Dear MS contributors:

WE ARE DOING THIS TO OURSELVES!!
IF WE AGREE TO UPLOAD AND SUPPORT SITES THAT PAY LOW LOW INSULTINGLY LOW COMMS, WELL THEN WE HAVE TO TAKE SOME OF THAT BLAME!

This includes myself, which I am now seriously pondering of only contributing to SS and to RM sites.

Also, we are just starting a new market with still few photographers and we already have customers waiting for us, so all photos that we will sell may be yours :-)


Thanks!

QUESTION:  Any sales yet?

I wont do anything drastic with my port at this point - but appreciate your explanation of what is going to take place.  I would like to see how this pans out in real sales - because as nice as YAY is as an agency, at the end of the day sales is what really counts - for everyone - the agency and the contributors.

Thanks for you getting your message across

well I guess that explains why my best seller on SS got rejected - It doesn't take much insight to see how this acceptance/rejection system based on the views of your competitors on the sight can easily have a biased rating.
I would much prefer rating by trained reviewers who have 'no skin in the game' - in other words , they are not your direct competitors. You can keep the voting from fellow submitters , but as something seperate and not directly affecting something so vitally important as acceptance/rejection.
Already for me, I think I got dinged unfairly, so I doubt I will upload anything else unless I see changes.

just my $0.02

My 3 images have been sent about  6 weeks ago - how long does it take for them to process your new membership as a contributor?
its kinf of ridiculous

back to my manly ways of watching Star Trek while chowing down on Twinkies!

signed
thanks for posting that for us
+1 to you

I;ve had a few from Pakistan about 5 of them for the same image from between 11:57pm to 11:59 pm... weird

Quote from: crashoran on February 27, 2013, 17:59

How much money have you made for Shutterstock? Any guesses or ballpark figures?

Of course you might also ask how much money has one man's enterprise made for you? Ask not what you have done for Shutterstock but what Shutterstock has done for you.

Yes they are the best for RF sites - but , really, no business is in it to do favors for anyone. If profit margins get squeezed for the company, esp now a publicly traded one, where will the tightening take place? On the comms the contributors get - or at least the lions share of it.
Cut backs are already begun with thr referral comms being done away with. Only time will tell what takes place, but I dont expect them to behave differently when it comes to money than ANY other business

that is disgusting ... esp when you read the nearly unlimited rights you get for an image with EL...
makes me vant to puuuuke.

I have a small port on yay and only check every few months to see if i had any sales
the last sales recorded for me is in July 2012 - but there are a number of images that show downloads below the thumbnail of the images.
Is there a lag between the downloads and having them show up as sales on your 'sales stats' page? How long is it, because I have no idea when these pics were downloaded?

I have been following all this from the begining. Because english its not my native language, its sometimes dificult for me to understand everything. But i read all with great interest.
If you allow me, i would like to copy and paste here what i wrote in istock about my point of view. I wish my level of english would be better to take part more deeply in the conversation. This is what i think:

From the very first time i knew about all this, i deactivated my portfolio. I had only 539 images, but this was the product of much work during months working hard and with enthusiasm.. I had no doubts, for me the reason its absolutly clear. I explain why;

maybe Getty, Google, and any other company has discovered that the future is attracting users to their services giving to them free images. Its logical..People love free things.

Images, vectors, books, 3d models, maybe movies in the future...everything free for getting users for, indeed, free services. What nice, what utopic. But nothing is free in the life. We all know this. The users of those services become products their self. Its a kind of circle. And at the end only the big corporations earn money. Big amounts of money using another people work. I dont know if my level of english is enough for make me understand.

I love photography, its a passion for me, but its my job too and i do this as a bussines. Emotions apart, for me it is clear that the deal between google and getty only benefits to them. They do big business with our effort, thats easy. Are we going to allow them to drive this business into that? , who, in their right mind, would give away their images for others who will make money with them? I think this its the problem of this "new form" of business. They need the images...bait to attract the public. Am i, of any of us supossed to be so unconcern about our work to give them it?


No emotions here..only think. Last answer is from us.


I deactivated my files for protecting my work and my way of life. I would like to see a solution to the problem and reactivate my files again. Hope all this count for something in the future. For the moment this agency its in is quarantined for me.


 


greetings to all, from Spain.

I think you have made your point here very clearly my friend, and your reason for deactivating your files is getting to the heart and soul of this matter with G/GI.

I applaud you, and those who have/will join you.

Bravo

Sean should reply here so that he can get a heart too!

I admire you big players for stepping up and sending a message, I think this is one of the very few times that there has been a united display from such a big crowd of ms contributors...
Kudos to ALL of you guys!