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Messages - Zerkalo
1
« on: June 07, 2016, 07:23 »
So far looks like the extreme drops have hit both indies and exclusives pretty hard.
True, but what is very interesting so far (as of this moment) is that 6 indies have voted to say that they have seen no drop in income at all (which is amazing in itself) whereas not one exclusive has voted to say they have had no drop in income.
So far, every exclusive who has voted has had some sort of drop in income and I think we can assume that exclusives are also more inclined to add new content to the site on a regular basis versus independents who may not upload to iStock as regularly since they are presumably contributing to multiple sites and less focused on iStock itself than exclusives are.
The one thing I can say is that if things were the way they should be for exclusives, then shouldn't those 2 figures actually be in complete reverse?
Some may have started doing video to offset image income declines. So while they may have serious declines in images, they make it up with video. Just a theory.
I am an example of this. Exclusive on both stills and video. Last month was my BME (previous one was March 2016) on total iStock income. I am submitting more video since last 2 years. The GI income from mirrored stills/videos is balancing and even improving a lot recently.
We're talking about 4-digit numbers by the way. Just to give you an impression.
Thank you for the data. Two questions please:
1 - What year did you first start uploading to iStock as an exclusive? Was it around 2010?
2 - Have you continued to upload regularly since you became exclusive with iStock?
1- Yes, I started in January 2010.
2- Yes, I am not the biggest uploader but I can say that it's been regular without any long breaks.
Great, thank you. So it is really the GI sales from both stills and video you feel which has increased your income and provided the BME recently?
Also, have you seen an overall drop in income though on stills on the iStock site since 2012?
Yes, GI income (stills + video) and regular video sales is helping at the moment. There is definitely a drop on stills side since 2012. Both number of downloads and $ per download.
2
« on: June 07, 2016, 06:21 »
So far looks like the extreme drops have hit both indies and exclusives pretty hard.
True, but what is very interesting so far (as of this moment) is that 6 indies have voted to say that they have seen no drop in income at all (which is amazing in itself) whereas not one exclusive has voted to say they have had no drop in income.
So far, every exclusive who has voted has had some sort of drop in income and I think we can assume that exclusives are also more inclined to add new content to the site on a regular basis versus independents who may not upload to iStock as regularly since they are presumably contributing to multiple sites and less focused on iStock itself than exclusives are.
The one thing I can say is that if things were the way they should be for exclusives, then shouldn't those 2 figures actually be in complete reverse?
Some may have started doing video to offset image income declines. So while they may have serious declines in images, they make it up with video. Just a theory.
I am an example of this. Exclusive on both stills and video. Last month was my BME (previous one was March 2016) on total iStock income. I am submitting more video since last 2 years. The GI income from mirrored stills/videos is balancing and even improving a lot recently.
We're talking about 4-digit numbers by the way. Just to give you an impression.
Thank you for the data. Two questions please:
1 - What year did you first start uploading to iStock as an exclusive? Was it around 2010?
2 - Have you continued to upload regularly since you became exclusive with iStock?
1- Yes, I started in January 2010. 2- Yes, I am not the biggest uploader but I can say that it's been regular without any long breaks.
3
« on: June 07, 2016, 05:01 »
So far looks like the extreme drops have hit both indies and exclusives pretty hard.
True, but what is very interesting so far (as of this moment) is that 6 indies have voted to say that they have seen no drop in income at all (which is amazing in itself) whereas not one exclusive has voted to say they have had no drop in income.
So far, every exclusive who has voted has had some sort of drop in income and I think we can assume that exclusives are also more inclined to add new content to the site on a regular basis versus independents who may not upload to iStock as regularly since they are presumably contributing to multiple sites and less focused on iStock itself than exclusives are.
The one thing I can say is that if things were the way they should be for exclusives, then shouldn't those 2 figures actually be in complete reverse?
Some may have started doing video to offset image income declines. So while they may have serious declines in images, they make it up with video. Just a theory.
I am an example of this. Exclusive on both stills and video. Last month was my BME (previous one was March 2016) on total iStock income. I am submitting more video since last 2 years. The GI income from mirrored stills/videos is balancing and even improving a lot recently. We're talking about 4-digit numbers by the way. Just to give you an impression.
4
« on: February 26, 2013, 07:03 »
If you're doing microstock as a hobby or part-time, you should go ahead with exclusivity on IS. If you're planning to earn your life with microstock, I would think twice.
But in any case you're a perfect fish for IS, they want more bronze-level exclusive contributors. Proportionally they make the most money out of this group.
5
« on: February 11, 2013, 18:02 »
I think IS loses not only a quality contributor but also a good critique, a consultant on everything related with microstock, a software developer, etc. etc. I wish you good luck Sean. I am sure this will bring you a bright future.
Getty Management is giving clear message here. They want to show us 'look, we can dismiss even Sean, so beware and shut up'. They are shooting themselves in the foot.
Any idea how things will turn out? Any other big contributor leaving?
6
« on: February 08, 2013, 06:24 »
Yes, I am rejected too. Maybe they want to have only people that they know. Disappointing.
The link doesn't work for me and I haven't applied so maybe they aren't allowing non members to even apply now.
Oh, I was actually referring to the facebook group. There is a closed facebook group for people who are interested in knowing more about Stocksy. My request was rejected, so I can't even find the group at the moment. I am a silver level exclusive cont. by the way, no IS spy or sth.
7
« on: February 08, 2013, 05:40 »
Yes, I am rejected too. Maybe they want to have only people that they know. Disappointing.
