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Author Topic: Is it just me?  (Read 13211 times)

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amanda1863

« Reply #25 on: August 22, 2006, 14:01 »
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To Stockmaniac:

1) Old threads lock automatically after 3 months stagnant to avoid the confusion of people bringin up old thread with invalid information.  As far as controversial threads there that are locked, Bitter let one very controversial thread about why people shouldn't be exclusive there go for 4 days and 120+ posts before personally chiming in that he had read the whole thread, realized there were some valid opinions and locked it since people were beginning to get too personal.

iStock is a business.  I don;t know of many businesses that will allow endless list of complaint aout their business practises on practically the front page of their business website.  That wouldn't really be smart!

But they do censor some things possibly more than neccesary.

2) I fail to see how VOX has blown up in their faces?  For every vocal contributor against it there are many more who think it's a great business move, myself included, and no matter which side your on it's much to early to judge it a success or failure in the long run.

As one of their contributers I see it as a valuable marketing opportunity to me and since they aren't making money off of it I fail to see how it pads their pockets. Another point to make here is I am a designer & marketing consultant as well as an illustrator, and working in marketing I have a lot of respect for the creative and innovative way they get their business in front of people.

3) Peebert, (Pete Rockwell) is a personal friend of mine.  I'll leave it at that as Leaf has already addressed this.

4) (Yo might want to sit down for this,) ...I truly agree with you on all counts when it comes to Scout and "not stock" rejections.  It can be very irritating.

5) I keep hearing 20 cents.  Yet my average comission is $1.73.  Also, not matter how you slice it, if you get a .50 cent comission on a site with 1/10 of the downloads you still make more at iStock.  And they still have the most traffic. Besides why is 25 cents (SS) So much better than 20c?  Even as a non exclusive pre bronze canister at iStock you will make between 20 cents and $8.00 per downloade depending on the size and price of the file.


grp_photo

« Reply #26 on: August 22, 2006, 14:36 »
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Out of interest Amanda are you an andmin or an inspector i'm asking because you say you know Peebert personally i guess to know someone personally you must met him more often then sometimes at istockalypse.

Greg Boiarsky

« Reply #27 on: August 22, 2006, 14:44 »
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In the interests of greater balance, I must agree with Amanda that I make much more per image at Istock than at other sites--a bit over 50 cents per sale, and as much as 70 cents per sale for some images.  While I get more per sale at some sites--notably StockXpert and FeaturePics--the volume at Istock makes it a better income source for me.  I suspect that Amanda makes more per sale because she sells vectors.

Having said this, though, I wouldn't mind a bit of a raise at Istock to make the percentage of selling price more comparable to other sites.  Not only would it benefit me, but it would also go a long way to helping the site with its PR.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2006, 14:48 by Professorgb »

amanda1863

« Reply #28 on: August 22, 2006, 14:46 »
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No I am not an admin or inspector nor do I own any part of the company. I said he is a friend, as in someone I like, admire and talk to occasionaly over the past three years. :) FYI the admins and inspectors (there are around 45 inspectors alone, not sure how many admins) are scattered around the globe and I believe some have never met in person.

amanda1863

« Reply #29 on: August 22, 2006, 14:50 »
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Professorgb makes a valid point.  There is room for a raise in royalties and it has been brought up many times in the forums.  I do hope/think there may be some changes on that front at some point in the future. I intend to stick it out after having seen their response to demand for higher prices.  When I started there images were something like 25 and 50 cents, so it has been fun to watch the progress!

« Reply #30 on: August 22, 2006, 14:55 »
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5) I keep hearing 20 cents.  Yet my average comission is $1.73.  Also, not matter how you slice it, if you get a .50 cent comission on a site with 1/10 of the downloads you still make more at iStock.  And they still have the most traffic. Besides why is 25 cents (SS) So much better than 20c?  Even as a non exclusive pre bronze canister at iStock you will make between 20 cents and $8.00 per downloade depending on the size and price of the file.

Butting in.... Everyone is going to have different numbers and one site or the other is going to be "best" for them. For example my average commission is $0.52 at iStock and $0.35 at Shutterstock. iStock may have more overall traffic but the traffic that counts is that going to your portfolio and buying your images. For me, Shutterstock generates ~8x the downloads of iStock and ~6x the overall income. So at the present time for me, Shutterstock is much better. This of course can change.

