I think it is important to look at what happens in January/February. Last year there was a terrible drop after the New Year, presumably buyers who didn�t renew their contracts and went elsewhere.

Then you�ll need the new RC targets, are they staying at 150k or lowering them significantly or proportional to the perceived loss in traffic.

Are they announcing any new initiatives (better than microstock...ahem...)?

And what do the monthly sales threads look like beginning of the year?

Do you have good sales on getty? Do you have a house or PC contract? The you could try to weather the storm by uploading more to them, at least that is what I am doing.

I would also wait to see the "next stage" of uploading that Kelly talked about.

But in the end, it is your decision. It all depends on how painful things are.

I really don�t believe that microstock is dead, absolutely not. The needs for images is steadily growing, because more and more markets are maturing, i.e. paying their staff enough that buying from a stock site is cheaper than spending hours searching the internet to steal one...

And of course you can think of adding a new and different subject theme to your portfolio to attract different customers.

On the other hand, many people here have gone from being exclusive to independent, then back and and again independent. So it is doable. UL systems also seem to be easier on most sites.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the best.

IMO, you're not going to win any contests by shifting uploads to Getty.

Quote from: sjlocke on November 23, 2011, 07:51

IMO, you're not going to win any contests by shifting uploads to Getty.

I respect your opinion Sean, but if iStock isn't not working for me anymore, what other options do I have without leaving exclusivity? And don't say the Partner Program (I know you won't Sean).

Not many. I feel your pain. My download numbers are less than a third of what they were a couple of years ago.

Someone (Rapideye perhaps) suggested making sure all your images are keyworded with non-cv terms embedded now so the transition to independence won't be as painful or slow when iStock becomes financially unviable for full time exclusive photographers.

I�m an iStock exclusive at the diamond level and have been contributing there since 2007 (let the guessing begin). For my own reasons I�ve chosen to remain anonymous at this time and this is my first ever post here on MSG.

This thread as well as other recent conversations both here and in the istock sales threads have me very worried about the future of istock. Is iStock becoming the Myspace of the microstock world? I certainly hope not, but my faith in IS has been slowly eroding for over a year now and this month it is the worst ever.

A year ago I used to average about 30-40 DLs on a normal weekday. This year that number dropped to 20-30 per weekday. This month it has dropped to 10-20 per weekday. Yesterday I only had 5 DLs, which for me is unheard of on a regular working Tuesday, normally my best day of the week. I have a good number of Vettas and a smaller number of Agency files but royalties from those few sales are not near enough to balance the loss of revenue from decreasing DLs. I know these are just my numbers so they are anectdotal at best. But that said, something is seriously wrong with this picture. I don�t upload as much as I could, but I do try to upload regularly. So, what does all this mean?

It�s causing me to seriously question staying exclusive at IS and for that matter, it�s causing me to question the concept of microstock in general (yeah, I know that sounds a bit dramatic). I really don't know what to do but it�s clear that something has to change and they say that change begins with "me". It's just hard when you've invested so much with one agency and now you're getting a big fat turd in return.

Well if you have a wife, husband, brother, sister. Have them set up a company, have this company contribute to other agencies. Have them contract you as a photographer, retoucher, keyworder, uploader. And provide you the equipment office space etc. In your spare time you can continue to upload to IS / Getty

Quote from: michealo on November 23, 2011, 09:18

Well if you have a wife, husband, brother, sister. Have them set up a company, have this company contribute to other agencies. Have them contract you as a photographer, retoucher, keyworder, uploader. And provide you the equipment office space etc. In your spare time you can continue to upload to IS / Getty

Sneaky, not sure if it's a legal loophole or simply breaking the contract.

Well it depends on the conditions of section 2 a of the artist's supply agreement and Canadian and International laws.

Quote from: michealo on November 23, 2011, 09:18

Well if you have a wife, husband, brother, sister. Have them set up a company, have this company contribute to other agencies. Have them contract you as a photographer, retoucher, keyworder, uploader. And provide you the equipment office space etc. In your spare time you can continue to upload to IS / Getty

Sneaky, not sure if it's a legal loophole or simply breaking the contract.

There's at least one person who openly on an iStock forum stated that she has a shooting partner/buddy, shoots the same scenes and she uploads them as an iStock exclusive and he as an independent. She claimed that she had cleared this with iStock. Win-win IMO, share the cost of shoots, spread the risks. NB, I don't have a shooting buddy or anything else - don't shoot the messenger.

In any case, you'd best clear that with IS/Getty first.

Remember, they don't have to justify cancelling their contract with you, any more than you need a reason to cancel your contract with them.

In any case, you'd best clear that with IS/Getty first.
Remember, they don't have to justify cancelling their contract with you, any more than you need a reason to cancel your contract with them.

True, no more than they need to justify lowering royalty rates. We already found that out the hard way.

Anyways, I'm not a "go behind your back" sneaky type even if Getty is, so I'll either be exclusive or not openly (all spoken anonymously, of course ;-). A little time will tell.

Well, I seem to be an exception among those reporting, but the fact is that being exclusive is still working fine for me - which was a surprise, because after the change to RCs I did drop a royalty level, and although my downloads have dropped my royalties are still getting BMEs and show good increases compared to 12 months previous.

But I'm very much a middle ranking Gold, and the changes seem to be affecting Diamonds and above more.  If iStock are paying any attention, I would think they would be looking to address that somehow;  just my thoughts though. I have no inside knowledge of their plans.

It�s causing me to seriously question staying exclusive at IS and for that matter, it�s causing me to question the concept of microstock in general (yeah, I know that sounds a bit dramatic). I really don't know what to do but it�s clear that something has to change and they say that change begins with "me". It's just hard when you've invested so much with one agency and now you're getting a big fat turd in return.

Microstock is doing fine. Just not necessarily at Istock. As it happens I had a terrible Friday but then yesterday was my best day for sales at IS for the entire month. As sales generally slowdown, then on a day-to-day basis, the fluctuations are likely to become more severe.

Start making plans to go independent. You owe it to yourself and your portfolio and certainly not to Istockphoto. Your income should be more stable, you'll have far more EL's (which always cheer me up) and there's a limit to how much the vagaries of one agency, in responding to targets set by their masters, can influence your income. Istock have let you, me and pretty much every other contributor down on several occasions over the last couple of years. Everything from the original RC swindle, the broken promises about canister protection, the fraud fiasco, the search screw-ups, the site outages ... oh and this latest nonsense. Hell, Istock can't even provide up-to-date statistics and haven't been able to for several years. Pathetic. Every other agency has instantaneous sales data. Why can't Istock?

From what you've written it is probably not a question of 'if' you should go independent but only 'when'. Start working on the 'when' bit immediately. If I were you I'd be handing my crown back in today so that the 30-days will expire just before the Xmas dead-period. Get your port up and running at the other agencies ready for the busy period from mid-January until the end of March.

Give yourself something to look forward to __ you're probably not going to get that at Istock. Good luck with whatever you decide.

well all I can say is here in Australia things are looking good 

lol 

Even with a nice EL boost to give me a head start at the beginning of the month, sales have fallen the last week or two and I am again well under what I should be. As a silver who can no longer get images passed, who hasn't bothered submitting any for well over 12 months I am going to drop my exclusivity at the end of this month and go with as many others as I can. Wow, I might be able to get into SS but that would be nigh on impossible after already 4 attempts.