far. That said, it's going to take a bit of time for videos distributed through P5 to find their way back up the database at AS. Sales from AS are likely to be slow while that happens.
Has anyone had any success through Vimeo Stock? As I understand it, P5 supplies to them too. How would we know if there were sales from them anyway?
Does anyone else know this?
1. Do editorials from Pond5 exclusive accounts show up on Adobe
2. What % of royalty comes from a pond5 clip sold on Adobe?
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Everybody is struggling “in these times of corona” ::) whether they get unemployment or not. Does the country you live in have a lower cost of living than the US? I’m guessing yes. So everything is relative. And in the US, $1200 stimulus check doesn’t go very far when someone’s out of work. And unemployment might help, but it doesn’t pay the bills either.
Everyone SELLING photos needs the money they make; otherwise we’d all just give our photos away. Which is basically what you do at SS now.
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
Oh goodie, well allow me to jump in with some more good news then:
My last 10 sales at SS have earned me a whopping $1,32 ???
My last 10 sales at AS have earned me a measly $56,30 :o
All image sales with 1 EL at AS.
If AS keeps this up they don't even have to sell high volume. Still I would very much like that so I can boot SS.
For me SS has changed from most important to barely relevant.
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
What’s an ED?
A problem, or are you referring to an EL?
Those are very rare these days, ever since the terms of a regular licence Use has been broadened.
If you are making more at SS, you are in the very small minority I dare say. Maybe you are a fairly new contributer and your portfolio has increased substantially in relation to what you had last year. Or your numbers are low enough that a RPD statistic can sound great, but in reality, if the sample size is small, it is an insignificant statistic.
By far, the complaints of contributers who have been on SS for a fairly long time and/or whose ports are a fairly good sample size when it comes to downloads, are experiencing vastly reduced incomes.
The outrage is significant enough that it is not just a small group of disenchanted contributers.
If your case was the norm for most contributers, there would be threads of overjoyed contributers here and on SS forums, celebrating and extolling the virtues of SS.
Take a look at their own forums.
Even contributers that have decided to stay with SS are NOT singing their praises.
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Yes, we know, you’ve explained your dire situation before. My question is, if you’re happy with your dwindling earnings, what difference does it make to you if others find the hit to their earnings unacceptable? If they decide to boycott, why does it bother you enough to come here repeatedly and ask the same stupid questions over and over again?
And to the rare people who are somehow magically earning more, why do you think it’s swell to come here and rub it in the noses of people whose income has been devastated? Is it some kind of game to you? What’s your point? “I’m doing ok, eff all the rest of you.” You think it’s fun to say that to people who are struggling?
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Josephine you may think that 10 cents its huge for you but probably if you receive just 1 cent your argument was pretty diferent. I know a lot about poor countries since i lived in Guinea during colera in 2014 which is one of the poorest countries in the world. I do think your behaviour among other colleages here who are trying to struggle in such hard times does not justify your needs.
Now the ironic part: i invest time and money of my own to shoot jungle villages and even support them by buying a solar pannel to a clinic in Sarabanka (jungle village between Senegal and Guinea) where the mortality rate of mothers that give birth is roughly 80%.
I spent more than 8000€ and I was hopping to repeat the experience by selling some footage/shots but with 10 cents would take years and years. In this sense i am kind of glad that i shift/quit SS some years ago and i bet in other agencies too.
Probably, because i sell in other places with better revenue i will repeat the experience and help other villages too.
Maybe if you sell in other places than SS you can help you but also others around you. Don't you think? ;-)
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
Oh goodie, well allow me to jump in with some more good news then:
My last 10 sales at SS have earned me a whopping $1,32 ???
My last 10 sales at AS have earned me a measly $56,30 :o
All image sales with 1 EL at AS.
If AS keeps this up they don't even have to sell high volume. Still I would very much like that so I can boot SS.
For me SS has changed from most important to barely relevant.
Last 10 sales- that a very small sample to say the least. I would say comparing your last 1,000 sales to better compare. For example today I have 22 sales on SS for $28.67 and 15 sales on AS for $20.79. Looks pretty even according to my personal stats for today at least...
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I think he means big thinkers.
i can point some names towards that thinking but you actually have to read a lot. Probably you are more a visual person like i am. To save you time maybe you read the new book from Slavoj Zizek called "Pandemic! : COVID-19 Shakes the World" where he talks about global barbarism or Yanis Varoufakis with "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future".
you can also follow both this guys in youtube. zizek have its own channel and varoufakis appear in Dim25 channel.
