MicrostockGroup

My sales are good all over except IS.  That's the only site I'm fed up with.  I have had one sale on the last 100 or so images uploaded since the best match change, while these same files have sold hundreds of times elsewhere.  BMEs at 5 sites while IS has had worse month in a year last month and this month might be the worst month in 18 months.  I'm not sure what to say about going exclusive except the best match thread was locked today where it was said by an admin that the best match changes and will change again, this best match has helped exclusives a ton so when it changes exclusives will most likely be the ones hurt.

I have been hanging out to get accepted by Alamy in the hope of decent money. There are a number of other sites like them as well.

As far as snapvillage goes, I was regularly earning about $6 a month. But now I figure $6 gained or lost is not going to change my world, so I have put all my images there up to $50 and do not allow subscription downloads. I will review that after January and see if I have made a wise decision or not.

For me the frustration has been in not be able to get enough photos accepted. Around 2000 images on DT, SS, StockXpert, and IS would be a good return.

But alas, they do not like my stuff.

I pulled out of SS a couple months ago even though I was on the threshold of "THE BIG RAISE" since I had nearly 500.00 in sales, but I'm tired of their two-bit royalties.  I have some stuff on with SV but since I pulled out of subscription sales I've had no sales; again, pretty much two-bit royalties there too.
IS used ot give me about 70.00/ month in royalties but since August it's been down to about 15.00
I just got accepted to StockXpert and have uploaded 400 images there so far and they've accepted pretty much everything I'm throwing at them.  No sales there as of yet but it's only been a week.
I'm also dabbling with Cutcaster, Panthermedia and Alamy.  Good thing I shoot 14.2MP so I don't have to upsize too much for Alamy.
Either way, it's a crapload of work for a very little bit of money.

I'm not sure how many there were, I saw a few posts but not manyof the ones that said "down 50% overnight".  Most of the exclusives said things like "my new files aren't selling at all, but my old work is doing great".  I don't remember any nonexclusives saying wow BME but I did see a ton of exclusives saying that.  Maybe I missed it but other than a couple people and vector artists, exclusives are doing much better and nonexclusives much worse.  BTW looks like this month will be down 70% since best match changed, following five straight months of BMEs and four straight months before that equaled my BME.  Thats 9 months in a row of steady growth equal to the quality and number of files uploaded now nothing.

Strange!

Im seeing SS, DT, FT and StockXpert  selling extremly well, one of my best months so far.
IS is ofcourse down but that was expected.

Hi runamock!

You got a point there it wouldnt be too exclusive now, would it? youre reffering to IS excl. arent you?
Well after watching IS for the last three months, personally I think you would need your head examined by Cat-scan, to even think of turning exclusive at IS ( which is a crying shame really), The site is too unstable, too shakey and Ive got a strange feeling that if the Admin dont like you, youre in for a tough ride.

I and two more Scandinavians, we were on the brink of turning exclusive and then came this first best match change where our good sellers just dissapeared, then came the second, the last one where most non-exclusive files, even flame files just vanished.
Thats when they lost their credibillity.
Further more dont listen to all this blarney about Getty taking care and buying everybody etc.
Getty is NOT buying from the loveliness of their heart, theyre buying-up to keep their enemies closer and under control.
Should the sky fall tomorrow they wouldnt give a toss about their Micros, they look after their RM people as always.
Thats their life-blood.

If the general consensus from non-exclusives is that all is rosey for exclusives right now, and that we are all just sitting back and raking in the bucks, I guess I can see the appeal. Some non-exclusives see their personal sales going down the toilet, and hear the same from less than 1% of the others, so extrapolate it out and it must be true for everyone. However that is the problem with basing decisions upon "group think". You might get to the other side and find you might have had a bit of tunnel vision.

No, I completely understand. I guess I wasn't very clear in my reply, but I agree with you! It seems that some people are deciding to go exclusive because they think it's so bad for them right now, it must be GREAT for exclusives. It's a dangerous assumption to make.

If I wasn't already exclusive, I sure would not be considering it at this moment in time.

Penny, the only thing clear is that whenever you bring up exclusivity you will get a strong responses.  I am not an exclusive kinda gal, but I can see very strong arguments for it, especially if I was full time at this. 

All the negative about FT aside, I'm surprized more people don't talk about going exclusive with them - especially once they've passed silver.

Now that FT has fixed its search engine I can finally see why many love FT.  For me FT doesn't earn the most each month, (although this month they might) but they certainly sell more individual photos than anyone but SS of course. 

According to the charts  found here http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Pricing#item_8: 

A Silver contributer earns
1 Small sale = .37
1 Large sale = 1.48

A Silver Exclusive earns
1 Small sale = $1.64
1 Large sale = $6.48

Or am I reading that wrong?  But then again, FT has such a bad history of f**k ups that who could trust them to go exclusive?

I wish you the best of luck. I was exclusive for years but left last month. Once the novelty wears off and you realize that not all exclusives are created equal you may change your mind.

 I was exclusive for 3 years. I've been independent since mid Oct. Since I left I have gotten more downloads, and those downloads are in bigger sizes. As an exclusive I struggled to get 2 dls a day and often couldn't break $100 a month without an EL. When I did get downloads they would be Dollar Bin or Xsmall images mostly.

4 weeks is to early to really tell true results, but so far I have more dls at SS then I do at IS, counting only the time that I have been independent. This was with a record breaking 9 dls in one day at IS. IS only barely came in as ahead in royalties and I suspect that SS will pass IS this month.

The other thing I noticed is that I no longer care about the favored contributors at IS. It used to matter because, as my only stock agency, it was infuriating that my images wouldn't show up until page 10, while reported spammers continue to be allowed the first pages of any search result. I know of a few that I have personally reported several times yet they are allowed to continue labeling blank pages as "Birth Certificates" and groups of children as "porch", even though my image of a child in a costume that reads "SWAT" across the front was be rejected for using the word "SWAT" as a keyword. Yes, as an exclusive I was getting images rejected for keywords.

I also no longer get upset when I find out that the business card program is broken again, or when I find out that some "exclusives only" deal was really only open to a few hand-picked people. They make a lot of promises to get you be exclusive. The reality is that you get a little more per download and a a stack of free cards from MOO that you can pass around. That's it.

I forgot to add that it only takes a week to get your images rejected as an exclusive. That's another perk you get rejected in one week instead of 2.

^^ bitter much?