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Author Topic: Is there any future for Istock?  (Read 4643 times)

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Donvanstaden

« on: June 12, 2013, 07:59 »
+1
I am relatively new to micro and make most of my sales on SS. I am now working on getting my portfolio onto other sites and have stared making sales on Fotolia. I have also been focusing on Istock, 123rf and Dreamstime as well.

My challenge is that I live in a very remote area with very very slow bandwidth so I don't have the luxury of being able to upload all my photos onto 16 different sites and hope for the best. I need to select which sites to invest my time into so I get the best returns.

I have heard a lot of negativity around Istock and its future and would would like to hear peoples thoughts on weather this is a site worth investing time into? Especially for a newbie? Or is there another 'smaller' site that would be more worth the time I am currently putting into Istock?


dbvirago

« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2013, 09:07 »
0
If I had a slow connection, the upload process at istock would be a deal breaker unless the money was very good, which for most right now, it is not.


« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2013, 09:42 »
0
I have slow internet.... I can usually upload 10-12 images overnight.

For me, iStock sales are not great, but I do OK through their PP ( partner program).  I have never tried iStock up load, but DeepMeta makes uploading there easier than some sites... for slow internet it makes life much better.

For the future... who knows?  iStock is still number 2 on the chart.

« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2013, 09:49 »
+5
If you like them taking 85% of the money from every sale, doing deals that could mean your images are virtually given away and knowing that things are likely to get worse, as they have to keep their investors happy, they're great :)

« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2013, 09:50 »
0
looking at average / top contributors they seem to be back uploading, if they are making a ton of money or not I have no idea, I suppose yes or they are desperate for more and taking the chance to match their portfolios comparing to other agencies

when I started back in 2009 I got approved and it was a new experiment, had a few sales and they were 20% of my income most months so I continued uploading, in March 2012 I decided to stop uploading due to everything happening there (and income dropped a lot, last months 5-10%), now at this exact moment I really don't know what to do, shall we join the majority of top contributors or let them be happy collecting a few more? they don't seem worried about thinkstock

I see 8 of 10 people back uploading due to the massive increase to 999 slots

« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2013, 10:01 »
+2
looking at average / top contributors they seem to be back uploading, if they are making a ton of money or not I have no idea, I suppose yes or they are desperate for more and taking the chance to match their portfolios comparing to other agencies

when I started back in 2009 I got approved and it was a new experiment, had a few sales and they were 20% of my income most months so I continued uploading, in March 2012 I decided to stop uploading due to everything happening there (and income dropped a lot, last months 5-10%), now at this exact moment I really don't know what to do, shall we join the majority of top contributors or let them be happy collecting a few more? they don't seem worried about thinkstock

I see 8 of 10 people back uploading due to the massive increase to 999 slots
Why be influenced by what others are doing?  I wont waste any more time uploading to istock, there's so many other places to sell my images.  I think most people here would be uploading to istock with 5% commission, they would be complaining about it but still uploading.  There's no way I want to be in that group.

« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2013, 10:14 »
+1
looking at average / top contributors they seem to be back uploading, if they are making a ton of money or not I have no idea, I suppose yes or they are desperate for more and taking the chance to match their portfolios comparing to other agencies

when I started back in 2009 I got approved and it was a new experiment, had a few sales and they were 20% of my income most months so I continued uploading, in March 2012 I decided to stop uploading due to everything happening there (and income dropped a lot, last months 5-10%), now at this exact moment I really don't know what to do, shall we join the majority of top contributors or let them be happy collecting a few more? they don't seem worried about thinkstock

I see 8 of 10 people back uploading due to the massive increase to 999 slots
Why be influenced by what others are doing?  I wont waste any more time uploading to istock, there's so many other places to sell my images.  I think most people here would be uploading to istock with 5% commission, they would be complaining about it but still uploading.  There's no way I want to be in that group.

I am having the feeling we are very small group (these last days I have opened tons of portfolios and I remember only 4 or 5 that aren't uploading)

I just don't understand the rush that contributors have to upload everything to an agency that took them a few nights of good sleep and for sure more good stuff will follow, that isn't holding them, if the "top" contributors (I am talking about over 20k downloads) are available for this why small contributors should act as priests of the good values and thinking about the future of microstock?

« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2013, 10:37 »
+1
I just couldn't carry on uploading to them any more.  The Google deal was the final straw for me.  I'd much rather spend my time on something else.  If others still don't see how continuing to use istock as if nothing has happened is going to cost them in the long term, that's their problem.  I'll carry on doing my own thing and not worrying about what others are doing.  I'm sure most buyers have accounts with more than 1 site and I'm not losing much financially.

