I was wondering if anybody got a double payment from Pond5. While I appreciate getting 100% royalties, it doesn't seem very fair. Just wondering if it was a widespread glitch or an isolated incident.

We talk a lot on this site about money, royalty rates, raises and more money. That said, we don't always have a clear vision of what those raises or royalty rates should be. If we are going to ask for a raise, shouldn't we have a clear vision of what we want and what we can realistically get? So, I thought I'd take a look at it and try to start a conversation. Warning: There will be MATH!

Let's say you make $1500 a month from agencies that pay you on average 30% (you probably wouldn't include agencies that already pay you 50%). I know these aren't necessarily your numbers, but they are fairly round numbers to work with. So with those numbers, that means the agencies get $3500 and you get $1500 for a total of $5000 in sales a month.

It also means that for every extra percentage point you get, it's an extra $50 a month. So at 31%, you make $1550. At 35%, you make $250 more a month (or $1750 total). Not bad. What about subs? If you get 30% of the sub price paid as well, then that is about 1 cent for every percentage point increase. (It was about $.008 for 25 cent subs and $.0125 for 38 cent subs. 1 cent seemed like a good average). I know subs aren't a firm percentage, but SS seems to average out to something similar.

OK, so there are the basic numbers. The bare minimum raise would be 1 percentage point and a 1 cent raise on subs that results in $50 extra a month (from the example). The maximum would probably be getting 50% royalty which would be a $1000 more a month with subs that cost 20 cents more (again, from the example). That last one sounds awesome, but I might have better luck getting them to throw a free unicorn in.

With all that said, what do you think is fair and realistic to ask for?

This is just a self-congratulatory thread, but I'm happy that I hit my image goal for the year. 20,000 images! Woo hoo!

Alright, my shameless promotion has ended (for now).

Since Borg posted a Poll about which agencies to promote, I thought it would be a fun thought experiment to see which agencies people thought we shouldn't support or contribute to and see if there is an overlap.

So, have fun voting for the worst or the one that did you wrong!

I was hoping to write a blog article on IllustrationInfo.com containing people's personal stock sites. So if you run your own personal stock site, feel free to post it below. Please include:

Name of Site
URL
Owner/Artist/Photographer
A brief one or two sentence description

Here's mine:

MyStockVectors
http://www.mystockvectors.com/
Cory Thoman
MyStockVectors is a premium collection of cartoon vector illustrations by artist Cory Thoman.

Feel free to write your own blog article as well. The idea here was to promote each others sites on a bunch of different websites. Hopefully, people will take time to participate and provide their info.

Just got a note about this.

This is the second request I've had for an interview with Shutterstock. This one seems contributor related. The other one was with the Morgan Stanley people. I was wondering if other people were getting these requests or are they just picking me because I'm grouchy and opinionated? 

I guess I'll have to do more research, but this is starting to look like the best deal.

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud.html

I was looking at the upgrade prices from CS4 (which I'm running now), and they look fairly expensive. I'm not sure what the special offer they allude to is though.

http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/buying-guide-upgrades.html

I got my 1099-K from Paypal today. Fortunately, I already filed my taxes, but what a nonsensical waste of paper. Thanks government for sending me an extra 1099 that reports income I already have on other 1099s. Maybe, my bank should send me a 1099 too. That way I have everything triple reported and can try to untangle it come tax time. Complete nonsense.

Does anyone have a mouse they really like? Not the little furry kind, but a computer mouse. My new iMac came with a Magic Mouse. I really like it (especially the multi-touch stuff), but it eats batteries, so I probably should replace it with something corded.

My stock art site, mystockvectors.com, turns one year old this month. To celebrate and thank all our customers, we�re offering 50% off all orders for the month of October. So, tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell your dog and anybody else you think needs to know.

Just use the coupon code �COUPON� at checkout to receive your discount. Thanks for your support and enjoy our birthday celebration this month!

I read this article about a camera start up:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/230867/camera_startup_lytro_promises_to_revolutionize_photography.html

Was also playing around on their website adjusting the focus:

http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery

I've been wondering this question for a while, so I figured I'd ask the mob. How much micro is too much micro? Should things cost a buck? 5 bucks? More?

iStock has always been one of my better agencies, but I've done better as they've raised prices. Shutterstock does well and is less expensive with subs, but they also seem to have more and more on demand. Not to mention that they have more EL's than all the agencies combined. I also have some midstock agencies that sell well at higher prices.

It just makes me wonder if the lower prices are even necessary, and what is the ideal price where volume meets revenue.