Quote from: zeamonkey on July 25, 2013, 21:44
Maybe this is the reason istock has lowered their standards for images....they are preparing for iphone submissions?

iStock is accepting mobile phone images since a long time, I think since fall 2012. So this is no news.

Dear Sean, that is nearly unbelievable! I am really shocked. But I am sure this will turn out as a very bad day for the iStock-section at Getty Images. And I really hope this turns out really great for you in the future! All the best!

Yes, this sounds very, very interesting.

02 deactivated.

Deactivated a few, mainly as support to al the great fighters here and as a sign to iStock.

Quote from: fotografer on January 25, 2013, 19:51

Quote from: allyclark on January 25, 2013, 19:30

one of the best posts i've ever read in a forum.

Totally agree

Yes, a great post and I also have to say that I fully agree to this statement.

Quote from: susandaniels on January 23, 2013, 11:45
Guenter, when you hand in the crown all your portfolio goes back into the PP! thats why we need an opt out option.

Of course, I know. And I fully support the wish to have an opt-out, it should be availabe for PP, GI, Promotional Usage and Third Party Sales. I think it simply can´t be that a photographer can´t decide what is happing with his images.

I am going to opt out all my images (approx. 600) from the partner programme on Feb. 02nd. Also only a small help, but at the moment I need the income from GettiStock and don´t have the time to upload do a lot of other agencies. But as this situation is changing I will also leave the crown behind me very soon...

Quote from: ShadySue on November 15, 2012, 21:24

Quote from: guenterguni on November 15, 2012, 20:59
MichaelJay, apparently, has left the Berlin office.

Not really correct - he had to leave because there is NO Berlin office anymore ...

I did read speculation about that here, but hadn't noticed an announcement of that there. I guess it was discussed in the German language forum.
[/quote]

Yes, indeed... even the offical statement from iStock (in the German forum) is: there is still a telephone number for German speaking customers. But from other sources it was of course confirmed - after only a short time after a big opening the german office dissapeared very quiet...

MichaelJay, apparently, has left the Berlin office.
[/quote]


Not really correct - he had to leave because there is NO Berlin office anymore ...

Quote from: sjlocke on December 17, 2011, 13:33

Quote from: gostwyck on December 17, 2011, 11:24

Quote from: guenterguni on December 17, 2011, 10:46
... but you are wrong, the succes is coming ONLY from the images I uploaded in 2011. More than 65 % (!!!) of my royalites made this year are coming from images uploaded in 2011.

Right - if you don't do anything for 3 years and suddenly ramp up, of course you'll see growth.  However Sue is right - out of the last 200 images since September, most are at 0 sales, there are a couple of 1s and maybe 1 or 2 over that.  So uploading lots isn't necessarily paying off.

Well, I uploaded in 2010 more than 600 images... and in the beginning of 2010 I´ve been a bronze contributor with only a small allowance of images to upload. 600 new images in a year may mean "not doing anything" for you - for me it was a lot of work (beside my main business) and if I check the stats there are less than 2000 contributors who uploaded more than me in this year. Of course 1000 images is substantial more than 600, but as I mentioned nearly 500 of them have been Editorials.

Anway, I´ve said what I wanted to say - I only wanted to add another aspect to the discussion which is bringing one argument against istock after the other without paying attention that there is another side too... and only wanted to highlight that there are still contributors with a good growth.

Quote from: guenterguni on December 17, 2011, 11:30

Quote from: gostwyck on December 17, 2011, 11:24

Quote from: guenterguni on December 17, 2011, 10:46
... but you are wrong, the succes is coming ONLY from the images I uploaded in 2011. More than 65 % (!!!) of my royalites made this year are coming from images uploaded in 2011.

What you fail to mention is that you have increased your portfolio size by 138% (!!!) in 2011.

More specifically you've done 138% more work in the last 10 months than you had previously achieved in the preceeding 3.3 years combined. Hardly surprising that you are experiencing growth.

Let's see how long you can keep it up for __ you'll need to upload nearly 2500 new images in 2012 and 6000 in 2013. Good luck with that.

Yes, I uploaded 1000 images this year - the main reason for this high number was the introduction of the Editorial collection - 480 of the 1000 images are Editorial´s. The number of new images in the regular collections is about the same than in 2010. But... and you are right - I didn´t upload too much in the first two years, and this was for sure also the reason why my growth in the first years was a slow one.

And... yes, the Editorial collection was one of the reasons of my good success this year, 18,5 % of my royalties are coming out ot this new collection - and with the fact that these images don´t need time for post-processing this seems to be the easiest made money for me.

double post, sorry.

