My sales and views probably aren't a good representation, but I found that my views tanked for a couple of months, now seem back to normal.

The system seemed to punish those who actually had diverse content and reward those who have endless number of similars.

Ok scratch that - the "more" issue is still there from what I can see - no idea what's going on with the view count! I have images of Chicago, Nicaragua, New York and Colombia hiding behind one of Costa Rica, etc etc.

What about the top selling non-exclusives that have thousands of images on the other sites that istock don't have?  Yuri is a good example 28,430 on DT, 6,319 on istock.  There are lots of good new contributors that are stuck with the low upload limits with istock and lots that wouldn't use them because the 20% commission was too low.  There must be times when the other sites have something istock don't?  That's why I can't understand buyers using only istock.

How do you think Yuri got to 1M downloads on IS with less then 1/4 of his portfolio? By filling his quota with only his best sellers. Its the top 25% (or usually less) that buyers want to see, not wade through the massive bulk of similars.

Also lets not forget that Yuri's images are actually cheaper on IS than FT and in many cases also than on Dreamstime.

It's not really 'good pay and prices for exclusive images'. They have to be 'lifestyle' images and apparently have to be shot in that 'stock-y' way. But, as is seen by the two examples on this thread, they don't need to be exclusive, and a lot of 'exclusive' images won't be considered (not stock-y/cheesy lifestyle)

I think the criteria is more that they're after unique, quality and underrepresented images. Its a much more polished look than vetta, but that's not to say that they're stocky or cheesy. I suspect (one of) the official criteria is that they're not meant to accept "stocky" images.

I really can't understand why people are complaining that the content is going to be coming from regular IS contributors rather than just from outside. Its not that different from what fotolia is doing, except that their stuff sourced from outside is twice the price and they otherwise limit entry to emerald and above contributors.

Some replies...

@ scorb re: Alamy - I don't think its any secret that IS income exceeds Alamy income for most by a long margin. Alamy makes up occasional bonus sales, whereas IS is more or less regular.

@ sobm - I started with the aim of getting my income to a point where it was enough to travel on, and got there after about 18months - for the last 18 months my income has been fairly much at that level, but I haven't really been uploading that much.

@ bunhill re: Post processing: In the past I've generally done everything on a laptop - this can be a problem because its just not possible to calibrate a laptop in the same way as you would a fixed workstation where you don't have changing light conditions. Its also much easier to miss errors because you see much less of an image when zoomed at 100%. I'm staying put to get a big backlog of images online at Istock over the next few months with a proper screen etc in Bangkok and will probably keep this as a base to travel from longer term.

@ caspixel - if they inform you its got lost in the mail somewhere!

@ madelaide - Travel stock really isn't the most lucrative in RPI terms, but its possible to keep shoot costs down to virtually zero as well. Sometimes the hard thing when doing stock is to focus on enjoying the photos that you take rather than thinking about what would make a good stock image.

Thanks for the nice comments - really appreciate it! I just stumbled across it too - was very surprised to see my image on one of the pages, but pretty happy. The shot they've chosen is from Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand over 3 years ago- one of those days where I figured taking a D-SLR kayaking for a day was a good idea!

Quote from: holgs on October 13, 2010, 18:51

Quote from: traveler1116 on October 13, 2010, 15:54

server error when uploading?  Awesome!!  Can't post in the forums though, is anyone else having this problem?

I think you're wearing out the upload servers with all those Balkans images. I think you're at #30 of the most prolific up-loaders at IS at the moment!

Maybe, I'm trying to fill my upload slots up every week and I've come close with above 85% acceptance (I haven't done the numbers but I think it's at least that high).  Still looks as though I won't get 40,000 RCs this year, probably 39,000 or something.

I'm be aiming for the same, but sort of a massive turn-around there's no chance that I'll make the 40K this year. Comfortably past the 30% mark, and on my current sales I'd have made it if I was exclusive full year. Will just have to aim for 40% next year

Anyone tried one of these: http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

The mouse I bought about 2 weeks ago just stopped scrolling...

Just had one approved from the 1st, not sure what this means though.

Generally my reviews are taking about a week - so no real advantage over non-exclusive review times.

I only saw it the other day - its 499 at B&H at the moment
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/693208-REG/Olympus_260286_PT_EP01_Underwater_Housing_for.html

So the housing is quite a bit more than for the G11, but the camera is around the same price as the G12. So overall its going to cost more, but I think you get DSLR performance out of this size sensor in a format that's better for underwater photography.

You could also look at an Olympus epl1 + housing for a total of about $1000. That way you'll end up with dslr quality at a similar price.

Just another regular old quiet month in microstock where nothing much happened really....

Well it was never really open for business for most here, but it looks like we lost another one:

We regret to inform you that Deutsche Telekom has decided to withdraw its Polylooks online photo agency from its portfolio. It is planned to phase out the service by December 31, 2010.

Therefore, we are hereby terminating the Agreement between you and Deutsche Telekom AG, Products & Innovation, based on the �General Terms and Conditions for Licensing of Image Materials for Online Portal Polylooks� as well as the �General Registration Conditions for use of Image Portal Polylooks�. This termination shall become effective with expiry of December 31, 2010. Your photos will continue to be available for sale until then.

All image licenses already issued or sold to licensees before this termination date will remain valid after December 31, 2010 allowing licensees to continue using the purchased images in future.

Your credit balance will be paid out to you automatically after that date. We will provide you with details of the payment in good time. For answers to any open questions you may have, please go to our FAQs

We would like to thank you for the trust you placed in us and our service.

Yours faithfully,

Your Polylooks team

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNQRfBAzSzo[/youtube]

Just wanted to add my voice of support to the project even though I'm unlikely to use it while I'm exclusive I'll support it in whatever way I can.

I think its important for independents to have a service like this, even though many don't realise how much value it actually brings.

One of the problems with the graphical interface isyndica chose was that it made things slow when you were on a slow connection, which ironically was when you most needed the service. Simple FTP is possible from photoshelter, so what's really missing is the ability to send to IS and places like Veer where you need a different FTP protocol (at least you used to).