MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => iStockPhoto.com => Topic started by: BaldricksTrousers on November 08, 2011, 09:11
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My sales this week are down by two thirds on last week. I notice that one of my files that had No.1 position in a best match search is now behind exclusive files which have 1/20th of its sales in twice the time.
Are they trying to calm the exclusives by giving them a big push up the best match at the independents' expense?
I don't watch the best match closely enough to know if my file's shift is part of a pattern or just my bad luck,
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My sales this week are down by two thirds on last week. I notice that one of my files that had No.1 position in a best match search is now behind exclusive files which have 1/20th of its sales in twice the time.
Are they trying to calm the exclusives by giving them a big push up the best match at the independents' expense?
I don't watch the best match closely enough to know if my file's shift is part of a pattern or just my bad luck,
I am an exclusive and my DL numbers are terrible since 2 days although my pf grew 20% last two months. It's like there are no sales happening from Europe and Australia.
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Maybe the Muslim Eid is hitting Asian sales. Are there any other major holidays right now?
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My sales this week are down by two thirds on last week. I notice that one of my files that had No.1 position in a best match search is now behind exclusive files which have 1/20th of its sales in twice the time.
Are they trying to calm the exclusives by giving them a big push up the best match at the independents' expense?
I don't watch the best match closely enough to know if my file's shift is part of a pattern or just my bad luck,
chance would be a fine think
nov is off to a dismal start on IS even for exclusives
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Shift Match again?
Does this make shifting the default state on IS?
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No, I am talking about when it is set to "best match", so it would be a shift in the parameters they use to create the list order.
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My sales this week are down by two thirds on last week. I notice that one of my files that had No.1 position in a best match search is now behind exclusive files which have 1/20th of its sales in twice the time.
Are they trying to calm the exclusives by giving them a big push up the best match at the independents' expense?
I don't watch the best match closely enough to know if my file's shift is part of a pattern or just my bad luck,
I am an exclusive and my DL numbers are terrible since 2 days although my pf grew 20% last two months. It's like there are no sales happening from Europe and Australia.
Thats exactly what I have heard from three IS, exclusive diamonds, ( pals), sales are down something terrible. Must be true then.
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... It's like there are no sales happening from Europe and Australia.
When I check in the morning Pacific Time, there's usually a decent chunk of sales from Europe and Australia and Asia. This morning on iStock there was nothing - zero. I now have a grand total of 2 sales, I assume from the US East Coast. If it were a holiday, I think I'd see SS down, but I don't, so I guess it's just IS losing ground in certain markets
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Jsnover, I just posted a message in the "Tank" thread. Yesterday I had a bad morning and nil early afternoon. But the DLs picked up in late afternoon and evening. I wonder if they delayed posting new DLs.
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... It's like there are no sales happening from Europe and Australia.
When I check in the morning Pacific Time, there's usually a decent chunk of sales from Europe and Australia and Asia. This morning on iStock there was nothing - zero. I now have a grand total of 2 sales, I assume from the US East Coast. If it were a holiday, I think I'd see SS down, but I don't, so I guess it's just IS losing ground in certain markets
My PF is relatively small. I am in Europe. My DLs are coming in the late afternoon / evening hours since couple of days. In the old days I had sales throughout all day.
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Jsnover, I just posted a message in the "Tank" thread. Yesterday I had a bad morning and nil early afternoon. But the DLs picked up in late afternoon and evening. I wonder if they delayed posting new DLs.
Not according to the time stamps on the sales. I'm assuming that those times are when the sale actually occurred, but obviously I have no way to know how that whole mechanism works.
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the dwn today are slow too so far also for exclusive...but i don't if we can talk about a new best match shift or something else....
every day there is a news here
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Yes, I noticed the same thing yesterday. For me sales during European business hours have been decreasing (now non-existent) for weeks. I had attributed it to the financial problems in the EU, but I see I am getting European sales at SS. Could be it's istock specific. Maybe because I am in US my stuff isn't showing in their "regional searches" for Europe?