8
« on: February 07, 2013, 09:46 »
Very interesting news. Seeing that, even the post about the announcement of Stocksy is removed from the facebook page of IS (istockphoto only), somebody is in panic I think.
9
« on: January 31, 2013, 05:42 »
There was a raise on exclusive prices as well. Why are they doing this? The site is obviously getting less and less traffic, less sales and they raise the prices. I don't understand.
10
« on: January 31, 2013, 05:39 »
Very sad. I wish you strength.
11
« on: January 21, 2013, 18:21 »
One contributor on the IS forums wrote that on Facebook, a disclosed group is created where some high-level contributors are discussing about a possible painless transition of their files to other agencies. Anybody has any idea what this is? I may be interested. I am more a mid-tier fish but this looks interesting.
I tried to find this group but I couldn't. Anybody knows?
12
« on: January 13, 2013, 12:26 »
With all respect I do not think that anything will change in IS unless some solid action on black diamond level happens. I am meaning people like Sean Locke, Don Bayley, Andresr, LisaFX, DKY59, mammamaart, etc. Furthermore, heavy uploaders from Denmark (not necessarily Arcurs) who contribute almost only lifestyle and business are another important group. So, let's say, if these people decide to negotiate together with another agency/agencies and pull their portfolios from IS things can change.
I was thinking something similar. If a group of diamond and black diamond contributors, even just the non-exclusive ones, made a plan to pull out all together I would participate. Perhaps we could agree in advance to begin deactivating images en mass on a certain day.
I think the usual arguments of "big sellers have the most to lose by pulling out" don't apply here. If enough of us do it then we have the most to gain by protecting our livelihoods.
Yes, probably some of these contributors earnings (thus, their bread) are dependent on IS, so they may have some hesitation. But I think in the long run they will lose if they stay on IS. It seems to me that this website doesn't have any serious future prospect.
13
« on: January 13, 2013, 12:00 »
ETA: Nevermind. I have removed the letter because apparently picking it apart is considered, by some, to be a better use of their time than actually doing something about this situation.
I have removed 100 of my image tonight (and will remove more) which I plan to upload to some mid stock agencies soon. I spent more time on that than pointing out what I considered a factually wrong statement.
I wasn't wasting my time picking your letter apart. I was just pointing out that something (actually there were others) in your letter were factually wrong. If that's okay for you for the sake of getting a point across, you can go ahead. But I'd think providing pure facts would sound bad enough, it doesn't need any effort or unfortunate wording to make it look worse.
With all respect I do not think that anything will change in IS unless some solid action on black diamond level happens. I am meaning people like Sean Locke, Don Bayley, Andresr, LisaFX, DKY59, mammamaart, etc. Furthermore, heavy uploaders from Denmark (not necessarily Arcurs) who contribute almost only lifestyle and business are another important group. So, let's say, if these people decide to negotiate together with another agency/agencies and pull their portfolios from IS things can change. But even in that case Getty still has the last word. They can bring all of their own RF stuff (stockbyte, etc.) to IS and convert IS to Thinkstock, which is their longterm goal I think.
14
« on: January 04, 2013, 09:57 »
When I look at the December '12 sales thread at IS, I see that the Alexa rank is very much reflecting the terrible crash of sales in the last months. It looks like they lost the first place definitely to SS and Fotolia is slowly overtaking as well. It looks like especially the last 3-4 months of 2012 was abnormally bad for traffic to IS. It decreased to 1/3 of what it was in previous months of 2012.
Do you think IS can recover from here?
15
« on: January 04, 2013, 09:41 »
How did you manage with model releases? Were you using universal MRs from the beginning or have the other agencies accepted IS MRs?
Furthermore thanks for sharing valuable information.
16
« on: September 30, 2012, 10:45 »
Some people don't have enough time for spreading their portfolio on other sites. They have a daytime job. Furthermore, there is a chance of getting into Vetta club and make more money if you're exclusive. And exclusive files are slowly transferred to Getty. I know, it's not sufficient but there is some progress. So you can make some extra through Getty.
I am one of these and I will stay exclusive for the time being. But I am definitely checking my options.
17
« on: July 17, 2012, 07:58 »
Has anybody felt any change in the sales pattern from today (tuesday 17th) on, compared with the first half of the month? My sales number dropped significantly. Almost every month I see the same happening. Middle of the month some stuff happens and DLs increase or decrease.
18
« on: July 17, 2012, 07:55 »
I think there are two important things about E+. One is whether the increasing price will make for the (if happens) decreasing DL numbers. The other one is the Redemeed Credits on the long run. E+ downloads produce more RCs. This means even your DL numbers can decrease, if it helps you to reach the next level you can make more money and be on the profit side.
19
« on: July 15, 2012, 08:06 »
I am also interested in this topic, however only E+ since I am exclusive. Maybe exclusives can give their opinion.
20
« on: May 10, 2012, 04:24 »
I am considering buying the wacom tablet and pen product. Is there anybody who can tell about his/her experience regarding Adobe Premiere and AE usage with these tools? Is it better than using a mouse?
We're talking about Mac environment by the way.
21
« on: May 03, 2012, 06:32 »
The IS site is at this moment very much f**ked up! 
22
« on: May 01, 2012, 06:35 »
March or April?
23
« on: April 30, 2012, 17:10 »
I will keep that in mind. Thank you 
24
« on: April 27, 2012, 08:47 »
Maybe you're right. In that case thank you
25
« on: April 27, 2012, 03:25 »
Just a quick update for IS. The inspection time for exclusives is under 3 days at the moment on iStock. This is a huge improvement compared with last year. I think it has improved for the non-exclusives as well.
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