MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => General - Top Sites => Topic started by: bobkeenan on June 16, 2009, 09:16
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Maybe this should go into the newbie section but it is in reference to the big 6 as well. I have only been at this for about 4 months and am all of the big 6 sites. All my images are posted as non-exclusive. Except I put a few into Fotolia just to see what would happen yesterday. But I have some questions.
1. Is there a best site for exclusive listings?
2. Any decision criteria where you would say.... this one needs to be exclusive.... and this one not.
3. Wouldn't it be easy to take a few shots of a good image but at a different angle, crop, lighting and then put an exclusive shot in that family of shots into each site that offers exclusivity.
Any other thoughts on exclusive photos?
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Any other thoughts on exclusive photos?
IMHO and in general, it's a bad idea. I would like to make one exception, and that is the DT assignment. I won it once, and in most other cases, the assignment image made me good money. It gets escalated to level 5 which means more return and more emphasis in the search engine. In other cases, don't consider exclusivity. You'll never know who's going to be next year's darling site. They all play with us, so let's play with them (sad but true). The worst you can do is go exclusive with Istock. You are not even allowed to sell your declined images elsewhere. In our middle ages ages in Europe, we called this serfdom. I'd rather die and only shoot weddings than be a slave. ;D
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3. Wouldn't it be easy to take a few shots of a good image but at a different angle, crop, lighting and then put an exclusive shot in that family of shots into each site that offers exclusivity.
Maybe you should check the exact terms and requirements. I would be surprised if companies offering additional payments to have no terms ruling this. Usually it should state something like "image exclusivity includes sister images which are defined by the same model in similar clothing, similar environment and/or using similar props". Claiming one image as exclusive and uploading a sister image somewhere else would most likely make you violate that contract.
(If somebody can prove me wrong, I'm always willing to learn ;) )
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3. Wouldn't it be easy to take a few shots of a good image but at a different angle, crop, lighting and then put an exclusive shot in that family of shots into each site that offers exclusivity.
I asked that same question once, anything from the same series or setup can't be exclusive if you are selling the similars elsewhere.
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Yep. You can't have your cake and eat it too,
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Any other thoughts on exclusive photos?
IMHO and in general, it's a bad idea. I would like to make one exception, and that is the DT assignment. I won it once, and in most other cases, the assignment image made me good money. It gets escalated to level 5 which means more return and more emphasis in the search engine. In other cases, don't consider exclusivity. You'll never know who's going to be next year's darling site. They all play with us, so let's play with them (sad but true). The worst you can do is go exclusive with Istock. You are not even allowed to sell your declined images elsewhere. In our middle ages ages in Europe, we called this serfdom. I'd rather die and only shoot weddings than be a slave. ;D
This DT assignment that requires all entries to be exclusive. If you did not win, can you Un-exclusive the image?
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why I cannot sell declined images (If I am an exclusive ) at other sites?
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why I cannot sell declined images (If I am an exclusive ) at other sites?
If you are talking about iStock, you cannot sell at other sites because you are an exclusive artist to iStock. Pretty simple.
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why I cannot sell declined images (If I am an exclusive ) at other sites?
Because that is part of the exclusive contract at istock, and if you signed the contract to be exclusive, you agreed to those clearly stated terms.
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why I cannot sell declined images (If I am an exclusive ) at other sites?
If you are talking about iStock, you cannot sell at other sites because you are an exclusive artist to iStock. Pretty simple.
You can sell the declined images elsewhere, but they cannot be Royalty free (RF), they need to be Rights managed (RM) ("L" or "RP" in Alamy)
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why I cannot sell declined images (If I am an exclusive ) at other sites?
If you are talking about iStock, you cannot sell at other sites because you are an exclusive artist to iStock. Pretty simple.
You can sell the declined images elsewhere, but they cannot be Royalty free (RF), they need to be Rights managed (RM) ("L" or "RP" in Alamy)
Thank you for clarifying that very important point, Perry. ;)
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I have 3 images that are exclusive with DT. One was due to it selling well on adt but not so much on other sites, and the other two I made exclusiv because they were immediately put into some kind of collection which gave them alot of exposure right from the outset.
I really like DT's approach to exclusivity on an image by image basis. I've thought at times about going exclusive with IS but their agreement is far too restrictive. If IS took the same approach as DT with exclusive images, Id definitely have exclusive images at IS too.
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I think that DT exclusivity is similarr to IS: You can't sell refused files to other agencies. What I don't know is if they are getting track of refused files and what happens if someone is selling them with other agencies. I know someone that is doing that with IS