25. Going Exclusive or Not ?
One interesting thing I saw on the previous page was that all top ten contributors (actually the top 14) on iStockphoto were exclusive. So should we do this too ? I'll try to find that out on this page.
25.1. What means ´being exclusive´ ?
If you upload some or all of your photos to only one site, this site will reward you in some way, mostly with a higher royalty percentage.
The advantage for the site is obvious, they can offer images to their customers which nobody else can. Actually this is one of the strongest advantage iStock has over it's competitors. iStock has a large group of exclusives, if someone wants to buy their images, you can only do that at iStock.
The advantage for the photographer is in most cases an higher royalty scheme. But this can vary from site to site. The greatest disadvantage for an photographers is that he may only submit his image(s) to that particular site.
25.2. Exclusivity programs examined
As said each site has his own exclusivity program with his own rules and advantages. So let's look how the programs of the four biggest sites look like.
25.2.1. iStockphoto
iStockphoto has the most extensive exclusivity program. You can find the complete terms on their site here. But I will highlight the most important parts underneath.
Increased Rights Protection : If your image is illegally used, iStockphoto will take actions
Higher daily upload limit : For non-exclusives iStockphoto has an weekly upload limit of 25 images. Exclusives may upload more files.
Higher Royalty scheme :
The base payout rate at iStockphoto is 20%. If you're exclusive that rate is 25% and it will go up when you have more downloads. If you're ´diamond´ (25.000 downloads) your payout rate has risen to 40%.
Requirements :
You can only upload photos to iStockphoto, so they require exclusivity for all your RF work. Even your rejected images can't be sold elsewhere !! This exclusivity does not count for right managed agencies, work for hire, sales of prints, ...
25.2.2. Dreamstime
At Dreamstime you can choose wether you will be exclusive as photographer or only for certain images. (Not sure what the advantages are for going all exclusive).
As an exclusive you will have a 60% royalty fee instead of the normal 50%, so you will earn an extra 10%.
Dreamstime is the only site who pays for every image of it's exclusives which is approved. They pay $0.20 for each approved image.
25.2.3. Fotolia
On Fotolia only an image may be exclusive (you must state this in the uploading process). So no exclusive photographers here.
For exclusive photos the payout ratio is raised from 33% to 50%.
Also interesting is that you can set your own price (within limits) for exclusive images. In that way you could set a price which is up to 15 times higher than normal.
Finally you can option in an 'buy out' option for exclusive images. This isn't possible for non-exclusive ones.
25.2.4. Shutterstock
Being the best selling site for most, it's strange shutterstock doesn't have a exclusivity program at all !
25.3. Summary
25.3.1. The money
Although many topcontributors on iStock are exclusive to them, I wonder if it's really worth going exclusive today. Okay, you earn up to 20% more than being non-exclusive but this prevents you from submitting to other sites.
Like we've seen on page 7, iStock makes up only around 30% of the total income of most. Even if your earnings double, you still don't make any profit by going exclusive. Of course you don't know for sure what the impact will be if you go exclusive at iStockphoto. For instance you could be favored in the search result which could increase your download significantly.
I don't know if that 10% extra royalty payout and the $0.20 approval fee of Dreamstime exclusivity program is worth considering. It's seems that you can make much more by uploading to several sites.
Fotolia's exclusivity program however has an interesting option which allows you to increase the selling price multiple times. This would be a good option for your better photos that you don't want to sell for $1. Besides that Fotolia also raises the payout ratios for exclusive images from 33% to 50%. Of course the difficulty is predict which images will sell good at Fotolia but less at other sites.
25.3.1. All eggs in one basket
Besides the fact that going exclusive seems seldom profitable. I would feel comfortable with putting all my eggs in one basket in a quickly changing environment which Microstock sites are today. Even if it is the largest basket around ;)
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