Thanks for the info. Isn't apathy a wonderful thing? No wonder the agencies can get away with just about anything. Either way I think it is a good idea and if yearly is what needs to be done then that should be the solution

Quote "As an IS exclusive, it possibly benefits me when you nice folks delete your files. But the majority of you are friends and really wonderful people and I do not wish to benefit from my friend's actions when I feel they are involved in a martyrdom activity that will have little affect or significance to Getty management."

You are absolutely right that you are going to benefit from this. As an exclusive your view of microstock is IStock. So your perspective is skewed to think that this initiative is just about Getty/Istock which is actually quite reasonable. Your argument holds a lot of value from your perspective but not a lot of value from mine.

This is my perspective. I have a product that I want to sell for many more years. My product will sell as long as there are people who are willing to buy it. I know that as long as there are customers I will find an outlet or an agency to represent my product and I can continue to make a living off of my images. I am willing to change and adapt as needed but as long as I have potential customers I will find a way to sell to them. If all of a sudden all of your images are offered for free because your agent decides to give them away, my customers start to go away. Pretty soon free is what is expected and I can no longer make a living because I no longer have customers. Am I scared to have my images given away by Getty... yes, but not nearly as scared as I am of them giving away everyone's images. I can create new images and I can change sales avenues but I cannot compete with free. There needs to be a stand and if I need to take a hit to my income to ensure my future that is what I need to do.

I agree that Getty/IS could care less about me, but they aren't the only players in this game. The industry is bigger than that and others are watching. The contributors need to make a stand and show a united front. If enough people step up the agencies will take notice and maybe, just maybe they will think twice before one of them strikes the next "deal".

Lizafx, I don't intend to send this to paying customers. I intend to send it to the people who didn't pay. I just don't want to offend them if they did. Here is the idea. If I got this email and knew I had paid for it I would probably forget about it or respond that I paid for it and where. However, if I didn't pay for it I might wonder if I could be in for some trouble. I might delete the image or I might ignore the situation. Regardless of what the person does I have created some level of doubt in his mind about free images. Probably some time in the next couple of days he/she is having coffee or lunch and mentions the email. Now I have created doubt in two people. 2 people times 3 letters times 6000 images is 36000 people talking about this issue that weren't even aware it was a problem.

This is about perception not reality. Getty knows this and so does Google. They are counting on it. However, We can make a difference because if enough people are under the impression that this is not ok or even have some level of doubt it will not matter what the lawyers say.

I don't want to start upload to iStock due to low commissions  . 

What's your opinion?

To answer the original question. As an independent already uploading to SS you might as well upload to IS as well. Your sales volume will be significantly lower at IS but your rpd is likely to be about 3 times higher if you don't count the pp. The only reason I don't upload as much to istock is that compared to everyone else besides Graphic River the upload process is a nightmare. My revenue per image per month is about 1/3 at istock what it is at SS. IStock usually falls between #3 and #6 in revenue per image per month. As an independent istock should be one of your regular uploads if you can put up with the hassle.

@cidepix -
Thanks for the response - I've been illustrating for almost 16 years now and up until now I have been able to avoid the freelance thing. After this long in the print industry I have kind of learned to hate the customers. But now it feels like I can't get away from it. I think I will follow the lead you guys have shown and only do it if the customer is willing to pay what I need to charge.

That is part of the reason I really like Microstock - no deadlines, no nitpicking clients, and I get to choose the subject matter. Although I will say that now that I have my own site I am really starting to see Cory's perspective on the low RPD. I can't get myself to upload to any of the sub sites right now. It just feels wrong. I'm not deleting anything but only a few sites will get my new stuff for a while.

I just launched my own website and I'm getting all sorts of questions that I'm not sure how to answer.  I run a medium size shirt shop and this is just a sideline thing for me. I have been reluctant to do contract work but it is becoming apparent that I might be leaving money on the table. I really don't need additional custom work - especially if it winds up costing me money in opportunity costs - but don't want to turn away decent extra money either.

I was hoping to get some insight into how you handle these issues.

1) Custom requests where I retain the rights and can resell.
How much do you charge? - Is it hourly or do you do it by project?
Do you charge less for images that have a higher probability of resale?
Do you ask for payment up front?

How much do you charge extra if they want exclusivity?

2) How do keep your customers from walking off with the comp images - is this even an issue?

3) On your Microstock Images do you offer subscription plans or a different type of quantity discount?

Any insight you could give would be appreciated.
Thanks ahead of time.

I never meant to discount complex stuff. I just don't agree that because an image is simple it should be cheap. My point was that illustration done well is difficult and should be priced accordingly. This pricing is absurd. Do they price their photos this way as well? Photo of a barn $2, photo of a barn with mountains $4, photo of a barn with mountains and a pond $6?

Josh, I have to echo what cidepix has stated. Simple doesn't mean easy or cheap. I strive to make my images clean and easy to edit and if I do it well they look "simple". Anyone who has ever tried to do illustration on just about any level knows that "simple" combined with "well done" is extraordinarily difficult to achieve on a regular basis. The reason those images are in high demand is because most people can't do it themselves. Sure most people can look at an image and say "I could've done that" after seeing the image. However, very few people can actually create those images from scratch. You are missing out on a whole lot of money with your pricing and your upload procedure. You have simply made it not worth my time to submit. Its a shame too, because your RPI is actually pretty good.

The reason the best vector sites don't show up in the poll results is because it takes a minimum number of voters to get a rating. If there was a poll just for vectors the top 4 and the middle tier would look a whole lot different. I actually asked Chris before I posted about his site. He said he is really trying to keep a balance between building a solid catalog of images and keeping his contributors happy. I like this site a lot.

Since we are throwing out ideas...I would like to see some sort of "parent site" that ties all of the individual sites together. Perhaps with a search option like "search this site" or "search entire network". I would even be ok with being a part of one large site but having my own "store" so to speak. Kind of like a mall. Lots of individual stores in one place.

Yes lots of subs but on demand sales result in about 2 times the rpd of the others. Also about 10 times the volume is hard to overlook. My earnings there are significant enough to look past all of the sub sales. Having said that, I also wait to upload to SS until the higher rpd sites have had the files a while. I'm not sure if it matters but I like to think I'm giving an edge to the better paying sites in the google searches but holding my uploads for a month or two to the sub sites.

Sorry. That was an assumption on my part. Seemed like accepting k-tools sites would be obvious. I don't have my own site yet so I didn't pay as much attention as  I should have. I didn't mean to send out false information. My apologies

As far as I understand it, if you don't have your own site PictureEngine directs to the site that had the image first. Based on this information I have been staggering my uploading with priority going to the sites that pay the best rpd. Sites with sub sales get my images last (even though that may only be 30 days later).  If PictureEngine really does take off they will be directing my images to the best paying sites (for me). If it doesn't take off, at least these sites have a bit of a head start on SEO. Either way it doesn't do me much harm (and possibly has a large benefit) to upload to my preferred sites first.