Quote from: RapidEye on December 27, 2011, 08:04

Quote from: ayzek on December 27, 2011, 07:50
This best match will give a boost to exclusives but also will makes life harder who plans to throw their crown.

If there is a cunning plan behind this, this could be it.

Anyway, whatever it means, my sales seem normal for the time of year. Go figure.

Maybe the other "cunning plan" is to try to stop the bleeding off of sales to the cheaper sites.  Obviously what has been good for the independent over the last 3 years has not been good for the exclusive.  Independents have been reporting the rising sales at other sites and the falling sales at istock.   As an independent you have a not all my eggs in one basket approach.  The same approach for istock would be to mitigate this loss of sales to competing sites.  As an exclusive I hope what ever actions istock takes makes you object.  If you are in agreement with their policies it can't be good for exclusives.   

Quote from: jsnover on December 27, 2011, 15:26
I'm going to have to think about this a bit more - what else would a visit to the dentist be good for? - but in the current best match state, I'm tempted to remove all my iStock bestsellers while they're still not on ThinkStock/photos.com.

Right now I'm still at 14 files (of about 2,500) migrated to Thinkstock. I have no idea, given how broken the "connector" has been to date, how long it'd take to remove files from there once I remove them from iStock. Given how totally buried my bestsellers are, if they're not going to make sales at iStock, why give them to Thinkstock and make less than almost anywhere else on a subs sale or two? Seems like a window to take advantage of, unless this current best match makes a huge left turn after the new year - if it was just some sort of year end hail mary pass trying to get (some?) exclusives' RC totals up.

+1
You read my mind.

Quote from: RapidEye on December 27, 2011, 08:04

Quote from: ayzek on December 27, 2011, 07:50
This best match will give a boost to exclusives but also will makes life harder who plans to throw their crown.

If there is a cunning plan behind this, this could be it.

Anyway, whatever it means, my sales seem normal for the time of year. Go figure.

mine too. nothing fabulous, nothing scary. typical Christmas week here

Quote from: jsnover on December 27, 2011, 15:26
I'm going to have to think about this a bit more - what else would a visit to the dentist be good for? - but in the current best match state, I'm tempted to remove all my iStock bestsellers while they're still not on ThinkStock/photos.com.

Right now I'm still at 14 files (of about 2,500) migrated to Thinkstock. I have no idea, given how broken the "connector" has been to date, how long it'd take to remove files from there once I remove them from iStock. Given how totally buried my bestsellers are, if they're not going to make sales at iStock, why give them to Thinkstock and make less than almost anywhere else on a subs sale or two? Seems like a window to take advantage of, unless this current best match makes a huge left turn after the new year - if it was just some sort of year end hail mary pass trying to get (some?) exclusives' RC totals up.

I am still seeing a thin dribble sales (one today so far), but atypically nothing for Christmas eve/Day, and not the buried best sellers...

Joanne!  thats exactly what I have done, I have deleted about 90 files, blue and red flames, best-sellers, simply because I dont want them at TS, selling for a pittance. Im not that money hungry.

I negotiated a good deal for them elsewhere and sure enough they are already bringing in lots of revenues.
Im afraid as far as I can see, this is the only way to go,  once in on TS, theyre gone. Further more, since this corporation cant be trusted,  who is to say they wont get locked? or something else, stupid will happen to them. You dont want to take a chance with these people.

Quote from: lagereek on December 27, 2011, 18:51
I have deleted about 90 files, blue and red flames, best-sellers, simply because I dont want them at TS, selling for a pittance. Im not that money hungry.

I negotiated a good deal for them elsewhere and sure enough they are already bringing in lots of revenues.
Im afraid as far as I can see, this is the only way to go,  once in on TS, theyre gone. Further more, since this corporation cant be trusted,  who is to say they wont get locked? or something else, stupid will happen to them. You dont want to take a chance with these people.

They won't lock it, they'll just say they have a problem with the connector (they sure can back it up with tons of past problems, it'll even look believable to many ppl). I bet it'll be indefinitely for every file that has at least some DLs, while they'll delete no to very low sellers and say they're doing their best at the same time.

