I have to admit that after a couple of months of being on the verge of giving up exclusivity, I'm slightly more positive about iStock over the past couple of weeks.  Well, positive in the short term, anyway.

Although my sales have definitely dropped from the hayday of around 2010, I'm finding that sales have picked up a bit over the past month or so.  Last month topped March 2012 by about 20% and as of today I'm already at 50% of the total amount I earned last month, and about 70% of what I took last April.

I only have a small portfolio, 372 images, mostly uploaded years ago.  I haven't uploaded at all since October 2011.  I think my portfolio is probably profiting from the shift in the best match to older files, but other than that, I have no great explanation.  I'm happy to share my figures privately with anyone who is interested in pm'ing me, either here or on istock.

As I said, I was ready to give up exclusivity and was just trying to work out the best strategy as to where to put my stuff.  That's still my aim but, for the moment, I'm a little happier to leave them there a while longer whilst I look into other options.

I dropped istock exclusivity a short while ago but haven't got around to uploading elsewhere yet except for an initial submission to Alamy (which was accepted). Yesterday I found a link on Stocksy to send an email if interested in contributing, but doesn't seem to be there today, just one link to create an account. I doubt that my style would suit Stocksy but as its image exclusivity if they want anything I guess I should offer it there first. Anyone know how to go about it now?

If you create an account, then click on the 'support' link at the top of the page.  Then scroll down to the very bottom and you'll find a 'Call to Artist's' link on the bottom bar.

Good luck!

Additionally it's only got a USA warranty, and with my experience of Canon pro gear over the past 2 years, I wouldn't take the risk is save a few Euro.  To save a few hundred I might, but you'll have to work out how much customs you could be hit for and how much you can find it in Europe for and see what you think.

Alternatively, treat yourself to a trip to New York and buy it there.  It could still come in cheaper than paying import duties....   

Quote from: Poncke on February 27, 2013, 19:10

Are you for real?

Yes, I'm for real. More to the point, can you actually accept reality? Thanks to the enterprises of Livingstone, Oringer and Enache I have an enjoyable lifestyle. I work when I want, play golf when I want and get to travel a lot whilst deducting the costs from my tax bill. I have far more reasons to be grateful to them than be resentful for the money I might have made for them.

And you?

I do agree with you to a point.  I only submit to IS at the moment, so I can't comment on SS, but I'm extremely grateful to Bruce et al for giving me the opportunity to make some money doing something I enjoy and if things were still as they used to be, I'd have no issue with making them money.

However, it does bother me that the current powers that be seem to have a total lack of respect for the people who provide the content that they sell.  From that point of view, it does gall me a little that they've had over $100,000 from my 300 and odd files.

Yes, it seems like certain people who are already 'in' can send invites to other contributors.  These aren't actually invites to join the site, but to submit 10 files for consideration.  Some have been rejected after this.  That's my understanding anyway, someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Bad luck Mat. 

It seems that they are getting back to the people who have submitted the 10 pics quite quickly.  But I wonder how many people have submitted links to their portfolios in response to Bruce's email, and how long it will take to get through all of those.  I suppose it could be thousands of submissions and we might have quite a wait....

Yes, but there are a lot of people noticeably absent from the forums now, I've never seen them so quiet - normally some of those threads would have several hundred replies by now, instead they've got a few tens. 

I suspect it's not just that people have been frightened into silence by what happened to Sean.  I think a lot of people have now had enough and can see that they're not going to get anywhere arguing on this issue and so are now busy working on their exit strategy.

Hmmm, it isn't sounding promising that many people will get accepted.  The only thing to bear in mind is that those who are accepted may not be able to say so until the site goes live.  So, in the meantime, we may hear of lots of rejections and no acceptances. 

Quote from: jatrax on February 24, 2013, 12:12

How many are making that with 500 images?

That's impossible in stock, no matter if RF, RM, or whatever.

It used to be perfectly possible in microstock, even with photos.  I'm not sure about anymore.

I must admit that, if I was invited and the terms were favorable, I'd give iStock the boot in favour of Stocksy.  I don't have a big portfolio at IS, but it brings in a reasonable amount of money - however, I'm less and less happy about leaving my images there. 

I've looked at the other microstock sites, and I'm really not that keen.  A lot of them seem to be going down a similar route and I think that the photographer is going to end up being squeezed, whatever site they're with.  At the moment I'm averaging well over $10 a download on IS and I'm really not that keen to hand them over to the other microstock sites to sell them for a lot less.  For me personally, I'd rather cut my losses at IS, and put my content with a site which valued it's contributors and paid them a fair commission, even if it would take a while to build up sales.  OK, I'd have to have confidence that the site could build up those sales by attracting customers, and for once I feel like we may have found that with Stocksy. 

If I'm invited, of course, which I'm not overly hopeful of....

I can't imagine that Bruce et al wouldn't have considered this and believe that they have a good chance of attracting enough contributors at an early stage to make it feasible.  I assume that they've been working hard behind the scenes to get some established contributors on board and will open with a broad range of subjects.  Either that, or they anticipate having such unique imagery that buyers will be happy to use 2 agencies as a matter of course - Stocksy for the really high quality stuff (if that's the market they're going for) and whatever other agancy for everything else.

I've sent a link to my portfolio, but like most others, don't hold out much hope....it's hard to try and align yourself to what they're looking for when we don't yet know what that is!

Ohh, well that's about the extent of my PS knowledge!     I'm sure someone else will be along soon to help who knows what they're talking about!