MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Sites that no longer exist => SnapVillage.com => Topic started by: shiyali on November 30, 2008, 03:03
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SV showed some encouraging signs of life a few months back. For the last month or two it seems to be fading away. My sales are evaporating and in the midst of the Christmas season they show the same worn out images on the home page. Dried leaves on a cloth line? They must be dry by now. Has SV given up? Or are they just hibernating? What's your take?
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I feel the same way i was going to remove my account today but didn't for some reason
maybe tomorrow
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You right. Sales have been dropping down in the last 2/3 months.
Best,
diego
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I have given up on them. I sent Brian a PM here and never had a reply, I sent them an email and never had a reply. It looks like they couldn't care less about the site. My sales were never that good there but they have fallen away and were nearly all 30 cents subscriptions. They wont get any of my new images until they do something to improve the site.
It is strange because Corbis estimate that microstock could take 25% of the stock market. I wonder if they have given up on microstock or if they are going to buy one of the established sites?
Not much point in deleting my portfolio, as they might suddenly snap back in to life but it looks highly unlikely at the moment.
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I gave up as well, long ago, when I needed to upload images using HTTP, and I had o wait for images to be uploaded to edit them before page expires. I lost few batches because I didn't have patience to wait. The page expired and my images were lost somewhere. I have pretty slow connection. My upload is only 15 Kilobytes per second, and I have no time to wait for images to be uploaded
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I get maybe four sub sale per month, but almost fell over when I checked last week. I had one sale that netted $24.00. I thought I was having double vision!
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SV was turning into a good steady earner for me in the spring, then the sales dropped off and haven't recovered. What really makes me wonder is that they have been rotating between the same two images on the home page for a month. They're good pictures, but why can't they be bothered to make a change. I don't sign on that often, and I'm even getting bored with looking at them. It doesn't present well for the site.
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Same trend for me, SV started to pick up nicely but in the last month has almost vanished.
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Same here :(
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I'm out of subs, so maybe this explains while I only had one single sale there, back in February. But then I only have 47 umages online. Gave up when it was so slow and so unprofitable.
Regards,
Adelaide
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I uploaded several files, after months I had some downloads so I decided to continue the 5-by-5 upload and now nothing. Half of my portfolio is uploaded and I have no earnings.
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Well, I know nothing about their hibernating but they are definitely getting on my nerves. They refused almost all the photos in my last batch which was accepted both at SS and at DT and is selling well there. But the idiots at SV found "multiple problems". How dare they refuse anything at all? If it were a well-selling agency, I would not complain. But they hardly sell a picture a day for me! They should be happy anybody bothers to send them anything at all.
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They do that sometimes. Most of the time, they accept anything I send them, but once in a while, they refuse a whole batch, for all kinds of strange reasons.
I have more than 1,000 photos uploaded, and I'm out of subscriptions. The few sales I've had there have been ok, even a couple at 25 and 50 dollars, but now there hasn't been anything in over a month. If nothing happens within the end of this month, I'll probably stop uploading.
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I reached a payout in the summer. Haven't sold many afterwards. Nothing has happened in the last couple of months. They accept everything I sent over.
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I have 3 images online, and they removed most of my keywords and then mis-keyworded them. Hence little views. I had more but when they started, they didn't have any decent watermark on giant thumbs. So I deleted all but 3. Just like LO, it took their "programming team" months to come up with a watermark, and now the entire team seems to be concentrating on FTP. On YAYmicro, one single programmer had FTP working in a couple of weeks, debugging included.
That says it all.
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If they were serious, they would have FTP by now but perhaps more importantly, they would of stopped downsizing and made higher resolution images available. They said they were working on that months ago. It has taken far too long and it is hard to see why a lot of buyers would want to go there until they fix that.
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I have 3 images online, and they removed most of my keywords and then mis-keyworded them. Hence little views. I had more but when they started, they didn't have any decent watermark on giant thumbs. So I deleted all but 3. Just like LO, it took their "programming team" months to come up with a watermark, and now the entire team seems to be concentrating on FTP. On YAYmicro, one single programmer had FTP working in a couple of weeks, debugging included.
That says it all.
when they come up with these comments I think of the guy with gecko images, slick site one guy doing it and he admitted to learning as went.
Phil
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If they were serious, they would have FTP by now but perhaps more importantly, they would of stopped downsizing and made higher resolution images available. They said they were working on that months ago. It has taken far too long and it is hard to see why a lot of buyers would want to go there until they fix that.
my 2 major complaints too.
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There was 15% layoff of Corbis employees. Maybe most of the SV staff are out shooting images.
Peter
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0 sales for me in NOV
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0 sales for me in NOV
Wow, I'm quite surprised by that, leaf. I've been on SV since the beginning and haven't had a problem making the low $10 payout in 2008. My SV earnings are on par with Crestock.
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Wow, I'm quite surprised by that, leaf. I've been on SV since the beginning and haven't had a problem making the low $10 payout in 2008.
