I want a jaunty scarf.

Thanks guys! Think I'll continue to not waste my time with Crestock.

Is it worthwhile submitting to Crestock now they've had a change of management? My acceptance rate there used to be about 2% so it was a bit of a waste of time for me so I closed my account with them. I'm at around 50% at Istock and 90% at other agencies so I know my work isn't completely rubbish!

Quote from: sharply_done on September 21, 2010, 17:30

Quote from: sharpshot on September 21, 2010, 07:48
I think "never put all your eggs in one basket" sums it up more succinctly for me.  I would never feel comfortable only being able to sell RF with one site, as they have too much power and then they get greedy.

The 'all your eggs in one basket' thing has never held much credulity with me: Marketing images exclusively at one agency is, to me, akin to having a regular 9-5 job with a single employer. This is the normal employment paradigm, and not many seem to have a problem with it.

Not sure where you've been working in the past, but I've never had an employer abruptly cut my pay and tell me to work harder if I want to make what I used to.

Mine took a long time however I noticed when they did finally review my images they review everything I had uploaded - even much new stuff. So the 'average' review time probably isn't too bad.

Much the same for me to. Also my rejections there have gone through the roof all of a sudden. I hope my photography abilities haven't gone into decline.

If you can afford it get a camera you can grow into, I unwisely got the Nikon D60 and while it is a good camera it is a bit lacking in some areas, no AEB, only AF-S lens Auto Focus, noise at higher ISO etc.

30 minutes on my bike through hellish London traffic.

Don't knock ukuleles! I've got a buddy in a KaraUke band - it's Karaoke but with ukuleles. Odd but hilarious.
http://karauke.wordpress.com/

Quote from: FlemishDreams on May 18, 2009, 07:48
I think I spend about 350% 

I think I'm about the same! 

I have the same problem. I've had no views on content uploaded since 1st week of feb.

D60

I have one waiting which I uploaded 26 jan.

Quote from: MichaelJay on February 23, 2009, 11:39

Quote from: TimAck on February 23, 2009, 11:22
Then you may be able to extrapolate some figures to see how well you could potentially do.

I don't think it's so easy because you can't assume to stay at current levels at iStock when dropping exclusivity. It might work or might not work.

I've sure I've read in these forums somewhere (tried to find it again and couldn't) that ex-IS-exclusives have reported no significant drop in IS sales (revenue of course takes a 50% hit) when going independent. I don't disagree that this calculation wouldn't give you a wide margin of error but it's the best way to generate a educated guess at the impact of turning independent.

From what I've seen the Istock proportion of income varies between 10% and 50% for independents.

So for min and max estimates:
(Current iStock Sales/2)*10 = Max estimate
(Current iStock Sales/2)*2 = Min estimate

The worst case scenario is that there would be no financial benefit, but more work uploading. Best case you'll be making 5 times what you are now. Realistically you'll probably wind up getting somewhere in the middle.

But it's not just numbers. I'm not advocating exclusivity but it's a lot easier to track unauthorised usage of your images if they're only at one agency.

Hi Stacey -

You've probably already done this but its worth looking at a few blogs of non exclusives to see how their  royalties break down between agencies. Then you may be able to extrapolate some figures to see how well you could potentially do.
http://www.microstockdiaries.com/microstock-earnings-report-january-2009.html
http://microstock.pixelsaway.com/microstock-photography-earnings-january-2009/
http://www.niltomil.com/n2m/january-2009-earnings/

Like someone said... you can always go back to being exclusive later if it doesn't work out.

I'm fairly new at this microstock ballyhoo and still feeling my way but I think diversification is crucial as it smooths out your income, especially during these turbulent times.

Quote from: araminta on February 13, 2009, 13:59

Quote from: TimAck on February 13, 2009, 12:08
while I still have nightmares about the 'frozen wristwatch' from my Mac days.

Ever heard of MacOS X?

Comparing XP/Vista with a pre-OS X Mac is somewhat unfair, isn't it?

I'm sure the Mac OS has improved considerably. I'm just explaining why I switched (crashes) and why I'm not going to switch back (value for money).

I used to use a mac for years for graphic design and in the mid-late 90s it was the best choice for that type of work. But now PCs have caught up in performance and can deliver that at a fraction of the cost of a Mac. I switched from Mac to PC in 2003, I actually had both machines for a while but found I never switched on the Mac so focused on the PC and have saved a fortune in hardware over the following years. Windows (XP and Vista) has never crashed on me, while I still have nightmares about the 'frozen wristwatch' from my Mac days.

I think some sites (ahem.. Crestock) trade on the fact that many of their contributors will never reach payout and can have all that allocated cash sitting a savings account earning interest for them.

StockXpert seem to able to turn reviews around in a few hours. They're almost a little too quick as I notice someone mentioned in their forum someone complaining they had reviewed his picture before he'd had a chance to keyword it.