Author Topic: istock Exclusive Earnings Rating 307.7 ? (Read 12637 times)

heywoody · « **Reply #26 on:** April 22, 2014, 15:46 »

I'm sure some do manipulate the poll but I also believe the IS exclusive figure. However as Chromaco said and as I've pointed out previously, it's a skewed number because it's a different constituencey

enstoker · « **Reply #27 on:** April 22, 2014, 15:56 »

Tick no worries,
Math & logic, makes world go round, makes world go round...

wds · « **Reply #28 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:07 »

How exactly are these "earnings ratings" calculated?

tickstock · « **Reply #29 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:14 »

cobalt · « **Reply #30 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:21 »

When I was exclusive I don't think I ever took part in the msg poll. And lots of exclusives don't participate here. They used to be heavily focussed on the istock forums, now this has shifted to various facebook groups.

Those more active in the wider community seem to be doing stock full time or at least it is a major part of their income. So I am not surprised that they are reporting high income on msg from istock.

What would be interesting if there was a regular poll for earnings on istock itself and then to compare these results with an equivalent mix of indies.

Looking at my own results I think if you put in the same amount of work you will be earning around the same as a full time indie.

However the number is still interesting because it should give an insight how well people are doing on istock as exclusives. Especially in the coming months with subscriptions it will be important to see if earnings remain about the same, or if they go down ( or up?).

But you cannot use the number to predict how well your portfolio would do if you went exclusive. You will see a rise in income, but not 10 times more. At least I have never seen that.

wds · « **Reply #31 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:51 »

Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 09:14

Quote from: wds on April 23, 2014, 09:07
How exactly are these "earnings ratings" calculated?
People enter their earnings each month. If you enter $0-$2500+ you get averaged. The numbers in the "earnings rating" range from 0-500, 500 equals an average of $2500 so each point is equal to $5. There are structural problems with the poll so it shouldn't be taken as 100% accurate.

So this is about a 9 to 1 ratio (308/35) for iStock exclusive/non-exclusive. Would any folks who recently went from exclusive to non-ex care to comment on whether they saw a roughly 9 to 1 drop in their iStock earnings?

tickstock · « **Reply #32 on:** April 23, 2014, 09:55 »

wds · « **Reply #33 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:01 »

Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 09:55

Quote from: wds on April 23, 2014, 09:51
Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 09:14
Quote from: wds on April 23, 2014, 09:07
How exactly are these "earnings ratings" calculated?
People enter their earnings each month. If you enter $0-$2500+ you get averaged. The numbers in the "earnings rating" range from 0-500, 500 equals an average of $2500 so each point is equal to $5. There are structural problems with the poll so it shouldn't be taken as 100% accurate.

So this is about a 9 to 1 ratio (308/35) for iStock exclusive/non-exclusive. Would any folks who recently went from exclusive to non-ex care to comment on whether they saw a roughly 9 to 1 drop in their iStock earnings?
There are people who did. The drop in royalty rate, the lower sale price per image, no more GI sales etc.. are some of the ways that happens. Just looking at those factors it's easy to see a big drop 50% royalty rate and S+ to M is a drop from 60 credits for XXXL to 7. An XXXL S+ sale would go from about 30 dollars to 2 dollars.

No doubt, there would be a precipitous drop, but it would be nice to hear it from folks that actually went through the experience.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #34 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:02 »

Quote from: wds on April 23, 2014, 09:51

So this is about a 9 to 1 ratio (308/35) for iStock exclusive/non-exclusive. Would any folks who recently went from exclusive to non-ex care to comment on whether they saw a roughly 9 to 1 drop in their iStock earnings?

No. Definitely not 9:1. If I would make 9 times more as an exclusive than I do now as a non-exclusive, I would go back to exclusivity right away (well, I couldn't really due to other contractual obligations... but it's a hypothetical question anyways)

For me, the immediate drop was 4:1 which was later even less as more PP income was added to my iStock royalties.

tickstock · « **Reply #35 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:04 »

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #36 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:10 »

Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 10:04

I think you did better than most, I've seen most people say they went down 80-90%. I also wouldn't expect the jump from going exclusive to be as much as the drop from leaving because getting files into S+ and Vetta is more difficult than losing them.

Yes, you keep saying that. I wonder if you can dig out some of the people mentioning those numbers?!?

Also, let me re-state that: Had I ever have any hopes that I would make 9 times more as an exclusive than I do now as a non-exclusive, I would never have left exclusivity.

And yes, the lacking options to get new content into Vetta or S+ makes going exclusive at this point far less attractive.

wds · « **Reply #37 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:11 »

Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 10:04

Quote from: MichaelJayFoto on April 23, 2014, 10:02
Quote from: wds on April 23, 2014, 09:51
So this is about a 9 to 1 ratio (308/35) for iStock exclusive/non-exclusive. Would any folks who recently went from exclusive to non-ex care to comment on whether they saw a roughly 9 to 1 drop in their iStock earnings?

