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Author Topic: Your opinion about the Istock Partner Program  (Read 20556 times)

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RacePhoto

« Reply #25 on: January 19, 2011, 17:39 »
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November PP sales were payed on the third week of December like usual (next month and the end..) Like they will this month, perhaps next week (for Dec sales)..


Weird, I seem to remember reading a bunch of people complaining just recently that they still hadn't gotten partner program royalties from november.  I thought it was on Istock's forums.  Maybe it was really StockXpert they were talking about and I am misremembering.  

Anyway, thanks again Luis, for providing clarification.  I don't want to be spreading misinformation... :)


It's hard enough to figure out what's what because StockXpert people get paid from StockXpert for what's on ThinkStock. Partner people get paid from IS for what's on Thinkstock and what's PP from IS. (Or did I get confused too?) :) I used to get some Photos.com payments on IS and who knows where else PP sales come from?

But I think part of the confusion is that ThinkStock pays some people, one place and pays other people, another place, and some people have images from two sources on one site.

Now about the delays, jumping up and down and screaming. Did I just read another site just paid their third quarter earnings from 2010. Hmm, where's the angry mob? Can I bring up sales appearing and disappearing on a few sites lately and no way to know what the heck is going on, or why? Vanishing commissions and sale on another site, sometimes sales that were over a year old. Now we discover a partner who was selling images out the back door, without declaring to the agency and also raising prices, but paying minimal commissions to partners. Cue the lynch mob with farm implements and torches.



I'm not going to defend Getty. I don't like what they have done. But I have been asking people to be conscious that they are using double standards and often hypocritical about what they call fair at one place and unfair at another, just because of who it is.

With that I'll try again, according to what I can see, and maybe it's not perfect, but it's all I have. ??? Anyone who wants feel free to correct away.

StockXpert shows earnings for November 16, 2010 (Thinkstock subscription) - my best guess is these are October earnings paid in Nov. Nothing has been posted since then. In plain English the November earnings on StockXpert have not been posted and are a month late.

IS shows Partner Program earnings for November, day by day, Nothing for December. These usually appear around the 15th of the next month. But haven't yet for Dec. The normal time that they would appear, mid-month the month after the sales. Nothing out of the ordinary that I can see?

No I wouldn't suggest the Partner Program to anyone coming from IS. (The ability to get anything in through StockXpert closed in Feb. 2010) Just as people have pointed out, you would be competing against yourself on a cut rate, inexpensive subscription site that's owned and marketed to the same people, by the same people. The partner program is very unclear about where the images are going or how they are being sold. Some things show on Photos.com, some don't. It seems that nothing is moving from IS over to ThinkStock since mid-2010. Last of all, they use your real name not your Member Name, which may be objectionable.

For a small group of people, and I'm one of them, I have a bunch of photos that were never accepted on any site except StockXpert, up for sale on ThinkStock. And by the way, they do sell. Crummy quarter a download, but that's 25c more than I'd get for them sitting on a DVD backup on the shelf? ;) Those images are available nowhere else. I'm not competing with myself. They are one of a kind and frankly perfect examples of "CrapStock" which gets refused by the agencies, but has buyers none-the-less. My best selling (not saying much) StockXpert/ThinkStock picture is one of those refused images.

Someone PayPal me $50 and I'll close the StockXpert account now. Until it reaches the $50 payout, it's staying open.  8)
« Last Edit: January 19, 2011, 17:43 by RacePhoto »


« Reply #26 on: January 19, 2011, 18:24 »
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nice mob above.

I agree that IS gets hammered for stuff that other sites would get a pass for. Frankly, for 80-85%, they should be providing superior service.

As far as content on TS, it sounds like you have the perfect collection there.

« Reply #27 on: January 19, 2011, 18:30 »
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Love the mob pic! Too funny.

« Reply #28 on: January 19, 2011, 19:52 »
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November PP sales were payed on the third week of December like usual (next month and the end..) Like they will this month, perhaps next week (for Dec sales)..

