Interesting news.... I don't like exclusivity though, even image one. Will be a tough sell unless they are planning to bring in enough customers to make it work right from the start.

At this point, does anyone care if their relationship ends with IS?

A lot of people still make a lot of money at IS, whatever your experience may be. Many people rely on their IS income to pay their rent and mortgage and feed their family. If my income from there was cut off with 30 days notice it would be a disaster, so perhaps a little more empathy wouldn't go amiss.

I am not so sure the big IS players will be that ready to move since most are getting 40% commission now and an extra 10% to move to a new micro site (or mid tier) with little awareness and momentum may not be appealing. Sure, we all hate Getty but it comes down to money in most cases.

I would love to know what Stocksy's business plan is regarding content ingestion. This is not 2001 and the landscape has changed. But I feel that there is a strong momentum for something like this to flourish -- but it will take time and a nurturing mindset by all.

I thought Stockfresh might get a lot of the old Stockxpert buyers but that hasn't happened.  Having exclusive images only might be more attractive to buyers.  I don't think it's a good idea to only have high quality from the start.  It would take a long time to get enough exclusive images to attract buyers.  Who's going to upload high quality exclusive content to a site that doesn't have many buyers?  So I think they will need all of us from the start and they will have to keep their acceptance rates similar to the big sites.  They can always start their version of Vetta when they have enough images.

As istock was open to everyone that could pass their contributor test, I don't see why Stocksy wouldn't be?  I think they will need as many contributors as possible because we don't all have vast amounts of exclusive images and I doubt the big exclusives with istock could take the risk until Stocksy is established.

How many exclusive images will they need to get buyers interested?  I would think at least 500,000.  That's not going to be easy to get quickly and sites that don't get going fast seem to drift to the bottom of the earnings poll here.

I thought Stockfresh might get a lot of the old Stockxpert buyers but that hasn't happened.  Having exclusive images only might be more attractive to buyers.  I don't think it's a good idea to only have high quality from the start.  It would take a long time to get enough exclusive images to attract buyers.  Who's going to upload high quality exclusive content to a site that doesn't have many buyers?  So I think they will need all of us from the start and they will have to keep their acceptance rates similar to the big sites.  They can always start their version of Vetta when they have enough images.

As istock was open to everyone that could pass their contributor test, I don't see why Stocksy wouldn't be?  I think they will need as many contributors as possible because we don't all have vast amounts of exclusive images and I doubt the big exclusives with istock could take the risk until Stocksy is established.

How many exclusive images will they need to get buyers interested?  I would think at least 500,000.  That's not going to be easy to get quickly and sites that don't get going fast seem to drift to the bottom of the earnings poll here.

I agree, to a certain point.  I agree with the all exclusive library.  They have to distinguish themselves from the other agencies.  But, I believe they need to keep the quality high, but draw from a large pool of contributors, not just the top earners.  You're right, in that they won't get enough images from the top earners alone to attract buyers.  They need all of us, just not all of our images.

If all the top contribs, with 5,000 images or more each submit 1000-5000 images to Stocksy they need to get about 300 top contributors to get to 500,000 images. And then you will probably only have people in situation images and travel images. That will only attract a very limited amount of buyers and you will be competing with the likes of Yuri's people images.

If you want to make  it attractive, you need all kinds of contributors. But if you make the review process like Istock or Shutterstock you are guarenteed to have a high quality varied library. Which will benefit buyers and sellers.

-- double post, sorry --

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Then why do you insist to have your "all eggs in one basket" ? Why not want to secure your income and spread the risks if you are depending on microstock income?

If only it was that easy! I have been at iStock for 8 years, I have a portfolio of 4000+ images and a weekly income of 4 figures. My income is rising too, not reaching what it was 2 years ago or so, but rising. I know from others experience that giving up exclusivity would mean an immediate large drop in income of up to 75%. That would mean my weekly income might drop by, lets say $750, possibly more. That is a lot of money and an amount I could not possibly afford to lose. I could start to upload at other sites but how long would it take me to (a) upload 4000 images and (b) equal my income at IS? People I know who have given up exclusivity suggest it might take 2 years or more and may never equal the exclusivity income I now have. Some have given up exclusivity and returned to IS within a year, because the income drop is impossible to manage, and then, when they return to IS, have to fight to climb back to their previous figures. If I were starting out now I would definitely choose non exclusivity but I haven't and I continue for the present to reap the financial rewards, but with the negative aspects that come with that too. IS has changed and not for the better, but it is easy to be glib and suggest people spread risks, without really understanding the implications of that statement. Hope my explanation may go some way to explaining why myself, and probably many more people, are stuck with exclusivity for the time being.