i DO read a lot, esp'ly history & philosophy (Bernard-Henri Levy,Tony Judt, Michael Mann, Braudel, Huizinga, Havel, Houillebecque among Europeans) those names , unfortunately i wasnt familiar with - a quick search for Varoufakis quoted him saying Greeece was LIKE a slave to lenders - no mention of capitalism's change to slavery
for Zizek i found:
Žižek claims that the strength and originality of capitalism as an ideological apparatus – what marks it out as a historically unique phenomenon – is that it explicitly endorses its intrinsic imbalance. Its key injunction and substance can be summed up in one word: Enjoy! This means not only that capitalist ideology compels us to enjoy commodities, but also that we want capital to keep enjoying itself through us. Thus the two forms of enjoyment merge into one, making it difficult to distinguish between the two traditional categories of Hegelo-Marxist dialectics, namely “masters” and “slaves
again no replacement by a slave economy - instead a 'traditional' critique OF capitalism. both men are progressives, as am I but I left Marxism behind long ago - Stiglitz, Krugman et al have better analyses and among most 'big thinkers' slavery is at best a metaphor. Marxists having been predicting the fall of capitalism for almost 200 years but their results have been as poor as psychics'
in any case the slave question has nothing to do w the SS opposition/boycott
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
3 posts, all ass-kissing to SS. Go away shill. SS is cooked.
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
3 posts, all ass-kissing to SS. Go away shill. SS is cooked.
Isn't this a site to educate and encourage others? I am stating my own facts. Do I agree with pricing strategies? Not always. However, you either stay with the company or you don't- that's up to the individual.
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Well, only negative opinions are welcome here ...
So, I am not happy with a general condition of the microstock industry, especially, that I am making my full income here and I am living in US.
However, my total earnings from SS during June and July are much higher than before or the same time last year. It doesn't mean that I like SS! Right now, I am more concerned about not so great performance of AS. And, Pond5 is a disaster for me this year. Fortunately, I am producing mostly still images.
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Well, only negative opinions are welcome here ...
So, I am not happy with a general condition of the microstock industry, especially, that I am making my full income here and I am living in US.
However, my total earnings from SS during June and July are much higher than before or the same time last year. It doesn't mean that I like SS! Right now, I am more concerned about not so great performance of AS. And, Pond5 is a disaster for me this year. Fortunately, I am producing mostly still images.
I am exactly in your same position. AS has really cooled off and Pond 5 is dead for months plus Alamy.
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Your position might be representative of other artists from underdeveloped countries who find image uploading to SS still worthwhile. Taking that into perspective and the low quality of new images being uploaded, SS may gradually become a go-to outlet for acceptance and distribution of the art work from the third world countries. If SS gets sold and the new owner moves their offices from the Empire State building to somewhere in central Africa, that could further reduce SS expenses and improve their bottom line.
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Your position might be representative of other artists from underdeveloped countries who find image uploading to SS still worthwhile. Taking that into perspective and the low quality of new images being uploaded, SS may gradually become a go-to outlet for acceptance and distribution of the art work from the third world countries. If SS gets sold and the new owner moves their offices from the Empire State building to somewhere in central Africa, that could further reduce SS expenses and improve their bottom line.
Yuri did this as well to reduce his overhead costs.
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Well, only negative opinions are welcome here ...
So, I am not happy with a general condition of the microstock industry, especially, that I am making my full income here and I am living in US.
However, my total earnings from SS during June and July are much higher than before or the same time last year. It doesn't mean that I like SS! Right now, I am more concerned about not so great performance of AS. And, Pond5 is a disaster for me this year. Fortunately, I am producing mostly still images.
I have come to microstock at a bad time. But I plan to get up, since I usually get up, therefore, I will get as long as I breathe. I don't live on microstock economically today, but I do emotionally live on microstock, it seems to me a fascinating world.
This forum is sad, gray and dull, but I don't think it has an editorial line on SS negativity. It just doesn't exist for me. And lowering the commissions to 0.10 I think that they will not exist for any collaborator soon. But it is just my thought.
I thank you for your sincerity, and I would like you to continue commenting in the following months on your situation regarding SS, I am very interested in your situation with SS.
I beg you, keep commenting if there are changes in your situation in relation to SS, if it remains a great income, if your situation improves, if it worsens at any time.
Thank you.
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Your position might be representative of other artists from underdeveloped countries who find image uploading to SS still worthwhile. Taking that into perspective and the low quality of new images being uploaded, SS may gradually become a go-to outlet for acceptance and distribution of the art work from the third world countries. If SS gets sold and the new owner moves their offices from the Empire State building to somewhere in central Africa, that could further reduce SS expenses and improve their bottom line.
Yuri did this as well to reduce his overhead costs.
The guy was ahead of his time and bailed SS waaayyy before this all went down
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Your position might be representative of other artists from underdeveloped countries who find image uploading to SS still worthwhile. Taking that into perspective and the low quality of new images being uploaded, SS may gradually become a go-to outlet for acceptance and distribution of the art work from the third world countries. If SS gets sold and the new owner moves their offices from the Empire State building to somewhere in central Africa, that could further reduce SS expenses and improve their bottom line.
Yuri did this as well to reduce his overhead costs.