Quote from: RapidEye on December 27, 2011, 08:04

Quote from: ayzek on December 27, 2011, 07:50
This best match will give a boost to exclusives but also will makes life harder who plans to throw their crown.

If there is a cunning plan behind this, this could be it.

Anyway, whatever it means, my sales seem normal for the time of year. Go figure.

After the RC thing I can believe the cunning part. I'm not so sure about the plan though.
Sales are normal for Christmas. (hopeless in other words) Nothing on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day which is unusual, but even so normally only one or two. Very slow at a couple of sales yesterday and today. Someone else I know is also very slow. I expect the best match to be put back to "normal" (whatever that is) when they get back to work. When's that. Tomorrow?
A lot of people will have this week off anyway, and it will be the second working week in January I expect before things will be "business as usual"

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:01

Quote from: lagereek on December 27, 2011, 18:51
I have deleted about 90 files, blue and red flames, best-sellers, simply because I dont want them at TS, selling for a pittance. Im not that money hungry.

I negotiated a good deal for them elsewhere and sure enough they are already bringing in lots of revenues.
Im afraid as far as I can see, this is the only way to go,  once in on TS, theyre gone. Further more, since this corporation cant be trusted,  who is to say they wont get locked? or something else, stupid will happen to them. You dont want to take a chance with these people.

They won't lock it, they'll just say they have a problem with the connector (they sure can back it up with tons of past problems, it'll even look believable to many ppl). I bet it'll be indefinitely for every file that has at least some DLs, while they'll delete no to very low sellers and say they're doing their best at the same time.

You can't really believe they are that conspiratorial, can you? Or that they would care that much about any portfolio that they would put that much effort into selectively deactivating it? Sometimes I think people just spend their time trying to come up with a conspiracy theory that is wilder than anyone else's.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 27, 2011, 19:19

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:01

Quote from: lagereek on December 27, 2011, 18:51
I have deleted about 90 files, blue and red flames, best-sellers, simply because I dont want them at TS, selling for a pittance. Im not that money hungry.

I negotiated a good deal for them elsewhere and sure enough they are already bringing in lots of revenues.
Im afraid as far as I can see, this is the only way to go,  once in on TS, theyre gone. Further more, since this corporation cant be trusted,  who is to say they wont get locked? or something else, stupid will happen to them. You dont want to take a chance with these people.

They won't lock it, they'll just say they have a problem with the connector (they sure can back it up with tons of past problems, it'll even look believable to many ppl). I bet it'll be indefinitely for every file that has at least some DLs, while they'll delete no to very low sellers and say they're doing their best at the same time.

You can't really believe they are that conspiratorial, can you? Or that they would care that much about any portfolio that they would put that much effort into selectively deactivating it? Sometimes I think people just spend their time trying to come up with a conspiracy theory that is wilder than anyone else's.

So much effort? A simple script would do it . After being screwed so many times by them, nothing would really surprise me anymore

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:22
So much effort? A simple script would do it . After being screwed so many times by them, nothing would really surprise me anymore

Err, yeah, but unless Sean writes it for them a simple script isn't going to work, is it?

Quote from: lagereek on December 27, 2011, 18:51

Quote from: jsnover on December 27, 2011, 15:26

Joanne!  thats exactly what I have done, I have deleted about 90 files, blue and red flames, best-sellers, simply because I dont want them at TS, selling for a pittance. Im not that money hungry.

I negotiated a good deal for them elsewhere and sure enough they are already bringing in lots of revenues.
Im afraid as far as I can see, this is the only way to go,  once in on TS, theyre gone. Further more, since this corporation cant be trusted,  who is to say they wont get locked? or something else, stupid will happen to them. You dont want to take a chance with these people.

Is there really any noticeable difference in selling these files for 0.25 any size at TS and selling them at all these others subs sites (FT, SS etc) for 0.35 any size? From a principles point of view, for me, it isn't at all.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 27, 2011, 20:00

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:22
So much effort? A simple script would do it . After being screwed so many times by them, nothing would really surprise me anymore

Err, yeah, but unless Sean writes it for them a simple script isn't going to work, is it?

