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Messages - Monkeyman
51
« on: January 30, 2015, 09:55 »
I'm struggling trying to make my complex files smaller than 15 MB. How the heck do people do it? I have a file (somebody else's) that is 14,8 MB and I believe it was saved in CS5 (it says version 15 in the eps file).
When I'm just trying to save a copy of it, with no changes at all, the new file is 313 MB. I've tried CS5, CS6 and CC, all with the same result. So what magic trick am I missing?? This is driving me insane.
I've checked the file, and nothing has been rasterized. And there's no preview image. And I know that reducing the artboard size reduces file size but that shouldn't matter with the file I'm experimenting with, since I should get the same result as the original creator.
I did however try to make the artboard so tiny I can hardly see it at 6400% zoom (which wouldn't be accepted at the microstocm sites) but the file size only went down to 44 MB, which is still too big.
What am I missing???
52
« on: January 28, 2015, 17:26 »
Guess I shouldn't care too much about it then. But I remember reading somewhere that Bigstock reads IPTC data from the vector file and not the preview jpg? And EPS8 can't store IPTC data so maybe it would be easier to just use EPS10.
Do you know if Inkscape and Corel Draw supports EPS10? I know that it will rasterize transparency effects etc. but will everything else look fine?
53
« on: January 28, 2015, 14:10 »
I have been iStock exclusive for years, and when I'm now looking around a bit at the other sites (I'm soon back to independent) I've noticed that pretty much all of them seem to accept EPS10 now. Some sites maybe even require EPS10 instead of EPS8?
I'm a little confused. Should I go with EPS10 all the time, even if the file doesn't contain any transparency, or is it still a good idea to upload EPS8 if possible? How do you indies reason?
54
« on: January 24, 2015, 15:39 »
So how are you doing, iStockers?
My sales are extremely low in January. So low that I decided to cancel exclusivity a few days ago, after about 4,5 years as exclusive. I have a rather small portfolio so I have no idea if I'm actually gonna make more money as independent... but unfortunately the only way to find out is to try.
55
« on: January 22, 2015, 18:07 »
No, haven't seen that. Gonna take a look. Thanks for the tip!
56
« on: January 22, 2015, 11:02 »
Just realized it has something to do with the artboards. I have to check "All" instead of "Range:" when saving. This creates two files that are exactly the same, except that one of them doesn't have any artboard at all. And the one that does have an artboard gets the annoying "-1" added in the end of the file name, so now I have to delete the pointless file with no artboard and rename the other to get rid of the "-1". Any way to get around this? I have a few hundred files that need to be saved...
57
« on: January 22, 2015, 10:50 »
I'm trying to create an action in Illustrator to save AI6 files to EPS8. But when I record the action and chose "Save As..." it becomes "Save A Copy" in the action, which gives the saved file an .AI extension instead of .EPS. Why does this happen and how do I fix it??
58
« on: January 19, 2015, 20:19 »
This is mental. I can understand that they want a uniform professional design, but I hope they at least offer something like "sets" at Shutterstock. Not giving people the possibility to sort their portfolio at all can not be a good thing...
59
« on: January 18, 2015, 09:37 »
And by recruiting more contributors, all contributors will make less money and eventually stop uploading because it's not worth the effort any longer... that's a bit ironic, isn't it. 
60
« on: January 16, 2015, 19:45 »
I was in a similar position as you, back in 2010. About 66% of my microstock income came from iStock, so by going exclusive my total income increased almost 50%. It worked pretty well for about two years and then it started going downhill, slowly. Now in January it seems like I'm gonna earn about half of what I did during my last month as independent in 2010, which is pretty... bad. I've also noticed that many (all?) of the top vector contributors at iStock have more or less stopped uploading new vectors. So... it's hard to tell. Sure, you would go from 20% to 30% royalty, but you don't have many files and you're not making thousands of dollars so it will not give you all that much extra money. And iStock doesn't exactly seem to be on its way up, so I wonder if it's a very good idea to go exclusive right now. I wouldn't risk it if I were you. Personally I'm thinking of leaving exclusivity but the absurd thing is that I will lose so much by doing so (probably around 80%) that I can't really tell if the other sites will make up for the loss. That's why I have to sit here and wait until I earn so little at iStock that I have nothing to lose...
