My sales figures just started going through the roof from 30 to 180 in 3 months! Then just got an email, I'm out.. why!?!

Hi Paul

i think options for notification would be good say to only get a summary of sales.


You said you were going to drop the price to  0.99$ are you still going to?

Any possibility of a trial version to try before buy?

thanks


Rob

I've taken this advise from a friend that has been on stock for five years now and pulls in a six figure sum!! from a small sub 2000 port.  .

I think he's right but thought i take the views of others too.

So when are you going to start uploading again after the Christmas break?

I stopped uploading 3 weeks ago, now with a healthy back log for Jan, best they land after the 6th.

What do you think?

lisafx thanks for actually keeping on subject with a post of a professional nature.

Maybe i should be not dumbfounded about the amount of posting regarding an abbreviation! Yes i did think maybe i should use Els (Enhanced license)  and not Eds but after checking the actual description on SS and this was a question about SS only i thought go with Eds. next time I'll just spell it out to save confusion and keep posting to on topic reply's.

Please give more view on the Enhanced download situation

I don't wish to stamp on anyone just would like to keep to relevant post.

thanks

I have only had a few eds in the past nothing to write home about. But my friend a long time in stock up until 3 or 4 months ago would almost have daily eds, now almost nothing!!
Have SS changed the licencing to make Eds obsolete? Selling for standard price. Or are buyers not admitting to using the purchased images as Eds?

Singles are a bit lite too!!!

Whats going on? 

Came back to my site the other day to find i cannot upload images anymore and when i have tried to upload via FTP something i have never done on my site it comes up with a critical error!!!

info on setting up FTP is patchy at best

i have tried to switch themes back and forth but still an error!!

Please help!! i'm hosted on blue host and have updated to wordpress 3.6.1

Ok lets try to stay on subject with this.

Has anyone actually confirmed this, i thryed to dowload the app to see if it is true, but i think its a scam you end up in and endless survey loop.

would like to know if anyone has got it to work.

i wish they would show more than a 12 month period, say two or three years to help looks and treads.

But yes i does look dire!!

Quote from: djpadavona on August 11, 2013, 19:17
Just out of curiosity, what would YOU do to turn around IStock if you had the chance to steer the ship?

It is rather presumptuous to assume anything without knowledge of what the books truly look like. But my goal would be to restore contributor confidence and make IS the #1 destination for future uploads. Why? Because
  1) I want the best images available
  2) Happy Contributors upload more, and recommend that customers purchase from my agency
  3) People who are treated well tend to be more productive and take more pride in their future work than those who feel unappreciated.

I would begin by immediately pushing up contributor commissions and completely eliminating the RC/crown system. Set non-exclusives at a 30% commission rate, probably similar to or higher than SS and just below DT. That would be a huge message that things have drastically changed in favor of artists. Commission rates would be even higher than they were during the Bruce era. Push exclusives into the 35% to 40% range, and try to come up with added incentives to keep them around.

Secondly I would hire a team to completely revamp the uploading procedure. Even if I feel a need to keep categories, I need to decide if the merits of my own keywording system are not enough to overcome the snag in the upload process. My goal is get the upload procedure at least as efficient as DT, and hopefully SS.

Third, I would swallow my idiotic pride and humbly ask Sean to return with his full portfolio. I would acknowledge that he, and many others, were treated unfairly when they fought against the Google fiasco. Regardless of how much they rocked the boat, their position had strong merit.

Fourth, I would make a decision about the forum. The current forum is a mess, and buyers see it. If the forum is going to remain a Gestapo run cesspool, then it is going to give us a bad image. Why continue wasting company resources on it? Either clean up the forum and its administrators, or simply eliminate it. Where is there a rule that says a stock agency has to have a forum?

I may be a Pollyanna and I don't know what their books look like. But I think that if they shocked contributors with this type of goodwill, they would see a stampede of people returning to them. The goodwill would likely slowly spread back to the buying community, just as all of the bad will in recent years soured it.

My friend although this would be nice! Any one believes this really can happen in microstock now! would need committing ;-) you would need to change all stock sites.

People are moaning about the drop in revenue but I bet your selling on Shutterstock and happy with your 25 a day sales!
It's sad to stay that what has probably screwed the industry up,  are the contributors!  We work hard and product some amazing images/art and unfortunately (me included) we upload it to many sites! We are as much to blame as the agencies. How can istock sell a photo that can be bought elsewhere for half the price?!  if we were more exclusive then price would be less of an issue. Apart from the Google issue which Google and istock should be made to pay a massive fine to all artists involved. why are we are just having a pop at istock? Those that really wanted to change things walked away from istock early this year, totally respect to those guys.

