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Author Topic: Strange happenings at Fotolia  (Read 9788 times)

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« on: August 13, 2007, 18:07 »
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I noticed something very strange at Fotolia that when I uploaded and got approved around 300 new images there, my sales just stopped dead in their tracks. This happened around 8th of August before which I was getting daily downloads. It makes me wonder if there is some correlation between how their system indexes and processes new images and the existing ones and I do know that their search system is still a mess as I can't bring up any of my new or old images using keywords that aren't the first seven.

I've noticed when I changed the order of some keywords on several images (this was over three weeks ago), none of the top seven keywords works neither. So it seems that at the moment in Fotolio if you want for the clients to find your images, use only seven keywords and choose these carefully as changing the order once the images are in, won't make the slightest bit of difference.

All very frustrating.............. :(


« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2007, 20:31 »
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Ditto.  I uploaded 20 or so and reorganized all my keywords on the others and it dropped dead.  I just got home from a week away and had 3 sales.  Gonna retire.

« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2007, 22:39 »
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No point retiring but yeah, not going to add anything new there until sales are back to daily again...

budgaugh

« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2007, 16:54 »
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I can relate and feel your frustration.  I'm spending more time trying to get photos approved at SS.

I'm making more at SS with 26 photos in my portfolio than I am at Fotolia with like 612 photos.

« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2007, 00:31 »
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Hopefully the sales will pick up in September but for me so far at FT august is a disaster. As said before I maed more with 50 pics at SS then 450 at FT :-\
Search engine across all the countries gives weird results or not at all!
Surely they must have lost a lot of customers.....

« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2007, 02:17 »
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Immediately after the V2 implementation disaster a lot of members reported record sales, but now these record sales are suddenly gone.  My guess is that buyers had used all their remaining credits at the first opportunity they could and then left.  I think Fotolia and we as photographers only now really experience the consequences of the disastrous upgrade to V2 and I cannot see how it will improve anytime soon. I hope I am wrong. 

« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2007, 02:52 »
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Hmmmm,

I am wondering myself now, after my other thread about their odd search engine results, I've now given up trying to figure it out, and put it down to 'It's broke'.

My sales have always been small on there, but even with increasing my portfolio size on there with a small number of images images that sell OK on IS/SS/DT I'm seeing a decreasing sales trend.

I'll wait and see for a while before I upload there again I think, it's all just too weird.

As I'm an IT manager in my 'real' job I struggle to see how and IT based company can let this go on.  I know we're talking about huge data sets, but it's not hard to write a 'simple' search engine to stop-gap the problem, while you go back to the drawing board with the fancy ranked one.  Do an incremental upgrade of the site functionality, using solid blocks, not quantum leaps like they tried.

Look at IS, although some of their steps have been radical, they only take one at a time..  DT has also  evolved itself without any major pain, by replacing small parts of the site at a time.

Maybe the architecture of code behind FL is not modular enough to allow this? Did they code themselves into a corner?  Is there no project management methodology used in their IT area? Dunno.  Just guessing.

Either way, I think that the low sales folks are seeing are a result of the dragged out V2 upgrade, and the their lack or professionalism and technical savy that the 'upgrade' apparently exposed.

(Yeah, I know, fighting words...)

Cheers, Me.

« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2007, 03:16 »
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My sales are still OK there.  They have dipped but that might be partly due to the time of year and I have only uploaded a few photos since V2 was launched.  I have had a bigger sales dip with BigStock.

My sales at StockXpert have gone up, so perhaps they are gaining customers from FT and BigStock?

Will be interesting to see if they pick up again when the summer holidays are over.

« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2007, 11:14 »
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I've always had nice success at Fotolia, but there is a search engine issue that prevents customers from viewing everthing in your portfollio. This of course results in a lower opportunity to make sales.

« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2007, 13:45 »
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It would be interesting to see if there are differences among photographer's locations.  For example, I am in the US, and not only have sales slammed to a halt after V2, but so have views.   For awhile, none of the keywords were giving results when searched - now sometimes there are results which inlcude my images and sometimes there are results, but not including any of my images with that keyword in the top 7, and sometimes there are no results at all.  I have contacted Fotolia support with specific examples, and those do get fixed; however, I fear I have perhaps made too many contacts (3) as now my acceptance rate has fallen to about 20% (although the same images have been accepted on 8 other sites)  I think I'll let my current portfolio ride, but will not upload to them again until I see positive changes for photographers in this location.  It seems most of the people who were talking about increases in their sales were from the UK, Europe, and Australia - not the US.

« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2007, 00:21 »
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I am from Europe and do not have an increase of sales, for me sales went slightly down too.. Not dramatically, but the general trend seems to be that my earnings stayed the same or decreased slightly. But this is not good compared to other sites, because everywhere else my sales seem to increase.

« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2007, 03:19 »
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My sales have been down in August after a record breaking July but I am putting this down to the fact that most sales are in Europe and most people take their annual holidays in august.

Q

« Reply #12 on: August 17, 2007, 03:56 »
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I'm not at all surprised people are experiencing a slow down in sales at Fotolia. Afterall, how do you expect buyers to purchase your photos if Fotolia hasn't even given them the opportunity to see your work.

