Author Topic: 2B or not 2B, exclusive (Read 4868 times)

Graffoto · « **on:** February 11, 2008, 16:48 »

I am currently submitting to four and soon to be five microstock sites.

After all of the differing disambiguation, description and title requirements, I am beginning to wonder if that is really the best road to hoe. I have the option of going exclusive at IS and there is also DT.

I really like the DT interface and ease of uploading, etc, etc.
But my gut instinct tells me that they do not have the massive client base of IS.

Anyone here gone exclusive at either of these sites and if so, what were your experiences? Did sales go up, down, flat?

araminta · « **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2008, 17:36 »

If you read the numerous posts concerning exclusivity, you will see that almost everybody advise not to become exclusive. This is a huge and risky bet on the future of microstock business.

And consider that Yuri Arcurs, Ron Chapple (iofoto) and many more top earners are not exclusive: there is a good reason for that I think.

The only site where exclusivity may be an option is IS, but only if you expect to quickly reach the level of Lise Gagne or Hidesy

Graffoto · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2008, 18:08 »

Araminta,

I see that you have over 7K of downloads from a portfolio of only 337 images! That is impressive to me.

What do you think you might have achieved if you had been an exclusive all this time at IS?

Also you mention a "Huge & Risky Bet", but my understanding is that one may opt out of being exclusive if it does not work out. Am I missing some fine print there somewhere?

OT, How do you get your lightboxes to show up at the bottom of your profile? I never have figured out how that is done.

Thanks,

Joe

sharply_done · « **Reply #3 on:** February 11, 2008, 18:11 »

Quote from: nosaya on February 11, 2008, 16:48

...I am beginning to wonder if that is really the best road to hoe. ...

I think you mean "row to hoe". "Road to hoe" can be interpreted as something else entirely different!

As far as being exculsive goes, I don't think it would be optimal to go this route until you are at least at gold level (10k DLs), or even higher. I'll be strongly considering exclusivity at IS when I hit diamond level in a year-and-a-bit.

Graffoto · « **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2008, 18:15 »

I'll leave the interpretation up to you

Phil · « **Reply #5 on:** February 11, 2008, 18:26 »

I think it would be only worthwhile with IS.

I wondered heavily in december when IS sales hit 48% of micro income was IS but then the reviewing drives me bonkers. so many overfiltered or this is not stock. most of my best sellers elsewhere are 'not stock' at IS and being exclusive they basically become delete jobs. It would also mean getting rid of macro RF (worth about 20% of micro sales).

IS is now back around 40% of micro. Personally it is too risky, too many images that do get accepted that sell well elsewhere sit at the bottom of search (and I go redo keywords etc) and barely sell. And they 'tweak' the search engine at times which affects how you place (around 6 months ago there were people complaining that had huge drops in sales virtually overnight because of a adustment)

I personally dont think it is worth it, but each to their own. I hope to later in the year expand the macro stuff with a couple more libraries and probably look at a test set with the StockXpert - jupiter thing.

Re; lightboxes

http://www.pdis.com.au/ubb.html

shows the code that you put in the description of your file. (the actual generator part of the page doesn't work for me I just copy the code with image number) takes a bit of * around to get the thumbs where you want them

Phil

Graffoto · « **Reply #6 on:** February 11, 2008, 18:56 »

Very well though out analysis RP.

I do get the 'overfiltered' comment from IS from time to time...but I always use an escape route in my processing, so I just dial back my top layer and re-submit. Seldom have a rejection after I do that. I have never had the 'not stock' rejection. Just lucky so far.

Other threads indicate that the exclusives on IS get a separate inspection queue that seems to let a lot more shots through.

I have noticed some shots that seldom sell on IS, do sell on DT or SS though. That is one reason not to go exclusive I suppose.

Hey, thanks for the UBB code link! Thats great

Thanks again,

-Joe

RT · « **Reply #7 on:** February 11, 2008, 19:25 »

I would go exclusive with iStock tomorrow if they allowed you to sell different images as RF on Macro agencies (other than Getty) as part of the deal.

araminta · « **Reply #8 on:** February 12, 2008, 03:34 »

Quote from: nosaya on February 11, 2008, 18:08

I see that you have over 7K of downloads from a portfolio of only 337 images! That is impressive to me.

It would be more impressive with more pictures in my portfolio

But I'm indeed pleased with IS as it is my top earners site with a quite smaller portfolio compared to other sites.

Quote from: nosaya on February 11, 2008, 18:08

What do you think you might have achieved if you had been an exclusive all this time at IS?

Not a lot much I guess as at my level the earnings would not be a lot higher being exclusive. And as IS reject more photo than other sites, I would have lost my earnings from the remaining 200 photos in my portfolio.

Quote from: nosaya on February 11, 2008, 18:08

Also you mention a "Huge & Risky Bet", but my understanding is that one may opt out of being exclusive if it does not work out. Am I missing some fine print there somewhere?

A guess you could, but you would have to rebuild your portfolio from scratch on other sites which would be a pain.

Quote from: nosaya on February 11, 2008, 18:08

OT, How do you get your lightboxes to show up at the bottom of your profile? I never have figured out how that is done.

This is just as sticky blog entry: you create lightboxes and put a link with a picture. The picture has to be hosted on an external site however.

Phil · « **Reply #9 on:** February 21, 2008, 20:21 »

gee, I saw the upload limits today and I really wonder about this. It would only be profitable at diamond level for me at the moment but to only upload to one site would nice, the one site that makes the most money. but... all the eggs in one basket...

Then again Yuri said the other day that 40% of earnings from istock, but it has less than 1/3rd of his portfolio and he would get 5x the upload limit, for someone like him he would likely increase his overall earnings within a few months of changing...

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