Indeed. The way sales are going down even for the top, top contributors, such as himself, he just might need a job soon

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 27, 2011, 20:00

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:22
So much effort? A simple script would do it . After being screwed so many times by them, nothing would really surprise me anymore

Err, yeah, but unless Sean writes it for them a simple script isn't going to work, is it?

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 27, 2011, 19:19

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:01

Quote from: lagereek on December 27, 2011, 18:51
I have deleted about 90 files, blue and red flames, best-sellers, simply because I dont want them at TS, selling for a pittance. Im not that money hungry.

I negotiated a good deal for them elsewhere and sure enough they are already bringing in lots of revenues.
Im afraid as far as I can see, this is the only way to go,  once in on TS, theyre gone. Further more, since this corporation cant be trusted,  who is to say they wont get locked? or something else, stupid will happen to them. You dont want to take a chance with these people.

They won't lock it, they'll just say they have a problem with the connector (they sure can back it up with tons of past problems, it'll even look believable to many ppl). I bet it'll be indefinitely for every file that has at least some DLs, while they'll delete no to very low sellers and say they're doing their best at the same time.

You can't really believe they are that conspiratorial, can you? Or that they would care that much about any portfolio that they would put that much effort into selectively deactivating it? Sometimes I think people just spend their time trying to come up with a conspiracy theory that is wilder than anyone else's.

Dont know and dont care. Just simply dont want my best-sellers there. Period.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 27, 2011, 19:19
You can't really believe they are that conspiratorial, can you? Or that they would care that much about any portfolio that they would put that much effort into selectively deactivating it? Sometimes I think people just spend their time trying to come up with a conspiracy theory that is wilder than anyone else's.

And too often, the reality turns out to be even worse. 

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 27, 2011, 20:00

Quote from: wut on December 27, 2011, 19:22
So much effort? A simple script would do it . After being screwed so many times by them, nothing would really surprise me anymore

Err, yeah, but unless Sean writes it for them a simple script isn't going to work, is it?

LOL!  So true!

Quote from: loop on December 27, 2011, 20:20

Is there really any noticeable difference in selling these files for 0.25 any size at TS and selling them at all these others subs sites (FT, SS etc) for 0.35 any size? From a principles point of view, for me, it isn't at all.

There is a difference. I don't sell at FT, so I can't comment on that, but at SS, for example, everything you sell counts towards getting you a higher royalty, not only on the subscriptions (which go up to 38 cents, not 35) but also on the on-demand and single sales which last month were about half my total. Sales at the iStock partner program count for nothing anywhere beyond the 28 cents a piece (it went up from 25 for independents after a lot of us held our images out the program because it was such a lousy deal for contributors.

And if you think that selling in volume for 28 cents a piece is fundamentally equivalent to selling them at 38 cents a piece I don't know what to say.

Twas heading for a BME until the change!

I have a question. As an exclusive, do you think it wise to move your old best sellers, which now looked dated and don't sell like they use to, into TS? I figure then I could recreate them as fresh new versions for the main IS collection.

Is there any keyword scrutiny during inspection going on nowadays.
Not counting the ingestions, whose keywords are often off the wall, a lot of stuff I'm seeing coming in this month from 'regular contributors' is really badly spammed.

gotta love the argument that selling subs at SS is more noble somehow. silly.

@lagereek

Christian,

Hope Christmas was good and that you were unaffected by the hurricane/storm - you are up north somewhere right?

Loads of things are going on at the moment, but I'm trying to keep a cool head and not doing anything rash or jump to conclusions, I've weathered many storms before during my 10 years in this industry, you probably have experienced many more.

As usual all the noise is coming from what seems to be a very vocal minority, but I'm starting to feel that a few comments made by contributors that seems to share my cool head have made me take these recent developments a little bit more seriously. I'm suffering at iStock at the moment, not catastrophic, but it is negative. Whether this is the result of industry developments, the tinkering with the best match search or something else I haven't worked out fully just yet. Hard to base decisions on only anecdotal information.