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Yes, I noticed the same thing yesterday. For me sales during European business hours have been decreasing (now non-existent) for weeks. I had attributed it to the financial problems in the EU, but I see I am getting European sales at SS. Could be it's istock specific. Maybe because I am in US my stuff isn't showing in their "regional searches" for Europe?
Oh, god, I hope it's not that. Most of my stuff is Europe oriented and I'm in Asia. So far, only two sales today, which is worse than an ordinary weekend, even an ordinary, recent weekend.
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Best Match looks about the same for the searches I normally check. Like others in the past month or so I have noticed a lot less morning sales and a lot more late night sales (east coast usa EST), I was wondering if reporting was delayed because the change was fairly rapid.
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I had just 1 sale this week, a XS. I usually have 5/day. It's definitely not the problem with Euro buyers, since I get lots of EU sales at SS, it's just that most of them appear in the afternoon or even in the evening, during US business hours (looking from CET timezone).
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Yes, I noticed the same thing yesterday. For me sales during European business hours have been decreasing (now non-existent) for weeks. I had attributed it to the financial problems in the EU, but I see I am getting European sales at SS. Could be it's istock specific. Maybe because I am in US my stuff isn't showing in their "regional searches" for Europe?
Oh, god, I hope it's not that. Most of my stuff is Europe oriented and I'm in Asia. So far, only two sales today, which is worse than an ordinary weekend, even an ordinary, recent weekend.
I know what you mean. If true, it is pretty disastrous for me too. Although I am in the US, I (used to) do very well in Europe - possibly because my models are not stereotypical "plastic looking" American types.
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Yesterday was good, today is terrible. In the middle of the xmas season and only 2 xmas images sold today.
I hope I am not being shown mosty to the European market, my files, especially the xmas files, are North American. Although when I do test searches I find quite a few of my files, so lack of exposure doesn´t seem to be the problem.
Maybe the xmas buyers have moved on to other agencies? (coffee buyers)
But I also need to upload, much much more. After seeing all these young superstars at the microstockexpo, I feel old and slow ;-)
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Yesterday was little slow, today was back to nice and normal :)
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Yes, I noticed the same thing yesterday. For me sales during European business hours have been decreasing (now non-existent) for weeks. I had attributed it to the financial problems in the EU, but I see I am getting European sales at SS. Could be it's istock specific. Maybe because I am in US my stuff isn't showing in their "regional searches" for Europe?
Oh, god, I hope it's not that. Most of my stuff is Europe oriented and I'm in Asia. So far, only two sales today, which is worse than an ordinary weekend, even an ordinary, recent weekend.
I know what you mean. If true, it is pretty disastrous for me too. Although I am in the US, I (used to) do very well in Europe - possibly because my models are not stereotypical "plastic looking" American types.
My sales during UK business time are pretty much non-existent. Also sales during UK night time, when I used to regularly have one or two.
On some test best match searches, the results didn't seem to be much different from in the US, but I was choosing the sort of images I'm represented in, not the more 'stocky' stuff.
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Have not noticed any shift. Slight weekly decline from September high but nothing dramatic.
Cheers
G
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Will this system punish photographers with "universal" portfolios that live in a small country with small markets? At least I'm feeling that's the case here...
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My sales during UK business time are pretty much non-existent. Also sales during UK night time, when I used to regularly have one or two.
On some test best match searches, the results didn't seem to be much different from in the US, but I was choosing the sort of images I'm represented in, not the more 'stocky' stuff.
You can remove the "pretty much" for me at the moment. Nothing at all since some time yesterday early evening (UK time). Yesterday was very poor as well. This really is getting to the point where to mix metaphors, the grass is looking greener not having all my eggs in one basket.
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This really is getting to the point where to mix metaphors, the grass is looking greener not having all my eggs in one basket.
Hmm __ look at the bird in the hand before you leap too.
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This really is getting to the point where to mix metaphors, the grass is looking greener not having all my eggs in one basket.
Hmm __ look at the bird in the hand before you leap too.
:) Sort of look before you weep?
