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Author Topic: Nervous breakdown - Istockphoto, what else? Exlcusivity etc...  (Read 33460 times)

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aspp

« Reply #125 on: December 27, 2012, 11:47 »
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some contributors were making 100K+ a year for what was very little time and effort compared to normal jobs that pay that much

For the record: low - moderately performing diversified portfolios of around 10K images at IS are currently typically making 100K PA including Getty sales. A well performing portfolio will make more. Some portfolios end up competing with themselves.

Sadly I cannot provide any evidence of this benchmark number therefore you will have to treat it with caution.


« Reply #126 on: December 27, 2012, 13:06 »
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For the record: low - moderately performing diversified portfolios of around 10K images at IS are currently typically making 100K PA including Getty sales. A well performing portfolio will make more. Some portfolios end up competing with themselves.

Sadly I cannot provide any evidence of this benchmark number therefore you will have to treat it with caution.

That's perfectly believable __ it's only $10 per image/year. Having said that there are not that many contributors with portfolios of 10K. Fewer than 30 according to microstocktime.ru and only 40 with 9K+ although I think that list is a bit out of date.

aspp

« Reply #127 on: December 27, 2012, 13:29 »
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That's perfectly believable __ it's only $10 per image/year. Having said that there are not that many contributors with portfolios of 10K. Fewer than 30 according to microstocktime.ru and only 40 with 9K+ although I think that list is a bit out of date.

I believe it very roughly works out as the basis for a pro - rata calculation too. So a low - moderately performing folio of 5K images would probably be worth about 50K PA etc. I would guess that a typical 5K folio is doing better than that including Getty.

I believe that on average, the larger a portfolio the better it is likely to perform. Because your 1st 1K images are probably not as useful as your 2nd. And so on. Although obviously we can all think of folks who upload a greater number of images which pass inspection but are seldom likely to sell and might better suit an RM collection. And there are people with big folios who might trend better on the search by uploading shorter series from any given shoot or by, at least, staggering their uploads rather than uploading all of a shoot at one time.

« Reply #128 on: December 27, 2012, 13:55 »
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Those numbers may have been true before IS had started going south big time.
We are at ~25K for over 5K images and our photos don't suck that much :)

aspp

« Reply #129 on: December 27, 2012, 14:40 »
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Those numbers may have been true before IS had started going south big time.
We are at ~25K for over 5K images and our photos don't suck that much :)

You are looking at the average over how many months or years ?

If you try to figure this on a month by month basis this would make no statistical sense. In that context any recent down should be statistically insignificant in terms of the average (although you obviously need to keep a gimlet eye on the trend). Unless you have been completely wiped out which seems unlikely.

I think you need to be looking at the average calculated over say the past 24 month period.

« Reply #130 on: December 27, 2012, 14:50 »
+3
Those numbers may have been true before IS had started going south big time.
We are at ~25K for over 5K images and our photos don't suck that much :)

You are looking at the average over how many months or years ?

If you try to figure this on a month by month basis this would make no statistical sense. In that context any recent down should be statistically insignificant in terms of the average (although you obviously need to keep a gimlet eye on the trend). Unless you have been completely wiped out which seems unlikely.

I think you need to be looking at the average calculated over say the past 24 month period.

From earlier posts I think aeonf is a relatively recent contributor who has been uploading heavily since they started. I reckon you only start to get anything like a meaningful 'average' once you hit the wall, usually after 5-6 years. Until you hit that point your numbers tend to be growing strongly each month-on-year and therefore earlier data becomes out-dated before it becomes useful (in terms of determining an 'average').

« Reply #131 on: December 28, 2012, 18:00 »
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theprint is his iStock user name, in case you can't match real world name with member name. He is apparently not in any hurry to get his portfolio up on other sites.

MichaelJay, formerly of the former Berlin office, has also dropped his crown. To be precise, both of them have started their 30 day clock although the crown isn't yet gonzo.


Thanks for linking that up

« Reply #132 on: December 29, 2012, 01:26 »
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I reckon it's pretty much a given more defections are going to happen.

