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Messages - wds
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801
« on: March 19, 2013, 08:08 »
I'm not interested in resurrecting any drama around here. I thought we'd all grown up by now.
I appreciate the majority of the well wishes and as those of you know who I chat with via messages etc., at the end of the day our interests are the same. I'm not looking for handouts or wooyays. it will be tough for a while and I know it.
Stacey, good luck to you as an independent. I think there may ultimately be many more of us exclusives to follow if things continue as they are at iS.
802
« on: March 17, 2013, 08:51 »
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.
jsnover: I think 85% of 2010 is quite good! I'm still exclusive at iStock and sales keep getting worse. I wouldn't be surprised if I drop the crown before the year is out. It just seems like such a daunting undertaking.
803
« on: March 16, 2013, 09:05 »
It has picked up for me this month. Especially with the dec/jan gi sales. Maybe they are helpling exclusives in the best match because the survey asked a lot of questions that would show a conern about losing exclusives.
It would be smart of them to wake up to what losing their exclusives means. Recently it has seemed they don't care about losing exclusives at all, which I have found baffling.
Unfortunately, the graph I was referring to as being alarming was Shadysue's, and she's still exclusive AFAIK.
Yes, I'm exclusive and based on this week's dl's, March is shaping up to be horrific. March has also been my best month the last two years. Edging more towards dropping the crown.
804
« on: March 13, 2013, 13:14 »
It would be interesting to see BCG's report.
805
« on: March 12, 2013, 19:10 »
Just to play devil's advocate here...
Sean would have never left IS on his own accord, and Sean is not IS. The industry does not care about Saint Sean. Getty/IS (love them or hate them) knows the game well and we are all expendable. The market is way over saturated with really great and amazing images and it's truly a buyer's market. Very few of us (including myself) are bringing anything new to the table of the stock industry, and Getty knows this, and for that matter so does every other agency out there. Stock photography has always been a numbers game with total ebb and flow. With the advent of digital photography, the internet, and microstock - which were total game changers in the industry, the game is now totally beneficial to all the successful agency owners and becoming less so to the demise of the photographers who produce the work and carry the burden of expense to do so. I am saying this from having 25+ years experience as a successful full time stock photographer. that's my two cents.
All makes sense, but you could have said the same thing two years ago and it would have made as much sense then also. However, for a bunch of exclusives at iStock, there is a world of difference between 2 years ago and now.
I have been saying this, or most of this for more than two years (delete the Sean part), just not here on this forum.
My point was there is something going on in a negative way beyond the general industry trend at iStock.
806
« on: March 12, 2013, 19:00 »
These last couple of days have been abysmal.
807
« on: March 12, 2013, 12:24 »
Just to play devil's advocate here...
Sean would have never left IS on his own accord, and Sean is not IS. The industry does not care about Saint Sean. Getty/IS (love them or hate them) knows the game well and we are all expendable. The market is way over saturated with really great and amazing images and it's truly a buyer's market. Very few of us (including myself) are bringing anything new to the table of the stock industry, and Getty knows this, and for that matter so does every other agency out there. Stock photography has always been a numbers game with total ebb and flow. With the advent of digital photography, the internet, and microstock - which were total game changers in the industry, the game is now totally beneficial to all the successful agency owners and becoming less so to the demise of the photographers who produce the work and carry the burden of expense to do so. I am saying this from having 25+ years experience as a successful full time stock photographer. that's my two cents.
All makes sense, but you could have said the same thing two years ago and it would have made as much sense then also. However, for a bunch of exclusives at iStock, there is a world of difference between 2 years ago and now.
808
« on: March 11, 2013, 21:37 »
Urrgghh. Am I alone or did anyone else feel positively nauseous when reading that thread? After all that has gone on how can they possibly be so gushingly enthusiastic?
Maybe they are still making a good living from Istock income? Wanna see some nauseating woo yaying look here instead http://www.microstockgroup.com/fotolia-com/mailbox-imae-has-sold-and-sold/msg303343/?topicseen#new Just kidding, good for him selling a couple files every month.
Yea, I'm guessing those are mostly people who are still "doing okay".
809
« on: March 08, 2013, 08:40 »
Collections? What if you made a collection for each agency?
810
« on: February 22, 2013, 08:10 »
Disappointing newsletter. Not much substance.
811
« on: February 11, 2013, 16:40 »
I am truly shocked by this. Good luck to Sean, I'm sure you'll do very well whatever your next steps may be. This makes no sense to me. Not even a forum ban first if iStock felt he was saying things they didn't want to hear in the forums? Again, shocked and dismayed be this move.
812
« on: December 13, 2012, 11:33 »
The reason I asked, is because I received a message in my inbox from ASMP saying that Alamy is cutting royalties by 10% and that Image Source has announced that they will be offering a royalty rate of 60% for all imagery produced in North America, through Dec 31st 2013.
814
« on: November 26, 2012, 22:29 »
I'm waiting to see what the image quality is like on the 24-70L f/4 IS. If it's excellent, I may sell my 24-70 2.8L and buy the f/4L for the IS and better image quality.
Lisa, I have heard that the 24-105 has heavy distortion on the wide end. Do you have any issue with that?
815
« on: September 18, 2012, 15:20 »
Way down from August, clearly site related, market conditions simply don't change drastically overnight.
On a related note, regarding the broken zoom on iS, does SS even allow you to zoom?
816
« on: August 23, 2012, 08:40 »
I wonder if it's likely the reason they haven't set the targets yet is because they are about to shaft us again with some other, major change (such as a flat 15% for non-exclusives and 25% for exclusives)? I know I'm not the first to suggest this, but the longer we go without targets, the higher the probability seems to be that something's cooking. 
I would not be a bit surprised. That would pretty much kill Istock for me. Sales are down, down, down anyway. If I make much less there, it won't be worth continuing to upload.
I don't think they'd do anything that drastic, but I wouldn't be surprised if they start to slowly erode down all royalty percentages.
817
« on: January 24, 2012, 11:58 »
Have you compared your projected downloads at Istock for this month with Jan 2010 yet? I was staggered to find that my own downloads are likely to be down about 50%, possibly worse __ in just one year.
I know we independent contributors are not helped by the current best match but even so that's an astonishing decline in sales. If that's how things are going at Istock then the latest redundancies are unlikely to be the last.
I'm an exclusive on iStock and January is shaping up to be a horrid month.
818
« on: January 19, 2012, 12:53 »
JJRD is leaving iStock. We are in the midst of MAJOR changes!
820
« on: January 18, 2012, 14:01 »
This seems like an extremely scary time. If there are layoffs, I would expect some major change/announcement soon.
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