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Messages - Mantis

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5101
General Stock Discussion / Re: Sales dropping. Istock especially.
« on: September 18, 2011, 18:30 »
Interesting how dropping sales means new markets opening up to some : )  I get suprisingly big batches of downloads from india if the SS map is trustworthy, their ratio is increasing a lot.

It's kinda basic business 101 and cause and effect.  I will share some basic business information with you.  For every business response there is a possible competitive response.  So while dropping sales somewhere may mean less sales for contributors on those sites, there may be other sites opening up to steal some share.  Does "big batches of downloads" mean 2 or 50?  That's a VERY OPEN STATEMENT TO MAKE.

5102
General Stock Discussion / Re: Sales dropping. Istock especially.
« on: September 18, 2011, 16:43 »
No end, just a transformation as new markets open up.

There are more and more markets and countries around the globe entering the internet age. How many webdesigners in India, China, Middle East, South America are using stock sites today? How many will use it in five years? These are huge markets. Much bigger than Europe, even bigger than North America.

I think MS will not die, it will just continue to soften.  As demand grows in emerging markets so will supply and purchasing outlets.  The days of growing your port and realizing decent gains (notice I said decent) are closing....and closed for many low volume contributors.   

5103
I have no confidence in the future of microstock, so I might as well make as much as I can now. 

Sadly, I have come to pretty much the same conclusion.  I've joined a bunch of smaller sites I wouldn't have bothered with a year or two ago as part of a strategy to maximize my earnings on my existing portfolio. 

It's all well and good for us to plan ahead and do what we can to support (and even police) the industry for the long term, but developments in the last year have me questioning whether there is a long term for microstock - at least from the contributor perspective.

Same here...uploading to a few smaller sites hoping something will make it worthwhile.  I have been on several smaller sites in the past and deleted my ports due to few sales.  Now, with less income due to wife getting let go, I am borderline desperate.

5104
Why is healthcare in the US so expensive? Here is a good synopsis -
http://moneyland.time.com/2010/02/25/why-is-health-care-so-expensive-let-us-count-the-conspirators/
The bullet points are -
Insurance Companies are businesses
No electronic records
Perverse incentives
Malpractice madness
Statistics
Premium pricing in the ER
We're fat
We take more pills
No shopping across state lines
What do I owe


And lobbyists pouring big bucks into their political coffers
And party line ideologies (Libs vs. indep vs conservs)
And ignoring constituent voice
And too many regulations
And too many singular political beliefs pushing theirs on the masses
And block and tackle to resolve the real barriers to a robust, cost effective system (tort reform)

Just sayin.


Tort reform? Thirty-eight states already have some form of it in place, and my state is one of them. The price of my health care does not seem to be that much cheaper because of it, though. But we do seem to have attracted a lot of doctors. Of course, an individual can't sue their doctor for more than $750,000 if they do something wrong. Like chop off a leg wrong, if I understood it correctly.


all that your are pointing out is that there is no real tort reform.  THERE IS NO TORT REFORM going on.  This 38 state thing you mention is a fantasy.  There MUST be congressional tort reform.

5105
A question. In USA if you have no money and you get hit by a car and have a broken leg/pelvis what happens at the moment. Is there any safety net ?

Yes, care is free.
As I understand it, you won't be denied entry into an ER if you show up and need urgent care, but the hospital will definitely send you the bill afterwards.

So if you had no money they would take you to court and take your cardboard box you sleep in ? Or is there some budget allowed for cases like this built into everybody elses costs they pay.

Are all the hospitals privately owned and run for profit or are there like community ones or ones run by things like the church etc that are not for profit.

It will be transitioned to Medicade, which is the free insurance for the poor.

5106
Why is healthcare in the US so expensive? Here is a good synopsis -
http://moneyland.time.com/2010/02/25/why-is-health-care-so-expensive-let-us-count-the-conspirators/
The bullet points are -
Insurance Companies are businesses
No electronic records
Perverse incentives
Malpractice madness
Statistics
Premium pricing in the ER
We're fat
We take more pills
No shopping across state lines
What do I owe


And lobbyists pouring big bucks into their political coffers
And party line ideologies (Libs vs. indep vs conservs)
And ignoring constituent voice
And too many regulations
And too many singular political beliefs pushing theirs on the masses
And block and tackle to resolve the real barriers to a robust, cost effective system (tort reform)

Just sayin.

