Quote from: caspixel on September 16, 2010, 18:27

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on September 16, 2010, 15:45

They're offering 10% off prices for minimum 50 credit packs for the next week as an apology for today's outage. Is that normal? Or is it a sign of other concerns?

If you read the fine print, that expired in July...or was there yet another outage where they changed the message, because this is the one I saw: To reward your patience, get 15% off your next purchase of 50 credits or more next time you visit by using promo code UPGRADE. But use it fast � it's only good for a little while (offer expires July 10, 2010).

In other news, I was just discussing stock photos with a colleague and told her I am phasing out iStock as my stock site and gave her the names a couple other sites. She said she did not know they existed, but was relieved to know there are others out there, because she is seeing all the Vetta images and was beginning to get outraged about the prices. And then I told her about the commission fiasco and she was appalled. She is no longer going to be shopping at iStock.

^^ Great news, thanks for the support. That is the only way things are going to change.... with the customers

they actually tweeted the discount offer- use code REDEEM10 for 10% off credit packs of 50 or more (for one week only).  so that July one is different.  wonder what contributors get as a "gift" for the outage... oh wait.. nevermind.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on September 16, 2010, 15:45

They're offering 10% off prices for minimum 50 credit packs for the next week as an apology for today's outage. Is that normal? Or is it a sign of other concerns?

If you read the fine print, that expired in July...or was there yet another outage where they changed the message, because this is the one I saw: To reward your patience, get 15% off your next purchase of 50 credits or more next time you visit by using promo code UPGRADE. But use it fast � it's only good for a little while (offer expires July 10, 2010).

No, they have just sent new 10% offers out to customers. It's not the old message.

....I'm working on building ports elsewhere soon as my exclusivity contract is canceled.

My advice would be to put your portfolio on lots of sites, try the top 10 in the earnings poll here first and if you get sales with them, try some more.  Don't bother with crestock though, most people have very high rejections there and mostly $0.25 subs sales.

My advice would be to put your portfolio on lots of sites, try the top 10 in the earnings poll here first and if you get sales with them, try some more.  Don't bother with crestock though, most people have very high rejections there and mostly $0.25 subs sales.

Over time, it might be best to upload to lots of sites.  I am currently on 10.  But since 90% of my earnings come from the big four, it may be a more realistic goal for departing Istock exclusives to just focus on getting their portfolios on FT, DT, and SS.  Once they are getting steady earnings there, then they would have time to explore the other sites. 

Quote from: sharpshot on September 17, 2010, 01:34

My advice would be to put your portfolio on lots of sites, try the top 10 in the earnings poll here first and if you get sales with them, try some more.  Don't bother with crestock though, most people have very high rejections there and mostly $0.25 subs sales.

Over time, it might be best to upload to lots of sites.  I am currently on 10.  But since 90% of my earnings come from the big four, it may be a more realistic goal for departing Istock exclusives to just focus on getting their portfolios on FT, DT, and SS.  Once they are getting steady earnings there, then they would have time to explore the other sites. 

Thanks for the tips.  I'm planning to start with the Big Four plus StockFresh.  I may test the water on other sites after the first of the year. 

Quote from: caspixel on September 16, 2010, 19:32

Quote from: jamirae on September 16, 2010, 19:07

they actually tweeted the discount offer- use code REDEEM10 for 10% off credit packs of 50 or more (for one week only).  so that July one is different.  wonder what contributors get as a "gift" for the outage... oh wait.. nevermind.

Well that explains it. I don't follow iStock  twitter...or any twitter for that matter. Doesn't really matter for me though, as I will not be buying a 50 credit pack there.

so... where are you buying credits from these days?  (am I allowed to ask that?  okay if you prefer to keep that to yourself, of course).   I'm working on building ports elsewhere soon as my exclusivity contract is canceled.

