It's the Greater Fool Theory, and it is why a few microstock companies and other related companies such as CafePress have become success stories by exploiting crowdsourcing.  These companies know it is a horrible deal for contributors to work with them.  But they also know there will always be a few people out of every 10 who will do anything for another dollar, even if it means the agency is making 5 or 6 dollars for every 1 they make.

Just remember every time you see a 9 cent commission that iStockphoto did not do this to you, You did this to you.  If you accept anything, that's exactly what you will get.

So you've shut all your microstock accounts at IS and elsewhere then, I take it?

Quote from: Risamay on March 07, 2011, 18:04

So, since I see no route to beating them, I'm just trying to collect as many pennies as possible from whatever avenue is open to me. As the rules everywhere keep changing and we have no idea what fresh hell is coming down the pike, why not?

I can`t believe that there are still people out there thinking like this...

Believe it, baby

Maybe diversifying one's portfolio of microstock agencies will widen, in terms of popularity. Or maybe it won't. Maybe iStock will make changes to its policies that entice people [back] to exclusivity. Or not. I cannot foretell the future, but I do know that I've had my fill of betting exclusively on iStock. Playing the field now makes the most sense (and with luck and hard work, cents) to me, to me. But that's just me. Everyone is entitled to their viewpoint and gambling strategy, herein

ALL of these sites have a history of enticing contributors with higher commissions, and then lowering them when they get successful.

Yup, yup. Which is why we all, ultimately, elect to roll with the punches if we stay on with any of these firms in any capacity (as exclusives, as indies, as full-timers, part-timers, hobbyists, etc.). And when it gets to be too much, we'll leave or they'll fold or whatever.

In the meantime, I'll just keep collecting my pennies.

Quote from: Risamay on March 07, 2011, 18:04

So, since I see no route to beating them, I'm just trying to collect as many pennies as possible from whatever avenue is open to me.

Unfortunately many contributors think this way, which is why we are in this situation in the first place.

I don't see it that way.

If we formed a union of some kind, maybe we could demand a difference, but the issue raised by the OP on this thread is paltry royalties on the IS site proper. And in discussing this with another iStocker, it was brought to my attention that this is essentially what has been going on in the 'quit your day job' Getty offering. People being paid pennies for their work, when all were led to believe that participation there would be low sales but high commissions (of say $60 on average).

So now that iStock proper is paying pennies on some sales, is everyone going to jump ship? I doubt it. My point was that they would have done something like this anyway. PP or no PP.

They do stuff like this because they can. And so they will. And so, I'll take what pennies I can get while I can get them, because I don't see much of a full-time future for many of us, if I'm being honest, in microstock. Not unless something grandiose comes to pass and we all organize against the way the tide is turning.

Going full time was something I used to dream and scheme about, but, in the end, I'm glad I kept my day job. I like a steady paycheck and the stress of this rapidly changing industry and how/when/if royalties or commissions are going to change is too much for me to deal with on an annual basis.

it's the UK sense of humour, somewhere between irony and sarcasm: not meant to be taken seriously.

It's the best sense of humor. Being that of the UK, not necessarily Shank in any particular sense 

I don't know how Sean did, but I went to the HQ lypse and have not made in sales what it cost me to attend - airfare, hotel, taxis, meals, $500 ticket cost. That's absolutely fine as I figured the experience would be worth it for me - an opportunity learn that has real value IMO.

I've talked with others who attended that lypse and have attended others (this was my one and only). The common thread seems to be the experience, not the financial payback. So if someone somewhere once did make it pay I don't think that changes the general situation for most attendees.

That makes sense. Big events with many multiple photographers all shooting the same or very similar subjects, from different angles ... It would be surprising if those were big money-making events for the attendees, right? Seems much more an opportunity to learn, meet your peers and iStock idols, hang out, and get pretty drunk (from what I can tell or have heard). Sounds like fun. Or, it used to.

Joke of the week from JJRD:

"We are moving towards a glitch-free world... and we will get there."

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=307512&page=1#reply

Followed by - what? sick joke of the week? - from JJRD:

Posted By JJRD:
The day iStock and or Getty Images disappoint me & my passion for sharing Digital Media, I will be out the door faster than a speeding bullet.


[dcdp says: So what you're saying is that nothing iStock has done in the past 6 months has disappointed you.


I think that tells me everything I need to know about where you stand.]

JJRD replies: You may think what you want.

I know what we are doing, what we are fighting for and where we stand in our global objectives, and I stand behind them."

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=307512&page=4#reply

It seems the Company could never disappoint the Company Man.

Ha. Somehow I missed this post yesterday. Ha. HAHAHA

Initially, I was very worried by the implications of TS but when I saw some black diamonds climbing aboard I reached the conclusion that this was going to be a significant part of the market and the rational thing to do was to accept it and treat it the same way I treat the other significant micro agencies, none of which I am boycotting.

