There are some pretty large changes going on with istock… again.  This afternoon istockphoto dropped the bad news of pay cuts to all contributors.  The parent company, Getty, definitely likes to stir the microstock “pot”.  Your canister level won’t mean a thing anymore (other than how many images you can submit each week) and neither do your all time download totals.  Now they are going to pay us according to how many credit sales we have made/sold from the prior year.

The new royalty rates chart:

More info and discussions here:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=251812&page=1

http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=861

http://www.microstockgroup.com/istockphoto-com/istock-changing-royalty-structure/

So basically, another example of frustration to the world community of microstock photographers.  I can’t see how any microstock contributor, whether exclusive or non-exclusive would be happy over this change.  I’m projecting at least a 4 figure loss in income from my istock earnings for next year.  That’s a loss of 3% commission on every single sale.  Like 20% wasn’t low enough (pretty much the industry low) now I am expecting to fall under the 17% range.  Great.  That top tier of earning 20% is just set up there as a tease, I don’t think any one contributor even earns that many annual redeemed credit sales.

Responses are looking terrible across the board.  What a big surprise!  This is just like a slap in the face to every one of the contributors who helped istock and Getty grow over the years.  I feel bad for exclusive contributors who have all of their eggs in one basket.  This is the exact reason why I will never be able to allow myself to go exclusive with any one given company.

If a lot of exclusives jump ship, there’s definitely going to be an influx of new quality work on the remainder of the big 6 agencies.  I feel bad for them though – a lot more work for probably still, less pay.  It takes a while to build steam in a portfolio.  Images that were indexed and ranked in agency search engines from 3-5 years ago are what has helped us long time microstockers stick around through all of the chaos.  It’s not as easy when you just dump a bunch of images into a collection.  Momentum of uploads is key to success in this business.

Here is what I think and hope actually happens.  Established contributors (both exclusives and non-exclusives) should be grandfathered in to the minimum royalty rate they’re already earning. Let these changes go to the new ones that join, if at all. Other agencies have structured it that way, and it doesn’t cause mass chaos or letdown like this ridiculousness has.

In 2008, a new microstock agency popped up that caught a lot of our attention.  The site’s design was so simple, yet visually pleasing and easy to navigate.  Even the back end for contributors was designed for speed and ease of use.  I’ve been personally selling my images from them from the start, and recently I had an opportunity to interview the team.  I’m sure many will be interested in getting some insight from Yay Micro coming directly from it’s founders and employees.

To give some background information about Yay Micro, they are located in Oslo, Norway.  The company was founded by Jan Ole Kjellesvig, Linda Johannessen and Roger Bystrøm, all former employees at Scandinavia’s largest image agency Scanpix. In January 2009 Oddbjørn Sjøgren replaced Bystrøm as CTO. YAY Micro aims to be the best creative and editorial microstock agency in terms of low price, high quality, a good reputation and a high customer and contributor satisfaction rate. Yay Micro’s vision is to be a leading digital content provider.

Todd: Hey guys!  To start things off, besides Jan, Linda and Bjorn, how many others make up the Yay Micro team?

Yay Micro: The core team in Norway is Jan, Bjørn and myself, Linda. In addition, we have a Chinese office run by Martin and Tormod. People from the China Office are responsible for most of our routine tasks, while the Norwegian office mainly focuses on strategy, sales & marketing as well as system development. When needed we have additional people working for us in Norway, as well as China.

Todd: I’d like to say that Yay is definitely one of the easiest sites to navigate as both a buyer, and a seller.  Was this your original plan, and what did you learn from your experiences in the business prior to opening Yay?

Yay Micro: We get a lot of positive feedback on our design/usability! When we began we knew we had to make the upload process easy for photographers to give us a chance. We got great feedback from the first photographers, and based on this we adjusted the upload process to best suit photographer needs.  The same is true for customers – when we get customer feedback on difficulties we try to adjust our site. In addition, we have a strong interest in usability and clean design. The goal for YAY is that our website is easy to use –for newbees to online shopping, but also for the hyperactive web-user with low, or no, patience. By tracking all movement on the site we’re able to identify problems, and we have several major improvements planned for the next couple of months. (Both for customers and photographers).

Todd: Where do you think you see the stock photography business heading in general, in the next 5-10 years?

Yay Micro: We’re still in the middle of the industry settling into the paradigm shift of the digital era – with the Internet, more affordable, high quality digital cameras and user generated content, growth of RF-licensing and the lack of national boundaries for image agencies.

We can all agree that the largest change for the stock photography industry lately has been the growth of Microstock agencies. And, in the financial climate we have today, with focus on cutting cost in almost all industries, we believe Microstock will continue to grow and dominate the stock photo industry. We also see a future were news and celebrity images, together with microstock, will be the core business for the large stock companies, such as Getty.

For microstock companies I think we’ll see more of footage and audio, as well as other digital content. Some agencies will try to take the place of the traditional stock – as we already see – by making parts of their images more exclusive and sell for a higher price, or they’ll aim for a “midstock” price level. Others will keep true to the original microstock business model with extremely low prices for high quality images.  Nonetheless, there will always be a market for original, quality photos – and these will still manage to get a high price.

