Author Topic: Ext lic, you sell many? what makes them ? (Read 5087 times)

Squat · « **on:** July 02, 2009, 16:39 »

As a newbie to Fotolia, earlier this year, I was very encouraged when my earning doubled with one single dl . It was on my fourth month and with a really tiny portfolio . I got an Ext Lic. and my commission was something like 6 dollars.
For a small portfolio and a new contributor it was nice to see my commission total
double in one day.
My question to all you here is twofold:
i) in your longer time with Fotolia and others, do you sell many Ext Lic?
ii) do you think certain images have more potential of getting Ext Lic
than others?
iii) if you say yes to (ii), would you say it pays off if we just try to make images that
do better in getting Ext Lic.

(iii) might sound naive to some of you experts, so bear with me. I am here to look for ideas to improve my portfolio which I think personally has improved a lot for someone who is only a bit over one year old in micro stock. and just half year with fotolia.

Cheers in advance for your input.

madelaide · « **Reply #1 on:** July 02, 2009, 16:48 »

FT is the place where I sold more ELs, though none lately. I haven't however bothered studying what sells best, what prices - I have always set them for the maximum price in my level.

a.k.a.-tom · « **Reply #2 on:** July 02, 2009, 16:53 »

The bulk of my EL are with SS..
As to the what and why? I've seen no rhyme or reason. Who knows why people buy what they do. I dont know how many times I've sat and wondered about some of my stuff... "What in the world will someone use that pic for?" In fact, I'm often surprised that they even get accepted... but, they do and... they sell.

who knows?

=tom

Pixart · « **Reply #3 on:** July 02, 2009, 16:58 »

Most of my ELs are with SS and IS, not so much at FT - and I haven't had many at all there since I could raise the price a couple years ago.

One thing I've noticed lately is that many of my EL's are for such unremarkable photos. Sure, I have popular photos that get EL's over and over and over, but I wouldn't even submit some of the photos that I've had recent ELs with today.

sharpshot · « **Reply #4 on:** July 02, 2009, 17:26 »

SS and FT have more EL's for me than the other sites. I had one with cutcaster last month and that took me past the payout level. I think some of the sites should sell more and they are doing something wrong, perhaps not making it as clear when an EL is required?

I don't know what makes an image get an EL. Sometimes it is a bland photo that hasn't sold much and sometimes it is one of my best sellers. I get more as my portfolio grows and I spread it out on different sites.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #5 on:** July 02, 2009, 18:17 »

EL's on Fotolia are fairly rare for me.

I get most of mine on SS followed by IS although they have picked up on DT lately too. Fot is pretty far down the list.

Oh, rest of your question... I don't know how you could really make images specifically with EL in mind. It's such a gamble which ones will get EL's. No pattern I can see.

goldenangel · « **Reply #6 on:** July 02, 2009, 20:12 »

I just had one today. It is hard to predict what image will get an EL. I have one image on FT with two ELs and it's an image taken with a point and shoot camera before I even started with stock photography.
I think that ELs on FT should be more common as they are much cheaper than on other sites.

fotografer · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2009, 00:20 »

I average one of two a month at FT. The good thing there is that as you go throught the ranks you can increase the price so I now get about 76$ for each EL there. Like most people I get the most at SS followed by IS, Fot, and then dreams. I got one twice from 123 but don't remember ever getting one from StockXpert or bigstock. They are completely random and you can go a month with out getting one and then suddenly get them on multiple sites. The type of picture that gets them also seems completely random to me although my best seller for normal dls at ss is also my bestseller for ELs there.

Squat · « **Reply #8 on:** July 03, 2009, 15:51 »

Cheers all for your input. It's good to know that ext lic with Fotolia is not just once in a blue moon situation. I hope more with come for me.
fotografer, or anyone with more experience in Fotolia, additional question for you all:
As a newbie I notice that going exclusive image with Fotolia does not give you any benefit viz: more money. You have to be at the even higher level to make exclusive images worth the exclusiveness.
For this , I don't understand why I should want to make any of my images exclusive with Fotolia. At least, not until I reach a higher level to get something better. Did I read it wrongly?

PixelBytes · « **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2009, 16:01 »

Quote from: tan510jomast on July 03, 2009, 15:51

Cheers all for your input. It's good to know that ext lic with Fotolia is not just once in a blue moon situation. I hope more with come for me.
fotografer, or anyone with more experience in Fotolia, additional question for you all:
As a newbie I notice that going exclusive image with Fotolia does not give you any benefit viz: more money. You have to be at the even higher level to make exclusive images worth the exclusiveness.
For this , I don't understand why I should want to make any of my images exclusive with Fotolia. At least, not until I reach a higher level to get something better. Did I read it wrongly?

No real benefit I can see to having exclusive images at Fotolia anymore.

They used to give you more $ and let you set your price for exclusive images, but now you have to be 100% exclusive artist to do that. So no longer any point to give Fotolia exclusive images...

Squat · « **Reply #10 on:** July 03, 2009, 16:14 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on July 03, 2009, 16:01

Quote from: tan510jomast on July 03, 2009, 15:51
Cheers all for your input. It's good to know that ext lic with Fotolia is not just once in a blue moon situation. I hope more with come for me.
fotografer, or anyone with more experience in Fotolia, additional question for you all:
As a newbie I notice that going exclusive image with Fotolia does not give you any benefit viz: more money. You have to be at the even higher level to make exclusive images worth the exclusiveness.
For this , I don't understand why I should want to make any of my images exclusive with Fotolia. At least, not until I reach a higher level to get something better. Did I read it wrongly?
No real benefit I can see to having exclusive images at Fotolia anymore.

They used to give you more $ and let you set your price for exclusive images, but now you have to be 100% exclusive artist to do that. So no longer any point to give Fotolia exclusive images...

o' well, too bad. H'ever, maybe with this new thing at IStock with exclusives, Fotolia might think of something good too. Afterall, they just hired 2 ex-IStock CEOs . Who knows, we might see some new ideas from Fotolia too. Cheers again PixelBytes for the quick response.

fotografer · « **Reply #11 on:** July 04, 2009, 00:03 »

Even at higher level i think that there is more money to be made by having an image at multiple sites rather than exclusive to one. The only exception would be if after being uploaded for a year or so I noticed that a particular image sold well at Fotolia and not anywhere else.

Quote from: tan510jomast on July 03, 2009, 15:51

fotografer, or anyone with more experience in Fotolia, additional question for you all:
As a newbie I notice that going exclusive image with Fotolia does not give you any benefit viz: more money. You have to be at the even higher level to make exclusive images worth the exclusiveness.

madelaide · « **Reply #12 on:** July 31, 2009, 18:41 »

I have just turned silver at FT and asked to have my ELs set to US$75 (mas would be $100). Am I being conservative? I haven't had any EL latelym despite frequent regular sales (many subs as usual, but DT is the worst on subs this month), so I was unsure about setting prices too high.