Yes, but it took a while! If I compare my income from the last 3 months as an exclusive ( Nov 12 + Dec 12 + Jan 13 ) and compare that to my equivalent Indie income ( Nov 14 + Dec 14 + Jan 15) - Indie income was 8% higher. So it is a small gain for a lot of work, but I can never know how much my exclusive income would have dropped in those 2 years.

To give you an idea, comparing the same period, (Jan 13 + Feb 13 + March 13 vs Jan 15 + Feb 15+ March 15)
I have increased my portfolio by 80% and my income has fallen by 15%

Did you need to grow your port much for that 8% gain?

Not really uploading to IS anymore, but that hasn't really affected my monthly RPI which hovers around 0.15 compared to around 1.00 for SS (Photos only)

Wow, you took a massive hit at the beginning of 2013. Was that a result of dropping your istock exclusivity?

Quote from: KB on July 04, 2014, 22:38

Quote from: Henvry on July 04, 2014, 22:00

I have been IS exclusive contributor for about 6 years,but it seem to be more and more harder to increase my income on it.

Increase your income?

I'd guess that most exclusives these days would be happy to not decrease their income. I'm down less than 10% for the first half of the year as compared to last year. But the downtrend appears to be accelerating, so I'm not terribly hopefully for the next 6 months.

Me too, 15% down compared to last year.

Down 15% over the last 2 months here.
Definitely looking at plans to drop the crown if the downward trend continues over the coming months

Down about 20% from March... consistent with most years.

Just to add a positive note to this thread....

I went full time in MS in March this year and so far have no complaints. However, I should add that there are a few prerequisites:

A sizeable investment in equipment
A solid business plan
Substantial savings to support yourself while you build your portfolio to the point where you make a reasonable income (for me this is around 2 years).
Lots of hard work!

I should also add that I live in Sydney, Australia where the cost of living is fairly high.

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread, but just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their kind advice.

Been exclusive at istock for 4 months now and all is going very well. My RPI has increased by about 40% and the increased upload limits have allowed me to add to this income.

So once again, thanks to everyone!!!

Courtney

Thanks Leaf,

I was thinking about posting on Model Mayhem, but hadn't considered local camera clubs or discussion sites. Will definitely give that a try!!

I've met a lot of good folks through Meetups who will trade time for training.

Thanks Karmalina, I will definitely have a look into this.

Quote from: ceeker on December 08, 2010, 00:06

No problem, KB, got the humor.

Glad you like my stuff. Flattery is always welcome!!

Yes, very nice portfolio.

Thanks Paulie!

Quote from: ceeker on December 07, 2010, 16:48

I made $358 at Istock in November (Not a BME, but close, BME was actually October - $423) which represents about 60% of my income across 5 agencies (IS,SS,DT,FT,CS,DP)

I have had fairly steady growth at IS this year, having increased my port from 250 to 580 images.
As IS represents such a large chunk of my income, I am strongly considering going exclusive next year and have already dropped BS and Veer.
I am a little concerned now however as quite  few people seem to be experiencing a drop in IS income. Just wondering if any IS exclusives are seeing this trend also?

You have a lovely portfolio and with a bit more growth should see steady income from IS. What you need to look at before deciding on exclusive status is what your redeemed credits might be for 2011 (which will set your 2012 royalty rate).  Vetta, Agency and XXXL sizes all help boost those numbers and thus your royalty.

When I switched from independent to exclusive I was gold and thus went from 20% to 35%. This year has been excellent for me - partly the doubling of exclusive prices on XS, partly portfolio growth, partly price increase. Before the September announcements, I think I'd have said to wait until you could get to gold to go exclusive, but with the drop in IS income you'll see in January if you don't go exclusive (you'd drop to 16%?) and the percentage of your income from IS, taking the 25% and the huge risk might be a reasonable bet for you.

Thanks again everyone for the compliments!  

Hi js,

Thanks for the advice. Everyone is so helpful here! I hope I can return the favour sometime in the future!

Regarding the royalty rate, I am currently on 11433 credits (as of December 8th), so I am uploading like crazy in the hopes that I can squeeze out the last 1067 credits before the end of December which would make the move to exclusive much more attractive.

Unfortunately, my camera (D3) does not quite produce XXXL unless I res the files up which I am reluctant to do for fear of rejection! So I may need to invest in a D3x to get the larger file sizes.

Thanks for your kind words KB and aeon! And your help and advice!

...even if a little backhanded KB 

Thanks Lisa, very enlightening, looks like a mixed bag but the majority seem to be doing OK.

KB, thanks so much for sharing your info.

my projections really only take into account the almost 100% price increase by moving to exclusive, so the 25% commision increase is a bonus, and any extra sales would be fantastic, but not really counting on that.

Thanks again guys