I remember he deleted his portfolio from StockXpert and then uploaded it again  with the 50 a day upload limit.  It took a while.

I read the StockXpert thread and this one and it seems that contributors are threatening to leave StockXpert over this.  I wonder how many would follow through.  I'll start a poll in another thread.

I think many will follow through.  StockXpert's earnings are far enough down the totem poll that I think most experienced contributors consider them expendable.

I just took a look at my total earnings for 2008 and noted StockXpert has accounted for a whopping 3.6%.  If I dropped them tomorrow, my total earnings would be basically unaffected.

But I will remain patient and wait for Steve to come through for us.  He/StockXpert always has in the past.  But if he doesn't, I won't lose sleep over my decision.

I hear you Erick.  It really makes you wonder what the business strategy of the micros is.  They seem so determined to grab market share by under-cutting the competition that they must have horrible profit margins.  Sometimes you get what you ask for.  Once you attract the type of customer who wants everything for a dollar or less, how do you raise prices once you realize you need to do so?  The answer is, you cannot.  The same bargain basement hunters will leave you as soon as you raise prices, and go to your cheaper competition.

At some point, if microstock is to survive, certain companies need to draw a line in the sand by raising prices and proclaiming, "You get what you pay for.  Buy from us, and you will get quality.  Buy from them, and you will get cheap images." 

iStock has made moves to do so.  Ironically, Shutterstock (the subscription kings) have also done this.  SS has raised subs packages significantly for 2 consecutive years and their traffic keeps growing.  Why?  Because their standards are high, and designers know they can buy there with confidence.

I'm rambling, and should get off the soap box...   

I know I've mentioned this before, but go and look at Jupiter's Clipart Connection

http://www.clipartconnection.com/en/

High quantity of something or arguable quality for not very much a month seems to be a theme here

I am watching and waiting too.  I have also bookmarked the portfolios of some huge contributors at StockXpert (Iofoto, AndresR, Yuri).  It will be very interesting to see if they keep their portfolios there post August 1st, or draw a line the sand.

This is exactly what I have a hard time understanding.  What type of client are they reaching for?  Is this not the underbelly of customer buying these almost free subs plans?   

You bet.  This is scraping the bottom of the barrel for sure.  And I don't spend thousands each year upgrading my equipment and countless hours working to continuously upgrade my skills, to give the work away at bargain basement prices to "underbelly" cutomers. 

This may have been where microstock started out years ago, but over the past several years quality has gone up, up, up, and prices have kept pace with quality.  We need to get back to the axiom of "you get what you pay for" and the inverse: "you have to pay for what you get". 

I just happened upon a stock photo website that sells, among other things, content from Jupiter's Photos.com. They don't offer subscriptions, just per image prices. The same images are offered there as on Photos.com and for the price of a Medium Image ($149.95) you could buy a one month subscription ($99.95) and get 7500 images at that size versus one

http://www.pixelmill.com/products/59242.htm

http://www.photos.com/en/search/close-up?oid=3168022&hoid=2b3555cc91b5fa0a58d9a8651f5182c7

Would StockXpert content (after August 4th) end up on the PixelMill web site for sale too? There are other Jupiter partners....

That same suitcase image shows up twice on a search on Inmagine:

http://www.inmagine.com/kss017/ks5457-photo

http://www.inmagine.com/itrb015/itrb015078-photo

In the first it's identified as a Comstock image and in the second as "Photoscom". Better still, the prices aren't the same!

As a buyer, this sort of stuff must make one's head spin. It's like you've jumped into some demented sales arena where you could pay wildly differing prices for the same content.

Perhaps some will look at this and see the possibility of a windfall and be thrilled. To me it seems like a very, very muddled situation with channels overlapping and competing with each other.

As part of the hoped for clarification from StockXpert, can they elaborate on where StockXpert images will end up other than Photos.com?

.

?

I will give it a chance for a month or two.......but if it starts looking bad...........I too will be deleting all of my 3,000 photos.......

Just curious, what do you expect to see after 2 months to make your decision ?

I sold 8 ELs at SS since last month for a total of $224.00. 

Now if I understand correcly, for those same ELs, SX is offering me $2.40!!!     

SS is my number 1 site (almost a tie with IS) and I am not about to burn the main hand that feeds me by undercutting their product. On a not too long term that would definitely be counterproductive to myself and all other contributors that have images on the major micro sites.

If this is true, the math speak for itself and I will be gone.

Denis

Truth be known, theres not a thing any of you can say or do to stop this train wreck happening. The writing woz on the wall ages a ago and all the hollerin an protesting is not going to make a dizzy of a difference. 10mp cams are so cheep now theres a queue behind y'all waiting to submit and they don't even care if they get paid or not. They just get a buzz from the whole community thing. Watch!

Anybody can buy a guitar, but not anybody I will be willing to listen to.
Denis

Truth be known, theres not a thing any of you can say or do to stop this train wreck happening. The writing woz on the wall ages a ago and all the hollerin an protesting is not going to make a dizzy of a difference. 10mp cams are so cheep now theres a queue behind y'all waiting to submit and they don't even care if they get paid or not. They just get a buzz from the whole community thing. Watch!

Bettyboop, and I thought I was pessimistic! Lots of folks here will avoid this train wreck by jumping off the train. At least the StockXpert one.  I have long maintained that we are moving into a commodity business with so much volume from so many wanna-bes.

I'm also thinking that knowing what to shoot and maintaining quality will still succeed over the multitudes you talk about with the cheap cams. Some have commented that the average payment per image is going up on some sites so not all the clouds have a crap lining. Long term, I hope that is true.

In most businesses quality rises to the top and the dregs get drained away into the sewer. I see no difference in microstock.