Author Topic: Istock Independents Only Poll (Read 15230 times)

stockastic · « **Reply #25 on:** September 11, 2010, 18:36 »

I'm another tiny fish with about 150 images and I'm done with IStock. Obviously they no longer have any interest in small producers of oddball images, they just want a steady flow of new factory shots. They never paid enough to make it worthwhile fighting through their approval process and only a few images actually sold and made anything - unlike other sites, where most of my images continue to sell over time. In addition to the other hoops, IS always seemed to be a skewed system where an image had to 'get lucky' early on, or it sank and was lost.

If I do more stock in the future it will be for agencies like graphicleftovers, that pay a reasonable commission so that at least you feel like a hobbyist and not just a fool. I will probably get around to deleting my images from IS to give places like GL a better chance.

lisafx · « **Reply #26 on:** September 11, 2010, 18:49 »

Quote from: traveler1116 on September 11, 2010, 18:30

the poll makes it look like IS wins this round. how can you leave you content on there with less than 20% commission it's wrong. I feel like a macrosaur or maybe now it's a microsaur, you can't devalue yourselves this much.

Graham, from what I can see your images are all still on istock. Am I missing something?

Great saying somewhere (yeah, I know where!) along the lines of "first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye"

traveler1116 · « **Reply #27 on:** September 11, 2010, 18:55 »

Quote from: lisafx on September 11, 2010, 18:49

Quote from: traveler1116 on September 11, 2010, 18:30
the poll makes it look like IS wins this round. how can you leave you content on there with less than 20% commission it's wrong. I feel like a macrosaur or maybe now it's a microsaur, you can't devalue yourselves this much.

Graham, from what I can see your images are all still on istock. Am I missing something?

Great saying somewhere (yeah, I know where!) along the lines of "first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye"

My images are there now, and they will be till the day I lose money from this change. I quit DT and FT because of the crap they did and I expected IS to be better. I was wrong. When I hit gold in the beginning of next year and I don't get the 14% or so raise that I expected, all of my images are coming off IS. I hope they change but I have already begun preparing, all my future travel images will be RM and since the announcement I have gone from 70 images on alamy to over 120 with much more waiting. I think hurting nonexclusives is going to hurt me too, this isn't about hoping that you guys leave so I'll get something.

Eireann · « **Reply #28 on:** September 11, 2010, 19:34 »

I don't know about cutting my nose ...
One thing for sure - accepting ANY offer, no matter how low, how insulting, it's not doing any good to my nose, and, most importantly, my future.
I have a hard time believing that IStock can't survive unless they cut my commission to 15%.
The same holds true for microstock contributors.
I have a hard time believing some microstock contributors really can't afford to withdraw ports at IS. They can. In most cases there's no real danger. Some can.
It's not so much about bills, food on the table and growing families.
It's about personality, nose if you will, and more, but I'll leave it at that.
To each its own.

In my case, I'm still in shock and I need a few more days to think this over.
I'm faced with a task that right now seems impossible to me. I can't bring myself to upload to a site that offers 15% commission. It's so low, it's unreal. IStock of all places!

Have a look at those targets. They're funny. Contributors who diversified by producing more than one media type - in my case vectors and photos - are being hit twice as hard.
To diversify your port is not a good thing anymore. At least at IStock it isn't.

Well, by myself I don't matter.
Unfortuntately we seem to be incapable of organizing ourselves - there's no group or union that I can join or try to help.
IStock will go ahead, targets will be yearly adjusted and no independent contributor will ever make it to 20%. That's for sure.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #29 on:** September 11, 2010, 19:42 »

Quote from: Eireann on September 11, 2010, 19:34

I don't know about cutting my nose ...
One thing for sure - accepting ANY offer, no matter how low, how insulting, it's not doing any good to my nose, and, most importantly, my future.
I have a hard time believing that IStock can't survive unless they cut my commission to 15%.
The same holds true for microstock contributors.
I have a hard time believing some microstock contributors really can't afford to withdraw ports at IS. They can. In most cases there's no real danger. Some can.
It's not so much about bills, food on the table and growing families.
It's about personality, nose if you will, and more, but I'll leave it at that.
To each its own.

In my case, I'm still in shock and I need a few more days to think this over.
I'm faced with a task that right now seems impossible to me. I can't bring myself to upload to a site that offers 15% commission. It's so low, it's unreal. IStock of all places!

Have a look at those targets. They're funny. Contributors who diversified by producing more than one media type - in my case vectors and photos - are being hit twice as hard.
To diversify your port is not a good thing anymore. At least at IStock it isn't.

Well, by myself I don't matter.
Unfortuntately we seem to be incapable of organizing ourselves - there's no group or union that I can join or try to help.
IStock will go ahead, targets will be yearly adjusted and no independent contributor will ever make it to 20%. That's for sure.

