Price changes are very sensitive, we cannot just raise prices willy nilly. But we will take things under advisement and we'll improve from day to day.

Alex,

Why are you setting your sites so low?  You've got 10.5 months to work hard and build up a reputation amongst buyers that can separate you from the rest and justify a "Willy Nilly" price increase.  Have faith in yourself.  Heck, you will even have video to offer! 

Mat

Will the strategy work?  Time will tell, but as a business person, you have to see there is logic in it.

seriously.. why haven�t you answered to my "questions".. why it is FAIR what 123RF is doing? name me the agencies to blame

Quote from: luissantos84 on February 15, 2012, 11:48

Quote from: stockmarketer on February 15, 2012, 11:27

Will the strategy work?  Time will tell, but as a business person, you have to see there is logic in it.

seriously.. why haven�t you answered to my "questions".. why it is FAIR what 123RF is doing? name me the agencies to blame

Edited.  No point.

This answer is better: http://kotaku.com/358523/someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet

dude you are a BLAST! you entered this topic saying the blame is joining small agencies, this and that.. now you step out

Hi everyone,

The new commission structure is up. You can read it as you log into 123RF and the structure is right below the captcha entry.

I thank you for your patience and for those who have afforded us some amount of faith - I personally thank you very much. I am open to all questions and I promise to answer each and every one. As usual we'll be upfront about things.

All I can say is, allow our track record to speak for itself. We came from humble beginnings have outlasted quite a few agencies and we aren't stopping our growth. I do apologize for dismal review times, I acknowledge we're a bit slow but we're hammering out the videos platform this month, our attention is focused there somewhat.

We are making quite a number of changes most importantly - we've been given the go ahead to expand the operations department threefold. I believe in about 2 months time, long review times will be a thing of the past.

I welcome your questions.... As usual

Alex.

To recap you will be expanding your operations department threefold "At Our Expense"!  Soon we will be seeing job postings bragging about stellar company benefit packages while we suffer the consequences.

I do not know about the rest of this bunch but I am sick to the bones at seeing others benefit at my expense. http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/day-in-the-life-jon-oringer-wsj-slideshow/

Our costs continue to rise, the companies are doing well, they are hiring and yet our standard of living continues to deteriorate.

Pathetic and dispicable!

Quote from: gbalex on February 15, 2012, 12:51

To recap you will be expanding your operations department threefold "At Our Expense"!  Soon we will be seeing job postings bragging about stellar company benefit packages while we suffer the consequences.

I do not know about the rest of this bunch but I am sick to the bones at seeing others benefit at my expense. http://www.microstockgroup.com/shutterstock-com/day-in-the-life-jon-oringer-wsj-slideshow/

Our costs continue to rise, the companies are doing well, they are hiring and yet our standard of living continues to deteriorate.

Pathetic and dispicable!

So it has finally happened.  The "Occupy Wall Street" mentality has officially set up camp outside the walls of "Big Microstock."

why are you so happy about your 2% increase? LOL

@stockmarketer: Not sure how you get any parallel between the Occupy movement and complaints about agencies changing the split between contributors and agency.

We create what the agencies sell. They don't direct, fund, own (and sometimes barely market) our product. Complaints about predatory moves by agencies are more like the sports lockouts, SAG and writer's guild actions or any actor's or writer's complaint about their agent. The agencies wouldn't exist without us, but we need them for the storefront for our work. There's no "down with the rich" stuff in our complaints, but there is anger (justified IMO) in these unilateral, non-negotiated changes in terms which - no surprise - solely benefit the agency and not contributors.

Adding more reviewers isn't going to sell more product. 123rf would have to be pouring that money into doubling the sales volume before I'd be interested in talking about handing over more money to them.

I agree with the above!

stockmarketer name one business that is happy with stagnant or worse yet decreases in royalty rates while their own costs of doing business rises across the board!

Today I am hurt and confused.  What have I done wrong?  Why don't you love me any more?  

You haven't done anything wrong. But you have confused a personal relationship (love and trust) with a business relationship (financials and leverage).

Whenever a business has leverage over something (employees, distributors, etc) it will almost always take advantage of the leverage to optimize its financials.

I'm going to repeat this again and I hope someone is paying attention. Bookmark this. You are all slowly being herded herding yourselves toward Shutterstock with your "support the fair" mentality. When you all end up in the SS corral, they will have the absolute maximum leverage to make changes that inflict massive damage to contributors. I'm not saying they will. I would like to hope that they won't but history suggests otherwise.

Okay, just did the math.  Based on 2011 numbers, I am in the 50% category, but the low end.  No chance of getting higher up, but a real chance of slipping down.  Just like Istock, I am hanging on to the rate I have earned, but just barely, and for how long? 

Paulie, I definitely get what you are saying, but do you really think Istock exclusivity offers any better protection? 

Okay, just did the math.  Based on 2011 numbers, I am in the 50% category, but the low end.  No chance of getting higher up, but a real chance of slipping down.  Just like Istock, I am hanging on to the rate I have earned, but just barely, and for how long?  

Paulie, I definitely get what you are saying, but do you really think Istock exclusivity offers any better protection?  

I realize I may be perceived as biased (one of the "bitter ex girlfriends" as an exclusive with a tart tongue described us), but entering iStock exclusivity at the moment is career suicide.

Staying exclusive is a different issue, and for a newbie with nothing much to lose, I wouldn't advise exclusivity, but I don't think it matters much one way or the other.

Lisa, I will personally come and tear apart your fence (I hear Florida weather's nice this time of year) if you even give a nanosecond's thought to exclusivity at this point!

I do realize that having any agency become more powerful doesn't help contributors much in the long run if that agency uses the power in an anti-contributor fashion. However, at the moment we have to play the hand we have, not the one we think we should have in a fair and just universe.

It's sort of an aside, but there's some very interesting reading in a boycott of a large and apparently greedy journal publisher, Elsevier, by the academics who volunteer as editors for the journals. See the blog that started it all, a NY Times article about it yesterday and other coverage here and here.

The situations aren't directly comparable, but this does talk about the possibility of opening up new avenues to disseminate journals - especially as almost all the work is done by people other than the journal publishers and distribution in print is no longer as important as it was - more than changing the behavior of the existing publisher. I think my point is that sometimes things can change - just as iStock changed things way back when it started and before it became assimilated into the Borg

Well it seems like the old saying stays true, if you want loyalty get a dog. Have been rooting for you all the way up to now - getting the dog tomorrow. 

Did I miss something? Aren't most of us grandfathered into 50% (for now)?

Yes, you did miss something.  It's based on royalty credits (man I loathe that phrase) in 2013.  Yes, I know - after the end of the world in December and all that so what am I getting excited about?

Agencies seem to have only three goals as it comes to contributors these days:

-Keep back new contributors from joining
-Discourage contributors who want to learn, work hard and steadily build up a good portfolio
-Drive away experienced and high selling contributors to the macros and to search other and new ways to sell their work

Well, I suppose they can spill their lifeblood as they wish�at least for the time being.