So now no date has been given for when we can expect this information, which will have a huge influence over contributors' future incomes.  Of course chances are that there'll be nothing before the jolly in London, so probably some time in May at the absolute earliest.

Well, the numbers really wouldn't matter until January 2012 at the latest for all, and mid-2011 at the earliest, likely, for just a few.

Sean: I very well might be one of those few. was expecting to get an upgrade to 30% in about 1.5 months according to the previous RC targets, now it is unknown for me.

Anyways I must say this move was expected. I hate IS.

Sean: I very well might be one of those few. was expecting to get an upgrade to 30% in about 1.5 months according to the previous RC targets, now it is unknown for me.

So, you're at 25% now, and (just for example) based on the 2011 targets, you expect to surpass the 30% level by May?  That's pretty quick!

Quote from: gclk on March 30, 2011, 13:42

So now no date has been given for when we can expect this information, which will have a huge influence over contributors' future incomes.  Of course chances are that there'll be nothing before the jolly in London, so probably some time in May at the absolute earliest.

Well, the numbers really wouldn't matter until January 2012 at the latest for all, and mid-2011 at the earliest, likely, for just a few.

Sean, respectfully I disagree: perhaps for 2011 earnings it'll only make a difference to those moving up to the next payment band during the year, but for 2012 earnings lots of contributors are affected.

Taking myself as an example, my sales are roughly in line with just maintaining my royalty level if the targets stay the same as the (lowered) targets for last year.  If they go up by 20% then I'll have to devote every minute of my work time this year to iStock and nothing else, and hope that I can prevent a major drop in earnings.  If they go up by 60% then I know I'll have no hope whatsoever of maintaining my royalty level, so I can take on more assignment work this year and start building my business more in that direction, in the knowledge that my iStock income is on the way down.

Taking myself as an example, my sales are roughly in line with just maintaining my royalty level if the targets stay the same as the (lowered) targets for last year.  If they go up by 20% then I'll have to devote every minute of my work time this year to iStock and nothing else, and hope that I can prevent a major drop in earnings.  If they go up by 60% then I know I'll have no hope whatsoever of maintaining my royalty level, so I can take on more assignment work this year and start building my business more in that direction, in the knowledge that my iStock income is on the way down.

Ok, I just assumed that everyone is doing as much as they can/want to at this point, and habits wouldn't be changed by the release.

Ok, I just assumed that everyone is doing as much as they can/want to at this point, and habits wouldn't be changed by the release.

The people the RC targets can affect are those who are projected to be borderline between one level or another. It might be the case that with some extra effort they can either get to the next level or hold on to what they already have. The trouble is they need to make that effort now to realise the benefit of additional images for as many months as possible. Last year nobody had any time at all to react to the newly announced RC levels as they were sprung on us in September.

Same here. I already dropped one level to 35% and know that I would need to put a major effort into getting back to 40%. Because I still have a lot of other obligations I cannot do that, so I have accepted that my income was cut by 12 % for this year. Under last years RC levels I am on track to stay in that level, if I do normal, part time amount of stock work. However, if they raise levels then I would need to know that as early as possible so I can schedule my other work.

I can organize stock shootings at short notice, but cannot take on assignment work or other jobs quickly. They also cannot be cancelled.

So I would really, really like to know the yearly targets, preferably in the first week of January.

I know many people who missed the 40% by just a few thousand credits and for them it is even more crucial to get a good balance between assignment work and stock.

We already have the problem that we are all fighting the dilution of images as 40 000 or more new images are accepted every week. But if the targets keep going up, this will become very even more frustrating, because we lose downloads, not because the new files have better quality, just because of the mass of incoming images. After all, my image quality doesn�t change, wether I receive 40% or 20%. A sale is a sale.

In the end it will favor the "stock factories" who can produce in very large volume, they are also the ones who can organize their work to shoot for the 45% bracket.

I do believe that istock is aware of these issues and I hope the management finds a good balance. However, it is dissapointing that the deadline was missed (again) and that we only hear about the delay on the last day of the deadline.

But business, is business and there are many ways to earn money. For me stock is just one part of the mix. Although I would love to do it full time, a steadily moving target isn�t very appealing. Again, it all depends on how they handle it. We all need more experience with the new system and if the Getty/Vetta/PP sales really compensate for any loss.

You heard it from me first.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/istock-f5-epic-fail/msg192048/#msg192048

ah.. no one listens to you, you're such a hater. 




(you know I'm just kidding, of course!)

Quote from: aeonf on March 30, 2011, 14:26

Sean: I very well might be one of those few. was expecting to get an upgrade to 30% in about 1.5 months according to the previous RC targets, now it is unknown for me.

So, you're at 25% now, and (just for example) based on the 2011 targets, you expect to surpass the 30% level by May?  That's pretty quick!

Yes, mid May is the expected time and November for the 35% mark.
How exactly is that quick ? I am sure you hit the 35% target long ago...
I will be benefitting hugly from the new RC system.

Quote from: gclk on March 30, 2011, 15:11

If they go up by 20% then I'll have to devote every minute of my work time this year to iStock and nothing else, and hope that I can prevent a major drop in earnings.  

Is the additional percentage really worth every minute of your life for the coming year? Couldn't you make the increment in some less arduous way?

That's really the point - I want iStock to stick to their own commitments on this, so that we have a better chance of knowing which way our future royalties are going.

If by 'make the increment in some less arduous way', you mean doing other photography work to bridge the gap caused by a royalty drop, then yes - I want to have an idea now (actually in January as originally promised would have been better) if I need to try to build up assignment work that will stand a chance of making up that significant earnings gap by the start of 2012.

iStockphoto is now expecting our work to be at a professional level.  They reject anything that is not at that standard.  In turn, we should be able to expect iStock to be run professionally, not by a club of amateurs who seem to get it wrong far more than they get anything right.

Until istock is sold, I have no confidence in them.  I stopped uploading and started deleting when they cut commissions.  It feels much better not going along with their plans to make it impossible for me to get back to 20% commission.  That was already by far the worst in the industry.  There's lots of other places to sell stock images, even exclusives can build an RM portfolio with alamy and other sites.  Isn't that a better option than letting istock cut commissions and then having to work harder just to keep making the same money there?  I really couldn't care less about their RC targets now, I know if they aren't sold, they will just make it harder each year.  My motivation to work with them has been destroyed, there's lots of other sites that can make up for the earnings I am losing out on with istock.

Quote from: gclk on March 30, 2011, 13:42

So now no date has been given for when we can expect this information, which will have a huge influence over contributors' future incomes.  Of course chances are that there'll be nothing before the jolly in London, so probably some time in May at the absolute earliest.

Well, the numbers really wouldn't matter until January 2012 at the latest for all, and mid-2011 at the earliest, likely, for just a few.

I missed the 35% level by one average day of RC's the earlier we know the numbers the more you can do about it, if I had known how many RCs I would need for a few extra weeks I'm sure I could have put up a few more images a few days earlier and gotten those few sales more.  The real point is that we were told we would learn the new levels during the first quarter and it isn't happening.