What Kind Of Friend You Are - Stock Photography Blog

What kind of friend you are?!

posted on 11th of july, 2012

Like all in life, we meet different kind of friends, those that are the friends we know in a moment or an occasion, by coincidence or friends of friends, other kind that we like to meet when it’s about fun & good moments, because we don’t have enough trust to share them more than that (We might call them friends of a drink)!
Some friends are from the heart, those who might drop honest tears of happiness or sadness for us! But never go further for some reason!
But the most important friends are those who are friends of the heart & all the rest! Those who might sacrifice for you or slap you if it’s needed to stop you doing wrong!
Those are the most precious ones that we should listen to them unconditionally & even with a blind trust…

No, I’m not teaching you any new thing maybe, but I’m trying to call your attention to a friend that is in the heart of so many here! A friend whom we knew in years and exchanged the good & weak moments with him!
A friend who always listened to us & we gave our congrats & thumbs down when it’s needed.

Dreamstime is my friend of the heart & all, so I consider myself with a privilege to give my congrats to them or to show my disagreement with them on what we might consider wrong moves! Should I slap you in the face to stop you Dreamstime?! Nah it’s not needed till now! HAHA

But I can assure you that I’m not happy to see you going in the wrong direction!
Yes the wrong direction, that is not in my simple opinion only! But all your friends that are screaming here & there, trying to make you listen!
Yes I know you can hear them in the social networks, message boards, phones, e-mails & blogs!
I won’t miss the occasion of expressing myself this time as many did because I’m your true friend if you don’t know or remember!
Dreamstime is going down & I hate that! Hate to see the business that many counts on going this way! We can save it still, nothing is lost yet!

Since April you have changed the royalties & created new levels, ignoring all the opinions & the attitudes of the buyers! Ignoring what happened to other agencies that had done the same! Ignoring the world crises that can’t be faced with higher prices! Ignoring the fact that many new agencies are getting in the market & some of them are on the right track!
Ignoring the fact that many have broke their exclusivity regardless the fact that you have the best exclusive royalties in the market!

WHY MY FRIEND?!?!

I still remember when you had a bad experience with the prints and you had to stop it! It was a great courage from you to stop it on the right time as it wasn’t worthy due to some troubles!

Why don’t you just stop now & think the way we think?! Yes, we, the friends that we know you even more than you know us!
Go back to your previous royalties & prices! It won’t make you look bad! But will make you look brave get stronger in the field! I’m sure it will even bring you more friends giving you their congrats & showing their support!

Go back before you lose more buyers that switched to other agencies!
Yes those small buyers that are counting the cost even more carefully now!
I’m sure that won’t be bad news for those buyers you rely on as well!

Many big groups of companies & enterprises are back to the consolidation strategy, after splitting their business into few companies for many years! In my humble opinion you are taking the opposite strategy, in the wrong timing to create a site for free images!

Web rings are no longer favorable in the internet market! But yeah strong presence on the search engines, advertising & being present on social networks is the way!

Dreamstime you are the only who can tell how profitable is to split into sites!

You are the only who can tell how profitable was it to give facebook profile pictures for free!
It’s okay if you can’t reply to me now, but I hope you think twice about the past few months!
Back to you my dear readers!

What kind of friends you consider Dreamstime?!
If Dreamstime is your friend of Heart & All, can you show your opinion to him?!

Wish you all the best, dreamstime, buyers & contributors!
Cheers!

Tags: best friends heart mistakes

Comments (31)

