people still find files by doing search by downloads. New files will never be found. No point taking anything off in protest ,it is not seen anyway. I uploaded a couple of files that have next to no views. Quite dramatic turnaround. I will not bother putting anything else up, not worth the effort or commission rate. No loss to Istock but I wonder where they will be in 12 months. But dear files at Is or get cheaper (just as good files elsewhere? Do not ever believe exclusive files are better. Many would not even get accepted into SS. Quite a problem long term for exclusives.

stay safe and have fun. Beach weather starting here, its been a slow start to summer.

"Considering that 99.9% of these "mentors, founders of the entire stock industry" are the same ones that several years ago were saying and repeating that a) microstock would never take off and couldn't never offer quality content, b) digital photography never would replace film, this new prediction can be considered a garantee of success and future for istock."

The outcomes of individual company's marketing strategy are easier to predict than tecnology of the future. Clearly sales for independents are in the main from "downloads" searches. Nothing new gets seen. Giving exclusives a better best match and new content from exclusive great best match shows a worrying pattern not just for independents but many old faithfuls will see an accelerating decline in income. Sales from Istock already appear down only made up by higher prices and TS. Searches will not look better at Istock than elsewhere. I would say they may look worse, more expensive and have less variety. Tell me I am wrong but this is business. Money is being made short term without real long term strategies (apart from sell on the basis of record profits). Certainlt what happens to contributors is not part of the plan. It is better to get in "collections", no inspection required and good cash rewards than deal with contributors en masse.

how could you get to be an exclusive at Istock if you were starting out now? (apart from instant pre arranged promotion with a collection).

What do they want long term? All exclusives? Independents just on TS? Only exclusives that put in heaps of new content?

I have noticed that new files are buried to th extent that it is not worth uploading, Old stuff buyers may find by downloads but clearly they do want new independent content.  Any new contributors would be best advised to save there efforts for elsewhere. If you are a new contributor IS is clearly middle to poosible lower tier sales (as it will be for all bar exclusives)

we all love money. Yes it does bring some of us happiness. Istock was doing that for many. Exclusives mostly. Often with royalty rates that were unsustainable. It changed that and now most are not so happy. Because of the poor relations with everybody (except a few fan club members) it lost business. To help exclusives stay loyal it pushed their images to the front of searches. So some are not so unhappy.

For independents old files sell if the customer searches by "downloads". New ones are now buried. Whilst it is self destructive to remove images from IS it probably is no longer worth the effort to put new images up (unless they are in  a very small niche category). best match strongly favours exclusives.

If you are exclusive and leave you will lose from IS big time. This is a penalty for dropping exclusivity rather than a reward for staying. The wrong sort of motivation in business long term. SS meantime has made it harder to get images accepted. Many exclusives would find that old favourites with good search positioning would not be accepted into SS.

It is not that Shutterstock is great it that IS has been self destructive. You can quote rubbish figures all you want about average sales amount at IS but for most of us it will end up being 25 cents per image at IS. Most will be sold through TS not IS itself. An increasing percentage are being sold through partner program. Customers may at times be dumb but they are not stupid. They will buy of TS or try to buy using "downloads" to search. Dodgey price sliders and other reluctly introduced search features do little to appease customers. Long term it looks bleak the longer it takes to drop excusivity the more it will cost you and the longer you wait the lower your rewards will be at IS. They have gone as far as they can to milk money with higher prices to compensate for lower sales..

It is easy to get accepted at SS. Put ten good images in. If you put in average to poor images you will probably get rejected. The average images may get accepted or rejected depending on the images. Alamy is much easier with acceptance and inspection standards. Yeah they pay more per image but you sell much less. Why would you think people here are making $20 per month at SS? Credit card? ID? - They are careful, would you rather have the IS frauds? OK ZRmedia what gives you the right to bag out SS you have not even got ten images that can pass initial inspection (subsequent inspection is harder)?

I am small on IS and yes a refund. It is probably severe for some. Dot sliders, broken updates and fraud? Woo YAy, IS is god.

Stop whinger you independent IS haters. Exclusives will rewrite the software for them soon and chase down the thieves ( it is the resonsibility that comes with the crown)

"Anyone here knows I call it like it see it."

Sometimes you can be too close to see the big picture. It is not how IS experts can use the software/sort etc. It is about customer service and meeting their needs. I find it really funny to see contributors writing script etc. It is interesting how the "budget basement tag" gets pushed onto SS. For many of us they earn more per image and per sale than IS. It was sad to see independent bashing at IS on the forums when the royalty changes happened. It is also sad to see some of those people now being in a position that they are making the hard transition to go independent. How . did it all happen? Customers? Contributers? It is a puzzle lol

"Folks, these are things that have multiple prices per product, choosable by the buyer.  Conveniently, they are sorted into collections, each of which is relatively more expensive then the next.  Since they are "relatively" more expensive, an abstract way of representing it is needed."

Said like a true evangalist. What nonsense. The collection they wanted is diffused by confusing price points and inconsistencies. Are P+ better??? Are exclusive images better than independent?? These changes are not about giving better product service and meeting demand and wants. They were about getting more money. Guess what ? If you ignore customers they take their business elsewhere. It seems that the forums at IS are often full of people having to tell customers how to shop, search or work around bugs.

Maybe the customers/buyers should have to do an entry test and training course to buy. Maybe that would make it all rosy. Get rid of the dumbies that can not understand the system?

for every buyer that goes to the forums peed off there are many more in the wings quietly signing up elsewhere. Does not matter what we think. If the buyers say they do not like wanky dot sliders that is it. Forcing them to not be able to sort was not working so why not give them what they wanted? It is really really poor marketing. Nonsense about differentiation of the markets is great but segmentation analysis justification in this case is rubbish. Nothing has been done form a marketing perspective. Trying to get more for less is not marketing it is just corporate greed. Sounds ok if it works but mostly it doesn't. Competition exist and buyer and contributer relations do count. Otherwise IS without buyers and contributers IS is just crappy software and some image thiefs getting free image downloads.

it seems to me that IS thinks the contributors should deal with customer relations and how to operate the site through their forums. Good luck with that strategy.
It also seems that the site is being defrauded again. Lots of refunds . No arguing this time.If it is credit card fraud they do not care. Take back the royalty, leave the file downloaded with the customer or theif and ignore complaint.
     The site appears to be trying to maintain profit by getting more through dwindling sales and selling through other sites that do not annoy the customer as much as IS does. Good luck with that as a long term strategy.
     Much has been said about variety and yet IS keeps accepting multiple similar images from exclusives and putting them in searches. It also pushes down cheaper files (irrespective some cryptic/confusing dots sliders to try to overcome exclusive/P+/vetta) Good luck as that as a long time marketing tool.
      It has allowed many popular images that were at the site to be withdrawn with bailing contributors and many do not bother to upload there any more ( wilst uploading to all the other major sites).
Oh yes they have exclusives will that save them?
    Operationally they cannot fix bugs/deal with valid complaints or keep goodwill with contributors. Not sure who runs their strategic management (if it exists) but it is a fail in my view.