61
« on: January 13, 2015, 09:22 »
I plan to leave the sinking ship that is iStock. I'm not expecting massives sales at the other sites either, but according to my quite pessimistic estimates I should at least make a little more than I do right now as an iStock exclusive.
Like most other contributors I also believe that the golden days of microstock are over, and I'm thinking about trying to do some custom work. Or perhaps leave graphic design completely and do something else...
62
« on: January 12, 2015, 19:48 »
Sorry, what I meant, but said clumsily, was: 'are people's iS credit sales for January anything like what they were for previous years?'
Mine are not.
I have exactly four credit sales in January - which would have been a poor weekday before, even in early Jan. So the fact that my Dec subs are above any other month only shows that subs have undercut our regular sales - my Dec $$ total, including subs, is still miles below any other Dec since 2007. No surprise there.
My credit sales have been a disaster in January. I've had a few days with zero credit downloads which hasn't happened since 2008, even on weekends. And this far I've gotten 23 credit downloads totally in January. Last year I had 150 downloads during the same period (January 1st to 12th) and the same period in 2013 a had about 250. So iStock is going down the drain for me.
63
« on: January 12, 2015, 19:17 »
How many times does it need to be said that Alexa is meaningless in this context ? Perhaps it is relevant in other situations.
Ask yourselves this: Do you know anyone who has the Alexa toolbar installed ? It is not even an option for Safari users - and Safari is the default browser on Macs which more and more people are using - and graphics folk have always been Mac users.
I am not defending iStock. I might be exclusive there but that's a legacy thing and I am mostly doing other stuff these days.
Yes, it doesn't say all that much... and the ranking is also relative, which of course means that as soon as some other site (microstock or not) gets a higher position iStock will go down a step. But it's still a pretty big drop for iStock... weren't they around rank 150-200 a few years back? Why don't you leave exclusivity? You might make more money. You didn't say anything about your sales but if you've stopped uploading I assume they're not fantastic at iStock at the moment.
64
« on: January 12, 2015, 11:40 »
Now iStock is down to 839.
65
« on: January 12, 2015, 10:31 »
That steep dive around Sep-Oct 2014 is still there for all the major microstock sites. Wonder why.
And iStock is now down to global rank 826. Dreamstime is 896. I don't know how reliable this numbers are, but iStock's drop in the Alexa ranking certainly reflect my personal decrease in sales pretty well...
66
« on: January 11, 2015, 19:24 »
I had no sales this saturday and sunday. And so far I haven't had a single download today either. I don't even remember when I had normal weekday without a single download the last time... and three days in a row with no downloads (even with weekends included) hasn't happened in I don't know how many years. It must have been when I was new at iStock back in 2009.
I've been thinking about leaving exclusivity since 2012 and it seems like I'm now quite quickly getting to the point, income-wise, where it could be worth the risk.
67
« on: January 09, 2015, 09:44 »
I think Shutterstock is doing great and it is certainly worth to upload there but iStock looks like they trying to catch a yesterday's train...
Shutterstock as a company seems to be doing fine, but how's the situation for contributors? Are they making more money when growing their portfolio? I wonder if it's really possible to increase your earnings from now on (unless you're now in the business of course...). Seems like the golden days are over.
68
« on: January 08, 2015, 17:45 »
Anybody seeing an increase now when we're back from the holidays? My sales are still VERY bad. Yesterday (which I assume was a normal wednesday in North America) I had two downloads... a couple of years ago I used to get around 30 downloads a day. I guess it's the effect of the subscription program... the whole * industry will probably be mainly subs eventually...  Too bad iStock isn't a limited company (or whatever it's called in english) so we could see their reports. Would be interesting to see how bad things really are over there.
