The overall return for a whole series over several years will always be higher on micro instead of macro. the individual average download might be higher on macro but the total return for the whole series isn�t.

The biggest problem is the time stamp. On macro everything goes in at once, on the micros you can spread the series over several years and process all files from a series with different styles. So the series will always be fresh.

If you upload everything at the exact same time, the returns might be lower on micro, because so many files are uploaded, it disappears very fast. But who would be so stupid to upload all the files at once???

The individual higher download doesn�t mean anything if the series only sells 3 times a year instead of 200 times.

ana, they just opened this week...in 42 countries...have a little patience... they will certainly come to your country in time. adobe wants your customers money...

all kinds of online stores do a  gradual roll out, amazon,ebay,itunes...they all launch online products gradually.

Thank you Mat, for being here. It is great to hear that adobe will always pay us at least a minimal commission when they give files to clients for free in test phases or promotions. I really appreciate that very much, I have had such bad experiences with "promotional uses" before at other places.

Without seeing any examples it is hard to say, but Beauty/glamour is usally a typical domain of microstock, simply because lots of models and photographers enjoy creating them. It is not a rare subject.

Like others have said, macro is for images that cannot be sold thousands of times because they are too niche or too specialized. The higher price is there to justify producing them at all.

If a file can be usable for many designers it will probably make a lot more money on the micros.

Also keep in mind that these days the macros also sell their content for micro prices and on places like getty you will have many sales for less than one dollar. The prices on their websites are just "list prices" what the (corprorate) customer usually pays, is much,much less.

You could try placing them on 500pix premiere. It is open to everyone, pays 70% and has macro pricing.

ETA: just because a file is RM, doesn�t mean it will be sold for a high price. RM sales can be much lower than microstock returns. There is no minimum price fixed.

I think agency reps need to be very commited to working with the artist community, maybe be artists themselves to understand how the production works. They also have to be very patient and good communicators. It is not easy to find people with the right combination of skills who are ready to do this kind of job.

I hope SS finds a dedicated replacement for Scott, who comes here and works with us. They are one of the biggest agencies after all, I doubt they will just give up on contributor relation building.

Maybe it will take a while to find someone, but I am sure they will send someone back in (into the ring ).

The micro hipsters knew nothing of making "dollars" per sale from photos and only truly understand "pennies" per sale from photos with the tired excuse of selling yourself short on volume sales.

i have files that made over 10 000 dollars and I started with the micros. And also now with being indie I already have files with several hundred dollars in just two years. The key is to identify files that will sell in high enough volume.

And if you send content to the macros, again you have to know what the customer is ready to pay more money for. Otherwise, you�ll just have a huge port of dead macro files.

But then I am not a hipster, maybe that is the trick

the biggest importance is the mix in subs versus higher downloads. That is why I really need to see how this plays out.

Well, it is certainly higher than istock and their measly 15%...

and if you are paid in euros, it will be more than SS depending on the exchange rate, at least for me.  I also don�t lose in the back conversion of dollars to euros. Single image downloads will be 3.30 euros, not 2.70 dollars, also higher.

overall 33% is a good deal, I really hope they add video soon. Fotolia has been really weak with video.

Ah yes, SS as the ultimate villain that destroyed everyones income...and artists als naive idiots that can't make sensible decisions...and just Upload blindly because they have been ordered to do so...well, adobe is a much bigger company.

I guess the list of favorite stock enemies will be reshuffled as well.

You can always go exclusive with istock, there still are people making thousands of dollars a month there...

So many options in the market now, life is wonderful

I'm curious as to why Adobe chose Fotolia to partner with, but I guess we'll never know.

That one is easy, fotolia and adobe have been working together very closely for many years. There have been many photoshop workshops, presentations, tutorials for adobe products together with fotolia. At least here in Germany, probably the rest of europe as well. So the close relationship has been visible for the artists here like forever.

I am more surprised it took them so long...

Keep in mind, that fotolia was and maybe still is, the dominant microstock agency in europe.

I doubt you can return "to the same state". When you are indie, your search ranking for the files drop and other files get pushed forward. All the new work you upload doesn�t get the same boost etc...also your downloads will be less, which might affect your royalty rank, unless they save "everyone" at the end of the year, the way they did before.

Going indie is a complex decision, you can�t expect to get your exclusive income back in three months. The other agencies haven�t been waiting for you, your files need to fight their way up in the food chain.

Michael did it in 6 months, but he is extremely diligent and hard working.

Your portfolios also need to move up in royalty rate to get a similar status the way you had on istock, this should take quite a while, it didn�t happen over night on istock either.

However, what you don�t know is what will your future at istock be like. If you continue to upload, do you expect your income to rise, to remain the same or to fall?

So even if you stay exclusive, your income might drop another 30% in the coming months. Then maybe going indie is better.

It is a personal decision and if you are not ready to work hard to fight for a good status on the new agencies, then maybe staying exclusive is the best decision.

Or you get to know other agencies with vectors and video first.

But nobody can map a path for you and predict how fast you will earn money.

Personally I wouldn�t go indie,if you are not ready to really commit yourself to it and give yourself two years to really learn about the many,many different agencies and options that you have. There is so much more than just SS and Fotolia out there. And many agencies (including getty) take exclusive images, so you can get the best of both worlds and really find a good home for your files.

the smaller plans are like a credit plan, just organised as a monthly budget. The returns for me will be slightly higher than what I am getting now.

Unless it is all subs...then I will complain very loudly...until then...

I just attended the webinar, they have single images for 10 euros and normal credit packs like on fotolia. I haven�t looked at the adobe site.

I am not exclusive to fotolia, I am a non exclusive silver level artist. I think I have 10 exclusive files, at the moment, but plan to increase that, especially with local content where I can keyword in German.

So for me 33% on adobe is more money, if the mix is the same.

On SS the interesting are the extended licenses, but I don�t get many. That would be the only real risk, if there is a "mass migration " to adobe and I no longer get extended licenses from SS. But since the most interesting thing about SS is video, at the moment I am not too worried.

I earn more on average downloads on fotolia than on SS, unless there is a superlarge download. So for me more sales via fotolia is better.

Ss is fantastic for video or if they have extended licenses, but otherwise it is mostly subs, which don't excite me.

On fotolia more than 50% are credit sales.

Here in germany fotolia is often stronger than SS.