Quite a few high profile istockers I've been talking to are making plans - and if it does happen a couple of them will send a few shockwaves through Calgary HQ, unless of course they do special deals with specific contributors.

« Reply #133 on: December 29, 2012, 04:57 »
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... And in other new I saw that Rasmus Rasmussen dropped his crown. (for those who that means anything to). He was a long time istocker and reviewer.

A bit more than that, I think. Isn't he the guy who joined Istock as an intern from Norway under Bruce back in 04 and rapidly emerged as one of the star submitters and a member of the inner circle?

« Reply #134 on: December 29, 2012, 06:01 »
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Those numbers may have been true before IS had started going south big time.
We are at ~25K for over 5K images and our photos don't suck that much :)

You are looking at the average over how many months or years ?

If you try to figure this on a month by month basis this would make no statistical sense. In that context any recent down should be statistically insignificant in terms of the average (although you obviously need to keep a gimlet eye on the trend). Unless you have been completely wiped out which seems unlikely.

I think you need to be looking at the average calculated over say the past 24 month period.

From earlier posts I think aeonf is a relatively recent contributor who has been uploading heavily since they started. I reckon you only start to get anything like a meaningful 'average' once you hit the wall, usually after 5-6 years. Until you hit that point your numbers tend to be growing strongly each month-on-year and therefore earlier data becomes out-dated before it becomes useful (in terms of determining an 'average').

Your thinking is correct, as you said it is hard to give such an average when over 150 images are added every month.
we have had over 5K images for over 3 months with an average monthly income of 1,850$
very far from the numbers being thrown here.
It does seem we hit some invisible "wall" but it also seems IS's performance is to blame and not our owns.
Up untill May/June everything was looking great.

gillian vann

  • *Gillian*
« Reply #135 on: January 06, 2013, 21:33 »
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you're not competing with your local or regional photographers, you're actually against the whole world army of photographers shooting the same subjects and using your same gear !

as the OP pointed out, he's in Serbia and $1000 is a lot to him. like all crowdsourcing, we're competing against those who are happy with a much lower rate of pay. perhaps the agencies are dreaming of an army of african photographers, willing to work for $1/day.

 I'm no African but I would love to be one right now and ask you what did you mean with this remark about Africans!Maybe I'm wrong with what I'm writing here but please, READ AGAIN what you've wrote. Ok?

sorry, just saw this. Um, you are being a bit touchy I think?
I'm married to a Sth African so i have an insight into Africa too. I didn't mean anything awful, only to point out how cheap labour is there - much as it is in China now - and they will happily work for far less that what we will, because our cost of living is so much higher.

« Reply #136 on: January 08, 2013, 07:23 »
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you're not competing with your local or regional photographers, you're actually against the whole world army of photographers shooting the same subjects and using your same gear !

as the OP pointed out, he's in Serbia and $1000 is a lot to him. like all crowdsourcing, we're competing against those who are happy with a much lower rate of pay. perhaps the agencies are dreaming of an army of african photographers, willing to work for $1/day.

 I'm no African but I would love to be one right now and ask you what did you mean with this remark about Africans!Maybe I'm wrong with what I'm writing here but please, READ AGAIN what you've wrote. Ok?

sorry, just saw this. Um, you are being a bit touchy I think?
I'm married to a Sth African so i have an insight into Africa too. I didn't mean anything awful, only to point out how cheap labour is there - much as it is in China now - and they will happily work for far less that what we will, because our cost of living is so much higher.

No, I'm sorry... as I stated, nervous breakdown :(
Anyways, point taken and right on spot :)

Few days and my ports will be live at, I think, nine agencies... I have a good feeling that it will all go better than "well"...

« Reply #137 on: January 08, 2013, 08:08 »
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Few days and my ports will be live at, I think, nine agencies... I have a good feeling that it will all go better than "well"...

