Great tool Leaf!  I can forsee using both tools together - save one set of selected words to the first box on your comparison tool, then search again under different yet related keywords to develop a second set of key words and add that to the second box to compare and create a final list ready for any fine-tuning as necessary to fit the specific image.

I worked in a wholesale for years. Each sale means that an item does not sell enough, or a company needs a little extra money for something. There are also promotional sales which are usually organized in the beginning of a business, to attract more customers for a better take-off.

On a very rare occasions a company would organize a sale that doesn't make profit, when it needs to get rid of some products that are close to their expiry date (which can't really be the case with pictures).

I'm sure Istock needs more money, probably because they didn't make enough to meet the financial plan. I trust them when they say the credit price will remain the same, but as I understood we will get the same percent of the new price that is 20% lower. Which means, we will get 20% less per sale that usual.

There is also the theory that getting feet in the door will result in the purchase of non-sale items too, or bring in shoppers that might have otherwise shopped the competition. 

I think 'top shelf' is from supermarkets where more expensive, better items are placed at eye level or on the top shelf.  

 

Eye level yes, but not the top shelf for supermarkets - that's above most people's easy reach so it's not prime real estate.  Let's hope their not using a supermarket model because if that's the case they will start charging "slotting fees" for premium location and space in the best match just like the supermarkets charge for shelf location.

I've just finished my taxes and find I owe $7000. Must have the wrong sort of corporation! Oops - wrong thread 

Steve

If you owe that much you made even more, so that's a positive thing!

Quote from: klsbear on April 08, 2011, 17:48

On the contrary, it's made my workflow faster, not more difficult.  The grey card was in the back of Scott Kelby's Lightroom book, so no cost other than what I paid for the book.  One minute (literally one minute, maybe less) spent throwing the card on the table, take a shot, set the WB and every shot is spot on - I don't have to spend any time playing with white balance in post processing.  I'm not seeing any of the rejection problems a lot of others are complaining about so I must be doing something right.

Great. You've sold fewer than 50 images in over a year at IS. That would be a poor day as far as any half-serious contributor was concerned. You carry on messing about with WB, or whatever it is you do with your time, and I'll carry on collecting the cash for the licensing of images.

Sorry I offended you by having an opinion and fewer sales then you deem worthy.  How many sales do I need before I'm allowed to post again? 

I use a grey card and set a custom white balance before my studio shots (food and table top stuff) and I find that works great - I never really need to adust the white balance.

My darling daughter is not interested in ANY art field you can actually make a living at, LOL.  

 

Lisa - don't worry - I have my MFA in Silversmithing, a highly marketable skill as you can imagine!  I managed to survive with a variety of creative jobs and the skills I learned have helped in microstock, so where there's a will there's a way - she may find a way to turn it into a career.

ETA, regarding the OP: I got accepted at IS right about the time they announced the cut.  It was pretty deflating to have finally been accepted after a few rounds of getting that third photo accepted, only to see all the negative comments.  I was already on Shutterstock, Fotolia and Dreamstime and after finding this group I started adding to some of the middle tier and low earner sites.  I'm on 3 of the middle tier and 5 of the low earner sites now in addition to the top 4.  My business plan is to upload to all, and at the end of the year make some assesments as to who's worth continuing in 2012 and who gets dropped.  Right now, Shutterstock followed by IS are the top earners with Fotolia and Dreamstime staying rather flat other than an occasional "up" month.  Overall, the small size of my portfolio makes it tough to compete, but it's growing every month.  Bottom line on why I still up load to IS is that they are one of the premier sites in the eyes of the buyer, and the money they bring me is still better than most other options.  They have some low-priced sales, but more high RPI than some of the others too, so overall it's been worthwhile. Their slow review times makes certain that my new content is available at other sites for as much as 2 weeks before they get it.  We'll see what the end of the year brings - at that time I may decide to stop uploading.

IS is giving me the best average RPD, followed by DT and SS, but SS is the only one that gives me enough sales to see payout with my small portfolio.  I'm hoping the others will pick up as I add more images this year, but right now it's slow going for all but SS as far as total DL's per month.

I finally passed the "100 images online" mark and I'm starting to see regular downloads - averaging 2.5 per day for this month with my highest DL days having 6 per day.  Not alot, but good in comparison to past months.

I had a lot of Fall and Holiday images going into the start of this year and it's just been in the past 6 weeks that I've been able to take my portfolio from about 50 - 115 images with a stronger representation in season-neutral images.  I'm optimistic about the future 

iMHO, this is a very poorly conceived move on IS part.  Any five contributors that are selected are going to be active contributors, contributors with large port. on IS and contributors that have lost thousands during the past frauds not including the losses incurred because of the poor management and non-functioning IT department.

I would not be able to contain myself on such a call; i might start calm and collected but I am sure near the middle of the call my line would be disconnected.  Despite the purpose of the conference call; how could it not turn into a "bitch fest"

KKT's post said the chosen 5 would be the "Ears" of the community, not the voice, so there is a good chance they'll set the call up so that only the moderator can speak and everyone else will be on mute without even a chance of having any input.

Quote from: fullvalue on March 13, 2011, 11:59

I like Paul Cowan's suggestion that the five have a list of questions they can answer in advance of the meeting.

Since this is a spinoff of the fraud thread, it's fair to assume that this conference relates only to that issue.  If it covered any other issues, then the five should refuse to sign the NDA.  Finally, if possible the group should include a lawyer and a programmer.

And an accountant.

Maybe we're better off having the conference call be with a team comprised of a lawyer, an accountant and a programmer that are not contributing to ISP as artists - a group of our choosing.  Time to follow through with the union concept in that we form a group to hire the three that will sign the NDA but not be hindered in the forums.

"We do not plan to do another mass pull of royalties like this again."

Again as in [never] ever? Or again as in because they don't anticipate any additional fraud? Or because they realize what a load of crap it is to do it at all, again. Or ever.

That statement leaves more questions than reassurance or answers.

I read that to mean that at the moment, they don't have plans to pull any because they are not seeing massive amounts of fraudulent downloads in late Feb or March so far, but I don't doubt for a moment that if they see large amounts of fraudulent downloads in the future they won't hesitate for a moment to revive that dormant plan and will pull back more royalties without a second thought.