My iPhone should be enough...;-) Now all I need is a gallery and a pompous or mysterious name.

ETA: Actually there is something very interesting about the image: the rhine is a huge, huge river. But he managed to choose an angle where it looks comparable to the size of the bicycle path.

But 4.3. million??? Must be a tax thing.

Very interesting, thank you for posting. On the microstock expo it was Fuad from photodune who pointed out that microstock for him is not just pictures and video but also 99 cent ebooks, iPad apps, software codes, wordpress templates etc...he had a much wider view of the market.

I believe that market places that communicate well and take good care of their participants, whether they are buyers or contributors will be the most successful.

All these companies don�t own a gold mine, they are not sitting on an oil well, they do not hold patents for a pill that will cure cancer - they are marketplaces for the trading of intellectual copyrighted digital products.

Their most important business skill is - people management.

That is what allows them to connect with their customers and gives them the best insight how to support their contributors. I think any agency that understands the mind of the digital entrepreneur will do well. Stock is interesting because so many buyers are contributors as well.

Yesterday was good, today is terrible. In the middle of the xmas season and only 2 xmas images sold today.

I hope I am not being shown mosty to the European market, my files, especially the xmas files, are North American. Although when I do test searches I find quite a few of my files, so lack of exposure doesn�t seem to be the problem.

Maybe the xmas buyers have moved on to other agencies? (coffee buyers)

But I also need to upload, much much more. After seeing all these young superstars at the microstockexpo, I feel old and slow ;-)

Maybe Bruce was ok with it, but many contributors were not and asked to have their names removed.

I think you are not the only scanning the libraries for what is missing. But I am also pretty sure you have a few "fans" who enjoy being "inspired by you".

Getty doesn�t even have a "popularity" sort, just a best match and newest.

I think this is very smart. It helps to protect the successful artist and forces all the others to come up with their own ideas. And you can still search their library to see what is missing, but nobody looking at your portfolio will see if it was worth producing it.

They went down just a little bit, instead of 40k rc, didn�t people need 39000 to keep their level? or something like that? I think they did this for every level, sometime in january.

i don�t know if they are planning to do it this time, but with the terrible drop in traffic it should be the least they could do.

Well, lots of admins and inspectors reporting worst month ever, I guess that rumour about admins having best match perks can be laid to rest.

Depressing thread, looks like our customers are all shopping at Shutterstock :-/

Those traffic stats are pretty accurate, it seems.

this morning it is picking up. Hope it is not just my turn in best match.

Yes, I remember the canister grandfathering. You are perfectly right to point that out. Also the dropping of rates, especially on V/A content, cancelling of punctum day etc...

But at this point I still believe it has to do with the amazing drop in sales volume, which is clearly visible with the traffic stats. It is the pink elephant in the room that istock is not talking about.

The October sales thread is coming up, let�s see what the results are. I find it very worrying that Nico is reporting such a large drop.

My own sales are steady but on a very low level. I was expecting a strong upswing for xmas, but don�t really see it yet. My blue flame xmas bestseller has dropped from the first pages of best match, but it still one of the top 20 files if you search by downloads. But it doesn�t look like many people do this. However I still have other files in good positions, so if the customer volume was there it should be happy xmas. Let�s see what happens.

My portfolio on Getty is holding up much better although it is tiny and I didn�t have time to add much this year. That is why I will make a big focus on Getty next year.

Like everyone here, I just follow the money. If istock drops even more...I am trying not to think about that.

But I am learning video to offer a new type of digital products.

I found this on the internet, not sure if it is still up to date.

http://microstockinsider.com/referral_schemes

I always thought, that the goal of a referral program was to encourage the sales talent in the community.

Just like many artists who are now successful stock photographers come from a different background and learnt photography later in life, many people in the community have the talent to be superb salespeople inside them, they just down know it yet.

In every industry there is a war over the best sales people. A sales superstar is like a diamond: incredible rare and unbelievably valuable. In smaller companies, if key sales people leave, the whole company can break down, especially if the salesperson manages to convince the customers to move with them. One top salesperson can outsell 100 mediocre ones, however, like any skill you need to learn it first to discover your talent.

I have always wondered why there is no intense sales program on istock, a referral forum, articles and training, maybe even lypses for salepeople in the community. It would be a fantastic way to build an army of online sales warriors in every country.

Of course, you dont just want them to just bring clients in for a one time sale, you want them to keep checking on the clients, to make sure they keep spending and dont wander of elsewhere...so you need a program that brings you referral income longterm.

I wouldnt be surprised if some people in the community make referrals and sales a second, solid income stream, especially if they are well supported and encouraged by the agency.

Some agencies for instance offer 10% for 3 years. This is an excellent incentive to keep looking after the client.

But of course a program like this needs to be well managed and the sales people in the field need ongoing support and communication.

Programs like these are nothing new, many products have referral schemes like this.

But perhaps istock looked into it and decided it doesn work for them, I don know. Maybe a system like that is too expensive to support.

I am sure the new program has excellent software technology in its plattform, I hope it is used by both independents and exclusives.  

Quote from: cobalt on October 28, 2011, 05:04

Are copy cats a big problem for you and does it affect how you work? Do you have any strategies that help against them?

Yes, badly, no. Even if sales numbers are hidden, they still will find you in the search engine. Some even hang out here (MSG) to lurk for your flames. That's why I don't put links here any more. Sorry. You're right.

I have heard that people do that and some friends have suggested to avoid all online forums to not attract attention to your portfolio. But for myself I am convinced that download stats visible in searches are my biggest enemy.

But I understand why you do it. Maybe it is a good strategy.

Hi Jonathan,

thank you very much for your detailed reply. I thought it would be a complicated story with quite a bit of industry evolution mixed into it. I realized how widespread the sublicensing is when I once did a search on corbis and found my own files from getty, not all of them , just a selection it seems. After that I paid more attention and was amazed how widespread the phenomenen is.

I like to look at many different agencies before I plan a shoot, so that hopefully I can spot what is missing or what I could do differently so that although my files are simple, they will still stand out. And if my files will be sent out to so many more places than I thought, I hope it is a good strategy.

No, istockcharts has only those photographers whose names have been added to teh list and most people no longer refer to it. So the majority of people isn�t on there. It was never officially supported by istock as far as I know and it is the reason for the "fuzzy" numbers. It was used by too many people to sort by daily downloads and identify copy targets for the season.

Jonathan Klein said istock/getty have 120 000 photographers in the interview mentioned here somewhere. A lot of these are just registered but not active, but still, a huge number.