WarrenPrice

« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2013, 10:37 »
+2
@sharpshot and Luis; I honestly respect both your opinions.  I know there are problems at iStock, as well as at many of the upper and middle tier agencies. 
Please recommend to us the agencies that we SHOULD upload to rather than tell us where we should NOT upload.
I wonder if there ever will be a  consensus of opinion?
 :-\ 

« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2013, 10:56 »
+1
@sharpshot and Luis; I honestly respect both your opinions.  I know there are problems at iStock, as well as at many of the upper and middle tier agencies. 
Please recommend to us the agencies that we SHOULD upload to rather than tell us where we should NOT upload.
I wonder if there ever will be a  consensus of opinion?
 :-\

I will tell you my honest opinion Warren, believe you heard about them, its called Shutterstock

I wish we had at the top of the list pond5 or GL but month after month Shutterstock is the only agency bringing real money

« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2013, 10:59 »
0
I feel the world of microstock is flattening (which is a great thing). In the end there will be 5-6 sites that make contributors all about the same amount of money. I'm very excited by that idea and I'm seeing it now with my images. My income is stable because of this flattening between the sites. At some point every contributor will start feeling this same effect...newer the contributor the less flattened the market is for that contributor but in time the market will flatten.........at first it will seem bad..."oh no the sky is falling SS or IS is slowing"...but no everything will flatten to become a more stable steady market place for everyone........ :)

WarrenPrice

« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2013, 11:07 »
0
@sharpshot and Luis; I honestly respect both your opinions.  I know there are problems at iStock, as well as at many of the upper and middle tier agencies. 
Please recommend to us the agencies that we SHOULD upload to rather than tell us where we should NOT upload.
I wonder if there ever will be a  consensus of opinion?
 :-\

I will tell you my honest opinion Warren, believe you heard about them, its called Shutterstock

I wish we had at the top of the list pond5 or GL but month after month Shutterstock is the only agency bringing real money

I do upload to SS, Luis.  Are you suggesting going exclusive?


« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2013, 11:18 »
+1
I feel the world of microstock is flattening (which is a great thing). In the end there will be 5-6 sites that make contributors all about the same amount of money. I'm very excited by that idea and I'm seeing it now with my images. My income is stable because of this flattening between the sites. At some point every contributor will start feeling this same effect...newer the contributor the less flattened the market is for that contributor but in time the market will flatten.........at first it will seem bad..."oh no the sky is falling SS or IS is slowing"...but no everything will flatten to become a more stable steady market place for everyone........ :)

I don't see nothing close to that and I believe you are dreaming somehow perhaps, have you looked at your own numbers? are you saying you have the same income from agencies during all year (month after month) with very few changes?

I only see stability at SS (going up), all other are down and weak

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2013, 12:13 »
0
I wish we had at the top of the list pond5 or GL but month after month Shutterstock is the only agency bringing real money
I hear that on here, but not generally from SS submitters I know who don't post on msg.
Success at SS definitely seems to depend on the type of port (subject matter).

« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2013, 13:07 »
+4
Well, to try to answer the question, I have made 5 sales from my last 60 uploads to iS (and one of those was for 11c, most others were for less than a dollar). Of the 35 uploads I made last month, I have managed one sale, which is pretty good really as I have had a total of only two views - 33 of the 35 have not even got a single view.  So for a newbie I would say that the return on effort probably isn't worth it.  If everything is buried so deep that it never gets seen then sales are unlikely to follow.


« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2013, 13:07 »
+1
I wish we had at the top of the list pond5 or GL but month after month Shutterstock is the only agency bringing real money
I hear that on here, but not generally from SS submitters I know who don't post on msg.
Success at SS definitely seems to depend on the type of port (subject matter).

I don't know a single person doing poorly at SS but sure there might be

« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2013, 14:36 »
0
I feel the world of microstock is flattening (which is a great thing). In the end there will be 5-6 sites that make contributors all about the same amount of money. I'm very excited by that idea and I'm seeing it now with my images. My income is stable because of this flattening between the sites. At some point every contributor will start feeling this same effect...newer the contributor the less flattened the market is for that contributor but in time the market will flatten.........at first it will seem bad..."oh no the sky is falling SS or IS is slowing"...but no everything will flatten to become a more stable steady market place for everyone........ :)

I can't say I've seen this either. Aside from a little shuffling, these agencies seem pretty entrenched in their spots. If I was to guess why, I'd say it is because contributors reward success with more uploads and punish failure with less.

« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2013, 15:00 »
-1
Although my revenue at IS has dropped and I'm very cross with them I still upload because I can't see anything outside the top 4 that would replace the loss of that revenue stream - unless I uploaded to the middle tier and beyond....and that makes me feel ill just thinking about it.

You could get fifty replies to your question here and, forgive my presumption, but I suspect you already know the only way to find out is the hard way - upload everything you can and review your results in detail month on month, quarter on quarter.


« Reply #18 on: June 12, 2013, 15:02 »
+1
Even with the miserable % they still will produce more revenue than the mickey mouse (anything below #4) sites.

« Reply #19 on: June 12, 2013, 15:11 »
0
Even with the miserable % they still will produce more revenue than the mickey mouse (anything below #4) sites.

which means they can lower it even more and contributors will stay, amazing indeed!


 

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