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Author Topic: Best Match shift 27 Jan 12  (Read 32128 times)

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michealo

« on: January 27, 2012, 05:56 »
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Seems to be a major tweak last night, dialing down on the exclusive bump


wut

« Reply #1 on: January 27, 2012, 06:08 »
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Ur saying it's time to consider ULing again? Well not until they sort out the royalty percentage bug. I guess that bug triggered the best match change or they just want to calm the vast majority of their contributors down...I really don't know whether they're complete muppets or top drawer crooks/cons artists anymore

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2012, 06:26 »
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In two of my usual test vested interest searches, A/ V are more prominent than they've been for a couple of weeks, and another two look 'very similar' to how they were the last time I looked (Mon or Tues).
In my 'no vested interest' search on telesales, there are 5 indies in the top 20 'photos only', which is a slight improvement on how it was over New Year.
Not one indie in the top 200 'photos only' for Florence that I can see.
In all 5, it seems that newer files don't have much of a boost. In fact, one I had accepted on Tuesday is around 100 on its main search term.
Seems to have been several months that they've been employing different search algorithms for different searches.

« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2012, 07:35 »
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IS isn't friendly any more for independent contributors...
Obviously they shift their customers to Getty, also they are sending many invitations to exclusive contributors to make transfer to Getty...
So probably Getty don't want to have two or more crews on different agencies, that cost much more....
In this transition period they will transfer Istock's market to Getty, some photographers also...
The work of independent photographers will be completely devalued through the Thinkstock...
So this is a process, not good for us!
« Last Edit: January 27, 2012, 14:18 by borg »

lagereek

« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2012, 08:28 »
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Same pathetic rubbish, same irrelevant material, same generic stuff, it will never change.

Wait a minute!  just went back and had a look...........................  yep, same old generic rubbish.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2012, 08:34 by lagereek »

« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2012, 09:37 »
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Obviously they shift their customers to Getty, also they are sending many invitations to exclusive contributors to make transfer to Getty...

Is that a fact? I haven't heard that before. Are you talking about a complete transfer to Getty or just putting some files through there. If they are creaming off the best exclusives and making them Getty exclusives then it would mark a major change.

« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2012, 10:58 »
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yep...new chance for indipendents..maybe istock not want anymore exclusive (best match shift +  acceptance rate = 0%)

« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2012, 12:47 »
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Same pathetic rubbish, same irrelevant material, same generic stuff, it will never change.

Wait a minute!  just went back and had a look...........................  yep, same old generic rubbish.

Is that your posts you are talking about!?

No, its the moron that answered me. Oh what a pitty, so sad.

Can't get free entertainment like this anywhere else!  ;D

« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2012, 13:03 »
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We all have our own personal litmus tests for this.  Mine is 'scotland'.  I have the #3 most downloaded "scotland" image, #2 if you dont count a vector of the flag.  It used to be quite high, and after the recent changes was totally buried.



This recent change did nothing to improve it its location, or at least I havent gone far enough back to find out where it actually is.  But when this image is on the front page (by 200), and mine is nowhere to be found by page 11, well... color me dissatisfied



(fyi i know that the "scotland fold" is a recognizable cat mutation, but this cat doesnt even have that)
(and in case the contributor is around, yes, this is a wonderful image by a talented artist... just not sure I agree with it's location in a Scotland best match)

lisafx

« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2012, 13:07 »
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My download numbers today certainly don't support the notion of any improvement in placement of indie images.  Sales dismal as ever, after having improved slightly last week and early this week.  Now back in the gutter.  

I agree with Borg.  Istock isn't worth bothering with for indies anymore.  

« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2012, 13:42 »
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One thing I don't understand is why more buyers don't sort by Downloads. I was a buyer on istockphoto.com for 10 years and nearly always got the best results that way.

RacePhoto

« Reply #11 on: January 27, 2012, 14:14 »
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We all have our own personal litmus tests for this.  Mine is 'scotland'.  I have the #3 most downloaded "scotland" image, #2 if you dont count a vector of the flag.  It used to be quite high, and after the recent changes was totally buried.



This recent change did nothing to improve it its location, or at least I havent gone far enough back to find out where it actually is.  But when this image is on the front page (by 200), and mine is nowhere to be found by page 11, well... color me dissatisfied



Glen Coe?  :)  Beautiful!

I agree with Borg.  Istock isn't worth bothering with for indies anymore. 


I agree with both of you. I think they are trying to get rid of us or shuffle everything over to ThinkStock.

« Reply #12 on: January 27, 2012, 14:34 »
0
IS isn't friendly any more for independent contributors...
Obviously they shift their customers to Getty, also they are sending many invitations to exclusive contributors to make transfer to Getty...
So probably Getty don't want to have two or more crews on different agencies, that cost much more....
In this transition period they will transfer Istock's market to Getty, some photographers also...
The work of independent photographers will be completely devalued through the Thinkstock...
So this is process, not good for us!