« Reply #31 on: August 22, 2006, 15:02 »
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amanda:

1. I was not talking about locking old threads, nor threads that are extremely inflamatory towards iStock, but rather normal threads that question some things at IS. It seems you can't question anything there.

2. VOX is a failure for a variety of reasons:

a. Because they didn't include their "community" at any part of the process. They didn't ask contributors how they would feel about larger than normal thumbnails with the watermark moved out of the way (making it easy to pirate the image). They didn't ask how photographers would feel about their models being inserted (for FREE mind you) on a controversial blog. And ultimately, they didn't provide an easy way to opt-out of the VOX deal (you have to opt out of all "Promotional Use").
b. People found out about the deal (thru the grapevine). When they tried to discuss it on the IS forums, the thread was locked more than once.

I'm not sure how you can feel that a business deal with bloggers is going to gain you much.

3. As far as Peebert is concerned:

If IS "is a business" (as you so aptly put), I can't understand how they can let a person with such a foul mouth run their storefront. Don't they understand simple etiquette and business practices? I wonder how long a person with such a foul mouth would last at the IBM forums, or even working at the local fast food restaurant?

Are they trying to run a family business or a business down in the red-light district?

I didn't have to search hard before I found a thread started by Peebert titled "Does anybody give a hot slice of crap about the Summer Olympics?" Not only does he use his normal barrage of curses in this thread, but he also manages to disparage Christianity as a sidebar.

4. I'm glad that you agree on at least one issue.

5. For a site that sells per image sales, a 20 cent commission is the lowest in the industry. The only reason they do it is because they can. If they truly cared about the "community", then they might want to try and help out some of the artists that are tyring to make ends meet.

And you shouldn't compare SS, because they have a totally different model (subscription based vs. per image). But even if you do, SS still wins.

But the bottom line is that all of the microstock sites need to raise the bar.

IS is currently one of the biggest, but mark my words that they will fall.

« Reply #32 on: August 22, 2006, 15:12 »
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well that IS a good point amanda.. i did a little calculation and my average sale on istock is  $0.40 (i took the total $/ total sales)
dreamstime in contrast the total is $0.66
shutterstock $.25 (however this is subscription download)

so istock isn't TOTALLY as bad as it first seems, but it is still low when compared to it's other per picture competitors.

amanda1863

« Reply #33 on: August 22, 2006, 15:12 »
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Like I said I'll be very interested to see which way things go in the next year ;) Personally I hope they do well and obviously I wouldn't turn down a raise in royalties!

« Reply #34 on: August 22, 2006, 15:40 »
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shutterstock $.25 (however this is subscription download)

Shutterstock won't usually work out to $0.25 even though it is subscription because they do have some per image sales (although I've never had one) and the $0.05 CD backups and the $20 Extended Licenses. If you have referrals then it continues to be better because you get a piece of everything bought and sold rather than just a flat upfront fee if they sign up and buy credits.

« Reply #35 on: August 22, 2006, 19:40 »
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I respectfully disagree and could post several very nitpicky rejections (yes from whule I was exclusive) to prove the contrary.  I also think that the sheer volume of exclusive contributors that complain on the iStcok forums about all the files they don't have outlet for would point to a healthy amount of rejections for exclusives.
Amanda,

I could also post some approvals I saw that I can't swallow.  Examples, as I said, of images that could have been easily adjusted, so why not ask that to exclusives?  And I don't go looking for such examples, they appear to me often on the front page.  I've sent them a message in fact, and I didn't send examples because I found it unpolite, then they replied that as I didn't send any examples they can't comment and that I am not complaining about exclusives but about my own rejections. *sigh* OK, I'll be unpolite and send them some examples.

I respect IS's prominency in the stock market and maybe this is the reason for their attitude.  Do I think they are the best for a contributor?  Not to a photographer at least - to vectors artists it's another story, maybe it's indeed the best site.  If I had to go exclusive with one site, I would pick DT because they offer a better share and I earn much more there than as IS both at $/image and total $.  Now that they are accepting vector files too, maybe they will be even better overall.

DT is also much more accessible than IS to reply about a rejection or any other matter.  IS replies take ages.

Regards,
Adelaide


 

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