Thank you that was helpful thank you, your response really made me feel better and you provided info for me I did not know. So kind of you thanks again

You're welcome. I hope it helps!

Whenever something like this happens use a WHOIS search to find the web hosting company. Contact them, they usually will take care of things.

Looks like Istock's been taken over by Zombies... 

Quote from: click_click on September 14, 2010, 07:53

They may be rolling this out gradually and only some contributors see it at this point.

Alamy does this all the time.

Istock in the past did it the opposite way and failed many times when going live with new features (available to everyone).

Sorry click_click, maybe my english is bad: where is in alamy? I never see this function. Dove sta?

Hmm, I still don't quite understand what you are asking me but I think you want to know which features Alamy rolled out to a selected group first before making it accessible to everyone.

- The "new" Manage Images tool was initially offered to only 250 in March 2009 before it was put live on the site for everyone.
- The "newest" Alamy Upload is only offered to a group of contributors to see if it works fine before making it accessible for everyone.

These are just 2 features that I can speak of as I was participating there.

If I didn't answer your question send me a personal message.

@click_click,
 can you tell me were I can find in alamy this nice lesson of geography?

Sorry, I don't understand your question (English is not my native tongue).

Quote from: click_click on September 14, 2010, 19:09

This of course can ONLY make sense if you can sustain (I hate that word by now) your lifestyle without your exclusivity-income. Now the question is, how many exclusives can afford that...?

Oh, I have no guarantee of being able to sustain my lifestyle.  Its going to take awhile to work back up to the income level I have right now from iStock.  In the meantime I will have to make some cutbacks, canceling internet at the studio, possibly moving to a cheaper studio or doing only on-location shoots for awhile.  Its just that I won't be ruined financially by not having income from iStock. 

Kudos. It's rare to see somebody with that kind of dedication and willing to make sacrifices. I'm sure you're already in the middle of talking to many agencies in order to pump your images to them. If not, I recommend to get in direct touch with them so you're on your way as quickly as possible.

Some agencies will gladly process your images for free so you only have to FTP the images to them. They'll do the keywording and categorizing.

Best of luck!

I mentioned on another thread that here in Canada Direct Deposit costs $15 per. So that adds up to $180 per year just to get money from Alamy. Cheques are better to wait for a few days than pay this fee.

Have you followed Alamy's updates on the direct deposit? Supposedly with their latest form of direct deposit you shouldn't suffer from any fees either.

Relative cost?

So why did Alamy give up the $10* fee for check OR direct deposits? Are they just being generous? Is a company being nice to us? What the heck is happening?

*There used to be a fee - I don't remember how much...

I thought this was solely about Stockfresh anyway... 

...How's that for spin?

Sharply, thanks for taking this approach. The numbers you brought up paint another picture, true.

No matter if I take my numbers or yours, my next year on iStock would only consist of 11 months instead of 12 regarding my income drop - IF sales stay the same or even slightly go up.

Now we have to "wait and see" if iStock can keep its promise of "balancing out" the drop in commission by bringing in more sales but I remain skeptical.

Also, the fact that no other agency offers 15% as a starting point (except voluntarily giving your images away for free...) is simply not a smart move.

I'm not iStock's accounting company but I highly doubt that they are in some sort of financial crisis.

In my eyes (and this may be wrong) iStock has been ordered to achieve figures that are simply too high. Since iStock is now brainless (in terms of not acting on its behalf anymore) it will do whatever is requested to remain part of the "gang" and probably counter-balance any other mismanaged branch of the corporation.

This change is wrong on so many levels (although we mostly care abut the money part) that I feel deeply sorry for many exclusives who have been lied to over the last years.

It is what it is and as much as many realize now that the old iStock is dead we have to move on. Still, this change has affected a huge number of people (some more, some less) and these days, every single Dollar counts.

I agree.

on istocks forum it was mentioned that something like 74% of exclusives are base level, so cannot drop. cant remember the exact figure, but if correct it left only 1 or 2 % of other exclusives not taking a hit.

Yes, that's what I've read as well.

Interestingly the majority of exclusive votes  (almost 30% of all exclusives votes!) came from contributors that will drop from 30% to 25%.
One would think that most exlcusive voters would be base level - at least that would be my assumption.

Is there any way an exclusive can get an increase in percentage (immediate jump) once this lunacy is enacted?

I'm not aware of anybody. If so, that person would certainly have the key to success and I doubt they would share their story anywhere in public.

OK 18 more people! Let's try to get 18 more votes so I can do another status update.

Please let everyone who uploads to iStock know about this poll and tell them to vote.

it is possible to change my vote?

I thought I selected that option but I don't think you can change it anymore. Sorry.
I don't know why it didn't work.

Thanks for getting the word around.