Author Topic: How Much Has Your Income Dropped On iStock Since The Peak In 2012? - Poll! (Read 30858 times)

etienjones · « **Reply #25 on:** June 05, 2016, 12:51 »

You have to understand that the members of this forum are very diverse. I am a good example for someone whose IS earnings have not dropped. I am an artist (painter) who only submitted photos to the agencies to add to my very small income . . . it helps buy paint, not support a photo studio and family. My images are not traditional stock photography, they don't sell very often but on the other hand they are not in competition with traditional Stock Photos and they don't age. I haven't added work to the sites for a couple of years but the ones I have continue to sell.

etienjones · « **Reply #26 on:** June 05, 2016, 13:01 »

You really should construct a new poll asking only members with a monthly income of, let's say $400, to see how the more serious members are doing . . . that would eliminate small time players like myself and be more enlightening.

X9D7CE84A2B5Y · « **Reply #27 on:** June 05, 2016, 13:12 »

Quote from: pixmicro on June 05, 2016, 12:31

20% people for the item 'My income hasn't dropped at all and I am an indepdendent' ??...

Pretty hard to believe... I seriously wonder where these iStock independent are coming from...
Can one voter with one IP vote multiple times ? Could they be trolls ?...

People can only vote once per Microstock Group forum user account. Also, I think etienjones' account offers one good possible explanation. There may be a number of independents who never had a big portfolio or made very much on iStock to begin with, even during the boom times. Perhaps they just get a few occasional sales, and just maybe those few sales move around within a handful of different images they have which regularly sell. And when combined, those sales end up netting them about the same amount of money every month. Perhaps, and that is only one of many possible scenarios though.

On the other hand, it could be an indication that more buyers are buying the cheaper (1 credit) indy files than the more expensive (3 credit) exclusive files. This is what I suspected and why I had put up this poll in the first place.

Combine that with an indy who continues to upload and perhaps they don't see any drops. If that is the case, then the take away is drop your crown if you are an exclusive and perhaps you will sell more files on iStock. But if you do that then your royalty rate will likely drop to about half. Plus all your files on Getty (if you have any) will get pulled. So your sales on iStock would need to double, or triple maybe, to maintain what you are earning the same as you are now if you are an exclusive. But perhaps you can make up for the shortfall on iStock and/or make even more after dropping the crown by uploading to 3-4 other new sites as well. That is always the question exclusives are contemplating.

It would be interesting to know though how many, of the indies that voted that they had no drop in income, have actually continued to upload steadily to iStock since 2012?

X9D7CE84A2B5Y · « **Reply #28 on:** June 05, 2016, 13:13 »

Quote from: etienjones on June 05, 2016, 13:01

You really should construct a new poll asking only members with a monthly income of, let's say $400, to see how the more serious members are doing . . . that would eliminate small time players like myself and be more enlightening.

Great idea, I would also like to add another parameter or two and set some standards for calculating your drop. But I am not sure if everyone could be troubled to vote again.

ShadySue · « **Reply #29 on:** June 05, 2016, 13:24 »

Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 05, 2016, 13:13

Quote from: etienjones on June 05, 2016, 13:01
You really should construct a new poll asking only members with a monthly income of, let's say $400, to see how the more serious members are doing . . . that would eliminate small time players like myself and be more enlightening.

Great idea, I would also like to add another parameter or two and set some standards for calculating your drop. But I am not sure if everyone could be troubled to vote again.

Hmm, even in my best year my best month was > $850, and the lowest month was <$400.

Photostocker · « **Reply #30 on:** June 05, 2016, 14:50 »

Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 04, 2016, 11:49

Thank you all for voting so far. Please vote if you are presently an iStock contributor. The more votes we have the better we may be able to see a pattern and understand which people have been effected/hurt the most.

Can you post this to getty/iStock forum so we can get mores aswears?

wds · « **Reply #31 on:** June 05, 2016, 14:52 »

another factor that can make things complicated is that different people have different "career" trajectories...some may have started in 2007, some may have started in 2011 etc... and grown their portfolios at different rates with varying "quality" levels. Still a worthwhile poll I think.

