Author Topic: How fast you can fall? (Read 18257 times)

stokfoto · « **on:** June 09, 2012, 08:13 »

I am experiencing a dramatic decline in sales on FT. i was wondering if it has something to do with one of these best match shifts again? my 7 day rank was usually around 600 to 700 but for last couple of months I guaranteed a good place below 5000 ,wow!!, all of a sudden customers decided not to my pics any more? I was wondering if it is only me? BTW I've got around 2K files there.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 09, 2012, 08:17 »

no, not only you, some topics on that matter on the latest days/weeks

fotografer · « **Reply #2 on:** June 09, 2012, 08:20 »

Quote from: stokfoto on June 09, 2012, 08:13

I am experiencing a dramatic decline in sales on FT. i was wondering if it has something to do with one of these best match shifts again? my 7 day rank was usually around 600 to 700 but for last couple of months I guaranteed a good place below 5000 ,wow!!, all of a sudden customers decided not to my pics any more? I was wondering if it is only me? BTW I've got around 2K files there.

Are you uploading? My sales are about 70% images that have been uploaded in the last month or two. There was definitely a drastic best match change about 3 weeks ago.

stokfoto · « **Reply #3 on:** June 09, 2012, 08:24 »

Quote from: fotografer on June 09, 2012, 08:20

Quote from: stokfoto on June 09, 2012, 08:13
I am experiencing a dramatic decline in sales on FT. i was wondering if it has something to do with one of these best match shifts again? my 7 day rank was usually around 600 to 700 but for last couple of months I guaranteed a good place below 5000 ,wow!!, all of a sudden customers decided not to my pics any more? I was wondering if it is only me? BTW I've got around 2K files there.
Are you uploading? My sales are about 70% images that have been uploaded in the last month or two. There was definitely a drastic best match change about 3 weeks ago.

oh ,thanks for the tip, that's right i haven't been uploading for some while, so they must be favouring new files,I should start uploading again.

Wim · « **Reply #4 on:** June 09, 2012, 08:44 »

About time agencies start promoting regular uploaders don't you think? Or do they want to keep selling old stuff from sunday shooters?
At least these guys appreciate the dedication some of us put into this business.
My sales are good, zero rejections, 24h reviews and they are my third best earner so they have my full support.

Good weekend all

stokfoto · « **Reply #5 on:** June 09, 2012, 10:15 »

Quote from: Wim on June 09, 2012, 08:44

About time agencies start promoting regular uploaders don't you think? Or do they want to keep selling old stuff from sunday shooters?
At least these guys appreciate the dedication some of us put into this business.
My sales are good, zero rejections, 24h reviews and they are my third best earner so they have my full support.

Good weekend all

that would be good, if they rewarded the hard-working ones .but i am not that optimistic on that sense,I don't think best match changes based on this kind of approach especially considering ranks playing so much role on the amount of commissions we get.

Pixart · « **Reply #6 on:** June 09, 2012, 10:49 »

Wow, Stokfoto, that is about the most impressive crash I've heard of. I hope you don't depend on FT to pay the bills. I don't know how anyone can rely on any of these agencies for a steady return these days!

lisafx · « **Reply #7 on:** June 09, 2012, 11:52 »

Quote from: stokfoto on June 09, 2012, 10:15

Quote from: Wim on June 09, 2012, 08:44
About time agencies start promoting regular uploaders don't you think? Or do they want to keep selling old stuff from sunday shooters?
At least these guys appreciate the dedication some of us put into this business.
My sales are good, zero rejections, 24h reviews and they are my third best earner so they have my full support.

Good weekend all
that would be good, if they rewarded the hard-working ones .but i am not that optimistic on that sense,I don't think best match changes based on this kind of approach especially considering ranks playing so much role on the amount of commissions we get.

Exactly. I've been uploading steadily for the last couple of months and my sales have completely tanked there too. It's not about rewarding hard workers. It's about padding the site's bottom line by pushing sales away from higher ranked members.

As already discussed in the other threads on this topic.

MatHayward · « **Reply #8 on:** June 09, 2012, 12:32 »

I got confirmation that the search algorithm does create an advantage for photographers that upload on a regular and consistent basis. In theory, the more you upload the great the visibility of your images.

sharpshot · « **Reply #9 on:** June 09, 2012, 17:59 »

I'll upload regularly, when they reverse the commission cuts

I used to upload regularly but they took away any motivation I had to do that. It's strange how as my earnings have collapsed with FT, they've improved with other sites. So I really don't need them now. I'm not going to leave just yet, as there's always a slim chance things might improve. I doubt I could stomach any more commission cuts though.

Mantis · « **Reply #10 on:** June 09, 2012, 18:11 »

FT completely sucks. Dedicated contributors have nothing to gain, high enders have nothing to gain, that BS about favoring frequent uploads is bullsh_t cuz I have been uploading a lot. This company is a whorish one and when their supplier says fk it, they just simply find another....and there a bunch of them.

