Here is a snippet from the DT thread:

"The image details page had a face-lift. We tried to make it more organized and easier to read the information. When entering the page, the buyer would first see the image, the royalty free prices and lots of thumbs related to the initial image (for more options). He/she gets from one glimpse all the information he/she needs to quickly decide if that's the image he wants or not.

The second tab holds the prices for the extended licenses.

All the other features like image operations (add comment, add to lightbox, add to collection etc) or referral links were grouped together on the third tab: Tools.

For easier access, the tab defaults to the last used for the next image you browse within the same visit. (e.g if you leave a comment, using the tools tab, the same tab will be open by default on the next image you browse, making it easier to download, comment etc)."

Here is the whole thread:

http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_8749

I can't believe that they are making such a drastic change during the Christmas rush for the second year in a row.

Honestly I do not mind anymore so much about the percentage we receive. I earn the most with the agency which gives the photographer the lowest percentage but earn the least with the agency which gives the photographer the highest percentage.  I have been at FP pretty long almost the same time as on IS. But I have not received a payout on FP contrary to IS where I can have more than one payout every month. It seems that we photographers often think. "Wait a moment, the agency receives 80% but we only 20%, that not fair". But they invest a big part of the 80% in marketing and use the money to run the agency. This comes back to us in many more 20% sales.
If DT or StockXpert decided to lower the percentage to 40% and invest the extra 10% they get in marketing, I would not mind.
If I get 90% from one agency and have a sale in a year or a thousand sales from another agency where I only get 10% I definately would choose the agency which gives me only 10%.

Freezing:

Sorry, but I have to disagree.

You are talking about cause and effect here.  You seem to believe that a lower royalty percentage (the cause) leads to higher wages (the effect).  I don't think that it is quite so simple.  You go on to give an example, which includes IS and FP.  You state that IS gives you the highest wages even though it has the lowest royalty (20%) and FP gives you the lowest wages even though it has the highest royalty (70%).

My take on this is quite different.  I believe that IS is one of the highest paying agencies because it was the first in the business.  Being first on the Internet has proven to be key to an industry.  Just take a look at eBay or Amazon.  Plenty of other companies have tried to compete with them, but their names are now linked to their industry.  Whenever you think of online books you probably think of Amazon and whenever you think of online auctions you probably think of eBay.  I think that the same effect is happening with IS.  They were first out the gate and now their name is synonymous with online RF imagery.

Newer companies now have to "entice" contributors with something to get them to submit their images.  Thus, a higher royalty rate is usually part of that "enticement" package.  Would you join a new site if they only offered 20%?  Probably not.  So the newer the site, the higher the royalties (usually).  And the newer the site, the lower the wages earned (usually).

Quote

Q: Can you give me your opinion about prices and percentage for photographers? You are unique in this field. You have the highest commission rates for photographers. It is an amazing 70%, but how can you run this site when you take only 30%?

Elena: Yes we do. However, there is a hidden fee. We add 1000% satisfaction to 30% of all sales. As the market expands, however, we will adjust our business vision to achieve better results.

Does it mean our 70% share will be reduced once the site expands? 

I wondered the same thing.

My dl/ image ratio is over 9 and in one search which produces 2500 results 12 of the first 13 are mine.  I can't think of any other reason they are there other than a high dl/ image ratio.  My acceptance rate is about 81% which is fairly high but not over high so if it's not that then I don't know what it is as some of the images haven't had many dls yet.

I believe that it is your high acceptance rate that is getting your images to the front page.  81% is quite high.  There was a thread where contributors stated their acceptance ratio and the average was around 62%.  Here is the thread for reference: http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=1177.0

Well the offending photographers have had their images removed and accounts suspended.  Swift and decisive action by iStock.

Wow.  That is pretty unbelievable.  The contributor that was at the top of the Best Match for "blueprint" was an exclusive contributor and had over 6000 downloads!  I can't believe that they banned one of their own.

The ironic thing is that the same clumping of images by contributor happens at Dreamstime in their Best Match sort order (which is called Relevancy), but nobody seems to care.  For example, if you search for "blueprint" on Dreamstime the same sort of clumping by contributor appears.  Why is it that if it happens on one site people go crazy, but if it happens on another site people don't care???

FYI: Your link isn't working for anyone besides yourself.  The link is available only to you.  You need to get the external link so others can see it.

Edit: I believe the image your discussing is the following.  Let me know if I am incorrect.

You're right.  That is pretty funny.

Same thing is happening on my accounts balance page when viewed by month.

FYI: You can view yours here:

http://www.stockxpert.com/balance.phtml?month=10&year=2007&x=5&y=13

But if I view the individual day, then the stats look fine:

FYI: You can view yours here:

http://www.stockxpert.com/balance.phtml?f=earnings&y=2007&m=10&d=31

Quote from: leaf on October 30, 2007, 05:01

well there is always ebay.

Yeah ... but can you get new stuff on e-bay?

Yes, you can get new stuff.  There are quite a few stores that sell new items.  One tip is to make sure that the feedback rating is close to 100% and to read some of the most recent feedback.

If you get a Sell the Rights, you need to remove the image from all other sites. Or am I mistaken?

You must remove the image from all other sites within 72 hrs.

See the following for details:

http://www.dreamstime.com/terms

Only thing is, you didn't select the whole address as a hyperlink and I kept getting 'Unknown error'.

Actually, the whole link was there, I just didn't surround it by [url] tags.  That usually isn't a problem, so it must be the dashes in the link that were causing a problem.

Anyway, sorry for the confusion, it's fixed now.

Maybe we can keep the "Big 6" in one poll and another for other existing and new sites?  And maybe this second poll could have a simpler questionnaire, about earnings and uploading only?

FWIW, I agree that a second poll would make more sense.