MicrostockGroup

July was very bad. -35% in earnings compared to June.
Hopefully August rocks so far.

No sales at all since August 7 (included) - while in July I averaged 1.9 sales per weekday. Not much but I don't remember a 4-day period on IS without any sales at all.

The new look is fine!  however all this Vetta, E+ and collection business with price increases, no it doesnt help at all.

I think Vetta was an excellent and necessary move. I think E+ wasn't a good move.

Vetta is somewhat predictable. Images are unqiue, highly styled, or have higher production costs. Higher cost makes more sense. And it's controlled by editors to maintain some consistency.

E+ doesn't make sense to me. Giving contributors control on pricing I think is a bad idea. I think it confuses/frustrates buyers and creates inconsistent pricing. Some contributors are using it as Vetta Jr. but some are putting anything and everything in it. If I were a buyer I'd be looking for a more simple and consistent price structure that I could manage my project budget against.

Things will need to rebound in September and October, or I think a lot of exclusives will have second thoughts.  There is a 30 day waiting period for anyone wishing to drop their exclusive status.  I wonder if we'll start to see a drop in the number of exclusives toward the end of August, as a lag from the July debacle?  Is there anywhere on the iStock site which lists the total number of exclusive contributors?  That would be an interesting number to track if it is available.

I think they changed the requirements Sean.  From the Exclusive FAQ:

How long am I committed?
If you get cold feet, you can cancel your Exclusive contract with 30 days notice, after providing us with a reason ("it's not you, it's me"). And we'll always take you back, with a 90 day reinstatement waiting period.

http://www.istockphoto.com/sell-stock-photos-exclusivity.php

Gostwyck -

In my case this is most certainly true.  And for the record, I am currently happy with Exclusivity, but cautious over the site traffic trends.  

But from reading the July Sales thread, there were plenty of exclusives who have seen a drop in earnings from last year, and a more significant drop in DLs.  Many of those exclusives have considerably larger portfolios and are probably a better statistical gage.

Another concern I have read repeatedly on the IS and Indie forums is that new images are simply not selling.  They seem to get a rush of Views at the onset, and then they fade into obscurity.  So it is difficult for many of us to grow our earnings when uploading seems futile.

I'm not a fan of the new web site but I do not believe that it has anything to do with the diminishing sales.

IStock is the only company I know of that is actively trying to convince its customers to go away and start buying from some other place. In this case - ThinkStock, the most beloved sister company.
Cold calling your own customers and asking them to stop buying from you and go do business somewhere else is a policy I've never heard of before. It's gotta have some consequences.
But I trust that the very intelligent people at Getty I keep on hearing about, know what they're doing and we'll all be happy in the end.

There are probably many factors responsible for such declining sales at IStock. ThinkStock being only one of them.
But I do not think the new web site is to blame.

Right now they're offering a 25 % reduction in prices. That should be good news. 
But are they also reducing contributor commissions by the same amount?

VERY good question!  For several years now contributor commissions have been tied to credit prices, so it would not surprise me to see our commissions reduced on the sale priced credits.  Does anyone know if this has been answered somewhere? 

Yes, in the IStock forums, it was definitely confirmed by an iStock admin that this is the case

Hi Lisa!

yep!  great isnt it?  well if this isnt a confirmation that things are going sour, I dont know what is.

best.

Surely the most common and obvious explanation is that IStock screwed up its pricing policy dramatically at the start of the year. Six months on and the credits that people found were suddenly devalued are all used up and buyers are looking for cheaper alternatives. Istock has helpfully explained to them, immediately after the shock price rise, that TS is a far more economical place to be and, judging from the way Shutterstock is going, others have found their own alternatives.

Unfortunately, the "special offer" apparently intended to reduce the impact of the pricing mistake is going to mean the second pay cut this year for non-exclusives.

But I still don't understand why a number of people have noticed a sharp sales drop since F5 - if there is no search change, then is there something that buyers are finding confusing or offputting about the new site?