MicrostockGroup

Microstock Photography Forum - General => Newbie Discussion => Topic started by: lefty on August 10, 2010, 13:07

Title: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: lefty on August 10, 2010, 13:07
This is interesting to me . I am new and both IStock and Shutterstock give me same earning . But Shutterstock more downloads . IStock more money.
Is this normal and good sign to keep upload. IStock restriction so I am slower
to build portfolio. Shutterstock no limit I can give all.
Only my question. Do you experts old experience earner give to two agencies
the same? Or is better you divide .
I ask because pay per download is bigger on Istock. Do I lose download when
I give Shutterstock first? Or no problem. Buyer is different?

Thank you in advance, your input.
Title: Re: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: WarrenPrice on August 10, 2010, 13:18
Good questions.  I asked something similar before signing on to SS.  I was afraid of diluting sales or losing them to the 25cent downloads.  I was told, however, not to worry;  most buyers use one or the other ... seldom both. 
That, I'm sure, is subject to change.   ???
Title: Re: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: mtkang on August 10, 2010, 23:19
to me istock share of sales is much less than shutterstock's.. i always curious how to do it when people quote istock is equally to shutterstock. My files is much more in shutterstock, since istock won't really accept some kind of vectors or illustrations.
Title: Re: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: MicrostockExp on August 11, 2010, 00:11
I wrote this earlier this year: http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com/2010/01/shutterstock-versus-istock.html (http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com/2010/01/shutterstock-versus-istock.html)

but....

this year does not play as I was expected in my post: SS is ahead of IS....
Title: Re: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: microstockphoto.co.uk on August 11, 2010, 00:58
IS is mainly based on credits. Which means that buyers look for a specific picture and pay more for it.
SS is mainly based on subscriptions. Which means buyers download a large amount of pictures, not necessarily fully relevant, and pay less for each pictures.

The two groups of buyers are largely different in my opinion, so I wouldn't worry too much. For the same reason, it's best to add some other sites: FT and DT at least.
Title: Re: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: rubyroo on August 11, 2010, 04:32
I upload the same images to all sites.  The only thing that has changed over time is that iStock's higher acceptance requirements have meant that I tend to photograph in a way that is most likely to appeal to iStock.  I've found that has given me a higher acceptance rate with all the other sites too.

My experience of Shutterstock vs iStock is that I can get a lot of sales quickly after submission at Shutterstock, and then, over time, sales of a particular image will drop off.  Some will continue to sell, and occasionally there's an inexplicable flurry of sales on an older image, but most of the sales will come when the image has just become available.  Don't forget that not all images will sell at sub price on SS - they do have on-demand and extended licence sales too - which are always nice to get.

With iStock, I find that every image in my portfolio has a fairly equal chance of selling at any time, and of course, in general terms, each individual sale tends to make more for the artist than it will on Shutterstock.  Over the long-term... hard to say... everyone will have their own stats on that, and SS's commissions increase at certain levels.  It all depends on your volumes and regularity of output (and image popularity).  Of course you can submit huge numbers to SS very quickly if you have a big portfolio, but with iStock it takes a long time to build up your numbers due to their weekly limits.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Interesting race .. I need your opinion IS SS
Post by: lefty on August 11, 2010, 07:54
Yes thank you very helpful answers. I understand.
Another thing, my friend who is referral for me get the bigger pay per use , I think that is the name for it, as well the 25 cents. I work only 4 Mega to 6 mega size
but friend up to 10 mega size.
Is it pay per use for bigger than 6 Mega size or just my friend picture is better?

Yes, I also got Fotolia. They very surprising because not many sales than Shutterstock . Then sudden download to catch up on Shutterstock for one single Extended Lic.
I agree when you say buyer is different for top big 4.
So now I will not worry much and give all the same because maybe I am robbing my own for not giving to everyone. Is true , yes?

Many thanks for all good advisors.