OM · « **Reply #11 on:** June 09, 2012, 20:27 »

Just went from one extreme to the other. Not so long ago, new files got no views for weeks or months and now almost all that's immediately offered in search (default 'relevance'), similia and alternatives for a chosen file is new files with numbers starting with 40million+. I'm sure that someone must be smart enough to work out an algo that gives almost equal chances to new uploads as historical best-sellers.........they should give the 'infinity' series a separate section instead of plopping them in between Fotolia-priced images. Then they could give that space to the 'proven' sellers.

Difficult to say whether there's any other bias against higher ranked contributors other than the predominance of files from 'serial uploaders'. Among the serial uploaders there are some golds and emeralds and their recently accepted files appear regularly in the 'newly accepted' section which is definitely the place to give your new files the bottle-rocket start that everyone dreams of. The same names do crop up frequently in the 'new accepted' section but whether that's due to some sort of 'favouritism' or just simply serial-uploadism, it's difficult to say.

If I were a corporation (intent on making as much money as possible in the shortest period of time), I would have an algo written that promotes the files that: cost the least in payout to contributors ( hold back exclusives and non- exclusive near-emeralds who would soon be able to increase prices which buyers don't like paying), promote subs of the lower rankings because it can take 200 subs to reach payout (whilst the sub payment from the buyer is on your account from day one) and promote any files that are currently HOT(minimal time in database vs most sales in a short period). Needless to say, these corporate goals may be the antithesis of the established contributors' pecuniary interests.

Wim · « **Reply #12 on:** June 10, 2012, 04:24 »

Hey, I'm not complaining, we'll see how things turn out by the time I make gold/emerald but until then I'm happy with the search placement and sales because I need every bit of exposure I can get.
If all higher ranked contributors want their stuff dominating the search I might as well quit now because my work will get burried pretty quickly.

Maybe it's because I'm getting higher ranked though, I don't know if that has anything to do with search placement, it probably does. My search placement is good on all sites except IS and a few small agencies so FT was actually the only one lagging behind.

Later

una · « **Reply #13 on:** June 10, 2012, 05:25 »

"I am experiencing a dramatic decline in sales on FT. i was wondering if it has something to do with one of these best match shifts again? my 7 day rank was usually around 600 to 700 but for last couple of months I guaranteed a good place below 5000 ,wow!!, all of a sudden customers decided not to my pics any more?"
I'm experiencing the same, but I'm uploading, unfortunately my new files are buried too...FL was one of the best earners for me until the last month.This month is pure disaster.

OM · « **Reply #14 on:** June 10, 2012, 06:41 »

What gets me about the search change is that there seems neither rhyme nor reason to results. This is one example.

Go to FT and search 'french fries'. On the first page that comes up, there's one glaringly obvious file (around the middle of P1) that has not a French fry in sight. You'll see it has no downloads, is from an emerald contributor and has a very recent number. Progress to P2 of the same search and in the second row there are 2 shots (admittedly with french fries) and a whole burnt-offering chicken (IMO not too well lit either!). Click on file to find same contributor as P1 who didn't even bother to give the burnt offering a title, just a file number. Why do potential buyers get this sort of stuff on their screen in the first (all important) pages of search? How some of the stuff got past a reviewer in the first place beats me.

Edit: Besides accept/reject/reasons buttons, do reviewers for agencies also have a 'like' button which will guide their choices directly into top search positions? Just askin'.

fotografer · « **Reply #15 on:** June 12, 2012, 05:08 »

I've noticed another complete turn around in the last few days. The new files have virtually stopped selling and old files are selling again. Is anybody else experiencing this or is it just total coincidence. Also seems to be a higher percentage of credit sales as opposed to subs

Druid · « **Reply #16 on:** June 12, 2012, 10:32 »

Quote from: fotografer on June 12, 2012, 05:08

I've noticed another complete turn around in the last few days. The new files have virtually stopped selling and old files are selling again. Is anybody else experiencing this or is it just total coincidence. Also seems to be a higher percentage of credit sales as opposed to subs

Yes I've had some good sales of old files in the last couple of days and they have been on files that hardly sold before, strange??

andresr · « **Reply #17 on:** June 12, 2012, 10:41 »

Quote from: fotografer on June 12, 2012, 05:08

I've noticed another complete turn around in the last few days. The new files have virtually stopped selling and old files are selling again. Is anybody else experiencing this or is it just total coincidence. Also seems to be a higher percentage of credit sales as opposed to subs

Still new files selling for me ...

stockmarketer · « **Reply #18 on:** June 12, 2012, 12:51 »

The strange thing I've seen is a lot of Medium sized credit sales lately. I never used to see them, now I'm getting several a day for the past few days. Anyone else seeing more Medium credit sales all of a sudden?

luissantos84 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 12, 2012, 13:08 »

Quote from: stockmarketer on June 12, 2012, 12:51

The strange thing I've seen is a lot of Medium sized credit sales lately. I never used to see them, now I'm getting several a day for the past few days. Anyone else seeing more Medium credit sales all of a sudden?