The guy was ahead of his time and bailed SS waaayyy before this all went down
+100
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I am guessing that the huge sellers are making more at SS with many lower priced subs offset by enough higher priced sales. My guess is that the break even from the new and old schemes is for sellers that hit level 5 sometime mid year. If you have content that sells more smaller sales schemes as opposed to the bigger subs packs level 4 contributors might break even too. I welcome real data from sellers that are still there. Although I would love to have seen 100% port disabling and SS walking things back I know that won't happen.
The other thing with this new scheme is it opens SS up to offering more and more lower priced sales because they can pass the low prices on now. Before there was a .25 to .38 floor now there is a .10 floor. Sadly that race to the bottom will effect everyone at SS or not. The reset in January and assuming 100% subs use for calculating payment is just a money grab.
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If you go back to the original post they are fair questions to me and no one has answered the second one yet. There's more bullying than trolling on this thread from what I can see. Excluding and forcing out people that don't confirm to an opinion is a sure way of denying reality.
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The second question is a nonsense, if you read it carefully. Are actions realistic? Did she mean are expected results of these actions realistic? Or did she mean are actions real? Actions are real, few millions of pictures are disabled and the number of weekly submitted pictures is halved.
On the other hand, I don't agree with the statement - I don't work for 10c. First of all, it is not 10c that you earn for an image, it is a download. An image can still make a lot more. Secondly, how can one work for 25c or 38c at the first place? It was already ridiculously low. The same way there is a lot of negativity about people still supporting SS by accepting to work for 10c download, there was a lot of negativity about all of us working for 25c-38c by the majority of photography community in the world in the previous years (macrostock photographers, fashion, automotive, real estate, wedding etc photographers). We made this happen. It is our fault. We made this monster called SS. And now we are blaming the ones that are still playing by the rules that we came up with.
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The second question is a nonsense, if you read it carefully. Are actions realistic? Did she mean are expected results of these actions realistic? Or did she mean are actions real? Actions are real, few millions of pictures are disabled and the number of weekly submitted pictures is halved.
On the other hand, I don't agree with the statement - I don't work for 10c. First of all, it is not 10c that you earn for an image, it is a download. An image can still make a lot more. Secondly, how can one work for 25c or 38c at the first place? It was already ridiculously low. The same way there is a lot of negativity about people still supporting SS by accepting to work for 10c download, there was a lot of negativity about all of us working for 25c-38c by the majority of photography community in the world in the previous years (macrostock photographers, fashion, automotive, real estate, wedding etc photographers). We made this happen. It is our fault. We made this monster called SS. And now we are blaming the ones that are still playing by the rules that we came up with.
I think we know what was meant unless you read it to try and punch holes in it.
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The second question is a nonsense, if you read it carefully. Are actions realistic? Did she mean are expected results of these actions realistic? Or did she mean are actions real? Actions are real, few millions of pictures are disabled and the number of weekly submitted pictures is halved.
On the other hand, I don't agree with the statement - I don't work for 10c. First of all, it is not 10c that you earn for an image, it is a download. An image can still make a lot more. Secondly, how can one work for 25c or 38c at the first place? It was already ridiculously low. The same way there is a lot of negativity about people still supporting SS by accepting to work for 10c download, there was a lot of negativity about all of us working for 25c-38c by the majority of photography community in the world in the previous years (macrostock photographers, fashion, automotive, real estate, wedding etc photographers). We made this happen. It is our fault. We made this monster called SS. And now we are blaming the ones that are still playing by the rules that we came up with.
I think we know what was meant unless you read it to try and punch holes in it.
Well, I don't know. Which of the two did she mean?
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"Will the actions achieve the goal." In the end I think it it comes down to whether you believe what is happening is an inevitable result of the business model and the way markets in a capitalist environment work or collective action can change that. My view is this is inevitable and the seeds were sown from day one. Its not as if SS are the first to reduce commissions they've just done it in a particularly brutal manner.
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"Will the actions achieve the goal." In the end I think it it comes down to whether you believe what is happening is an inevitable result of the business model and the way markets in a capitalist environment work or collective action can change that. My view is this is inevitable and the seeds were sown from day one. Its not as if SS are the first to reduce commissions they've just done it in a particularly brutal manner.
Thanks for the clarification. I agree with that, too.
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Typically I average about $.70 per download on SS. Since June I have been averaging between $.90 to $1.00 per download. My ODs have been selling over the $2.85 levels plus higher EDs (over $28). Yeah, the dimes on some of my subs suck but it's the final numbers that count. I've already made more this July than last year's July.
My RPD has also been pretty good in June and July, but they would have been better with the old earnings structure.
And what about when January comes, and royalties are reset to 15%?
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Your position might be representative of other artists from underdeveloped countries who find image uploading to SS still worthwhile. Taking that into perspective and the low quality of new images being uploaded, SS may gradually become a go-to outlet for acceptance and distribution of the art work from the third world countries. If SS gets sold and the new owner moves their offices from the Empire State building to somewhere in central Africa, that could further reduce SS expenses and improve their bottom line.
