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Messages - cthoman
2902
« on: January 11, 2011, 16:00 »
I admit sales are there and continue to grow, albeit more slowly. but otherwise, what perks? they've whittled away all the perks. exclusivity doesn't feel special at all anymore
There's always independence. You can make your own flag and have a holiday with fireworks and everything. 
2903
« on: January 11, 2011, 15:30 »
...and the value of artist exclusivity seems to be rapidly declining.
I disagree, IS still seems to be propping up their exclusive program with a number of perks that might be interesting opportunities to independents. Higher priced files, Vetta, Getty, etc. Even Fotolia has perks for exclusives with their exclusives allowed to adjust prices. I wouldn't mind being able to use all those features.
2904
« on: January 11, 2011, 10:33 »
Interesting idea. Especially, since it is such a pain to upload to Bigstock and not really worth the effort. I'm sure it will take a while to get to my vector portfolio, since it is a mess of vectors and raster duplicates on SS.
2905
« on: January 11, 2011, 00:30 »
So my point again, even though it seems a bit thick, is it can take almost 30,000 downloads to reach the level that some people claim is easy. I don't think that 10,000 a year is easy, let alone 10,000 a year for three years, with EL and OD, counted. That's three years to reach the 38c if someone gets 10,000 downloads a year.
EASY?
I think the point of it being easy is that it is relative to the other agencies. It is very easy to make the top tier at SS compared to the other agencies.
2906
« on: January 10, 2011, 19:17 »
Funny. Too bad mine and the majority of people's screw didn't get any smaller.
2907
« on: January 10, 2011, 12:08 »
The featured lightboxes are filled with images from the same contributors every week. We're a contributor base of thousands. There's no reason to showcase the same contributors over and over, multiple images per contributor in multiple lightboxes. Or are they simply telling us that those contributors are the only good contributors on iStock? I don't even care so much about whether my images are in the lightboxes. I'd just like to see a good variety of contributors' work marketed.
The content management at iStock has become more and more clubby over the last year. I'm disappointed. I thought the content management team was going to take it in a much more open and community-oriented direction. that was the crux of their messages all year.
Embrace the power of the dark side. I stopped trying to understand what any agency does anymore. You just have to try to make money with whatever crazy hoops they set up.
2908
« on: January 09, 2011, 16:09 »
I couldn't agree more! When ss was doing a survey about improving submitter end, I tried to tell them - no one cares, it is good as it is, please focus more on advertising to more diverse audience. Alas! They spent the money on prettifying the submitter page. The key to micro stock is that indeed this is a product that everyone can afford. Your grade 6 child doing a school project. Your grandmother making a church poster. Your neighbor plumber putting his add into the local newspaper. But - every time we approach someone to ask permission to take pictures, they not only never heard of micro stock, most of them had no idea what stock photography was!
We are a Wallmart of photography business, and yet no one knows about us!
I'm glad I'm not the only one that sees the potential.
2909
« on: January 08, 2011, 13:43 »
Can't remember where, but I read that Yuri did make the top level. Doubt he is dancing in the streets, though, to just get to keep the 20% he was already making.
I seriously doubt that any other non-exclusives made it, though, and I haven't yet heard of any exclusives who made the 1.2 million to get to 45% either.
The vector level for the top is a lower, so I assume someone made that. Still, it seems like an awful lot of work just to get to royalties that you can easily achieve at other sites.
2910
« on: January 08, 2011, 13:04 »
This fraud "conspiracy" theory is ridiculous. It was not just Vetta and Agency. I had quite a few regular sales too. And before someone starts whining it was just exclusives, well, maybe that's because for $250 or whatever, you can get all the independent content you want at SS for your illegal cd collections. I certainly wouldn't waste my time dl'ing independent content at IS, when I'd have a teeny tiny chance of getting caught at SS.
And the amount of RCs kept likely did not affect anyone's transition from one level to the next or their ability to stay anywhere. If the larger portfolio people got proportionally more fraud dls, an extra 500-100 RCs was less likely to move them anywhere, like an extra 50 wouldn't move a smaller contributor anywhere. I agree with SNP (shock!) that TPTB decided it wasn't enough trouble to waste development time on figuring how to pull them back as yet another adjustment, and in the current climate, just look at it as a random bonus that doesn't really do anything much.
Makes sense. With all the other problems or things IS has going on, going through and adjusting RC's is probably low on the priority list. I remember when I was new to IS. Someone downloaded all my files which was about 70 at the time. IS said it was fraud, but let me keep the royalties.
2911
« on: January 08, 2011, 11:35 »
They should because they want to keep me as an exclusive...obviously they don't have to.
Maybe they should bump me up 300,000 credits, so they can keep me as an independent.
2912
« on: January 07, 2011, 18:07 »
Btw, at FT my sales were the same and SS well up, so whatever is happening is unique to IS as far as I'm concerned. For me the slide in their 'share' of my earnings began seriously in August and IS has been in steady decline ever since. So far this month they've fallen off a cliff. I'm praying it won't be this bad but at the moment I'm over 40% down on Jan 2010 __ and that's before the commission cut.
My second half of the year was worse at FT, SS & IS. DT was the only one in the big 4 that had a better second half. I probably should thank IS though. I find all their announcements very motivating, but probably not in the way they would like.