Can I ask have been you been regularly? I've stopped uploading there because of their terrible payment structure, the site contradicts itself as to when you should get payouts.
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Can I ask have been you been regularly? I've stopped uploading there because of their terrible payment structure, the site contradicts itself as to when you should get payouts.
Yes, I have been paid regularly through PayPal.
SV paid my commission almost two weeks early in Jan-08 and Feb-08, one week late in May-08 and Jun-08, two weeks late in Jun-08, and the rest more-or-less on time.
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0 sales for me in NOV
Hah. I beat leaf. I got one sub sale. :P
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Ha, just after I said they accepted everything, they had just refused two photos which were accepted by IS, FT, DT and everyone else, because they didn't meet their "basic requirements".
Is it possible that every site must refuse some submissions so as to maintain their ego?
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0 sales for me in NOV
Hah. I beat leaf. I got one sub sale. :P
I turned off my subs because that is all i was getting :)
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20 pics online since april or so with 1 $10 sale in Nov, so Ive uploaded another 10 pics :P They keep refusing ALL architecture shots despite they were all made from public accessible place, are all state owned medieval castles and here in czech doesnt exist anything like PR for 600 years old buildings... I wrote message to the editor but it seems they dont care...
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I stopped uploading to SV a few months back. Seems like a waste of time.
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0 sales for me in NOV
I turned off my subs because that is all i was getting :)
Well that kinda puts a knife in the "opting out of subs will increase your regular sales" theory, doesn't it?
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I stopped uploading to SV a few months back. Seems like a waste of time.
I think of SV and Crestock as equals: easy uploading is offset by minimal income. If you're at one you should be at the other. Together they might account for 3% of your income.
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I stopped uploading to SV a few months back. Seems like a waste of time.
I think of SV and Crestock as equals: easy uploading is offset by minimal income. If you're at one you should be at the other. Together they might account for 3% of your income.
3 % :o woo hoo ! whoopydink ;D
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A while back that started having an "Image of the day" which seems to have become "Image of the year". They hardly ever update their own blog anymore either. I dropped my entire portfolio (about 900) down to $5 (from a rather optimistic $25) some while back. Result -not a single sale. Total to date (since they launched) is about $3 in sub sales. I've had more than that on Istock after only a few weeks with around 50 or so files. I persevere because of the Corbis name -surely they are going to do something with it eventually. Final point, I wish they would change that horrible name (with its connotations of snap shots). CorbisMicro would get my vote! Regards, David
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3 % :o woo hoo ! whoopydink ;D
Yeah, I know, tell me about it.
On the other hand, if you give them enough time even the most insignificant bits can add up.
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Snapvillage? I almost forgot about the 200+ of my best images rotting there. Are they still in business? I deleted them from my bookmarks some time ago after 6 months of zero activity.
Hibernation? I think death is a more accurate description.
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I generally sold 5 -10 images a month. Now I have edited all of them to reject the subscription sales and placed $50 as a price.
Would be funny if I sold some. But in any case, it is worth the experiment.
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Snapvillage? I almost forgot about the 200+ of my best images rotting there. Are they still in business? I deleted them from my bookmarks some time ago after 6 months of zero activity.
Hibernation? I think death is a more accurate description.
Have closed my account - better to concentrate elsewhere.
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I generally sold 5 -10 images a month. Now I have edited all of them to reject the subscription sales and placed $50 as a price.
Would be funny if I sold some. But in any case, it is worth the experiment.
i sold several for 50,- in the beginning so don't be too surprised (granted they haven't been on other micros.)
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Well, 2 business days into December, and they still don't have November's royalty statement available.
I've never seen a site in which you have to wait until well into the next month to find out what your sales were the previous month. Ridiculous.
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I've been in the business world for over 45 years. Everything that I've seen and heard about this outfit says failure with a capital F. Months ago I predicted the demise of this site by the end of the year. All I've seen since strengthens that view.
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Well, 2 business days into December, and they still don't have November's royalty statement available.
I've never seen a site in which you have to wait until well into the next month to find out what your sales were the previous month. Ridiculous.
I don't know where you're looking, but my royalty statement is up-to-date. Always has been.
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Well, 2 business days into December, and they still don't have November's royalty statement available.
I've never seen a site in which you have to wait until well into the next month to find out what your sales were the previous month. Ridiculous.
I don't know where you're looking, but my royalty statement is up-to-date. Always has been.
I knew there was a thread I forgot about! Sorry ....
Well, I think I've figured out the problem. Ha! It's not updated unless you sell something, and I guess I just didn't have any sales in November. :-[ I was thrown off by the fact that it shows a balance under "Current month accrued royalty" when I looked at the end of November, but that must be my total account balance since last payment. It doesn't match my records, but who really cares? This site is dead.
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Snap site needs to add ftp or they're not getting any more of my images. The vector upload process is also very painful via html upload. Wake up guys - add ftp functionality or at least flash bulk upload and let's make some money. I uploaded like 15% of my port and that's it for now, at 5 at a time. What a joke.
