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Author Topic: Sales down???? :(((  (Read 11675 times)

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« on: January 25, 2012, 09:35 »
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Every month it has been my BME in 123RF until now, yesterday no sales and today no sales... anyone knows what's up??


« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2012, 09:51 »
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Yap, sales are down for me to.... maybe is just January.

« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2012, 10:20 »
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Yesterday was a no-sales day for me at 123rf and I don't think that has happened on a weekday before (except when I was getting my portfolio uploaded and didn't have much online). There is one sale so far today, but it's early.

Could it have been a holiday somewhere yesterday? But my sales at SS and DT looked like a healthy weekday, so it wasn't a down day across the board...

ETA: There were sales for the 24th, but they only showed up this morning (I typically check in the mornings and typically see the prior day's sales then). Perhaps from a partner site, and thus the delay?
« Last Edit: January 26, 2012, 10:15 by jsnover »

« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2012, 10:26 »
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Things have been steadily rising for me at 123RF.  November 2011 was my BME there, then December retreated a bit due to the holidays, and January should just about match November.  (Seeing around 30 downloads on most weekdays and total sales of around $20 a day.)

« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2012, 12:15 »
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BME this month, no complaints from me.

« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2012, 12:22 »
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Jun 2011     105    81.05
Jul 2011      100    91.37
Aug 2011    110    70.28
Sep 2011    120    89.49
Oct 2011     120  110.16
Nov 2011    138    94.54
Dec 2011    103    71.25
Jan 2012      82    55.35

Micro1

« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2012, 13:33 »
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Average month. Checking your sales daily is probably too frequent. Sales tend to go up and down at all sites. As long as each year increases I think is the main thing :)

« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2012, 14:14 »
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Average month. Checking your sales daily is probably too frequent. Sales tend to go up and down at all sites. As long as each year increases I think is the main thing :)

You'll find that as your sales get higher, you're much more vested in watching the trends and wanting to move the needle higher.  If I just made a few sales a day at a given site, I would still probably check it at the end of every day.  I keep a daily tally of my sales, and I track a trend line that is a two-week rolling average.  Then I compare that to year-ago levels to see if I am in the middle of an annual cyclical trend or if I'm doing something right or wrong that is out of the ordinary, and I alter my course as needed by looking at what is or isn't selling.   Yes, it can take some time to do this correctly, but if you've reached a level where microstock is paying some or all of your bills, you'd be wise to give it the careful daily attention and analysis it takes to grow it further.

Micro1

« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2012, 15:06 »
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While I am a new member here, I have 20 years experience in the Stock industry. Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.
Monthly checks are ideal.
I mean if you're going to check daily why not check hourly? As I'm with so many sites that would be such a big chunk of time used up.

« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2012, 15:56 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I don't agree at all, that. That to me is like saying time spent chatting to friends or watching tv is bad time management as it could be spent creating new images.

Micro1

« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2012, 16:04 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I don't agree at all, that. That to me is like saying time spent chatting to friends or watching tv is bad time management as it could be spent creating new images.

I'm talking business, not what you do in your spare time. Yes, chatting with friends and watching TV during work hours would also be terrible time-management.

« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2012, 16:05 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I treat microstock like a business. I am really two people in one.  One is the "artist" creating new stuff.  But what should he be creating?  He needs to be given direction by the "business manager," who needs to closely watch sales and trends to measure what is or isn't selling and watch for new opportunity.  The artist probably spends 1-2 hours a day creating, and the business manager spends about 1 hour a day tracking and analyzing.

If I killed off the business manager and gave the artist an extra hour a day to make whatever he wanted, yes I would create more, but I guarantee you it wouldn't be raising my sales.  

Like any business, microstock is one that requires market intelligence.  Daily checking of stats (and yes, sometimes hourly or more frequntly on those exciting days when it seems sales are going through the roof) helps me grow my business.  I set short term and long term revenue goals when I started several years ago.  I surpassed the short term goal in about 18 months, and hit the long term goal about six months ago.  I'm doing far better than I thought I would ever do at this, and I credit that success to approaching this as an artist and marketer in equal measure.

Micro1

« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2012, 16:13 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I treat microstock like a business. I am really two people in one.  One is the "artist" creating new stuff.  But what should he be creating?  He needs to be given direction by the "business manager," who needs to closely watch sales and trends to measure what is or isn't selling and watch for new opportunity.  The artist probably spends 1-2 hours a day creating, and the business manager spends about 1 hour a day tracking and analyzing.

If I killed off the business manager and gave the artist an extra hour a day to make whatever he wanted, yes I would create more, but I guarantee you it wouldn't be raising my sales.  

Like any business, microstock is one that requires market intelligence.  Daily checking of stats (and yes, sometimes hourly or more frequntly on those exciting days when it seems sales are going through the roof) helps me grow my business.  I set short term and long term revenue goals when I started several years ago.  I surpassed the short term goal in about 18 months, and hit the long term goal about six months ago.  I'm doing far better than I thought I would ever do at this, and I credit that success to approaching this as an artist and marketer in equal measure.

Hmm, maybe I need to clarify if we are talking about sales-figures or actual images that have sold.
Looking at sales-figures daily isn't going to enlighten you much. You view it and say yes sales are down, next day sales are up. So?
However, looking at which images sold daily has a bearing on what you'll create the next day.
But when I started supplying 123RF I just put my head down and got to work, not having time to look at sales. Now I have well over 10,000 images with them.

« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2012, 16:23 »
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The daily tallies don't matter as much to me.  But in aggregate, I can see a 14-day rolling average, and plot that against prior years.  If the current average is heading downward, it could be seasonal, which the year-to-year comparisons would tell me.  But if it's going down at a period when history suggests I should be making gains, that suggests something is wrong and requires further analysis.  RPI is another measurement I track closely.  I compare today, this week, and this month to the same period last year and in prior years to see if I'm truly making gains.  If RPI slips, that suggests I'm not uploading the right stuff, perhaps even competing too much with my own port.

Maybe this is just anal, but it is working for me, so I'm sticking with what works.

« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2012, 16:24 »
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I can't speak for the OP but I was talking about sales patterns at the site - things like a typical level of sales on a weekday, weekends and holidays are quieter, and so on. Sometimes there are site outages that disrupt the patterns; in the past (not at 123rf) there were chunks of 0 sale weekdays for people with a long history of solid sales and it turned out there were technical problems where sales weren't getting recorded (this was Jupiter sales not getting to StockXpert periodically for those of you who remember).

I don't know how long you've been with the micros (can't be 20 years as they haven't been around that long!)  but the near real time feedback from most of the sites is very different from monthly and quarterly accounting at the macro agencies. Sometimes that can be a distraction, but sometimes we can use that information usefully. Comparing notes to see what's individual and what's being experienced more broadly is another of the useful features MSG provides.

Micro1

« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2012, 16:35 »
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I can't speak for the OP but I was talking about sales patterns at the site - things like a typical level of sales on a weekday, weekends and holidays are quieter, and so on. Sometimes there are site outages that disrupt the patterns; in the past (not at 123rf) there were chunks of 0 sale weekdays for people with a long history of solid sales and it turned out there were technical problems where sales weren't getting recorded (this was Jupiter sales not getting to StockXpert periodically for those of you who remember).

I don't know how long you've been with the micros (can't be 20 years as they haven't been around that long!)  but the near real time feedback from most of the sites is very different from monthly and quarterly accounting at the macro agencies. Sometimes that can be a distraction, but sometimes we can use that information usefully. Comparing notes to see what's individual and what's being experienced more broadly is another of the useful features MSG provides.

Only been with the micros since 2007.
I really can't see why anybody would go in to check sales all the time? Sales are down yesterday, sales are up today. 

lisafx

« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2012, 16:55 »
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Personally, I don't see what's wrong with checking every day.  You don't do it.  Fine.  Nobody says you have to, but considering it takes me about 10 minutes max to check my sales figures, I don't really see that it is taking a lot of time away from creating images.  

Until the last couple of years, it was nearly always good news, and that kept me motivated.  Now, it's not always good news, but checking is a habit.  Guess I will have to live without the revenue that extra 10 minutes/day would bring me.   I probably lose way more productivity commenting on threads like this one ;)
« Last Edit: January 25, 2012, 16:56 by lisafx »

CD123

« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2012, 16:55 »
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Getting back to topic, I had 4 no sales days in a row 2 days ago (the first in months), but made up for it in the last 2 days with increased sales (the same happened to me on SS and the amount of views on my one British site - same time frame as well). Very weird, but it seems like January is just a weird month, considering other peoples experiences here as well.

Think we will just have to wait this one calmly out till end of month and then look back and consider the month as a whole, being good or bad.

PS Back to the off topic discussion, I just like to peep every now and then at the money I am making. Some days it encourages me make even more, other days it encourage me to better make more.  ;D

Micro1

« Reply #18 on: January 25, 2012, 18:07 »
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My comments were for the benefit of PedroV who had an unhappy face due to seeing a couple of days without sales. Most of us would have had days like that when we started out (maybe not Yuri ;)  ). My point is just look at your sales monthly; daily analysis isn't helping you much.
Work on getting your monthly sales up :) 

« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2012, 04:14 »
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It is true..I just stop myself from checking it most of times, like the sales won't grow because i am checking it.


While I am a new member here, I have 20 years experience in the Stock industry. Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.
Monthly checks are ideal.
I mean if you're going to check daily why not check hourly? As I'm with so many sites that would be such a big chunk of time used up.

Tryingmybest

  • Stand up for what is right
« Reply #20 on: January 26, 2012, 05:52 »
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Every month it has been my BME in 123RF until now, yesterday no sales and today no sales... anyone knows what's up??

Seems like I'm doing OK this month. Mostly low-price subscription sales, however.  :P

« Reply #21 on: January 28, 2012, 16:42 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I don't agree at all, that. That to me is like saying time spent chatting to friends or watching tv is bad time management as it could be spent creating new images.

I'm talking business, not what you do in your spare time. Yes, chatting with friends and watching TV during work hours would also be terrible time-management.

So is posting on a forum, discussing irrelevant things.

Micro1

« Reply #22 on: January 28, 2012, 16:58 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I don't agree at all, that. That to me is like saying time spent chatting to friends or watching tv is bad time management as it could be spent creating new images.

I'm talking business, not what you do in your spare time. Yes, chatting with friends and watching TV during work hours would also be terrible time-management.

So is posting on a forum, discussing irrelevant things.

My comments are relevant to the topic; yours is not.

« Reply #23 on: January 28, 2012, 17:40 »
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Checking sales daily is really bad time management, time that could be spent creating new images.

I don't agree at all, that. That to me is like saying time spent chatting to friends or watching tv is bad time management as it could be spent creating new images.

I'm talking business, not what you do in your spare time. Yes, chatting with friends and watching TV during work hours would also be terrible time-management.

So is posting on a forum, discussing irrelevant things.

My comments are relevant to the topic; yours is not.

seriously? I believe it is a great question, arent you pro in time-management?

CD123

« Reply #24 on: January 28, 2012, 17:53 »
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Oh yes, by the way, my sales picked up very nicely again. Looks like a very good month for me at 123RF and percentage wise better than normal against most others I submit to. 


 

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