Hey guys! Two years and a few months after starting this thread I'm here with some info that may come in handy to someone in same situation like I was
Two years ago, Feb 2012, I was on a verge of a nervous breakdown regarding IS and it's new business habits. Money was way to low, sales were slow, no progress of any kind. Go to page one of this topic to refresh your memory for this one.
Anyways, that year started very clumsy and fearful but ended like my IS exclusivity. At the end of 2012 I've spread my footage portfolio (and some photos) to:
Pond5 (full port)
Shutterstock (full port)
Fotolia (full port but not all online. No csv support, high rejections and low prices)
123rf (full port)
Revostock (full port)
Clipdealer (few dozens of clips, very hard to do metadata, no csv support etc)
Canstockphoto (full port)
Depositphotos (full port)
Clipcanvas (few clips)
Lori.ru
and later that year to
Pixta (full port)
Motionelements (full port)
Dreamstime (last year I think, few hundred clips)
This year
Stockeon (several clips)
Dissolve (still uploading)
On most of the agencies, support was great, community (were exist) is cool and tech side of things is, well, ok.
My metadata (csv, xls) was a mess. File naming was as I exported them from premiere, ae or whatever. The stupid names like watertert01.mov, water02a.mov, mommywithdaughter.mov etc. So I had to rename all of those and match them with existing descriptions and keywords from IS. Did that manually. Through deepmeta. It got everything except original filenames of the files online. So one week after, I got my names and metadata right. Also, there are several programs out there that can help you guys with renaming files from text files and plain list files but that's another story.
Then my hard drive crashed and I lost over 600 files
IS don't offer anymore dl of your own portfolio for money. They did opened the gates to my portfolio but only web resolution was available to dl. And I used that to download my whole audio portfolio cause that file naming was number id's and I knew that down the road I'm gona break the excl contract for audio too and that my audio metadata is even worse then footage so I used that benefit. And it payed out in 2013/2014 when I jumped the audio ship.
After a long intro comes even longer start
Files were uploaded to P5, SS, Fotolia and several others (can't remember) and keyworded (except the ones I wrote up). First mistake was the switch on SS to activate my whole portfolio. I think.
It sunken like a bag of rocks. No sales, no nothing. First week, month, second month, knees trembling, wife screaming, thinking to myself: another mistake, you money hungry moron, now you have nothing... and stuff like that... It never recovered and performed as I think it would if I was smart enough to pump in 50 after 50 after 50 files week after week. Later on more about SS.
Pond5 was a different kind of stress. Nothing was working. Views were broken, add to cart (stats) were maybe broken maybe not (added to cart with no views etc). But very quickly (relative), one month and longer, after first clips were online, some of them started selling. $70 a pop, $35 for me. I played a bit with prices to see how it goes and I settled on $60 per clip even though I sold several for $90 but long time passed between those sales. And then things started to shape up a bit on Pond5. I was levitating on $180 to $300 per month on P5. In my head that was a piece that was missing on IS. Month after month sales disappeared from IS. Footage sales. And P5 was making that right.
In that moment I had a downtrend regarding audio on IS. That was another disaster waiting to happen but more on that later on.
SS never woke up. I started getting sales every week. And it stopped at some $200 per month. That was a party breaker in my head. I have 2000+ files online and 10 dl's per month... bummer. At that point, even with much lower sales at SS and P5 than I expected, I passed the IS footage income just with those two. And I was still getting Getty footage sales which were about $200 to $400 per month depending on the mood of the guy that pushes the give him some money for his clips button at Getty HQ.
Other nice surprises were on the other, oooother side of the world. Asia. Pixta and Motion Elements were selling a clip per week for me. No mistake there. And I uploaded there cause in my head it was like another market, different habits, different needs, maybe something will sell there. And it did and it still does. I'm gonna support those two that's for sure. Helpful, clean, smart, working, easy upload process, csv support. ... And Motion Elements is starting music (sound) and while I'm writing this, I'm finishing uploading my port there. When it will be live I don't know but it sure does sound tempting. Yet Shutter failed to deliver. They have announced music and partnered up with Rumblefish and that's it. No contribution, no nothing. I asked them on three different sides (four if you count forums) and answers were very different. Long story short they wont be accepting music from contributors just yet OR they will be accepting and you can go to this link and apply OR what a great idea about sound effects Mirko, I'll let you know when we start accepting those, but not just yet
)) Ok, I get it, it's a test balloon but I think (hope) they would skyrocket if they were to open the gates for audio guys... anyway, back on topic.
