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Messages - tubed

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76
Adobe Stock / Re: Fotolia cuts commissions again
« on: January 20, 2011, 21:05 »
And second, isn't it nice to be able to mention other sites and really say what you think, in this forum at least. Unlike the soviet era forums at fotolia, for example.

 Haha good one.. all kinds of posts censored and deleted over there.. Kinda like Iran and China..

77
Okay...suggestion...

Perhaps we can get stock http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/ to open up a branch dedicated to improving micro RF commissions, it really would be in their best interest to have the hundreds of thousands of photographers they hate to actually be on their side and paying dues.

Throughout the history of the world the only way any human being in the arts ever made fair wages was if they joined a guild.  Because there will always be another more poor artist who is willing to do the job for less. Whether it is the Screen Actors Guild  or Masonry guild or Photographers, there are guilds for every single type of art there is a pastel artists guild.  Why have we yet to convince SAA to start working with us to help raise the bar. 

So who will volunteer to be our liason and speak with the president of SAA about how it would be in there benefit to stop hating us micros and try to get us to set a commision limit which we will absolutely refuse to accept.  Any volunteers...I nominate yuri he is one of the few with the celeb status to get enough followers to really make it have any impact.



I would gladly volunteer, but I don't have any clout.. If someone like Yuri did it, it would be from his helpful naure not because it would help him any, as these things don't effect that status pint.. But he would definately be able to get people on board I imagine.. But if Yuri won't do it then who? Maybe Tyler would do it.. He has a voice here and would have the ability to get peoples attention to it.. I would volunteer to do leg work or whatever to help push things along..

78
Adobe Stock / Re: Fotolia cuts commissions again
« on: January 20, 2011, 15:15 »
Remember Fotolia advertising as the fair treatment agency when iS announced their rate cut. They didn't mention cutting rates two weeks after iS did back then. What effing hypocrisy!  Not that it surprises me. Fotolia was where the pay cutting all began.

I remember it well.  In fact it was the first thing I thought of when I heard FT cut commissions.  Isn't this the point where May Hayward shows up to tell us about how great FT is, and how we should be exclusive with them?

^^^ Hahaha..

 I was thinking the same thing.. He's pretty quiet.. As well as in the FT forum.. Gues he's at a loss for words at this point, there's only so far you can go to try to play people for stupid, and try to sugar coat sh&%$..

79
Has anyone ever contacted these people?

http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/


They are not really micro freindly.. Good for Macro people though..

80
Alamy has 60% for their contributors...

 Exactely and places like AGE and others while maybe not big volume earners are fair and at least I feel like my images are not missused and I am treated as a professional. Getty is not great but they have more volume and the higher price point make it worth it, as well as the fact that most of the macro shooters are well enough organized to fight back collectively to effect their opinions.

81
 The ideal situation would be that we have a union that would represent contributors as a whole and could negotiate with the agencies or threaten them with mass pullouts which if there was a large base of people that were part would be a pretty big problem for agencies.. That would be the only way to be able to really effect a change otherwise they know there is really no resistence for them because there is no organization on this end. nothing will happen unless the majority is organised together, which happens in Macro, but I don't think that it will happen in micro because of the mass amounts of "small fish" that don't have enough of an interest in the business to want to make that kind of effort or sacrifice..

 I am personally not uploading any more to either IS or FT, and as a buyer I will not purchase from them for my designs either.. I will start to give more images to my Macro agencies.

82
iStockPhoto.com / Re: new contributor??
« on: January 20, 2011, 12:59 »
I tried to sign up as a contributor at IS yesterday but i got a message saying something about new contributors are disable at the present time.
is this a momentary glitch or are they not accepting new aps?

Don't bother unless you want to be treated like dirt..

83
Adobe Stock / Re: Fotolia cuts commissions again
« on: January 20, 2011, 12:27 »
It may also keep a few from dropping IS exclusivity. 

Bingo. FT just gave istock a nice New Year's gift. Why drop the crown in favor of the competition when the competition is cutting rates too?

Kind of makes microstock in general start to look "unsustainable." Too many more of these cuts and I think I could call it quits and focus entirely on my design business.

Bingo! Me too, I have already started getting my ducks in a row with my website upgrade and new print materials to start picking up new clients and start forgeting about microstock. I will probably still submit some macro stuff, but I have all but given up on micro.


I imagine the only way to turn this around is to have a union of sorts that can fight it as a whole, but we've discussed this before and it doesn't seem likely because the majority of microstockers are hobbyists and don't want to put in the effort and the ones who do make a living at this or at least a good portion of it (below the elite few mega ports) are a minority so they wouldn't have much say without the mega ports being on board like Yuri, Sean, Lise, Andres etc. but they really don't seem to care or want to cause any waves for themselves, because they don't really get touched in all these cuts as the agencies don't want to piss them off.. So the hobbyists don't really want to put in the effort and the big players I imagine don't want to fight for the other guy's so the small few in the middle that it really makes a difference to are kind of left out to dry even though the hobbyists are out to dry as well they don't care all that much.. It takes the contributors to make a difference as a whole but like it has been said so many times before it will not happen.. So we all watch and bitch as the micro ship sinks..

84
WOW that was fun to read! I wish IStock would listen to contributers like Tim and his crew.

85
Dreamstime.com / Re: Seeing a big increase in sales too?
« on: January 08, 2011, 18:00 »
Not so much in the past week or two, but yes lately I have seen DT pick up quite a bit for me, and IS has all but died for me lately.. Kinda wierd although I guess I'd prefer DT sales anyways as well as I have stopped uploading images to IS as well.. I hope DT can take sales from IS, although I'm sure the exclusives really hate that idea but at least DT is fair to their contributors..

