MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: lisafx on January 30, 2013, 19:03
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That's something new, right? I don't see anything about it in the forums, but I just noticed my P+ images are all starting at XS for $6. It was $4 before, right? Or am I just losing it?
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Do no.
Its 6$ for me to. Which for my whooping 17% RC for this license is between 46-54 cents.
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Do no.
Its 6$ for me to. Which for my whooping 17% RC for this license is between 46-54 cents.
$1.02 isn't it?
1% of $6 is 6c, x17.
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Do no.
Its 6$ for me to. Which for my whooping 17% RC for this license is between 46-54 cents.
$1.02 isn't it?
1% of $6 is 6c, x17.
Hmmpf
i dont know only I can see from P+sales at RC 17% is
Last image is from ordinary sales
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Do no.
Its 6$ for me to. Which for my whooping 17% RC for this license is between 46-54 cents.
$1.02 isn't it?
1% of $6 is 6c, x17.
Hmmpf
i dont know only I can see from P+sales at RC 17% is
Your percentage is connected to, but separate from the RCs.
These sales would have been credit bundle sales. Lisa was quoting the cash sale price, for which you'd get $1.02.
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Do no.
Its 6$ for me to. Which for my whooping 17% RC for this license is between 46-54 cents.
$1.02 isn't it?
1% of $6 is 6c, x17.
Hmmpf
i dont know only I can see from P+sales at RC 17% is
Your percentage is connected to, but separate from the RCs.
These sales might have been credit bundle sales. Lisa was quoting the cash sale price, for which you'd get $1.02.
Dont understand?!
Lisa is asking about base price of P+ image which in IS lets say terminology is XS *Extra Small which from buyers perspective looks like 6$.
am I right?
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Yes, but that's the cash price, if someone chooses to pay by cash, rather than by credits.
AFAICS, with the few sales I get nowadays, the majority are still credit sales.
From this page http://www.istockphoto.com/corporate-accounts.php (http://www.istockphoto.com/corporate-accounts.php) credits for an iS subscription can go as low as 23c each. 17% of 23c is about 4c. So for an XS P+ bought with the smallest published credit bundle on subscription, you could get 12c.
Or 4c for an XS sub sale with that credit bundle. :(
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So do you think is it normal to receive 46-54 cents from XS P+ image.
I look thru my P+ image sales and I can say they are around 50 cents for XSmall.
While from 6$ it will must be about 1$_
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So do you think is it normal to receive 46-54 cents from XS P+ image.
I look thru my P+ image sales and I can say they are around 50 cents for XSmall.
While from 6$ it will must be about 1$_
OK, so a P+ image costs 3 credits if bought with a credit bundle.
On this page, http://www.istockphoto.com/buy-stock-prepaid-credits.php (http://www.istockphoto.com/buy-stock-prepaid-credits.php) it says that ordinary published prices for ordinary credits range from $1.33 to $1.67.
So to make things simple, we could say that an average credit price could be $1.50, so 3 credits is $4.50. 1% of $4.50 is 4.5c is 76.5c.
So your average does seem low, yes.
Maybe your photos are the sort that appeal to corporate buyers who might buy bigger bundles? Though actually unless my arithmetic is wrong (it's 01:26 a.m.), your share of a P+ XS bought with $1.33 credits should be 67c.
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That's something new, right? I don't see anything about it in the forums, but I just noticed my P+ images are all starting at XS for $6. It was $4 before, right? Or am I just losing it?
Well it's just logical that IS has to up prices (once again) to compensate for buyers that are running away, exclusives dropping their crowns and the rest not uploading new content.
It just wouldn't be sustainable for them, you know ::)
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Thanks Click.
Suljo and Liz, I am not talking about cash price vs. credits, or RC percentages, etc. Just that there has been a 50% rise in P+ prices since yesterday. Yesterday, if I am not mistaken, P+ images had a base cash price of $4, now today it's $6.
Can anyone confirm that there was, in fact, a price increase overnight? It's a pretty big deal, IMO, and I am surprised nobody else seems to have noticed or cared. Which is why I'm wondering if I've got it wrong.
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So do you think is it normal to receive 46-54 cents from XS P+ image.
I look thru my P+ image sales and I can say they are around 50 cents for XSmall.
While from 6$ it will must be about 1$_
Istock pay on the net price, after they have taken their costs out.
They wont say what their costs are or how much the net percentage is, so you will never get 17% of a sale price, looks like you are getting 10-12% of the sale price :)
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I can't find any screen shots - not even on the Wayback Machine- but P+ was 2 credits and $4 for XS and now it's 3 and $6. Other sizes except XXXL - went from $34 to $35 - are the same, I think. They also changed the price of a regular Small file from $6 to $7 although the credit price stayed at 4 (I have a screenshot of that from the UK vs US cash prices thread) (http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/istock's-alexa-rank-continues-to-drop/msg289036/#msg289036)
Most interestingly they have removed the chart of prices from the page about buying credits so you can't easily check what stuff costs any more - from the Wayback Machine, this is the way the page used to look (http://web.archive.org/web/20120716030150/http://www.istockphoto.com/help/buy-credits/) but the links don't work so you can't see all the prices
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Here is the full credit price list as it was before cash sales: http://web.archive.org/web/20120625171938/http://www.istockphoto.com/prices.php (http://web.archive.org/web/20120625171938/http://www.istockphoto.com/prices.php)
And here is the current list that gets updated automatically by a user:
http://theasis.co.uk/iStock/credits.html (http://theasis.co.uk/iStock/credits.html)
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...