Asia done! Awesome for starters.
Fotolia was/is very muddy if I can say it like that. I just can't get to finish my uploads over there. I keyword a batch and they reject everything, low commercial value. Several times like that and then they approve something and it get sold and I got like two bucks or something... just can't start with them properly but maybe I should give them a chance.
Canstockphoto and footage
Easy upload, everything online, a sale here and there. After one year, yesterday I made it to $100
) Enough said.
123rf.
Strange people I'll tell you. Nothing for weeks and then waterfall of sales. Nice ones. Since last year summer I'm getting payed every month there. And they have audio so that's a big plus for people like me. Double earning, footage plus sound. Will keep them that's for sure. And very easy upload process. Csv support, fast approvals, etc.
I know this is going into some kind of personal review of agencies but I'm just trying to explain how my non exclusive life was flowing for year and a half now. I hope you guys don't mind
Deposiphotos
They scared me when I finished uploading. Done the metadata, uploaded and they started adding it. The reviewers. Or someone else
Don't know. They really tried hard to make things easier for contributor. I had several payments from them since.
Revostock
Great people, friendly, small company. Very, very helpful. I started there when they (I didn't know that at that time) were in a patent troll lawsuit over some piece of code on their website. Two years after, they won the lawsuit but were almost broke. And it was a one of a kind question for the contributors could you guys wait with payments for a bit so we can stand on our feet (simplified and paraphrased question from)? And all of the people there (almost) agreed to that. And we waited and got our payments after a short period of time. They are very transparent about were they are headed and what are their golds. A thing to admire in these times. I offered them a hand by proposing to do the sfx review for free for a couple of months cause they had to lay off the guy that was there doing it, and got several constructive conversation emails with Craig (owner) and I did that only because I knew they needed help at the moment. At the end I didn't do the extra work but I was glad my proposition was taken seriously and they needed a moral boost from every one. So, I gave them my part. Got a sale here and there. And they don't accept everything. That's good. Still have to do my audio port there and give that a chance. Big up for Revo from me.
Dreamstime.
They are hilarious. Started footage but their batch uploading process is (was I hope) a mistery for them too
) I managed to upload several batches and I sold some clips there. Have to do all of them to see how it goes. No payment from them still.
Lori.ru
Mother Russia
Nice people, nice agency, no sales.
Clip dealer and Clipcanvas
Nothing to say there
Stockeon
Very slick layout and strange for an agency. I'll give them a shoot cause I got a friend who sold several clips there. And every dime counts for me, sadly. They got csv for clips but for nothing else for that matter.
Dissolve
Aggressive approach to with all the adds popping everywhere on the net. Got a looooong write off with George and several other people there and I hope they rise to be a strong and serious player in this world. They sound like that, look like that and I hope they will sell like that. I'm uploading my port there too. Very, very helpful and friendly folks. Also, some of them you know from IS.
I think we'll be seing more of them in the future (agency, not IS people
Now, after this strange list, I would like to say I didn't upload ALMOST one single new clip to any of the agencies for one whole year. There were some uploads but nothing that would keep the flow going (money). Guess what? It didn't rise and it didn't fall. The money is the same as it was one year ago
) That's awesome. But not so awesome for someone like me who, last year in July, gave their resignation to the company they worked for over ten years as a layout editor for magazines in Ringier Axel Springer Serbia. Yes. I was imagining the day when I quit my day job and when I start doing stock full time. And it happened. Accidentally
I had a fight (verbal) with one of the directors about something I didn't do, and I went to my vacation. Got and email on Sunday evening that my payment for June is being lowered 5%. And I dropped my job as I dropped my IS excl status. My wife was behind me all the way. One child 6 and the other several month old at that time. Five bank loans, living in rented apartment, paying off my camera, car, and credit cards and several phones and gadgets that we picked up on our way. Before, we had very little money. After that we had no money at all except stock and my wife's salary. Good timing, right
)
Well, this is a follow up letter/post whatever
) You guys said to keep you posted so here you go
)
Anyways, nothing happened (crucial) till December last year when we found out that we are pregnant again
Wife with baby, me with beer
Then I realised that now there's no turning back! It was fun, but I had my job and stock was giving more boost in our lives but now it was over. No job, stock wasn't going up or down (thank god), and we're going to have out third kid
) Wake up, wake up, wake up!!!
So in January I broke of audio exclusivity and started uploading everywhere. My index finger got injured from copy/paste. For real. No kidding here. I calculated that I pressed over 40.000 times the same buttons in one week. It took several months to heal.