Weird, I seem to remember reading a bunch of people complaining just recently that they still hadn't gotten partner program royalties from november.  I thought it was on Istock's forums.  Maybe it was really StockXpert they were talking about and I am misremembering. 

Anyway, thanks again Luis, for providing clarification.  I don't want to be spreading misinformation... :)

no problem and yes delay is from StockXpert

« Reply #29 on: January 19, 2011, 20:01 »
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Printed and framed!

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #30 on: January 19, 2011, 20:09 »
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I found Homer - is there a prize?

RacePhoto

« Reply #31 on: January 20, 2011, 00:26 »
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nice mob above.

I agree that IS gets hammered for stuff that other sites would get a pass for. Frankly, for 80-85%, they should be providing superior service.

As far as content on TS, it sounds like you have the perfect collection there.

It's been around before, I think it's over a year old now. Sorry if I missed anyone. Maybe I should add more people? By the way, I never gave this away before, but besides all my dumb-ass avatar pictures, I'm actually in there someplace. (and no I'm not Homer, I have double the number of hairs on my head?) It's really all in fun and no disrespect meant towards anyone. I tried to find good or flattering photos of anyone I included.

Here's something else which will drive people crazy. This is a composite, the base picture, from Getty and some studio archive, who had the watermark in different places. It was a very easy cleaning job, combed the two, done. And used without permission sticking to legal grounds... Parody.

Yes as the biggest microstock agency for buyers and sellers, they should be providing superior service to all segments. Instead they are disorganized and remind me of the Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers, running an agency. I can't understand why? Mastodons and Neanderthals are extinct, possibly for the same reasons? Biggest and massive isn't a guaranteed success.

Greed is not good and not the answer to prolonged success.

« Reply #32 on: January 20, 2011, 00:35 »
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right next to obama, what a pleasure :)

check this regarding obama speech, nice job by a friend of mine


ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #33 on: January 26, 2011, 17:53 »
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As if all the above wasn't enough, PP sales don't count towards your RC total on iStock, "because it's not iStock, so how can it count?", yet, and wait for it, today it transpired that your RC level on iStock affects what you get paid for your PP downloads.
Perfect double whammy, which if it has been announced before, I wasn't the only person not to clock it.
There were two threads in the discussion forum on PP issues, which I can't now find (deleted?)
The only one left appears to be this one in the Help forum:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=296742&page=1
with the exchange:
Bunhill:
"1. Why are PP royalties now affected by RCs whilst RCs are not affected by PP sales ? That seems to make no logical sense.
2. Was this linking of PP royalties to RCs ever previously announced before today in the forum ?
3. Please give us an update regarding the broken connectivity between here and the PP sites which prevents people from either removing or adding PP content ?"

RogerMexico:
"1 - 3: The Partner Program as it stands has a lot about it that needs fixing. We are working on fixing the connectivity and will have an update about future royalties in the next little while - before the next round of payouts."

So they have four weeks to spin it.

« Reply #34 on: January 26, 2011, 18:31 »
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So they have four weeks to spin it.

@Sue: Since you've quoted my question here, and the response - well that's not my reading of the response.

I read it as a reasonable reply. He did not need to acknowledge that there are problems with the PP as it stands. What he is clearly saying is that there is some stuff which needs to be addressed. It seems to me a fair response given the time scale.

:)

« Reply #35 on: February 04, 2011, 11:03 »
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Signing into PP is the worst thing you can do.
It's like buying your kids those cheap asbestos dolls to keep them happy ...

Slovenian

« Reply #36 on: February 04, 2011, 18:12 »
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My Dec earnigns were split 60 (regular): 40 (PP). So why not? PP revenue is rising from month to month, if this keeps on, I'll be gettin more from PP than form regular Dls in february (unless I have a few ELs).

And yeah I'm just a sucker with almost 400 DLs ;D

« Reply #37 on: February 15, 2011, 07:39 »
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Payments are coming through now.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #38 on: February 15, 2011, 07:45 »
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Payments are coming through now.
More likely the payments are your iStock delayed royalties from last week, which have been dripping in over the past hour or so.


 

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