Oringer has made no secret of the fact that he sees SS as a marketplace for people in poor countries to sell images to people in rich countries. He stated as much years ago. I have to find his quote.
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I am living in a country with no social welfare benefits like unemployment money, food stamps or stimulus check like in America. The alternative would be begging in the streets.
I envy people who can quit SS and argue about their lost self-respect or wasted time, because they simply do not depend on the money from SS. In times of corona I do more than ever before.
I am self-reliant, I am self-employed, I am proud of me and I am getting the respect from my family and people around me. Ten US cents here might be more then 10 Dollars in rich countries. In my eyes protest against SS is as useless as anything. And I am wondering where this hate and ire comes from?
If people with provoking opinions are called TROLLs, I am one of them.
Your position might be representative of other artists from underdeveloped countries who find image uploading to SS still worthwhile. Taking that into perspective and the low quality of new images being uploaded, SS may gradually become a go-to outlet for acceptance and distribution of the art work from the third world countries. If SS gets sold and the new owner moves their offices from the Empire State building to somewhere in central Africa, that could further reduce SS expenses and improve their bottom line.
Oringer has made no secret of the fact that he sees SS as a marketplace for people in poor countries to sell images to people in rich countries. He stated as much years ago. I have to find his quote.
I'd be surprised if he or any other stock company wouldn't. People in poor countries have less cash to buy images and will work for less. No different from many industries such as clothing.
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Everyone SELLING photos needs the money they make; otherwise we’d all just give our photos away. Which is basically what you do at SS now.
stop speaking for everyone or for me, i dont need the money for the photos i am selling, i am financially covered in many ways, however, my earnings have fallen 90% since 2012 because of all the changes made by the agencies
and people clinging on to microstock should have a hard look in the mirror, because in the end its the 'laziest' form of photography. shoot, process, upload. but there is a lot more than photography just for stock. and if you shoot great stock photos, you should be able to get assignments, freelance, do workshops, become a photography teacher, find a proper employer, or set up shop, and earn money that way.
i have never in my life stayed with an employer that abused me, conned me, treated me unfairly, i'd find another job and left. never seen people take 5-10-15 years of abuse from an employer, stop complaining and take control of your own destiny. and dont give me its easier said than done, just f*cking do it.
i think its time to change my username
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and people clinging on to microstock should have a hard look in the mirror, because in the end its the 'laziest' form of photography. shoot, process, upload. but there is a lot more than photography just for stock. and if you shoot great stock photos, you should be able to get assignments, freelance, do workshops, become a photography teacher, find a proper employer, or set up shop, and earn money that way.
Yes, shooting for microstock is easy, but making living from it is not. It's a challenge which may be attractive for some people. Not everybody wants or can work directly with clients.
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“stop speaking for everyone or for me, i dont need the money for the photos i am selling”
LOL and yet you point out that your earnings have dropped 90%. If you don’t care, why would you even know that? Come on, admit it, you just wanted to show me up, as usual. You clearly do care. ;)
But I do agree with your next to last paragraph. I have always done the same. By the way, I deleted my images off of SS, did you?
So now all microstockers are lazy? LOL Stop speaking for me and all other microstockers. Some of us do/did all those other things you mentioned, you have no clue. You aren’t the only smart one here. ;)
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stop speaking for everyone or for me,...
.... and if you shoot great stock photos, you should be able to get assignments, freelance, do workshops, become a photography teacher, find a proper employer, or set up shop, and earn money that way.
...
that sounds a lot like a job! and not one that's 40 hr/wk (you were right when you started with 'dont speak for everyone', but you go right ahead and tell people what they should be doing!)
as a retiree i'm not interested in any of those options you list - my earnings pay for 1-3 foreign trips / yr (luckily, 110 wks in 4 countries from Dec - Mar but i dont see travel opening up til spring 2021 and more likely til late fall 2021)
i expect there are others with similar stories
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... i dont see travel opening up til spring 20231 ...
Sadly, it could be around then. :(
I agree with the rest of what you said, stock is a way for many of us to be 'economically active' fitting in among other commitments (in my case, sharing the care of my Mum), where any sort of regular job wouldn't be possible (I can get called at zero notice at any time, 40 miles away so can't make any sort of arrangement for anything). Others will have similar but different stories. I am aware that there are still people who work at micro full time (maybe fewer than e.g. five years ago).
Also, a lot can depend where you live. I've seen four or five photographers set up in my town over the last maybe 12 years, and others in other towns, and there just isn't the market interest, so all have failed*. The most recent was trying to adopt some techniques I'd seen on Creative Live to grow her business, but US city marketing methods don't really transfer to semi-rural Scotland!
*I see a new one is literally just opening since lockdown started to ease.
So indeed, Microstockphoto, stop lecturing everyone and realise we all have to paddle our own canoes and negotiate our own hazards.
