It's a really, really bad month everywhere as far as I'm concerned __ it's not just limited to IS.

On my stat's IS, SS and FT are all projected to be 30% down from the peak of May and DT is on course to be 50% down. I have no idea why there appears to have been such a rapid decline in demand.

I monitor the best match on a few of my niche subjects and I don't see any evidence that independents have been disadvantaged recently or since the introduction of the Exc+ collection.

I'm having a terrible month everywhere. SS down 30%. However whatever might or might not have changed with IS best match has favoured me at last. Sales have doubled. But traditionally I did much worse there than others with high rejections and only about 350 images there and 1600 everywhere else.

Compared with last year (royalties charts), I am about the same. March was a better month for me this year than last. But I am seeing a difference in sales reporting and my payout. For the most part, I used to be able to request a payout every week...now I can only do so every other week. Because on Monday morning, I am still $5.00-$10.00 short, but on Monday afternoon I am well past payout minimum, but now can't request a check until the following Mon. AM. Perhaps just the old ebb and flow. Perhaps some other tweaking going on to help out IS cash flow?

I agree with Gostwyck...I have a few images that I check in the best match and their positions have not changed, so it doesn't appear to me that anything radical has changed. I am not seeing a decline at SS, and I am seeing increases at DT and BigStock, but that is to be expected, as I had stopped uploading for a few months in anticipation of going exclusive.

I don't work out my stats till the end of the month, so all I have is guesstimates and impressions. 

My overall sales are down from this time last year across the board.  But for most individual sites, sales seem about the same as last month, which was not a good month.   

Only exception is Istock where sales appear to be 30% or so down from normal.  I don't see a noticeable drop in my best match positions relative to exclusive files, and reading the IS threads, seems everyone is complaining of dropping DL numbers, regardless of exclusive status. 

Istock admins swear the total DL numbers keep going up and I believe them, but it is possible the RATE of sales growth has slowed and is no longer keeping pace with the rate of library growth. 

I know Istock has loyal buyers, but I also think with every price rise and "new collection" (largely rebranding of existing images at higher price points) some more buyers are drifting away.  Maybe to TS to buy wholly owned content, for example.

I'd accept what the Admins say but I don't recall them saying that so far this month.

You're right.  I meant they say that in general, but not this month.  AFAIK they are pretty set against anyone discussing sales numbers until the end-of-month thread.

Which in itself is interesting.... Used to be that sales threads were allowed to run as long as people wanted to keep talking about them.  Now there is a strict end-of-the-month policy.   

My 2010 sales at Istock are going up comparing to last year. Fotolia is doing way better than last year, but still behind Istock. Dreamstime used to be the second, and is far behind Fotolia now.

The first week of this month was pretty bad across the board except SS (about normal), IS was way down for the first week but has picked up the pace for the second week for the most part, DT less so. BigStock pathetic... It seems that SS has switched a bit more to newer content? I could be wrong though.

hopefully things pick up.

--=Tom

april was my worst month in the last 6, but may's looking to be 2 or 3rd BME.  overall, sales this year are +50% higher than last year

IS is my 6 or 7th in terms of revenue so an up or down month there doesnt affect me much

s

Quote from: pancaketom on May 14, 2010, 12:20

The first week of this month was pretty bad across the board except SS (about normal), IS was way down for the first week but has picked up the pace for the second week for the most part,

+1 i think the best match shift at is has hit everyone. did anyone benefit from it, other than joingate?
otherwise, on track for a good month, with % increase on last month. (wasn't here last year, this month)

I'm exclusive and track a few files. Everything is normal for me so I didn't notice any best match shift.

istock, 123 and BigStock are down for me so far this month
the others are up

Hi All,

 My Micros starting dropping last month for the first time but at the same time my Macro work started to grow again. Even my Macro RF is growing and I haven't added anything to it in a year. Not sure what has made the change but the diversification helps to balance everything out.

Best,
Jonathan

this month is above average for me.