I would recommend that anyone here who submits to Fotolia just go to the homepage and try and see how many of your photos you can find by using the search bar. 

The results may shock you.

I would rather submit to sites that actually show my work to potential buyers. I don't like the idea of spending all that time keywording and submitting just to have my photos vanish into the blackhole that is Fotolia V2.



 

« Reply #13 on: August 17, 2007, 04:01 »
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I would recommend that anyone here who submits to Fotolia just go to the homepage and try and see how many of your photos you can find by using the search bar. 

The results may shock you.

I think most of us are now under no illusions about their search engine, it's odd, or broken, or both, depending on what day of the week it is.

« Reply #14 on: August 17, 2007, 16:45 »
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It seems most of the people who were talking about increases in their sales were from the UK, Europe, and Australia - not the US.

I'm in Brazil but submit to Fotolia USA.  July was my BME in FT.  August started ok but slowed a bit this week.

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #15 on: August 17, 2007, 17:24 »
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Has anyone had problems with archived model releases at FT? 

I've been using releases from my archive and they are being rejected for "either legal reasons, lack of signature or illegible."  Would be nice if I knew which exactly it was so I could fix the problem.

I guess the best I can do is upload the releases again and see how it goes.

« Reply #16 on: August 20, 2007, 16:44 »
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6 days and no sales, this is so unusual for me at FT!

Regards,
Adelaide

« Reply #17 on: August 20, 2007, 16:55 »
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I had two today but none since last Wednesday - that is unusual to go that long without uploads.

« Reply #18 on: August 20, 2007, 17:09 »
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All of my sales at FT seem to be to European customers.  August is prime holiday season in Europe; some countries (France, for instance) take almost all of August off; factories close for the month and everyone heads for the beach.  In the UK there is a long public holiday at the end of the month and many people time their summer holiday either side of those dates.

August stats for FT should be ignored.  If things don't pick up in September, well there is clearly a problem, but I suspect sales at FT will play catch-up after September 5th/7th when everyone has to be back from hols because the children go back to school.

« Reply #19 on: August 20, 2007, 17:34 »
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6 sales today so far.  The public holiday at the end of August in the UK isn't that long, just the Monday.  Some people take extra days off to join others in traffic jams but those with sense go to work :)

« Reply #20 on: August 22, 2007, 03:06 »
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After a record July and then sales plummeting the first couple of weeks in August things seem to be back to normal the last couple of days.  Has anyone else noticed this or is it just a lucky few days?

Anybody else getting pages and pages of e.mail notifications from Fotolia?  I think that they must have had a backlog and are sending them all out at once.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2007, 03:10 by fotografer »

msv

« Reply #21 on: August 22, 2007, 05:21 »
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Anybody else getting pages and pages of e.mail notifications from Fotolia?  I think that they must have had a backlog and are sending them all out at once.

Yep, me too, about all the sales from 30/7 till yesterday.
At least the email content was correct.
This is just crazy, I still can't believe how they managed to do this disaster.

« Reply #22 on: August 22, 2007, 11:28 »
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Nice to see two e-mails this morning that I sold 2 photos TODAY.   They seem to be up to speed again.  You have to admit... they are fixing the kinks over there (albeit slowly!)

budgaugh

« Reply #23 on: August 29, 2007, 14:11 »
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My sales for August are down 50% from July. 

dbvirago

« Reply #24 on: August 29, 2007, 14:38 »
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June was a third of may and July wasn't much better. This is actually BME due to ELs.

« Reply #25 on: August 29, 2007, 14:48 »
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Sales have been picking up. I had a couple of dls every day the last three days from FT. Is V2 finaly fixed,  custumers are back and summer slump is over? That would also explain why Fotolia just came out with a press release, now buyers can experience Fotolia in fully functioning V2 version.

Everywhere else dls start to pick up too.. I am looking forward to September.

« Reply #26 on: August 29, 2007, 15:18 »
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Everywhere else dls start to pick up too.. I am looking forward to September.
Me too.

« Reply #27 on: August 29, 2007, 19:16 »
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I go to my profile on FT - http://www.fotolia.com/search.php?order_by=3&p=86536

I search for Canberra (of which I have a largest collection off on FT), nothing, I search for earth (which are my best selling images on SS), I get 1 out of around 50 images, of a pretty bad shot of the earth globe I put there ages ago.  I broaden the search and put in girl (I have a lot of images with girls, children playing), nothing.

I put in women (also of which I have many shots of, nothing). 

So is it fixed ? am I happy, heck no and no. Will I delete my images and folio from FT ? don't see the point as it might improve ohh I don't know, around the year 2020 if we're lucky.

Seriously I don't really mind as my images are taking off everywhere else, so not big deal and I'm a pretty easy going person :)
« Last Edit: August 29, 2007, 19:18 by ozbandit »

« Reply #28 on: August 29, 2007, 19:32 »
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Oz - have you put your keywords in priority order?  Only the first seven words work on FT.

« Reply #29 on: August 29, 2007, 20:43 »
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I realize that, BUT, once the images are in, changing the order doesn't do anything, not atm it doesn't anyway, rendering this useless for any images already in the database.


 

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