Hello everyone. This is my first post (hurrah!) although Ive been browsing the site on and off for ages.
Ive been thinking- Im probably going exclusive with istock soon, but I have the same worry most people have- that they will cut the percentage contributors get, as the number of images goes up. We have no idea, so what Im thinking is, maybe I should buy shares in Getty? This way, if I get money taken from one place, I get it from somewhere else. Do you think this is a good idea? And if anyone is knowledgeable about this- how do I do it? Ive never bought shares before and Im not rich enough to hire advisors etc etc... Can it be done simply online?

Thanks everyone.

Welcome in this forum French Fries, uhhm.. sorry.. Freedomefries As sharpshot said, Getty shares are not necessarily the best idea.
What if Istock stops being so successful as well as Getty. Not only you will earn less on Istock you will also loose money with your shares.

If you are in Germany you can easily open an account for buying shares, with some banks you even can open such an account online, if you allready have a normal account with them. Ordering shares is pretty simple here, however I would not buy any shares without knowing exactly what you are doing. Thats why I invested some money in Fonds which are much more save, being managed by people who most likely know what they are doing.

I regularly use an online broker, they are usually free to set up and charge a small amount for each time you request a purhase or make a sale. For tax reasons I only trade long term, playing the market short term is not a good strategy.

I would look at some safe long term blue chip companies if you want to use stock as part of your overall investment strategy. There are numerous free online tools for assessing the risk associated with individual companies. With Getty (GYI ticker) analysts don't see this as a risky company, they see it as a good company but also don't see it as a good current investment due to the spending of their cash reserves on mergers and aquisitions. My advice would be to watch but don't buy yet, educate yourself on stock trading.

Hope this helps

Stu

Dan has a nice post on this:

http://danheller.blogspot.com/2007/07/gettys-stay-course-stock-price.html

Here is another fancy term for you:  portfolio diversification.  Don't get too heavily invested in one company or field (e.g. don't buy all US hightech shares or European pharmaceuticals, etc.)  Your work and sources of income have to be considered as well, if you "invest" your time in making money in one field then you might be well advised to invest your money in another so if something goes wrong in hightech or photography or with the pharmas, hopefully the others will hold up somewhat and you are not loosing everything.

Of course, if you know a hell of a lot about the field you are working in (but are not an insider and therefore do not risk to be thrown into jail for trading on insider information) it might make sense to selective invest in that field as well.  Investing in funds is probably the best strategy but do not buy front loaded funds (you pay upfront for the priviledge to be able to spend your money).  Current wisdom seems to be to buy indexed funds - they are basically following the market in their performance and the truth is, few investment managers reliably outperform the market.

Just a short update, Getty's stock plummeted 20% over the past week. It does not look like as if buying shares of Getty would be a good idea at the moment and in my opinion also in the future. Getty = macrostock mainly --> decline

Hehe its a good job I listened to you guys then! Thanks for the info.

Gordon Gekko. "Greed is good".  Extra points in a form of credits or what?

Ah, come on... Once Upon a Time in America and Pulp Fiction duke it out between themselves for that prize, lol