Started shooting again, recording, playing music, doing everything. And for the first time in my life, I disregarded everything that was distracting me (news, fb, I wanna have my own blog, I want my own agency, I want to go fishing, I want to watch tv)... and started doing some serious things. I saw it as a business for the first time in my life. Ok, a bit fun in it, that's for sure but it was all fun for me back then. Now it's not so funny anymore.
Digression (not really)
Istock started selling my files on Iphone tone store since the beginning of the tone store in 2012. I was always in the top 10 or 50 files there. And it was some good money in 2012. Over 30.000 sales only from those 5 files there. And 30.000 people has my sounds for their notifications
) How cool is that. Anyways, the Apple sales dried out. They are 5 to 20 per day now. And they were 100 to 150 per day back in 2012. Getty sales are still there. Sometimes $500 sometimes $1500... Sometimes $0... Can't figure those.
And yesterday I did my math (not meth) and here we go. 2013 was $3000 better non exclusively with IS and Getty counted in than just IS and Getty Excl in 2012. IS still counts but much less than before.
Could I done better? Hell yes! Shutterstock portfolio switch is a no no! Don't do it! Who ever is out there wondering the same thing, upload, keyword but send 50 by 50 everyday. And that's for all agencies, and google and caching and algorithms and best/fresh/newest match etc... That's only my opinion.
Pond is striking hard these days. SS also. I started working like a horse these past couple of weeks. Got over 1000 new clips and over 4000 new audio clips. And I'm preparing them for winter
) 100 by 100. Uploading and sending to curator/reviewer
One year of doing nothing was still better than one year of doing everything at IS. And I didn't add anything to IS. Just for the record. And still got some great friends there at HQ.
Anyways, guys, I know this is a bit confusing but overall, being non exclusive is demanding a bit more work when you look at it that way but, he who uploaded 5000 clips to IS and disambiguated them knows that every single uploading system is easier than that one at IS. So, as I've said, a bit more work and it's paying off.
I wish sometimes to have only one agency and to work just with them (that's were Stocksy fit in but im not in yet) but that's just wishful thinking
My wife should give birth to our second daughter every day now. I gave her a green light, I said I was ready
)) Trying not to fall under influence that I must read this and that and watch this and this and do that and that on the web. Just focusing on stock. Bought the cms account script from Anton. Got my own agency
) For me only, no contributors etc. It's doing great. I bought several files from my self in the past couple of months and I'm always first in every search
) Hehheheh. Didn't uploaded videos yet, but I'm on it. Just some photos and audios. Rigged it with Amazon s3 for storage and it's awesome like that. No cost, no slow servers etc. And I'm not a web programer, designer but I managed to make it happen. It's videoaudiostock.com. Need to change some colors, but it's kinda cool to have your own place. Also, I'm making my blog (don't know what to write but I'm making it that's for sure) about sound in microstock. No one is doing that right now. It's microstocksound.com. Not active. Just Hello World from WP. But I'm gonna invite you guys to my grand opening:)
And now, when stock is my only source of income and I can say, my job, it's getting even harder to think and not get stressed. Where we'll be in the next decade? 100 million files agencies? What search engine....
Trying not to think that much. Anyways, I salute you all, I'll say my prayers for Robbin Williams, he was my favorite actor and I'll go to sleep now.
I hope I helped someone out who is trying to get away from some nasty situation. Also, I hope I didn't put to sleep too many of you with this short retrospective
Yes, dropping the crown payed off. Yes, I'm balder and fatter than before
I would do it again.
Choice is a great thing.
Deciding is better.
Money is the best
)
Cheers guys. Sorry for the long post. Got many info on most of the agencies now so if anyone wants to know something about footage or sound and certaing agencies, please, do ask.
Mirko.
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Man, when I canceled exclusivity at IS and started doing my metadata in excel and stuff, I was on the verge of madness. Now? I can't live without it. Every single agency (serious ones) accept CSV/XML files. You upload your clips, upload your metadata sheet and you're done. Plus Pond5 READ FOOTAGE IPTC. So you can enter data in bridge or lightroom and just upload. And you're done. Plus you got templates. I tried those too. And they are great. I have several generic ones (swoosh, whoosh, nature, animals etc... same categories, price, and stuff) and I just click a few clicks when I'm uploading one or ten clips or sounds. But I mostly doing large batches and then I'm sending them day by day to review (curators). 
