I have been full time since 2007, and my revenue is 99% from istock alone. That is why I have gritted my teeth for this long.  But, there may come a time when I simply cannot do it any longer.

For me, it is not a loyalty but a financial affair. The truth must be told just by numbers. And getting away from this 99% you quote, I've opened roads to another prohotographic works. Not microstock, not RF, not even much RM. One day will arrive where the entire stock industry will feel the weight of overproduction, and its consquences won't be suffered at this or at this another one agency, but on the whole sector. If you just do RF, you have all your eggs in the same basket, no matter if your are just at one or at one hundred sites.  

Quote from: loop on May 15, 2012, 08:42

Quote from: jbryson on May 14, 2012, 18:12

I have been full time since 2007, and my revenue is 99% from istock alone. That is why I have gritted my teeth for this long.  But, there may come a time when I simply cannot do it any longer.

For me, it is not a loyalty but a financial affair. The truth must be told just by numbers. And getting away from this 99% you quote, I've opened roads to another prohotographic works. Not microstock, not RF, not even much RM. One day will arrive where the entire stock industry will feel the weight of overproduction, and its consquences won't be suffered at this or at this another one agency, but on the whole sector. If you just do RF, you have all your eggs in the same basket, no matter if your are just at one or at one hundred sites.  

I think the emotional loyalty was gone for most of us when Bruce left, or shortly thereafter. It is most definitely a financial tie now.

But, now there is an issue of respect for those who produce the sellable product. There are many professions where people sacrifice respect for money, namely the oldest one. With each rule change, or administrative change at istock, I assess how much respect remains.

Self-esteem has taken a beating over the last 2 years. At this critical point, I see potential for respect to be completely diminished, or for a small turn around. But either way, I am on high alert, and will remove my crown if all respect for me and what I contribute is gone.

I understand this. Trouble is that we had lots of respect in the begginings and we are quite spoiled and more sensitive to certain things.

Quote from: loop on May 15, 2012, 08:42

Quote from: jbryson on May 14, 2012, 18:12

I have been full time since 2007, and my revenue is 99% from istock alone. That is why I have gritted my teeth for this long.  But, there may come a time when I simply cannot do it any longer.

For me, it is not a loyalty but a financial affair. The truth must be told just by numbers. And getting away from this 99% you quote, I've opened roads to another prohotographic works. Not microstock, not RF, not even much RM. One day will arrive where the entire stock industry will feel the weight of overproduction, and its consquences won't be suffered at this or at this another one agency, but on the whole sector. If you just do RF, you have all your eggs in the same basket, no matter if your are just at one or at one hundred sites.  

I think the emotional loyalty was gone for most of us when Bruce left, or shortly thereafter. It is most definitely a financial tie now.

But, now there is an issue of respect for those who produce the sellable product. There are many professions where people sacrifice respect for money, namely the oldest one. With each rule change, or administrative change at istock, I assess how much respect remains.

Self-esteem has taken a beating over the last 2 years. At this critical point, I see potential for respect to be completely diminished, or for a small turn around. But either way, I am on high alert, and will remove my crown if all respect for me and what I contribute is gone.

totally agree.  this is one of the biggest reasons why I dropped the crown. the other reason being the financial one where my commission was dramatically slashed with the redeemed credit program.

I dropped  almost two ohms ago. Financial disaster for now. I am seeing if I can pickup with DP, SS and FT. If it doesn't really work I can always go back to exclusive after 3 months, after removing all the images from other sites. Three months is a good amount of time to evaluate other opportunities. I just hope that if I decide to go back to exclusive, my sales will go back to what they used to be.

I don't know how long it is a fair amount of time to assess, but Jsnover, the earning power of IS is a lot better than it was when you dropped your crown. Some people shared their experience in this thread (almost at the bottom of the page) recently:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=65435&page=3458

And then some of the same people complaining on the next page that they are having no downloads at all, or very few "like a Sunday".  Regardless of what prices have been pushed to, if they aren't selling, you aren't making money.  Zero sales on an E+ makes you exactly the same as zero sales on a subscription...

Hmmm. Didn't see too many Diamond+ contributors whooping for joy on the 'April Stats' thread. Quite the reverse.

What's most significant for me is the trend. On my data Shutterstock has literally adhered to a straight-line graph of growth for the last 7 years with no sign of slowing. IS, on the other hand, peaked in March 2010 and has been in decline, seasonally adjusted, ever since.

I do however think that IS has still got plenty of mileage for exclusives, especially with the numerous price rises, so no need for most to jump ship any time soon. If the situation there does deteriorate significantly then the management will surely be forced to change their strategy. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the 'RC target' fiasco this year and when they dare do it.

Quote from: lisafx on May 17, 2012, 15:10

Regardless of what prices have been pushed to, if they aren't selling, you aren't making money.  Zero sales on an E+ makes you exactly the same as zero sales on a subscription...

But then again one sale in E+ is equal 120 sub sales...

Fair point.  Still the downward trend in downloads would concern me.  If I were exclusive, I probably wouldn't be pulling the plug over it yet, assuming my overall earnings weren't badly affected.  But I would be watching it closely. 

There are people working around the issue of exclusivity. Some photographers produce images under different names and companies, so they are exclusive in one place, but they also have other images under a different company or name, and exclusive. In fact I don't think anything would stop a contributor from selling content to some other contributors. At this point I think it makes more sense to offer exclusivity to a single image, instead of contributors.

It would, but it would lead to all sorts of problems with what constitutes similar or sister images.

There are people working around the issue of exclusivity. Some photographers produce images under different names and companies, so they are exclusive in one place, but they also have other images under a different company or name, and exclusive. In fact I don't think anything would stop a contributor from selling content to some other contributors. At this point I think it makes more sense to offer exclusivity to a single image, instead of contributors.

Well, that is cheating. If they are caught, I am sure there are consequences.

I loved IS exclusivity until they made their big September 2011 changes. I made almost as much exclusively with IS as I did independently with several sites. It was a small decrease in revenue, but a huge decrease in uploading time. I never would have left exclusivity had they not insulted us repeatedly. But it was a good lesson. You are lending too much trust to one entity when you are exclusive.