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This really is getting to the point where to mix metaphors, the grass is looking greener not having all my eggs in one basket.
Hmm __ look at the bird in the hand before you leap too.
:) Sort of look before you weep?
Hi Dave! no good is it? take the leap, drop this crown, this monkey on your back. This is just about as good as its gonna get and its bad, I mean really bad. Already at, SS, Dt and FT, I have had just about 30 times more dls, the on IS. That says something doesnt it?
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Yesterday (wednesday) I was back up to 20dls, which is more or less normal these days. So I suppose that whatever happened to me earlier in the week is over for now.
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Yesterday (wednesday) I was back up to 20dls, which is more or less normal these days. So I suppose that whatever happened to me earlier in the week is over for now.
Same here, Tuesday and Wednesday but im afraid its just a flash in the pan. You cant trust this anymore.
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None of the best match shifts had hit me too badly in the last year or so but the last couple of days have been a complete disaster. 3 dls yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. My best seller which sells 5 - 10 times daily didn't sell at all. I don't even want to go in and see where it is in the search.
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Exclusive here. There is something going on at IS. It's either best match shift or local adaptation of the search, or sth else. But the my DLs have disappeared. And the ones happening are mostly from 2010 files, while I had uploaded a lot in 2011.
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Local search? yeah, right, trying to palm off baked beans to cowboys in Texas and freezers to Greenland? jeez! some search this is, gets wonkier by the day.
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... It's like there are no sales happening from Europe and Australia.
When I check in the morning Pacific Time, there's usually a decent chunk of sales from Europe and Australia and Asia. This morning on iStock there was nothing - zero. I now have a grand total of 2 sales, I assume from the US East Coast. If it were a holiday, I think I'd see SS down, but I don't, so I guess it's just IS losing ground in certain markets
And again this morning when I checked - 0 on IS, 18 on SS and 5 on DT. I'm sure that there will be some sales on IS later, but this really does look some sort of change for sales outside the US at iStock.
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Nothing all that different for me at istock yesterday and today. Slow, for sure, but no more so than usual. My istock numbers are running at about 1/10th of SS for the month so far, more so from an increase in sales at SS than any change in recent weeks at istock.
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Downloads have fallen off a cliff for me this week. Very dismal.
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So iStock ends the day (I know it's not midnight Calgary time yet, but this is always quiet time) with a grand total of two downloads - what I saw today at BigStock, not known for its high traffic! That would be a slow weekend day...
Utterly pathetic.
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So iStock ends the day (I know it's not midnight Calgary time yet, but this is always quiet time) with a grand total of two downloads - what I saw today at BigStock, not known for its high traffic! That would be a slow weekend day...
Utterly pathetic.
Good grief! for you, that is pathetic. Look at the October thread at the IS forum. Every single Diamond exclusive, is way down, complaining bitterly. Low canisters and noobs are quite satisfied.
Apart from agency-files and Vettas, the search is favour of the lower end of suppliers. They are trying to look after the people of tomorrow, which is nothing wrong but at the expens of their bread and butter contributors.
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There is a crazy belief, that picture buyers will sit for hours on end looking/searching suitable pictures, nothing could be more untrue and especially among professional buyers where time is the essence. I have seen it, many times, as soon as they get into the messy interface of IS, they click out and move elsewhere, dont even bother to fill in a search words. Too many collections, prices, etc, just too messy.
They might spend some time when buying RM, where prices are a lot higher but they certainly are not doing it, buying micro. Quicker and cheaper to just move on.
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yesterday was really bad, huge drop like a cliff! boooo! ???
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There is a crazy belief, that picture buyers will sit for hours on end looking/searching suitable pictures, nothing could be more untrue and especially among professional buyers where time is the essence. I have seen it, many times, as soon as they get into the messy interface of IS, they click out and move elsewhere, dont even bother to fill in a search words. Too many collections, prices, etc, just too messy.
They might spend some time when buying RM, where prices are a lot higher but they certainly are not doing it, buying micro. Quicker and cheaper to just move on.
