Am I the only one to have the exact same Sales/Revenue curves as Vonkara ?
Not only similar curves. The EXACT same numbers, month after month.
How is that possible  

[EDIT] False alarm. See how it is possible in Skvoor's post below

It's SUPER DEAD

I'm not sure I even want to think about what this must mean.

I'm not sure I want either...   

Vonkara links graph image directly from Dreamstime web.
So everybody who is logged in Dreamstime see his graph..
Try to logout from Dreamstime and you cannot see Vonkara's graph..

Am I the only one to have the exact same Sales/Revenue curves as Vonkara ?
Not only similar curves. The EXACT same numbers, month after month.
How is that possible  

Especially since Vonkara is exclusive on iStock.  

Update: you've got it.  I always liked Vonkara's sense of humor.
Now let's have a look what your numbers look like on SS. Nothing is secret here...

... In my first few years (2006-2007 for example) microstock felt like a license to print money!  Seemed like nearly every new series would take off like wildfire.  It was very encouraging and made selling on micros lots of fun.

Yep, that's how I felt. Well it was clear that these good times couldn't last forever but such a dramatic development was beyond my imagination

Now watching sales come in on new series is like watching paint dry.  If the images sell at all it is in little dribs and drabs.  Nothing to give the thrill of accomplishment.  It really has become just a job, and a fairly stressful one at that.

Not just that. Remember how our images looked like in 2005 or 2006? Don't you agree that our skills have improved (somewhat )? I would say so.
These days there are a number of Microstockers that produce high quality images that could be found on Macro agencies.

Additionally, why even keep shooting lifestyle with 3 to 6 models in one frame if there are now 50+ photographers doing the same thing. Like Yuri or Sean who early realized that "the more, the merrier" (and "the more in my pocket" ) were having a blast being pioneers in shooting many models at the same time.

Most of the Microstockers simply where overwhelmed with that (now, it was even more important to have a good location, MUAs, assistants, find 3-6 actually good looking and professional models). Now I'm not too sure if these shots are still taking off as they used to 3 years ago. Maybe that concept was like printing money for a while but of course the competition will jump on to the train and steal your share.

I feel like I became a guerrilla contributor, trying to bypass high-in-demand concepts simply because they were out of my budget or capabilities (which also reduces the fun factor).  

Well anywho, the market is not dead (yet) so we still got a little time left.

I wonder if part of this is that nobody has really given us a huge raise or bump in a while that wasn't offset by some kind of royalty reduction. IS exclusives got their nice little bump, and I was hoping to see SS react to it. But so far, they haven't blinked.

Hmm, I don't totally agree. Although I don't turn away more money, but I wonder how the agencies could afford to increase royalties for their contributors if their sales are moving sideways. What I mean: Only because of raises in the past I could maintain my income from 3 years ago. If the agencies wouldn't have raised commissions I would be working some 9 to 5 job somewhere by now.

However, I don't believe most agencies grow at a rate like IS. Maybe SS has achieved to get more customers but to me it appears that most other agencies still sell about the same amount of images and the sales are distributed over a bigger archive so every contributor inevitably ends up with fewer sales as the selection is much bigger.

If there is a raise though I'll take it.

Maybe SS should consider just giving a raise to those of us who support them by NOT contributing to TS.

I'm on board with that idea, too!

I have an interesting chart. I disabled files in anticipation of exclusivity at IS but now am enabling them again. But I see sales and revenue are down from March. It looks like the files I started enabling may have given my sales a jump.

It's DT's prerogative to accept or refuse any file for any reason.

They, we and the buyers may all have different opinions about that.

DT as the middle man SHOULD know best what's good for contributors AND buyers (and therefore for themselves) by accepting and refusing certain images.

Now if we analyze DT's behaviour in terms of acceptance criteria lately (as far as I know of them) it appears that they will not allow series (for whatever reasons) or they are running out of storage space.