	Posted by Ziliyent on July 27, 2012 I recently met a guy here in the net. He seems very nice but in reality he is not. He lied to me and so to my good friend in our place.
	Posted by Mani33 on July 21, 2012 It's also a valid opinion! ;)
	Posted by Davidwatmough on July 21, 2012 Daren't say........ I just smile and try to get on with it. David
	Posted by Mani33 on July 21, 2012 What's your's David? :)
	Posted by Davidwatmough on July 21, 2012 Any other opinions on this subject?
	Posted by Martingraf on July 20, 2012 you are right - lets not get this personal ;)
	Posted by Luissantos84 on July 20, 2012 my own numbers talk a bit a different story anyway
	Posted by Mani33 on July 16, 2012 All the opinions are valid, but please let's not get them personal! Martingraf I'm a buyer in the first place, how you can get my numbers in that? In fact no sales would pay me what I had already spent on photos! Cheers!
	Posted by Martingraf on July 15, 2012 lol - that's exactly the wrong response mate - then we should look at the numbers of the person who was writing this from the beginning - AND Luis, I said I can't join with that opinion because I haven't got enough facts ???
	Posted by Luissantos84 on July 15, 2012 then I can`t really join you on that - I`m not your opinion - I might not have enough facts to say that DT is doing something wrong and my own numbers talk a bit a different story anyway basically your numbers ain´t enough to conclude anything, you are also in microstock for a short period of time
	Posted by Martingraf on July 14, 2012 then I can't really join you on that - I'm not your opinion - I might not have enough facts to say that DT is doing something wrong and my own numbers talk a bit a different story anyway
	Posted by Dmccale on July 14, 2012 Yep a friend indeed BUT....Not sure what all the changes are but my sales have dropped.I do know in the search now my NEW photos are about 14 pages back and I am exclusive.why were they accepted if they were not of good quality? Achilles wrote The algorithm changes are meant to showcase the most relevant work in the search engine. They are done regularly, because quality factors change over the months and we need to be concerned about the quality of the images we show to the customers..
	Posted by Mani33 on July 14, 2012 Thanks Martingraf! But that was the first step I did, now I thought it's time to get the right help from other friends to let our friend DT hear it from others & think twice!
	Posted by Titania1980 on July 14, 2012 Really? do you earn less for having referreds?? how can it be possible??
	Posted by Martingraf on July 13, 2012 nice written - only issue I would have as a friend is, that I expect from a friend to express his criticism directly and only to me
	Posted by Wildmac on July 13, 2012 If I'm reading that right Luissantos84 you earn less royalties if you refer someone? How can that be right?
	Posted by Luissantos84 on July 12, 2012 I believe all contributors should take a look at this: REAL royalties paid by agencies
	Posted by Mani33 on July 12, 2012 When you have things in hands that you can't reveal and statistics, you will sound always more convincing Serban! Summer comes every year, so if we have a low season means it should be almost the same more or less in this time of the year! But in fact this Summer seems a non working season for some contributors! Yeah it seems that algorithm changes is putting down many contributors here! UNFAIR! :(
	Posted by Luissantos84 on July 12, 2012 May 58 $68.73 (BME), June 30 $35.57, July 7 $7.80
	Posted by Achilles on July 12, 2012 As I said, I hope to be able to share more light on this at a later date. At this time there is no evidence that the price increase chased the buyers away as you mentioned, but in fact that it helped. I can tell you that there are price tests done all the time and that we even have some in works. These are not new facts as you saw in the past years we're permanently trying to improve and stay creative. The algorithm changes are meant to showcase the most relevant work in the search engine. They are done regularly, because quality factors change over the months and we need to be concerned about the quality of the images we show to the customers.
	Posted by Mani33 on July 12, 2012 Thank you all for your support... Serban, of course I talk without having access on site statistics as a normal member of DT, but that doesn't mean we don't see the impact on the business that we share! Look at the numbers we all access... Sales & Revenues… No need to link the complaints made here on the message board & blogs! This change which affected contributors, some in a positive way and others in a negative way is unclear for me at least! Why it was done if I may ask?! I prefer not to jump into conclusions regarding this…! I think not all the buyers would complaint, but most will react without giving you any explanation… You lost many small & medium buyers, I can put my hands in fire for this! One more time I’m not here nagging to defame Dreamstime, I’m looking forward for the past days to come back & wish DT all the best! Cheers!
	Posted by Titania1980 on July 12, 2012 Great blog Maen!
	Posted by Achilles on July 12, 2012 Maen you make some assumptions without having access to site's overall statistics. There was negative feedback for some changes we made (such as removing weekly subs) but customers quickly found a different Dreamstime plan to suit their needs. There was no negative feedback to the other price changes that we made. Then there were algorithm changes who affected contributors, some in a positive way, others in a negative way. Our goal was to show the most relevant images while keeping things fair for as many as possible. There are tons of things happening and a lot of work being done in the back-end, including price testing. As you saw, we just updated the subscription plans. It's not a turn of the button and it takes a lot of efforts and sleepless nights to come up with the best product for everyone. I'm sorry of not being able to share more specifics, maybe some day that will be possible. For now, just remember that we work hard and keep working on taking the agency a step further. I...(More)
	Posted by FabioConcetta on July 12, 2012 Amazing blog Maen, congratulations!
	Posted by Georgeskyrillos on July 12, 2012 True, hope we get back our real DT.
	Posted by Littledesire on July 11, 2012 Really nice said, thank you Maen! I miss the good old times with DT ...
	Posted by Mani33 on July 11, 2012 Thank you Eliane & Marilyn! :)
	Posted by Marilyngould on July 11, 2012 Thank you Maen, well said.
	Posted by Elianehaykal on July 11, 2012 Well said, I'm sure many others will voice their concern here.
	Posted by Mani33 on July 11, 2012 Thanks Luis! :)