Author Topic: "Dreamstime Ups Collection of Free Images" (Read 24032 times)

elvinstar · « **Reply #50 on:** October 31, 2009, 23:28 »

I didn't mean that I'm getting more rejections, but that my overall acceptance ratio in the statistics has gone down from 77% to 76.3% even though I'm at 100% for October.

cathyslife · « **Reply #51 on:** November 01, 2009, 09:47 »

I just went over to the free section of DT and by my count, they have 14,360 free images for sale. I don't get the big push to add more.

edit: let me rephrase...I do get the push to add more...drawing in more buyers at no extra expense to the company is a great marketing concept. What I meant to say is that seems like a pretty big database of free images to me...if free images draw in buyers, wouldn't that be enough?

sharpshot · « **Reply #52 on:** November 01, 2009, 11:17 »

SXC has 393,797 images, so the DT free collection is still tiny in comparison. Perhaps that is why they are looking for more, after istock started linking to SXC?

Randy McKown · « **Reply #53 on:** November 02, 2009, 02:52 »

I hate it when agencies try to convince you that it's a good thing to add shots to the free section. I got the DT email that I had 20 shots from 3 years ago that had never sold .. I disabled them all. I don't care if they didn't sell on DT. They sell on other sites. They sure wouldn't sell anymore if I gave them away for free. Piss on the Free Pics trend. It's even more stupid than the subscription trend.
What's worse is when you hear people say .... oh I don't mind because I just do this for a fun hobby anyway. I don't care how much money I make ... If you want to join a business model designed to make money then do it to make money. If you want to just play around go join flickr.

iclick · « **Reply #54 on:** November 02, 2009, 04:17 »

Quote from: stockastic on October 30, 2009, 12:33

I'm coming to the conclusion that I should contribute to only a couple of microstocks and dump the rest, because I can't trust them and can't spend time monitoring all the changes they announce. They're rewriting contributor "agreements" every other week, whenever they come up with a new marketing gimmick or sign up a new partner site. My images are on God knows how many of these snaky "partner" sites already. I assume the partners don't actually get the image files, just the right to display thumbnails and resell them - but who knows. My images might even be offered free, if I overlook an email announcing the new rules.

Yes my views also.... the latest developments there could contribute as to why my Downloads have grinded to a halt there with DT now being my bottom earner, considering the six months tie-in of Images and now this suspect I willl not be in a hurry to uploade further and will concentrate on IS SS and Fotolia which are performing excellently for me

cathyslife · « **Reply #55 on:** November 02, 2009, 08:27 »

Quote

I'm coming to the conclusion that I should contribute to only a couple of microstocks and dump the rest, because I can't trust them and can't spend time monitoring all the changes they announce. They're rewriting contributor "agreements" every other week, whenever they come up with a new marketing gimmick or sign up a new partner site. My images are on God knows how many of these snaky "partner" sites already. I assume the partners don't actually get the image files, just the right to display thumbnails and resell them - but who knows. My images might even be offered free, if I overlook an email announcing the new rules.

I am rapidly coming to the same conclusion. I'm not sure I could make the distinction, though, between which companies are NOT rewriting contributor agreements every week.

elvinstar · « **Reply #56 on:** November 02, 2009, 09:21 »

Quote

I just do this for a fun hobby anyway. I don't care how much money I make ... If you want to join a business model designed to make money then do it to make money. If you want to just play around go join flickr.

I can't really agree with you there. I DO mind when DT tried to sneak their way into thousands of free images, but this is still a fun hobby for me. I enjoy my full-time job tremendously and have no plans to microstock for a living. The small amount of time and money that I invest in microstock pays off nicely for me and I have no desire to add expenses by trying to compete with the large-scale image mills out there.

With that being said, I would like to feel that the images that I contribute are a part of what continues to draw buyers to the sites. I feel that there is room at the microstock inn for people of all levels of participation.

If 76% (I think that is the number that I read somewhere) of contributors never reach a payout, that only helps the rest of us by providing more income to the agencies so that they don't lower our commissions even more!

gostwyck · « **Reply #57 on:** November 02, 2009, 10:07 »

Quote from: elvinstar on November 02, 2009, 09:21

If 76% (I think that is the number that I read somewhere) of contributors never reach a payout, that only helps the rest of us by providing more income to the agencies so that they don't lower our commissions even more!

That's one of those myths forever to be quoted. It's not true.

There are about 30K people on multimedia's Isock Contributor list and more than 50% of them already have more than 90 sales, which should be comfortably enough for a payout. Of the others some will clearly make payout at some point even if they haven't already. The real figure is probably more like 30% and even then their cumulative sales are so small as to make little difference to the profitability of an agency. Of the 15K people yet to make payout (say fewer than 90 sales) then the average will be 45 sales x 15K = 675K sales in total. That's the equivalent of about 1 week's sales at IS's current rate out of a history of 6-odd years. By the time the agency has paid the admin costs of reviewing, etc they probably lose money on 'contributors who never make payout'.

elvinstar · « **Reply #58 on:** November 15, 2009, 21:46 »

I was still wondering if anyone else noticed a drop in their OVERALL acceptance ratio at DT after disabling their old, non-selling images.

iclick · « **Reply #59 on:** November 28, 2009, 05:54 »

^ Sorry cannot help you there as I have stopped uploading because of the increase in free Images and a couple of other reasons, just to much for me considering the six month tie in of Images

Can say that my Sales are way down which I guess is not surprising with no new uploads. Old non sellers have been disabled

iclick · « **Reply #60 on:** November 28, 2009, 06:11 »

btw I say I have deleted old non selling Images, this was some time back after a couple of emails more or less saying that if I did nothing they (specified images) would go to the free section. Seem to remember I deleted a few oldies and since then have not received any further such emails

Just wondered is there any way of checking to see if any of my Images have been transferred to the free section unknowingly due to any possible mail issues? thanks