The buyers I speak to never mention the different price points or collections and when asked they don't really care, all they want is to find the image they want, price isn't the major factor. However I'm in total agreement about the search engine and it's the one thing I hear over and over, iStock's CV is a disaster and that's what's driving buyers away, that and iStocks constant fixation to f*@k around with the search results.
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There is a crazy belief, that picture buyers will sit for hours on end looking/searching suitable pictures, nothing could be more untrue and especially among professional buyers where time is the essence. I have seen it, many times, as soon as they get into the messy interface of IS, they click out and move elsewhere, dont even bother to fill in a search words. Too many collections, prices, etc, just too messy.
They might spend some time when buying RM, where prices are a lot higher but they certainly are not doing it, buying micro. Quicker and cheaper to just move on.
The buyers I speak to never mention the different price points or collections and when asked they don't really care, all they want is to find the image they want, price isn't the major factor. However I'm in total agreement about the search engine and it's the one thing I hear over and over, iStock's CV is a disaster and that's what's driving buyers away, that and iStocks constant fixation to f*@k around with the search results.
As a designer I love the search facilities on iStock. My clients never mention any problems either. Cost is normally not an issue. Anyways, so isn't it just a case of iStock becoming less Microstock and more Midstock. And why so many contributors, who have those typical, you know, old school type portfolio's, are doing really bad there?
For myself, Sept and first half of Oct were 50% average and quite depressing but since then sales have been good - only a small portfolio at IS (100+) but averaging $20 a day right now.
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There is a crazy belief, that picture buyers will sit for hours on end looking/searching suitable pictures, nothing could be more untrue and especially among professional buyers where time is the essence. I have seen it, many times, as soon as they get into the messy interface of IS, they click out and move elsewhere, dont even bother to fill in a search words. Too many collections, prices, etc, just too messy.
They might spend some time when buying RM, where prices are a lot higher but they certainly are not doing it, buying micro. Quicker and cheaper to just move on.
The buyers I speak to never mention the different price points or collections and when asked they don't really care, all they want is to find the image they want, price isn't the major factor. However I'm in total agreement about the search engine and it's the one thing I hear over and over, iStock's CV is a disaster and that's what's driving buyers away, that and iStocks constant fixation to f*@k around with the search results.
Hi there!
Well if you work with the ad-agency world, its a whole differant story, they are not interested in prices either BUT, their time is extremley limited and they certainly dont sit there, wading through tons of irrelevant material. They want it, like yesterday.
Youre right, the CV, is a total disaster, have always been in my opinion. As long as I have known IS, 2006, they have had major problems with their, CV, best match. They are trying to steer the best match, towards certain contributors and at the same time keeping it operational for everybody, an impossibility.
best match and relevancy, are probably the worst search-methods anyway, since it produce winners and losers.
Let a picture earn its rights for exposure, by being good and commercial, thats the bottom line. An image shoud deserve to be on say page 1, not just slung there.
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When there are reports of two sales on a weekday for a contributor with a proven PF containing thousands of images, then whether that contributor is exclusive or independent there is something seriously wrong. It may not be wrong from iStock's perspective, but it's very wrong from any other view. My own sales were bad that day, and I know there are others in the same position.
Really it can't go on like this. "They" can do what they like of course to maximise their profits, but in the end it's not use to me and a lot of others like me seeing no real possibility of growth, and the nasty suspicion that if we see any growth it will somehow be taken away. I'm sure they have no real concerns any longer for whether individual contributors are exclusive or independent.
There are lots of us uploading, and seeing at best no growth. This has been going on slowly for years, but this sudden drop we have seen since the end of Summer is something new, and seems to have come at the same time as the huge influx of "Edstock" and other images from outside iStock itself. It doesn't bode well for the future.
