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Messages - Equus
51
« on: April 24, 2012, 21:42 »
Since January, I have been having BME in revenue every month. It has nothing to do with best match because my DLs didn't jump. E+ is the reason.
That's interesting. I can't work out why E+ seems to work so well for some, but not for others. I had several hundred in at the beginning, but it didn't increase my bottom line at all. Many files stopped selling, and I couldn't find any evidence that individual files were earning more, just dropping in the best match. Well, that's not true, I had one file that was earning more, but when someone uploaded a duplicate it stopped selling. I took most of them out after 6 months, and the few that are left don't seem to sell very often. If you don't mind me asking, have you used your full allocation? And what rate are you on? How do you decide which files to add? When did you add your files to E+? Did something change in January? Hope that's not too many questions! Thanks!
52
« on: April 14, 2012, 12:14 »
LOL 
IMO the older chap is much more photogenic!
I agree, I've never liked men who look as though they will compete with me for the mirror
53
« on: April 01, 2012, 13:48 »
A lovely description, Randomway 
@cthoman - I agree that the time we're in right now is far more suited to less extroverted types, and I think that's pretty much why she's saying 'the time is now'. But certainly throughout my working life, I've had to wear a mask of extroversion in order to get on - never able to feel really true to myself.
So true, this has been my experience exactly, and why I was so thankful to get out of the corporate world and work full time from home as a stock photographer. It's strange though that I now find myself producing stock which in many ways promotes that corporate "team" idea. To be true to myself I should not produce such work, but it brings in money, so I do!
54
« on: March 30, 2012, 14:14 »
Not just you, but I tend to read, think, and keep quiet about it!
Thanks for the link, I'm pleased to hear that there are so many of us!
55
« on: March 24, 2012, 20:02 »
The others haven't followed IS in lowering commissions, IS has followed them. FT and DT were first.
SS hasn't reduced commissions, but it has raised prices without raising commissions to the same extent, which is the same thing, and hasn't given a raise for years.
Why would the others raise prices, when they can pick up easy business by taking on disgruntled IS customers?
If I trusted IS, I would have spent the last years encouraging people to dump the others and go exclusive. Unfortunately, I don't trust them, and at this point it would be difficult for them to change that.
To go back to what the OP was saying, there are plenty of things you can do other than just accept whatever the bad sites throw at you. Don't bother waiting for togs to get together, come up with your own ideas and just get on with things.
56
« on: March 24, 2012, 19:24 »
There are a few of us that are starting to take a stand...what are you going to do to improve YOUR business?
I gave up Fotolia years ago, and went exclusive on IS. It was a big improvement 
57
« on: March 04, 2012, 18:55 »
Congratulations! So pleased to hear about your sales, may they be the first of many.
58
« on: February 27, 2012, 13:26 »
Interesting. I have noticed a similar pattern on IS, where I'm exclusive. Tues, Wed and Thur are no longer the best days, in fact sometimes they are very poor. Rather than it being a bug or an anomaly, I had assumed it was some sort of rotation of files/contributors.
59
« on: January 30, 2012, 13:43 »
To be fair, iStock claimed to be a community-based, supportive agent for our work and then betrayed us all. Fotolia never portrayed themselves as anything but greedy mean-spirited *insult removed*. I'd have to flip a coin to decide which is worse. (@Insult removed? For saying b*stard? Might be literally true for all I know.) [/quote] I think they did, in the early days of Chad the Charmer
60
« on: January 30, 2012, 12:28 »
Ludicrous! really. who cares? makes it sound like some stupid war between indies and exclusives.
Not at all. I`m going to play the part of Lobo for a moment. The topic is whether or not Thinkstock is going to kill Exclusive`s future revenues (Now that all indie content is there). Point being, I don`t think its going to be sustainable to stay exclusive at some point in the future when enough customers move from iStock to Thinkstock.
I think you may be right about the future, but why give up money now? There's lots of things that could happen, think about what's been done with Edstock. Think about what else could be done along the same lines. That would also be a big threat to exclusive income.
What if Getty reduce prices on TS and undercut SS significantly? What if SS then has to reduce commissions?
None of us know what will happen, so my policy is to take the best money in the short term, and do what's necessary when the time is right.
61
« on: January 29, 2012, 15:58 »
I don't believe anyone has my best interests at heart, except me! I'm still exclusive because all the information posted here by indies makes me believe I am still better off exclusive. I see you are now independent. Perhaps you will keep us posted on how you go, if it turns out you are better off financially, I may join you.
62
« on: January 22, 2012, 18:48 »
Hi there -
Often happens that if you have 1 image from a large batch rejected the rest will pass. Best tip though is smaller batches. Watch out with Infran View, not all software saves keywords correctly. Infran View embeds meta data Micro agencies can read, but you need IPTC data for Alamy to pick it up.I use Fotostation which is great for multiple image captioning - you could use Photoshop depending which version you have, some older versions though are not IPTC compatible.