Interesting thought! But it's probably a bit more complicated than that. I don't think they would merge iStock with Getty, the prices are quite different. They are moving more talented exclusives to Getty so they can sell their work for more money, but not all exclusives are going to Getty. Those who shoot mostly what is considered now microstock staples will stay microstock. Getty can not ignore places like SS or FT and they will keep iStock and Thinkstock as competition to those. But higher priced "macro" market is still there - and although it did lose some (considerable) ground when micros emerged, there are still buyers that look for more interesting and more sophisticated images. Something that is hard to find on micros.
 I talked recently to a friend that works in publishing - they have a subscription to Thinkstock. Only if they don't find what they are looking for there, they'd look somewhere else. So for generic stuff that's easy to produce Thinkstock and such are and will be the places to go. For something more complicated there will be still macros. And Istock itself will be for people that for some reason don't want to buy subscriptions, although most companies prefer them. So whether or not iStock will turn into subscription site depends on how much revenue they get from people who buy images for credits.

lagereek

« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2012, 14:52 »
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Really!  does anybody really care anymore?  this is beginning to sound like a broken record,  over and over again. I have personally taken over 20 buyers away from them, sending high-res files, telling them I can meet their future requirements,  within my fields, that is. Good enough for me. :)

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2012, 16:39 »
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Really!  does anybody really care anymore?  this is beginning to sound like a broken record,  over and over again. I have personally taken over 20 buyers away from them, sending high-res files, telling them I can meet their future requirements,  within my fields, that is. Good enough for me. :)
If you have direct contact with buyers, I can't imagine why you'd want to give a percentage of your money to any agency.

SNP

  • Canadian Photographer
« Reply #15 on: January 27, 2012, 17:18 »
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whatever they have done, it has killed my sales

« Reply #16 on: January 27, 2012, 17:29 »
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whatever they have done, it has killed my sales
Like most best match changes, it'll be ephemeral

« Reply #17 on: January 27, 2012, 17:30 »
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two posts removed for a little cat fight.... unnecessary really.

« Reply #18 on: January 27, 2012, 17:58 »
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One thing I don't understand is why more buyers don't sort by Downloads. I was a buyer on istockphoto.com for 10 years and nearly always got the best results that way.

same here. especially after knowing that best match didn't mean best match for the buyer. Besides, I always wanted to see the number of downloads the image I was thinking of buying had. I would generally not buy one with blue flames (too much exposure) but would move back a couple/few pages and still get a nice-looking, selling image.

« Reply #19 on: January 27, 2012, 18:37 »
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My download numbers today certainly don't support the notion of any improvement in placement of indie images.  Sales dismal as ever, after having improved slightly last week and early this week.  Now back in the gutter.  

I agree with Borg.  Istock isn't worth bothering with for indies anymore.  

Seriously +1.  Here it is Friday, and I haven't even made it to $1 earned for the week.  WTH?  I used to earn a payout a week.  >:( >:( >:(  Yeh, sure...I've been deactivating images, but not so many that I'd go from $100 per week to less than a freakin' dollar.  I'm pi$$ed.

« Reply #20 on: January 27, 2012, 18:42 »
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Same here - I was never a big player in this, but 1 DL for less than $2 this week, and 2 last week.  It wasn't even a dwindling off, it just suddenly crashed. 

« Reply #21 on: January 27, 2012, 18:43 »
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I take that back.  Just added yesterday's and today's sales, and woohoo...I'm up to just under $2 for the week.   >:( >:( >:(

« Reply #22 on: January 27, 2012, 18:44 »
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Same here - I was never a big player in this, but 1 DL for less than $2 this week, and 2 last week.  It wasn't even a dwindling off, it just suddenly crashed. 

I'm a mid-tier player...gold canister.  This is absolutely ridiculous.

WarrenPrice

« Reply #23 on: January 27, 2012, 18:44 »
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I take that back.  Just added yesterday's and today's sales, and woohoo...I'm up to just under $2 for the week.   >:( >:( >:(

Look out, Big Stock.  iStock is closing in on you.   ;)

lisafx

« Reply #24 on: January 27, 2012, 19:12 »
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Same here - I was never a big player in this, but 1 DL for less than $2 this week, and 2 last week.  It wasn't even a dwindling off, it just suddenly crashed. 

I'm a mid-tier player...gold canister.  This is absolutely ridiculous.

Wow!  $100/wk to $2!!  That's insane.  No amount of Eb and Flow could ever explain what's going on at Istock.  Unless it's a lava flow on the level of what happened to Pompei.   :o 


 

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