Maybe I'm wrong then and I just became awesome when I got accepted into exclusivity and/or my files were just better.

Hopefully I am wrong, but in the end, I'm enjoying myself now a lot more and I at most lost $150 US to the switch, just due to complications and such in the month of May. 

What doesn't really matter to me is what anyone else does, whether they believe me or not, or whether anyone cares what I do.  So good luck to you all, and if you like what you are doing, keep doing it!

I still find it amazing that fintastique contributes NOTHING to this forum except for one thread a month and people respond to it, especially when it only asks for earnings breakdowns

No because if they were rejected, they most likely aren't any good.  And lately I don't have many rejected images.  iStock sells well for me, and I know what works there.  The task at hand is to produce images that work with iStock.

Quote from: ichiro17 on June 30, 2009, 08:01

You can't streamline a process where everyone has different keyword expectations and to get the proper results and the most of the process you need to go in and keyword for each individual site. 

Really?  You were keywording separately for each individual site?  I can see how that would eat up a lot of time. 

I add keywords to the IPTC using photoshop and use the exact same keywords for every site except istock.   That seems to work fine for me.

Istock is the only site that requires special attention to keywords. 

No I was doing the same, but then you have to go through and fix it for iStock, or fix it for SS, and the results are not as good as if you put in the best keywords for each system.  But thats my opinion.  And I'm of the same opinion that I don't want to put unnecessary pressure on myself to have to feed the SS machine to keep sales up.  Or to deal with issues such as those mentioned at Fotolia.  DT was my favourite place outside of iStock because they have a good model and a clean site.  SS still looks a bit like a scam site with "make money with your photos" or $$$ and it may be great but looks so tacky.

Quote from: ichiro17 on June 29, 2009, 10:25

If you are diamond, I have no idea why you are taking so long to decide or why you have waited this long.

I am now after 1 month of exclusivity exactly where I was in terms of revenue per month when I was with 5 sites, and I have a much better upload pattern.  One site is so much easier to handle, and if I'm making the same amount of money with less management and hassle, why not?

Go for it, and do it quickly.

Some people make a lot less money at istock than at other sites, and going exclusive could be a costly move. It's not so simple for everyone.

I'm not saying its for everyone, but if you are a diamond contributor, you most likely know what you are doing, so you won't lose that much.

And the time you save and the aggrevation you save is priceless

Just wondering what people think of lightboxes on iStock vs UBB links vs. neither.

Do people believe its worth the effort? A lot of the bigger contributors do take the time to do it, and I have up until now.

Quote from: ichiro17 on May 22, 2009, 12:47

...and you think you know more than anyone else?  My lack of research has shown me that I don't have to upload to 4 tedious processes and I can spend more time shooting instead of worrying about 5 or 6 sites and how they manage their businesses.  I also don't have toi listen to apparently enlightened posters talk about how they know whats going on and others don't.

Probably more than most yes because I've been in microstock more or less from the start and I have the benefit of analysing the data of 150K-odd sales at 6 agencies over the last 4 years. I've also collected data from many other players over the same timescale.

Anyway, I've checked your likely earnings at Photos.com/JIU based on your current sales at IS which average just under 7 per day.

If you were to place your entire portfolio on Photos.com/JIU (which I don't think you can with files younger than 18 months?) then I would estimate you would earn about $14.60 per month there. That's based on my own experience with selling at both sites for the last 8 months and assuming that your sales will be similar to my own in proportion to portfolio size.

If, more likely, you were to place only about 30% of your portfolio on Photos/JIU and you chose images that sold little at IS then I would expect you to earn rather less than $5 per month __ probably about the same as you would earn (or lose) from a single Large sale at IS.

Enjoy your $5 and don't you go spending it all at once.

Again, you don't know what you are talking about and you are full of crap.  i don't care if you've made 150K a year or if you think you know what you are talking about.  enjoy making linear assumptions, i don't care what you have to say and just because the situation works for you, it may not work for others.  i really hope that your arrogance and cocky attitude catch up to you.  i'm ignoring you

Quote from: ichiro17 on May 22, 2009, 12:21

... and if Photos.com or whatever adds an extra 100 per month for me, then I'm cool with that.

It might well do so. Unfortunately you'll probably lose 5x that from your IS income. Enjoy the ride ... and look forward to a dwindling income now that all your eggs are in one rather leaky basket. I guarantee you'll be regretting your decision within a year.

You clearly understand very little about the microstock market and I'm afraid your lack of research will cost you a great deal of money (and even more angst) in the medium to long term. Oh well!

