MicrostockGroup

hi everyone,
 is this good ? should i opt in or out ?
thanks

I've opt out. Don't like 0.25$ commission for full size images.

We get a lower percentage there than at istock. It's a sleezy, nasty tactic by istock/getty to lower our percentage. Opt out.

I opted out for the same reasons listed above.

In a nutshell...

You can opt in one or none or any of your files. You can add or remove files from the partners at any time. I opted in only a handful of files while I was still exclusive (mostly dollar bin stuff that I really should probably deactivate) and probably won't be opting in more than that. The royalty for non-exclusives is about the same crappy amount as is paid out by everyone's sweetheart Shutterstock, but these files are also available for single download purchases (for those who do not purchase subscriptions) so there is an opportunity for significantly higher commissions. (I'm guessing this will probably be a rare occurrence but would love to be proven wrong.)

Finally, as far as I know, the program isn't even live yet. You can read more details at the following link. As truthful and unbiased as most people here are, it's always best to at least get a little of your information from the actual source.
Partner Program Quick Facts



I know the "free use by Vox bloggers" has been a favorite crusade, but those images are so tiny and have the username and istock clearly watermarked across them, as well as a link back to the user's portfolio with referral bonuses paid if the link results in a sale from any portfolio, that I am not sure what the big deal is or why the subject needs to come up in nearly every single istock thread, regardless of relevance. I haven't heard anyone else mention Vox in years.   Where are all the reports of all the terrible things that have happened as a result of someone having a little ad for their portfolio on someone else's blog?

If your going to sign up for promotional use then you should be aware of all the existing programs that fall under this heading. The Vox program falls under this heading however there is no mention of it in the "Read This First". The Vox deal didn't start out with watermarks or small sizes. Contributors had to fight for these changes to be made. We were supposed to be happy that the images linked back but were not told that it would be a 3 click process just to get to the IS site and even then the viewer still had to purchase credits and license an image before the referral bonus would be applied. It was also quite obvious in the first few weeks that most bloggers didn't bother clicking on the TOS link as there were several reports of IS images showing up in blogs titled "Girls I had sex with last night". These blogs are all now private so they can continue to abuse the TOS but no one can hold them accountable for it. With this program you can't pick which files you want to have included. It's your whole portfolio or nothing.

Until recently if you wanted to participate in the partner programs then you were required to be signed up for Promotional Use as well.

Single sales in IS partner program:

Single Image Sales – Photos.com/JIU

Photos.com and JIU allow customers to make single image purchases at their site, without a subscription. These prices will be in the ‘traditional’ RF price range, but has not been set at this point. We’ll let you know as soon as they are. Single image sales represent a very small percentage of the total sales at Photos.com, so are unlikely to have a significant effect on your earnings one way or another.

I wrote and asked, this week. Here's the response. Bold is mine.

Thank you very much for your message.

The partner program has not gone live yet, but you can read up on it here: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=88699&page=1


If that sounds good to you, yes you can opt in all your files at once. Please visit your Control Panel, under the Contributor section there should be a check box to opt into the partner site, and them you can add all files into the program.

Started me wondering if one of the new partner sites will be StockXpert? Wouldn't that be something? Above announcement was posted on May 22nd.

StockXpert announcement of phasing out JUI/Photos.com deal was June 15th.  http://www.stockxpert.com/forum/show_messages/25161

ps last StockXpert partner sale for me was Oct. 17th. I can't find my photos on either partner site doing a search, but I'm still getting sales. Strange.

My photos are still on photos.com and I am still getting sales.  I hope istock see sense and at least match the 30 cents non-exclusives are getting through StockXpert.  If they don't, it looks like photos.com could be losing a lot of images when they do the switch.  How are they going to be the market leader in subs with a second rate collection?  Surely someone there must be thinking that?