86
General Macrostock / Re: Anyone on Agefotostock?
« on: January 08, 2011, 17:55 »
I have had some sales there.. Not the quantity like Alamy though.. Depends on what you shoot.. They are pretty commercial, if you shoot creative commercial style people shots you should be able to get some sales there..

87
General Stock Discussion / Re: Microstock 2010 Industry Survey
« on: January 03, 2011, 17:34 »
Done.. I would like to see more breakdowns of earnings, like macro vs. micro - phots vs illustrations vs video etc.. Thanks for doing this survey Tyler..

88
I have already stopped uploading and will not upload any more, until they decide to trat us fairly..

89
Stopped uploading.. still considering removing port..

90
Subscription makes sense for websites [with frequently updated content]. If the prices work then the volume can be huge. Image prices have to be low enough to make sense relative to the other costs associated with making an online page and in terms of the lower ad revenues generated vs print. Web is going to be the main place where images get used. Print being in massive decline.

No it doesn't.  Newspapers have always had frequently updated content.  Why do suddenly websites that need frequently updated content get it for nearly free?  Costs associated with making an online page are negligible.  Why should Yahoo, serving pages to millions, get their content for $.30?

 Exactley, I had one of my images used on yahoo's homepage one time and everyone who saw it asked how much they paid for it and when I told them, they laughed.. It felt kind of degrading, because I knew it was too cheap.. But I made the choice to sell at those price points, although it doesn't have to be like that, we do have a choice but it usually means sacrificing and risking some profits temporarily, so most people are understandably reluctant..

91
General Stock Discussion / Re: So, is there are a consensus now ?
« on: February 07, 2010, 13:04 »
And one more thing. If they want this Thinkstock  to get working, they must let contributors upload without Istock limit. SS is example how subs model works. They will have, sooner or later, separate TS from IS.

Works for a while until they are just so saturated that images disapear into the abys overnight.. I used to try to stay up with the feed the beast thing and I noticed as much as I uploaded my downloads stayed the same, and I even have noticed drops in downloads the only thing keeping it semi profitable is the PPD's otherwise things would be much different..  SS's model will eventually fold on itself because sooner or later it will get to the point (unless they raise prices) where people will not be able to produce the quality images for the return.. SS's model depends (for the photog) on large quantities of downloads.. If the pie progressively get smaller and smaller with more and more photographers joining and photos being uploaded by the hundreds of thousand per week.. Pretty soon that will become cumbersome for people to try and keep up with..

Just for the record I am not saying thinkstock is a good or anything.. I am really against it.. Actually I am not in favor of the microstock subscriptions stuff at all although at this point I am forced into it unless I want to be exclusive at Istock and opt out of subscriptions which I wouldn't do now.. But will not step down to thinkstocks levels..

92
I optioned out for Thinkstock but as they are now advertising thinkstock in the istock contact sheet I'm thinking of option in it is probably a good way to drive buyers away from istock and should be supported by independent photographers.

Why would independent contributors want to drive business away from Istock where we average over a dollar a sale to a sub site where we will get only .25 ???
Well istock killed one of the best site, my favorite microstocksite, so it's fair enough to make it harder for them.

 They are the same company!! Istock, thinkstock, getty.. They are the same, so your not driving anyone away just transfering them to another part of the same company.. and screwing yourself in the process..

93
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Istock - closing the door?
« on: December 12, 2009, 12:44 »
In a effort to try and sound less biased than I am, is that bad to discourage a few photographers? 500 dls can take a while but does prove a certain commitment. Besides all that, going exclusive is a poor move, IMO.

Not really, I think that setting the bar higher will only help to slow the onslot of "pics sitting on your hard drive, make thousands" stuff hopefully..

94
General Stock Discussion / Re: Where did she go wrong?
« on: September 10, 2009, 18:17 »
Pretty crappy way to be treated, but even if it was free they should've had a contract stating that credits etc. etc. would be given in return.. Trust isn't a good business word..

95
General Stock Discussion / Re: Poll: What is your Day Job?
« on: August 21, 2009, 23:43 »
graphic / website designer and photog..

96
General Stock Discussion / Re: Sales at Dreamstime
« on: August 13, 2009, 22:33 »
Yes, as soon as they made their changes to the search I have seen a significant drop in sales.. It used to be significantly higher volume, but now I am only at a few a day..

97
General Stock Discussion / Re: VVS In Colorado
« on: July 19, 2009, 18:51 »
Hey Bobby,
 Remember me? I did one of your mock up logos and we spoke on the phone when you were doing your vvs logo? I'm in Loveland, I would be interested in talking with you about doing something while your here..

98
Clouds are natures lightbox.. Outstanding light difusion.. No harsh shadows..

Push your levels around a little and adjust your hue/saturation (slightly, don't over-do it)..

99
I think we are automatically opted out unless you opted in, I never opted in in the first place, so Istock won't get my images for this crappy deal.. It's unfortunate to lose the income from StockXpert though.. Getty is typical corporate America and unfortunately they will listen to their board and investors and not to their contributors so I will just do my part to not help them screw us more..

100
Ahhh, I see.. Thanks for the fyi =)

I believe they won't be showing those stats for a couple of months yet.

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