Author Topic: How and why are earning decreasing at Fotolia (chart)? (Read 18462 times)

Dook · « **Reply #25 on:** April 18, 2014, 05:18 »

I said it before- I'm afraid they are giving higher ranked contirbutors bad search treatment. This is a theory, but based on the fact that my earnings started decreasing when I became Emerald.

sdeva · « **Reply #26 on:** April 18, 2014, 09:31 »

Problems besetting contributors may also have something to do with RPD. The lowered commissions in recent memory, the push to subscription sales, and the more recent endeavors such as Dollar club, are all cases in point.

It should be interesting to evaluate how much revenue decline comes from reduced downloads versus reduction in RPD.

But should one blame Fotolia alone! In a general manner of speaking, the downward slide in micro stock contributor revenue is spread across number of agencies - all desperately chasing clients with the belief that price discounting (under different names) will bring them more market share and greater success. In my opinion nothing could be further from the truth. All that seems to be getting accomplished (with great success) is an overall shift down in revenue and contributor share. If this trend continues, one can foresee the day when contributors will be left without incentive to upload, some agencies would close shop due lack of business, and a select (very) few would garner more market share through smarter strategies than rate dumping.

OM · « **Reply #27 on:** April 18, 2014, 15:56 »

Contrary to my previous post of 2 months ago, sales seem to be sliding again; not seriously but a little. FT has been devoting a fair bit of promotional effort to their instant collection over the past couple of months so that may be detracting from their efforts in the general RF area. But I have no real idea if that is the case.
On a positive note, uptake/dl's of newly uploaded work does seem to be more positive than SS at present.

HerMajesty · « **Reply #28 on:** April 25, 2014, 14:55 »

Quote from: sdeva on April 18, 2014, 09:31

Problems besetting contributors may also have something to do with RPD. The lowered commissions in recent memory, the push to subscription sales, and the more recent endeavors such as Dollar club, are all cases in point.

It should be interesting to evaluate how much revenue decline comes from reduced downloads versus reduction in RPD.

The green graph shows my monthly number of downloads and the red line is showing earnings. The peak for both values was more or less when I became 'gold'. So unfortunately, at least in my case, it's not just a matter of changing RPD. It's also not an industry wide problem since on Dreamstime or Shutterstock my sales are pretty steady. If it was just me I wouldn't say a thing, but so many people are complaining about this, there must be some explanation for the drop in revenue.

Sulio · « **Reply #29 on:** April 25, 2014, 15:45 »

Quote from: NitorPhoto on February 02, 2014, 08:23

My portfolio has over 24k images at FTL. I am still uploading new images every week but my income is decreasing since years now. While it is not the case with other agencies which are still be able to occasionally reach a BME.
I don't know what is the problem with Fotolia - any idea? My earnings are back to the level of mid 2008. That time I had 2-3k images online while now I have nearly 10 times more.

Anyway, there is a psychological level (a certain amount of monthly income) when my income falls below that I'll stop uploading to FTL for ever. I am very close to this. If the tendecy visible on the attached chart continues I will reach it this year.

Does anyone have an idea why is this?

My port is 15 times smaller than yours but I have similar pattern as you.
Seams that I earned much more money with 1/5 of my port size than today, grrrrrrrrrr

Elenathewise · « **Reply #30 on:** April 25, 2014, 19:03 »

I don't have a graph but I am pretty sure my earnings on FT look very similar to OP's.
My earnings are now less than 1/3 of what they used to be with less images in my portfolio. I was emerald long time ago (now sapphire with over 14K images) but I don't think it has anything to do with such dramatic drop in earnings. I think they just lost some market share at some point, that's it. Which they are trying to recapture it seems with their "dollar club" idea.

Maximilian · « **Reply #31 on:** April 25, 2014, 20:27 »

my sales look similar bad in the last few months. I will stay with fotolia. They hate my images (bad ranking of my images), but FT does not this much things i dont like..
IS: free images for personal blog;
depo:shotshop-sales; and many more bad things;
Shutt: Full Size for only 25cent.

and FT pays in €.