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Months ago I predicted the demise of this site by the end of the year. All I've seen since strengthens that view.
I've predicted that a couple of months after they started, but I forgot to copyright my name craphamlet for them. First it took months to add a decent watermark, that's when I deleted most of my port there. Then they promised FTP a year ago. Sometimes you can smell Defeat very early. The worst move they made was re-keyword the shots. They left out most of my essential keywords and they added irrelevant ones, so I couldn't find my own shots back. I kept 3 there, now there is still one online to keep a foot in the house. I'd like to have an email for the funeral.
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the place reminds me of what's written on some people's tombstones, "Died at 30, burried at 60."
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the place reminds me of what's written on some people's tombstones, "Died at 30, burried at 60."
how about still-born? :'(
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I stand corrected: I predicted their demise by the end of '08. I now believe that they're hanging on hoping for federal bailout money. At least I think they're still in business although I have no proof of that.
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last sale for me was a sub Dec 13. :-\
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well went over and had a look (I stopped uploading in about july) and I've mad $7.80 this month, over double what I got last month and whole 0.3% of sales in a very quiet month LOL!
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well went over and had a look (I stopped uploading in about july) and I've mad $7.80 this month, over double what I got last month and whole 0.3% of sales in a very quiet month LOL!
I'm experiencing the reverse: Jan 09 is going to be my WME at SV.
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I have 40 nature photos I uploaded early 2008, opted out of subs, I had 2 sales June 08, which netted me $5, not enough even for the small payout, and nothing since. My port there is small but I am also not sure where the site is heading. It is painful uploading SV, one pic at a time. It is put on cold storage for now for me.
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Just checked and I have one $0.30 subs sale for January. I still can't quite believe how they have messed this up. Corbis is such a big name in the stock photography sector, how can they put up with snapvillage? The problems with the site are obvious and they have been informed about them. It wouldn't take a lot to fix them. I filled out a survey, sent them an email and PM'ed their rep here but haven't had any response.
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how about slugvillage graveyard :) ,
(only joking, but they really need some speed)
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No wonder nobody are buying there. All 6MP photos are reduced to under 2MP, not enough for an A4. Why buy that when you can get the same photo at full resolution elsewhere for the same price?
I had BME there in September, almost as good in October, and then nothing, nothing and nothing. Three consecutive months without a sale. For an agency that actually showed some positive development last summer, and with the backing of Corbis; that's rather sensational in my book. Tiny Scanstockphoto outsells them with a zillion to nil ::)
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Even Brian seems to have disappeared. He was the only good thing at SV.
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I stopped uploading there ages ago, their payout system is ridiculous, I'm still owed money, my account shows that everything I've sold there is still owing although I have had some payments, how are you meant to keep track of whats owed and whats been payed. Add to this one part of the site say's you'll be payed on a certain date and another part contradicts that with another explanation.
I am adament that they're not bothered about the site, I wouldn't be surprised to see it disappear.
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it's not hibernating... it's frozen solid like a VILLAGE hit by a cold SNAP ;D
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I started in July 08. No big expectations. Until december with about 300 files online, SV was my nr. 2 agency after SS.
Now DT is second and growing for me. Seems pictures there need some month to start to sell. But SV is still doing better for me than StockXpert, 123, FT and BS.
Most submission sales (also on the others)....but sales and some more sales than others of the big 6.
Yes, I take the time to upload them by 5 and to copy and paste the information to SV. I like the presentation of pictures on SV...they look good. (Much better than on some other agencies)
I do no "people" and - at least - believe in the pictures I upload...not to be "the top" or the "best" or "super-selling", but having possebilities to sell some or several times threw the next years. I do not upload masses. Not becomming rich or so. Just picking some grains.
Perhaps it's not the agency or the neat to be a "big" agency and a "big" seller. Perhaps it's more the expectations one have. My expectations are modest. And for me SV is not that bad at all. ;) ::)
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Even Brian seems to have disappeared. He was the only good thing at SV.
Aww shucks - thanks Maui! ;)
I'm still around, will be back on in full-force in the near future.
Best,
- Brian
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Stopped uploading, and stopped hoping for many sales.
Had a few decent months with a payout, then it dried up.
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You know how sometimes people exaggerate something and say, "Yeah, that place is a thousand times worse than this other place."
Well when it comes to SV, it's no exaggeration. I seriously earned close 1,000 times more money in January at SS and istock separately compared to SV.
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Snapvilliage is one the biggest disappointment of the industry. Everyone had great hopes when they started, and they have made a complete mess of the business.
Warning bells rang when the staff went on holiday to 'brainstorm'. Nothing came out of that, but I bet they had a good time. Just listening to experienced people in the industry would have saved a whole load of time and money, and maybe, in the long term, saved their jobs.
Brian must be embarrassed to read the comments here, and see how little regard we have for them.
I wonder if anybody from Corbis ever reads this forum.