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Author Topic: Friday's RC target announcement and iStock's strategy behind it  (Read 62851 times)

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« Reply #100 on: June 03, 2011, 18:03 »
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I guess the RC targets staying the same pretty much proves that overall sales haven't risen at all since they first announced this scheme last September.


lisafx

« Reply #101 on: June 03, 2011, 18:06 »
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Looking at all those * idiots thanking IS for raising the bar really put a smile on my face and made my day. Because I just realised I kept my brains from being washed and realized just how many stupid people there are in the world. It's like whistling and singing along when you're forced to dig your own grave

Have to agree.  The look on my husband's face when I read those comments to him was just priceless.  Hilarious!

« Reply #102 on: June 03, 2011, 18:10 »
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Aeonf is here but no gloating. And why would I ? lower targets are in my best interest just like anybody elses, I don't own IS stock you know...
Sorry to hear you will proly be dropping to 25%, don't you think its worth putting in some more effort in order to keep your 30% ?
I would also consider dropping exclusivity if I where you...

For us we got to the 30% mark about 3 weeks ago, we might get to the 35% mark in December, but its a very close call.

I am willing to bet they will lower the targets again at the end of this year, just like they did last year.

dont know if I laugh or cry at your post

« Reply #103 on: June 03, 2011, 18:11 »
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Aeonf is here but no gloating. And why would I ? lower targets are in my best interest just like anybody elses, I don't own IS stock you know...
Sorry to hear you will proly be dropping to 25%, don't you think its worth putting in some more effort in order to keep your 30% ?
I would also consider dropping exclusivity if I where you...

For us we got to the 30% mark about 3 weeks ago, we might get to the 35% mark in December, but its a very close call.

I am willing to bet they will lower the targets again at the end of this year, just like they did last year.

dont know if I laugh or cry at your post

Maybe a bit of both ?

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #104 on: June 03, 2011, 18:21 »
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Oh.  You're right.  I guess June 30 is halfway through the year.  I am pretty far off the halfway mark though.  Whether I make it or not, it will be close.  And it shouldn't have to be.  They are running their customers off through incompetence and mismanagement, then we contributors are paying the price.  Sigh..... 
Well, it sure as h*ck isn't the management paying the price (still knocked out at their extravagance staying at that (relatively) expensive hotel in London during the lypse at our expense).
Of course, we've got the three month summer slump coming up, and I can't remember about you, Lisa, but last year, my sales didn't bounce way up in September - Dec as it had in previous years. As I remember it, many people had the same experience, which was why they lowered the expected RCs after they'd announced tham last year.
@Lisa: hope you're recovering well. I guess this stress isn't helping.  :(

« Reply #105 on: June 03, 2011, 18:27 »
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Looking at all those * idiots thanking IS for raising the bar really put a smile on my face and made my day. Because I just realised I kept my brains from being washed and realized just how many stupid people there are in the world. It's like whistling and singing along when you're forced to dig your own grave

Yeah.  I was amazed by that too.  Unbelievable. 

Slovenian

« Reply #106 on: June 03, 2011, 18:28 »
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^^Sue, like IS said, you're gonna earn 50% in the last 4 month. I wonder why don't they give us money back guarantee on that or to be even more plain and str8 to the point, put their money where their (loud) mouth is

helix7

« Reply #107 on: June 03, 2011, 19:03 »
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Looking at all those * idiots thanking IS for raising the bar really put a smile on my face and made my day. Because I just realised I kept my brains from being washed and realized just how many stupid people there are in the world. It's like whistling and singing along when you're forced to dig your own grave

It's always been like this at istock. When the royalty cut was first announced in the forum, the first page of responses included many "thank-you"s and praise. For some reason it takes some people over there a while to figure out when they're being screwed.

Illustration numbers aren't changing, but even at the current targets I'm not likely to ever get to 18%. It's amazing to think that there was a time when I made $2,000 in a month at istock. Now my istock earnings are barely enough to put gas in the car each week. Fortunately the other sites have picked up the slack, but man it's crazy to see how far things have fallen over there.

istock used to be the reason I stuck to EPS8 vectors, so I could get my images onto that site even though most other big sites support EPS10. I'm not seeing much motivation to keep trying to make my stuff EPS8 compatible just for istock. It's a waste of time.

« Reply #108 on: June 03, 2011, 19:08 »
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Looking at all those * idiots thanking IS for raising the bar really put a smile on my face and made my day. Because I just realised I kept my brains from being washed and realized just how many stupid people there are in the world. It's like whistling and singing along when you're forced to dig your own grave

Have to agree.  The look on my husband's face when I read those comments to him was just priceless.  Hilarious!

Most people are sheep. The iStock forum comments definitely support or reflect that sad fact :)

« Reply #109 on: June 03, 2011, 19:09 »
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I'm 'trending' to not even make half the 40000 rc that I made last year, so the new 'fair' system Istock have 'worked hard' and cut advertising to the site, pushed the customers away to thinkstock and other sites and pushed my images further back and so get themselves an extra 5% payrise on my images  ;)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #110 on: June 03, 2011, 19:20 »
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I'm 'trending' to not even make half the 40000 rc that I made last year, so the new 'fair' system Istock have 'worked hard' and cut advertising to the site, pushed the customers away to thinkstock and other sites and pushed my images further back and so get themselves an extra 5% payrise on my images  ;)
That's about the sum of it.  >:(
Like I said in another thread, why are iStock not advertising any more? When their adverts were everywhere, I was getting plenty of downloads.

