The main problem is that istock is just one of many getty sites and no longer attempting to be the biggest marketplace. thus it can no longer be a site that will provide a fulltime income to a large number of exclusives from istock alone.

Even if it was exclusive content only, the only way contributors could gain a signifacnt income was if the number of contributors was limited, like on stocksy.

But even if the indie content was removed the site would still be flooded with getty exclusive content or content from their favored contributors.

Image exclusivity is a very sensible solution, probably the only one for those who want to do stock as a full time income.

If istock added that as a third option, a lot of the stress they have in working with contributors would go away immediatly.

Getty itself doesn't ask for artist exclusivity amd they know why.

So exclusive images as a third option would just bring istock back into what is a normal industry standard.

The reason we distribute is that the agencies have a huge divergence  in succeeding to attract and hold onto customers.

Attracting customers is about a lot more than just price. And again stocksy is a great example,because they are a new site that is extremly successful and yet coming in at a much higher price point than regular micro agencies.

For contributors however, it is very difficult to predict which agency will be the most successful at growing market share. Success in business is often connected to great leadership, having the best and most qualified team of people in addition to excellence in internet/IT technology. Losing top level talent can destroy many companies and internet companies are extremly vulnerable because the customers can be gone with one click.

So if you know for sure which agency will be the most successful, then giving them exclusive files is a great strategy. But if you are not sure which site is going to make it and you want to spread your risk,then working with different agencies is a wise choice.

So I think exclusive files are a great strategy in addition to having a base level portfolio that is spread over several places (and sell from your own site as well...)

ETA: just to clarify - without overall great leadership and ideas i don�t think an agency will succeed just because they have high prices and few files. stocksy success involves a lot more than that and the site is still new,who knows where they will be in five years and what the competition will do.

Too bad. It looks like an interesting website with beautiful content. I would like to submit there. But if they cannot provide an online taxform in English that is easy to complete, it won�t make any sense to contribute.

You are 30 years too late Fritz. The subscription model is the same as the "all you can eat buffet" in restaurants. They also rely on an "average" that people eat. if everyone ate three full plates, they would have to close down their business as well.

Is this your first time ever in business? I understand that if you have no previous experience and only do stock as a hobby that many things seem new, although they are being used everywhere.

The problem with my numbers is that I am uploading very slowly. It is my own philosophy and I don�t recommend it as a "best" strategy. But even with just 500 files on SS and Fotolia,600 on deposit and 280 on Dreamstime, I am very confident i will be earning more than if I was exclusive and had all files on istock once my full portfolio is online and I am back to producing and uploading in a regular workflow.

And then of course there is stocksy,video,westend61 etc...

It does take time to figure out what is best to upload where, but the simple fact that I have a correlation again between uploading and sales on the new site is excellent. this is what i wasn�t seeing on istock and what many people are still complaining about, that their new files don�t sell.

The most important thing is to attract regular customers and get your files lightboxed by as many people as possible. this is why I believe there is no real "short cut" to going indie. It takes two years to attract a following. It would also take two years to get regular clients if I was starting out new and going exclusive with istock today.

Many people have asked me about my results so that I decided to just blog about it in real time, the way I experience it including all frustrations but also suprises along the way.

But if you are looking for the "fastest possible way" to make a lot of money when going indie, then my path isn�t the one to follow. I have a longterm strategy that I feel very comfortable with.

Results so far are better than expected, but different than I thought they would be. For instance more and higher extended licenses than I expected, but lower volume of sales on the sub sites than I thought I would have. Also a lot more single image downloads,especially on Fotolia. And much better results on Fotolia when keywording in German etc...

I am still on a very low royalty level on most sites,so it will be interesting to see how the results change over time. But SS is getting stronger, this is easy to see.

You are earning the 1000 dollars because your files are a lot cheaper than the exclusive files. when you go exclusive you will have a higher royalty rate, but not necessarily the same number of downloads. Maybe the push in best match can balance that, but it is something to consider.

i am sure you will earn more than now, but I would be careful to assume that it will immediatly be double.

But maybe people who just went exclusive can share how their download rate changed.

Moving the forums to a new place to improve speed might be useful. Making the forums private will in the public eye in effect remove their online community.

Internet companies these days try very hard to attract and build online communities and this can be a great asset on their valuation. Looks like Getty is not interested in that.

It will be interesting to see if other companies pick up on that and invest in a publicly visibly community. Not just to attract more people to a site with a publicly visible friendly spirit but also to increase their "online pull" and company value for being able to successfully host and attract a large online community.

Replying to the topic..  Istock has jumped way back up into the the 200's in alexa traffic rank.   But I don't see anything on here talking about that stat.

Isn�t that just the normal rise after the summer holidays? Shutterstock has the same increase.

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Jim,

that is a very interesting analysis thank you. If anything I would believe that the volume of sales of non exclusive content is on the rise, at least 30% more, like gostwyck suggests. These sales might increase in the coming months as more and more customers realise that independent content has been dropped so drastically in price.

They are probably hoping to attract more buyers and might make up part of the loss by pushing more of their wholly owned content on which they pay no royalties.

Other than that I don�t know how they will make up for the loss in revenue unless they really believe that lowering the prices on indie content is enough to draw back buyers from SS and Fotolia. However, price was only one part of the attraction of those sites.

You still have the problem of exclusive content series being spread over 3 different price points (vetta,s+ and main for images from the series) which is very confusing for the customers and the strange choices for "automated" editors pick which puts even objects on white in higher price collections.

Unless the customers can really see a difference in quality between the different price points, I guess many will prefer to look at the cheap content first.

Anyway, at least something is finally being done with istock. I hope the new logo comes with more money for marketing so my friends who are still exclusive will finally see some growth. They deserve it, they work really hard.

As an indie the price cut was a dissapointement, but already fotolia and SS combined have overtaken istock for me (with only 530 files online), so I understand that for indies istock now plays a minor role in their attention.

I am still a long way from recovering my old income, but at least now when I upload my files I get views and sales, so at least I see a connection between work and income again.

I�ve been accepted as well. It would be great to hear from photographers who have actually earned money through the site.

Ok, tickstock, that was funny

SS - see all the complications those TOS create? Amend the TOS and bring it closer to the real world...so we don�t need istock exclusives discussing our royalty rates...