And here is the current list that gets updated automatically by a user:
[url]http://theasis.co.uk/iStock/credits.html[/url] ([url]http://theasis.co.uk/iStock/credits.html[/url])
Thanks for the price link. The user's site is asking me for a password
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There was a raise on exclusive prices as well. Why are they doing this? The site is obviously getting less and less traffic, less sales and they raise the prices. I don't understand.
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There was a raise on exclusive prices as well. Why are they doing this? The site is obviously getting less and less traffic, less sales and they raise the prices. I don't understand.
from a buyer a few hours ago:
"I've MOSTLY bought images from iStock because when I'm under tight deadlines, I just want to go to my familiar place and find the images I'm looking for and move on. I'm busy and I don't have time to shop around at differnet sites. iStock has always been my go-to site for images, but with all the price increases (and the search results problems mentioned above), I've actually been buying from other sites. It takes more time to do so. I don't like it, but the people I report to have noticed my spending is getting higher and higher. I have to answer for that somehow and 'convenience' isn't looked upon as a good enough reason when we can spend less elsewhere."
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349553&messageid=6833387 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349553&messageid=6833387)
There has to be a balance. IMO, most of the other micros are too cheap, but iStock is pushing too far the other way.
Higher prices for fewer sales won't work.
Oh dear, this says it all.
Lobo replied:
Awesome. It's great to hear from you. If you have any suggestions on how we can get more buyers in here send me a site mail. I'd be very intrested to read your thoughts.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349553&messageid=6833397 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=349553&messageid=6833397)
Awesome. iStock's marketing strategy is now 'email Lobo'.
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There has to be a balance. IMO, most of the other micros are too cheap, but iStock is pushing too far the other way.
Higher prices for fewer sales won't work.
So, this buyer does not want cheap images. So much for shopping around for lower prices?
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There has to be a balance. IMO, most of the other micros are too cheap, but iStock is pushing too far the other way.
Higher prices for fewer sales won't work.
So, this buyer does not want cheap images. So much for shopping around for lower prices?
No, indeed, he said: "I also know a few contributors and I respect their craft because I know it isn't easy to produce images worth buying" (http://"I also know a few contributors and I respect their craft because I know it isn't easy to produce images worth buying")
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Most interestingly they have removed the chart of prices from the page about buying credits so you can't easily check what stuff costs any more - from the Wayback Machine, this is the way the page used to look ([url]http://web.archive.org/web/20120716030150/http://www.istockphoto.com/help/buy-credits/[/url]) but the links don't work so you can't see all the prices
H*ll, it is all smoke and mirrors - there are just too many variables nowadays.
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Interesting exchange:
Lobo:
We have been making changes to the prices over the year for a number of different reasons . All of those reasons are based in logic that comes from data and the like ... I've found that there are people smarter than me working on that part of the business so I've been much more relaxed about it.
Sean
I don't know. I would associate the effect of "smart" moves with the result of my business growing, instead of declining less quickly.
Like the buyer in the other thread said, "increasing prices" and "complex pricing structure". I imagine they sit around these days saying "Hey, are we going to get that image from IS? Nah, who knows what the price will be today - let's stick with the other place."
Lobo:
Sure, maybe so, Sjlocke. It's not something I get to decide though nor do the contributors. Which is why it's not something I dwell on that much. [1]
Lowish down on this page:http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351077&page=2#post6833643] [url]http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351077&page=2#post6833643 (http://[url)[/url]
[1] Or maybe it's just because he isn't a contributor, so it doesn't affect his income if a price increase causes a critical mass of buyers to leave.
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Also from Lobo:
I recall back in the day when we discussed price increases. It always seemed that the contributors would want to thank us but the buyer/contributors or the buyers in general would be against it. I reckon we had enough of how all that divided the community and chose to stop.
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351077&messageid=6833619 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351077&messageid=6833619)
The big difference now is that most contributors also think they've gone too far.
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Thanks for the responses. I am relieved I didn't imagine the price changes.
It is baffling though, with so many customers already having left and more with a foot out the door, this seems like the worst possible time to raise prices... ???
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That's something new, right? I don't see anything about it in the forums, but I just noticed my P+ images are all starting at XS for $6. It was $4 before, right? Or am I just losing it?
I ask they support firstly to explain me huge oscillation in XS royaltys and they sad that thed didnt change prices for P+ XS files.
From they support:
"To clarify there has been no adjustments made on P+ pricing. Roylaties amount vary as client might of purchased discount package. "
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A buyer started a thread about how prices at iStock have gone up so much and how their purchases are now elsewhere in many cases
http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351291&messageid=6839923 (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=351291&messageid=6839923)