Good luck with it! Make sure you stay as an independent for at least a year. It will probably take that long for your images to gain their rightful sort-order position, increase levels, etc. There's a few folk that have been so frightened by the initial loss of income that they've gone running straight back into Istock's arms. There's no future in that IMO.

mattdixon

« Reply #138 on: January 08, 2013, 09:11 »
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[Few days and my ports will be live at, I think, nine agencies... I have a good feeling that it will all go better than "well"...
Good luck!
How did you get your port onto 9 agencies so quickly?

« Reply #139 on: January 08, 2013, 12:39 »
+1
@gostwyck

Well, I got nothing to lose, more to gain! My Getty sales are still higher than my Istock sales (footage) and they will remain to be higher cause I can only imagine how will my sales plunge after 30 days waiting period (even now I see few to no sales at all at Istock). But you never know with Getty. One month they are up 600% and the next they are non existent!
I know I'll make double at least what I make now at Istock, with 10 other agencies...
Also, prior to 2006 I was selling at SS, Fl, 123RF, CS, SC, BS, etc... Got accounts already and I know the "scratching head" feeling when some photos sell at certain agencies and others don't ... Different markets, different search placements, different buyers etc.

I gave Istock one whole year (almost) since starting this topic last year. And nothing. It wasn't me!
So, I'm more than willing to give more than one year to all the other agencies and see what will become out of that. Last year I was in doubt, and you can read that from my first several posts here! Now - no doubt :) Can't wait to start! 

@mattdixon

Got some wicked upload speeds and it's only limited by the agencies server speed. And I'm uploading since 26th November last year! Done with Pond5, Shutterstock, Motion Elements, Fotolia, ClipDealer, ClipCanvas. 2000+ clips uploaded at each agencie. All approved at SS, opted out of course, P5 keyworded and ready for inspection (a bit in dilemma there cause I don't know the review times there so I don't know when to "send them" for review). Clipdealer, awesome "thingy", they review the clips prior to entering metadata - so no "work for nothing"! Like that one a lot! Alamy hard drive with CSV already there, 123rf CSV also, as P5, RevoStock etc...

Shutterstock, Revostock, Canstock, 123rf, are "slower" for uploading, bellow 1, 2, mbs! Yet others are between 4 and 10 mbs! Fast enough for me! And all of my footage is rendered between 97 and 100 photo jpg mov so those files are laaaarge!

Still uploading to some agencies because of their server speeds (or whatever is causing slowdown in uploading) and entering metadata to the ones that doesn't have csv ability using DeepMeta! It's easy, I search my own portfolio, copy and paste keywords and rearrange some of those at some agencies that should be rearranged and that's it. Using IS model releases, contacted support of all the agencies involved asking if that's alright etc, positive answer, of course.
Alamy, SS, Revostock and ClipDealer were the fastest in "helping" to get my clips to them. Others I didn't have to contact cause it's more or less the same :)

So, got some week or so to keyword and do some heavy copy/paste/rearrange to do and then it will be, I hope, +-10 days that my portfolio will be online at all agencies making some well deserved money that Istock couldn't provide!

Also, can't wait to report here to anyone in similar situation as me, how things are going in the first month or two.

Cheers guys! And merry Christmas! Orthodox Christmas was yesterday here in Serbia so to anyone celebrating - have a blast this year and a lot of health and love! Also, to the people around the world that already celebrated in December - the same :))))

Cheers people! All the best to everyone!


« Reply #140 on: January 08, 2013, 12:57 »
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^^^ Good stuff! Keep us updated on your progress, there's a lot of people faced with the difficult decision on whether to take the plunge.

« Reply #141 on: August 12, 2014, 20:09 »
+28
Hey guys! Two years and a few months after starting this thread I'm here with some info that may come in handy to someone in same situation like I was :)

Two years ago, Feb 2012, I was on a verge of a nervous breakdown regarding IS and it's new business habits. Money was way to low, sales were slow, no progress of any kind. Go to page one of this topic to refresh your memory for this one.