5107
A question. In USA if you have no money and you get hit by a car and have a broken leg/pelvis what happens at the moment. Is there any safety net ?

Yes, care is free.

5108
"I'm proud to be European in this matter and would be ashamed to be from a country that let people die because they simply cannot afford treatments"

Where do you draw the line?  Does the government (you/me) pay for someone's million dollar treatment?  Is 100,000 too much?  100,000 a month?  What?

+1

There seems to be a misunderstanding on Obamacare.  It's not free. Everyone will have coverage only because they are mandated by law to pay for their own coverage. The "everyone claim" is driven by the fact that insurance companies can't turn anyone down for pre existing conditions so there's no reason left on the table to prevent you from purchasing insurance.

5109
Off Topic / Re: Money stolen from moneybookers!!! Pls help!
« on: September 11, 2011, 17:56 »
I never leave my money in Paypal, I just cash it as it goes in, both for this reason (could be nicked or your account suspended for no reason etc.) and because it's pretty pointless having your cash sitting there not earning for you, working for these companies while you gamble on the exchange rate increasing in future.


^^^+++1

5110
123RF / Re: Stolen image from RF123
« on: September 10, 2011, 09:32 »
Good work! A win for the good guys!! ;)

5111
iStockPhoto.com / Re: 'Edstock' now has over 15,000 files...
« on: September 09, 2011, 20:11 »
by sending in this pile of photos they might make something like $2/image per year or so for not much effort for stuff that wouldn't be selling on Getty. There'll be 100,000 on there within another month, obviously there is no reviewing cost so $200K or so extra profit.

Exactly. Most of those images have only just arrived in the last couple of weeks so 1000 sales isn't too bad. With no commissions being paid, at say $8 per average sale, the money is totting up fairly quickly.

Poor lighting & noise = fit with Edstock.  Nice.

5112
Dreamstime.com / Re: files older than 4 years
« on: September 09, 2011, 20:00 »
Been around a while.  I have had a bunch.  I tell them to delete then I optimize keywords and reup.

5113
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Is it not just a tad ironic....
« on: September 09, 2011, 17:57 »
I like this at the end of the Feast promo:

Quote
And we hope to bring you some kick-ass offline events in the future because sometimes it's nice to hang out with people in real life, away from the internets.

There always seems to be enough money for kick-ass events and istockalypses.  >:(

WOW, they have taken up Bush-speak :)

And Obama spend :o

5114
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Is it not just a tad ironic....
« on: September 08, 2011, 19:26 »
After reading this thread I'm glad I deleted the email without reading it, I've got better things to waste my time with....

Druid

^^ I did the same thing and I would also go as far as saying that the commission cuts are funding this crap.

5115
Hi
can someone tell me the benefit in going exclusive with istock? (besides percentage rate increase)
how do you get a file into vetta? agency collection?   curious ...thanks in advance.
mike

You can keep your photos out of THinkStock if you choose.

^For now ;)

5116
Shutterstock.com / Re: shutterstock rejecting everything,Why?
« on: September 05, 2011, 08:56 »

My conclusion is simply that there is no rhyme or reason behind the LCV rejections.  I just had 40 accepted (100 percent) while this guy had zero accepted with a lot more graphic talent.

You shouldn't really be posting links to other people's work. I nearly slated the guy's portfolio, but really that would be unfair as he's not the one posting the link here.

All I will say is that if I was a reviewer there would be about 99% less images in that portfolio than there are now, so maybe SS is drawing the line in a better place than they used to.

 

Microbus, you are right, I shouldn't have posted that link.I try to be forthright here and in this case I posted it because I liked it.  However, it's clear that others weren't so hot on it.

5117
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Why are Fridays always a bad sales day ?
« on: September 05, 2011, 08:52 »
Had my best day of the week at IS again last Friday. Curious, isn't it?

Interesting.  I had a decent day of about 20 dls.  Not too typical for me.

5118
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Revised Artists Supply Agreement
« on: September 05, 2011, 08:45 »
They can't spin this one perfectly for everyone, so they'll just keep telling exclusives that opting out is a perk while telling independents that their forced inclusion is a benefit, all the while hoping we're too dumb to realize that the stories don't fit alongside each other.

