Quote from: vphoto on March 02, 2008, 19:22
blind loyalty of iStock exclusive photographers disgusts me even more than Xsize prices.

Why let that bother you?  If they want to be blindly loyal that's their problem, not mine.  I don't give them a second thought and really couldn't care less.

On the subject of XS sales:  Unfortunately I don't have the time to keep up with technology like I want to.  What's the latest in upsizing (a.k.a. uprezzing) technology?  If it's much better than the past, then wouldn't it make sense that buyers would buy the smallest usable sizes and then just uprez them themselves, in spite of the time factor?  I guess batch processing would make it a breeze.  Perhaps right now the money/cost factor is more important than it was in the recent past and would outweigh the time involved in buyer post-editing.  Any thoughts?

Steve-Oh,

Just wanted to say "Thanks!" to StockXpert for making their subscription sales optional.  My sales have not suffered at all since I opted out, but on Dreamstime yesterday I had all subscription sales.  Bummer.

I must say a large "Thank You" to StockXpert for allowing the opt-out option for subs.  I opted out a while ago and my sales have not suffered for it at all---if anything they're increasing as I add a few files periodically.   However, on Dreamstime yesterday my sales were a whopping 100% subscription, and nowhere near Shutterstock amounts.   

PS- I'm planning to leave DT about this issue around June.  Not a big deal to them I'm sure, but perhaps if many more leave they'll get the idea.

Hat,

Perhaps it depends on the area of the world one is in, but did you mean Valentine Day images?  I'm seeing Valentine images here in the USA.  Surely nothing to criticize there.  I mean, Valentine's was only 2+ weeks ago.  I give FT the benefit of the doubt as maybe they're concerned about designers who are already working on next year's Valentine projects (same with Christmas). 

Well, I've heard there's some really good skiing near Moscow, Idaho, so maybe a trip there wouldn't be a total loss. 

Hey wait.  Are we talking about Moscow, Russia, or Moscow, Idaho (USA)?

Russia I can't do.  Idaho maybe.

Hmmm.

So, maybe a 2-steps-forward, 1-step-back, 2-steps-forward trick?  To make buyers think they're truly concerned about lowering prices but slowly creeping them up anyway?  Oops, maybe I let too much cat out of the bag....

Sigh.  What a stupid stunt.  Maybe this marketing strategy works in grocery and department stores, but microstock is absolutely not the place for it.  Next thing you know they'll  be offering all our images as free downloads every Tuesday.   More power to 'em, I guess.  (And less commission to us....   ) 

I agree that Leaf does a tremendous job of keeping this site on the right level.  I'm glad he's not afraid of battling trolls etc, in spite of their childish and predictable "censorship!" cries.  IStock has no problem swinging their "ban hammer" on their forum, and I'm really glad Leaf has no qualms about swinging his ban hammer at MSG.  Trolls and others who would love to destroy this site by sowing discord are definitely not welcome here.  It was sad to watch another site become just a ghost of its former self because of weak leadership in not handling the trolls.  I hope this site stays strong for a long time!

Thanks for doing an excellent job, Leaf!!

OK, that must have been it.  Never mind!  It's just that lately I've been on the fence trying to decide whether to stay with DT because of increasing sub sales.

Has anyone heard if DT is definitely going to implement a 12-month minimum commitment for uploaded images?  I read rumours about it a while ago but haven't heard anything since.  I don't spend much time on DT's site (and don't plan to) so don't know if they've mentioned it there.  One thing you can count on is that DT will not make it widely known if they do choose the 12-month minimum.  I'm sure that subscription sales have nothing to do with this possible decision......right?

Ron ( iofoto ),

Would you care to comment on Featurepics?  Perhaps you have already, but if you did I missed it.  Do you think there's much of a future there?  Seems like with the rise of midstock, FP should be one of the up and coming stars of the next year or so with 70% commission, contributor-selected prices, and both RM & RF.  If you're able to share your thoughts on it, what do you think?

Thanks, iofoto .   Super post!!!

Tomorrow I am going to walk all around my neighborhood with my camera and lens pointed downwards and keep the shutter release button depressed, changing batteries as necessary, then submit the best (?) of those shots and see what happens.

Same here.  Doing my spring cleaning early.  
   As far as I'm concerned, this market is closed to newcomers in the low-low-price category.  Sorry.  Next please.

193

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2030

Andres, thank you for the analysis.  Coming from someone of your calibre, your insights can help us see our way a little more clearly.  With greater knowledge we can all make informed choices that will possibly influence the market in positive ways.

Quote from: Pixart on January 26, 2008, 14:46

Yes, for the amount of time I have spent here, I could have taken a LOT of photos.... but you can't really just take a 5 minute break to take a photo, can you?  First you have to (at my house) clear the toys out of your shooting area, set up, polish up any objects you might shoot, meter the lights, take photos, make the adjustments, do it again for a new shot then put everything away so the kids don't wreck it. 

And I thought I was the only one.....

Haven't read anything about it yet, so I'm not sure if this one can take any of the old K-mount lenses the way their other digital slr's have been able to.  If so, then this is even more of a bargain if you don't mind manual focusing, which I use most of the time anyway.  Because on the used market you can get for Pentax some of the absolutely best lenses (mostly primes) ever produced, for a small fraction of the cost of their newer counterparts.  And in many cases the older ones are sharper and have better color rendition than their modern equivalents.  And then there are some of the even older Takumar screwmount lenses, which are an absolute pain to use and can really test your patience, but give you unbelievably beautiful image rendition with better sharpness than just about any lens of any maker today.  And they're usually available at super low cost.  It's a toss-up between inconvenience of use vs superlative image quality and low price.  If you have the need for speed and auto-everything, then these won't work for you.  
  However, if they've changed the lens-mount, then disregard all the above.

Wouldn't it be funny if Bruce Livingstone, founder of Istock, offered to buy back Istock from Getty's new owners for $20M? 

Quote from: fintastique on January 14, 2008, 15:17
25c subscription sales will start to get very annoying when it is a level 5 images that should earn between $2.50 and $4.00 depending on size

So true.  I'm planning to drop DT soon as the number of my sub sales is almost catching up to my regular sales, and they don't have an opt-out.  My $$ are decreasing.

Wow.  Even with the price increase, the past 10 days have been my best ever on IS, and that's with just a very few new uploads.  I seem to be getting the same ratio of large-to-small dl's as before but considerably more dl's.

Quote from: Nazdravie on January 10, 2008, 17:48
Not RF, but you can still sell Editiorial and RM on Alamy and Photoshelter, correct?

Yes, you can sell RM.  However, you cannot sell your rejected files anywhere at all. 
(Does that include selling them as RM, I wonder??)

Quote from: stock_fan on January 07, 2008, 21:04
I would recommend to all the big playes like Yuri, Andres, Lev, ... to

- Upload to Featurepics
- Set price similar to DT, IS, StockXpert per picture price for max size
- Tick "do not allow downsizing" / lower price
- Promote this site like hell (email signature in each eMail, web site, etc.)
- Educate customers (eg in designer forums) that IS pays only 20% to artists, FP pays 70% which is more than a fair share.


Regards

Another vote for this idea.  It's looking like this will be the year for FP!