iStockphoto
May 28th, 2007 by Lee TorrensThis is the first in my State of the Microstock Nation series of reviews of websites, resources and identities in the microstock industry. I’m starting with iStockphoto.
Background
iStockphoto are widely credited with starting the microstock industry. They were the first microstock website to launch with a lead of around three years. The website started off providing free photos by the founder, Bruce Livingstone, before he evolved his website into the current microstock web2.0 model that we have today.
The website has an intense community within. The site is structured to nurture this community and it works. Their user forums are the most active of all microstock websites, and their user to user communication facilities are by far the most advanced. See the website feature listings below.
iStockphoto was bought by Stock Photography giant Getty for US$50million, February 10th, 2006.
Details
| Web Address | www.istockphoto.com |
| Google Pagerank | 8 |
| Google Backlinks | 3,940 |
| Alexa Rank | 289 |
| Image Stats | 1,745,061 |
| Minimum Image Size | 1600 x 1200 (approximately 2MP) |
| Vectors | Yes |
| Footage | Yes |
| Licenses | Royalty Free and Extended Licenses: Reproduction limits; Multi seat; Items for resale; Electronic items for resale. |
| Compensation | 20% (up to 40% for exclusive photographers) |
| Pricing | From $1.20 for Xtra small |
| Payment Methods | PayPal, MoneyBookers, Check |
| Payment Delay | 2 days, by experience |
| Referral Program | $10 one-time payment for referred buyers only |
| Application Process | Submit three example images for review |
| Exclusivity | additional 5-20% depending on your total sales |
| Upload Methods | HTML Form, iPhoto plugin, Aperture plugin, Image Manager application (Mac & PC) |
| IPTC Data | Yes |
| Currencies | US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Pounds Sterling, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Chinese RMB |
| Languages | Dutch, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (and Brazilian Portuguese), Russian, Spanish |
| Headquarters | Alberta, Canada |
Cool Features
- Photographer Ranking - iStockphoto have a ‘Canister’ ranking system based on the total number of sales. Each photographer has an icon for their canister level displayed on their profile page.
Bronze 500 
Silver 2,500 
Gold 10,000 
Diamond 25,000 
Black Diamond 200,000 
- Creative Networks - This is a buddy system that allows you to link to other members. Your creative network of linked members is displayed on your profile page.
- Sitemail - This allows you to contact other members directly without everybody exposing their email addresses. The system is well developed and functional.
- Disambiguation - One of the most controversial features of any microstock website. Disambiguation, as the name implies, removes the ambiguity around keywords.
- Keyword Wiki - Allows members to suggest additions and removals of keywords of other contributors’ images. This keeps everyone honest and allows the community to maintain the integrity of the keywording system.
- Free Images - iStockphoto provides a Free Image of the Week. You’re also able to download the previous two free images.
- Most Popular Files - iStockphoto have put a lot of effort into their most popular files page. It provides a list of the top selling photos and highest rated photos for the last week, last month and the last three months. They even take it further with a zeitgeist showing the top 5 gaining files, top 5 declining files, photographers on the rise, and photographers with the highest average downloads per file.
- Lightboxes - Like most microstock websites, iStockphoto has a lightbox facility. Lightboxes containing images from more than one photographer can be made public and shared. The lightbox page shows the most popular lightboxes across the website.
- Dollar Bin - Images that don’t meet the technical requirements of the inspectors are sometimes offered to be put in the Dollar Bin. Here, they’re available for… you guessed it, a dollar.
- Statistics and Graphs - This is another area where iStockphoto excels. The stats tab of your own profile page shows you your earnings and downloads for the current month, and separately for the current calendar year, in a nice simple graph. You can scroll back and forth between the months and years within these graphs.
- Personal Blogs - Each iStockphoto member can write their own blog right there in their public profile.
- Interviews - As part of your public profile you can answer a standard set of interview questions designed to provide the public with a light-hearted idea of who you are and what you do.
- Avatars - In addition to uploading a picture to your public profile, iStockphoto allows you to create a small icon 25 by 25 pixels. This avatar appears beside your username in many parts of the website. It’s part of the personalization that contributes to the community aspect of iStockphoto.
- Exclusivity Estimator - If you’re considering going exclusive you can use iStockphoto’s Exclusivity Estimator to gauge how much additional income you’re likely to make, based on your choice of expected growth rate. It’s a nice tool, especially when you see your future revenue figures going so high on the graph.
- Peer Reviews & Ratings - Each photo on iStockphoto can be rated and reviewed. Both are public and reviews indicate which member wrote them. Ratings are from 1 to 5.
- Merchandise - iStockphoto is one of the few website I’ve seen selling material merchandise. Their selection includes hats, t-shirts, bags and mouse-mats, all bearing the iStockphoto logo.