When you get a good sized portfolio here you will get paid every month. Sales will be plentiful and it's just the same system as sending off an invoice and waiting to get paid a month later. With micro we are all used to instant sales being reported and the money credited to our account - Alamy deal with customers who settle invoices / accounts monthly, hence the delay. Just a more convention approach to payment for sales.
Not sure why I'm praising Alamy though, I earned more money before they came along! Oldhand
Oldhand, what qualifies as a good sized portfolio at Alamy? Thanks!
63
« on: January 22, 2012, 18:40 »
When exclusives talk about how good or bad their sales are, it would be really interesting if they could please also mention what royalty rate they are on.
64
« on: January 19, 2012, 17:35 »
that being said, i do have a secret, selfish outcome that i see helping me most. that would be if istock turns into a getty portal, like many have said so far, where photos go either up to vetta or down to thinkstock. such a situation may result in the "up to vetta" venue requiring image exclusivity, but not agency exclusivity. that would help me, and I would submit a lot through that. my biggest loss when rescinding istock exclusivity was many of my photos being taken off vetta... they sold quite well there. if i can stay an indy, but upload to "istock->getty->vetta" first if i promise image exclusivity if accepted, i think that would help me a lot.
Yes, but I'd hate to see what I think is a Vetta image rejected and sent to Thinkstock! In many ways I'd like to see the end of photographer exclusivity, and a fair rate paid to everyone. I'd like the opportunity to put some things elsewhere as RF. I have been thinking of giving up the crown so that I can do just that, but so far no one has convinced me that I'd be financially better off as an independent. To those who have been laid off, well, that's happened to me twice, both times have led on to new adventures and turned out to be for the best. I hope the same happens for all of you!
65
« on: January 17, 2012, 20:09 »
Stockmarketer, if you are the photographer who created the elephant on the ball, then I believe every word you say. That person is brilliant.
66
« on: January 10, 2012, 17:40 »
I certainly hope it picks up again. At the end of every quarter and of course every new year are deadlines when budgets are closed or opened and customers might decide to go elsewhere.
With all the bugs and high prices - how much incentive is there for customers to come to istock?
Has anything new and exciting been implemented for the customers lately?
So true, and I need to be where the customers are.
67
« on: January 06, 2012, 16:42 »
I can't vote, so I can't see it. Can you make it visible? Thanks!
68
« on: January 06, 2012, 16:21 »
As an exclusive, I'd be interested in seeing the same poll for the other agencies. Is that something others would be interested in?
69
« on: January 02, 2012, 15:15 »
iStock exclusive, compared with 2010:
DLS - 3% drop
$ - 20% increase
Well done Stacey on the $$ increase. I am also exclusive, with 5% reduction in both DL and $$. Can you tell us what you did to achieve the increase in earnings when your DL reduced?
70
« on: December 21, 2011, 22:25 »
I'm exclusive, and sales are OK but nothing special.
71
« on: December 19, 2011, 16:41 »
I'll play, since monthly earnings per image is a number I track. For Nov 2011, the average earnings per image was $4.08. (I don't track number of downloads.)
Stockmarketer, that's very impressive. I know you want to remain anonymous, and I don't blame you, but are you prepared to say what you upload? Photos? Vectors? 3D?
72
« on: December 15, 2011, 14:21 »
And I know it gets under the skin of exclusives to hear us independents hoping for the collapse of that company, but I find nothing wrong with hoping for continued growth from companies that seem to be able to still do it right these days, even if it's at the expense of istock or any other company on the decline.
It doesn't get under my skin. I can see exactly why you feel the way you do. I imagine many exclusives feel the way I do, we aren't all woo-yayers! I have done very well at IS, I'm convinced I've made far more as an exclusive than I would have done as an independent, based on the information given by independents in this forum. They don't owe me anything, and I feel I can cut them some slack for a while. However, it is business, and what happens over the next few months will decide my future course. It will be interesting.
73
« on: December 15, 2011, 14:06 »
if they have any sense, they will attempt to buy more time by reducing RC targets for exclusives __ if their masters allow them to do so. Will Istock impose yet more price increases on their customers? It's going to be interesting.
[/quote]
It will be interesting. I'd love to know how many 40% exclusives are going to "just" miss the target of 150,000. In my own case, I was confident I would make it until about August. Then the lack of a pre-holiday bump soon made me realise that I would not. Was the arrival of Rebecca at this time just a coincidence, or not?
When we see whether or not IS reduces the target, we will find out if they really want to keep exclusives, or lose them for short term gain.
74
« on: December 12, 2011, 16:10 »
Is that micro sites only, or have you included some macro?
75
« on: November 28, 2011, 13:05 »
Thanks, I make that 73 cents RPD at present, and rising to about 96 cents from Dec 1, when the increase kicks in. How does that compare with the others, I am IS exc. so can't do my own comparisons.
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