X9D7CE84A2B5Y · « **Reply #32 on:** June 05, 2016, 15:41 »

Quote from: wds on June 05, 2016, 14:52

another factor that can make things complicated is that different people have different "career" trajectories...some may have started in 2007, some may have started in 2011 etc... and grown their portfolios at different rates with varying "quality" levels. Still a worthwhile poll I think.

Good point. If they started in 2012 for example, and have grown their portfolio ever since, then their income might actually be higher now than it was in 2012. That is a tricky one tough to set a parameter for in a poll like this.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #33 on:** June 05, 2016, 16:38 »

Quote from: Mantis on June 05, 2016, 08:36

Quote from: Gannet77 on June 05, 2016, 03:44
Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 04, 2016, 13:58
Quote from: ShadySue on June 04, 2016, 13:19
Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5YU6G1 on June 04, 2016, 11:53
By the way, I should have added the basis for calculating your drop. In my case I took my BME, which was actually March 2012 and compared it to what my checkout payment amount will be later this month for May.
Oh, if I compared my BME to any month this year, my drop would be much more than I voted. I compared 2015's total to 2012's total.

Very sorry for not clarifying that earlier. I should have laid down the parameters at the onset. Anyway, thank you for voting. Your vote will still help.

I did it ShadySue's way too - and actually, I think that makes more sense. I find any individual month on iStock can vary by as much as 100%, so just choosing a particular month doesn't really tell us very much.

Also, by way of comparison, it would be interesting to know how independents have fared overall, not just on iStock - judging from other posts, the whole market for individual contributors has declined over the years, presumably because of the huge increase in numbers of images, so just looking at one agency doesn't give us the full picture.

This is accurate for me. Last month I made around $600 on IS but the prior month was $340.

When you include your iStock totals, are you adding in subs and PP? I have been. If I was to only go by blue line DLs then I've gone from 4-5k/month to only around $ 300/month on IS. Which would put IS on the lowest tier for me.

Mantis · « **Reply #34 on:** June 05, 2016, 16:45 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on June 05, 2016, 16:38

Quote from: Mantis on June 05, 2016, 08:36
Quote from: Gannet77 on June 05, 2016, 03:44
Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 04, 2016, 13:58
Quote from: ShadySue on June 04, 2016, 13:19
Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5YU6G1 on June 04, 2016, 11:53
By the way, I should have added the basis for calculating your drop. In my case I took my BME, which was actually March 2012 and compared it to what my checkout payment amount will be later this month for May.
Oh, if I compared my BME to any month this year, my drop would be much more than I voted. I compared 2015's total to 2012's total.

Very sorry for not clarifying that earlier. I should have laid down the parameters at the onset. Anyway, thank you for voting. Your vote will still help.

I did it ShadySue's way too - and actually, I think that makes more sense. I find any individual month on iStock can vary by as much as 100%, so just choosing a particular month doesn't really tell us very much.

Also, by way of comparison, it would be interesting to know how independents have fared overall, not just on iStock - judging from other posts, the whole market for individual contributors has declined over the years, presumably because of the huge increase in numbers of images, so just looking at one agency doesn't give us the full picture.

This is accurate for me. Last month I made around $600 on IS but the prior month was $340.

When you include your iStock totals, are you adding in subs and PP? I have been. If I was to only go by blue line DLs then I've gone from 4-5k/month to only around $ 300/month on IS. Which would put IS on the lowest tier for me.

If just the blue, I fluctuate today between $150 & $200. 2-3 years ago I was making about $400 a month on blue before TS was introduced. Then income slowly went down, then started to climb up a little in the last year with subs and Getty. Today the "green and gray bars" usually add up to roughly $200 more each month. I've had a few months of late where I've gotten some big bumps in sales.

pancaketom · « **Reply #35 on:** June 05, 2016, 17:32 »

well, no way to change that wrong response that I can see... 2012 was nowhere near the peak, but I am down to 2.7% compared to 2010 and before. Of course deleting most of my images might have something to do with it. I am down about 27% overall since 2012. I think my motivation has dropped a lot more though.