However, I fail to see the vast difference between the subscription model and it's pricing at Shutterstock versus TS/Photos.com - a few cents perhaps, but that's it right? Is it those few cents that make you this angry/annoyed/aggravated or have I missed something?

The way you "paint" iStock as basically untrustworthy (although in the past you seemed to have a completely different opinion) I also don't understand why you still have any images left there whatsoever? It doesn't seem to be worth it to you, both in terms of revenue nor the negative energy it seems to generate with you. Perhaps it would be better for you to drop them completely and not have to spend your time/energy on iStock issues? Only looking out for your best as a friend

I'm not a fan of the the low-priced subscription model at all, but at the moment I would put Shutterstock in the same bucket at TS/Photos.com in that regard. Please explain to me the BIG difference between Shutterstock's subscription model and TS/Photos.com. Obsviously Shutterstock is much larger and generate more sales, but pricing is not that different to warrant your upset?

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 28, 2011, 06:10
@lagereek

Christian,

Hope Christmas was good and that you were unaffected by the hurricane/storm - you are up north somewhere right?

Loads of things are going on at the moment, but I'm trying to keep a cool head and not doing anything rash or jump to conclusions, I've weathered many storms before during my 10 years in this industry, you probably have experienced many more.

As usual all the noise is coming from what seems to be a very vocal minority, but I'm starting to feel that a few comments made by contributors that seems to share my cool head have made me take these recent developments a little bit more seriously. I'm suffering at iStock at the moment, not catastrophic, but it is negative. Whether this is the result of industry developments, the tinkering with the best match search or something else I haven't worked out fully just yet. Hard to base decisions on only anecdotal information.

However, I fail to see the vast difference between the subscription model and it's pricing at Shutterstock versus TS/Photos.com - a few cents perhaps, but that's it right? Is it those few cents that make you this angry/annoyed/aggravated or have I missed something?

The way you "paint" iStock as basically untrustworthy (although in the past you seemed to have a completely different opinion) I also don't understand why you still have any images left there whatsoever? It doesn't seem to be worth it to you, both in terms of revenue nor the negative energy it seems to generate with you. Perhaps it would be better for you to drop them completely and not have to spend your time/energy on iStock issues? Only looking out for your best as a friend

I'm not a fan of the the low-priced subscription model at all, but at the moment I would put Shutterstock in the same bucket at TS/Photos.com in that regard. Please explain to me the BIG difference between Shutterstock's subscription model and TS/Photos.com. Obsviously Shutterstock is much larger and generate more sales, but pricing is not that different to warrant your upset?

Hi Martin!

No, I am down south in Sweden, our farm is in Småland and yes, we have had two storms here, severall trees blown down, one of my horses had a narrow escape when heavy branches came down. I cant believe this, if its not one extreme its another, Christmas-eve, was plus 9 and sunny.

But Martin, its not a minority! visit the IS-forum, the RC-thread and see?  its everyone, not one single happy face and here, we are getting people like, Juan and fotovoyager, etc. I mean surely you can understand something is going on?  Im NOT saying IS, is untrustworthy on purpose but there are just too many things going wrong and I dont want any more "forced" contracts on me, it was enough having to sign away some RM-files inside Getty, to be allowed as micro and ,no, we were not giving an option there.

For starters the subs at SS, are 0.38c, so its 0.13c, more then TS,  quite a bit if you have say 50 sub sales per day, SS, also has SODs at 2.75 and single-sales at 5.75 and thats a hell of a differance from TS, wouldnt you say?

In all, I dont want to spend 2012, with these constant hassles within IS, these best match changes, bugs, glitches and all these segregations between exclusives and independants, all these "surprises", etc.
Just want a quiet and easy life , you know, sitting on the porch, drinking good Whiskey, and take some pics now and then.

all the best. and god fortsättning!

Quote from: lagereek on December 28, 2011, 07:29

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 28, 2011, 06:10
@lagereek

Christian,

Hope Christmas was good and that you were unaffected by the hurricane/storm - you are up north somewhere right?

Loads of things are going on at the moment, but I'm trying to keep a cool head and not doing anything rash or jump to conclusions, I've weathered many storms before during my 10 years in this industry, you probably have experienced many more.

