I don't usually hang out in the iStock forums (fora?). The 'Gee! Wow! That's way too cool iStock!' tone is vomit-inducing, and I like to keep my meals inside me.   

But people on here have been mentioning a slow down in sales with IS lately.

For some reason (I've forgotten why I did it now) I did go on, and I came across this thread ...

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=57785&page=1

Interesting?

And it's been locked, too.

Glad you liked it.  It was locked because they directed all outage discussion here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=57796&page=1

Okay ...

... now I'm doubly glad I didn't go exclusive.

iStock has a lot of problems. In my world, they're losing market shares, and it started long before the current technical problems. I've had sinking sales there since April, but what is even more interesting is that, when I watch my weekly sales statistics, the sales of Fotolia and StockXpert is getting closer and closer. Dreamstime is already up there om iStock level, partly due to regular EL's. Never had any of those at IS.

I don't have a clue why this is happening, and discussing it on the IS forums is obviously a no-go, unless I want a lecture in religious idioms for stock photographers.

Maybe their "community spirit" doesn't match the real world when the organisation reaches a certain size.

Strange, I get EL's with istock but have never had one with dreamstime.

I have enjoyed reading the linked threads and came across this letter from a loyal istock contibutor,

"We should not complain too much and just be patienced. Staff will make all to get things in right way.

iStock is the best lever to earn money - one day off is nothing if you just think there is no istock what would you do, where would you share photos and get reviews, where would you meet so many friends worldwide, would you get money to buy gear, where would you get happiness looking at numbers of sales ...

So we just have to be thankful for letting us to enjoy all those benefits in this global community.
istock will maybe reward us somehow (don't forget rewards on Punctum day). We are rewarded with just that iStock exists.


So viva iStock - I love you!  "

Guess I never spent enough time on the forums there to realize what a "club" it was over there. 
Rosta

Yeah, the ra-ra club.

strange enough sept will be my BME on IS.  But yet SS and ST will be a BME too.

I do understand those who went exclusive a few years ago, that made sense back then.  But I don't understand why someone would go exclusive nowadays.

firstly, it doesn't pay off.  IS makes only around 35% of the total income of those who contribute to multiple sites.  So even when you double your royalties (diamond) you're still losing money.

Secondly, it doesn't seem wise to put all your eggs in one basket in such a rapid changing business as stock photography is today.

There is only one reason why I could understand someone goes exclusive.  And that is the improved protections when you're images are misused.  BUT ... does anyone has ever heard of legal actions taken by IS to copyright offenders ?

There are 2 pirate CD's going around with only IS images on.  Is IS taking legal actions ? 

I don't know ...

Quote from: Perrush on September 26, 2007, 16:16

I do understand those who went exclusive a few years ago, that made sense back then.  But I don't understand why someone would go exclusive nowadays.

firstly, it doesn't pay off.  IS makes only around 35% of the total income of those who contribute to multiple sites.  So even when you double your royalties (diamond) you're still losing money.

I think you are writing from your personal experience. Right now I have well over 50% of my income from iStock (it is around 60%). I have pretty much the same pictures on 5 of the big sites (I don't have pics on StockXpert).
SO if I would be at the diamond level I would go exclusive now (I am bronze now).
I am not particularly huge fan of istock but they do make the most money for me right now. And I don't blame them for treating exclusives better than the rest of us, exclusives are the reason iStock is #1 site (sales wise).

Maco,  of course there are exceptions.  But as you can see in the table under 7.1
http://www.perrush.be/SYF_micro_E_7.html
IS is for most of us not the big seller.  At average on 23% comes from IS.

Quote from: Perrush on September 26, 2007, 18:56
Maco,  of course there are exceptions.  But as you can see in the table under 7.1
http://www.perrush.be/SYF_micro_E_7.html
IS is for most of us not the big seller.  At average on 23% comes from IS.

You're citing yourself.  Since those stats don't actually mean anything (13 people is not a proper sample for the number of contributors) I wouldn't have even published them let alone relied on them to make any meaningful conclusions.

P.S. If you add my stats from pre-exclusive then your stats would change drastically.

Hey yingyang0,

What made you go exclusive at iStock at bronze level? Were you really making so much on iStock that the loss of other agencies didn't matter?
Or you just didn't want to deal with so many different places?

Going exclusive with IS now, only makes sense for some of the photographers with a relatively low production. With a large production, and due to the upload limits at IS (at the moment: zero), the portfolio at other sites will always be much bigger than that on IS. For the "old" exclusives, the situation is entirely different. They built their portfolios when the upload limits were much higher, and due to their "elevated" status, they can still upload more or less as much as they want.

The earnings per photo may be better at IS (in my case, they aren't), but that doesn't matter much if your portfolio is much smaller.

There's also the case of rejects and photos selling at different speeds at different agencies. I have photos that sell great at some agencies, but haven't sold a single copy at IS, and the other way around.

Quote from: epixx on September 26, 2007, 21:12
Going exclusive with IS now, only makes sense for some of the photographers with a relatively low production. With a large production, and due to the upload limits at IS (at the moment: zero), the portfolio at other sites will always be much bigger than that on IS. For the "old" exclusives, the situation is entirely different. They built their portfolios when the upload limits were much higher, and due to their "elevated" status, they can still upload more or less as much as they want.

The earnings per photo may be better at IS (in my case, they aren't), but that doesn't matter much if your portfolio is much smaller.

There's also the case of rejects and photos selling at different speeds at different agencies. I have photos that sell great at some agencies, but haven't sold a single copy at IS, and the other way around.

