My latest images for sale at Shutterstock:

Monday 27 December 2010

Passing the hat

With Christmas over and the New Year nearly upon us it seems that some disgruntled iStockers may be about to take action and become independent. It was good to hear yesterday that Josh (Doxadigital) had taken the plunge and given notice. If you don't know him already he is the originatior of the 'Push for' race thread on iS and an all-round good guy. He is also a bit of a stat-head, so in future expect some in-depth analysis (complete with pretty pictures) at this blog here.

I hate to do this, but now I'm afraid it is time to pass the hat. If you have found this blog useful then can I ask that you use my referral links when opening new accounts with other agencies. It won't cost you anything as the wee kickback I will receive will come directly from the agency. I can promise that there will be no hard feelings if you chose not to, but times are hard and so I thought I would ask... I did this when opening my accounts as a way of thanking a couple of my indie friends who had been generous with their time and information before I made the big leap. I think mostly this works by using the links at the top of this page to access the site, then move on to the 'become a contributor' link or whatever. I think some of them also require you to type in my referral code number so I will print those below. The two major ones are Shutterstock and Dreamstime so even if you only gave me the referral hit for those then I would be very grateful (click below to go to the registration page). ETA - Actually the only three I would get anything from are the ones below:

Shutterstock: ref=661795
Dreamstime: res2635685
Bigstock: pAatX27Xn4

Whatever happens it would be good to hear from any of you that do go indie over the coming months. I was thinking of using one of these free forum hosting sites to set up a wee indie forum for us all - do you think that would be useful? I know that some of these already exist, but I feel that we are a fairly unique group and the forums at iS can be a bit of a wrench to leave behind. I know that I don't feel that great about posting there anymore (in spite of having left on good terms), but that might not be the case for many of you.

Merry Christmas and thanks in advance to any of you who do use my referrals.

5 comments:

  1. I should be an indie within days now. Looking forward to it! And if I hadn't already signed up with all the agencies I plan on contributing to months ago, I'd use your referrals.

    I regard your blog as something of a forum for our growing group. Beyond that, I check in to MSG every now and again, and IS. I don't know that I could handle another forum, but if it were used by others, I'm sure I'd find it useful, too.

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  2. Exciting news Marisa, good luck with it and keep in touch...

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  3. I don't get to spend a ton of time in the forums but would definitely find it helpful to share experiences with others starting their independent journey.

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  4. Ok Josh, will see what I can do....

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  5. I hope you will start posting on IS again as well, as I think it's important to have Indie views in there as well as the obvious - you have friends there. No-one can keep up with more Forums but I think sharing on independence would be useful - I am wondering about editorial and if istock doesn't get its act together I will go elsewhere with that first.

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