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Messages - cthoman
2826
« on: February 04, 2011, 15:10 »
Whats fun is that the US Contribs... who might have already had to do taxes with the money included that was yanked. How do you go about correcting that.. wait till next tax time? Would be interesting to see I.R.S. jump on and have a look at IS.
It really wouldn't change much. You report what is paid out, so you will just have less to report next payout because you already reported it.
2827
« on: February 04, 2011, 15:07 »
He hasn't said that. He said he's considering his options. He may not be a 'big gun' in your eyes but at his scale of operation he's probably representative of many more contributors. OOI how do you personally define 'a big gun'?
You mean you don't rank individual contributors? C'mon there's the talent portion, the swimsuit competition...
2828
« on: February 03, 2011, 12:22 »
Yeah, it looks like the senate voted to repeal the 1099 thing.
2829
« on: February 03, 2011, 11:29 »
It seems like almost everyone was affected by this. Was there a final total on how much was stolen?
2830
« on: February 02, 2011, 18:51 »
If you can't get back the files, why should you take the money back? Maybe, all this money they are stealing back should actually go to something useful like fraud prevention or shutting down the pirate site that is now stocked full of everyone's images.
2831
« on: February 02, 2011, 18:31 »
Hi,
I got this email from istock saying that recently of images on istock have been purchased from peopel with unauthorized card numbers etc...Okay they removed 2 royalties, whatever that mean from one of my file that I take was purchased.
This is the first that that ever happened to me.
Is that normal?
I had the same. 2 is $2 or at least that is what I received for the download they said was fraudulent.
2832
« on: February 01, 2011, 17:50 »
For those who consider exclusivity, image rejection shouldnt really be a question. If you spend time in the critique forum you can optimize your workflow to minimize rejections. Many people have acceptance rates of over 90%, both exclusive and non exclusive, even with simple cameras.
Rejections was actually what steered me away from going exclusive last year. I had around 95% acceptance, then IS changed their policies to crack down on illustrations in a series. I had already created these illustrations, so the policy shift meant that many of them may get rejected. It didn't make a lot of sense to go exclusive and have a bunch of illustrations that I'd already worked hard to create that I couldn't sell. And who knows how they would change things in the future.
2833
« on: February 01, 2011, 15:28 »
Are they? doing so very well as you say? must have missed something?
Is it important for the agency to do well or us? 
2834
« on: February 01, 2011, 12:33 »
Congrats. It takes a lot of courage to quit a steady income and pursue something you're interested in.
2835
« on: February 01, 2011, 10:41 »
Very strange month. If this is the way the year is going to go, I'm not sure what to expect.
SS - 20%
IS - 17%
CanStockPhoto - 15%
my site - 13%
CLO - 13%
DT - 7%
FT - 3%
VS - 3%
V - 2%
123 - 2%
BS - 1%
GL - 1%
2836
« on: January 31, 2011, 14:46 »
Yeah, there were some little things that could be improved with it. I had to go through the English file and swap out the word photo for illustration or image. It would have been nice if they used something more generic like image. Also, my brother helped me add in the sub categories to the batch edit page which was a huge help. I need to get him to fix some search problems too. I know Elena said she had some bugs with the search as well.
2837
« on: January 31, 2011, 14:33 »
Is it not present on IS because you don't have enough upload slots, or because you just haven't used all your upload shots.
It always ticked me off because most exclusive illustrators only uploaded a few illustrations a month and I always had a ton of stuff sitting in a folder labeled istock. I asked once (jokingly) if I could borrow other exclusives' upload slots. It was a joke, but the reality was that istock was becoming more and more irrelevant when it came to a complete collection of my work. That's more my problem than theirs, but still that mindset that they are irrelevant isn't a positive thing. I stopped recommending them because I had a lot more stuff on other sites.
2838
« on: January 30, 2011, 13:15 »
No. wrong! the smaller agencies will certainly have their place, fill a function, etc, but they will simply not be allowed to get much further, UNLESS! they are taken over by one of the big umbrellas. Thats the way it works. As soon as one becomes a threat, its a gonner or bought. Look at Stockxpert! golden example.
Well, I guess they'll have to get their checkbook out because there are a few agencies that they'll probably need to buy. 
2839
« on: January 30, 2011, 11:25 »
All exclusive doesn't seem to be the way things are headed. If anything, I'd say the opposite. Smaller agencies are slowly eroding the superiority of the Big 4. If I was going to predict, I think the landscape will be more of a bunch of mid tier agencies, and nobody will command enough sales to justify exclusivity.