Anyways, that year started very clumsy and fearful but ended like my IS exclusivity. At the end of 2012 I've spread my footage portfolio (and some photos) to:
Pond5 (full port)
Shutterstock (full port)
Fotolia (full port but not all online. No csv support, high rejections and low prices)
123rf (full port)
Revostock (full port)
Clipdealer (few dozens of clips, very hard to do metadata, no csv support etc)
Canstockphoto (full port)
Depositphotos (full port)
Clipcanvas (few clips)
Lori.ru
and later that year to
Pixta (full port)
Motionelements (full port)
Dreamstime (last year I think, few hundred clips)

This year
Stockeon (several clips)
Dissolve (still uploading)


On most of the agencies, support was great, community (were exist) is cool and tech side of things is, well, ok.

My metadata (csv, xls) was a mess. File naming was as I exported them from premiere, ae or whatever. The stupid names like watertert01.mov, water02a.mov, mommywithdaughter.mov etc. So I had to rename all of those and match them with existing descriptions and keywords from IS. Did that manually. Through deepmeta. It got everything except original filenames of the files online. So one week after, I got my names and metadata right. Also, there are several programs out there that can help you guys with renaming files from text files and plain list files but that's another story.
Then my hard drive crashed and I lost over 600 files :( IS don't offer anymore dl of your own portfolio for money. They did opened the gates to my portfolio but only web resolution was available to dl. And I used that to download my whole audio portfolio cause that file naming was number id's and I knew that down the road I'm gona break the excl contract for audio too and that my audio metadata is even worse then footage so I used that benefit. And it payed out in 2013/2014 when I jumped the audio ship.

After a long intro comes even longer start :)

Files were uploaded to P5, SS, Fotolia and several others (can't remember) and keyworded (except the ones I wrote up). First mistake was the switch on SS to activate my whole portfolio. I think.
It sunken like a bag of rocks. No sales, no nothing. First week, month, second month, knees trembling, wife screaming, thinking to myself: another mistake, you money hungry moron, now you have nothing... and stuff like that... It never recovered and performed as I think it would if I was smart enough to pump in 50 after 50 after 50 files week after week. Later on more about SS.

Pond5 was a different kind of stress. Nothing was working. Views were broken, add to cart (stats) were maybe broken maybe not (added to cart with no views etc). But very quickly (relative), one month and longer, after first clips were online, some of them started selling. $70 a pop, $35 for me. I played a bit with prices to see how it goes and I settled on $60 per clip even though I sold several for $90 but long time passed between those sales. And then things started to shape up a bit on Pond5. I was levitating on $180 to $300 per month on P5. In my head that was a piece that was missing on IS. Month after month sales disappeared from IS. Footage sales. And P5 was making that right.

In that moment I had a downtrend regarding audio on IS. That was another disaster waiting to happen but more on that later on.

SS never woke up. I started getting sales every week. And it stopped at some $200 per month. That was a party breaker in my head. I have 2000+ files online and 10 dl's per month... bummer. At that point, even with much lower sales at SS and P5 than I expected, I passed the IS footage income just with those two. And I was still getting Getty footage sales which were about $200 to $400 per month depending on the mood of the guy that pushes the give him some money for his clips button at Getty HQ.

Other nice surprises were on the other, oooother side of the world. Asia. Pixta and Motion Elements were selling a clip per week for me. No mistake there. And I uploaded there cause in my head it was like another market, different habits, different needs, maybe something will sell there. And it did and it still does. I'm gonna support those two that's for sure. Helpful, clean, smart, working, easy upload process, csv support. ... And Motion Elements is starting music (sound) and while I'm writing this, I'm finishing uploading my port there. When it will be live I don't know but it sure does sound tempting. Yet Shutter failed to deliver. They have announced music and partnered up with Rumblefish and that's it. No contribution, no nothing. I asked them on three different sides (four if you count forums) and answers were very different. Long story short they wont be accepting music from contributors just yet OR they will be accepting and you can go to this link and apply OR what a great idea about sound effects Mirko, I'll let you know when we start accepting those, but not just yet :)))) Ok, I get it, it's a test balloon but I think (hope) they would skyrocket if they were to open the gates for audio guys... anyway, back on topic.