sales are climbing quite nicely for me, looking forward for more, most of my sales are singular, not many buyers getting over 1

today so far (12)
5 SUB
1 XS
1 S
3 M
2 XL

yesterday (15)
2 SUB
4 XS
5 M
1 L
2 XL
1 XXL

OM · « **Reply #20 on:** June 14, 2012, 07:37 »

Quote from: lisafx on June 09, 2012, 11:52

Quote from: stokfoto on June 09, 2012, 10:15
Quote from: Wim on June 09, 2012, 08:44
About time agencies start promoting regular uploaders don't you think? Or do they want to keep selling old stuff from sunday shooters?
At least these guys appreciate the dedication some of us put into this business.
My sales are good, zero rejections, 24h reviews and they are my third best earner so they have my full support.

Good weekend all

that would be good, if they rewarded the hard-working ones .but i am not that optimistic on that sense,I don't think best match changes based on this kind of approach especially considering ranks playing so much role on the amount of commissions we get.

Exactly. I've been uploading steadily for the last couple of months and my sales have completely tanked there too. It's not about rewarding hard workers. It's about padding the site's bottom line by pushing sales away from higher ranked members.

As already discussed in the other threads on this topic.

I've done a bit of delving into the recent search changes and there's more to it than just favouring recent uploads, there's also a definite bias towards certain contributors (to the exclusion of others) but not necessarily based on ranking.

Take this image: http://eu.fotolia.com/id/42250005

Very recently uploaded and appears in most searches within the first 2 or 3 pages of many of the keywords associated with that file.
Try searching 'tortilla' , 'chard' or 'eggs' .........same image appears early in all those searches despite having no views, downloads or even title (seems to be 2 Japanese/Chinese symbols). Take a look at other recent uploads in that port, take a keyword that's obviously wrong, enter into search and the image (or ones from that series) comes up yet again within the important first pages of the search. How does this figure? I don't know. Author is emerald, has files starting at 3 credits and is certainly not being excluded from the search.

lisafx · « **Reply #21 on:** June 14, 2012, 17:08 »

Quote from: OM on June 14, 2012, 07:37

I've done a bit of delving into the recent search changes and there's more to it than just favouring recent uploads, there's also a definite bias towards certain contributors (to the exclusion of others) but not necessarily based on ranking.

Take this image: http://eu.fotolia.com/id/42250005

Very recently uploaded and appears in most searches within the first 2 or 3 pages of many of the keywords associated with that file.
Try searching 'tortilla' , 'chard' or 'eggs' .........same image appears early in all those searches despite having no views, downloads or even title (seems to be 2 Japanese/Chinese symbols). Take a look at other recent uploads in that port, take a keyword that's obviously wrong, enter into search and the image (or ones from that series) comes up yet again within the important first pages of the search. How does this figure? I don't know. Author is emerald, has files starting at 3 credits and is certainly not being excluded from the search.

Very interesting. I wonder what the magical component is to getting visibility for one's images. Hope I won't have to be purchasing knee pads....

Reading the recent threads here where high ranking members almost universally report poor sales, I still think that's a factor, even if a few emerald members mysteriously continue to get exposure.

OM · « **Reply #22 on:** June 14, 2012, 19:09 »

As George Carlin once said, "It's a big club...........but you and I ain't in it."

There are a few other similarly favoured contributors. I've only come across them because it's so blatant........a whole series of 5 almost identical shots all next to one another on page 2 of a search but I didn't record who or where.
Whatever, FT is not a level playing field by any means. The table is tilted.

Sedge · « **Reply #23 on:** June 15, 2012, 23:53 »

Yeah, I've seen a big reduction in sales so far this month as well. Made about $300 in May and so far I'm on pace to do about half of that. I've got a small portfolio there of about 200 images. I mostly specialize in texture backgrounds and Fotolia rejects just about all of them, even though I've got one there that's sold over 2000 times. Go figure, they just don't like my stuff whereas the other agencies accept just about all of it. I've even had two images rejected by Fotolia that have been in the top 50 images of the week at SS. So yeah, they drive me crazy sometimes, but you've just got to move on and spread your work around (hopefully without diluting it too much).

Elenathewise · « **Reply #24 on:** June 20, 2012, 12:47 »

Oh good it's not just me...

well actually nothing is good about it, my sales on Fotolia are really low right now. Yes a few new files sell but since I have a large portfolio (almost 13,000 images on Fotolia) those sales are just noise. All the hard work I put into building my portfolio over last few years seem to be getting flushed down the toilet by FT. Good thing I am not exclusive!
These are my stats for this week:
Ranking
Overall rank: 15
7 day rank: 101
Nice, eh?

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Author Topic: How fast you can fall? (Read 18257 times)

stokfoto

luissantos84

fotografer

stokfoto

Wim

stokfoto

Pixart

lisafx

MatHayward

sharpshot

Mantis

OM

Wim

una

OM

fotografer

Druid

andresr

stockmarketer

luissantos84

OM

lisafx

OM

Sedge

Elenathewise

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