I wonder if the reason this rollout is so scattered is that after KK said that only .1% were seriously affected and that people had calmed down they quick needed a diversion so they brought this up early...

Although looking at all their other problems lately I suppose this is nothing special.

I'd wondered that, too. In a way that would be the most benign explanation. It is transparently obvious that this was rushed out with scarcely any preparation at all. Bits of "Exclusive +" wording have just been cut and pasted so hurriedly that they didn't think to replace the word "exclusive collection" with "main collection", the sidebar now lists GI sales and the link to photos+ says "exclusive+", so that must have been pasted from the exclusives' code.

It was announced by somebody who never makes announcements - presumably because of the London jolly - without going through the normal process of putting it in the announcements section and I've not been notified in any other way, so presumably 95% of submitters have no idea that anything happened.

All this suggests a panicked knee-jerk reaction to something, so if it wasn't the C-net public relations blunder, what was it? The April sales thread? Pressure from the top to "for God's sake, do something to get the profits back on track and do it NOW"? Something else?

I have just opted-in, 100 files, good sellers and all. I mean seriously, Im against it but what the heck, it cant get any worse? or at least thats what I keep telling myself.

Funny going through ones own shots really, I am actually a great photographer!!  possibly the best!  well at least among the 3 best, globally I mean.

Quote from: lagereek on May 07, 2011, 03:14

I have just opted-in, 100 files, good sellers and all. I mean seriously, Im against it but what the heck, it cant get any worse? or at least thats what I keep telling myself.

Funny going through ones own shots really, I am actually a great photographer!!  possibly the best!  well at least among the 3 best, globally I mean.

You too?  Welcome to the club! 

I'm the third one!

Dang!  All three slots were already taken when I got here... 

nah,  you are welcome to creep in between me and the others,  I am reserving the 1.5,  slot for Lisa!

Dang!  All three slots were already taken when I got here... 

Hey, you can have my slot.  In fact I am really a painter masquerading as a good photographer.

Funny going through ones own shots really, I am actually a great photographer!!  possibly the best!  

Yeah, I know, I think you've been telling us that all along.

A lot of push back here.

PS  Of course we know you were kidding . . . . . . . .  right?

I think this sounds like higher RC targets in the make ("all is going so well and we keep growing, whooyay, therefore we must..yadayada").
Opted a couple in nevertheless; like many here i dont have to lose much anymore either since sales dried up mostly anyways.
If this turns out to be a nasty PP - TS trick my portfolio will be gone lightning fast.

I agree. It is possible that they are paving the way for higher RC targets and soften the blow. Perhaps that's why they have not announced the new RC numbers.

If I was a interested buyer, I would surely verify on Shutterstock if I can find the same file for cheaper.

that�s a good one, I guess IS should be only open for exclusives!

On the positive side I've P+'d the top selling 10% of my portfolio and have been got plenty of immediate sales at the new higher prices. I think this could easily add 20% or more to monthly earnings if sales remain stable.

Same experience here.  Spent yesterday P+ing about 10% of my port - mostly best sellers or things I considered outstanding but undiscovered.  Have already sold more than a dozen or so just Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  The higher prices make a big difference.  $3.45 for a large and $2.70 for medium is very welcome!

I have some more slots available.  Didn't want to go hog wild right off the bat.  After a month or so of seeing where sales go I may use those additional slots.

Is there any more info on this Photo+ thing other than the message in the forum?  I just want to be sure that the 6-month lock-in doesn't come with a catch that I'm failing to see.

That's it, and it wasn't even that detailed when it was first posted

E+ has been around for a while and as they're modeling so much of P+ on E+ (including all the mistakes in P+ when they didn't edit what they copied for descriptive text and including the bugs in files sometimes not repricing) there aren't any gotchas other than what happens to a file in best match placement if sales don't keep pace over time.

Some people have had great success with E+ and others view it as a total disaster - I think it probably has to do with how you pick the files. For those who've had some E+ sales, but not the same amount as before, even though the money is good, the best match position erodes over time because of the lower sales. In time, the lower best match position reduces the overall $$ the file earns and isn't compensated for by the initial boost in  higher royalties.

It's possible that IS is going to make the partner program mandatory at some point, but I don't think P+ will have anything to do with that one way or the other.

Even with E+, you can deactivate the file any time you want, so the "lock" isn't quite the same as DT's 6 month lock on content.

Thanks JoAnne.  Very useful info.