I am just wondering where they are going to spend the new 5% cut

jbarber873 · « **Reply #30 on:** September 11, 2010, 19:56 »

I guess i feel less of a shock that this whole thing has happened this week, because I have always hated istock. As I say to my kids, hate is a pretty strong word, and you should use it carefully, but in istocks case it fits. The thing that always rubbed me the wrong way there was how whenever they made any announcement, you would have to wade through 500 emails saying " great , i love you, give them a muffin, etc", and i just found that creepy. the one or two contacts I've had with the suits from getty reinforced my utter dislike for everything about the entire organization. The approval process is arbitrary, the website is byzantine ,and the admins are self important blowhards. (IMHO). I guess I don't do well with "community".
But, I'll leave what i have there and submit some more and take whatever comes in, because, to me, microstock is just a machine that generates cash. I've never been exclusive because it didn't make economic sense, and I can make a lot more money by being all over the place. If things get as grim as, say , Crestock, well then I'll bail. But until then, money is money.
But i can at least say i never drank the kool aid!

No Longer Cares · « **Reply #31 on:** September 11, 2010, 20:27 »

It's sad, but I give it a month or two. Let's see what everyone says in a few months.

I predict many will be saying, "Well, I will only be dropping to 17% from 20%; that's not so bad. At least sales are better than site NNNNN." We may even hear, "Yeah iStock; you increased sales (and profit) so much I am now at 18% instead of 17 (which means iStock only gets 82% instead of 83)! Here is your muffin sir."

Maybe everyone should start kissing a** now so you get bumped up to page 12 in the best match instead of page 50 behind all the new "midstock" coming in. The 1st one to start the "Yeah iStock" thread gets half the muffin.

Or better yet, we can go join Matt and the others, ... or ... well ... Matt at the Fotolia Exclusive's table. I bet he would like a muffin.

Eireann · « **Reply #32 on:** September 11, 2010, 20:52 »

Note to add to my previous post :

I will make sure that no file of mine ever sells for anything less than 20%.
Especially at IStock.
That's where I draw the line. 20%.

Albert Martin · « **Reply #33 on:** September 12, 2010, 01:18 »

Quote from: Eireann on September 11, 2010, 20:52

Note to add to my previous post :

I will make sure that no file of mine ever sells for anything less than 20%.
Especially at IStock.
That's where I draw the line. 20%.

Nice.... Your work is undervalued that way and again you're giving signal to other agencies that they can cut your royalties to 20%.

This all with most of logic and sense for money earning in most cases comes up to total beggars stance from most of resulting statements I saw here.
I urge to all of you who would bend and "take it from behind" to educate yourself into basics of running the business so you know what is sustainable minimum for doing stock.
There are your expenses needed to cover so you can produce stock images (no matter if you have free models or free makeup) but economical logic say that you have 2 bottom lines which are very dependent in term that you must subtract first bottom line (your expenses) from second bottom line (your income). Then, regarding to that what stays in your pocket you must plan to sustain your production and that will make you more expenses in the future which again lead to two bottom lines and circle closed with starting again to subtract bottom lines and so on. Dont forget to add to first bottom line your new lense or camera or so which you need to stay competitive.
If that two bottom lines are giving result which is unsustainable then you should first drop all agencies which sell your work undervalued. I doubt that even 20% sale is enough to be sustainable except you sell your work like hot cookies.

Albert Martin · « **Reply #34 on:** September 12, 2010, 01:28 »

Just forgot one important detail:

Please calculate what you will earn in the future projection of 20% of all agencies royalties and ask your self is it sustainable!

rubyroo · « **Reply #35 on:** September 12, 2010, 04:12 »

Quote from: jbarber873 on September 11, 2010, 19:56

I guess I don't do well with "community".

I guess you don't!

But yes... I agree... it is a bit creepy. It always felt a bit cult-like to me.

Microbius · « **Reply #36 on:** September 12, 2010, 04:19 »

I've got to say that if you do this for living you can't afford to take down your images from IStock.
They account for too big a percentage of any microstock income.
The way to go is to make sure every buyer knows how IStock/ Getty treats its contributors and encourage them to use other cheaper alternatives that pay us more.
Then hopefully, in a year or two, we can walk away from IStock when it's a corpse.

sharpshot · « **Reply #37 on:** September 12, 2010, 04:48 »

I will leave my content there until I can replace my istock income with the other sites. Unfortunately I just can't afford to dump them today but I wont be there long with less than 20% commission.

Smithore · « **Reply #38 on:** September 12, 2010, 05:23 »

Quote from: Microbius on September 12, 2010, 04:19

I've got to say that if you do this for living you can't afford to take down your images from IStock.
They account for too big a percentage of any microstock income.
The way to go is to make sure every buyer knows how IStock/ Getty treats its contributors and encourage them to use other cheaper alternatives that pay us more.
Then hopefully, in a year or two, we can walk away from IStock when it's a corpse.

Yes Microbius! I think it's the correct solution too! Communication is the right way, but how to spread these news to buyers?

Magnum · « **Reply #39 on:** September 12, 2010, 06:21 »

At the moment my sales are growing faster than they are dropping the commision. No other sites with higher commision can match that. And who knows what happens in a short future.

It´s plain stupidity to leave them right now. I can be mad but that´s about it...

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Istock independents, assuming no changes are made to the latest announcement, what are your plans at IStock?

Author Topic: Istock Independents Only Poll (Read 15230 times)

stockastic

lisafx

traveler1116

Eireann

luissantos84

jbarber873

No Longer Cares

Eireann

Albert Martin

Albert Martin

rubyroo

Microbius

sharpshot

Smithore

Magnum

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