As usual all the noise is coming from what seems to be a very vocal minority, but I'm starting to feel that a few comments made by contributors that seems to share my cool head have made me take these recent developments a little bit more seriously. I'm suffering at iStock at the moment, not catastrophic, but it is negative. Whether this is the result of industry developments, the tinkering with the best match search or something else I haven't worked out fully just yet. Hard to base decisions on only anecdotal information.

However, I fail to see the vast difference between the subscription model and it's pricing at Shutterstock versus TS/Photos.com - a few cents perhaps, but that's it right? Is it those few cents that make you this angry/annoyed/aggravated or have I missed something?

The way you "paint" iStock as basically untrustworthy (although in the past you seemed to have a completely different opinion) I also don't understand why you still have any images left there whatsoever? It doesn't seem to be worth it to you, both in terms of revenue nor the negative energy it seems to generate with you. Perhaps it would be better for you to drop them completely and not have to spend your time/energy on iStock issues? Only looking out for your best as a friend

I'm not a fan of the the low-priced subscription model at all, but at the moment I would put Shutterstock in the same bucket at TS/Photos.com in that regard. Please explain to me the BIG difference between Shutterstock's subscription model and TS/Photos.com. Obsviously Shutterstock is much larger and generate more sales, but pricing is not that different to warrant your upset?

...But Martin, its not a minority! visit the IS-forum, the RC-thread and see?  its everyone, not one single happy face and here, we are getting people like, Juan and fotovoyager, etc. I mean surely you can understand something is going on?  Im NOT saying IS, is untrustworthy on purpose but there are just too many things going wrong and I dont want any more "forced" contracts on me, it was enough having to sign away some RM-files inside Getty, to be allowed as micro and ,no, we were not giving an option there.

For starters the subs at SS, are 0.38c, so its 0.13c, more then TS,  quite a bit if you have say 50 sub sales per day, SS, also has SODs at 2.75 and single-sales at 5.75 and thats a hell of a differance from TS, wouldnt you say?

but Christian, you are (naturally) looking at this from an independent perspective. For exclusives the TS/Photos.com subscription model tilts in their favor STARTING at 0.38c and goes up to 0.46c thereby leaving Shutterstock far behind. SODs are comparable if I'm not mistaken. For independents I understand the displeasure of being paid less than at Shutterstock, but you can't have it all if you choose to be independent and exclusives do make sacrifices thus should be getting some benefits.

Yes, Getty is Getty and the new contract is what it is. What can we REALLY do?

Regarding the RC thread at iStock. Yes, many are unhappy, but as I said before the vocal people seem to be the displeased ones, the ones that are ok or are doing well often seem to stay quiet about it (fear factor?). However I did see a happy thread at iStock with quite a few not insignificant contributors displaying positives vibes/feelings - check out "Thank iStock" in their forum.

Basically you sound like you should be "Shutterstock exlusive", how many of the other sites bar Shutterstock within microstock do really generate any worthwhile revenue? You never toyed with the thought of becoming iStock exlusive....

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 28, 2011, 07:55

Quote from: lagereek on December 28, 2011, 07:29

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 28, 2011, 06:10
@lagereek

Christian,

Hope Christmas was good and that you were unaffected by the hurricane/storm - you are up north somewhere right?

Loads of things are going on at the moment, but I'm trying to keep a cool head and not doing anything rash or jump to conclusions, I've weathered many storms before during my 10 years in this industry, you probably have experienced many more.

As usual all the noise is coming from what seems to be a very vocal minority, but I'm starting to feel that a few comments made by contributors that seems to share my cool head have made me take these recent developments a little bit more seriously. I'm suffering at iStock at the moment, not catastrophic, but it is negative. Whether this is the result of industry developments, the tinkering with the best match search or something else I haven't worked out fully just yet. Hard to base decisions on only anecdotal information.

However, I fail to see the vast difference between the subscription model and it's pricing at Shutterstock versus TS/Photos.com - a few cents perhaps, but that's it right? Is it those few cents that make you this angry/annoyed/aggravated or have I missed something?