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“stop speaking for everyone or for me, i dont need the money for the photos i am selling”
LOL and yet you point out that your earnings have dropped 90%. If you don’t care, why would you even know that? Come on, admit it, you just wanted to show me up, as usual. You clearly do care. ;)
But I do agree with your next to last paragraph. I have always done the same. By the way, I deleted my images off of SS, did you?
So now all microstockers are lazy? LOL Stop speaking for me and all other microstockers. Some of us do/did all those other things you mentioned, you have no clue. You aren’t the only smart one here. ;)
LOL aha LOL well my earnings dropped to a point that it was easy to calculate it was about 90% LOL :) ROFL and i said micrstock is the laziest form of photography, LOL i didnt say i said photographers were lazy :) LOL and i put lazy between quotes because its not really lazy, LOL i though that would be clear :) RTOFL LOL
and i am not speaking for anyone LOL ;))) LOL just sharing my opinion LOL just ignore me if you feel buthurt, LOL no hard feelings :)) LOL
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are you 12
LOL
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Two other people responded to you, but you’re just gonna keep on slammin me. :)
And if anyone is 12, it’s you. Butthurt? OMG you are so funny and hip. Good grief. ::)
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LOL :) LOL
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Well, only negative opinions are welcome here ...
So, I am not happy with a general condition of the microstock industry, especially, that I am making my full income here and I am living in US.
However, my total earnings from SS during June and July are much higher than before or the same time last year. It doesn't mean that I like SS! Right now, I am more concerned about not so great performance of AS. And, Pond5 is a disaster for me this year. Fortunately, I am producing mostly still images.
My SS earnings are lower, up to 60 or 70% now. I am not happy with all of Micro either, but the personal attacks and nagative attacks on anybody who doesn't go with the mob, is not right.
Two other people responded to you, but you’re just gonna keep on slammin me. :)
And if anyone is 12, it’s you. Butthurt? OMG you are so funny and hip. Good grief. ::)
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
You should know by now that this isn’t a PC-kinda forum. 😀
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
I agree. Please explain why you're upset with people who are fighting for a higher wage that YOU will also benefit from? I really don't get it. If nobody fights, the agencies will just keep dropping royalty rates, and eventually they'll be unsustainable for YOU, too. 10˘ is OK right now. How about a year from now, when they drop it to 1˘? Still OK? 0.1˘? OK then? When you're starving with 0.1˘ on each sale and Oringer and Pavlovsky are scooping up your money to pay for their extravagant lifestyles, still OK?
At what point does it become not OK for millionaires and billionaires to take your money to buy their pool tables, caviar, champagne and mansions? When does it become not OK for rich white men in The United States to take money from disabled women (I'm assuming you're a woman) in Africa?
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
I agree. Please explain why you're upset with people who are fighting for a higher wage that YOU will also benefit from? I really don't get it. If nobody fights, the agencies will just keep dropping royalty rates, and eventually they'll be unsustainable for YOU, too. 10˘ is OK right now. How about a year from now, when they drop it to 1˘? Still OK? 0.1˘? OK then? When you're starving with 0.1˘ on each sale and Oringer and Pavlovsky are scooping up your money to pay for their extravagant lifestyles, still OK?
At what point does it become not OK for millionaires and billionaires to take your money to buy their pool tables, caviar, champagne and mansions? When does it become not OK for rich white men in The United States to take money from disabled women (I'm assuming you're a woman) in Africa?
Maybe other people telling her whats good for her and being called a Troll for having a different opinion?
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
I agree. Please explain why you're upset with people who are fighting for a higher wage that YOU will also benefit from? I really don't get it. If nobody fights, the agencies will just keep dropping royalty rates, and eventually they'll be unsustainable for YOU, too. 10˘ is OK right now. How about a year from now, when they drop it to 1˘? Still OK? 0.1˘? OK then? When you're starving with 0.1˘ on each sale and Oringer and Pavlovsky are scooping up your money to pay for their extravagant lifestyles, still OK?
At what point does it become not OK for millionaires and billionaires to take your money to buy their pool tables, caviar, champagne and mansions? When does it become not OK for rich white men in The United States to take money from disabled women (I'm assuming you're a woman) in Africa?
Maybe other people telling her whats good for her and being called a Troll for having a different opinion?
She's not called a troll for having a different opinion. She's called a troll for consistently coming to this forum to call people names, tell them they're old and have no ideas, and to support Shutterstock no matter how badly they treat her and her fellow contributors.
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
I agree. Please explain why you're upset with people who are fighting for a higher wage that YOU will also benefit from? I really don't get it. If nobody fights, the agencies will just keep dropping royalty rates, and eventually they'll be unsustainable for YOU, too. 10˘ is OK right now. How about a year from now, when they drop it to 1˘? Still OK? 0.1˘? OK then? When you're starving with 0.1˘ on each sale and Oringer and Pavlovsky are scooping up your money to pay for their extravagant lifestyles, still OK?
