December is typically slower than the Autumn months due to the holidays, etc, so last months earnings are typically lower across the board.

You guys are making the assumption that there is individual contributor level control in the search results, which is highly unlikely as it would probably require a pretty big load on the servers to do that kind of adjustment specific to each contributor.  The biggest issue I see might be Fotolia, who might drop you right away.

In Lisa's case, I'd like to point out that the document states that iStock is under no obligation to grandfather the canister if you can't get free until after August 1st.  That doesn't mean they still won't do it.  Might be worthwhile to see if they can be flexible for that date for your specific circumstances Lisa.

I think everyone else is worrying too much over what the other companies might do.  I just can't convince myself they have the will or ability for retribution via search placement.  Contractual agreements might also prevent them from cutting off the relationship earlier than the date you specified, let alone the bad word of mouth they might get among potential new contributors. 

Quote from: dgilder on January 03, 2010, 13:39

  iStock is letting independents lock in their next canister levels as well, which means I will be able to obtain a diamond canister in the near future rather than the far. 

This is not what I got from the letter Cathy posted in her thread.  Looks like the only way of independents getting their next canister levels is to withdraw from all agencies now and lose all that income while  waiting out the Dreamstime commitment.  Fine maybe if this is your hobby, but I certainly can't afford to lose 60% of my income for the better part of the year.

You are right of course, and I was in the unique position of being able to remove all of my Dreamstime images by Feb 4th, since a busy summer put 70% of my images uploaded before August 4th (I used the 30% I was allowed to remove to take down all my most recent photos first).  I would email iStock and verify rather than relying on third party info.  I sent an email earlier today to verify my situation, but from what I can tell I will be able to go exclusive on Feb 5th and still lock in the canister.  If iStock is requiring everyone to remove everything now, then wait six months, then that is unfortunate. 

This is for the year, not the month
IS    %44.898
SS    %29.869
DT    %14.818
StockXpert   %04.085
123   %03.291
FT    %03.039


I think in his case the big deal is the higher upload limit.  25/week can be stifling if you are producing twice that.

Sorry, I'm not understanding, you said you will be within 500 by February, and iStock has said that if you email them before Jan. 11th about going exclusive, they will likely be able to negotiate a later date to lock in your Diamond pay increase if you are unable to get free of the other sites before the February date.

So, did you ask them to work with you on exclusivity to lock in your diamond?  Was that what you received a canned response for? 

Well now, I wonder if iStock is going to start offering to allow exclusives rejects to be fed into SXC.

Quote from: etienjones on December 17, 2009, 12:13

Sounds great until I read this:

Run main.exe (or main.py). Select the stock. Enter your username and password for it.

I'm not sure about that . . . . . . . . .

Shouldn't a software program like these be able to scan my portfolio with just my user name? I don't like putting my password in things I don't know much about.

Yes it should, all tineye needs is the URL of the image, and that is easy to get from the open portfolio.

This would matter to me if I ever sold anything on Fotolia other than xs and sub.  I will probably be removing my port now, I was borderline before, and I am not impressed.

I went ahead and removed my StockXpert portfolio.  It was doing decently well before the whole subscription thing, then it tanked until I added subscriptions, now its lost both subscription services, and I'm suspecting they lost their audience with it.  I don't think the buyers have much incentive to come back to StockXpert when they've obviously been doing a lot of buying through the other sites, especially since many of the images are going to be on those same sites through iStock.

A few reasons I can think of to stay independent.

- Only being able to sell RF via Getty owned sites.  There are lots of buyers out there, some willing to pay higher than microstock prices, I don't want to cut myself off from them.

How often do you actually get sales through them though?  The Vetta collection is essentially midstock, they are adding higher tiered sections for exclusives if you feel you must have more money for that photo.  They are raising the prices for exclusive photos, so you get higher sales prices that way too.  There is always the Rights Manage route, too.

- best match changes, what do exclusives do when their earnings are cut in half?  It has happened in the past and will probably happen again.

This is perhaps, my biggest concern.

- They reject images that sell well on other sites, they don't accept many non-vector illustrations.

I've never been convinced that iStock doesn't favor their exclusives with a little more leeway in the inspection process.

- I don't know if they are going to be sold off soon, who will buy them?  Wont they want to make even more profit by squeezing us?  Will istock still be part of Getty?

Who knows, but you can always opt out of exclusivity (see longer response below)

- They took my portfolio off photos.com and I still think that was a bad decision, are they going to come up with more ideas as bad as that?

Ah, so you are a bit bitter about that?  If I had my way, none of my images would have ever been on photos.com.  Good riddance I say.

- Working for one company doesn't appeal to me, it is too much like being an employee, whatever they say goes and while you can leave, it would be a difficult and time consuming task rebuilding portfolios on the other sites again.

Did you mean working with, rather than working for?
The FTP uploads and model release libraries at other sites make it a lot easier to get your ports back up if you decide you can't handle exclusivity.  I've been through the exclusive / re-independent cycle before, it wasn't as bad as you seem to think.

- Their upload limits keep millions of the best microstock images off their site, counteracting the appeal of their exclusive collection.  I have never understood the reason for that and I still think it will stop them dominating the market.

The upload limits are much higher for exclusives, aren't they?  So independents can't get their images on iStock as fast as exclusives.  That doesn't mean the exclusives aren't churning out their own content that never goes to any of the other sites.  Its arguable who has the advantage in that, but considering iStock is still dominating the market even with all the competitors, I'd say there has to be some kind of inherent value to their exclusive collection.

Sorry, most of my post was in jest    Hence the pie and F5 reference.  Too subtle, my apologies.

I'm kind of in agreement with Lisa, I don't like the eggs in one basket approach, but clearing the same revenue without the hassle of dealing with multiple sites does have its appeal.