Most of us here are independants, some belonging to 6,7 even 8 sites, etc. Cant help wondering if this is all a banana peel? with the exeption of the big, say 5 or 6, sites, the rest is all a hassle. If its not dealing with dreadfull search-engines showing series of 15 similars on premiere pages, its upload problems or inlog problems or problems with this and that and the return, revenue wise is but a fraction.

Wouldnt it make more sense to concentrate dead-.hard on say 4 or 5 sites, giving it everything and more, instead of wasting precious time and effort on something which really doesnt work?

Its quite obvious that many of these sites are in it for a quick buck and then sod it, well thats a quick buck for them but for us its just a quick cent. There is an argument for exclusivity ofcourse but nowdays and in the Micro, thats like sitting on a time bomb.

If I go through my last two months, I find that after Gettys blunder with IS, sites like FT and SS, is just moving closer and closer to IS and if this trend keeps up, well in a years time they will have overthrown IS, no doubt at all.
Makes me think that instead of spreading files around, left, right and centre, wasting time and effort, maybe a few choosen would do better.

I would either be exclusive or spread my portfolio to all the sites that I can get a payout with.  Just sticking to 4 or 5 doesn't appeal to me, it might seem like they will always be the highest earners but who know what will happen in the future?  It wouldn't surprise me to see Veer or one of the others taking the place of one of the current top 5 and I would much rather have a big portfolio there when it happens than have to start from the bottom rung.  I can get several payouts a year from some of the lower earners for very little work, just uploading my portfolio.  Can't see the point in losing out on that.

Youre missing the point both of you!! if you gave up the small sites that just gave a payout, right. You would ofcourse have much more time over for the major earners, more time, resulting in much more uploads, in the long run resulting in more revenues!
You would have much more controle, much less hassle. I mean just think of an MR, going to say 7 differant sites and all with their own MR policies.

putting all eggs in one basket, is one saying but putting them in too many???  well look what happend to GM ( with 20 brands)

It makes sense.

Quote from: lagereek on November 19, 2010, 12:11

Wouldnt it make more sense to concentrate dead-.hard on say 4 or 5 sites, giving it everything and more, instead of wasting precious time and effort on something which really doesnt work?

No, it wouldn't.
We need at least 10 strong sites, or better 15. Otherwise the big ones will sc%# us without mercy. Or worse, getty will buy the remaining sites from the big 4 and then it's game over. You will have to be happy if they throw  you 1%. You will have to lick the crumbs off their table.

Of course, some of the low earners suck, some don't have enough budget to do marketing. The least we can do is to give them a chance and supply them. Some will fail, no doubt, the time that we have invested is in vain, but if we don't support the low earners get ready to be sc%#*$ by those con artists really hard.

Sorry but I really cant see SS, FT or DT, for that matter being bought up by Getty. Tell you the reason why, they might be owned by investment-bankers but even they have got a roof and at the moment the one and only company under the Getty umbrella which show a profit is in fact IS.
In any event, what youre reffering to is just plain old business that could happen to anybody, anytime, anyplace, just look at the automotive business, swapping hands every day.
If youre gonna play it that safe? afraid of takeovers, etc, you might as well not be in business at all.

I would either be exclusive or spread my portfolio to all the sites that I can get a payout with.  Just sticking to 4 or 5 doesn't appeal to me, it might seem like they will always be the highest earners but who know what will happen in the future?  It wouldn't surprise me to see Veer or one of the others taking the place of one of the current top 5 and I would much rather have a big portfolio there when it happens than have to start from the bottom rung.  I can get several payouts a year from some of the lower earners for very little work, just uploading my portfolio.  Can't see the point in losing out on that.

I agree. You can't tell what will happen in the future. FT is barely or not always in the top 4 for me lately. Who knows what will happen at IS next year and SS seems to be floundering. DT has been steady, but they nosedived last year. I could spend twice as much time working on new stuff and still get no results in the big 4. To me, it is quicker to gamble on some of the newer well paying agencies. Some of them pay off a lot better than increasing your portfolio.

I am taking into account my sales, expenses and time spent on microstock to estimate my hourly rate.
It is, of course, a very rough guess estimate, but it give me an idea how much one hour of my time is worth in microstock.
Then, I can use it to decide whether to submit or not to a low earning site depending
on how much time is needed for uploading and processing there.