Asia done! Awesome for starters.

Fotolia was/is very muddy if I can say it like that. I just can't get to finish my uploads over there. I keyword a batch and they reject everything, low commercial value. Several times like that and then they approve something and it get sold and I got like two bucks or something... just can't start with them properly but maybe I should give them a chance.

Canstockphoto and footage :)

Easy upload, everything online, a sale here and there. After one year, yesterday I made it to $100 :))) Enough said.

123rf.
Strange people I'll tell you. Nothing for weeks and then waterfall of sales. Nice ones. Since last year summer I'm getting payed every month there. And they have audio so that's a big plus for people like me. Double earning, footage plus sound. Will keep them that's for sure. And very easy upload process. Csv support, fast approvals, etc.

I know this is going into some kind of personal review of agencies but I'm just trying to explain how my non exclusive life was flowing for year and a half now. I hope you guys don't mind :)

Deposiphotos

They scared me when I finished uploading. Done the metadata, uploaded and they started adding it. The reviewers. Or someone else :) Don't know. They really tried hard to make things easier for contributor. I had several payments from them since.

Revostock

Great people, friendly, small company. Very, very helpful. I started there when they (I didn't know that at that time) were in a patent troll lawsuit over some piece of code on their website. Two years after, they won the lawsuit but were almost broke. And it was a one of a kind question for the contributors could you guys wait with payments for a bit so we can stand on our feet (simplified and paraphrased  question from)? And all of the people there (almost) agreed to that. And we waited and got our payments after a short period of time. They are very transparent about were they are headed and what are their golds. A thing to admire in these times. I offered them a hand by proposing to do the sfx review for free for a couple of months cause they had to lay off the guy that was there doing it, and got several constructive conversation emails with Craig (owner) and I did that only because I knew they needed help at the moment. At the end I didn't do the extra work but I was glad my proposition was taken seriously and they needed a moral boost from every one. So, I gave them my part. Got a sale here and there. And they don't accept everything. That's good. Still have to do my audio port there and give that a chance. Big up for Revo from me.

Dreamstime.

They are hilarious. Started footage but their batch uploading process is (was I hope) a mistery for them too :))) I managed to upload several batches and I sold some clips there. Have to do all of them to see how it goes. No payment from them still.

Lori.ru

Mother Russia :) Nice people, nice agency, no sales.

Clip dealer and Clipcanvas
Nothing to say there

Stockeon

Very slick layout and strange for an agency. I'll give them a shoot cause I got a friend who sold several clips there. And every dime counts for me, sadly. They got csv for clips but for nothing else for that matter.

Dissolve
Aggressive approach to with all the adds popping everywhere on the net. Got a looooong write off with  George and several other people there and I hope they rise to be a strong and serious player in this world. They sound like that, look like that and I hope they will sell like that. I'm uploading my port there too. Very, very helpful and friendly folks. Also, some of them you know from IS.
I think we'll be seing more of them in the future (agency, not IS people :))

Now, after this strange list, I would like to say I didn't upload ALMOST one single new clip to any of the agencies for one whole year. There were some uploads but nothing that would keep the flow going (money). Guess what? It didn't rise and it didn't fall. The money is the same as it was one year ago :))) That's awesome. But not so awesome for someone like me who, last year in July, gave their resignation to the company they worked for over ten years as a layout editor for magazines in Ringier Axel Springer Serbia. Yes. I was imagining the day when I quit my day job and when I start doing stock full time. And it happened. Accidentally :) I had a fight (verbal) with one of the directors about something I didn't do, and I went to my vacation. Got and email on Sunday evening that my payment for June is being lowered 5%. And I dropped my job as I dropped my IS excl status. My wife was behind me all the way. One child 6 and the other several month old at that time. Five bank loans, living in rented apartment, paying off my camera, car, and credit cards and several phones and gadgets that we picked up on our way. Before, we had very little money. After that we had no money at all except stock and my wife's salary. Good timing, right :)))

Well, this is a follow up letter/post whatever :))) You guys said to keep you posted so here you go :)))

Anyways, nothing happened (crucial) till December last year when we found out that we are pregnant again :) Wife with baby, me with beer :) Then I realised that now there's no turning back! It was fun, but I had my job and stock was giving more boost in our lives but now it was over. No job, stock wasn't going up or down (thank god), and we're going to have out third kid :))) Wake up, wake up, wake up!!!