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Hey, reality check time. Looking at some of your portfolio's on IS, sorted by downloads or age, there's not much there that my 9 year old daughter couldn't shoot. Soon you won't be selling on SS or DT either because these type of shots have been done to death. Its uniqueness, originality and quality now, IMHO of course :)
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Hey, reality check time. Looking at some of your portfolio's on IS, sorted by downloads or age, there's not much there that my 9 year old daughter couldn't shoot. Soon you won't be selling on SS or DT either because these type of shots have been done to death. Its uniqueness, originality and quality now, IMHO of course :)
You are certainly entitled to your opinion. My guess is that you are an exclusive on istock. Of course you are completely anonymous and that gives you the right to criticize everyone else without fear of any retribution or invite any kind of criticism about your own work. But even if you do have a spectacular portfolio on istock, unless you are one of the "club", you should really watch what you say because it just might come back and bite you in the a$$. Even contributors at the top are having their go at being in the dumps and one day your turn will come. Please do come back and tell us when that happens so we all can laugh and point and criticize you about your crappy portfolio. ;)
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Hey, reality check time. Looking at some of your portfolio's on IS, sorted by downloads or age, there's not much there that my 9 year old daughter couldn't shoot. Soon you won't be selling on SS or DT either because these type of shots have been done to death. Its uniqueness, originality and quality now, IMHO of course :)
Can we see your daughter's port? Because the truth is that most people, especially many young people, can't be *rsed with the pernickity pixel peeping needed for microstock, even if they have truly outstanding photos on e.g. Flickr. So the fact that someone could shoot certain photos doesn't mean they'd have the dogged determination to maintain a diverse portfolio. Your daughter may be the exception, of course.
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There is a crazy belief, that picture buyers will sit for hours on end looking/searching suitable pictures, nothing could be more untrue and especially among professional buyers where time is the essence. I have seen it, many times, as soon as they get into the messy interface of IS, they click out and move elsewhere, dont even bother to fill in a search words. Too many collections, prices, etc, just too messy.
They might spend some time when buying RM, where prices are a lot higher but they certainly are not doing it, buying micro. Quicker and cheaper to just move on.
The buyers I speak to never mention the different price points or collections and when asked they don't really care, all they want is to find the image they want, price isn't the major factor. However I'm in total agreement about the search engine and it's the one thing I hear over and over, iStock's CV is a disaster and that's what's driving buyers away, that and iStocks constant fixation to f*@k around with the search results.
As a designer I love the search facilities on iStock. My clients never mention any problems either. Cost is normally not an issue. Anyways, so isn't it just a case of iStock becoming less Microstock and more Midstock. And why so many contributors, who have those typical, you know, old school type portfolio's, are doing really bad there?
For myself, Sept and first half of Oct were 50% average and quite depressing but since then sales have been good - only a small portfolio at IS (100+) but averaging $20 a day right now.
Well if costs are no problem! and as a Designer, why do you lower yourself to the standards of Micro or Midstock? why not go the whole hogg and go for RM ? is that a problem? I know your not an AD and with an AD-agency but, hey! we are used to little wanna-bees here, especially little micro designers and especially from IS. ;)
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When there are reports of two sales on a weekday for a contributor with a proven PF containing thousands of images, then whether that contributor is exclusive or independent there is something seriously wrong. It may not be wrong from iStock's perspective, but it's very wrong from any other view. My own sales were bad that day, and I know there are others in the same position.
Really it can't go on like this. "They" can do what they like of course to maximise their profits, but in the end it's not use to me and a lot of others like me seeing no real possibility of growth, and the nasty suspicion that if we see any growth it will somehow be taken away. I'm sure they have no real concerns any longer for whether individual contributors are exclusive or independent.
There are lots of us uploading, and seeing at best no growth. This has been going on slowly for years, but this sudden drop we have seen since the end of Summer is something new, and seems to have come at the same time as the huge influx of "Edstock" and other images from outside iStock itself. It doesn't bode well for the future.
Very well said Dave. I could not agree more!
(Emphasized some of your statements I particularly agree with.)
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I don't think it invalidates the point, but I did check today and yesterday's sales total was actually 3, courtesy of one more sale at 11:27pm!!