To me it makes no sense whatsoever to refuse series (I'm not talking about a model in the same pose looking to the right in one image and looking to the left in another image...).  They act like Crestock or a Macro agency who pick the top of the top and everything else goes. This may be a short term success for DT filling their archive with only superior (cough) shots but in the long run they will upset contributors because of the high rejection rates.

On a side note: Assuming that Yuri and Co. stopped uploading because DT doesn't accept series anymore, in the long run it also leads to a flood of mediocre images (that are not series).

So yeah, you can say image factories (who also submit series) are intentionally driven away from the site while the thousands of hobby-photographers get all their stuff accepted because they don't even produce series (in most cases).

I really believe they are making a big mistake.

Quote from: click_click on May 30, 2010, 09:14

To me it makes no sense whatsoever to refuse series (I'm not talking about a model in the same pose looking to the right in one image and looking to the left in another image...).  They act like Crestock or a Macro agency who pick the top of the top and everything else goes. This may be a short term success for DT filling their archive with only superior (cough) shots but in the long run they will upset contributors because of the high rejection rates.

On a side note: Assuming that Yuri and Co. stopped uploading because DT doesn't accept series anymore, in the long run it also leads to a flood of mediocre images (that are not series).

So yeah, you can say image factories (who also submit series) are intentionally driven away from the site while the thousands of hobby-photographers get all their stuff accepted because they don't even produce series (in most cases).

I really believe they are making a big mistake.

Once again, Click, I think you have stated the issue perfectly.  Or at least I agree 100%

Just to add that there is an extra disincentive for folks to upload there if they are getting a lot of series rejections - the search engine ranks you by acceptance rate, so uploading a series and having much of it rejected will lead to a drop in sales.

I am certainly confused about how to proceed when uploading to DT.  I have been getting series rejections lately like everybody else.  I try to not upload images that are "too similar" to others from the series, but in order to make photography pay at the microstock level you have to try and get as many usable different images from each model and setup as you can.  Otherwise it is not cost effective to bother with expensive and time-consuming shoots involving props, models, locations, etc.   

It does seem like continuing in this direction will ultimately yield a collection full of grab shots (flowers, ducks, buildings, landscapes) from hobbyists and fewer high-production-value lifestyle shots from the pros.   

You are 100% right. Both of you.

Look at this:
In May, I submitted 153 files to DT. They accept 13 and reject 140, all for similarity.
Okay, there is some similarity between some of the files and they got accepted just a month ago. So this will lead to a drop in sales for sure.

But now just this:
 Reason: - Too many photos/illustrations on the same subject or from the same series. Your submission should not duplicate content already in your portfolio or content which you plan to upload separately in the future (ie. collages based on your images). Please be more selective and choose only the best shots or illustrations. Avoid submitting simple variations on the same subject or duplicating content already in your portfolio (including from collages). You can create sets of similars (several shots included within the same image). That will help the file sell better and generate higher royalties via our level-based system.

If this is their strategy, I will also stop uploading.  They have cut commissions and new images take a long time to reach the higher levels, there is no way I would upload a series in one file when other sites sell them separately.

Any images not sold for four years on DT are deleted

"This is an automated notification. Your portfolio includes images that have been online for more than 4 years with no downloads up to the present. In order to keep up with the current standards we believe they should be removed from our commercial database, allowing fresh content to be more visible.

The following action options are available for you to decide:

- donate the image to the free section (default action) which can provide significant portfolio exposure and increase your sales; images can be disabled at any time later.
- re-keyword the image via keymasters ($0.40/image); choose this option only if you strongly believe your image has sale potential.
- disable the image; this is permanent deletion of your image and should be used as a last resort.

In order to review the images and take the desired action, please access the link below.
If no action is taken, the default one is automatically selected."

Good question. And I don't know why they all emphasize the quantity so much instead of the quality.

And I self-culled my images when I was going to go exclusive. I disabled all the images with 0 sales first (the older ones). And I refuse to let them go to the free section, so they are going to stay disabled.

Why others don't do the same, well, I can't really answer that.

I guess you guys see your own graph... That's hilarious