So in January I broke of audio exclusivity and started uploading everywhere. My index finger got injured from copy/paste. For real. No kidding here. I calculated that I pressed over 40.000 times the same buttons in one week. It took several months to heal.

Started shooting again, recording, playing music, doing everything. And for the first time in my life, I disregarded everything that was distracting me (news, fb, I wanna have my own blog, I want my own agency, I want to go fishing, I want to watch tv)... and started doing some serious things. I saw it as a business for the first time in my life. Ok, a bit fun in it, that's for sure but it was all fun for me back then. Now it's not so funny anymore.

Digression (not really)
Istock started selling my files on Iphone tone store since the beginning of the tone store in 2012. I was always in the top 10 or 50 files there. And it was some good money in 2012. Over 30.000 sales only from those 5 files there. And 30.000 people has my sounds for their notifications :))) How cool is that. Anyways, the Apple sales dried out. They are 5 to 20 per day now. And they were 100 to 150 per day back in 2012. Getty sales are still there. Sometimes $500 sometimes $1500... Sometimes $0... Can't figure those.

And yesterday I did my math (not meth) and here we go. 2013 was $3000 better non exclusively with IS and Getty counted in than just IS and Getty Excl in 2012. IS still counts but much less than before.

Could I done better? Hell yes! Shutterstock portfolio switch is a no no! Don't do it! Who ever is out there wondering the same thing, upload, keyword but send 50 by 50 everyday. And that's for all agencies, and google and caching and algorithms and best/fresh/newest match etc... That's only my opinion.

Pond is striking hard these days. SS also. I started working like a horse these past couple of weeks. Got over 1000 new clips and over 4000 new audio clips. And I'm preparing them for winter :))) 100 by 100. Uploading and sending to curator/reviewer :)

One year of doing nothing was still better than one year of doing everything at IS. And I didn't add anything to IS. Just for the record. And still got some great friends there at HQ.

Anyways, guys, I know this is a bit confusing but overall, being non exclusive is demanding a bit more work when you look at it that way but, he who uploaded 5000 clips to IS and disambiguated them knows that every single uploading system is easier than that one at IS. So, as I've said, a bit more work and it's paying off.

I wish sometimes to have only one agency and to work just with them (that's were Stocksy fit in but im not in yet) but that's just wishful thinking :)

My wife should give birth to our second daughter every day now. I gave her a green light, I said I was ready :)))) Trying not to fall under influence that I must read this and that and watch this and this and do that and that on the web. Just focusing on stock. Bought the cms account script from Anton. Got my own agency :))) For me only, no contributors etc. It's doing great. I bought several files from my self in the past couple of months and I'm always first in every search :))) Hehheheh. Didn't uploaded videos yet, but I'm on it. Just some photos and audios. Rigged it with Amazon s3 for storage and it's awesome like that. No cost, no slow servers etc. And I'm not a web programer, designer but I managed to make it happen. It's videoaudiostock.com. Need to change some colors, but it's kinda cool to have your own place. Also, I'm making my blog (don't know what to write but I'm making it that's for sure) about sound in microstock. No one is doing that right now. It's microstocksound.com. Not active. Just Hello World from WP. But I'm gonna invite you guys to my grand opening:)

And now, when stock is my only source of income and I can say, my job, it's getting even harder to think and not get stressed. Where we'll be in the next decade? 100 million files agencies? What search engine....
Trying not to think that much. Anyways, I salute you all, I'll say my prayers for Robbin Williams, he was my favorite actor and I'll go to sleep now.
I hope I helped someone out who is trying to get away from some nasty situation. Also, I hope I didn't put to sleep too many of you with this short retrospective :)

Yes, dropping the crown payed off. Yes, I'm balder and fatter than before :)
I would do it again.
Choice is a great thing.
Deciding is better.
Money is the best :)))

Cheers guys. Sorry for the long post. Got many info on most of the agencies now so if anyone wants to know something about footage or sound and certaing agencies, please, do ask.

