Author Topic: have you changed much from 2005, 2007, 2008? (Read 3003 times)

etudiante_rapide · « **on:** July 31, 2014, 19:59 »

i just found a few interesting webpages on some of our famous ppl who are still with us on MSG...
snippets:-----
2005 sjlocke IStock 864images 21271 dls
2008 dreamstime Yuri Arcurs 7769 38729 dls lisafx 3128 17649 elenathewise 5359 18250
istock lise gagnon 5404 548862 andresr 1894 93993
lee torrens blog 2007 09
flickr the outrageously successful photosharing site sold to Yahoo. everyone is waiting to see whether they allow members to commercialize their portfolio.

now i compare the numbers to my own , and i feel like drinking a very large jug of ale...
very very strong ale

i take it that those numbers are of Mr. Locke,etc at their early stage of microstock.

and today, we are still looking to Flickr to commercialize their contributors portfolio.
that's 6 to 10 years ago.
what do you think? has the business changed much?

cthoman · « **Reply #1 on:** July 31, 2014, 20:04 »

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** July 31, 2014, 20:19 »

Well, I got about 960,000 downloads after that so ...

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #3 on:** July 31, 2014, 20:20 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on July 31, 2014, 20:19

Well, I got about 960,000 download after that so ...

that's another 960 jugs of strong ale for me!!!

Goofy · « **Reply #4 on:** July 31, 2014, 20:38 »

yes, all my (what little remains) hair is gray now and I weigh about 100 lbs more

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #5 on:** July 31, 2014, 20:43 »

Quote from: Goofy on July 31, 2014, 20:38

yes, all my (what little remains) hair is gray now and I weigh about 100 lbs more

yes, and taking Mr.Locke 960,000 dls to juxtapose your 100 lbs, i would say u you also earned more money from microstock to gain weight

seriously, i actually started out trying to find who the top 15 sites were on the right of this column in 2005, but ended up finding all these other infos.
how much of the 15 sites of retained their positions and where are they now.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #6 on:** July 31, 2014, 21:30 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 31, 2014, 19:59

...what do you think? has the business changed much?

Yes, a lot.

In some ways things have improved - I had an $82 license in with my subscription sales and on demand sales from Shutterstock today. I wouldn't have had that when I started with them in 2004

That was my entire September earnings from them in 2005.

When I started with 123rf I had to snail mail a paper contract to Inmagine and they made my account for me because things were just getting started for them. All they did then were subscriptions.

Fotolia was a promising newbie in 2005 - they really woke everyone up to the importance of offering a site in local languages and currencies. Possibly everyone would have figured that out in time, but the other sites followed them into localizaing their offerings. They have descended into a thuggish and unethical pit.

iStock improved a ton - I viewed 2010 as a banner year up until Sept of that year - and then turned to the dark side and is now worse - in terms of how things are for independent contributors than they were when I joined them. For so long they were the leader and they're now just a mess.

Dreamstime is just the little engine that couldn't. They (and CanStock) have been around since 2004 and neither of them could ever really get a good market position for themselves. They have a pricing system that makes iStock look simple and that I would think is just very confusing for credit (versus subscription buyers). They sold us subscriptions with the promise that it would earn more for higher level images and then backed away from that. They've cut our percentages drastically from the original 50% and none of that has been able to vault the agency into major player status.

Personally, my images are a ton better than they were when I started.

The agencies used to be more attentive to contributor concerns when they were newer and smaller and needed us more. The extent to which they have exploited their success to grab a larger share of the pie for themselves (and their private equity backers) is a real lesson in unfair trade.

Some of the agencies that were around in the early years have folded - Gimmestock, Albumo, Lucky Oliver, Snap Village, StockXpert, Pocketstock.... Some of them (like Albumo) not in the least bit lamented. Lots and lots never get off the ground, probably because they were just chasing a money maker versus had any real interest in building and running an agency.

It's hard to remember that once upon a time iStock, Dreamstime and CanStock were innovators.

So things are both better and worse than they were

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #7 on:** July 31, 2014, 21:55 »

wow, cheers Jo Ann. i had just finished writing a PM to someone telling him how i felt you are one of the main commentors here that i keep coming back to read. whether it is your view on checking a new agency, or some heady licensing issue which zips past my brain like some rocket science

and this is the sort of insight i was hoping to receive. is there really any hope for the future of microstock or are we, as according to some other thread, headed for disaster, since Shutterstock is more or less unchallenged with the absence of Istock , who used to be the only likely contender to dethrone SS. ie. until it self-destruct when it was sold to Getty.

Yes, personally, money is the impetus, and with what little time i have to assign to microstock,
i find only SStock has been making it worth my while to upload anything. still, lately, i find that the new images are not going anywhere, (as i look at the graph of the past 6 months, it truly looks like they are invisible).
but the old sellers still make it worth my while to prepare myself for autumn to maybe upload new work to SStock when the season of selling restarts.

i think too, dst shot themselves in the foot when they started to become more like a social media, having silly things like LIKE, add to facebook,etc. and to top it all, telling you that anything more than two similars are not wanted . they more or less cut their selling potential by reducing their future inventory. it is no surprise they are a sorry site. i am not affected much there, but i had several affliates who gave up all the other sites to become exclusive with dt . needless to say, they do not consider me a friend anymore for introducing dst to them (kicking myself here up my backside).

so i take it that not many of today's top 15 are from 2005,huh?
lastly, it is good consolation to at least know from your own experience, that Shutterstock today
is giving contributors something worthwhile, as you said,
$82 license= your entire Sept earning in 2005.

yes, i did get $82, once in a while, and i was complaining why it was not too often.
maybe i should have been there in 2004 to appreciate SS more today

ying and yang, let's hope the better outweighs the worse. Cheers again Jo Ann

PixelBytes · « **Reply #8 on:** July 31, 2014, 22:49 »

I got back pain, foot pain, weight gain, and gray hairs too like Goofy. Us dogs got alot in common.

But I got some extra cash for bills thanks to microstock. Less than I had couple years ago but more than I had back before I start selling.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #9 on:** August 01, 2014, 09:42 »

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 31, 2014, 19:59

now i compare the numbers to my own , and i feel like drinking a very large jug of ale...

Well deserved, I guess then...

etudiante_rapide · « **Reply #10 on:** August 01, 2014, 11:24 »

Quote from: MichaelJayFoto on August 01, 2014, 09:42

Quote from: etudiante_rapide on July 31, 2014, 19:59
now i compare the numbers to my own , and i feel like drinking a very large jug of ale...

Well deserved, I guess then...

yes Michael. i was just looking at say, Lise Gagnon , who as i said is from my very own "hood" a big inspiration to me,
just those two side by side numbers to extrapolate...
lise gagnon 5404 548862 andresr 1894 93993
%age is almost identical...

that is truly impressive . and this is after how many years with IStock till then?
wow !... waitress another jug please