Author Topic: Introducing a newly independent Istocker (Read 6709 times)

Microbius · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2012, 06:27 »

Congrats, I think it's always wise to spread your risk across sites.

sobm · « **Reply #2 on:** February 03, 2012, 06:39 »

i like some of your natural pictures,they are no photoshop edited, so original!!
bTW, congrats to be the independent

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2012, 07:22 »

Quote from: Alvinge on February 03, 2012, 06:11

So when i got independent, i registered at ALL(almost) other microstock sites. I uploaded about 230 of my best work to something like 25 sites. I bit overkill when i look in the mirror. I used the wonderful tool picworkflow. But it was a lot of work anyway... I got a lot of new images made in the process which was good!

The inspections went quite ok. I got between 60 and 230 files accepted on the different sites. About 120 on average maybe.

Interesting about the varying acceptances.
Can I be really nosey and ask whether, in general, it was the same files that were accepted by most of the agencies, or were the accepted files different between the agencies? Or is it far to hard to keep track of over 25 sites?

Good luck!

SA · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2012, 08:06 »

luissantos84 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 03, 2012, 08:19 »

Sure, you did well, your income wasn´t big enough to take risks, aren´t you in Dreamstime?

SA · « **Reply #6 on:** February 03, 2012, 08:22 »

Oh, I forgot to include dreamstime. Gonna insert it now in the original post. Thanks luissantos!

Wim · « **Reply #7 on:** February 03, 2012, 09:22 »

Quote

- Istock kept rejecting my "more creative" work where I had done to much in photoshop, according to them.

Annoying isn't it, they are the only ones rejecting these kind of images. I got fed up with it and stopped sending them my composites.

Welcome to the underground Simon

dcdp · « **Reply #8 on:** February 03, 2012, 15:06 »

I'm in the same boat, but about a month behind you. I dropped my exclusivity from iStock in late January after being there since late 2007 and am in the 30 day waiting period. I have about 800 images on iStock and get about 150-200 DL a month generating around $600 to $700 a month with a BME around $800. I had never used the PP although I have opted in and my files went across at he start of February.

I have started uploading to SS with my files in "opt-out" status. So far I have been testing the waters and uploading older files and "test" files which are basically trying to find out what works and what doesn't. So far I've had 75 out of 110 accepted including some files that were rejected series' that were repeatedly on iStock for reasons that I considered ridiculous.

Unlike you I'm not going to go nuts and upload to lots of sites. I will probably upload to DT and one or two of the others, but not FT as I see so much bad comment about the way they run their business and the way they treat their contributors that I feel it's not worth it.

StockCube · « **Reply #9 on:** February 03, 2012, 15:27 »

Welcome to IndieLand Dave, I wouldn't advise uploading any more to SS til your crown has dropped as it really seems to trash the best match position. You have good acceptance rates there though so you are obviously doing something right.
Best of luck with it,
Bridget

luissantos84 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 03, 2012, 16:00 »

Quote from: dcdp on February 03, 2012, 15:06

Unlike you I'm not going to go nuts and upload to lots of sites. I will probably upload to DT and one or two of the others, but not FT as I see so much bad comment about the way they run their business and the way they treat their contributors that I feel it's not worth it.

if you really wanna get into the same earnings level perhaps you will need to join FT and perhaps a few more too, only SS will give you "big" buck other won´t so you need to pile up..

dcdp · « **Reply #11 on:** February 03, 2012, 16:09 »

Quote from: StockCube on February 03, 2012, 15:27

Welcome to IndieLand Dave, I wouldn't advise uploading any more to SS til your crown has dropped as it really seems to trash the best match position. You have good acceptance rates there though so you are obviously doing something right.
Best of luck with it,
Bridget

Yeah thanks Bridget, I had heard about how early uploads might cause problems. I have stopped uploading for now I really wanted to get a feel for what works and what doesn't so I could prioritise keywording with the rest of my images. I'm happy with the acceptance rates given all of the images are at least a year or two old with the exception of a few newer renders where I wanted to see what would be accepted and what wouldn't. I was very pleased to see that a couple of my renders that I thought were very strong concepts were accepted when iStock rejected them purely because they didn't meet their arbitrary and inconsistently enforced "standards".

The only concern I have is with the seemingly rigid enforcement of copyright when relating to mobile phones. As you know I have a lot of images on iStock with phones in them. In most cases the fascia of the phone is changed to be little more than a blank square. Even this type of image has been rejected on SS despite numerous other examples in the SS library. Anyone know any tricks for what gets accepted and what doesn't and why not?

StockCube · « **Reply #12 on:** February 03, 2012, 16:13 »

I would make good use of the 'comments' box when submitting to explain this as fully as you can. I have found SS inspectors to take a very reasonable approach when in full possession of the facts - otherwise they are bound to be cautious - just because they don't recognise a mobile phone doesn't mean it has been 'made up'

SA · « **Reply #13 on:** February 04, 2012, 03:26 »

pro@stockphotos · « **Reply #14 on:** February 04, 2012, 08:54 »

Quote from: Simon Alvinge on February 03, 2012, 06:11

Hello Microstock Forum!

My name is Simon I am an old istock-contributor that took the decision to go independent in December last year. I dont know if I mad the right call, but i guess i will find out in the nearest couple of months.

       Images-Days online-Downloads-Royalty $
Istock non-E 241   33   18   33,2
Istock partners 231   31   29   11,0
Shutterstock 112   61   147   76,5
123RF      132   73   23   16,8
Fotolia 69   77   20   7,4
Bigstockphoto 132   77    8    8,9
Photodune    78    71 6 7,7
Dreamstime 118   77   16   6,29
DepositPhotos 181   78   14   5,9
Veer 116   52   4   3,9
Canstockphoto 172   78   5   4,3

Total 274   175,4

/Simon

WOW!! It's right there in the numbers reported on what is a small portfolio that tells you everything you need to know about what is happening in the microstock. I would have never guessed the marketplace would promote the cheapest site out there if the suppliers failed to protect their pricing structure. Look at the sales at the cheap-a$$ SS. A whopping $.52 per download. Why aren't indies worried about this trend if they were smart enough not to be exclusive with istock. As SS becomes more dominant say good bye to your other baskets and any decent $$$$ for your files. And there is no way SS can raise their pricing with IS blocking them with TS.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2012, 09:08 »

Quote from: pro@stockphotos on February 04, 2012, 08:54

A whopping $.52 per download.

are you serious? I believe you haven´t seeing January stats here, they can pay 52 cents or whatever but its way more than IS is capable these days

I am not saying that 52 cents is good but its actually where the money is so you get it or zero from IS

Freedom · « **Reply #16 on:** February 04, 2012, 14:51 »

Why do you only have a small number of images on IS? If you were not uploading a lot to IS, do you think you will be able to uploading a lot to multiple agencies?

I think Luissanto's numbers show how hard it is to be an indie.

He is very productive. That being said, with 3391 images on SS, he made less than $500 in a month. The total income for five agencies was $853.01 in Sept, 11 (his best month), where he had around 3000 images per agency except IS (998).

I have no desire to talk him into IS exclusivity, but I am very sure he will do much much better as an IS exclusive.

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Author Topic: Introducing a newly independent Istocker (Read 6709 times)

SA

Microbius

sobm

ShadySue

SA

luissantos84

SA

Wim

dcdp

StockCube

luissantos84

dcdp

StockCube

SA

pro@stockphotos

luissantos84

Freedom

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