Mirko.
 8)




« Reply #142 on: August 12, 2014, 21:10 »
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Whow Mirko, what an adventure! Congratulations for getting the results you wanted and best of luck with the new baby :)

Thank you for sharing your experience.

« Reply #143 on: August 13, 2014, 04:56 »
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No prob :) Sorry for the long read. This morning, I remembered many things that I have forgotten about that one year journey. Will fill in the details later on.

« Reply #144 on: August 13, 2014, 05:02 »
+7
Experiences like this are always interesting and relevant to read, not to mention extremely useful and encouraging to others going through the same process.

Great report - thanks for sharing!

« Reply #145 on: August 13, 2014, 05:19 »
+2
If there was a donate button - I would donate a few $ for that interesting post. Value for value.

« Reply #146 on: August 13, 2014, 05:40 »
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Thanks Mirkik. My daughter is just setting on the road to submitting stock footage. I just sent her the link to your post. Good luck for the future.

« Reply #147 on: August 14, 2014, 03:34 »
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What a story. Congratulation for the hard work you have done, it payed off :)

I was just wondering, did you ever consider Alamy? As I dont see it on the list.

« Reply #148 on: August 14, 2014, 13:44 »
+1
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand last nigh, Wednesday, 13th of August, at 23:06, in Belgrade, my third child, second daughter, inhaled her first breath :)))) Whooooooohooooo! Enough about that, back on topic... well, this is on topic, it's a nervous breakdown, but positive :))))

Anyways, @Toopy

I considered Alamy several years ago when I was still excl at IS and year after year I remember them (being midstock agency, I figure, hey more money for me) but I just cannot shake off the feeling - send us your hard drive and we'll do the rest... man, I live in middle ages regarding country and geographic location (stupid politicians broke the time machine dialer) and some of my fellow citizens act like they live in middle ages (almost) but to send a hard drive with my whole port by mail?!?! Even if it's a DHL or UPS or whatever... I don't think so. I know that many other agencies do that (getty) and that several years ago that was the least painful way of sending 1 tb of stock footage to an agency, but I just didn't do it. I pop in to check from time to time if they came to their senses and managed to implement FTP or web uploader for footage but nothing... You have to contact them, send them a link to your port, they review it and then they contact you and decide if they want or they don't want to work with you. Again, this is my personal decision and from the business side view, it's bad. I'm not selling through them cause I have a problem sending a hard drive to them... maybe I should talk to myself about that. Now that I think about it, I'm the one being jackass.
And I don't know anyone selling footage through them. Would like to know about pricing, percentage and how are sales there.

@Monty-m-gue
Just tell your daughter to keep uploading EVERY DAY. Even if it's just one clip, let it be one clip per day. But more something like 10 per day... I was told something like that regarding audio and best match at IS. So I just implemented it to everything else. Continuity. Every day, one, five, ten clips and in a year or two, she will feel good about her port. Again, just my personal observation. I'm faaaar away from some mega super seller etc :))) But I think that this advice can't hurt her.
And everything about the agencies I wrote in my "big post" is something I brushed off my mind at the time writing it. There's much more to each agency, good and bad. Don't take it for granted. We all have some opinion and, well, bugs in our heads that are influencing our working and living habits (I have a problem sending in a hard drive to Alamy and I'm missing some sales and money because of it, yet I talk about serious approach and working hard and bla,bla,bla,... get my point?).

@fotoVoyager
+1

@cobalt
Thanks! It's been a bumpy ride and it aint over yet :) Just starting.

« Reply #149 on: August 14, 2014, 13:46 »
0
@bunhill

That's a good idea :)


 

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