IMO they probably won't have to dance around this contradiction for long.  I am sure sometime within the next few months they will be able to tout the benefits of forced inclusion to everyone ;)

They will create Vetta PP, where everyone gets pissed on!

I'm sure you're right, Lisa. It's really just a matter of time before this "perk" of exclusivity goes away. And I'm sure they find a way to make it sound like it's still a good thing for everyone.

5119
I will be staying.  I am not at all happy about the heavy-handedness of this new ASA, but I have been expecting something like this for months.  Can't afford to give up more than 1/3 of my income.

Im surprised they havent done it much earlier!  I knew this was coming well over a year ago, the pattern was all too familiar. Started with the new RM-contract, signing away certain shots to TS, etc.
I will be staying as well!  whats the point of beefing about it? but Im not happy at all. Lets see if they for, just ONCE, can proove us wrong?

best.

I am curious to see if this new PP push deflates sales on Istock, thus affecting our RC levels.  I know that won't happen over night but given a 6-12 month period I think we will be able to make a reasonable inference as to whether the PP program is actually a negative to gross sales.

5120
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Revised Artists Supply Agreement
« on: August 30, 2011, 07:29 »
Would be fun to what would happen if SS gave gave a small raise at this point,could that motivate the people seriously fed up with Istock to drop them all together ..... sorry Im tired neeeed sleep

I don't need a raise to be motivated, and I'm guessing neither do many people.

I'm not rushing to any decisions today, but I feel like my hand is being forced here.

You have to accept the fact that Istock is making a huge push to load content onto PP sites and, as a result, will be putting a lot of marketing effort into the "added content" as well.  That to me simply means pulling traffic away from Istock, making it even harder to hit our RC levels.  That means pay cuts for many...again.  I am in the same boat.  Taking a week or two to think this over but I am pretty burned out on taking pay cuts, putting content on "ghosted sites" with no little or accountability (at least from the contributor's viewpoint) and putting up twice as much content to maintain flat sales.  I am certainly not motivated by Istock.....FOR SURE!

5121
Off Topic / Re: Double Copyright violation on Facebook?
« on: August 28, 2011, 09:35 »
Hi Caspixel,

This is interesting.  Years ago before Microstock someone may have paid $300-$500 for that image from a traditional stock agency.  I once paid for a picture I saw in Time Magazine that used my products within the picture.  I contacted the photographer and paid $500 for one print.  If that same image was stolen (used) by another person and used on their site, you can be we'd go after them to remove it.  After all that image cost you, say, $500 and the photographer is also out money and probably has copyright protection.  But with the advent of microstock, the image maybe cost you $50 or less for a sub package, and that particular image might have cost you, say, $1.00 and the photographer got .35 cents.  It's because of this deflated value of photography that you are questioning whether you should go after this person or not.  After all, the image cost you peanuts.  But for reasons of principle alone (not to mention what I pointed out above) I would try to have them remove it.  Regardless of the cost of the image and the fact that they aren't reselling it, I would at least concoct a nice email explaining yourself and provide a link to that image at 123.

Just my 2 cents.  Les also brings up a simple approach that will take this off your plate.

5122
General Photography Discussion / Re: Road Trip
« on: August 27, 2011, 20:15 »
Can't wait to see the pics.

5123
Adobe Stock / Re: Fotolia: New Subscription Commissions
« on: August 27, 2011, 20:03 »
They have enough contributors that that can absorb "dead loss" in the millions.  I know of several significant MS contributors who are permanently banned from FT.  And FT could care less. I mean CARE * LESS. If you stop uploading, they skmply don't care.

5124
iStockPhoto.com / Re: New Survey...
« on: August 27, 2011, 19:46 »
The forums don't pay my bills. The survey was so heavily weighted to "does LOBO or Pinky do you right?" that it tells me clearly that the message of this survey is "facade at its best".  Challenge me, please.  Istock has stuck it to their contributors so hard and for so long that this survey is nothing more than a business facade.  If this new gal was really interested in turning the business around in favor of the contributors this survey would have been way different.   They need to focus on what the buyers have to say and not what the contributors have to offer.

5125
What?  Use the PS image scale function to resize an image.

But he wants to do it as a batch function with different size images if I understand correctly.  So I believe he wants multiple images of different sizes to "automatically" be brought up to one "global" size with a batch function.

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