MicrostockGroup

I don't believe I said the other sites were "so good". They all have their faults and the biggest of all, for ALL of them, is that they take a huge piece of the pie. Everyone has their reasons for going exclusive, I myself considered it early last year and had stopped uploading to other sites and was within a couple of weeks of going exclusive at istock. My reasons for considering exclusivity were because of the promise of a company treating exclusives better, making more money, and only having one agency to upload to. I started getting bad feelings, backed out, and in September it all became clear that I had made the right choice. No regrets since.

My opinion differs from yours and that's ok. I don't perceive any agency as "a greener pasture." But since last September, the other sites have few to no problems with fraud, aren't constantly fiddling with their "best match" system so my sales remain consistent or better all the time, aren't constantly bringing new pricing schemes into the picture, haven't gone back on their word, and in general, don't project a lot of drama. They conduct themselves as a business, not a club. And now, it appears as though buyers are shifting away from the nonsense at istock and moving to the other sites, because I have seen a noticeable jump in sales at the other sites. Which only reaffirms that my choice to NOT go exclusive was the right one.

I've been around almost as long as JoAnn. We were uploading and supporting istock at the same time. It was a natural transition for her to go exclusive...she made microstock her career, and she has more than twice the images on istock that I had. I am not in the same position. I never intended to become a full-time microstock photographer. Becoming exclusive at istock does not make sense for me (though I thought it did once). istock has taken such a HUGE turn in a completely different direction, one that doesn't make sense for me. Guess not for JoAnn either. And a lot of other exclusives, apparently.

When people see their sales dropping and dropping because of constant uproar by the agency, I'd say that making a move to do something different is a sound business decision. There may be emotions connected to it too, but everyone is entitled to their reasons for leaving exclusivity. Whether you think it is a bad decision and emotional is irrelevant.

P.S. I've never had fights with admins in any sites either, maybe you were speaking generally when you said that? Or you're confusing me with someone else?

FWIW in response to an earlier comment, I'm not a big Vetta or Agency contributor. E+ garners me good sales on a daily basis. I  don't think it's accurate to say that iStock only has room for V/A contributors these days. my experience suggests otherwise.

I wish I could say the same. In my case, E+ can only partly offset the damage to my income, which I can quite definitely trace to every instance that V/A was pushed ahead by iStock. Unless they bring back the V/A filter, the writing's on the wall for me. Which leads me to my question and why I'm posting here:

Is there any iStock ex-exclusive diamond here who gave up exclusivity within the past year and has matched or exceeded their exclusive level of income as an independent? All I've ever read are qualified reports like "I'm doing great at Shutterstock but haven't uploaded everything yet, so we'll see", that kind of thing. What I haven't come across is someone saying "Hey I'm an iStock diamond and since giving up my crown six months ago I'm already earning as much as I did before". Do such new independents exist?

Is there any iStock ex-exclusive diamond here who gave up exclusivity within the past year and has matched or exceeded their exclusive level of income as an independent? All I've ever read are qualified reports like "I'm doing great at Shutterstock but haven't uploaded everything yet, so we'll see", that kind of thing. What I haven't come across is someone saying "Hey I'm an iStock diamond and since giving up my crown six months ago I'm already earning as much as I did before". Do such new independents exist?

Does Shutterstock just have it out for iS contributors. or what? I know I'm not a great photographer, but these are all selling well at iS.

Maybe not but few, if any, have really gone full-out for it. It does take time to build your sales at all agencies (just like at IS). Your images need to gain rightful sort-order position, you need to climb the commission levels at Shutterstock & Fotolia and your images have to climb the Levels at Dreamstime. Dreamstime also has upload limits. At Fotolia however you may be able to negotiate a higher starting ranking.

It probably took you considerably longer than six months to become Diamond at IS and it is just the same elsewhere. It is going to take a lot of work and a fair bit of time to climb to the top at each agency. Of course if Istock is steadily losing market share, as many of us independents believe, then you are probably better making the jump sooner rather than later. With every month that passes it is becoming more difficult for new images to become best-sellers at each agency. It will be harder and take longer to make the jump in six month's time than it would be today. There is not much doubt which way the wind is blowing in microstock now though and it looks to me as if Istock's best days may have passed. To make your decision you have to consider where each agency might be in 2-3 years from now. That's probably how long it will take you to reap the full rewards of being independent.

Yep. The sudden introduction of P+ in particular (in effect considerably reducing the benefits of exclusivity) makes me think of deckchairs being re-arranged on a certain ship.

My main concern after hearing that Shutterstock has become tougher on acceptances was not getting 7 of 10 approved and having to wait another 30 days to reapply.  I'd like to get approved first before I cancel exclusivity with istock.   And of course, it would be good to have a small portfolio in place at Shutterstock once I was cleared from iStock.