I'm using the beta of StatsPlus to track actual sales (versus iStock's stats which are missing the cash sales) and I see that the IS stats are missing 15% of the money and 9% of DLs. They also say that October stats will be slightly lower than September - not good and by no means typical. My PP sales in September were 25% higher than August's though, so possibly I'll see total October stats doing well if the PP numbers hold up when we get them at the end of November.

Check the IS website everyday and always found some USD get into my accout.however,when i tried to check where the revenue come from with which foto---------nothing available in IS website? The worst/best case is last  time,I got almost 100USD but nobody told me which photo contribut it.

Any Helpdesk guy working with IS here? 
Anybody has the same experience?

Since some time last Friday, they have been adding Partner Program sales from September - you'd see green bars on the September stats on your user_view page if that's where your money came from.

I'm not a stock buyer, but the general dismissive attitude towards buyer complaints is something I run away from, when I have a choice, in situations where I am a buyer.

The only reason not to "get into it" with buyers us that in practice (versus how Vetta started out) there just isn't any justification for the pricing. It's the equivalent  of the parental "because I said so". Some buyers will want the image enough. Others will walk.

Quote from: sjlocke on October 29, 2012, 14:39

I'd suggest coming up with a way to make it easier to upgrade if you do a lot of tweaks to the php.

That isn't physically possible. Any time you add code to a file (regardless if php, html, etc..). Then we release a new file, you will have to go back and add your code to that new file.

If you organize things differently - as opposed to having users just edit your files - of course it's possible. Otherwise big code projects would all have to do massive cut and paste jobs every time updates in dependencies occur. And they don't.

Without any sort of scheme for integrating changes, kTools can't really be a platform for users to build on, just something for them to use as is.

Quote from: cthoman on October 29, 2012, 13:00

I kind of have to side with iStock on this one. I thought their push for higher prices in the regular collection was good for the industry in general. I can't really defend the agency collection stuff though.

I understand everyone has a budget and micro is supposed to be cheap, but I think some of the expectation for low cost/high quality images has gotten a little out of control. Especially as quality and contributors have improved. Getting images for a buck or two should probably vanish and make way for a more profitable pricing scheme.

Yep.  And there's a price slider there.  Use it.

The price slider (and it should be called a dot pattern chooser; what amazon.com and many other sites offer has $$ in it) isn't really a help here. His second complaint was that older things had their price jacked up. The sticking point I believe is that there is too much ordinary dreck at high prices. All the spin doctoring about more expensive content is undermined because there's a ton of run-of-the-mill stuff at much higher prices.

If it was only the good or expensive stuff - your shoot on an airplane would be a good example of the type of work that costs more to produce and needs to have a higher price point - I think there'd be a lot less fussing. It just isn't visually or logically clear to buyers why various things have the price tag they do.

As a friend of mine said, complaining about a poorly thought through plan: "I like money" isn't a strategy

Yes, I was exclusive from 2008-11, having been independent from 2004-8 and since last June. As with you, 2010 was my best year (in spite of IS messing with the site in the busy season) and even before I left exclusivity in June 2011, things were down from the comparable month the prior year.

You can see which sites I contribute to from the links below my posts. We have monthly threads here where we discuss earnings, and you can see some of my recent posts here, http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/earnings-in-july-2012/msg265905/#msg265905]here[/url] and here.

In terms of how things are going overall, it'll be easier to answer once the Sept - November stats are fully in, including PP sales from IS, which are getting later and later, but I think Sept 2012 will be about 85% of Sept 2010 (the PP numbers aren't all in). Down 15% doesn't seem too bad given the plummeting sales reports from many diamond exclusives.

Sept 2012 was up 54% over Sept 2011, so things continue to improve as the months go by, largely because SS is doing so well.

...However I wonder what kind of rejections he is receiving at the other agencies. Maybe he can share some insights or tips when he has time.

I'll give you some examples of iStock files of mine that have sold well that Shutterstock rejected (one of them I resubmitted saying that it had sold over 500 times on iStock and they accepted it; they had said it had LCV at first). In general, they don't much like dramatic light (and some of the rejects had been Vetta at iStock)

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

On the other hand, iStock rejected some things that SS accepted and which sell well, such as this, this  and this, so it really is a roundabouts and swings situation. DT's most annoying thing is the ridiculous similars policy; otherwise, they're pretty reasonable.

I'm starting to see some results for Sept PP sales too. About time.

So late this afternoon I had 5 extra small images from a series  sell at 21 cents royalty each. As far as I can tell that's a new low for DT ( I could find one or two sales for 23 cents or 25 cents earlier, but I didn't look through everything). Percentage increase (to 25%) notwithstanding, the new pricing set a new low for me

...A note on Ktools and demand... I asked that if your platform is NOT on our current development list when you register, that you send us an email to show your support for your platform and get it a place in line. So far we have received only four emails for Ktools implementation while others already on the list have hundreds.

So what are the platforms that have hundreds of requests? If there's some platform out there better than kTools, can you share what that is?

What you experience will depend on many things, including what you're currently earning at iStock. If you are a bronze exclusive, it should be trivial to match or exceed your iStock income by going independent. If you're a diamond or above, the situation is trickier.

It also matters whether or not you have accounts at other sites already - in my case, I kept my old Shutterstock account so I now make 38 cents per subscription versus starting out at 25 cents again.

You'll need to provide a bit more information about your situation to get any sort of answer - and even then, there's a lot of "it depends"

I think their pricing is a tough sell - especially as you still have to buy credit bundles to get the "as low as" prices - when you compare them to BigStock (where you can pay cash) or even iStock (where if the site is up you can pay cash). I'm not sure that this change will really help as the buyer will still find a lot of images they'd like that aren't level 0 and thus are more expensive.

From a contributor point of view, even at 25%, the level 0 sale of an XS could bring me as little as 19 cents (according to DT's posted lowest price; they may offer bigger discounts) - I make more than that at PhotoDune (33 cents) or even with a subscription sale at CanStock. About all you can say is that it's better than the 9 cent royalties at iStock.

For the maximum size on a level 0 I could get as low as $1.34 (again, compare that to $2.67 at PhotoDune, often cited as a low royalty site). All in all it doesn't seem like good news for contributors.

But the biggest issue I see with DT is the lurching quality of sales - some days all subs, some days lots of credit sales - and overall low volume for a top tier site. If they'd fix that, I'd probably overlook the level 0 and 1 pricing (even at level 1, a maximum size sale nets me as little as $1.92, still very low for a 21MP image)