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Messages - CraigMiller

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iStockPhoto.com / iStock Is Now #3 Of The Big 4 In Earnings?

« on: May 13, 2014, 08:32 »

I don’t know when the article on the link below was published as it has no date, nor do I know how current these figures are, but according to the chart on this site (when you scroll down) Shutterstock is earning about double what iStock is earning and Dreamstime has pulled slightly ahead of iStock now too.

Not good news for iStock exclusives who have all their eggs in the iStock basked without the ability to earn from the sites which appear to be bringing in greater miscrostock photo revenues than iStock.

http://microstockinsider.com/microstock_site_comparison?filter0=10

iStockPhoto.com / Re: Dropping The Crown?

« on: May 07, 2014, 11:39 »

Thank you again Cobalt for all your great input and for sharing your experiences with us. I was hoping some other people would also chime in on their actual experiences too after dropping their crown. Cheers.

iStockPhoto.com / Re: Dropping The Crown?

« on: May 06, 2014, 08:39 »

Quote from: shudderstok on May 06, 2014, 08:22

i'd say it makes more sense to feed the machine once to stay where you are, not thrice to try and catch up.

I am actually starting to think that I don't like having all my eggs in one basket in case something goes wrong with my one agency. I am not saying the agency will ever fall apart, but they could do things to reduce income for individual contributors as they have done in the past. Royalty rate drops, offering subscription sales, no upload limits, unfavorable search indexing, deactivating files, etc.

I would actually feel much more secure earning the same amount of money per month from 4 different sources than just 1. And this way, if one of the 4 sources goes bad, you don't lose your entire stock photo income in one shot. So perhaps what Cobalt is doing for example is taking a step backward to take a step forward. Makes sense to me.

It's the same strategy that is always recommended for stock market investing. You never put all your money into one stock. You diversify your portfolio to spread the risk over a number of different stocks. So being diversified at this point with a multiple of agencies selling your images, seeing how iStock is making the model less and less appealing to exclusives as time goes on, sounds like perhaps a more secure way to go for the future.

iStockPhoto.com / Re: Dropping The Crown?

« on: May 06, 2014, 08:17 »

Quote from: tickstock on May 06, 2014, 08:08

I guess we have to hear what she says but your theory is she could be making a lot more but has chosen not to, for a year. I know I could get 3600 images up on all the sites in a week if I had to.

You seem very efficient. Can I hire you as an uploader?

iStockPhoto.com / Re: Dropping The Crown?

« on: May 06, 2014, 07:56 »

@Cobalt - Thank you for your very informative and well presented post. I am still a bit confused though why you haven't uploaded all 3,600 files to at least 3 or 4 of the other sites you are working with? I guess I am not sure I see the advantage of uploading what you have in small stages. Best wishes.

iStockPhoto.com / Dropping The Crown?

« on: May 06, 2014, 00:55 »

Hi - I am new here, but not new to iStock. I have been an iStock contributor for nearly 8 years and have been an exclusive contributor for most of that time. I am quite seriously thinking about dropping my crown now for the first time. What I am curious about is how people who have dropped the crown in the last couple of years are fairing as independent contributors at this point.

I have read some conjecture on the iStock site in the exclusive contributor forum about how remaining exclusive is the best way to go and how you won't be able to replace the income so easily as an independent, but that is all opinions coming from exclusive contributors who only know what it is like from the perspective of being exclusive. On the other hand, I have not seen any actual stories from people who have dropped the crown and as to how they are really doing.

What I did find though is an interesting ongoing blog post from an independent contributor who has been shooting and uploading since about 2005. His blog post tracks his total monthly income for nearly the last 10 years and shows how it has steadily increased year by year. I looked at his portfolio on a number of stock sites and learned he has a bit over 10,000 images online on the other 3 of the Big 4 sites, and only a small portfolio on iStock with only about 1,300 images on iStock. So iStock isn't and never has been a major source of his stock income it would appear, yet he seems to have done fine without it.

So his story is quite positive. The question is are there other success stories like this from independents who dropped the crown on iStock? And are they at least doing as good as they were on iStock or perhaps better or worse?

I would appreciate any real life feedback people might be willing to share.

Cheers to all,

Craig

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