Finally, it's interesting to see how quickly people grab onto KK's words as the fountain of truth when he says something they want to hear. His track record hardly encourages faith in the accuracy of his announcements. Very often he seems to say something as a smokescreen for something else and "puts his foot in it" in the process. Telling boycotters "hey, you won, we can't get enough TS content" strikes me as another classic Kelly foot-in-mouth comment; I have trouble believing he would reveal that if it really was something they were worried about. So maybe they are trying to cheer up disconsolate exclusives after the commission cut, or maybe they increased the TS prices and this is keeping commission payouts at the corporate level. If lack of content was really the problem, wouldn't they reduced the exclusive lock-out to a year or six months, and then announce it was a special bonus for exclusives?

+1

There are some tough cliques there as there are pretty much anywhere.

Absolutely.

I think what people get away with [on IS] often depends on who they are.

And the mood of the mod at any given moment, it would seem. Sometimes.

Good points  BUT I doubt either one of those two stated above will have anything in vector vetta/video. Understandable to not want another collection that your not involved with lowering the visibility of your regular collection

Me and SuperRufus or Joe Lena and Sean?

I thought their statements were spot on because there has been so much wrong with the site for so long now, and THAT should be the focus at HQ and nothing else, for now - until the site as a whole is fixed and stable.

With regard to the new Vetta programs, I think it's a great opportunity for exclusive videographers and illustrators. Just as it has been for exclusive photographers. Though I'm no longer exclusive and therefore no longer have Vetta files, I still think it's a great program, if you can crack the code necessary to get your work into the club. The club aspect of it is what I never liked about the offering for photographers, though no one with a badge would acknowledge the ultra-exclusive clubbiness of it. Officially, anyway.

ETA: It's a great opportunity, though not without its faults. As kathykonkle, FreeTransform, and others point out:

Posted By kathykonkle:
You take vetta away from illustrators then add it back and call that "great things we have planned for illustrators? "

Posted By FreeTransform:
Agreed. Please let there be some actual "great things" in store. We've been waiting for an announcement since early September.

Sept. 7: "We have a bigger plan in the works for Vectors and will be telling you more about this in the months to come."

Sept. 10: Please also know that we do have some great things planned for Vectors, however to keep our competitive advantage, we're not able to announce them at this time, but will very shortly.

Source: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=307412&page=7

Since I'm banned, I'm bravo-ing Joe Lena and Sean here:

Posted By JoeLena:
I'll be the wet blanket. Fix the problems with the search and all of the other issues, then jack the prices up. , it's like no one there has a clue.

Posted By JJRD:
Different teams, different agendas. Your post is fair and I respect it - all we can say is that we are on an hiring mission within Technology and things are moving in a very positive fashion. With that said, this thread is about Vetta... and nothing else, thanks.

Posted By sjlocke:
You are missing the point of Joe's post. While, workload-wise, yes, one person sits by the pricing button, and another sits by the hamster wheel, that does not eliminate the fact that iStock as a whole is one company.

Here, we have almost daily threads from buyers yelling that the search does not work. The main thing that drives buyers to found _our_ content, and they are not able to use it easily, intuitively or effectively. They ask for ways to filter by collection, by color, by price, some of which used to be available to them. They (and we) have been yelling about this for literally months.

Contributors are upset because record keeping is buggy and untrustworthy, there is fear of fraud, preview colors are wrong, files can't be found, people are getting ZERO money for their downloads, etc. Despite recent posts, I haven't seen anything change in the technology department to clean things up. I see one bug fixed, and another three things stop working, and it takes weeks or months to fix them.

So what is company response? Hey, we're going to raise prices!

I became and stayed exclusive, because I thought we had a great product, a great community and a great team here. I haven't uploaded any new creative content in weeks because of site issues. Do you know how uninspiring taking that action is? That I don't trust the place I believe in to care and market my content due to technology issues? And it isn't just me - I've communicated with many who have the same concerns.

The point is that things should be working, the buyers should be happy, the contributors should be happy, before you go adding new levels of complexity with higher pricing. Happy buyers mean they stick around and may bear the pain of these things, if they have the tools to find what they want, instead of running away, everyday. We may have market share now, but there seems to be some feeling that there is an endless waterfall of buyers waiting to come in the front door. And at some point, something is going to dam up that waterfall, for goodness sake, if you don't keep the river clear and running smooth.

Source: http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=307412&page=6

Hey, I just got my first editorial sale, so as I cant woo-way in the forum there, I'll just woot here.
:-)

Congrats, Sue! That's very exciting.

Once I slog through some of the other work I've got on my plate, I'm looking forward to giving IS Editorial a go, too. Here's hoping it's a positive, successful new offering and experience.

This is for SURE, especially Kelvin.  Before he was pretty down to earth and now he sounds like LOBO jr.

I miss the old Kelvin. He had some of the best zingers I've ever read on those forums.

Ditto. And ditto. Kelvin was awesome. Keyword: was. His zingers were the best! And cut straight to the chase. He was (there's that word again) a great voice for the contributor base. One of our top voices. And now ...

It's disappointing, to say the least. Actually, it's quite shocking. I'm still not nearly used to it. Though I haven't been reading the forums more than sporadically of late. As just a pop-in, now, I feel like I've lost the flow of the forums. So maybe other people who still read more regularly have already acclimated to the new tone/voice.

Anyway. Onward.