Todd: Do you think this low-price model will last, or will the general increase in photo quality and artistry lead to an uprising of the value of the images?

Yay Micro: As mentioned in the previous question, we think some of the microstock agencies will find their place in the low-price range, and others will try to raise their prices, with exclusive or “editors choice”-collections, and also by changing the size/price equation. We don’t expect the increase in technical quality to raise the prices; mostly the customers value the images in numbers (1 image) and the object/content of the photo.  Wasn’t it Yuri who experienced that an upgrade of his photo equipment did not increase his revenue proportionally?

At YAY we don’t have any plans for increased prices.

Todd: With so many microstocks in the industry, a lot of us are pulling for Yay Micro to succeed.  How do you think that Yay will be able to hang with the big boys, so to speak?

Yay Micro: Thank you, we really appreciate all the support we get from both contributors and customers!

We have been a slow, but steady growing company. Too slow some might think, but I like to think of it as the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare”.  We are building a quality company from scratch, and by working long and hard we’ll catch up, and pass, most of our competition.

We try to be an easy to use-site, with a high level of customer support and friendliness. We aim to reach customers looking for an “easy to use”-site, as we see our competitors making it more and more “crowded” at their sites. In addition, we plan to locally adapt the YAY-site to different under-served markets around the world. First of is China, and more will follow in 2010.

It’s important to remember that the stock image market is growing, both from new image users, with converted users from traditional stock agencies and new image markets.  Therefore we don’t have to solely rely on competing for the same customers.

Todd: Why should someone buy from Yay, over another major microstock site that they might already be comfortable with?  What makes Yay Micro stand out from the rest?

Yay Micro: We’re easier to use – and you’ll quickly get comfortable using the site. We have a low price, both for small images €1( = $1.5) and high-res files €10 (= $15.). With our subscription deals you can get a high-res images for as low as €1 (=$1.5).

You’ll also experience a high level of customer support and feedback on your inquiries. And – we pay a fair commission to our photographers and illustrators, with 50% on single image sales and €1 for each image subscription download.

Todd: Are there any current buying trends that perhaps have surprised you?

Yay Micro: Not any in particular. We don’t sell as many vector graphics as we’d thought we would. Given the great quality and variety we’re a bit surprised by this.

Todd: Is the YAY Micro team working on targeting selective world markets at the moment, for example just North America or Europe and Asia?  Or are you trying to expand sales worldwide?

Yay Micro: We began with mainly targeting Norway to gain some experience in a familiar market and with familiar customers. Then we began targeting “the world” in general. In the future we plan to target China, followed by other Asian countries such as India.

Todd: Microstock contributors whether hobbyists or even full-timers are extremely busy people.  The average microstocker probably submits to at least 5-10 different agencies, so their workload is already pretty full.  What would you say to convince a microstock contributor to market their work through Yay?

Yay Micro: The main reasons to join YAY would be the easy of upload, the high commission – and being with a growing company from the start. We also have a forum with some nice photographers, and we try to be an overall good, friendly company. When your business model is based on user generated content it’s important to want, and to have a good relationship with your users. We might not be the biggest or the highest earner, but we’ll do our very best to be a great company to do business with!

Todd: Who is currently the top selling contributor at Yay Micro?

Yay Micro: I don’t have the numbers here with me, but I would guess it would be one of the professional contributors with many files and who has been with us from the start.

Todd: I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do an interview.  I wish Yay Micro all the best and lots of future growth for years to come.

Yay Micro: Thank you for showing an interest in YAY.  If anyone reading this has  a comment or a question, feel free to contact us at post@yaymicro.com, or e-mail one of us directly on: Linda@yaymicro.com, Bjorn@yaymicro.com and Jan@yaymicro.com. If there are any questions in the comments we’ll try our best to answer!

Follow YAY Micro on twitter @Yaymicro or become a fan on facebook

I just feel like ranting this fine morning.

Has microstock devalued the industry? Sure it has. What once was a $500 photo sale has now turned into a $5 or even 50 cent photo sale.  But in general, the internet as well as digital photography have devalued the industry.  There are even websites being set up where people are posting links to our images, to download for free. One idiot buys them, and then shares them with the rest of the dishonest people that actually take part in the plundering and looting.  There’s really no stopping it, either.  There are contributors that can live comfortably off of a microstock income in many countries around the world.  Do you think these ones give a crap about devaluing the stock industry? Definitely not; they’re probably making a better living than they ever could before.

Traditional and old school photographers can sit around and whine about how much it sucks, or they can adapt to market trends.  Or, stay out of stock altogether.  Sure there’s still a market for macro stock, mid-stock, and rights managed. I personally dabble in a little of each.  Yes it’s nice when I make a photo sale for $400, but honestly if I relied just on those types of sales I wouldn’t be making enough to pay the bills.  Those sales for myself are few and far in between, compared to microstock sales, which are steady and in general, pretty reliable. Overall, the numbers for the rights managed and macro stocks are on the decline.  Getty was smart to acquire istockphoto (and they even recently bought stockxpert from Jupiter) so obviously they are trying to gain back their market share whatever ways possible.

