Post your success stories

[erazz]

Does anyone have any success stories to share?  Right now from what i've been seeing from the forums is mainly just a lot of frustration, whether it be technical issues (which Mat has to go and fix once you finally ask about it), vague rejection reasons, or confusing payouts....typical advertisement of you get 33% of the sales (Every time someone purchases your content, you get a 33% commission for photos and vector art and a 35% commission for videos based on the price of the image.), until you have to have Mat, (the only moderator for Adobe apparently) explain that unless you sell 100 images, you actually only get .25 (2.5%, not quite 33%) out of the 9.99 sale, or something along those lines.   When I first looked into it I assumed Adobe would be a professional operation (I wont even go into the mind numbing Chat conversion I had trying to answer what was a very simple question), but I'm just not seeing it right now.  I'd love to hear some stories from actual contributors, transparency is key when conducting business, and there just doesnt seem to be a whole lot of it here.  

[MatHayward · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the great questions and for sharing your concerns.

This forum is brand new as is the contributor portal so most visitors at this point are new to contributing at Adobe Stock. There are other forums out there with more experienced contributors that can share personal success stories as well as pain points that you may want to check out for the information you are looking for.

I understand you were not looking to hear from me again but I do feel compelled to share with you that first and foremost I am a photographer. My Adobe Stock portfolio can be seen here: Mat Hayward | Adobe Stock

and my personal web site is here: Home - Seattle Photographer Mat Hayward

The reason I share that with you is to illustrate the fact that I am passionate about ensuring photographers are successful here and they (we) are treated fairly. I do understand your concerns and I can speak from experience that with hard work and commitment, you can earn real income. I know it is challenging at best to get started and it requires patience and hard work. I had been contributing at Fotolia for around 10 years prior to the Adobe acquisition and I'm as passionate about it as I ever was. Long before I was an employee I was an active member and moderator at the Fotolia forum because it was something I felt strongly compelled to be a part of.

If you have any specific questions about my personal journey as a photographer and how I found success contributing to stock I am perfectly willing to take off my Adobe hat and put my photographers hat on to answer what I can for you.

Kind regards,

Mat Hayward

[erazz]

Well I guess I will post my success story, if you can call it that, as I have now sold 2 pictures.  its not much, $.89, but it is $.89 more then is making before.  However, I still really don't understand the royalties in the payout.   one was for $.71 and the other $.18, but the invoicing gives you no info.  It would be nice to know what the licensing for the picture was.  Not what it's going to be used for, but was 1 purchased, 10, etc. 

[MatHayward]

Thanks for the post. Be sure to submit a tax form as based on the commissions you listed it sounds like you are paying maximum tax withholding right now.

Cheers!

Mat

[erazz]

Will that change this payouts or has tax already been taken?  Also, how does that work at the end of the year if you haven't hit the $50 minimum payout?

[MatHayward]

If the tax has already been withheld it does not get added back into your account after your tax form is submitted. You will find a record of the withholding in your 1099 form at the end of the year.
You will receive a 1099 even if you did not cash out your payment. I believe the minimum is $10.

regards,

Mat Hayward

[erazz]

Ok, I went ahead and filled out the form.   That is also where the invoice is lacking, would be nice to show what taxes have been deducted, or is that in an email?  Which is another thing, its checked to receive an email on sales, but I didnt get one for either sale,I checked my spam filter and there was a few from these forum notifications, but nothing on the sales.