You need to get out no matter what. If IS falls over this year, you are screwed. Why not get out before its really becomes a disaster. You have no control over what happens to IS, you do have control over your images. Well with Getty you dont, but thats another discussion.

Quote from: goober on February 08, 2013, 06:41

I'm starting  a co-op stock site called crapsy. For all of those artists who get rejected by stocksy. Who's in?

ooh goody, somewhere to park all my pictures of fruit.

At Crapsy we love old pictures of fruit but what we really need is more pictures of flowers. We love photographs of flowers from your home garden. Crapsy!

Quote from: Perry on February 09, 2013, 06:28

Quote from: vlad_the_imp on February 09, 2013, 06:19

If only it was that easy! I have been at iStock for 8 years, I have a portfolio of 4000+ images and a weekly income of 4 figures. My income is rising too, not reaching what it was 2 years ago or so, but rising. I know from others experience that giving up exclusivity would mean an immediate large drop in income of up to 75%.

Yes, I can definitely understand your side of the story too. Your main problem is that you should have quit exclusivity a long time ago, before you had become too dependent on microstock income (I quit exclusivity back in 2006). Of course thinking about the past doesn't help here...

Unless you live under a rock, signs of an epic fail from istock have been showing for a couple of years now. I dont understand this "i depend on this income to feed my family." EVERYONE depends on whatever income they make. It is never easy changing jobs, it is a lot of work and a lot of stress. This didnt all just come about with the google getty deal. How many "naysayers", as they frequently get called, predicted this a long time ago? everyone made a choice. If you chose not to listen and "kept hoping", based on nothing, i dont think its fair to expect too much empathy. Some empathy will be given, as for anyone down on their luck, but not a whole lot. Time for a plan b!

It's really not that simple though is it.  I feel really sorry for the exclusives in this position.   Normally when you change jobs you are straight away on the same salary or more but with this it will take a long while to get back to anything like what they are earning as an exclusive. The money to pay the bills has to come from somewhere.

I honestly don't understand what's all the fuss around exclusive images! People, we're talking about RF!

There's not a single thing about exclusive in this licensing model, and in 2013 no one will be producing content that isn't available at other sites through similar images and concepts, or that will be replicated the next day. The only images that could take advantage of the exclusiveness should be under the RM license. But RF... c'mon...

Stocksy doesn't need to reinvent the wheel or enter in the "fake" exclusiveness concept to attract a large number of buyers and be successful. It just needs:

1 - Competitive prices
2 - A good site working properly
3 - Good customer service
4 - A very large, diverse and quality collection from high value productions to isolated apples
5 - Tenths of thousand of motivated photographers advertising for free all around the world valuing millions in the traditional advertising
6 - And finally, to promote the sustainable concept of the agency near the buyers.

The last point is absolutely critical for the success of this agency.

If a buyer has good prices, a good site and service, plus a large collection of high quality images, which means all the things he probably get from other agencies, but on top of that he understands that he's helping the producers of the content - which will be able give him more quality photos in the future - I have no doubt many buyers will go to Stocksy.

So, I personally don't feel that the exclusivity of images is anything important in distinguish Stocksy from other agencies. Just offer the same as the best ones plus something they cannot equal: totally motivated contributors and a positive feeling to the buyers for doing a good and fair thing.

After all this I don't doubt that stocky will start to have exclusive content, but that will happen because people will stop supplying other agencies voluntarily.

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If IS falls over this year, you are screwed.

I just have to laugh at comments like this. You have been in the business a few months, probably earn a few hundred dollars a year, but feel free to pontificate about just about everything to do with microstock, with very little real experience.

Laugh at me all you want. It has nothing to do with how much experience I have. I made over 3000 dollar profit since I started selling photos 10 months ago. I guess I am doing just fine next to my 56.000 dollar day job. I am a fast learner.

It has everything to do you with what you said yourself and common sense.

You say you cant leave IS because it will be a disaster. So IF IS falls over this year, you are screwed, or not? Either way, you lose your income. Thats why me and other people say its best to spread the risk. How tough that may be, you better get started before its too late. THis doesnt apply to micro stock, but to any situation in life. And I have plenty experience with that.

I didnt attack you dude, I just made an observation. No need to get personal imo.

What some don't understand is that a Plan B may not involve spreading work to other micros. It might not involve micros, or indeed selling images at all.
So for some people it may be worth staying exclusive and focussing on getting their ducks in a row, or whatever that saying is, in other areas of their lives, rather than wasting time on the other micros.
There are not only two options, and everyone's port, expectations and are different. People can read all the infor about the different micros here and made their own decision. What's right for 'you' or 'me' isn't necesarily right for Tom, Dick, or Harry.