Part 6 of the analysis is online now here:
http://www.alltageinesfotoproduzenten.de/2009/02/12/teil-6-fotos-von-bildagenturen-in-gala-cosmopolitan-bild-der-frau-petra-brigitte/

Bye,
Robert

Dan Heller wrote some other reasons why it makes sense to help other photographers in his blog here:
http://danheller.blogspot.com/2005/07/asking-pros-for-advice-about-pricing.html

Bye,
Robert

@Idambies:

What was a credit worth before in the UK?

Thanks, Robert

Oh well, there are stories to tell.
I had a woman with boxing gloves some days ago and they refused to accecpt the keyword "boxing (women)"

I guess they want to have only the exclusives on istock and the rest on stockxpert.

Hm, you think when they ask" please enter keywords in german" i still should enter them in english?

Robert

Hello,

I hopefully will have a small mail interview with one of the microstock-agencies and would like to ask if you have some questions you would like to ask that I didn't think of yet?

Here my suggestions:
- how many photographers you represent?
- how many exclusively?
- how many photographers contribute on a regular basis?
- how many pictures you receive per month in average?
- how many percent of these pictures get accepted?
- what is the most common rejection reason?
- how many pictures does a photographers has online in average?
- how much earns a photographer per sale as average? (for non-exclusives/excluives)
- how much do the top 20% of the photographers earn per month in average?
- what motives sell best?
- what pictures you would like to receive that you have not enough of?

If the interview gets published, I will let you know the results...

Thanks in advance,
Robert

First, check their contract. Is there something like a minimum obligation time?

Check social networking sites (xing, linkedIn etc.) if there are contact persons listed...

Otherwise, you could notify some stock sites (like "Selling Stock", microstockdiaries etc.) if they watn to investigate that story.

Bye,
Robert

Okay, sorry Borg,

here a quick translation (but donm't hold me liable if I translate something wrong) 

- istock revenue 2007: 71,9 M $
- istock payout to the artists 2007: 20,9 M $ (that makes  29%)
- a picture sold every 1,3 seconds (average)
- about 3,7 million customers registered at istock
- more than 60.000 artists registered at istock
- expected revenue 2012: 262 M $
- about 275.000 uploaded pictures per month
- about 150.000 pictures per month get accepted
- a total of over  3,5 Millionen pictures at istockphoto

bye, Robert

Which program do you mean? If you refer to ImageManager, that is still a beta und it does not seem to be originating from istock itself, right?

Hello Pixart,

no, these photos were mainly for macrostock agencies. I tend to do only little microstock. But yes, these images worked great for me. I worked many times with this model and she is quite popular with image buyers.

Bye, Robert

Hello Pixart,

yes, it's me and in case you need to find my video again, here's the link:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpFFf59SGI[/youtube]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpFFf59SGI" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpFFf59SGI</a>

Oh, and by the way: Great blog you have! You've got a new reader... 

Bye, Robert

I'd be interested to know how many of the images used in the ads in those magazines came from micro vs macro.

I'd love to know that too, but unfortunately ads usually don't show their picture sources...

Hello,

I have done a research about which picture agencies sell the most pictures to magazines by looking at the credit lines in many magazines. You can see the results in my blog here:

http://www.alltageinesfotoproduzenten.de/2008/07/10/einleitung-fotos-von-bildagenturen-in-zeitschriften/

Sorry, it's in German though, but the agency names and numbers can be understood, I guess... 

Most of the agencies are macrostock, from microstock most seem to use fotolia (which isn't surprising since I only checked german magazines)...

Bye,
Robert