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Messages - tickstock
3526
« on: March 13, 2013, 07:42 »
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3527
« on: March 13, 2013, 06:30 »
Not sure how we all got confused.. check out the link that Luis posted.
Shutterstock's net income is not in the billions. It is in the millions.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1549346/000104746912005905/a2209364zs-1.htm
The full amounts without any abbreviation are...
2009: $18,842,000
2010: $18,938,000
2011: $21,864,000
Perhaps it's also confusing that some countries use commas, where others use a decimal.
Not confused, just giving Luis a bit of a hard time. He took the numbers from the Shutterstock report where it said (in thousands) and changed it to ($ M). I guess he also changed the meaning of the comma from the report he cited, maybe?
3528
« on: March 12, 2013, 20:43 »
Depends where you live.
In some countries, a Billion is a thousand million and in others it is a billion billion.
The UK and US are on either side of that divide, IIRC
Apparently it could mean a million million or a thousand million. Either way if Shutterstock is making $47,500 million, $47.5 thousand million or $47,500,000,000 they are better off than I knew.
3532
« on: March 12, 2013, 20:27 »
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3533
« on: March 12, 2013, 17:22 »
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3534
« on: March 12, 2013, 14:05 »
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3535
« on: March 12, 2013, 14:03 »
Then there's Stocksy. Previously Sean might have only have had a luke-warm and slightly sceptical interest in it, especially with the restrictions imposed by his exclusive status. Now Getty have freed him from such constraints he will be able to give Stocksy his 100% effort. Getty will find out that they were far better having Sean as their friend (and a handy revenue and ideas generator) than their competitor or as their competitors' asset.
I doubt Sean will have very many images at Stocksy unless they make an exception for him, they seem to be looking for artistic images not traditional stock images which Sean does so well. Maybe he'll change it up a little now but my guess is he will continue to put most of efforts into creating the type of work that has made him so successful already.
3536
« on: March 12, 2013, 11:42 »
Good luck Cobalt!
We have 3 more weeks to go.
Very excited as well!
You too? Could have sworn you were always telling us how fantastic exclusivity with Istock was.
Looks to me that the predicted mass-exodus from exclusivity is now well underway. I wonder if Istock will try and sweeten the terms or take any other action in an attempt to stem the flow?
The magic word here is "was".
I was exclusive as long as it made financial sense and always thought it's a good idea choosing to be exclusive or not based on numbers and not emotions. The people running IS don't have much common sense IMO so numbers are going down.
I still think that for people that are making over 35% of their income from IS, exclusivity makes sense.
I personally think (or hope) I can make more as an indy. Time will tell.
I can also tell you that I met with one of the big 4 agencies and they claimed that in recent weeks they have been contacted with dozens of exclusives looking to become indy.
Will you be posting your results?
3537
« on: March 11, 2013, 21:17 »
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3538
« on: March 11, 2013, 19:33 »
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3539
« on: March 11, 2013, 19:01 »
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3540
« on: March 11, 2013, 18:33 »
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3541
« on: March 11, 2013, 17:45 »
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3542
« on: March 11, 2013, 14:41 »
@ticketstock
the other sites are not cozying up to Google and handing over files for 12 dollars to 425 million people.
The Getty/Google deal changed things quite dramatically and not just for me. I know the other stock agencies are no angels, but here in Germany Fotolia is the biggest and best known site by far and I know a lot of people who sell really well there. Since I live here, can shoot local content and Fotolia allows me to keyword in german, i hope to take advantage of that.
And all the other agencies are TALKING to me. I have now been trying for over a month to communicate directly with gettyimages about my house contract and I simply cannot get a reply even to easy questions. And what Getty does, soon will be done on istock. They have already killed the telephone support and many contributors report being stuck in an endless loop between forums and the ticket system. Again, I know this can happen on other sites as well, but if you are exclusive, communication problems are just beyond frustrating.
I had no intention of going independent when the year started, I could have easily been happy between video independence and photo exclusivity.
But with all that happened...I might as well be independent and have more control over my work. All the drama on istock is so distracting, I really want to focus on production.
@Sue just a silly marketing thing about how the bad best match match was like a bad experience with an online dating site and then they sent out a bonus code...forget it, it was silly. But we have seen things like these several times.
Anyway, thanks for the kind wishes, also on my website. It will be a long journey, but so many people are going independent, I wont be climbing up that mountain alone.
As long as you are going into it with eyes open then you're probably making the right decision. From what I hear Fotolia is pretty good for German contributors, as long as you have local content. Dreamstime and Fotolia should also be good about keeping all the distractions to a minimum since nothing negative can be posted on their forums. Again good luck, I'll be following how it's going for you.
3543
« on: March 11, 2013, 14:24 »
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3544
« on: March 11, 2013, 14:18 »
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3545
« on: March 11, 2013, 14:03 »
The usual - Shutterstock, Fotolia, dreamstime, pond5 and maybe later some of the smaller ones. I am also on clipdealer and clipcanvas with my videos, so Ill probably upload photos there as well (if they take photos).
I am not in a hurry. I know it will take two years to recover my income and my main focus for the year will be video, the way I planned it at the beginning of the year.
I would also like to try selling from my own site, but that is probably a project for 2014.
You can follow my journey to independence on my facebook page, if you are interested: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cobaltstockcom/169793413171571
You see those companies as "genuinely trying to build a longterm business."? I wouldn't categorize Fotolia that way at all or Dreamstime, they both have done similar things to what Istock has done. Dreamstime with their levels and lowering royalty rates and Fotolia changing the goal posts and some people here claim they punish higher royalty earners in the search. I'd like to see Pond5 do well but without rejecting anything or fixing their terrible keyword spam problem I don't have much confidence in them in the long term.
3546
« on: March 11, 2013, 13:52 »
So glad I can move on and work with companies that are maybe a lot smaller but genuinely trying to build a longterm business. It will be more work but I already feel safer knowing I will never again be dependent on one companies managers (that I have no influence in choosing).
Good luck, which companies are you going to contribute to?
3547
« on: March 11, 2013, 13:35 »
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3548
« on: March 11, 2013, 13:08 »
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3549
« on: March 11, 2013, 12:59 »
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3550
« on: March 11, 2013, 12:54 »
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