« Reply #111 on: June 03, 2011, 19:22 »
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I am reading IS forum and beside the "thanks" ones, I am thinking of the ones that might have near 12500 RC but not there will get the same 25%, that must be a joy!

« Reply #112 on: June 03, 2011, 19:27 »
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I'm 'trending' to not even make half the 40000 rc that I made last year, so the new 'fair' system Istock have 'worked hard' and cut advertising to the site, pushed the customers away to thinkstock and other sites and pushed my images further back and so get themselves an extra 5% payrise on my images  ;)
That's about the sum of it.  >:(
Like I said in another thread, why are iStock not advertising any more? When their adverts were everywhere, I was getting plenty of downloads.

Someone asked this in an Istock forum not too long ago the thread got locked instantly.  Another observation I made was a flight I took last week on US Airways.  I was looking through their in-flight magazine and it had a couple of advert images from Thinkstock. I also saw a magazine in the architectural industry using Thinkstock images today.  Someone made a whole 28 cents for these >:(

« Reply #113 on: June 03, 2011, 19:31 »
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Well congrats to those who speculated they would have the gall to actually raise them.  The rest of us owe you a beer.  

Hahaha you owe me a beer.  ;)

p.s.
I'm surprised they didn't raised the bar a bit more, as my theory is that soon the non exclusives will
only get 10% cut.

« Reply #114 on: June 03, 2011, 19:32 »
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I also saw a magazine in the architectural industry using Thinkstock images today.  Someone made a whole 28 cents for these >:(

Yeah but their professional designer will still complain that paying 5 or 10 bucks for that photo was too expensive.
We've come to this.

« Reply #115 on: June 03, 2011, 19:36 »
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I'm surprised they didn't raised the bar a bit more, as my theory is that soon the non exclusives will
only get 10% cut.

it will stay at 15% but we will pay 5% to have pictures there  ;D

« Reply #116 on: June 03, 2011, 20:03 »
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I'm surprised they didn't raised the bar a bit more, as my theory is that soon the non exclusives will
only get 10% cut.

I'm surprised they didn't raise it more as well. I think a lot of people were expecting it.

« Reply #117 on: June 03, 2011, 20:21 »
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I wrote a polite message in their forum about istock having the lowest royalty scheme in the industry and Lobo deleted it sending me also an email where he threats to ban me from the forum if i dare try again .. what ?

« Reply #118 on: June 03, 2011, 20:31 »
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I wrote a polite message in their forum about istock having the lowest royalty scheme in the industry and Lobo deleted it sending me also an email where he threats to ban me from the forum if i dare try again .. what ?

Lobo (Wolf) vs Sheep

when is the next round?

« Reply #119 on: June 03, 2011, 22:06 »
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I wrote a polite message in their forum about istock having the lowest royalty scheme in the industry and Lobo deleted it sending me also an email where he threats to ban me from the forum if i dare try again .. what ?

Wow. Their banning policy seems to have become much more aggressive.

« Reply #120 on: June 03, 2011, 23:01 »
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If sales (what sales??) keep going the same way as they were for this year, I won't be able to make the same bracket that I have this year and drop to 15%.
Remind me again - why, for 15% of commission, should I resume uploading to istock? Still do not see an incentive. Got enough stuff to do elsewhere.

« Reply #121 on: June 04, 2011, 02:55 »
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I've pointed out that they have the lowest royalty lots of times and I have never had a message from Lobo or a ban threat.  I must try harder :)

Slovenian

« Reply #122 on: June 04, 2011, 03:05 »
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And you can see what kind of people we are dealing with; the kind that wait till the last minute of friday's work hours to announce it, so they can cowardly dissapear for 2 days. In the mean time Lobo terrorizes everyone who's disagreeing (like Black sheep reported). Even criminals and common thieves (which they are just not common, but relatively sophisticated) stick to "higher standards".

« Reply #123 on: June 04, 2011, 03:15 »
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I've pointed out that they have the lowest royalty lots of times and I have never had a message from Lobo or a ban threat.  I must try harder :)

i guess he didn't liked me saying istock is "screwing us" ...  ;D

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #124 on: June 04, 2011, 03:32 »
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Sorry to hear you will proly be dropping to 25%, don't you think its worth putting in some more effort in order to keep your 30% ?
I would also consider dropping exclusivity if I where you...
Thank you for your concern.
For the past 3-4 weeks it's been constant rain or heavy overcast (we had twice the average May rainfall), so I'm back to the usual 'flat light' rejections. Yesterday was glorious blue sky, but harsh harsh light, and back to heavy overcast today.
Then there were the 40+ files I had to resubmit because of the false 'caption' rejections: all were accepted with exactly the same captions as were originally rejected, but still the waste of time, patience and goodwill - I did get an apology for these in the end, but didn't make up for the lost time.
Not jumping to submit exclusivity (but keeping a watching eye [1]). I'm hearing that people who do non-studio work (like me) have poor acceptance rates on the other micros, and two 'new independents' (non model, non studio) I'm following are thinking about going back to independence.
My tutor suggested  a particular agency for the sort of non-stock editorial-type work I've been doing recently, and I'll look into it, but you need a huge portfolio of all new, all different work to even be considered, so that would take a lot of time.
[1] I suspect the medium-term plan (perhaps it's too kind to imagine they actually have a plan) is to have iStock as only Vetta and Agency, and the rest will be dumped into Thinkstock.


 

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