Thank you all for the comments.. Most of them are very constructive... I have time to think about it so we will see what will happen in the future, most probably in February/March 2011.

There was a time I would (it never happened) yell at a person standing on the edge of a roof of a high building: please don't! Now I would just yell: jump, jump!
With just 200 sales on "that" site and 1500 on DT, me thinks things should be obvious.

Well... that could be a matter of review as well if you ask me.. On DT I started uploading in June, 2005. Now I have 755 photos and most of them (500-600) are there for few years already. That being said I have 'only' 1,692 sales that brought me $1,526.51. ($0,90 per sale)

On the other side, on IS I started uploading in the end of 2007. Now I have 130 photos but most of them are there for about a year or even less. That being said I have 285 sales that brought me $320.68. ($1,13 per sale)


Dreamstime was my first agency I worked for and the place where I got my first $0.50 after the first sale which is difficult to describe but maybe it's 'time to say goodbye'. Maybe not but it's a possibility that I will be considering in the beginning of 2011.

Wow, wow

I never said that I will act as bad as I can in order to get kicked from DT. I was just wondering if there are any alternatives, that's all. I've read on some other thread (on this forum) that someone sent pornographic content or whatever - that's why I mentioned that.

Also, I didn't say that I'm going exclusive on iStock right now. I recently started there but I'm pretty sure that iStock is the best micro-stock agency that exist. Correct me if you think otherwise with constructive reasons. I'm mostly doing weddings photography... football matches and etc. Stock was always something secondary for me as a photographer so I'm well aware of my pretty poor portfolio(s). However, I'm finishing a photo-studio where I will be getting more serious into commercial photography.

Being exclusive on one agency will always be a looong discussion with a lot of constructive comments on both sides. I know a lot of people who are exclusive over there for a year or so now and they've never regret that move.

And yeah, you're right... I have to think about it and I have the time to do so but I think I already spent some time thinking about it and some of the conclusions are:

The GENERAL reason is because when exclusive you need less time when sending photos... putting keywords.. categories and whatever.. Less time tracking the revenues.. downloads and etc. Less time and effort in general.

But I also have mostly negative opinions about the agencies I already work for and those are the following:

DREAMSTIME: I don't like the 6-months period at all. Everyone should be able to terminate the contract whenever he/she wants and DT is the worst stock agency regarding that. Also, I had many problems with this agency. Once I was commenting on their delay with payments on a thread that someone else started. I haven't been rude at all, just said that I've been waiting a lot for the payment and I've been banned from forums for a long time until I had to speak to Achilles in order to remove the forum-ban I got. Also... the revenue in general is quite low. I'm not expecting a lot with the current porfolio but still... I'm getting much more on other agencies where I have less photos.

BIGSTOCKPHOTO: Well... this agency is not that good anyways. Everyone knows that. Nothing special against them - it's just that the revenue is much lower than on other agencies and I wouldn't regret leaving them. Especially after they added the 90-days period needed before terminating the contract.

SHUTTERSTOCK: A very particular agency actually. For SS you have to be ACTIVE and I mean really ACTIVE if you want to consider this agency worth your time. On SS if you're uploading images every day I can guarantee that you will have a pretty nice number of downloads every day. That's not bad at all - it keeps you active.. pushing you to work. But if you make a pause of only few days (a pause that everyone will take) you will notice a BIG difference in revenues. I've been on a trip and out of the internet-range for about 2 months and I noticed the significant drop of sales by more than 50-60%. And we shouldn't forget about their prices and the revenue you get - one of the lowest on micro-stock agencies I guess. At least the lowest of all the ones I've worked for.

FOTOLIA: The agency that is actually getting me most revenue so far. But there is something over there that bothers me A LOT. Lack of communication. Do you have a contact over there? Did you ever try to contact someone regarding your photos or something? You will probably notice 'Contact Support' but that's just a joke. I opened a message over there asking about some photos that were declined with some ridiculous reason and I got the following reply:

Hi,

Thank you for your e-mail. All of your images and videos have been reviewed by our selection team. Please note that the selection team is a separate department, so we have no influence on their decision. The main criteria for validation or rejection are: the quality of the image/video, the technical requirements, the similarity to existing Fotolia photographs and the image's/video's sale potential. We know that it can be difficult to have an image or video rejected but please bear with us. We encourage you to continue uploading your images and videos.

Kind regards,

Fotolia Team U.S.
I usually get pissed when I get a template from a person who just clicked on the reply without using 1% of his/her brain so I asked again the same question - this time asking for the e-mail or the place where I could contact the actual 'selection team' but I got the following message:

We apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately our selection team does not re-evaluate validations individually or provide a specific detail report of rejection, there for, we do not have an email address that we can provide you with as we don't provide this type of service.
After that I took my last chance - creating a thread in the forum. However, I waited more than a week to get a reply from some moderator who told me that he will forward the problem to the department but I never got any reply regarding that and when I bumped the thread asking if there is anything new my thread got locked. That's all about Fotolia's support. Once of the worst I've ever seen.



BOTTOM LINE: Some agencies are not bad but going exclusive reduces the time needed for sending photos... putting the keywords.. description... categories... Tracking the images online... the downloads... the revenues... The changing of 'Terms of Use' and any other 'rules' on the website. You can be totally focused on one agency only and do your best on that one.

I'm aware that (theoretically) if I'd go exclusive TODAY my revenue would be cut by 80% at least. I'm well aware of that. That's why I'm not even planning on going exclusive right now. I'm just considering that option and sharing it with my reasons with you to see your opinion about it.

Peace.

Daniel

Evo jedan pozdrav i iz CG..

Nisam znao na ovaj forum pa sad neltih i regitrovah se..