69
« on: January 06, 2015, 13:52 »
...I have been in microstock for 8 years... I have no idea what do to when microstock dies completely. Depressing times.
We need some new market for images to open up for microstock refugees. Too bad I have no idea what it might be. Maybe some day some entrepreneur will pop up with the new thing. Sure hope so.
Yeah, but how would it work? One of the biggest problems is that there are just so many contributors now... even the most talented vector artists don't seem to sell very much any longer, because of the extreme competition. I'm quite pessimistic... I don't think microstock can be more than just an extra income for most people from now on. Except maybe for people who live in really poor countries where they can get a meal for a dollar.
70
« on: January 01, 2015, 13:57 »
I lost my motivation during 2014. I still upload every now and then since this is my only income at the moment, but it's hard to motivate myself to spend hours on a vector file that will get a few views and if I'm lucky a few downloads, and then die completely.
And the most depressing thing is of course that even if new files sell a little, my total income keeps going down.
I'm 35 with no college degree and I have been in microstock for 8 years... I have no idea what do to when microstock dies completely. Depressing times.
71
« on: December 02, 2014, 17:18 »
Thanks for all the replies! And yes, I posted in the illustrator forum to get tips from other illustrators, hehe. But I guess it's not that different from being a photographer when it comes to payments, contracts etc.
Still feels a bit risky, especially to sell to private individuals. If they don't pay, what can you do? Hire a lawyer to find some mysterious person in another country would probably fail, or at least not be worth the money it would cost.
72
« on: November 30, 2014, 16:47 »
Since the microstock business is slowly dying I'm thinking of going into freelancing. But I have a couple of questions that I hope somebody can answer.
1. Which method do you use to get paid? Sending the material first and then wait for payment doesn't feel very safe. And the buyer probably doesn't want to send the money first either. So is there any middle hand service one can use for safer payments?
2. What about contract? Can I find a standard contract somewhere to start with? What do you guys use?
73
« on: September 10, 2014, 15:06 »
Yeah, you're probably right about that.
Another thing iStock hasn't mentioned yet is if they're gonna change the RC targets. The targets used to be higher for vector artists because our images are usually sold for a higher price than photos, but now everything will cost the same... and yet we have to sell for 55000 credits to reach 35% while the photographers only have to sell for 35000 credits. Hopefully that will change when they announce the new RC targets though... just wish they could have presented those new targets now instead of letting us wait.
Another thing that's worrying is that "previous Vetta and E+S+ images will have strong search positioning"... I don't have a single file in those collections. So the really complex former Vetta vectors will now be in top of the searches, and at the same price as everything else...
So to be able to compete from now on, everybody will have to create Vetta quality vectors... and sell them for for a measly 24-45 bucks...
74
« on: September 10, 2014, 07:55 »
Yeah, but then they would make less money, which the executives at Getty would never allow... so I think we're screwed.  Maybe they'll cancel the exclusivity program eventually.
75
« on: September 09, 2014, 06:38 »
I'm an exclusive vector artist at iStock, and I have no idea what to expect from these changes. Luckily I have mostly 15 credit files, and they will cost about the same after these changes, except for people who buy the most expensive credit packs. So hopefully my files will still sell.
The price difference between non-exclusive and exclusive material is my biggest concern... that can't be good for us exclusives. You can get a super complex, big set of design elements from the Essential collection for 8-15 dollars, while one single icon from Signature will cost 24-45 dollars.
iStock always brag so much about their exclusive content, like it's automatically so much better than the non-exclusive. Which it isn't. The quality standards are exactly the same. You don't need to be extra talented or pass some tests to become exclusive. So I wonder if buyers are really willing to pay so much extra for exclusive material...
I'm getting very close (income-wise) to the point where it's not worth being exclusive any longer, so this change will be critical for me. It could either push me out of exclusivity, or boost my income and make me stay... I guess we will be able to tell quite quickly once the change is implemented.
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