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I don't think it invalidates the point, but I did check today and yesterday's sales total was actually 3, courtesy of one more sale at 11:27pm!!
Well, don't spend it all in one place ;)
As if to add insult to injury, I just had a .12 download on Istock. Makes even those .25 subs on Crestock not look so bad. :P
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Hey, reality check time. Looking at some of your portfolio's on IS, sorted by downloads or age, there's not much there that my 9 year old daughter couldn't shoot. Soon you won't be selling on SS or DT either because these type of shots have been done to death. Its uniqueness, originality and quality now, IMHO of course :)
You are certainly entitled to your opinion. My guess is that you are an exclusive on istock. Of course you are completely anonymous and that gives you the right to criticize everyone else without fear of any retribution or invite any kind of criticism about your own work. But even if you do have a spectacular portfolio on istock, unless you are one of the "club", you should really watch what you say because it just might come back and bite you in the a$$. Even contributors at the top are having their go at being in the dumps and one day your turn will come. Please do come back and tell us when that happens so we all can laugh and point and criticize you about your crappy portfolio. ;)
I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now. Not to say it isn't a complete rollercoaster on IS these days but I still average more than a few sales a day even when I'm at the low dip. My daughter is pretty good but she wants to be an actress when older so you can all relax now :)
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I don't think it invalidates the point, but I did check today and yesterday's sales total was actually 3, courtesy of one more sale at 11:27pm!!
Well, don't spend it all in one place ;)
As if to add insult to injury, I just had a .12 download on Istock. Makes even those .25 subs on Crestock not look so bad. :P
MAybe that's what happened to Judge Ross! He now is in charge of best match at Istock. Mystery solved... ;)
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I don't think it invalidates the point, but I did check today and yesterday's sales total was actually 3, courtesy of one more sale at 11:27pm!!
3 sales in a day from a proven PF of what 2500 over there?
I really don't know where this is going to end.
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I don't think it invalidates the point, but I did check today and yesterday's sales total was actually 3, courtesy of one more sale at 11:27pm!!
3 sales in a day from a proven PF of what 2500 over there?
I really don't know where this is going to end.
Well if its to any consolation Dave, I normally have around 30 sales per day but today = 9 sales. Not much to hang in a x-mas tree for anybody here I guess.
Keep it up mate. Chris.
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I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now.
Well, I think you need to keep trying, because "crappy portfolios" is not the reason. The sales crash is reported by most diamond level contributors, regardless of portfolio size, subject matter, or quality. Lagereek, above, is a great example - his portfolio is top notch, highly specialized, and a lucrative niche, but his sales are way down.
As for your sales being "quite good right now", congrats on that. However it's pretty meaningless as an indicator of site performance over all. Your best sales day ever might be the same as somebody else's worst in years. It's all relative.
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MAybe that's what happened to Judge Ross! He now is in charge of best match at Istock. Mystery solved... ;)
Aha! Good hunting there JBarber! :D
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I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now.
Well, I think you need to keep trying, because "crappy portfolios" is not the reason. The sales crash is reported by most diamond level contributors, regardless of portfolio size, subject matter, or quality. Lagereek, above, is a great example - his portfolio is top notch, highly specialized, and a lucrative niche, but his sales are way down.
As for your sales being "quite good right now", congrats on that. However it's pretty meaningless as an indicator of site performance over all. Your best sales day ever might be the same as somebody else's worst in years. It's all relative.
Fair enough. When things go wrong it seems people, including myself, look to blame everything but themselves. I totally agree IS has been pretty bad of recent years but there's no denying that MS in general is bursting at the seams with ordinary imagery. I just don't see how this can be maintained. IS probably recognise this and are focusing more on Midstock type imagery though I am as confused as anybody as to what IS is really up to. I'm just trying to produce better quality imagery, as in my case, sales results prove its worth it. Well at least for the moment they do, next week who knows!
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I am sunk on IS DL's this week. I did have a couple of EL's but number of DL's overall this week is 5 average per day. I am typically 2-3 times more per day.