File Sold · « **Reply #32 on:** April 26, 2014, 00:06 »

I don't know if this is any relevant to this, but one of my best sellers was red hot for the first 6 months (~500 downloads) and then all of a sudden it dropped overnight almost to zero. Now it has like 50 downloads for 12 months.

I've seen this 6-month-doomswitch also with my other images on fotolia. For me Fotolia is a great earner, but when the overnight drop hits, it's really killing my hairline.

jarih · « **Reply #33 on:** June 01, 2014, 10:47 »

I just look my RPI on Fotolia, if year 2012 is output value 100%, then:

2012 100%
2013 87%
2014 38%

Fotolia is going fast down.. if this year is very bad.. what to do.. go back.. opt-in DPC.. just kidding, absolute not

I also notice that, I don't remember last time when was 7 day rank worse than overall rank. Now it's worse.

Maximilian · « **Reply #34 on:** June 01, 2014, 12:05 »

i thought uh very bad for you. so i had a look at mine. The same ..

And i doubled my portfolio in 2014 to close to 6000 images.

heywoody · « **Reply #35 on:** June 01, 2014, 15:49 »

Isn't 2012 around the time they cut commissions / prices - can't remember but that might be a factor for the OP. Otherwise, with 24K images, the relative increase in port size would be small compared to most where dropping sales would be masked a bit by having more product on sale.

File Sold · « **Reply #36 on:** August 14, 2014, 06:28 »

I'm having a deep dive also @ FT. Constantly uploading, but still going down. I assume that's happening because of their "6-month kill" that is killing my bestsellers. Now we are talking about files that have been downloaded 1000-2000 times a piece! First sales are consistent 10 dl's per day and then overnight it's hardly one per day.

Have anyone else seen that after six months of uploading a file it just disappears from the "Relevance"? I've seen that for few of my files. It is not as important to be a leader in "Downloads" that it's to be in "Relevance".

I think that cut down is way too harsh. I understand that fotolia wants to push new content in front of the buyers and yes, it's also good for new contributors, but if we look at it from the quality perspective then I think their "Relevance" isn't pushing the best ones. The ones that really has the best quality and sales potential.

I'm sure that fotolia (and us) is losing huge amounts of revenue with their out-of-date search. I can say this because when overnight-kill beats up my bestsellers then those views are heading to files that aren't even close to the quality I have. I'm not being selfish here. Even my ass can see that.

Mantis · « **Reply #37 on:** August 14, 2014, 07:57 »

Quote from: File Sold on August 14, 2014, 06:28

I'm having a deep dive also @ FT. Constantly uploading, but still going down. I assume that's happening because of their "6-month kill" that is killing my bestsellers. Now we are talking about files that have been downloaded 1000-2000 times a piece! First sales are consistent 10 dl's per day and then overnight it's hardly one per day.

Have anyone else seen that after six months of uploading a file it just disappears from the "Relevance"? I've seen that for few of my files. It is not as important to be a leader in "Downloads" that it's to be in "Relevance".

I think that cut down is way too harsh. I understand that fotolia wants to push new content in front of the buyers and yes, it's also good for new contributors, but if we look at it from the quality perspective then I think their "Relevance" isn't pushing the best ones. The ones that really has the best quality and sales potential.

I'm sure that fotolia (and us) is losing huge amounts of revenue with their out-of-date search. I can say this because when overnight-kill beats up my bestsellers then those views are heading to files that aren't even close to the quality I have. I'm not being selfish here. Even my ass can see that.

If you can afford it, avoid them like the plague. They are leading the destruction of micro stock.

EmberMike · « **Reply #38 on:** August 14, 2014, 10:31 »

I'm on pace for my worst month at FT in years. And I'm kind of ok with that. I'm seeing growth at places like Creative Market, so this kind of shift is a good thing. Up with the good companies, down with the bad ones. I like that trend.

