MicrostockGroup

I used to honestly think that there were a small number of people who really did benefit from exclusivity, but I'm not convinced anymore. Sorry. I just don't believe it's mathematically possible today to earn more with the crown than without, unless without the crown you were doing something very wrong (not working with enough sites, the right sites, etc). I don't hear anyone talking about increased earnings at istock, either exclusives nor independents. Most people talk about declining earnings. Many talk about plummeting earnings. So it can't just be me doing the math and figuring that it's absolutely guaranteed that exclusivity would slash my microstock earnings to pieces. Maybe I'm an anomaly and istock represents an especially low percentage of my total microstock earnings (looking to be around 8% this month). But even with more favorable numbers, it's still a longshot that exclusivity would benefit anyone more than independence. Illustrators especially.

Frankly I think that most exclusives just don't know they'd do better outside of istock. And how could they? Most were never independent, so there's not even any historic data to look back on to help in crunching the numbers.

I just can't figure out why anyone is hanging on to the crown with everything that's going on. Exclusivity never added up for me. The numbers never made sense, ever. But now? It's unthinkable. I know you believe it's working out well for you, as most exclusives do. I just don't see it being a strong possibility that it's really to anyone's financial benefit anymore. It doesn't seem possible at all.

One of the reasons i hesitate to drop the crown is placement of my bestsellers. These vector files generate anywhere from $1k-$2k a year each for me. I expect them to keep generating for me for at least another 2 more years with minimal loss. Competition seems pretty fierce elsewhere and Im almost afraid they will get lost in the mix. If these files stopped generating for me, the decision would be so much easier.