You didn't come here to seek a lecture. You are hoping to get some sympathetic support from your fellow photographers. But each photographer has his own opinion, that's a fact so don't take it too hard.

Istock is a very successful site in the micro stock photo industry, but it is not the only path to success in photography. With all the faults of Istock, there are micro sites which are worse than Istock. That being said, it's nothing wrong that you want fair treatment and respect. You can always look around for something more agreeable to you and your choice of photography.

Does anyone know why IS disambiguations are not in alphabetical order? It is really hard to find the right one when the list is extremely long.

Has anyone raised this before? Is it very difficult to do technically?

Interesting discussion. I think you may want to consider these additional things:

Since buyers can easily upsize with the newer software, does it make sense to invest in 5D2, faster computer and bigger storage requirements?

Does it take much longer to upload a bigger file?

Does it cost you more to upload a bigger file?

In the end, can you sell more XXL or bigger files on the basis of the actual size?

It will be difficult to differentiate the sites which sell well in general or sell well for nature and landscapes in particular.

If you look at the top three sites, such as SS, IS and DT, they are considered the top selling sites in the micro world, not only for any particular categories.

I am doing reasonably well in Alamy, but most of my sales are not nature or landscape either. However, like the above message said, landscape and nature photos tend to have a longer shelf-life so don't give up on them either.

I have some exclusive images with DT but I have not added more lately after they made it more difficult to cancel the exclusivity. Before one can deactivate it by a click, now one would have to contact DT and it takes a month to get their approval.

Tan, I know a lot of people say it's a number's game, but it's yes and no. Some people were complaining about zero sales last month with a few thousand images. I'd say you need at least a few hundred with many different subjects. It is a British agency so European contents sell well, but the competition is also stiff because many contributors are Europeans.

Quote from: Freedom on May 02, 2009, 19:00

xxxxxxxxxx freedom YOU SAID....
 
If you do not have a great variety of subjects and a decent number of images, you will not see any results for a long time
   xxxxxxxx

sounds like me. so, in your opinion how many images do i need in Alamy, if i do want to see result ?
 i've been with them about 6-8 months now. i moved there after Photo Shelter's demise.

I sure hope you are right. If they get rid of the exclusive program, we are all created equal.

No offense, but it doesn't look to me like keeping exclusives happy is high on the priority list....

Walmartesque? Probably that's the way Getty intends it to remain. Don't forget IS started as a "free market" and then "flea market". I know many of us had wished that IS would become midstock, this new subscription model seems a bit demoralizing for the exclusives if I read the messages correctly.

Michael - change is good, but this kind of change feel a little too Walmartesque...if that makes sense.

An even worse scenario is StockXpert will be flooded with exclusive photos and we non-exclusives will be pushed to the even lower bottom of the food chain in searches and sales.

Worst scenario, buyers are going to see redundancy, as there is quite a number of StockXpert who is also on IS. So what next? Ask those redundant StockXpert'ers to close their account since they are already with IS? And ask the selling StockXpert'er who has not been with IS to merge, then shut StockXpert down?
Methinks it's slowly cutting off the oxygen once again to poor StockXpert. (requiescat in pace)   

I must say it's commendable that Whitechild has never lost his good humor and manner.

Stacy, have to disagree with you. You had your moment to vent your frustration because you failed to reach Gold on your schedule, which might be caused by a number of reasons, and was not because IS had taken any discriminatary actions against you, you have always been a favored exclusive. What's wrong if other people vent theirs? You are not non exclusive so you may not fully understand what we have to go through

I do not see this as an attack on IS. Personally IS has always been my favorite site, even though at times I disagree with some of its policies. It's unnessarily to accuse others of stiring up the pot, being venemous or a jerks. Guess who had cause the biggest stir to IS not a long time ago?

Let's all express our opinions in a reasonable, calm and professional manner.

It's interesting you said that. I read a while back that some people said the reviewers make more money by rejecting than accepting. Don't know if it is true for all sites.

If you ask me, Atilla is just a guy who rejects tons of images not even looking at them as he should look, and he is doing it just for one reason: To earn faster those few cents from reviewing.
I think we all should write to some important people at certain agencies. Maybe it could help stopping this insanity.

It's interesting that you said that, my 15 and 16 were good, 17 was the start of the decline.

Yep its a sea of red in the charts, and my results are reflecting this also. Day 1 was great - but after that its been looking pretty grim.

My sales have come to a virtual stop under the new best match 2.0, after a healthy March and early April.

Is it best match 2.0 or normal ups and downs?