No, its Absolutley dead. No increase. Just manipulated sales on some kind of wheel of miss fortune but the stops are getting less and less.

Only your experience counts? Some people often go against the trend on some sites good luck to them.

My sales there have dropped drastically the past couple months. Low earner for me now.

Well, I saw, over the past year, some revenue increase, making it the second highest in the grow of the low earners... Then, I got a careful look at the stats: they are now accepting more or less anything, so the RPI is actually extremely low, the worst of the platforms I'm on... When even 123RF is better, then it's maybe time to consider leaving the boat!

Why does RPI matter?

Quote from: Pauws99 on June 14, 2018, 11:35

Quote from: BalkanskiMacak on June 14, 2018, 09:26

Well, I saw, over the past year, some revenue increase, making it the second highest in the grow of the low earners... Then, I got a careful look at the stats: they are now accepting more or less anything, so the RPI is actually extremely low, the worst of the platforms I'm on... When even 123RF is better, then it's maybe time to consider leaving the boat!

Why does RPI matter?

because it's the main KPI, the one that determines how much I gained per image, and if is it worth for me to spend time uploading pictures on the platform

A better metric is RPI/year.

Quote from: BalkanskiMacak on June 14, 2018, 09:26

Well, I saw, over the past year, some revenue increase, making it the second highest in the grow of the low earners... Then, I got a careful look at the stats: they are now accepting more or less anything, so the RPI is actually extremely low, the worst of the platforms I'm on... When even 123RF is better, then it's maybe time to consider leaving the boat!

Why does RPI matter?

Because people like looking at statistics that are, in the end, mostly meaningless.

Yes it's nice to know that agency A makes a RPD of .## and agency B makes .## maybe annual RPD, but knowing has no effect on future performance it's just history. The data could spot a trend, if done by subject or styles or video vs photo Etc.

RPI, even less relevant or useful. Like people have pointed out for time after time, if one agency takes anything and I have 10,000 images and another is selective and I have 4,000 and another doesn't take Editorial so I have even less, how do I compare apples and oranges to the bananas? They aren't the same photos. Plus the one that's got only the best, should make more money because the useless filler has been removed.

The only number that matters to me is money in the bank. How much do I make from an agency per month and more valuable the long term, per year. There are daily ups and downs, months that are better or worse, but a year is a year, and that's the number that goes on the tax forms, which is nice to monitor.

Maybe some people think that watching months and days or making charts and graphs does something to help sales. Only if the data is used to predict what subjects, concepts, and styles sell better. For just numbers, that's a waste of time. You can look at your best seller lists on any agency and see what sells without making pie charts. RPI and RPD are virtually useless for building sales, they only reflect what's already happened.

Yes DT is dead for me, not a shock or unexpected. Keep in mind that DT knows they are dead and suing Google, claiming that the sales have fallen off terribly because of the search. DT knows that they are in trouble. Too bad, nice people, but business is more often just about business, not nice people we'd like to see making a good run at Microstock.

RPI would only be a valuable tool if all the pictures on all your agencies were identical, same type, or same subjects. SS takes subjects and editorial that Adobe doesn't. Adobe takes drawings and some subjects that SS won't. Alamy takes everything is the quality is right. DT might accept or refuse for subjects and styles. DP seems to have stopped reviewing or they do bulk rejections. IS has different rules and standards than the rest including what editorial they will and won't take. How can you get any sense out of that, when the pictures, videoor subjects that are accepted are not the same?

  Of course those are also almost always the agencies that make the most money, but RPI is very useful for helping to decide whether to continue with a new agency - they are only worth bothering with if they have a high RPI.

Do you really need to calculate RPI to know this instead of how many $$$s you have made? It goes back to the point those that use RPI don't seem to address...what if the agency only accepts 1 in a thousand images but sells it for $5 is that good? I just go by gut instinct but if you wanted to do it "properly" the measure should be how much of your time was spent uploading. If I can just ftp a thousand images I need less return that a site where I have to categorise and prioritise key words.

Unfortunately for me also. Sebalos I want to contact you do you have FB ?

What do you think of the FREE DOWNLOAD button under every image? You see it only when you are logged off. When you are logged on it reads DOWNLOAD. I would not have noticed it, but a customer emailed me and asked,  is this image no. Xxxxxx really free?
Maybe I missed something but did not see this free download issue mentioned here.

Humm... that's interesting.  I wonder what were getting paid for those "free downloads"?

Asked and answered on their own forum -you get paid for the free downloads as normal. It is their promotion at their expense.

Quote from: YadaYadaYada on June 16, 2018, 12:48

RPI would only be a valuable tool if all the pictures on all your agencies were identical, same type, or same subjects. SS takes subjects and editorial that Adobe doesn't. Adobe takes drawings and some subjects that SS won't. Alamy takes everything is the quality is right. DT might accept or refuse for subjects and styles. DP seems to have stopped reviewing or they do bulk rejections. IS has different rules and standards than the rest including what editorial they will and won't take. How can you get any sense out of that, when the pictures, videoor subjects that are accepted are not the same?

Calculating RPI on accepted pictures doesn't make sense.
If you use the number of images submitted (or produced) it does make sense.
It tells you how much revenue to expect per image of your style / subject on average.
So you have a rough idea how many images you need to have to achieve a given monthly income.
Of course it's not exact, and of course it changes over time.
But it gives you a rough idea what to expect.

That part about only uploaded images and RPI does make sense. Especially for the reason you pointed out "how much revenue to expect per image of your style / subject on average."

But the way most people use RPI is, how much for agency by agency and as someone else has pointed out, if you have different images on all the agencies, the number has no statistical basis. Roughly 4,000 of my images on SS are not anywhere else. Most of my illustrations on Adobe are not on SS. IS cleared out my Editorial because it was competing with Getty paid photographers. Alamy I hardly upload new and have thousands of old images, many are not anywhere else!

DT for me is dead because I don't care anymore, so I really can't blame them for that. No new upload, no old files sell, apathy is it's own reward? 

But RPI for me, is impossible and means nothing, because of the above. If someone was to model something like you suggest, upload the same everywhere, and count produced images that where worked and uploaded, that would be a really useful number.

There are too many variables in RPD or RPI to make the numbers accurate or important across agencies. Yes it can be interesting and general but statistically both are full of flaws and susceptible to high probability of error when using to compare agency to agency. With that, knowing my RPI at SS with twice as many images, that are almost 90% different from Adobe? Meaningless.

I'll admit if someone has 90% the same images at all their agencies, RPD and RPI would be very interesting, that and what sells best at each individual agency. Why upload flowers to one place if they don't sell, but then on another flowers make good downloads. Use time for making what sells... not wasting time on irrelevant statistics, charts and graphs. 

Guys, we're leaving. I've been in this business since 2007, and now I understand that no matter what I do and how much, they will not share profits with me. I now work only as a private independent graphic designer, and I advise everyone to do the same.

Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead SALE dead dead dead Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead sales Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead SALE Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead