It likely means that he doesn't visit the forums and hasn't even heard about it. Maybe he gets Google Alerts and now that you have mentioned his name, he will hear about it. It's not like istock did a good job of letting buyers and contributors know about it (as usual). 

Some folks don't believe it will be helpful in generating more income. Maybe he's one of those people.

I'm not eligible for P+ (I'm not a photographer) but if I was I wouldn't opt any files into it. istock's prices are already too high. I'd rather keep my prices where they are and I think buyers would be more likely to purchase my stuff if it's cheaper.

Quote from: Slovenian on May 28, 2011, 09:19

Sarcasm aside (if that's the case I can't really tell), Yuri is where he is because he's a few steps ahead of everybody else

About the only place it was mentioned was in a thread in the forum and here. If Yuri doesn't spend his time surfing the forums, he might not have even heard about it. He might be a few steps ahead of everybody else in general when it comes to microstock, but this particular implementation happened un-thought out on istock's part, as usual. Unless you believe that istock contacts Yuri every time they make a decision to change prices or the best match or whatever. I don't think they do, but I guess it's possible he's one of the "club" that gets first dibs on everything that happens.   Otherwise, he would hear about it the same as we do, no?

No, and I'll tell you why. Yuri has a factory with probably around 50 employees. Surely there is one who's job it is to be on track with all the news and implementations and I bet Yuri would fire him/her instantly if he/she'd fail to report this for over 3 weeks! That could cost Yuri tens of thousands of dollars, if not even 100k (he earns something like 300k on average every month from stock, right?) and that surely wouldn't be tolerated, especially in a business in which RPI is falling rapidly (as he said in the interview a few months ago, regarding his earnings)

Exactly, that's what I wrote in my very first post. I'm waiting for someone with big brains and insight like PaulieWalnuts to give us his opinion.

I, just like you can only guess, but I'm sure there is a solid reason for doing so, not a mistake of a sloppy and/or incompetent employee

My guess (albeit uneducated) is that independent contribs like Yuri and others of his ilk get personal emails or a a phone call when a new IS policy with potential for more earnings is created. Maybe he does not want to tie his images down for 6 months? But this is just speculation.

It likely means that he doesn't visit the forums and hasn't even heard about it. Maybe he gets Google Alerts and now that you have mentioned his name, he will hear about it. It's not like istock did a good job of letting buyers and contributors know about it (as usual). 

I'm guessing this is it.  He doesn't tend to visit the forums at all, here or there.  He's probably too busy with other stuff, and that includes any employees - I don't even know if he has staff these days or not.

Quote from: cclapper on May 28, 2011, 09:10

It likely means that he doesn't visit the forums and hasn't even heard about it. Maybe he gets Google Alerts and now that you have mentioned his name, he will hear about it. It's not like istock did a good job of letting buyers and contributors know about it (as usual). 

I'm guessing this is it.  He doesn't tend to visit the forums at all, here or there.  He's probably too busy with other stuff, and that includes any employees - I don't even know if he has staff these days or not.

Exactly. Yuri has never shyed away from maximising the pricing of his images where possible. Take his stuff at FT for example, mostly at maximum prices.

About the only place it was mentioned was in a thread in the forum and here. If Yuri doesn't spend his time surfing the forums, he might not have even heard about it. He might be a few steps ahead of everybody else in general when it comes to microstock, but this particular implementation happened un-thought out on istock's part, as usual.

This is what I think too.  Most likely he's too busy with managing his business ventures, and shoot-upload-repeat, to be bothered keeping up with the day to day news at Istock, poorly communicated as it is.  

What I doubt is that he would choose not to put up his prices.  As Goswyck mentioned, he put his Fotolia prices up to the highest possible and was talking about how well that worked out for him, so no reason for him to deliberately miss out on putting his Istock prices up where possible.  Considering his advantageous search placements, he would probably increase his income considerably by adding his full quota of P+ images.  

Rather than speculating here, Slovenian, why don't you just e-mail him and ask him his thoughts on P+?

Why is this in the Shutterstock forum? Just asking.

good question.

I believe Yuri needs another guy just to look at "news" regarding agencies.. actually I think IS should have contacted him, there is profit to them too no?

ROTF

Quote from: lisafx on May 28, 2011, 12:14

Rather than speculating here, Slovenian, why don't you just e-mail him and ask him his thoughts on P+?

