MicrostockGroup

July and August have been pretty grim; that happened last year too (though not as bad as this year). My advice would be to see if things improve in September before making a final decision. In any case, you're only tied on for a month.
Good luck whatever you decide.

Yes, wait 1 to 3 more months would be a good advice.

I don't blame you. Since I became exclusive in July, my total earning dropped immediately. August is even much worse than July.  But it is very hard to go back to be independent because I can't rebuild a substantial port in FT very quickly. FT was my second best earner after IS.

I have been exclusive for just over a year but now they have changed the site to a horrible new design, sales have nosedived (partly due to the confusing new design in my opinion)  and their rejection rate has got ridiculous I am thinking of giving up my exclusivity. They won't let you question anything that borders on criticism as they lock threads or worse, ban you for a period of time (this hasn't happened to me BTW). There is no incentive for me to be exclusive as a days shooting could be written off due to their vague reasons for "lighting" issues. They don't even give you a chance to put right what is supposed to be wrong.

A year ago when I went exclusive they accepted almost everything I submitted. My methods haven't changed. Other members are experiencing the same problems. The whole climate has become unfriendly and up itself.

Im sure it doesnt really matter, exclusive or independant, the whole industry is very unstable and without doubt has had its glory days.

This thread is quite an eye-opener.  I had assumed that all the sales I'm no longer getting were going to exclusives.  Instead it sounds like they have just...gone.

Also very surprising about the increased rejections for exclusives.  Particularly Sue, who I know has been doing this for a loooong time and knows how to meet istock technical standards.   

In answer to the OP - I have been toying with the idea of Istock exclusivity on and off for 5 years or so, but this past January I got serious and started closing some accounts elsewhere and stopped uploading to DT. 

Like Cathy, I changed my mind when Istock started sending its customers to Thinkstock.  Also, the segmentation of the IS collection and the ever-increasing prices had me worried for its long-term future. 

About the same time I noticed that Fotolia was picking up steam and seemed (seems) to be making good decisions that may ultimately bring them to the number one spot.  It doesn't seem like a good time to be dropping off up-and-coming sites to go exclusive with a site that is making so many decisions I don't agree with. 

I just went exclusive the first week of this month. Here is a rough idea of what it has done for my earnings and downloads. This doesn't include Vetta downloads because so far I only have 1 Vetta file and bunch of pending nominations. So this is mostly just from the exclusive plus and higher prices for exclusive files. My portfolio has not grown much at all this year.


I am fairly happy with the results thus far. Although they do seem to be rejecting everything I throw at them, which is starting to be very frustrating. This will be my BME on IS but will still fall short of what I was making as an independent. Hopefully more Vetta files will help make up some of this loss.

The numbers have never made me feel like going exclusive but even if I was doing better with istock, the thought of only one place to sell RF doesn't appeal to me.  

I have serious concerns about what has happened in the last couple of years.  Changing the canister levels took away any slight motivation I might of had to reach the diamond level, its too far away now.  I wish they were honest about it and just said they wanted to take more money from the contributors but this wont make much difference to me, if I stay non-exclusive.  

Closing StockXpert makes me wonder why I supply istock.  It has lost me money this year and that's not going to make me feel good about the owners of istock.  I don't like thinkstock, as I am sure is already apparent from my constant whinging about it.  

The new site looks drab, I was surprised they didn't offer a bit of customisation.  It might work for buyers but I want something that makes it stand out.  Looks like if was done by the same people that did the new BigStock and 123rf sites, I expected something better from istock.  They have messed up the opt-out for thinkstock, that is like poking a hornets nest and they don't seem concerned about it.

Closing StockXpert, raising prices and pushing buyers to thinkstock makes me wonder if they want to slow down the growth of microstock, perhaps because it is damaging Getty and they will be able to make much more selling Getty if istock isn't as strong.  If that isn't their plan, I really don't know what's going on.  I just hope they sell istock and the new owners go back to trying to make it the best microstock site for contributors and buyers.

I also decided against exclusivity at the last moment. I could have gone ex. about two months ago but the negative trends made me rethink my decision. Especially the "How was your July" thread was an eye opener.

Stock isn't Art. Stock is about light and light. 

Spot on Lisa. Although I've considered exclusivity many times over the years I'm always grateful in retrospect that I didn't do so.

I absolutely detest Istock's new site design and layout too. The hideous black-on-white colour scheme gives me a headache and the site has pretty much lost all of it's original intuitivity. Now, in the latest offering, I find I have to scroll about 4 miles to the right to see the rest of the page. They must be smoking or inhaling some very exotic substances in Calgary if they really think they have made 'some improvements'. They used to have the most professional and user-friendly site and now it looks like they let some 4-year-old loose with the coding.

Look!  if it was all down to the IS own Admin guys,  it would never have gone this far or this way, they care about IS and for many its more or less their lifeblood.
You cant blame them! theyre probably just pissed off as anybody else.
No!  all this mediocre stuff has got the Getty stamp all over it, from the pricing down to the E+, down to the change of interface. Also, notice!!  how nobody dares to even question anything in the forum, pretending its all sweet when every single one knows its far from it.

The IS Admin is in fact a nice bunch so dont shoot the pianist.