I read somewhere - might have been here - so I don't know if I'm just spreading a myth here - but it was stated that SS favors new contributors in search results.   This inspires contributors to quickly upload everything they have.  I was totally impressed with the way SS took off...

I thought it was just a December thing, but my downloads crashed.   I had been uploading since March, so my 6 month newness should have expired in September.  They haven't picked up yet in 08 either.  My new uploads haven't hit the search yet so we'll see what happens going forward.  I'm afraid my new uploads will appear on the weekend now, which may be as helpful as not appearing at all.

In the interest of full disclosure in this thread, I will not be closing down my iStock account at this time.

In the past 24 hours I have talked to 2 iStock admins.  The first contacted me, and showed genuine concern for my issue with the commission rate.  While I was not told that the rate would be changing, I did get the impression that it would be higher a year or two down the road.  It meant a lot to me to be contacted regarding my concerns, and not simply brushed aside. 

The second admin I contacted directly.  He/she helped me re-activate some files, and essentially got my portfolio back into working order.  I still have quite a few files de-activated which were good sellers, but I will deal with those when there is more time.

I remain uncomfortable about the 20% commission structure.  However, some valid issues have been raised in this thread, and others, regarding subscription plans.  In the end, I wasn't as sure of my position as I had originally felt.  Apparently pondering this for the last 2 months was not enough.    

The past week has been spent gearing new material toward the other sites I contribute to, and I will continue to do so.  Until I think about this further, I will continue to direct my efforts in their direction.  When I feel more comfortable with the iStock commission structure, I will become more active.  At least this way I do not burn the bridge between iStock and my portfolio, and I buy myself more time to think things through.

Once again, I appreciate the varying opinions and the level of honesty and concern from the other posters in this thread.  Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.

Now... the burning question we all want to know.....

Dan.  Why did Istock contact you?  Was it an "exit interview" or are they reading this thread?

I agree that there split is pitiful a minimum 30/70 would be better considering that even with the price increase we still make more per image on most other sites. We have chosen not to upload any new work until split increases and an FTP upload system is in place.

Quote from: Pixart on January 04, 2008, 18:51

Now... the burning question we all want to know.....

Dan.  Why did Istock contact you?  Was it an "exit interview" or are they reading this thread?

Just as an FYI, they would be reading this thread. 

As a matter of full disclosure Dan ought to have also said that this was not the only place he posted, so it may not have been this thread they were reading!

Just as an FYI, they would be reading this thread.  It will turn up in their referrer logs, plus anyone in marketing over there worth their salt will have a vanity feed set up with Google Alerts and more extensive monitoring services. Less for snooping, more for PR disaster avoidance. When people are talking about you, you need to know about it because things - particularly bad things - spread very fast online.

People, the admins are just ... people.  They read blogs and boards and stuff.  One of them probably just came across the post in one of many places.

Quote from: SabrinaDent on January 11, 2008, 17:14

Quote from: Pixart on January 04, 2008, 18:51

Now... the burning question we all want to know.....

Dan.  Why did Istock contact you?  Was it an "exit interview" or are they reading this thread?

Just as an FYI, they would be reading this thread. 

As a matter of full disclosure Dan ought to have also said that this was not the only place he posted, so it may not have been this thread they were reading!

This is true.  I posted a similar thread to the Micropayment Yahoo message group.  I agree with Sabrina however.  They likely read both, since both are followed by a large amount of contributors.

I remember sometime last year someone (who's name I won't bring up) was asked privately if he wouldn't rather close his account at SS over something he said here.   

Can't remember what it was over - but I do remember that he hadn't posted anything malicious or that I personally found negative.  We need to listen to his advice to post with caution. 

I may be wrong, but if you close your account with some of these microstock agencies then don't they reserve the right to still sell your images? So if you close your account with an agency then you are letting them sell your images and keep all of the money. Maybe it's just certain agencies. I think that Zazzle.com operates that way.

I think that's unusual. Closing an account means no portfolio for most agencies! With RF you always own the rights.

Whenever I go to the istockphoto site, I watch the connecting bar at the bottom left of the Firefox screen. It goes to istock, then to google-analytics. Gee, I wonder why? By the way, istock isn't the only site that monitors you.

As a web designer at times I'd say it's pretty stupid NOT to have google analytics on your site.