2913
« on: January 07, 2011, 17:46 »
[Loud Fart Noise] I mean Woo Yay! They moved the impossibly high bar down slightly. Now, it is only mostly impossible.
2914
« on: January 07, 2011, 14:17 »
All it took was a year for someone to reply to my thread. Yeah, the prices are pretty low there, and most things get priced at a buck. It definitely makes it hard to actually want to send them files. I keep hoping they'll change the pricing schemes, but I don't think it is going to happen.
2915
« on: January 07, 2011, 11:28 »
For the past few months, CanStockPhoto has been steadily performing better than BigStock. Now CanStockPhoto is easily my #5 site. My $19.80 downloads seemed to have stopped a few months back, but I get a steady stream of $.50 to $2.00 downloads to keep them in double digits almost every weekday.
This has been my experience as well. CanStockPhoto has been consistently outperforming all the mid tiers the last several months (usually by a lot). If they continue to grow, passing Fotolia is a distinct possibility.
2916
« on: January 07, 2011, 10:25 »
Cthoman ...
your illustrations are really great!
Thanks. I guess my fast start over there this month is not a trend with everyone else. I must have just had a few real good days to begin the month. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the month goes.
2917
« on: January 06, 2011, 22:10 »
It's been a slow beginning to 2011, but Can Stock is kicking butt. I don't know what kind of new year's resolutions they made over there, but I like it. Keep up the good work CanStockPhoto! Anyone else?
2918
« on: January 06, 2011, 21:12 »
For now. At the moment those of us who earn our livings from microstock cannot realistically proceed. But if and when that changes ... there may simply be nothing to lose.
Makes sense. I think there would be a risk to getting booted from some of the microstock sites for starting a site with multiple artists. I would think the natural progression would be more realistic for individual artist sites to promote each other or have a loose partnership. I could see doing something like that when my store grows a little more. I always think of the old webring concept.
2919
« on: January 06, 2011, 13:09 »
It's been said before, this argument is futile.
I hear you and all the other people in the million other arguments about RPI that happened before. I'm not sure why people love to hate RPI, but they do.
2920
« on: January 06, 2011, 10:03 »
Congrats!
2921
« on: January 06, 2011, 01:36 »
Funny isn't it that you should mention the 43% that are carrying on as usual as taking a stand. You did mention that didn't you? The majority of people who responded aren't going to change anything right now.
It's also kind of odd that the poll is very lopsided and leading?
Actually, I was talking about the 40% not uploading, deleting files or have left IS (the top part of the poll). Those all add up to 40% on the poll. The other 43% is continuing as usual and I really didn't know how to categorize "I will upload less". That is a pretty vague response.
2922
« on: January 05, 2011, 18:56 »
... They also need to spread the word about copyright issues and help to change the 'everything is free' mentality. Furthermore, there are still a lot of buyers who think iStock is the only agency in the microstock business, and their competitors need to change that misconception.
I wish they would also make it clearer that most of the photographers and artists are solo workers, earning or building towards a living at this. I sometimes think (perhaps naively) that a lot of thieves think they're stealing from a big company that can absorb the loss easily, and may not realise that they have the potential to wreck the livelihoods of a lot of 'little guys'.
All good points. Until my mom calls me up and tells me about some microstock site she heard of, I'm going to think they aren't doing enough marketing. I'm not sure if a company like Google or Amazon would be a good thing to join the microstcock game, but you have to think they would market . out of it.
2923
« on: January 05, 2011, 18:39 »
Like all other business, Micro will reach its peak and then remain just "steady". A sure sign is when you hit the wall, no matter what you upload or how many, earnings will not increase nor decrease.
Microstock is a long way from that peak. For a product that is affordable for everyone, they seem to have barely scratched the surface of potential buyers. Average people know the words clip art and stock art, but they don't associate it with a particular brand. These agencies really need to do a better job of bringing in new buyers and getting the word out to a broader demographic. Most of them don't seem to be earning their royalty share. I think a new player with a promotion machine could easily overtake all these agencies in a year or two if they put their mind to it.
2924
« on: January 05, 2011, 15:36 »
Interesting seeing everyone's results. I was up in 2010. My amazing growth from 2009 was more subdued in 2010, but I wasn't going backwards (thankfully). IS, SS & FT all were worse in the second half than they were in the first (which is very concerning to me). I'm starting to wonder if the big four will maintain their supremacy or if there will be more equal percentages between all the agencies. I'm not predicting doom, but 2011 is not going to be simple.
2925
« on: January 05, 2011, 13:08 »
Does anybody here try and make a stand ? very very few.
Who deleted his/her port ? practicly no one (and I dont mean 10$ a month ports or non selling photos).
You gave a good history leasson here, its in our best collective intrest to create a union. 100 or even 1,000 people pulling their ports wont change a thing. 10,000 people just might! what are the chances of this happening ? I would say slim but it's more like none.
I know I would be happy to pay my yearly dues to such a union.
And sorry in advance for all spelling and grammer mistakes, I do try 
The way I read the poll above 40% actually took a stand. They said they were either going to stop uploading or delete files. They may be small steps, but they are still steps.
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