So you feel like your Istock downloads now are about the same as if you stayed exclusive?   I would expect a significant drop because exclusive files get a best match advantage.

Lucato am I correct in reading your numbers to say that February was the first month you made more as an independent than as an exclusive, the other 9 months losing a considerable amount of money?  Do you see your downloads dropping at Istock since going independent, because of a lower search position?  That would cause the other %s to go up but would make the overall money still lower than as an exclusive.  Thanks for sharing your numbers, it's valuable to know what's going on out there.

What I understood from the table is that in february lucatos earn are 80% of the old earnings in iStock as exclusive.old 100%.

Hi Lucato,

thank you very much! I am a little shocked that Dreamstime is performing so poorly. From the site itself and the web traffic I would have thought they are a good agency.
And what has your experience been with fotolia?
If jsnover was able to recover 85 % of her 2010 earnings than she is already making more than many exclusives, who stayed exclusive and keep uploading.
I will try to get 600 files up in the next 2 months and then I will focus on mixing new and old while I shoot and upload.
Let's keep reporting our results, because many people are watching us ;)

Yes, I was exclusive from 2008-11, having been independent from 2004-8 and since last June. As with you, 2010 was my best year (in spite of IS messing with the site in the busy season) and even before I left exclusivity in June 2011, things were down from the comparable month the prior year.

You can see which sites I contribute to from the links below my posts. We have monthly threads here where we discuss earnings, and you can see some of my recent posts here, http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/earnings-in-july-2012/msg265905/#msg265905]here[/url] and here.

In terms of how things are going overall, it'll be easier to answer once the Sept - November stats are fully in, including PP sales from IS, which are getting later and later, but I think Sept 2012 will be about 85% of Sept 2010 (the PP numbers aren't all in). Down 15% doesn't seem too bad given the plummeting sales reports from many diamond exclusives.

Sept 2012 was up 54% over Sept 2011, so things continue to improve as the months go by, largely because SS is doing so well.

Very interesting and informative post Lucato. In the 5 months since you went exclusive my own iStock earnings, as an independent, have also dropped by 33% so a significant proportion of your losses may well have happened anyway.

I believe the long-term trend remains in your favour as an independent. At the time that you dropped exclusivity iStock were contributing 30% of my total earnings (not counting PP earnings). That has steadily dropped and this month iStock will probably only be about 19% __ and it looks like going lower too. This is due to both fewer sales at IS and also incredible growth at SS.

I would concur with Lisa's excellent advice to concentrate your uploading efforts to Shutterstock initially. This month SS will contribute about 49% to my total microstock earnings and it appears that they are getting stronger every month (at the expense of every other significant agency). Good luck and I'm sure that over the next few months you will conclude that you made the right decision.

If you take the your $$$$ % drop after leaving istock, and apply it to your commission rate you went from 35% to 7% commission on istock sales.  I believe some of this due to falling sales but If you apply a 17% commission rate to non-exclusive files being cheaper (63% of a regular exclusive file) you are at 10.7% without factoring in loss of vetta or agency $$$.   That means the other combined non-istock agencies have to own 75% market share for you to make up the difference.

Quote from: cobalt on October 27, 2012, 17:49

...However I wonder what kind of rejections he is receiving at the other agencies. Maybe he can share some insights or tips when he has time.

I'll give you some examples of iStock files of mine that have sold well that Shutterstock rejected (one of them I resubmitted saying that it had sold over 500 times on iStock and they accepted it; they had said it had LCV at first). In general, they don't much like dramatic light (and some of the rejects had been Vetta at iStock)

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

On the other hand, iStock rejected some things that SS accepted and which sell well, such as this, this  and this, so it really is a roundabouts and swings situation. DT's most annoying thing is the ridiculous similars policy; otherwise, they're pretty reasonable.

I do not envy you the task of getting all the iptc data on all those files. ugh. I am guessing that as soon as the iptc is done then you upload them everywhere.  - a daunting task, that is for sure. For anyone starting out or for exclusives I second the advice to keyword etc. in the iptc.
I think that IS has been insulating exclusives (mainly by shafting independents it appears) from any downturns - unfortunately for them they seem to have run out of shafting to be done to independents, so the pain is starting to hit the exclusives. It will be a painful process to jump ship, and a long road to get back to the kind of earnings you made as an exclusive. Thanks for keeping us posted.

Lucato, thanks so much for the update. I continue to debate with myself over what point to leave iStock Exclusivity. I don't think I am at the point just yet for a number of reasons. Your report has been very helpful.

I am not sure if I understand correctly, and it is by no means a jab towards anyone. But am I correct in saying that 2400 images were submitted and 600 were rejected?
If thats true, he wont have 7k images online, but around 5k. Which is still phenomenal, but 2k images less will also affect potential income compared to the 7k images exclusive on IS.

I have to say, I didnt realise that being exclusive would get you so much more money than being independent.