April sales are so far non-existent...maybe the subs? It's a shame they aren't being reported in real-time...so frustrating.

Quote from: dingles on April 07, 2014, 17:13
April sales are so far non-existent...maybe the subs? It's a shame they aren't being reported in real-time...so frustrating.

For me too, since friday no sales at all. used to sell 8-12 pics per day. 6=8 pics during weekends. No more sales for me.

Quote from: MichaelJayFoto on April 06, 2014, 14:22

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 06, 2014, 13:55One month late reporting (or 15 days maybe),

Or 50+ days? Make a sale on April 3rd and get it reported on May 27th. Then request a payout and get paid on June 9th... 

Michael your timeline is probably right.

But if iStock are interested in following the terms in the ASA contract (not that they've shown much interest in doing that recently), subscriptions should be paid by the middle of the month following downloads...

www.istockphoto.com/asa_non_exclusive.php

Under 5b. (compensation)
"In response to a written request, iStockphoto will endeavor to make payment of royalties in respect of purchased downloads of Accepted Content on a monthly basis on or about the 15th day of the month following the purchase of Accepted Content..."

Even the most insignificant subs sites are able to report sales and add the money to the balance instantly. Seeing sales as they happen is part of the fun and a big plus for contributors. Now we have a big minus.  Istock  was once the site that offered best features for contributors, now these days are gone.

After a 6 month absence from microstock I come back and see that all is the same. IS is still making their best to upset the contributor community... 

Quote from: OLJensa on April 07, 2014, 21:39
After a 6 month absence from microstock I come back and see that all is the same. IS is still making their best to upset the contributor community... 

It's not just Istock. But they are in the top three with deposit photos and fotolia's wonderful dollar photo club.

Quote from: Mantis on April 07, 2014, 21:54

Quote from: OLJensa on April 07, 2014, 21:39
After a 6 month absence from microstock I come back and see that all is the same. IS is still making their best to upset the contributor community... 

It's not just Istock. But they are in the top three with deposit photos and fotolia's wonderful dollar photo club.

Just read up on the Fotolia DPC. Lol! Lucky me I have my day job...

What happened to DP? Link?

Probably this one, where DP has partners that sell our work for inflated prices and we get a payment of the same as a SUB. Besides, subs can't be re-licensed, but apparently these partners are doing that as well.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/depositphotos/the-german-shotshop-reseller-of-depositphotos/msg365026/#msg365026

Big Stink. DP avoided answering for some time, now says people can opt. out, but after some did, they found their work, back on the same site or another one, again. That's a very superficial summary.

I think it looks pretty underhanded and lacks ethics. I couldn't trust DP any less at this point.

Quote from: OLJensa on April 07, 2014, 22:07

Quote from: Mantis on April 07, 2014, 21:54

Quote from: OLJensa on April 07, 2014, 21:39
After a 6 month absence from microstock I come back and see that all is the same. IS is still making their best to upset the contributor community... 

It's not just Istock. But they are in the top three with deposit photos and fotolia's wonderful dollar photo club.

Just read up on the Fotolia DPC. Lol! Lucky me I have my day job...

What happened to DP? Link?

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 08, 2014, 06:29
Probably this one, where DP has partners that sell our work for inflated prices and we get a payment of the same as a SUB. Besides, subs can't be re-licensed, but apparently these partners are doing that as well.

http://www.microstockgroup.com/depositphotos/the-german-shotshop-reseller-of-depositphotos/msg365026/#msg365026

Big Stink. DP avoided answering for some time, now says people can opt. out, but after some did, they found their work, back on the same site or another one, again. That's a very superficial summary.

I think it looks pretty underhanded and lacks ethics. I couldn't trust DP any less at this point.

Quote from: OLJensa on April 07, 2014, 22:07

Quote from: Mantis on April 07, 2014, 21:54

Quote from: OLJensa on April 07, 2014, 21:39
After a 6 month absence from microstock I come back and see that all is the same. IS is still making their best to upset the contributor community... 

It's not just Istock. But they are in the top three with deposit photos and fotolia's wonderful dollar photo club.

Just read up on the Fotolia DPC. Lol! Lucky me I have my day job...

What happened to DP? Link?

Thanks Uncle!

Wow, this really is a mess. Was thinking about leaving DP anyways, will do that after the next payout I think. Bye bye DP!

I have noticed that no new images have moved from IS to TS. The last ones have been around the end of Mar-2014. Is it just a delay or is it due to the IS subs program ? I may have missed the finer details of IS subs in that TS may also cease to exist or take on a new avatar (like photos.com).

I noticed that too. Pretty odd. But it is iStock lol

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

If they decided to move all the thinkstock customers back into istock it would be a huge boost for the exclusives. Many of them were never opted in to the pp program and their expensive work wasn't mirrored anyway.

So if they slowly shift customers back to istock and fully focus all marketing for subs and credit sales on it, this should bring a significant increase in revenue, especially for the exclusives.