Quote from: lagereek on December 17, 2011, 10:56
True!  I know 2 exclusive diamons and 1 gold, exclusive ( not much but anyways),  all three are doing really bad, down by 40% or something, at least they say so.

but, they in their turn know a few silver and bronze contributors who as you say have doubled their income. Might be a part of the new strategy? to make sure and invest in tomorrows photographers. If they can steer away revenues from independants they can also steer it towards the low cannisters.

Boy, what a shamble, really, its like robbing Peter to pay Paul,  shabby and dodgy business, this is.

This may be right, but don´t forget, that these people are changing sometimes within only ten month from silver to diamond (as my three examples did) or at least from silver to gold royalities (as I did for example). This means that they aeren´t longer "cheap" contributors for iStock... and on the other hand there are a lot of diamond contris who have been fallen back even to silver royalites - which means that from next year on they are now "cheap" contributors. I personally think that the year 2012 will show for the first time how iStock reacts on this ... maybe the winners of this year are the losers of 2012 and vice versa? I don´t know ... My posts should only illustrate that (in opposite to the overall atmosphere here in this forum) not everything and not for all iStock is doing bad. Except the site perfomance and the communication - in this cases everything is bad in fact.

Quote from: ShadySue on December 17, 2011, 10:43

Quote from: guenterguni on December 17, 2011, 10:19

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 17, 2011, 10:17
That's interesting. May I ask what genre you supply and how long you have been contributing?

I started uploading in November 2007. And just click on the iStock symbol below my post and you see my portfolio.

... and, if you think my increase of income is only because some of my images are quite rare: the three german speaking colleagues who made it all in 2011 from silver to diamond royalities are all doing total different things: one ONLY studio shots, one ONLY lifestyle/people and one mostly architecture/landscape. For me personally this is the proof that it you upload a good number of decent quality images regulary (for my opinion a minimum of 500, maybe 600 images a year) there is still substantial growth possible.

Congrats on your sales this year: but it has to be said that it's not your sales from this year which have caused the huge bump. At least, not your most recent 400. Another feature of the current iStock is that in general it takes much longer for images to be noticed.

thanks for the congrats - but you are wrong, the succes is coming ONLY from the images I uploaded in 2011. More than 65 % (!!!) of my royalites made this year are coming from images uploaded in 2011.

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on December 17, 2011, 10:17
That's interesting. May I ask what genre you supply and how long you have been contributing?

I started uploading in November 2007. And just click on the iStock symbol below my post and you see my portfolio.

... and, if you think my increase of income is only because some of my images are quite rare: the three german speaking colleagues who made it all in 2011 from silver to diamond royalities are all doing total different things: one ONLY studio shots, one ONLY lifestyle/people and one mostly architecture/landscape. For me personally this is the proof that it you upload a good number of decent quality images regulary (for my opinion a minimum of 500, maybe 600 images a year) there is still substantial growth possible.

After reading here for weeks or better month I want to let you know my two cents ...

... I understand that a lot of independent as well as exclusive IS distributors are frustrated ... mainly if the (nearly unbelievable) number of bugs/problems on the site are coming hand in hand with a drop/decrease of sales.

But believe me - there are at least as many contributors who are facing a huge increase in their IS income. Thanks god I am one of these, I doubled my income in 2011 and I easily made the 40.000 RC´s which means that I am having now the royalities of the gold canister while I am going to stay officialy silver for some months longer. And ... I only observed the german speaking forum on IS - there are lot´s of contris who made even stronger steps upwards, three of the people I´m talking to regulary made this year even the step from silver to diamond (means that they got more than 150.000 RC´s...).

And... to avoid any comments from the beginning - I am for sure not one of these "woojay - thank you iStock for everything"-people, nor the other very succesful contris I´m talking to are it. We are all critical, we hate the perfomance and especially the "communication" from iStock to us - but we are making good, some of us really good money.

If you read the monthly sales threads carefully you will find out, that it are mainly diamond/gold contris who aren´t uploading a lot that are reporting decreasing royalites - but I am very sure that there is the same number of cintributors who are uploading regulary and a lot and are doing extremely well.

I think you should consider this in your overall discussion about iStock ... there are problems, no question. But there are still a lot of people with good and increasing sales, so I think it´s a bit to early to send out invitations for the iStock funeral...

Quote from: cobalt on October 06, 2011, 08:41
I am wondering - where is Rebecca? Did she come to Milan? Is she still working at istock?

Did she post anything, anywhere on what is coming? It would be nice to hear from her and after all she is now leading a huge community driven site.

NO, Rebecca hasn´t been in Milan ... but for my surprise Kelly T. was there ....

Quote from: gclk on August 08, 2011, 13:05
^^ interesting to see previous high profile iStockers such as Tyler Stalman leaving iStock employment, joining the Saatchi Online team and promptly dropping iStock exclusivity.

Stalman is still exclusive photographer on iStock, your information is wrong. See http://www.istockphoto.com/stalman