"I wonder what the end plan for iStock is in the Getty Universe. "

That is the question everyone is asking. Do they want to be a small boutique agency for ultracool V/A stuff at higher prices, sort of a "Gettylight"? Then the drop in traffic is to be expected. They would only want a tiny market share for that.

Or do they want to go back to be the 800 Pound Gorilla on the market and like ebay be a place where you can find images at all price levels?

What I don�t understand is why they didn�t keep the high volume and their market position and just continue to cater for V/A clients at Getty or the many other midstock Getty agencies?

Since the management doesn�t publicly discuss  their intended target group with the contributors (which is pretty strange for a community driven site) the stats on Alexa and Compete are the only independet resource the members have to see where the agency is heading.

I wish we could at least get an interview with Rebecca posted somewhere where she explains what the target group for istock is - mass market, boutique agency for midstock clients or do they want to return to their former dominating market position?

Surveys are a useful tool, but a community driven site lives from active interaction of all players.

I voted yes, but I am exclusive to an agency that does talk to the contributor if there is a problem. If my family income depended on microstock and I saw that some agencies where extremely brutal in dealing with criticism, I think I would prefer to be anonymous.

But I always check if the people posting here are real and have portfolio links. Talking to someone who is active in the industry is different, than talking to someone just dropping by and posting an opinion.

I�d rather be safe then sorry.

They must have a good reason for these changes and it is better to avoid images that might lead you into court case trouble. The legal risk is not worth the microstock price.

I think sharing how much is being paid out to the artists would be a good way to win trust back and also give the artist a way to gauge the attractiveness of an agency. Of course there would be seasonal fluctuations, but if istock gave us this number every week, it would set an important example.

And since it doesn�t tell us anything about total turnover or earnings of the company, it wouldn�t be information their competitors can do much about.

And if we see that traffic stats drop significantly (on alexa, compete) but money paid out to artists is unaffected or even goes up, this would help us put the traffic stats in perspective.

Because at the moment the traffic stats are the only info the artists have to get an idea of the size of an agency.

Obviously this kind of transparency would put pressure on the management to work on business growth, but the pressure from the artists can�t be any worse, than the pressure from their boss or the company owners.

Seasonal images sell all year round, less than during their main season, but they sell.

I create them all year round and upload all year round. I used to try to time my uploads (three months before the event), now I don�t bother anymore. I still upload xmas images on xmas day (and sometimes they sell two weeks after xmas)

I think a lot of projects are prepared many, many months in advance. Xmas merchandise reaches the shops end of August, so the preparations for flyers, designs, packaging, cards, calendars must be at least 6-9 months in advance.

It is a very competitive field though with lost of copy cats. So unless you have a really strong portfolio or very unusual niche, I think it is difficult to get into now.

Is the traffic rank or daily traffic related to what google returns in image searches?

I did test searches for my bestsellers on Google and usually some of my images come up first or on the first page. Now I can�t find any istock images, none at all! It is all Shutterstock, or 123 or depositphotos. Only once did I see my image and that was a link from Thinkstock.

There used to be a lot of istock images visible in the google image search.

If daily traffic and google results are related, then I understand even less why they wanted the traffic to go elsewhere.

As an exclusive, I hope they have a plan somewhere, because this is not funny. Google results are important for sales.

It is frustrating, because as a contributor I have absolutely no influence on this. Only the agency can work on the daily traffic and google ranking.

My downloads are terrible for this time of the year. I will stop doing video and focus only on photography for at least two months. This is the most important tme of the year, i usually make 50% of my yearly turnover in these months. But October is so bad, that I worry about dropping another level.

Since the video contributors are also reporting much lower sales and video is not oversubscribed, there must be a lot of customers leaving. istock should lower the RC demands at the end of the year, at least to reflect the loss of buyers. This is something the contributor has no control over.

I can do something about new files and competition. But I am completely helpless if the agency encourages customers to buy elsewhere.

I share your frustration. I was enthusiastic when they announced duplication in Getty but the endless wait is becoming too much. Unless they announce a serious intention to become the best Video Site with the quickest approval system, I will be forced to move on. As a photographer I can never upload enough to move up in the RC System.

I am holding on until end of the year, but unless inspections can be done in a month...I hate the idea of going elsewhere, I really do. I hope they can convince me and many others to stay.

Yes, it is very, very slow, even for exclusives. Seems to be 2-3 months at the moment. You can read more in the istockvideoforum.

I am still a newbie, just started to upload more and I am very, very frustrated by these long waiting times.

I sincerly hope they invest more money into video and hire more people. If the competition can accept videos in 2-3 weeks and has no upload limits  - why not istock?

Isn�t istock/getty a much, much bigger agency with more resources?

Stock photography is all about preplanned, carefully composed images in a subject you chose delibaretly. You spend a lot of time doing research on what is already available in the collections, what is missing, then you decide on location, models, props, type of lighting, organize helpers, do the shoot, then spend a lot of time post processing.

You don�t walk around with a camera and shoot what catches your eye. Stock is commercial photography with a clear intention.

Of course you can learn how to do this, but you have to work very hard for it.

And no, the images that I see don�t seem to be shot with the customer in mind. What concept are they supposed to sell with that image? Can they be printed on a pizza flyer or added to the email newsletter of an insurance?

if you want to learn about stock, just look at the images that are used in advertising and product packaging all around you.

The question is: will you even enjoy shooting stock? Or would you maybe prefer to shoot editorial images? Or take portraits of families and get paid for that?

If this best match is truly a result of what the customers want and if it will bring in more buyers and increase our sales, so be it.

But if proven sellers get killed every year, than we will all be forced to endlessly duplicate our content, otherwise downloads will go to those who copy us. I would prefer to shoot new concepts or at least try a new twist on an old theme. But if things stay like this, we won�t have a choice.

But the search is so similar to the newest file search, that I wonder what is the purpose of a best match, if this is the result?

Anyway, it will change unexpectedly, guess that is the only thing that is certain.

On my portfolio, I don�t really see a difference between best match and newest uploads. And my bestsellers seem to have disappeared in my test searches.

Well, guess I need to shoot and reshoot otherwise it all goes to the copycats.

I hope what I see is not what the customers see...