2840
« on: January 29, 2011, 15:31 »
Interesting. Even going from 20 to 16% my istock folio income continued to grow... Only by about $80 this month but still trending up as it has all last year. I do primarily vectors there though so I guess that's why as you independent photogs seem to have nothing but a downward trend. I figure photo is still way more oversaturated. I also find photo acceptance much easier than vector but much less sales (50%) less. Any other illustrators out there seeing the same?
Nope, I'm not having the same pattern. I'm down from January 2010 by about 30% at IS. I stopped uploading after the announcement, so that may be part of it. It seemed like more of a community approach this month rather than the big 2 of SS and IS. I had record months at a few agencies, but the big 4 weren't all that impressive.
2841
« on: January 28, 2011, 14:31 »
The system has been implemented for all new uploads, or were you referring to when we would be creating JPEG versions of all previously published EPS files?
This is a manual process and it's taking a bit longer then we had hoped. We've already converted a large portion of previously published EPS files, but it's now looking to be around mid to late February before we will have the rest of the JPEGs created and on the site available for purchase.
Thanks. That answers my question. I was mostly curious about the old files, since I wanted to see the new system in action with my own files before I made any decision to undertake the long arduous task of preparing my back catalog files for upload or changing my work flow.
2842
« on: January 28, 2011, 13:53 »
Why is it all the most opinionated people are always the ones with 52 images and 400 sales in 5 years? As JoAnn has suggested before - No skin in the game. 
That kind of talk will get you called elitist.
2843
« on: January 28, 2011, 13:09 »
You could also say they put a target on themselves by saying, "hey competition, here's your chance". Or you could say they pay us like we work at Target.
2844
« on: January 27, 2011, 23:15 »
Still on the fence, been really happy so far as a Gold level contributor, but dropping from $2000 a month to maybe $800 this month is disturbing.
That's not good. iStock has been pretty bad for me this month too. I wasn't sure if that was a pattern or just my numbers.
2845
« on: January 27, 2011, 16:12 »
Weve altered the vector upload workflow so that we can support offering customers a full-slate of rasterized JPEGs in addition to your .EPS vector. This was something many of you, and many of our customers, have been waiting for.
This means that your original .EPS vector file and a full suite of JPEG sizes from XS to XXL will be presented together to the customer on a single product detail page.
This is important - customers will now have the option to pick the file format and size that works best for them.
Is there an update on this? I haven't heard anything more about it or seen it implemented either.
2846
« on: January 27, 2011, 12:04 »
Freelance illustrator and designer.
2847
« on: January 27, 2011, 10:31 »
Sometimes I have to invest in a cup of coffee.
2848
« on: January 26, 2011, 16:53 »
Would you like to Super Size that illustration, sir?
2849
« on: January 26, 2011, 16:50 »
With discipline we could effect buyers habits:
1. Rank the Top 6 microstock sites in terms of Royalty % to contributors;
2. Upload new content only to the #1 microstock site first;
3. Wait 1 month before uploading the same new content to the #2;
4. Wait another month, upload the same new content to the #3;
and so on.....
7. Market the #1 site only on our web pages and in forums.
Buyers looking for fresh, new images would start to gravitate towards the new images on the #1 ranked site, and we would get the better Royalty %.
It takes discipline from us all though!!!
This is similar to what I've been doing the last few months. I basically decided what I think is sustainable for my business. What percentage I want to get and how much I want to receive per sale were my major factors for sustainability. I'm targeting the agencies that meet those criteria and uploading my files to those. All the rest, I'm taking a break from. I'm not sure how it will work out, but I think it is a valid experiment. If I can make those my top agencies, then I guess it will have worked.
2850
« on: January 25, 2011, 19:23 »
How's this one. quote from fotolia forum. Yeah they screwed us over again lets make them the best. what ? I thought there were some ass kissers at Istock but this one takes the cake.
"There are a couple of ways we can treat this, either get fed up and give up and just stop uploading or delete our portfolios which seems a shame after all the work that has gone into them or do totally the opposite.
If we continue to upload, and make those images that we do upload the best we can do then we will make Fotolia somewhere that the buyers/licencees want to come and the more that come and buy, the more of our images will be sold, it is totally up to us, the submitters, we are what makes Fotolia and the better they do, the better we do - when times were good we got rewarded, I trust that if we can put Fotolia at the top of the microstock market we will again get increases but imagine that, as the UK government keeps telling us - "things may get worse before they get better" but they will get better, they always do it just takes time and a lot of effort.
I think I will treat this as a challenge rather than just accept it as a defeat and try and start shooting again so I can replace some of those images that the rest of you are deleting or not uploading "
Is that like drinking yourself sober?
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