I have never understood why they divided their marketing time, money and attention on so many different agencies that all compete with each other. The internet favors companies with one strong brand...the way the major competitor has been doing it...

Quote from: cobalt on April 10, 2014, 03:15
If they decided to move all the thinkstock customers back into istock it would be a huge boost for the exclusives. Many of them were never opted in to the pp program and their expensive work wasn't mirrored anyway.

So if they slowly shift customers back to istock and fully focus all marketing for subs and credit sales on it, this should bring a significant increase in revenue, especially for the exclusives.

I have never understood why they divided their marketing time, money and attention on so many different agencies that all compete with each other. The internet favors companies with one strong brand...the way the major competitor has been doing it...

+1

Quote from: cobalt on April 10, 2014, 03:15
The internet favors companies with one strong brand...the way the major competitor has been doing it...

Not necessarily. Running competing brands a company can potentially occupy more of the competitive space - e.g. search results. And test different strategies.

Specifically, for example, Shutterstock operates 3 different brands.

I know it's still early but ......

my sales are down none for yesterday and only one the day before ... Unusual for me (middle of the week and April is historically a strong mo)


My Very Best
KimsCreativeHub.com

almost none sales in april - who knows what are they doing with site - introducing these sub sales  -

- no  rationality -  that is because they do everything in a hurry and panic -

-   but they will not find the magic formula - I'm  absolutely sure -

- they are paying now for bad behavior in past - there is something like gods punishment -

- no escape ... etc.

If it's the same as adding TS, watch a RPD decline again. Let me explain.

My RPD (indy)

2009 = $1.35
TS Opened
2010 = .55
2011 = .61
Went Audio Exclusive
2012 = .47
2013 = .46

Basic conclusion, with the same files at the same agency and I added audio, and more files to the collection during the same time, I'm now getting less than before Thinkstock. Buyers have moved to subs.

Instead of a better commission, I get a flat 28c, the bottom of the industry. Going exclusive on audio the returns also dropped as I was added to Getty and get 25c a download there for some strange reason. Exclusive pays less?

I'll be happy to wait and see what these numbers look like in March 2015 after the subs commissions have been paid. Really? 40-50 days to calculate a flat rate DL? Something is wrong with their accounting side of the site.

Quote from: dingles on April 07, 2014, 17:13
April sales are so far non-existent...maybe the subs? It's a shame they aren't being reported in real-time...so frustrating.

Quote from: ferdinand on April 10, 2014, 14:16
almost none sales in april - who knows what are they doing with site - introducing these sub sales  -

- no  rationality -  that is because they do everything in a hurry and panic -

-   but they will not find the magic formula - I'm  absolutely sure -

- they are paying now for bad behavior in past - there is something like gods punishment -

- no escape ... etc.

They had the magic formula!! In there hot little hands Sometime before RCs  and some price hikes..... Co. Today are not happy with great "steady" profits with small growth ........

If you try and trip a bug you'll kill it so if you want it to live leave it


My Very Best
KimsCreativeHub.com

 

Quote from: cobalt on April 10, 2014, 03:15I have never understood why they divided their marketing time, money and attention on so many different agencies that all compete with each other. The internet favors companies with one strong brand...the way the major competitor has been doing it...

Has the major competitor? I don't think so: They did not integrate BigStockPhoto into their main site yet. And they launched a new platform for a higher priced offer. Yahoo also keeps Flickr and Tumblr as their own brands. Amazon experimented with a separate brand for clothing and shoes.

It can make sense to keep different brands to market different values to different clients. So as long as iStock was being marketed as the "premium site among microstock", it made sense to keep a separate place for the subscription buyers.

Now that the strategy for iStock was changed with the price drop last year and subscription offer this year, it might become a different story.

A company can own different brands to experiment with but how many customers remember them? ebay,amazon, facebook maybe have other websites, but I only remember the plattform. This is the way i see an agency like SS: an internet plattform.

at the moment microstock is split up into several stronger agencies, but I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years there will be one megasite that dominates most of the market. istock was on the road to become that major plattform until getty decided to cut it into smaller pieces diverting traffic to several sites.

But whoever wins, my files will be everywhere, so i don't have to worry.

Quote from: pixsol on April 09, 2014, 19:40
I have noticed that no new images have moved from IS to TS. The last ones have been around the end of Mar-2014. Is it just a delay or is it due to the IS subs program ? I may have missed the finer details of IS subs in that TS may also cease to exist or take on a new avatar (like photos.com).

As per this (http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=359960&page=1) thread in IS forum, the delay in movement of files from IS to TS is due to a backlog. Fingers crossed

Snap, discussion is over with the last word in a dismissive post from JJ, lol.

"^^ with a portfolio of 49 files and 1 download, I can't see how you were motivated by 1 download. Your motivation should be to build a portolio that you are proud of.  I upload a minimum of 10 pictures a day (usually much more)."

Whenever i read something related to istock here; I start to browse job listing pages to check full-time jobs, then i think that actually i could do my own work, after struggling with how to fund it, i end up with more depression before...

Yeah It's one of these days.