- Screensavers - Yes, iStockphoto have screensavers. They connect to their website and display either the photos from the recent Free Image of the Week, or the results of their Steel Cage battles.
- Statistics Widgets - Apple Dashboard and Konfabulator/Yahoo widgets are available to display your statistics and content updates from the website. There’s even a Windows version though it’s becoming quite outdated (v0.7).
- Software Plugins - These little tools make life a lot easier if you use iPhoto or Aperture to manage your images. They make it possible to upload your images directly from the application, saving quite a few steps of the process, especially if you’re completing your IPTC data.
- LightShows - This little software gem enables you to automatically browse through the images in a Lightbox and even control the speed. It’s not going to impact your sales, but it sure makes life easier for people who view a lot of lightboxes.
- ColorSchemes - Don’t like the standard blue color of the iStockphoto website? Go to your control panel and change it to one of the other six colors.
- Metric & Imperial Measurements - Whether you’re in the modern world of metric measurements or still in the imperial ages, iStockphoto can accommodate you.
- Sell Prints - iStockphoto buyers can buy prints of your images in addition to downloads. Contributors can opt-in to selling prints on a per-image or portfolio-wide basis.
- Steel Cage Battles - Designers keen on creating visually appealing images by combining other images can enter the iStockphoto Steel Cage to battle it out with other designers for glory and an extra profile icon. These battles make for some exceptionally interesting creations.
Performance
iStockphoto is by far the best performing website for us in terms of revenue. Most microstock contributors that report their earnings have iStockphoto in their top four, and approximately half of those have it in the top two.
While their inspectors are tough, the have a good buying market and sales are high. Their commissions are such that they can often outperform websites that sell higher volumes in terms of total revenue generated.
Their system requires a bit of extra work to upload compared to their competitors, but their website is a joy to use and functional once you’re established.
See how iStockphoto performs for me per image and by earnings.
Verdict
iStockphoto are definitely worthy of your contributions. They’re likely to be in your top two earnings generating microstock websites if you choose to contribute to many. They are relatively tough in reviewing, and getting past the approval process can require some persistence.
They have earned and deserve their place at the top of the market.
State of the Microstock Nation series:
Email This Post
Tags: Bruce Livingstone, iStockphoto, Microstock, Reviews
I find your blog very informative blog and well done. I read your istockphoto review and it is true they are pretty tough on reviews, I did not manage to have a picture approve yet although I have more than 300 on fotolia. Will check the others you are suggesting
Keep up the good work !
Cheers
Great blog, find myself coming back to it more and more often, I have learnt a fair bit about the backgrounds of microstock imaging. I am an exclusive with iStock going under the name of ManoAfrica, and having just completed my first year there have sold just over 6000 images from a portfolio of just under 1000. I have earned a touch under $5000, far exceeding my expectations. iStock has become a bit of an addiction and the excitement of sales and the extra income have brought new meaning to my life. It would seem that I am not alone,
Regards,
Cliff
Good review Lee.
In my experience Dreamstime and Shutterstock are tougher reviewers than iStockphoto. Like you, iStockphoto is far and away my leading earner. Enough so that I may go exclusive this spring.
It’s really strange how we all seem to experience different approvals at the big (6). For me I have a 90% acceptance rate at Shutterstock but only a 31% acceptance rate at iStock. I’m in the 75-80% rate of approval at Fotolia, Dreamstime, Stockxpert, Bigstock and 123RF. iStock has been very disappointing for me in terms of acceptance and sales. I also upload to Alamy but not that much. I only upload rights managed images there and they are few and far between for me. It just blows me away how different is can be for each of us.
I shoot in RAW and JPG with a Canon EOS 20D. I have a studio with a lot of flash equipment as well as a 12 foot by 24 foot white vinyl backdrop. I meter everything with a goal of keeping the white at 255. It’s not always easy but I think I have it for the most part. I will say that I have shot over 5000 family portraits over the years as well as hundreds of weddings. However entering into microstock has been a rude awaking for me. What they want and what the general public want is completely different. The days of doing what ever it takes to make and acceptable image are no longer. Over editing and filtering don’t work for microstock. This has made me better however so I’m grateful for what I’ve learned thus far by getting to this biz.
I would like for one of the successful photographers with iStock to write a step by step How-To for iStock. Because what I’m doing now isn’t working.
You just need well composed and colorful images, well focused, with no noise and no sharpening (well maybe a little bit only in photoshop). Pictures with what they call “copyspace” sell a lot better, so be sure to use the third rule a lot.
Successful images attact the eye at the thumbnail size, so, before you upload your file, unzoom it to the thumnail size and see what the buyer will see at first glance. You have to be able to guess what the picture subject is about when viewed at this size, but hey, don’t tell this to anyone, it’s a secret…
Good luck,.