No. Definitely not 9:1. If I would make 9 times more as an exclusive than I do now as a non-exclusive, I would go back to exclusivity right away (well, I couldn't really due to other contractual obligations... but it's a hypothetical question anyways)

For me, the immediate drop was 4:1 which was later even less as more PP income was added to my iStock royalties.
I think you did better than most, I've seen most people say they went down 80-90%. I also wouldn't expect the jump from going exclusive to be as much as the drop from leaving because getting files into S+ and Vetta is more difficult than losing them. I know you left before GI sales were big, at least for me they didn't become a major factor until the second quarter of 2013.

On the other hand, getting new files into GI at this point is near impossible for most people, so the GI benefit will fade and disappear over time. The truth is, there are so many changes as time goes on, that it is hard to draw any firm conclusions...the proverbial "moving target"

Ron · « **Reply #38 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:13 »

Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 10:04

Quote from: MichaelJayFoto on April 23, 2014, 10:02
Quote from: wds on April 23, 2014, 09:51
So this is about a 9 to 1 ratio (308/35) for iStock exclusive/non-exclusive. Would any folks who recently went from exclusive to non-ex care to comment on whether they saw a roughly 9 to 1 drop in their iStock earnings?

No. Definitely not 9:1. If I would make 9 times more as an exclusive than I do now as a non-exclusive, I would go back to exclusivity right away (well, I couldn't really due to other contractual obligations... but it's a hypothetical question anyways)

For me, the immediate drop was 4:1 which was later even less as more PP income was added to my iStock royalties.
I think you did better than most, I've seen most people say they went down 80-90%. I also wouldn't expect the jump from going exclusive to be as much as the drop from leaving because getting files into S+ and Vetta is more difficult than losing them. I know you left before GI sales were big, at least for me they didn't become a major factor until the second quarter of 2013.

When? In their first month probably.

tickstock · « **Reply #39 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:18 »

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #40 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:33 »

Quote from: tickstock on April 23, 2014, 10:18

I think Camrocker said he was down 90%. Lucato said he was down 80%. I'd have to dig a little bit to get more than that. The more S+, Vetta and GI sales you have the bigger the drop is going to be. If you have almost none of those then it won't be as bad.

Yes, I remember lucato and the 80%. That was about the drop I expected as I had read about the same in the past. Can't really recollect any details either.

And the difference between 80 and 90% might sound marginal. But factually it means that you are left with either 10 or 20% of your former royalties, that's a difference of double or half.

ShadySue · « **Reply #41 on:** April 23, 2014, 10:40 »

Quote from: MichaelJayFoto on April 23, 2014, 10:10

And yes, the lacking options to get new content into Vetta or S+ makes going exclusive at this point far less attractive.

Not to mention the long-standing problem of new files hardly getting seen, which most contributors are experiencing. There was one very high ranking BD (at one time was in the top 5 on the site, don't know about now) who hadn't uploaded for almost a full year, yet their most recent 200 uploads had about 15 dls between them. [They have just started uploading again, I see, in the past few days - maybe they were ill (?)]

cobalt · « **Reply #42 on:** April 23, 2014, 11:11 »

I also saw a drop of around 80% when I gave up exclusivity but with only 700 files on the bigger sites and less on the smaller ones I am at around 35-50% (depends strongly on extended licenses and video sales) of my former earnings. I think if I had uploaded much more vigorously to Shutterstock directly I could have reached a much higher level by now. Michael got his income back in 6 months, but I doubt many people are as well organized and disciplined as him.

Some time in summer I´ll be able to focus full time on stock again, so the next 18 months will be interesting. The opportunities of an indie are amazing, but I understand it is not for everyone.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #43 on:** April 25, 2014, 02:23 »

What just popped up in my head is another question that could explain the steeper than (I) expected difference between exclusive and non-exclusive: I assume that most people fill out the Poll at the start of the month. When I do that, I usually add some allowance to my iStock earnings for the PP that will be added later in the month. But I guess not everyone is doing that. So there might be a part of the overall income missing and not being represented at all but it would mostly be added to the iStock non-exclusive part.

Also another consideration: There are quite a few people who quit uploading to iStock but still kept their images they already had. Or at least part of the images. I know a couple people who have many thousand images on Shutter & Co but only 20 per cent of their portfolio on iStock. For those people it would be natural to make less money on iStock compared to what they would make with their full portfolio.

This would at least also explain my personal experience that while Shutterstock is now my #1 earner, iStock including the PP is still close to them, definitely not less than half of what Shutter makes. But for me it's the other way around: I still have more images in my iStock portfolio than everywhere else because I have quite some images (including some good sellers) that I can't upload anywhere else because they were shot at minilypses.

In my personal experience, iStock would rate somewhere in the 60's in this poll. This would match everything else pretty well: The 80% drop from exclusivity, closer to Shutterstock but far ahead of Fotolia and Dreamstime.

MichaelJayFoto · « **Reply #44 on:** April 25, 2014, 02:25 »

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Author Topic: istock Exclusive Earnings Rating 307.7 ? (Read 12637 times)

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