Gannet77 · « **Reply #36 on:** June 05, 2016, 18:39 »

Quote from: PixelBytes on June 05, 2016, 16:38

Quote from: Mantis on June 05, 2016, 08:36
Quote from: Gannet77 on June 05, 2016, 03:44
Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 04, 2016, 13:58
Quote from: ShadySue on June 04, 2016, 13:19
Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5YU6G1 on June 04, 2016, 11:53
By the way, I should have added the basis for calculating your drop. In my case I took my BME, which was actually March 2012 and compared it to what my checkout payment amount will be later this month for May.
Oh, if I compared my BME to any month this year, my drop would be much more than I voted. I compared 2015's total to 2012's total.

Very sorry for not clarifying that earlier. I should have laid down the parameters at the onset. Anyway, thank you for voting. Your vote will still help.

I did it ShadySue's way too - and actually, I think that makes more sense. I find any individual month on iStock can vary by as much as 100%, so just choosing a particular month doesn't really tell us very much.

Also, by way of comparison, it would be interesting to know how independents have fared overall, not just on iStock - judging from other posts, the whole market for individual contributors has declined over the years, presumably because of the huge increase in numbers of images, so just looking at one agency doesn't give us the full picture.

This is accurate for me. Last month I made around $600 on IS but the prior month was $340.

When you include your iStock totals, are you adding in subs and PP? I have been. If I was to only go by blue line DLs then I've gone from 4-5k/month to only around $ 300/month on IS. Which would put IS on the lowest tier for me.

Yes, I included total income from all iStock sources. But I'm not a major player, so a couple of ELs or good GI sales can make a lot of difference to a month.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #37 on:** June 05, 2016, 23:50 »

Quote from: pixmicro on June 05, 2016, 12:31

20% people for the item 'My income hasn't dropped at all and I am an indepdendent' ??...

Pretty hard to believe... I seriously wonder where these istock independent are coming from...
Can one voter with one IP vote multiple times ? Could they be trolls ?...

People are weirdly desperate to vote in every poll. I know from PMs when I have started polls. Also people who misread or interpreted the question in whatever way they like to get a vote in. There will be votes from people who started recently and have seen income growth as everyone does from a standing start.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #38 on:** June 06, 2016, 01:51 »

Not everyone's experience is the same. A lot of those whose income has plummeted have stopped uploading while others are uploading new and more relevant content. Just because you don't like the answer don't shoot the messenger

ShadySue · « **Reply #39 on:** June 06, 2016, 02:02 »

Quote from: Pauws99 on June 06, 2016, 01:51

Not everyone's experience is the same. A lot of those whose income has plummeted have stopped uploading while others are uploading new and more relevant content. Just because you don't like the answer don't shoot the messenger

It's true, but I've several times read such people say they are struggling to earn back the cost of their shoots.
Also, I'm noticing a significant number of high Diamonds, BDs and even some (former?) Admins and inspectors who have stopped uploading, many within a few months of subs starting.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #40 on:** June 06, 2016, 02:03 »

Any independents here that already had a substantial portfolio (say 2000+ images) on IS in 2012 and have seen an increase in income please chime in with some stats.

I haven't heard from anyone else in the business who has, there could be some but I suspect they would have had to increase their portfolio size by 5X at least to keep pace with the level of mismanagement at the site.

I am speaking as someone who makes six figures per year on micro has increased income overall and across every other big site since IS started their decline.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #41 on:** June 06, 2016, 02:09 »

Quote from: ShadySue on June 06, 2016, 02:02

Quote from: Pauws99 on June 06, 2016, 01:51
Not everyone's experience is the same. A lot of those whose income has plummeted have stopped uploading while others are uploading new and more relevant content. Just because you don't like the answer don't shoot the messenger
It's true, but I've several times read such people say they are struggling to earn back the cost of their shoots.