At what point does it become not OK for millionaires and billionaires to take your money to buy their pool tables, caviar, champagne and mansions? When does it become not OK for rich white men in The United States to take money from disabled women (I'm assuming you're a woman) in Africa?
Maybe other people telling her whats good for her and being called a Troll for having a different opinion?
Yea, no. If you have followed her in previous threads you'd clearly see what a troll she/he/it is.
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
You should know by now that this isn’t a PC-kinda forum. 😀
not funny -- trump has made all sorts of rude, obscene, racist, sexist, etc behavior more frequent and it needs to be called out
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She's not called a troll for having a different opinion. She's called a troll for consistently coming to this forum to call people names, tell them they're old and have no ideas
ok,
, and to support Shutterstock no matter how badly they treat her and her fellow contributors.
doesnt she have the right to express her opinion?
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Yea, no. If you have followed her in previous threads you'd clearly see what a troll she/he/it is.
perhaps, but i haven't seen that here - the original statement was a legitimate one and she got slammed based on hypothetical subtext and judgment
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
You should know by now that this isn’t a PC-kinda forum. 😀
not funny -- trump has made all sorts of rude, obscene, racist, sexist, etc behavior more frequent and it needs to be called out
Is Trump on this forum? 🙄 You are bound and determined to compare me to Trump. LOL. I hate him as much as you do.
I think you also imagine that if you insult me enough, I’ll leave. Not happening. I am no more rude than you and a lot of others here. Give it up.
If you go to the top of this thread, you can see some trolling going on. Just to bring the conversation back around to the topic. Speaking of trolls, I gotta stop feeding you.
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Yea, no. If you have followed her in previous threads you'd clearly see what a troll she/he/it is.
perhaps, but i haven't seen that here - the original statement was a legitimate one and she got slammed based on hypothetical subtext and judgment
All you have to do is click on her name and look at her previous posts.
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Is Trump on this forum? 🙄 You are bound and determined to compare me to Trump. LOL. I hate him as much as you do.
I think you also imagine that if you insult me enough, I’ll leave. Not happening. I am no more rude than you and a lot of others here. Give it up....
i wasn't comparing you to trump & i'm sorry if you thought i was... and nothing i said was meant as an insult, much less trying to get you to leave (as if that were possible!?! )
a reporter declines to remove his mask & trump calls him PC - like 'liberal', or 'democrat', merely saying it is meant to discredit. freedom of speech isn't free - we have to constantly defend it and call out offenders -- the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.[/i
— Justice Louis Brandeis in the Whitney opinion
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Yea Josephine is a troll, crap disturber, agitator, rabble rouser, whatever you want to call it
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There’s a tiny club here on this forum. Always the same names coming up defending those who are against people taking action in any form even though deep down they know those people are right.
Some people can only go trough the day if they have made a few smartass remarks or provoked others in forums. In the end they bring nothing to the table though so to me they read as spam.
Don’t let these provokers get to you people, they know good and well who they are and what they do, just ignore them and move on, continue the conversation without them.
I used to let these people get to me but now as I’ve said I compare them with spam in my mailbox and we all know what to do with that ;)
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Selling illustrations is perfect for people who depend on a wheelchair, who have no voice, who cannot hear, who have mental problems and so on, it´s a big big chance for them and part of their daily therapy to be accepted by the society.
By the way, the term "underdeveloped country" is politically not correct.
I agree. Please explain why you're upset with people who are fighting for a higher wage that YOU will also benefit from? I really don't get it. If nobody fights, the agencies will just keep dropping royalty rates, and eventually they'll be unsustainable for YOU, too. 10˘ is OK right now. How about a year from now, when they drop it to 1˘? Still OK? 0.1˘? OK then? When you're starving with 0.1˘ on each sale and Oringer and Pavlovsky are scooping up your money to pay for their extravagant lifestyles, still OK?
At what point does it become not OK for millionaires and billionaires to take your money to buy their pool tables, caviar, champagne and mansions? When does it become not OK for rich white men in The United States to take money from disabled women (I'm assuming you're a woman) in Africa?
Maybe other people telling her whats good for her and being called a Troll for having a different opinion?
She's not called a troll for having a different opinion. She's called a troll for consistently coming to this forum to call people names, tell them they're old and have no ideas, and to support Shutterstock no matter how badly they treat her and her fellow contributors.
Well two out of three, I am old and I don't have any new interesting ideas? :o
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Yea, no. If you have followed her in previous threads you'd clearly see what a troll she/he/it is.
perhaps, but i haven't seen that here - the original statement was a legitimate one and she got slammed based on hypothetical subtext and judgment
Then you need to read more threads.
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... i dont see travel opening up til spring 20231 ...