...and you think you know more than anyone else?  My lack of research has shown me that I don't have to upload to 4 tedious processes and I can spend more time shooting instead of worrying about 5 or 6 sites and how they manage their businesses.  I also don't have toi listen to apparently enlightened posters talk about how they know whats going on and others don't.

Quote from: ichiro17 on May 22, 2009, 10:11

I don't see the problem here with what they are doing.  A lot of this will drive more traffic to iStock which will benefit those on the agency. I think the way they are handling exclusive content and giving the opt-in and out will be a good way to keep some IS files circulating, especially if they aren't selling on IS.  It would seem they are tiering their offerings, and photos.com is a great domain name.

The fact that people complain about commissions but still submit to SS is hilarious too.  I can't remember the exact figures, but somoene posited that the commission at SS for a regular contributor could have potentially been less than 20% or in that range. 

I don't think I've read quite so many nonsensical statements in so short a post for a very long time.

Why are you so emphatic that traffic will be driven towards IS when logic and economics suggest it is more likely to be the other way around? You can buy a one-month sub on Photos.com (750 Large images) for less than the cost of 6 Large images on IS.

Have you checked the current traffic figures at IS and Photos.com? Even if all of Photos.com customers migrated to IS it wouldn't even make a blip on the graph.

All they are likely to achieve is to boost a low cost competitor at the very great risk of undermining the crown jewels of microstock.

I wish you wouldn't keep perpetuating the idiotic supposition that "the commission at SS for a regular contributor could have potentially been less than 20% or in that range." For starters 'less than 20%' is not 'a range'. SS actually pay out 35-40%. How do we know this? Because Jon told us and the post is still on the forum. Look it up.

My average commission at SS is 53c per sale whereas at Photos.com it is 33c and JIU it is 30c. The volume of licenses sold at SS is about 700% higher than Photos.com/JIU combined too. Why do you think it is 'hilarious' that people express concerns about commissions at Photos/JIU?

I do wish you would go to the trouble of actually learning some facts before making such ridiculous statements.

I don't need to.  I'm exclusive and I'm taking at attitude. 

And I'm not really inclined to believe management of a corporation either.

And I'm hope that consolidation in the industry hits you very hard, you have to eat your words

On a final note, it doesn't matter what I think, its what I earn.  I'm earning enough that it doesn't matter what you say, and if Photos.com or whatever adds an extra 100 per month for me, then I'm cool with that.

its not good humour then.  its just annoying now ...and it was before too

Quote from: ichiro17 on May 22, 2009, 07:38

Yet no one mentions the garbage that is on the SS forum.

You're barely on iStock after yelling like a drama queen over all other sites that didn't let you go, and you already got the "right" istock attitude. Congrats, but I think I'll ploink you. Yack.

I'm on iStock because I don't want to deal with the other sites.  Its not the "right" istock attitude, its the right attitude in general.  I didn't just go exclusive on a whim, I went exclusive because it makes sense for me and a lot of other people think the same way too.  And SS doesn't have exclusives and most of the contributors are much worse with the "thanks SS" or "I love you SS" when they announce they will be sending out checks or their stupid threads designed to stir up commotion or their members peddling 'photo excursions and classes'.  I started on SS and their forums and I've grown to dislike the way the forum is.  I'm very happy this forum has remained very good.  Hate iStock for being well-run, but at least it is a well-run organization. 

I complained about 1 site being stupid about not letting me go.  And I still think that 6 month policy is crap.  Plus I went exclusive so that I could avoid having to listen to people like you and concentrate more on actually taking photos, not posting in forums and uploading to 15 different site when I could make 90% of my non-exlusive income with 10% of the time invested uploading or making bad avatars. 

Yet no one mentions the garbage that is on the SS forum.  At least iStock doesn't require you to upload 40 photos a day to keep up your income.  And I found the IS review system as a non-exclusive to be very good, very helpful in making me a better photographer.  I still don't like the 'artifacting' rejection, but thats just because they don't like the photo in general. 

Why does no one complain about StockXpert where they just say "we don't want that photo", meanwhile its got 40 downloads on DT?

iStock is the leader, so it will get a lo of the verbal punishment, but that just means its still on-top.

So I'm finally exclusive, and so far so good.  I'm just announcing that because I will most likely not participate as much in the forums, I'd rather work on my skills and upload more often.  Also I'd like to focus more time managing my portfolio, adding UBB links and stuff like that.

I will pop in from time to time, just didn't want to alarm anyone that I'm missing not that anyone would notice anyways