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Fair enough. When things go wrong it seems people, including myself, look to blame everything but themselves. I totally agree IS has been pretty bad of recent years but there's no denying that MS in general is bursting at the seams with ordinary imagery. I just don't see how this can be maintained. IS probably recognise this and are focusing more on Midstock type imagery though I am as confused as anybody as to what IS is really up to. I'm just trying to produce better quality imagery, as in my case, sales results prove its worth it. Well at least for the moment they do, next week who knows!
I just don't think your theory is true. My ordinary imagery, last month, made me a BME at shutterstock. I haven't uploaded any new images in months. I have less than 1000 images, but my ordinary stuff just seems to keep selling. So there must be some sort of market for it. Just not at istock. On that point, you are correct.
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I'll be the first to admit that 100% of my portfolio is ordinary. Pretty, not edgy; normal, not unusual; recognizable, predictable stuff. That hasn't stopped it from selling (and I would argue in many cases that's why it sells as stock).
It used to sell at iStock. It still does sell everywhere else. That old expression says when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not Zebras.
So, when you look at all of these snippets of data, you could conclude that buyers are morons for buying my boring ordinary images in large-ish quantities. The moron buyers have left iStock and the remaining discerning folk don't care for my chaff, but prefer the fine and un-ordinary content that the exclusive bronzes (those reporting BMEs in the October stats thread) are supplying.
Or, you could alternatively conclude that iStock's multitude of software train wrecks and policy changes in the last year or so have resulted in fewer buyers than before, and that the various futile efforts to fix this by playing with best match result in a wildly uneven sales performance from day to day and week to week.
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I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now.
Well, I think you need to keep trying, because "crappy portfolios" is not the reason. The sales crash is reported by most diamond level contributors, regardless of portfolio size, subject matter, or quality.
I agree there seem to be some concerning trends. But I suggest you guys remember that only a fraction of a fraction of contributors even visit the forums on IS, and even less post their results. Even out of the top 50 diamonds, i think only a few have posted, and surely mainly the disgruntled ones. Unless I missed it, I've only seen 1 of the top 5 post and he was up a little over last year. Just sayin... The sky ain't falling yet :)
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I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now.
Well, I think you need to keep trying, because "crappy portfolios" is not the reason. The sales crash is reported by most diamond level contributors, regardless of portfolio size, subject matter, or quality.
I agree there seem to be some concerning trends. But I suggest you guys remember that only a fraction of a fraction of contributors even visit the forums on IS, and even less post their results. Even out of the top 50 diamonds, i think only a few have posted, and surely mainly the disgruntled ones. Unless I missed it, I've only seen 1 of the top 5 post and he was up a little over last year. Just sayin... The sky ain't falling yet :)
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If you are right and we lack data to draw a conclusion, how can you know that the sky is not falling yet???
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I have no idea what the whole picture at iStock looks like - and I don't think any contributors do. The people who do know don't talk about it.
What I would say regarding your comment that only a small fraction post in the forums is that while it's true some people don't bother, that has always been the case. In the past, those who posted in end-of-month threads had generally much more positive tales than those who have posted the last few months.
So while it's not impossible that the bad times have just happened to hit that small portion that posts and everyone else in the top 2% (diamonds and up) are doing great, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which that vocal group is the only one seeing a downturn.
The sky isn't falling because lots of people are buying stock images. Just not at iStock.
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I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now.
Well, I think you need to keep trying, because "crappy portfolios" is not the reason. The sales crash is reported by most diamond level contributors, regardless of portfolio size, subject matter, or quality.
I agree there seem to be some concerning trends. But I suggest you guys remember that only a fraction of a fraction of contributors even visit the forums on IS, and even less post their results. Even out of the top 50 diamonds, i think only a few have posted, and surely mainly the disgruntled ones. Unless I missed it, I've only seen 1 of the top 5 post and he was up a little over last year. Just sayin... The sky ain't falling yet :)
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If you are right and we lack data to draw a conclusion, how can you know that the sky is not falling yet???
Because all the top people would be saying it.