Stock is only just one tiny corner of this incredible industry.  I started as a graphic designer, and even in that field it’s the same way.  You can focus on all sorts of corners of the creative industry…just pick one you enjoy doing the most, and obviously one you can pay the bills with.  If you can juggle a variety of things without trying to heat 6 pans on 4 burners, then go for it.  There are a lot of ways to make money in this business.  We can’t change how the market is, but we can fortunately pick and choose which areas we want to try and compete in.

It never ceases to amaze me…lately whenever I’m traveling every soccer mom, teenager, and senior citizen is rocking a DSLR of some sort.  If not a DSLR, then a state of the art point and shoot.  The technology is here, and it’s getting cheaper.  It’s so available, there is going to be a lot of competition in the future.  Thankfully for us there is a heck of a lot more to know in this business than just buying a camera and pressing the shutter.  BUT then comes the internet and google…where you can learn anything you want in a matter of minutes.  Maybe we’re all screwed

How long do you personally feel this microstock wave will last? A lot changes have happened in this business.  Agencies have come and gone, and there have been some buyouts and mergers.  I’ve been selling microstock for just 4 years now, and there have been changes galore.  The question is…how long will this microstock wave last? Will it continue the way it is for years to come, or will it eventually get to the point where it’s not even worth the time?  What do you guys think?  If anyone is reading this – I’d love to hear your predictions.

Which stock photo agencies are worthwhile?

Trying to see which site sells more images than the next is tricky.  There are a lot of elements involved, and it seems like sales figures fluctuate from month to month amongst the micro sites.  Factors like portfolio size, photo types, site search engines, and even categorization all play a part.  All I can do is give you my best sites – the ones that I personally think are worth my time to upload to. Below are the links to my top-selling sites – sign up, and try them out. Then you can make your own conclusions.    Here are my personal recommendations:

The All-Stars

Shutterstock

iStockPhoto

BigStockPhoto

Dreamstime

Fotolia

123 Royalty Free

CanStockPhoto

Slower Earners

Featurepics

Crestock

PantherMedia

MostPhotos

YAYmicro

ScanStockPhoto

Zazzle

Newer Promising Agencies:

GraphicLeftovers

Stockfresh

Veer Marketplace

DepositPhotos

The3DStudio

Pond5 Stock Footage

The above links are also excellent places to buy stock images.  I also sell images from my own portfolio and other select artists here at ArenaCreative.com at budget prices.  At present, we have thousands of images to choose from, ranging everywhere from graphics, to vector art, to lifestyle photography.

Everyone creates different types of art, and some of it is very marketable.  Some has high commercial value, while a lot does not.  It might look great, and you might want to make a print of it for your grandmother, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make enough money to make a living.  How do you know how well you’ll do?  You have to try it for yourself.  Then make your own conclusions. This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme.  You will “get back” out of stock photography, what you “put into it”.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog at the upper right of this page. I’ve consulted so many for free on how to get started over the years, only to find that I have less and less time for it.  Especially when the majority of people I’ve spent hours helping, never ended up going through with regularly submitting images Like I said, stock is definitely not for everyone.  Lots of people give it a shot and then realize how much work is involved.  My time is  valuable, as is yours, but if you are interested in one-on-one consulting regarding your microstock efforts, feel free to contact me for further info.  I highly recommend the Expanded Microstock Photographer’s guide – a really affordable ebook by Rasmus Rasmussen, a 10 year veteran in the world of microstock photography.

I recently received a wall post on facebook from a fellow photographer:

“Your giving out free photo shoots in exchange for signed release forms is undermining the industry… it is a disgusting strike against the photographic community. Terrible business practice.  Do you really feel you have to give your work away in order to get a model release signed?  I seriously couldn’t believe my eyes when I read this… you really should reconsider.”
-Anonymous

Is this guy serious?  I couldn’t help but laugh after reading this.  The point of TFCD shoots (time for cd) is a trade off.  I get models for free, and they get the images for free.  In turn, I sell the images and make money off of them.  How is this undermining the industry?  Not everyone is a stock photographer, it’s not like this guy is going to lose portrait business.  Not everyone is going to want to sign a model release and have their photos sold all over the internet.  I am very clear with the models I work with prior to shoots.  As long as everything is understood, we move forward.

Sometimes there are cases where you may shoot and not got enough return back, for your efforts.  If you want to play it safe, there are also arrangements where photography rates are discounted when a model release is signed, but the client is still charged a fair rate.  This gives the model or people receiving the service incentive to sign a model release.  Depending on the difference in price you charge, some may be very willing to do this in order to save money.  You can’t under-sell or under-value your services, your time, your gear, and your efforts, but there are times where an even trade can still be of value for both parties.

You can learn more about TFCD shoots here.