Quote from: thesentinel on February 11, 2008, 17:24

Just did that Business Seminar search, Yuri 8 Lise 4.

That's what I get too.
I buy photos at istock and I normally see more of Yuri's pics better placed in searches compared to lise's. If you think about it, exclusives are good for the agency in general but if istock were to promote one non exclusive member it would be Yuri, as they get 20% more money from his sales and he sells a few thousand more photos than Lise every month.

I can assure you that I do NOT get any special treatment or any of the sort from the IS management. Absolutely none. I am bound by the same principles that favour exclusives and not non-exclusives.
I have two freelancers working part-time who�s only job is to optimise keywording for IS, this helps a bit but cost�s a bit too.

Showing off cases where I have better search placement then Lise only makes me happy, and de-confirms my concerns about bad placement.

Take a deep breath my friend before jumping on the bandwagon. ! Do you really think considering search queue placement and the rankings involved make me look unprofessional? This is part of my business to consider things like that.
Here is the result I was referring to, and the search looked different when I did it some days ago. But still�
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&oldtext=seninar&majorterms=%7B%22csv%22%3A%22%22%2C%22conjunction%22%3A%22AND%22%7D&copySpace=%7B%22Tolerance%22%3A1%2C%22Matrix%22%3A%5B%5D%7D&abstractType=15&fileTypeSizePrice=%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22Image%22%2C%22size%22%3A%22All%22%2C%22priceOption%22%3A%221%22%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22Illustration+%5BVector%5D%22%2C%22size%22%3A%22Vector+Image%22%2C%22priceOption%22%3A%22All%22%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22Flash%22%2C%22size%22%3A%22Flash+Document%22%2C%22priceOption%22%3A%22All%22%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22Video%22%2C%22size%22%3A%22All%22%2C%22priceOption%22%3A%221%22%7D%5D&orientation=7&illustrationLimit=Exactly&flashLimit=Exactly&order=7&perPage=100&page=1&showTitle=true&showContributor=true&showDownload=true&enableLoupe=true&text=seminar
Lise: 30
Yuri: 8

That is a sort by downloads.

I wont comment on the best match / downloads but I think you win the who can post the longest url competition. Its huge

Rule #7 in succeeding at Microstock photography:

"In order to truly succeed, one must take pictures of cheesy looking, business people shaking hands with a laptop" or something like that... I guess I'll never be successful!

Rule #7 in succeeding at Microstock photography:

"In order to truly succeed, one must take pictures of cheesy looking, business people shaking hands with a laptop" or something like that... I guess I'll never be successful!

depends on what you consider successful. 

plenty of travel / wildlife / etc photogs happily earning $1-$10 per image / per year, people that talk about 10000 images not being a big portfolio.

I dunno.. i didn't think it was THAT bad of a picture of dirt.

I have done allright selling solid background pictures of things like snow, old walls, and different types of textures.

Likewise....  Not on IS so much, but elsewhere, background shots like  "dirt"  sell for me.  I do a lot of wood, planking and such.  I took one shot of  wood siding, tinted it green and billed it as  "pressure treated wood" .. it sells. LOL  I upload them in categories such as texture, background, abstract...  they seem to sell.  In fact,  my second highest selling picture is a close-up shot of a red brick sidewalk.  It's been selling by the dozen(s)  every week now for a year and a half.  Close up of bricks. .. go figure.

MIZ pic....  the best!!!   However, dude, I know you're a top notch photog, light years ahead of me... but, I have to tell you, the shot could be confusing!!   I first  thought it  was a black bear eating licorice in a closet...   .. make sure your keywords are specific, bro!!

Likewise on the comment of shooting people at laptops, holding pencils to their mouth and sticking phones in their ears.  If that's what it takes, I'll never get rich in this business. I don't do that.
   On the other hand, I'm not in it as my prime source of income.... so I'll continue to shoot the stuff I like to shoot, landscape and  nature.  And contrary to what many profess,   landscape does sell, .........just ask my accountant.   =tom