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I'm only trying to focus on why some people are reporting such few sales on iStock from their huge portfolios. My sales are quite good right now.
Well, I think you need to keep trying, because "crappy portfolios" is not the reason. The sales crash is reported by most diamond level contributors, regardless of portfolio size, subject matter, or quality.
I agree there seem to be some concerning trends. But I suggest you guys remember that only a fraction of a fraction of contributors even visit the forums on IS, and even less post their results. Even out of the top 50 diamonds, i think only a few have posted, and surely mainly the disgruntled ones. Unless I missed it, I've only seen 1 of the top 5 post and he was up a little over last year. Just sayin... The sky ain't falling yet :)
Well, this time around I think you can draw the conclusion, its BAD! Three of my pals at IS, are exclusive Diamonds, and they are way down, about 40% down AND they have Vettas, etc, they know in their turn, others who are also way down and so on.
Look, its a build up, started almost two years back and since then, just about everything IS have touched, has gone wrong, many buyers are also contributors, I am sure they actually forgot that plus the fact of a very week Admin, allowing themselves to be bullied by Getty, insulting contributors/buyers, in public forums. Sooner or later it will crash, simple as that.
Also, look at the major competition, SS, DT, FT, etc, for just about everyone, these three have risen about the same percentage as IS have fallen, what I have lost at IS, I have easily gained by the others.
I think we have to face facts, this time its serious, IS, is not a major player anymore and their migration to TS, well that can result in catastrophy.
Lets be honest, you wouldnt ask people to invest in SAAB, would you, well this is pretty much the same, only a differant product. :)
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there's no denying that MS in general is bursting at the seams with ordinary imagery. I just don't see how this can be maintained. IS probably recognise this and are focusing more on Midstock type imagery
You're not thinking of it from the agency's perspective. As long as there is huge demand for "ordinary" imagery an agency should be happy to be flooded with it. Maybe a million sales of ordinary stuff end up spread out between a million submitters, all of whom get almost nothing, but the lion's share of the take remains in one lump in the agency's pockets. Spreading the collection in new directions to attract a different kind of buyer also makes sense but the core income will probably always come from ordinary, useful stuff.
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there's no denying that MS in general is bursting at the seams with ordinary imagery. I just don't see how this can be maintained. IS probably recognise this and are focusing more on Midstock type imagery
You're not thinking of it from the agency's perspective. As long as there is huge demand for "ordinary" imagery an agency should be happy to be flooded with it. Maybe a million sales of ordinary stuff end up spread out between a million submitters, all of whom get almost nothing, but the lion's share of the take remains in one lump in the agency's pockets. Spreading the collection in new directions to attract a different kind of buyer also makes sense but the core income will probably always come from ordinary, useful stuff.
Yep, valid points. None of us have the raw data to make any kind of assumption so we assume a lot :) Lagereek says his mates are 40% down but some people here are reporting such low sales you have to imagine they are more like 95% down. That can't be entirely due to IS policy is my point.
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My best seller hasn't sold for 4 days now. Not even once!!! My sales are so low that I am selliing about the same as my best seller used to sell daily.
I've now been hit hard by both Fotolia and Istock.
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My best seller hasn't sold for 4 days now. Not even once!!! My sales are so low that I am selliing about the same as my best seller used to sell daily.
I've now been hit hard by both Fotolia and Istock.
Something is creepy about FT for me. I have gone from a rank of about 1000 to 2000. It hasn't returned to 1000. Sales have plummeted in the last two months there....for me anyhow.
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Has the best match changed again? Now I am getting DLs only during European working hours. No DLs on working hours Americas. That's very weird for me.
Anybody else having this pattern?
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Has the best match changed again? Now I am getting DLs only during European working hours. No DLs on working hours Americas. That's very weird for me.
Anybody else having this pattern?
Nope, the very opposite. As I posted yesterday, I had one dl prior to 19:15GMT, then 5 dls after that. Still a poor day, but far worse during European working hours. No dls at all today, 1315GMT. I have few files of specifically American interest. (167/2729).