The way you "paint" iStock as basically untrustworthy (although in the past you seemed to have a completely different opinion) I also don't understand why you still have any images left there whatsoever? It doesn't seem to be worth it to you, both in terms of revenue nor the negative energy it seems to generate with you. Perhaps it would be better for you to drop them completely and not have to spend your time/energy on iStock issues? Only looking out for your best as a friend

I'm not a fan of the the low-priced subscription model at all, but at the moment I would put Shutterstock in the same bucket at TS/Photos.com in that regard. Please explain to me the BIG difference between Shutterstock's subscription model and TS/Photos.com. Obsviously Shutterstock is much larger and generate more sales, but pricing is not that different to warrant your upset?

...But Martin, its not a minority! visit the IS-forum, the RC-thread and see?  its everyone, not one single happy face and here, we are getting people like, Juan and fotovoyager, etc. I mean surely you can understand something is going on?  Im NOT saying IS, is untrustworthy on purpose but there are just too many things going wrong and I dont want any more "forced" contracts on me, it was enough having to sign away some RM-files inside Getty, to be allowed as micro and ,no, we were not giving an option there.

For starters the subs at SS, are 0.38c, so its 0.13c, more then TS,  quite a bit if you have say 50 sub sales per day, SS, also has SODs at 2.75 and single-sales at 5.75 and thats a hell of a differance from TS, wouldnt you say?

but Christian, you are (naturally) looking at this from an independent perspective. For exclusives the TS/Photos.com subscription model tilts in their favor STARTING at 0.38c and goes up to 0.46c thereby leaving Shutterstock far behind. SODs are comparable if I'm not mistaken. For independents I understand the displeasure of being paid less than at Shutterstock, but you can't have it all if you choose to be independent and exclusives do make sacrifices thus should be getting some benefits.

Yes, Getty is Getty and the new contract is what it is. What can we REALLY do?

Regarding the RC thread at iStock. Yes, many are unhappy, but as I said before the vocal people seem to be the displeased ones, the ones that are ok or are doing well often seem to stay quiet about it (fear factor, copycats etc.?). However I did see a happy thread at iStock with quite a few not insignificant contributors displaying positives vibes/feelings - check out "Thank iStock" in their forum.

Basically you sound like you should be "Shutterstock exlusive", how many of the other sites bar Shutterstock within microstock do really generate any worthwhile revenue? You never toyed with the thought of becoming iStock exlusive....

good luck Martin. You have all your eggs in the one basket you had better like it. It is not that people love SS, it is that it is a fair model that works. As an exclusive you appear smug. Time will tell. Is has screwed as much out of independents as possible. Most will not bother to upload. The images will be at the bottom of the searches and the royalty rate is poor. Where will you be when it is all exclusive? SS are getting very picky about the images they accept. Old exclusive stuff at IS will die anywhere else (even if accepted) and will not be seen on IS if you go independent.  There is still plenty they can take off exclusives to boost profits. They will need to do this with a continued drop in market share and worse search results. One thing about limiting uploads to independents was that there was not a lot of near identical images put up from them. Many bulk uploads have sameness from some exclusives. The search result for customers is not enhanced by pushing exclusives, vetta etc to the front. Customers are at times dumb but they are not stupid.  What next can be done to keep sales up for exclusives?? This is a one way street. Future changes will not get you as excited as screwing independents to reward exclusives.

Hi Martin!

I believe in exclusivity within RM, yes, and for protection, copys, etc. I do not believe in exclusivity in Micro, internet based agencies with billions of images floating around, pseudos, people with differant accounts and what nots. Its bound to be trouble and it is. Thats why only 15% of all contributors at IS, are exclusive, not much to hang in a x-mas tree, is it?
Exclusivity at IS, works for a chosen few and thats the people that were there when it all started with Bruce, etc, the so called backbone of the company, all the rest are just fill-outs and expendible.
In the micro world, exclusivity is just a pretty word, how do you police it?  I myself know severall who are exclusive, not just with IS but also others, get yourself a differant pseudo, differant account and upload differant pics, voila!  so much for that.

Person exclusivity, means nothing in micro and I really dont know how it came to be in the first place.

best.