Quote from: Elenathewise on September 10, 2013, 11:08

Removing images from iStock will increase sales on other agencies, I have no doubt about that. I am waiting to see the totals for the next couple of months (September/November) to make a decision, which would be purely business. If the totals are meager, and it looks like they will be right now, removing files would make sense, since I'd have nothing much to lose and a little to gain. It's simple arithmetic.
Even since Istock introduced exclusivity, I thought - the day will come when they start pushing out non-exclusives. And that's what they're doing right now, by practically giving away our work.

curiously you have uploaded 467 pictures this year

Quote from: luissantos84 on September 10, 2013, 13:01

Quote from: Elenathewise on September 10, 2013, 11:08

Removing images from iStock will increase sales on other agencies, I have no doubt about that. I am waiting to see the totals for the next couple of months (September/November) to make a decision, which would be purely business. If the totals are meager, and it looks like they will be right now, removing files would make sense, since I'd have nothing much to lose and a little to gain. It's simple arithmetic.
Even since Istock introduced exclusivity, I thought - the day will come when they start pushing out non-exclusives. And that's what they're doing right now, by practically giving away our work.

curiously you have uploaded 467 pictures this year

Why curiously? At this point it still makes (made?) financial sense. Other issues like GGD (don't want to open that can of worms here) were at least addressed, so for the time being I feel that my content is relatively safe there. As I said in my post, I'll wait and see what my monthly totals are going to be, and if the income would be worth the time and trouble of dealing with their medieval upload system. I will also keep a close look on sales on other agencies and see if lowering the prices on Istock affects my sales there.

Quote from: tickstock on September 10, 2013, 13:45

If that theory is correct why not just sell on the one site that gives you the best returns?  I think it's clear that buyers switching  isn't going to make up the difference in lost sales. Look at how nearly 100% of this forum said nothing would happen when Yuri left all those agencies, no buyers would follow.

That's what we all SHOULD do... only sell at the agency with the highest royalty. Then the agencies would have to compete by raising the roaylty and give us other benefits to get any contributors to join them. It would be our market.

But of course, that's just a dream... it'll never happen.

Quote from: luissantos84 on September 10, 2013, 14:14

that is what most do, keep on waiting for a change (years of patience) while still feeding them but always with a foot more inside than outside, wonderful life of a stock contributor!

Luis, it's not about waiting for a change - it's about "is it worth my time and effort" at this point in time. It is very subjective, and the answer is different for everyone, since it depends on so many factors like size and content of your portfolio, whether or not you do this for a living, how much is your cost of living, etc. For someone in Eastern Europe for example getting the money that Istock pays is still very lucrative, and there are a lot of talented people there. For me in Canada it may end up not being worth my effort anymore pretty soon, so I'd have to switch to other things. But the business we're in is global, and we're competing with talented people for whom 1000 USD a month is very good money. Stock companies know that, so they're balancing their royalty payments taking this into account. With global business like this, you just can't form a union and "force" the company to pay more - you can only decide if this works for you personally or not.