At the moment, Dreamstime and StockFresh are the ones I am going to focus on. I like their lower priced credit packages, because I just don't have the purchasing power to plunk down a lot of money at this time. I also liked the quality of images I was seeing on ShutterStock, but I do not want to sign up for a subscription plan, I just don't buy enough images to justify that cost and their "OnDemand" pricing is still a little rich for my blood.

I am still a pretty small buyer, but I am hoping that business will continue to pick up for me.

Quote from: jamirae on September 16, 2010, 22:03

Quote from: caspixel on September 16, 2010, 19:32

Quote from: jamirae on September 16, 2010, 19:07

they actually tweeted the discount offer- use code REDEEM10 for 10% off credit packs of 50 or more (for one week only).  so that July one is different.  wonder what contributors get as a "gift" for the outage... oh wait.. nevermind.

Well that explains it. I don't follow iStock  twitter...or any twitter for that matter. Doesn't really matter for me though, as I will not be buying a 50 credit pack there.

so... where are you buying credits from these days?  (am I allowed to ask that?  okay if you prefer to keep that to yourself, of course).   I'm working on building ports elsewhere soon as my exclusivity contract is canceled.

At the moment, Dreamstime and StockFresh are the ones I am going to focus on. I like their lower priced credit packages, because I just don't have the purchasing power to plunk down a lot of money at this time. I also liked the quality of images I was seeing on ShutterStock, but I do not want to sign up for a subscription plan, I just don't buy enough images to justify that cost and their "OnDemand" pricing is still a little rich for my blood.

I am still a pretty small buyer, but I am hoping that business will continue to pick up for me.

my wife buys the odd image (about 1-2 month), we have credits at dt, ft and is which is a pain. now she buys at canstock, becuase they are cheap and you can transfer credits at any amount, so she just transfers 2 credits from earnings when she needs it and grabs her small image. I'm not being real clear sorry, but for contributor and buyer it's nice and might be worth a look.

^^^I'm sure it's just to keep costs to a minimum, can't be elite if I'm in it   It would be crazy to invest heavily in a new microstock site when you see how well all the new ones have done recently.  It would also be really bad if they were swamped with images and had lots of IT problems, building it up slowly is much easier.

Well,that depends partly on whether the leaders trip and fall on their faces and their pocket change falls out and lands in your pocket.  Improbable? Yes.  Impossible? No.

Because many of us use corporate accounts to buy images, I think istock has underestimated the number of contributors who are also buyers.

I am a buyer and a contributor and I know that in the grand scheme of things, I don't amount to even a blip on their radar screen. I have less than 500 images in my portfolio, so when I gave back my crown last year, they didn't care. I have a portfolio with both illustrations and photos, so I'm certainly destined for the lowest bracket since my redeemed credits will be split between the two media, and illustrators have to achieve levels twice that of photographers, so they clearly don't care about that either.

I'll admit to being guilty of complacency over the past year. I gave back my crown on principle, but I've continued to spend my dollars there, even if not as many as I once did. I made many excuses: It was too easy to convert my earnings to credits as I went along. I was familiar with the search engine, and often times was on a tight deadline and didn't want to take the extra time to search elsewhere and have to pay out of pocket for credits. But no more. I have some projects for which I've already done mock-ups using exclusive images. Once those are purchased, I will no longer be spending my earnings for credits.

Maybe my tiny portfolio and the 1000 images I've purchased from istock aren't important to them, but I wonder how many other "insignificant" buyers are out there in the istock fold.

It was all those "insignificant" buyers that turned iStock into a multi-million dollar company. I think iStock/Getty takes that for granted these days. Enough of them leave and the impact will be felt.

Exactly. Isn't it the nature of design as a profession that many who do it are either self-employed or work for small outfits? I'd say individual designers are a core market and en masse become highly significant.

My sales are horrible this week. I think damage to the company has been done.

Something has definitely changed, at least for me.  The last 4 months have been one BME after another  . . .  until "the announcement".  Since then only one sale, slow is an understatement.