Makes sense. I usually stop uploading to a site when the RPI drops below a certain amount.

I submit to the Big4 and the other ones that have an easy upload. On most of the low earners I have a payment once a year. It can be $50 or $500. It might not be much, but put together it's around 20% of my microstock income. And that is almost without any trouble at all because I only submit to the sites that have easiest uploading procedures (for example 123rf, Veer, Canstock, Scanstock, Crestock, Zoonar, Cutcaster and lately Graphicleftovers). My micro portfolio does not contain any recognizable people so I don't have any hassle with releases.

If low earners really would like people to upload more pics, they should skip the categories and other extra work! (nobody needs categories anyways)

Completely agree. That's what I was saying in this other thread:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/new-sites-general/if-i-were-a-low-earner-site/

If the upload process is really easy (FTP and forget...) and there are some sales, then it's worth for me. I only abandoned sites with near-zero sales (CC, FP).

Youre missing the point both of you!! if you gave up the small sites that just gave a payout, right. You would ofcourse have much more time over for the major earners, more time, resulting in much more uploads, in the long run resulting in more revenues! You would have much more controle, much less hassle

I FTP at night, so it's a very limited hassle. I am not cutting time from major earners.

Christian, I agree with you that right now the only sites worth expending a lot of energy on are the top 4.  I get 95% of my income from them.

OTOH, my productivity is pretty steady regardless of how many sites I upload to.  As mentioned by others, the smaller sites have extremely easy upload procedures. 

If I can get a payout every couple of months from the small sites then they are worth it for me. 

Quote from: Dook on November 19, 2010, 13:16

Quote from: lagereek on November 19, 2010, 12:35

Youre missing the point both of you!! if you gave up the small sites that just gave a payout, right. You would ofcourse have much more time over for the major earners, more time, resulting in much more uploads, in the long run resulting in more revenues!
You would have much more controle, much less hassle. I mean just think of an MR, going to say 7 differant sites and all with their own MR policies.

putting all eggs in one basket, is one saying but putting them in too many???  well look what happend to GM ( with 20 brands)

You mention Veer, as example,  sure!  but whats to say that Veer will still be around in a few years time? they certainly cant rely on Corbis to bail them, I can tell you that and with the going track, just look whats happend to many sites lately, StocXpert should have taught us a lesson.

There are 3 million pictures at CS, and maybe about the same at other low earners. The big ones have 4 times more. So, there are 75% microstock shooters thinking the same way you do. There was no real reason to start this topic at all.

well Dook!  stay out of it then!

I would stay out, but you asked for opinion of all of us (WE in the title). You don't have to be so ignorant just because  you don't like my opinion.

I think most of us upload to low earners cause we hope they will explode in sales one day, for some reason.
 For the same reason we stay there,  even though there�s no sales.  It�s the "What if... - syndrome"

I belive what Lagereek believ.   The time saved when skipping lowearners, would help improving the big 4 ports and give back more in the end. 

But what if... so i�m still with a few lowearners

I agree with what you are saying, Christian, and that's how I have been playing it. I submit to 6 right now, top and middle tier. I think my (and a lot of others�) whole game is going to change come January, so I reserve the right to change everything I have said and do something different!

You got some good stuff in your book!

Micro?  hardly the right way of selling and for us who remembers the Trad-agency days, well its down out blasphemy, isnt it? selling off the peg for peanuts BUT!  its qite fun and it can be pretty rewarding and its opend doors for many. We shouldnt knock it, its become a living for many.
Whats the alternative? as far as stock, I mean?  hanging around in some RM agency and wait for the ship to sink?

Thanks. I'm not really questioning the micro model because I don't really have any experience with RM and I know my stuff sells in this model. It's more things like: should I be selling subs, what's the ideal price, should I sell at agencies that are under x% royalty. Those kind of questions that seem to come up over and over again in this forum. I always respect people that stand up for their principles and don't sell at some of these places. But me, I'm always blinded by the money.

putting all eggs in one basket, is one saying but putting them in too many???  well look what happend to GM ( with 20 brands)

[/quote]
I agree, the top 4 give me at most 95% of my earnings.  I also upload to BS and 123RM but won't bother adding any others until they really prove themselves although Veer is tempting me at the moment.