Sadly, it could be around then. :(
I agree with the rest of what you said, stock is a way for many of us to be 'economically active' fitting in among other commitments (in my case, sharing the care of my Mum), where any sort of regular job wouldn't be possible (I can get called at zero notice at any time, 40 miles away so can't make any sort of arrangement for anything). Others will have similar but different stories. I am aware that there are still people who work at micro full time (maybe fewer than e.g. five years ago).
Also, a lot can depend where you live. I've seen four or five photographers set up in my town over the last maybe 12 years, and others in other towns, and there just isn't the market interest, so all have failed*. The most recent was trying to adopt some techniques I'd seen on Creative Live to grow her business, but US city marketing methods don't really transfer to semi-rural Scotland!
*I see a new one is literally just opening since lockdown started to ease.
So indeed, Microstockphoto, stop lecturing everyone and realise we all have to paddle our own canoes and negotiate our own hazards.
I see near me a photographer offering 2 hour studio portrait sessions for Ł25, about $30. A course I saw recently spoke about earning hundreds of dollars per session.... Not in anybody's wildest dreams round here.....
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Good Actor Headshots In My town are a huge profitable business here.And has been since the turn of the Century. Many.....many years ago I could easily Book 6 a day. Many still do. they become very boring though.
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Yea, no. If you have followed her in previous threads you'd clearly see what a troll she/he/it is.
perhaps, but i haven't seen that here - the original statement was a legitimate one and she got slammed based on hypothetical subtext and judgment
Then you need to read more threads.
why bother - you've obviously already condemned - maybe you should react to what's here rather than prejudging based on alleged past performance - another instance of majority suppression of non-conformists to the party line
either ignore or address the current topic
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Yea, no. If you have followed her in previous threads you'd clearly see what a troll she/he/it is.
perhaps, but i haven't seen that here - the original statement was a legitimate one and she got slammed based on hypothetical subtext and judgment
Then you need to read more threads.
why bother - you've obviously already condemned - maybe you should react to what's here rather than prejudging based on alleged past performance - another instance of majority suppression of non-conformists to the party line
either ignore or address the current topic
The topic was addressed by several people. Again, look at her posts in their totality to see what she’s really about. Just because you also see no point in protesting doesn’t mean she’s not a troll.
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Just because you also see no point in protesting doesn’t mean she’s not a troll.
Good point well made.
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What is the final goal of the protest?
How realistic are all these energy and time consuming actions?
It took me a couple minutes to disable my port. I save time not uploading there. I have no interest in harming shutterstock or protesting their policies. I plan to devote my energy to working with partners that offer me a better return on my time. I'm also concerned that, with easy price comparison through Google, I am cannabilizing my better-paying sales working with SS. Last month I made $19 on a sale on 20twenty. The same image would have netted me $.10 on SS. Takes a lot of sales to make up that difference in RPD, and the volume wasn't there for me on SS to make it worthwhile to stay.
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I'm also concerned that, with easy price comparison through Google, I am cannabilizing my better-paying sales working with SS. Last month I made $19 on a sale on 20twenty. The same image would have netted me $.10 on SS. Takes a lot of sales to make up that difference in RPD, and the volume wasn't there for me on SS to make it worthwhile to stay.
a frequent claim w little to back it up - first, how many buyers spend time analyzing google for lowest price - esp'ly when the difference is minor?
how many people have subs at multiple sites?
finally, there's no indication that one site cannabilizes another and more (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that different images sell on each site.
i buy & sell (non-photo) on ebay & amazon - based on my sales i can see that people don't compare prices - even on the same site, people don't look - else why would they pay $25 for a comic that's also listed at $10?
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I'm also concerned that, with easy price comparison through Google, I am cannabilizing my better-paying sales working with SS. Last month I made $19 on a sale on 20twenty. The same image would have netted me $.10 on SS. Takes a lot of sales to make up that difference in RPD, and the volume wasn't there for me on SS to make it worthwhile to stay.
a frequent claim w little to back it up - first, how many buyers spend time analyzing google for lowest price - esp'ly when the difference is minor?
how many people have subs at multiple sites?
finally, there's no indication that one site cannabilizes another and more (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that different images sell on each site.
i buy & sell (non-photo) on ebay & amazon - based on my sales i can see that people don't compare prices - even on the same site, people don't look - else why would they pay $25 for a comic that's also listed at $10?
Because your ad for that comic book is better written or has better photos? :)
I've never been able to find any evidence that price alone makes someone buy an image over another, or at a different site. We'd also need to assume that people who have an account at one site, actually care to price check at the rest. I'm not going to spend the time, when the prices between any agency, especially a sub plan, are pennies. I have some images that are on Alamy, full size and nowhere else, But a 5MP version is on SS. Does that matter?
However, I'm not going to compete with myself and sell on the cheap sites, just out of not wishing to contribute to price cutting and terrible bottom feeder sites. I don't see any buyers caring about that very much either. If it's not mine, they will find something that fits, wherever they look.