Very true but whether or not they are profitable/successful selling the volumes that some people achieved is a different question. It may be that the pie is being sliced much more evenly with the minnows getting a few more crumbs.......

pixmicro · « **Reply #42 on:** June 06, 2016, 03:52 »

Quote from: Pauws99 on June 06, 2016, 01:51

Not everyone's experience is the same. A lot of those whose income has plummeted have stopped uploading while others are uploading new and more relevant content. Just because you don't like the answer don't shoot the messenger

I agree, and didn't meant to disqualify a priori these results, but sincerely they definitely hurt my common sense... I really wonder how can one still have the same revenue at least since the new current pricing system at IS?... Another curious fact is the ratio between indies and exclusive in the 'not dropped earnings' compared to the '50% dropped earnings'. But i know we don't have a significant amount of voters to draw any solid conclusion.
I used to earn on a regular basis up to more than 1000$/mth. Now I'm happy if I make 400$. I never stopped uploading images and, while standard sales were decreasing in volume and price, pp and subs were consistently growing with the volume. But now with same amount of images added each month, pp and subs decrease also. So...
Yet this poll is very useful whatever the results are. Especially also for those who would like to try the micro experience. It tends to prove they must think rather than twice before upoading to IS.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #43 on:** June 06, 2016, 04:00 »

Quote from: pixmicro on June 06, 2016, 03:52

Quote from: Pauws99 on June 06, 2016, 01:51
Not everyone's experience is the same. A lot of those whose income has plummeted have stopped uploading while others are uploading new and more relevant content. Just because you don't like the answer don't shoot the messenger

I agree, and didn't meant to disqualify a priori these results, but sincerely they definitely hurt my common sense... I really wonder how can one still have the same revenue at least since the new current pricing system at IS?... Another curious fact is the ratio between indies and exclusive in the 'not dropped earnings' compared to the '50% dropped earnings'. But i know we don't have a significant amount of voters to draw any solid conclusion.
I used to earn on a regular basis up to more than 1000$/mth. Now I'm happy if I make 400$. I never stopped uploading images and, while standard sales were decreasing in volume and price, pp and subs were consistently growing with the volume. But now with same amount of images added each month, pp and subs decrease also. So...
Yet this poll is very useful whatever the results are. Especially also for those who would like to try the micro experience. It tends to prove they must think rather than twice before upoading to IS.

in 2012 I Stock were VERY picky about what they accepted now anything goes for the less gifted like myself this has meant I have rapidly expanded my portfolio...thats one reason.

X9D7CE84A2B5Y · « **Reply #44 on:** June 06, 2016, 06:10 »

Now that we have had 93 votes on this poll, we have 20 independents saying their income hasn't gone down at all since 2012 and yet only 3 exclusives who say there income hasn't gone down over the same period of time.

For me, this is one of the most important aspects of the poll results so far. Yes, as many people have pointed out, there might be some discrepancies, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies on how the various contributors who voted have calculated their percentage of drops. But I think the issue of whether or not you have had a drop since 2012 in income or not is a pretty cut and dry matter.

Another thing I noticed over the last 18 months is how the best match on iStock hasn't really changed much at all. And what the best match mainly has been driving for the last 1.5 years is the newer content uploaded by exclusives and independents, plus some of the older stuff put up by exclusives which hasn't sold much in the past.

Seemingly, exclusives are no longer investing as much as they did in the past to create their new content, knowing that iStock has turned mainly into a low-cost subscription priced site. This means that the older exclusive content is probably much better quality than the newer exclusive content, if in fact many of the exclusives have even continued to upload at all. The current best match algorithm is also not showing the older and best selling exclusive content at the top of the search results, which results in minimal sales to exclusives of their high quality best sellers from the past that they spent more money to create.

So what does this all really mean for contributors?

In my opinion it means that iStock is discouraging buyers from easily finding the more expensive, high quality exclusive content and instead putting a mix of new, lower quality and lower cost indy content, with some older, poorer selling exclusive content which isn't going to interest buyers much anyway. And when the buyers see mainly a mix of lower quality pictures from the indies and exclusives together, they probably buy more of the indy stuff because quality of the two groups will be about equal and yet the indy stuff sells for only 1/3 the price.

I am not saying iStock is necessarily doing this consciously to make more money because of the fact they have a lower payout on the indy stuff. But maybe they are truly trying to promote the older content that hasn't sold much yet and to give the new stuff a bigger chance too.

