Well, Id like to add something positive. I am really impressed with the editorial sales. That is something I see as a successful project in 2011.

I will definetly add more in 2012.

I sincerly doubt that anyone here is hoping that istock customers leave and lead to a drop in traffic.

The fact remains that istock management have remained completely silent about the terrible drop in traffic and haven�t offered a single explanation to their contributor base. This is drop of over 70% depending on which stats page you look at.

If the traffic loss was because of some google seo change magic I am sure they would have told us immediatly. It is not in their interest to be perceived as a "failing site".

The silence about the traffic loss is the scary part, not the loss itself.

Add this to the depressing monthly threads, site bugs, abruptly disappearing KW, refunds, the unreliability in any announcements, inability to meet deadlines they set themselves and then the video artists reporting slow sales although they are supplying a growth market that is just starting out...

I would love to believe that all is well with istock, but if they continue to avoid communicating about the issues that contributors are worried about, they will have to live with the lack of trust and exclusive contributors spreading out into the larger stock market.

We are all digital entrepreneurs here, if we didn�t know how to spot a trend, we wouldn�t have become so successful.

Aldra,

have you asked Getty if they will keep your contract? Or maybe it is worth keeping your 600 Vetta files with them and not upload these to the micros? Or are the results on Getty itself so dissapointing?

Did anyone from istock contact you personally to ask in more detail why you are leaving or make an effort to win you back?

Or at least to thank you for the many years of excellent business collaboration wishing you well in your journey?

"Alvarez in the iS november thread seems to show fairly conclusively that new files are being favoured over old ones, which hits the sales of "big producers", who by definition have got years of uploading behind them. That will shift sales from high-RC level people to lower ranks, boosting "sustainability".  IS may have reckoned on a "too big to quit the crown" phenomenon (I would have, too, for the top echelon) but if so it seems they have pushed it too far."

It will be very interesting to see if more people see the same thing as Luis in 2012. If our sales are really mostly determined by what we have produced in the last 12 months, then this will severly limit our chances of ever rising in the RC system. Only stock companies or photographers with assistants would be able to produce enough volume to reach higher levels.

Since I personally didn�t upload much in the last 2 years and am still selling quite well (less, but sufficient for such low uploads) most of my downloads are older than 12 months.

Personally I believe the only way to go is to find the holes in the collection and fill them. So you become more specialized, more localized...etc...but if proven bestsellers are pushed back in preference of the copycat images, then our chances of selling would be limited.

However - nearly everyhing I am selling is old.

I really looking forward to using that software Luis introduced at the mexpo. Information like that is extremly valuable.  

I am a video newbie and still have to figure out the basics of my camera and software. I can handle a tripod, focus and pressing a button. No fancy after effects or video editing or complex overlays with animations...But I�ll learn...

It is also much, much more work than I thought, kudos to all you video pros...but great fun!

 

Thank you!
I enjoy the 22 Dollars but as a passionate istocker I am also sad that this is a file that is still in the istock queue, uploaded long before I uploaded it to SS. Because it is a holiday video, it won�t reach istock customers before early next year. So obviously the decision to quit exclusivity for video has already paid for itself.
Also love the map that shows you were your file was downloaded.

My little video agency battle is currently istock/SS  1:1

Yes, 2012 will be very interesting indeed!  

Now I am a little surprised, I always thought Vector artists had much better returns than photographers which is why they have to meet higher RC levels than us. 5-8 Dollars is what I�ve been told as an average return for exclusives and obviously more for Vetta. I suppose Illustrations were far too cheap in the past.

But yes, let�s see what the next year brings.

I am not denying the problems and the abysmal communication, believe me. I just hope that somewhere at HQ/Getty the awareness grows that good quality talent is very hard to replace.

For all the talk of "crowd sourcing" the microstock market is more a talent scout - an open plattform that draws in as many artists as possible and allows the talent to flourish into roses and diamonds.

But you can�t easily replace top level talent with 100 mediocre ones. If you rely on exclusive content as USP you need people who produce steadily and reliably in their given niche.

It will be really interesting to see what the next RC targets will be like for 2012 and if they can get the site to work reliably for that year.

And of course how much effort the competition puts into attracting and taking care of the exclusive talent.  Although we are not as spoiled as we used to be...

Sodafish is thinking of leaving?

How will he recoup the loss from istock? I thought for illustrators istock/getty was by far the best choice?

I understand that many high ranking exclusives are thinking about independence, but the money has to come from somewhere. istock has been very successful at raising prices and those who benefit strongly from that - where can they go?

And building a customer base for your own webshop takes work and about 2 years.

ETA: just saw he broke photo exclusivity to have a look around. Smart decision. Yes, many mixed media contributors will probably give up the subject they have less time for because the RC system does not allow you to move up to an interesting level unless you focus on it.

One more question: I uploaded a file that I have model releases for. But I couldn�t find any way to add the release. I was just asked to confirm that I have a release.

From my photo stock experience I am surprised that you trust us so much 

Wouldn�t it be better to check the releases and have them on the site?

Hey, if what they do works and brings in money - by all means fill Vetta with snapshots!!

I saw the creative brief and I love the flickr collection. But although it looks like "snapshots with bad lighting", this stuff is probably the most difficult to create. You need to control many, many details to make the image work. And at the same time let go. It is a much more advanced level (IMO) than regular stock and that is already very hard work.

I hope the customers  ignore the files they don�t need, maybe I worry too much. But of course I go by what I would expect as a buyer and how I would love istock to represent us as artists in the market.

Quote from: cobalt on December 09, 2011, 20:00

I love the CSA collection, they have some really beautiful stuff. But I don�t understand why everything is Vetta. Makes no sense to me. And it does devalue the Vetta collection if simple drawings are in there too.

The only thing I've thought of is that they are using Vetta as a pricing collection, due to the inflexibility of the system.  It's just a way to raise the prices for the collection above E+.  IMO... If I had a lot of Vetta, I would be annoyed at this stuff flooding the edited collection.

If the system is inflexible they should have edited the collection manually. Pick the best files for Vetta...and the others will have to wait until a new system is ready. Or put them in the main collection in the meantime. Under no circumstance would I dilute the quality of the Vetta brand. That is very damaging for us all.

I love the CSA collection, they have some really beautiful stuff. But I don�t understand why everything is Vetta. Makes no sense to me. And it does devalue the Vetta collection if simple drawings are in there too.

I dot have many Vettas, but if I was one of those Vetta shooters, I wouldn�t be happy.

Let�s hope that when they get all  those bugs and computer things sorted out they can focus on site basics like search results and collections.

Maybe it is a bug like Ed�s images in Agency?