That's the one thing I'm missing here - an appointed istock official! 

He has 5K images on Fotolia:

http://us.fotolia.com/p/200576396

No, they don't have a shedule like istock has. It can take anywhere between 3 days and a few weeks for them to pay out.

Ah, I see what you mean.

Hey, I've been to that pub, LSD72!  But I'm not sure it's there anymore. Most of the trendy people hang out in the Eastern part these days.

If I have to choose between defending my Ph.D. around that time and the Microstock Expo, I am afraid it will be my Ph.D. 

Oh that's a shame - I'll probably be there (living round the corner from the hotel) and I would have liked to meet you.

I think people also wildly over-estimate Yuri's importance to the agencies. If he pulled out of iStock tomorrow I'd bet that 90% of his sales would simply transfer to other black diamonds/diamonds. Isn't he just shooting the same stuff as most of the rest of them?  

Laflor will have the time of his life! 

Quote from: Pheby on June 17, 2011, 04:39

I really get your point (and I wish E. V. all the best too!), but: What Sean and Yuri are doing has it's own fun to it (apart from the fun on the way to the bank). There is a different kind of creativity in the process of getting the look of an image exactly right for it to be appealing to "the masses", which includes, of course, choosing the right models which is the discipline many, many microstockers fail in. Getting an image just right so that everything blends in and it doesn't have any edges to it and doesn't leave any questions open is, well I don't really know whether it's creative, but it's a highly skilled task they have set themselves. I do get the fun of that.

This sounds like work, not fun to me;)

I get ur point as well, we just have totally different not just view of stock, but mentality. Which is great too, we don't want to be brainwashed, do we;)

Yeah, we're coming from different directions, and stock photography and photography in general mean different things to you than they do to me. But I must clarify that this business is still like a game to me (although I'm a full timer), and if my photography was anything to do with art and expressing my personality, I wouldn't be in this business. I let the creativity out through other channels. 

I really get your point (and I wish E. V. all the best too!), but: What Sean and Yuri are doing has it's own fun to it (apart from the fun on the way to the bank). There is a different kind of creativity in the process of getting the look of an image exactly right for it to be appealing to "the masses", which includes, of course, choosing the right models which is the discipline many, many microstockers fail in. Getting an image just right so that everything blends in and it doesn't have any edges to it and doesn't leave any questions open is, well I don't really know whether it's creative, but it's a highly skilled task they have set themselves. I do get the fun of that.

Sean's approach specifically includes things that most others just don't think of (because they are busy shooting what everyone else has done already and has prooved successful, so it seems safe). What a microstocker it takes to think of doing a shoot of a spelling contest! Great that is! Also, he really puts himself out and goes to lengthes that others just wouldn't. To get his aeroplane set or his stadium set together!

I started out with shiny happy people over white just recently, and I'm loving it, although I don't give the images that much of a chance, because they are exclusive to Fotolia where they probably will be burried in their new best match. And of course it's late in the game for anything like that. But what I'm saying is, I get the fun of it which is much more than just the money. It's wonderful to have gotten just the look I was after. Things like artistic creativity or even taste are just completely aside from that. To me at least.

ETA: BTW, thinking about every microstocker I've talked to (no big guns, but a few people who are higher up the ladder than me) and from what many people's ports tell me, I've been wondering about this: They are all chasing after the look that Yuri produces, they want part of the success, they follow his blog and listen to everything he says in videos and all that, but the one thing they seem to overhear is what he says about choosing models which to me is the main key or at least the starting point for a shoot. After doing all the research they all go out and shoot their girlfriends, as if "pretty" were enough to qualify as a stock model.

Thanks, but it's seriously gone.   

Are hotshots only in the newsletter (I'm not getting it although I'm opted in) or is it somewhere on their site as well (I couldn't find it)? If it is, could someone post a link?

No, the newsletter is nowhere on the site. I'd pass on the mail, but I've deleted it already. Sorry.

I do think there is an element of dropping emeralds in the search.  I know its anecdotal, and if any emerald contributor is experiencing growth I would like to be proven wrong.  

I don't think really think so. Recently, I've been doing many, many searches (to try and find out whether my very first studio shots of a real model   stand a chance of being found) with simple terms like "woman" combined with "flowers", "headphones", "coffee", things like that. I had the search engine sort by relevancy and variied the option "online since", and the few files that are new and have one or a few downloads within the first week or month online, are mostly by emeralds and above. Often, they were files that got a bit of exposure by being featured on the "latest uploads" page. Admittedly, this is as arbitrary as you, Lisa, say your assumption is anecdotal. I'd be really interested to hear more from a few more emeralds.

BTW the search term "woman" combined with "online since 1 week" showed about 8000 results, just over 100 of which had at least one sale.
Until I saw the sheer masses, I was really excited about my new shots. Well, I'm still excited about them, but my hopes for them have gone straight. down. I've decided to upload them in small portions as a sort of compromise.

Somehow, Yuri seems to be a different story. His new files, as wiseguy points out, don't seem to lift off, and also, I've never spotted any of his files on the "latest uploads" page.

7 days rank: from 130-150 down to 450 to 500 in April 2011,
$$ down 30%

I think they did the Best Match Tweak.

They did, an admin confirmed it in the German Fotolia forum, adding that Fotolia in general is doing well and that the new best match is working for some of the contributors.
It seems that new images don't get a bonus at all any more, so the factor "new" has no or nearly no weight in the best match algorithm anymore. Since then (must have been the end of February), many German contributors are reporting a substantial drop in sales and also that new images hardly sell. This seems very relevant to me, as Fotolia is the market leader in Europe. A factor that counts more than "new" seems to be "popularity": the images that were sold around the date of the tweak keep selling and selling, most other stuff is, well, lost.
But there seem to be quite a few contributors, silver and above (and not only exclusives), who are profiting from the new best match.
I always have kept a close watch on where my new images start off from, and after the best match tweak in February, they went right to the very back of my port and of the best match search, instead of appearing on page 1 or 2, and since about a month, they are somewhere in the middle. That makes me think that they still tweaking away.

The worrying thing about the whole thing, to me, is that once Fotolia has made a change to it's site, it seems to be set in stone. So, when they have finished tweaking, best match will stay like that and favourise old but popular stuff for years.

FWIW, my sales have dropped by about 15 %, subs have increased (I don't dare to actually go and add them up!). I'm only silver, but, comparing myself to other contributors, I have been seeing a substantial amount of regular sales.