I'm sure that most customers using our imagines don't know or care about all this politics and certainly don't ready our forums! They are busy doing their thing and looking to buy images for the lowest cost!

I'm sure folks will wish to rant at my post, I'm not happy about the current situation in the industry but this is just how it is. The real problem is i and i'm sure the agencies,  don't know how to bring back the glory days    I'm sure this is why they need yuri (only at istock) makes sense exclusive is the only way to drive prices back up.

One thing is for sure with istock dropping its though review policy are work is being lost in rubbish snaps 

Wow can't believe i wasted 10 minutes of my life reading this article, this guy can really babble on about nothing! well i suppose he is getting paid for the blog ads   

If you have a camera and take regular photos of not just family snaps and are interested in photography you are an amateur
If you can make some money then maayyybe you're a semi pro!  if you make your living from photography then ! You're a professional period! How someone values your work well! Something about in the eye of the beholder i believe!

Peace out! 

Cool all deactivate, that will help me sell more ;-) 

I thing it's  good idea chop the price and then when you've sold 3 bump it back up again. Just look at most peoples ports and see how many pages have no sales!! great files too! just put up at the wrong time, this game is pot luck sometimes.  I'm all in favor of the new short term price drop. better than DT who give your files away fro free after four years of no sale!!!

Not like istock!! they don't tell Big Porkers!

:-)

Go exclusive and still sell else where!! see if they like a taste of thier own medicine!       Oh! what's that i have broken our contract? sorry didn't i tell you,,   I changed it without telling you... 

don't worry too much about ISO a great image at 400 or even 800 works along has you have great subject light and coposition.

Just spend a fair few nights watching pros on Youtube and get some inperation.


gook luck

PS you should be good with anything now as istock let everything through!!   

yes but that would give information average to istock. i think the poll should show what can be earnt on a site not which site is kind of top  i think.

anyway your figures would go into exclusive anyway.

i'm just saying a second poll on the polls page would be nice to see.

If it could be done maybe split into 2 or 3 polls depending on amount of years in microstock. i sure this would help newbies with performance questions for early sales stats.

As said would be nice to have, i don't know who the forum guys are and they are doing a cracking job! just a little idea for them if they could and have the time too. i know were are all busy trying to get more stock up.

cheers

rob

my new site www.image-stocks.com  still fiddeling my way through the setup. 

So post how long from setting up your website to first sale i have had mine up now for a week, no sale but excite to wait for the first! like starting stock all over again.

an average of earning would be more relevant to everyone, this is not about how big our ports are but what sort of income is being achieved by the industry. this would be national average salary figures not based on hours worked but just how much is earned.
based on the figures in the current poll everyone should be istock exclusive, I think not as people are leaving in droves!!!

any possibility of this info to placed maybe as an addition on the polls page

I see! I couldn't find where is explained what the poll was.

However isn't the poll abit pointless then? And also how is istock exclusive more than 100% of someone's total earning? You can only earn a 100% of your earnings.
Would it not be more informative to show average earned per month per agency?

So i have been on this forum for little while now and something that has perplexed me is the value of the polls on the right.
So! Average Shutterstock is around $70 to $80 per month?  At the moment id average 4 time that and consider myself a very low earner. Many on here post earing $$$$ per month, my friend certainly does!  So there must be a lot of people posting up very very low figures! Why would they bother! Worryingly if these figures are what to expect I shall require to move the family into the cardboard box at the end of the street!

Would be nice to see the amount of votes in the poll night only be a few weekender voting.
Or a poll for part timers and full timers.

Not sure how easy for the forum guys to change this.

Also possibly a poll for those on sybiostock please.

we correct me if I'm wrong but aren't all companies a dictatorship! in some way or another a boss or bosses at the top then us minions! ;-)

Anyway  the PP has started  :-) sigh of relief

my site www.image-stocks.com

not sure if i'm networked! like most things in life i'm fumbling around in the dark pushing buttons until something works. 

small port for now hope to be upto 500 by the end of the month

sorted it, make a page with the correct name, it will rename it with 2 after (did for me anyway) and all good 

switched from child to main theme still the same! ho no i don't want to install main theme again! any way of copying the file back from origioanl theme??

will i loose all my setting?