I did exactly that, but as expected, there was no reply (u can't blame me for tryin'). So we can have fun here;)

Good for you.  At least you tried.

I would be interested in his thoughts if he is actually choosing to opt out.  But I bet we will see him opting in soon.  I don't see a down side. 

Yes, there is the issue of the 6 month tie in, but it doesn't stop you from pulling your images altogether if you close your account.  It just stops you from pulling them from P+ collection and putting them back in main collection. 

Quote from: helix7 on May 28, 2011, 09:25

 istock's prices are already too high.

Istock's prices are often higher but not always. Here's a SpiderPic comparison.

Interesting that CanStockPhoto almost always has the cheapest pricing and they're also one of the sites that's ranked as worst sales/earner for contributors. Wonder why.

And if you have an image at multiple sites and suddenly buyers all flock to CanStockPhoto how would that affect your earnings?

is that comparison on all the same size image?  just checking.

That's just an example page. If you do an actual search it will show the pricing of all sizes for the sites the image is available at. Pretty slick tool for buyers but may not be a good thing for contributors.

Just did a quick search and drilled down to a popular photo, and for XS through L, iStock was the cheapest out of the 4 agencies. Sure didn't expect that. And $11 for a XS on dreamstime?

Not sure how accurate that comparison really is though - if you take one example, the one of the woman in a spa by Yuri, we see that the Canstock one at XL size is indeed $5 (see http://www.canstockphoto.com/young-female-at-the-day-spa-1756563.html) but the iStock one at the same size would normally be 25 credits (though it's on sale just now at 20 credits) - see http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5635221-young-female-at-the-day-spa.php - the actual price would depend on the credit package, but I would have thought it would normally be less than $38, even at regular prices.

It's also strange to me that, if the iStock one is so expensive, it has sold more than 500 times while the Canstock one has only been downloaded once?  I guess buyers just don't look around as much as I would expect them to!

Note too that the contributor would make more, even at 15%, from the iStock one (if it cost $38) than the buyer actually pays for the image on Canstock!

Makes me wonder why anyone would upload to Canstock really... but perhaps that image isn't typical.

That's just an example page. If you do an actual search it will show the pricing of all sizes for the sites the image is available at. Pretty slick tool for buyers but may not be a good thing for contributors.

But it doesn't take into account (presumably) the prices of credit bundles at iStock, which as we know can be much lower even than their stated "credits as low as ..."
Maybe the other sites also have bulk discounts or some other deviance from a flat rate.
I guess iStock isn't that interested in one-off buyers (though today's one-off buyer may be a bulk buyer further down the line).
Can that comparison site take bulk discounts etc into account? not to mention all the 20% offers etc thrown out by iStock and presumably also by rival sites?

Quote from: helix7 on May 28, 2011, 09:25

 istock's prices are already too high.

Istock's prices are often higher but not always. Here's a SpiderPic comparison...

The perception of buyers is getting to be that prices are too high at istock, even if they aren't always. Vetta and Agency aren't helping with the high-priced perception. Few buyers know about or use tools like SpiderPic to shop around.

...And if you have an image at multiple sites and suddenly buyers all flock to CanStockPhoto how would that affect your earnings?

I sell vectors, so the price differences from one site to another usually aren't so extreme. I also don't sell at CanStock. But if buyers did flock to another site I sell at, in most cases it would be a good thing for me. Buyers moving to sites like StockFresh and GraphicLeftovers would put more money in my pocket with each sale.

Besides, we both know buyers won't move in any large enough numbers to make a difference to either of us. Despite the high prices, a lot of people will stick with istock. Much as I say I'd like to see some istock traffic shifted to some of the other sites, you and I both stay in business because buyers tend to be creatures of habit. If they weren't and all went to CanStock, we'd all be looking for new jobs.
 

Poking your nose into others business could be somewhat dangerous.

Perhaps Yuri is not just all about the money any more, but also about the position. That way he'll increase the gap between him and the second (on IS for instance). He'd definitely see a drop in DLs if he opted in his whole quota. It's like old billionairs, it's not really about the money anymore, since they couldn't spend what they had already 20 years ago in 100 life times, but it's a challenge, it's all about success. It's like a game to them, they get addicted to success. Kinda sick, but that's how it is, some are just never satisfied and happy (not saying that about Yuri, I don't even know if that's the case, but about some ultra successful ppl).

I don't think he's that rich. Looks like he really does love to shoot stock, especially on beautiful locations, so he's on a constant holiday with his job.