Epixx,

Do you consider yourself as someone with high production. I looked at your IS portfolio and you have 444 files and you have been there since March 2006. Do you max out the upload limit?

I would really like to know how many people max out the upload limit (I can see Yuri Arcus, Phil Date,...). Maybe if you just sign up and have 200-300 files to upload it suck but after a year you should have good amount of pictures there.

I am just curious. I wish I had enough time to process enough pictures to use the upload limit.

Quote from: maco0708 on September 26, 2007, 21:32
Epixx,

Do you consider yourself as someone with high production. I looked at your IS portfolio and you have 444 files and you have been there since March 2006. Do you max out the upload limit?

I would really like to know how many people max out the upload limit (I can see Yuri Arcus, Phil Date,...). Maybe if you just sign up and have 200-300 files to upload it suck but after a year you should have good amount of pictures there.

I am just curious. I wish I had enough time to process enough pictures to use the upload limit.

My production is much larger than the iStock upload limit, but not all the time. I'm travelling a lot, and only spend around two weeks of each month at home, which is where I do my uploads. That means that, since the iStock limits are on a weekly basis, I lose lots of upload slots.

This is actually my biggest gripe with iStock. Their whole system is based on photographers who stay at home, reading the forums and uploading as soon as there's an available upload slot. That works for some, but is a serious limitation for me.

Most professional photographers with a studio can obviously produce much more than the initial quotas offered, and since images are often made in batches over a period of at least a couple of days, adapting to small, weekly quotas, conflicts with most normal work-flows, particularly when those quotas are changed without warning on a very frequent basis.

I have btw. discussed this on their forums on several occasions. For some strange reason though, they don't seem to be willing to adapt their system to my personal needs   

Quote from: maco0708 on September 26, 2007, 19:32
Hey yingyang0,

What made you go exclusive at iStock at bronze level? Were you really making so much on iStock that the loss of other agencies didn't matter?
Or you just didn't want to deal with so many different places?

I was on SS and a few others before and it just wasn't worth the effort to me. If you care about your total revenue then it wouldn't make financial sense (IS only accounted for 72% of total). Frankly, I only joined the microstocks to get acquainted with the licenses and business models in order to do work for a client. My main reason for staying with iStock even with the problems would be for image security reasons. I know if it didn't come from iStock then it was stolen and since I register the copyright to all my images before submitting them it would make for an easy case of infringement with the possibility of a decent amount of damages. Epixx made a great observation that it wouldn't make sense for high production people, that's not me.

I'm not a fan of their forums though. It is amazing that every time they post about there outages and problems people actually congratulate an thank them. Especially the diamond exclusives that depend on iStock for a living.

Quote from: yingyang0 on September 27, 2007, 03:52
I'm not a fan of their forums though. It is amazing that every time they post about there outages and problems people actually congratulate an thank them. Especially the diamond exclusives that depend on iStock for a living.

I know numerous people who sell on istock for a living on some level (meaning at least 50% of their income comes from it).  I have very few images on it and don't participate in their forums because it seems too clickish for me, but everyone I know who's really into it has told me they've had a huge loss of sales in the last year, and it's gotten worse in the last few months.  Two of them were banned from the boards for basically going in and demanding that istock stop screwing around with their system workings and stop being so cool to their nonexclusives.  Seems like there is certainly trouble in paradise over there.  It's just a classic case of a company wanting to grow too fast for their own good - in the real world that's how companies get in trouble and many times, fall.  A slow stready growth is always the best.  Trying for the leaps-and-bounds stuff just leads to troubles.  That's why even in the last 24 hours after weeks of problems, it was still nearly impossible to even log on over there for at least an hour.   I do feel for those who went exclusive with them and who rely heavily on the income, but hey, if you choose to put all your stock in one company, and it tumbles - it was your choice.

Quote from: yingyang0 on September 27, 2007, 03:52
I'm not a fan of their forums though. It is amazing that every time they post about there outages and problems people actually congratulate an thank them. Especially the diamond exclusives that depend on iStock for a living.

What I find particularly annoying with some of the attitudes I see at the forums, particularly when questions about upload quotas come up, is the fact that most of those diamond members built their portfolios when upload limits were much higher. Sometimes I get a feeling that they are saying "since you didn't become a member when we started out, you are not one of us, and should be thankful that you are allowed in here at all."

Many of them are great photographers, but there's no greatness in the way they treat newcomers.

Oh, and btw: after first week of October, IS is 35% behind DT and 70% behind SS for me. If the sales continue at the same level, the result will be about the same level as September, but that's only because there are 3 or 4 more working days in October   

I noticed that in the last two days. The search engine work half of the time. I tried many times whit different settings and it say there is no files matching whit the search.

Then it work again after an hour or two and suddenly the next search doesn't ? Is this just me ?

So IS has search problems too?  (*sigh*)

Regards,
Adelaide

i have not been around forums recently and have not uploaded recently too.....but sales have dropped drastically since Feb/Apr period....i am only at 25% or less of what I sell and it was much in the first place.....sigh.,...i am glad i am not exclusive

Well here's my experience this year.

This is a dumb question I know, but how do I go into istock and do a chart like the one above, only I want to print out let's say, the last 12 months, or the last 15 months, etc?

Quote from: digitalshooter on October 08, 2007, 05:36
This is a dumb question I know, but how do I go into istock and do a chart like the one above, only I want to print out let's say, the last 12 months, or the last 15 months, etc?

Go to your member profile, then click on the "stats" tab.

Here's another question:
I tried to attach my own stats to a reply in this thread, but it wasn't possible. Do I have to host it somewhere to do that?

Yep.