Question:
Haven't you never felt an image was more worth than $1/download hence not uploading it to a micro stock site but trying to sell them through other channels?
Amanda:
No. The better the image, the more sales it will make, the more money it will make. It would be cutting off my nose to spite my face to keep my best sellers away from what I believe to be the best market place.
Question:
You ´re exclusive to iStock. Why ? There are many more micro stock sites out there. Don´t you think you would have earned more if you contributed to 5 or maybe even 6 of them?
Amanda:
We have to look at a couple of things. There´s the loyalty that I feel to istock for having helped me out all along the way. There´s the fact that as a diamond exclusive member I make double what I would make from istock if I wasn´t exclusive and there´s the fact that I don´t feel the others have the "backup" that istock do, in terms of legalities, etc.
I like to keep track of my images in case they´ve been used illegally, contrary to license agreements. As an istock exclusive this makes this very easy.
Question:
Did you had any photographic education before you signed up at iStock ?
Amanda:
No, and I´m not sure whether I would have benefited from one or not.
Question:
Microstocks are often seen as evil, devaluating photography and the photographers work because of the small payments and the low royalty scheme. How do you feel about being a part of that ?
Amanda:
If you can´t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If the photographers who are charging more are better than I am, then there isn´t a problem, their work will sell anyway. If it isn´t then why are they charging so much more?
As announced earlier ("Crowdsourcing the process of interviewing crowdsourced micropayment stock photo stars"), the succcessful belgian MP photographer Stefan Hermans, contributor to Shutterstock, Dreamstime, BigStockPhoto and iStockphoto, has just published his 6-page interview with iStockphoto´s Diamond Member Amanda Rohde:
Amanda has "over 245.000 downloads with a portfolio of more than 7400 images".
Before conducting the interview, Stefan has asked the community of microshooters to contribute their questions to the interview, so that "the questions asked are coming also from other MP photographers".
Related:
- Hit Refresh: New Version of Image Distribution And Workflow Tool ProStockMaster For Microshooters (Feb. 02, 2007)
- Crowdsourcing the process of interviewing crowdsourced micropayment stock photo stars (Jan. 24, 2007)
- Selling your photos: Microsites, Curse or Blessing? (Jan. 16, 2007)
- Bruce Livingston: Commercializing Community (Jan. 27, 2007; last topic)
- Amateur photographers get shot at stardom, Internet changes world of stock photography (Jan. 17, 2007)
- Change must come, so says Lewis Blackwell, Getty Images group creative director (Dec. 14, 2006)
- Crowdsourcing and its True Impact on the Stock Photo Business (MacTribe, Dec. 2006), with this restriction
- Meet Lise Gagné, The First Global Crowdsourcing Stock Photography Star, With 390,000 Sales (Nov. 18, 2006)
- Crowdsourcing Creative Content (Jim Pickerell, Nov. 14, 2006; req. reg.)
- Microstock: How Much Money Can Photographers Make? (PDN, Nov. 2006)
- The concept behind iStockphoto starts to rule the world (Nov. 05, 2006)
- Crowdsourcing: Milk the masses for inspiration (Sept. 19, 2006)
- Google turns to crowdsourcing with image labeler (Sept. 05, 2006)
- How "ordinary" photographers are making Big Money shooting for small stock agencies (PopPhoto, 3 pages, August 2006)
- "We believe micropayment sales could potentially cannibalize Getty's royalty-free sales," PiperJaffray´s analyst Aaron Kessler wrote (July 06, 2006)
- What does 'crowdsourcing' mean for business innovation? (June 16, 2006)
- “If someone’s going to cannibalize your business, better it be one of your other businesses,” says Getty CEO Jonathan Klein (May 25, 2006)
- The Rise of Crowdsourcing (May 25, 2006)