File Sold · « **Reply #39 on:** August 14, 2014, 11:02 »

Yep that would be the correct move Mantis

With current curve it's zero monthly earnings before 2015

Quote from: EmberMike on August 14, 2014, 10:31

I'm on pace for my worst month at FT in years. And I'm kind of ok with that. I'm seeing growth at places like Creative Market, so this kind of shift is a good thing. Up with the good companies, down with the bad ones. I like that trend.

That sounds a very good direction indeed. I'm ok with Fotolia fading to opacity 0% and other companies gaining their place.

qwerty · « **Reply #40 on:** August 15, 2014, 17:00 »

dbvirago · « **Reply #41 on:** August 15, 2014, 17:46 »

My chart looks pretty much the same as the OP, except my peak was in '09, and it's been clawing backup up since it bottomed out in December

PeterChigmaroff · « **Reply #42 on:** August 15, 2014, 21:20 »

What got my goat, is a $1.35 sub for a video. I can say with a lot of certainty that I am not going to sell video for $1.35.

ijansempoi · « **Reply #43 on:** August 15, 2014, 23:01 »

FT is not doing well

Hobostocker · « **Reply #44 on:** August 15, 2014, 23:29 »

Quote from: gostwyck on February 05, 2014, 10:48

Grey1 banned already? That was quick!

and also LisaFX, hahaha

Hobostocker · « **Reply #45 on:** August 15, 2014, 23:30 »

guys, the market is very stable.

it's for contributors that there's a declining trend in sales due to oversupply, the agencies are selling fine.

solutions ? none apart doubling or tripling your portfolio.

OM · « **Reply #46 on:** August 16, 2014, 10:45 »

Quote from: File Sold on August 14, 2014, 06:28

I'm having a deep dive also @ FT. Constantly uploading, but still going down. I assume that's happening because of their "6-month kill" that is killing my bestsellers. Now we are talking about files that have been downloaded 1000-2000 times a piece! First sales are consistent 10 dl's per day and then overnight it's hardly one per day.

Have anyone else seen that after six months of uploading a file it just disappears from the "Relevance"? I've seen that for few of my files. It is not as important to be a leader in "Downloads" that it's to be in "Relevance".

I think that cut down is way too harsh. I understand that fotolia wants to push new content in front of the buyers and yes, it's also good for new contributors, but if we look at it from the quality perspective then I think their "Relevance" isn't pushing the best ones. The ones that really has the best quality and sales potential.

I'm sure that fotolia (and us) is losing huge amounts of revenue with their out-of-date search. I can say this because when overnight-kill beats up my bestsellers then those views are heading to files that aren't even close to the quality I have. I'm not being selfish here. Even my ass can see that.

That's exactly what happens at FT and has been going on for a few years now (the overnight kill-switch. Hero to zero within a day). Best sellers of mine do remain best sellers for longer than 6 months (about 12 months) but I've never had a best seller greater than 500. I wondered how long it would take for sales to drop after opting out of DPC and for me it looks like it's around 6 months. Could be due to summer slowdown but if sales don't improve by end September, I'll wait for payout and delete everything that sells/sold. They can have the rest forever!

Nikovsk · « **Reply #47 on:** August 16, 2014, 11:58 »

FT search is the most unstable of all. You can have a file on the top and if you upload another image of the same subject, the new image reaches the top without even selling and the top selling image goes to the second or third page. My new files sell greatly and the best sellers all of a sudden disappear and never sell again.

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Author Topic: How and why are earning decreasing at Fotolia (chart)? (Read 18462 times)

Dook

sdeva

OM

HerMajesty

Sulio

Elenathewise

Maximilian

File Sold

jarih

Maximilian

heywoody

File Sold

Mantis

EmberMike

File Sold

qwerty

dbvirago

PeterChigmaroff

ijansempoi

Hobostocker

Hobostocker

OM

Nikovsk

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