I really don't think there are many buyers, who are looking for images, by the artist. Maybe sometimes, some buyer finds an image and wants more like that. Fine, but most buyers, search for content and the look they want. They use the site they are familiar with and have an account. I still won't compete with myself by enabling the parasite agencies to sell my work for the lowest price. I won't feed the useless agencies that offer nothing different, other than price.
The last 1 cent download from iStock convinced me I was right to stop uploading there, almost two years ago. 8) How much does it hurt me to not get 1 or 2 cent downloads from Getty?
My same best selling ten images, sell best on every site they have been on. But true, different images, types and styles, do sell on different sites as well. I don't think the buyers care if they can't find those images on:
Canva
PhotoCase
Envato
EyeEm
Canstockphoto
Pixta
Indivstock
VectorStock
MostPhotos
MotionElements
ClipDealer
Zoonar
SignElements
ColourBox
FeaturePics
ScanStockPhoto
PantherMedia
500px
YayImages
Crestock
storyblocks
Cutcaster
Stockfresh
SuperImageMarket
ImageVortex
Clipcanvas
GLStock
PressFoto
Dissolve
DrawShop
PicFair
I know I don't care if I miss those sales.
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I'm also concerned that, with easy price comparison through Google, I am cannabilizing my better-paying sales working with SS. Last month I made $19 on a sale on 20twenty. The same image would have netted me $.10 on SS. Takes a lot of sales to make up that difference in RPD, and the volume wasn't there for me on SS to make it worthwhile to stay.
a frequent claim w little to back it up - first, how many buyers spend time analyzing google for lowest price - esp'ly when the difference is minor?
how many people have subs at multiple sites?
finally, there's no indication that one site cannabilizes another and more (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that different images sell on each site.
i buy & sell (non-photo) on ebay & amazon - based on my sales i can see that people don't compare prices - even on the same site, people don't look - else why would they pay $25 for a comic that's also listed at $10?
Buyers absolutely do compare prices. This is the main reason I dropped being exclusive at iStock years ago and removed most of my portfolio. I had buyers contacting me through my personal website asking for pricing for their client projects where their budgets were hundreds or thousands of dollars. Because of exclusivity I had to point them to my iStock portfolio where they'd save a ton of money and I'd lose a ton of money. So I dropped the crown but left my portfolio there.
Then buyers would contact me and I'd give them a quote. More than a few times they responded "what's the difference between your quote and the pricing for the same images on iStock that are way less". Answer was, there was no difference. So I pulled most of my portfolio so I was no longer competing against myself and I could set whatever pricing I could get.
Keep in mind many of these buyers are at large companies and are sourcing dozens or hundreds of images for large client projects. Clients always balk at pricing forcing the company to look for cheaper options by comparison shopping. Just because they only buy one image from you doesn't mean they aren't spending a ton of money on a bunch of images.
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I'm also concerned that, with easy price comparison through Google, I am cannabilizing my better-paying sales working with SS. Last month I made $19 on a sale on 20twenty. The same image would have netted me $.10 on SS. Takes a lot of sales to make up that difference in RPD, and the volume wasn't there for me on SS to make it worthwhile to stay.
a frequent claim w little to back it up - first, how many buyers spend time analyzing google for lowest price - esp'ly when the difference is minor?
how many people have subs at multiple sites?
finally, there's no indication that one site cannabilizes another and more (admittedly anecdotal) evidence that different images sell on each site.
i buy & sell (non-photo) on ebay & amazon - based on my sales i can see that people don't compare prices - even on the same site, people don't look - else why would they pay $25 for a comic that's also listed at $10?
Buyers absolutely do compare prices. This is the main reason I dropped being exclusive at iStock years ago and removed most of my portfolio. I had buyers contacting me through my personal website asking for pricing for their client projects where their budgets were hundreds or thousands of dollars. Because of exclusivity I had to point them to my iStock portfolio where they'd save a ton of money and I'd lose a ton of money. So I dropped the crown but left my portfolio there.
Then buyers would contact me and I'd give them a quote. More than a few times they responded "what's the difference between your quote and the pricing for the same images on iStock that are way less". Answer was, there was no difference. So I pulled most of my portfolio so I was no longer competing against myself and I could set whatever pricing I could get.
Keep in mind many of these buyers are at large companies and are sourcing dozens or hundreds of images for large client projects. Clients always balk at pricing forcing the company to look for cheaper options by comparison shopping. Just because they only buy one image from you doesn't mean they aren't spending a ton of money on a bunch of images.
Why did you ever sell on micro's in the first place?
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Buyers absolutely do compare prices. This is the main reason I dropped being exclusive at iStock years ago and removed most of my portfolio. I had buyers contacting me through my personal website asking for pricing for their client projects where their budgets were hundreds or thousands of dollars....
ok, when you're thinking of paying $$$ for an image it's worth your while to shop around. but i meant the larger audience who only know MS agencies (or have subs) where there's no incentive to look