But if buyers are mainly buying the cheaper priced indy pictures, rather than the higher cost exclusive pictures, it means the indys might not be seeing a drop income and the exclusives could be seeing huge drops of over 50% in income as the poll also has also shown us with 24 exclusives saying their income has fallen by 50% or more and only 14 independents saying their income has dropped as much too.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #45 on:** June 06, 2016, 06:15 »

Yes more muddled thinking from Istock they market on the basis they have stuff you can't find anywhere else then push the stuff you can. It would be hard to run an outfit worse ;-).

sgoodwin4813 · « **Reply #46 on:** June 06, 2016, 06:34 »

I did it based on average monthly earnings - makes it easier to compare a full year with a part year. It was still over 50%. Ouch.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #47 on:** June 06, 2016, 06:47 »

Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 06, 2016, 06:10

Now that we have had 93 votes on this poll, we have 20 independents saying their income hasn't gone down at all since 2012 and yet only 3 exclusives who say there income hasn't gone down over the same period of time.

For me, this is one of the most important aspects of the poll results so far. Yes, as many people have pointed out, there might be some discrepancies, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies on how the various contributors who voted have calculated their percentage of drops. But I think the issue of whether or not you have had a drop since 2012 in income or not is a pretty cut and dry matter.
....

Not really. There's a minimum sales threshold to reach to become exclusive on IS. The people who's income has increased are the ones who had very small portfolios in 2012, in other words much more likely to be independents.

X9D7CE84A2B5Y · « **Reply #48 on:** June 06, 2016, 06:52 »

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on June 06, 2016, 06:47

Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 06, 2016, 06:10
Now that we have had 93 votes on this poll, we have 20 independents saying their income hasn't gone down at all since 2012 and yet only 3 exclusives who say there income hasn't gone down over the same period of time.

For me, this is one of the most important aspects of the poll results so far. Yes, as many people have pointed out, there might be some discrepancies, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies on how the various contributors who voted have calculated their percentage of drops. But I think the issue of whether or not you have had a drop since 2012 in income or not is a pretty cut and dry matter.
....
Not really. There's a minimum sales threshold to reach to become exclusive on IS. The people who's income has increased are the ones who had very small portfolios in 2012, in other words much more likely to be independents.

The poll results do not show that anyone who voted has had an increase in income. It also doesn't give any indication of the size of their portfolios or that their portfolios have increased in size since 2012 for the people who voted. What data is your conclusions based upon?

Gannet77 · « **Reply #49 on:** June 06, 2016, 06:55 »

Quote from: Justanotherphotographer on June 06, 2016, 06:47

Quote from: X9D7CE84A2B5Y on June 06, 2016, 06:10
Now that we have had 93 votes on this poll, we have 20 independents saying their income hasn't gone down at all since 2012 and yet only 3 exclusives who say there income hasn't gone down over the same period of time.

For me, this is one of the most important aspects of the poll results so far. Yes, as many people have pointed out, there might be some discrepancies, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies on how the various contributors who voted have calculated their percentage of drops. But I think the issue of whether or not you have had a drop since 2012 in income or not is a pretty cut and dry matter.
....
Not really. There's a minimum sales threshold to reach to become exclusive on IS. The people who's income has increased are the ones who had very small portfolios in 2012, in other words much more likely to be independents.

Yes, statistically these polls have all sorts of caveats - they're from a self-selected group, the answers are unverifiable, they aren't corrected for increases in the numbers of contributors and images, size of portfolio, level of expertise or activity and no doubt lots of other things.

They're fun, but I wouldn't go drawing any far reaching conclusions based on them... if you are thinking of dropping exclusivity (or indeed going exclusive), base it on your own figures and aims, not what anyone else might think is best!

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How Much Has Your Income Dropped On iStock Since The Peak In 2012?

Author Topic: How Much Has Your Income Dropped On iStock Since The Peak In 2012? - Poll! (Read 30858 times)

etienjones

etienjones

X9D7CE84A2B5Y

X9D7CE84A2B5Y

ShadySue

Photostocker

wds

X9D7CE84A2B5Y

PixelBytes

Mantis

pancaketom

Gannet77

Justanotherphotographer

Pauws99

ShadySue

Justanotherphotographer

Pauws99

pixmicro

Pauws99

X9D7CE84A2B5Y

Pauws99

sgoodwin4813

Justanotherphotographer

X9D7CE84A2B5Y

Gannet77

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