Author Topic: Sales have tanked big time (Read 181877 times)

lagereek · « **Reply #200 on:** October 11, 2011, 09:37 »

Quote from: aethelflaed on October 11, 2011, 09:14

so who has the traffic these days?

FYI... I'm seeing the same thing as Nico_blue.... I've been a member since 2002 and my Octobers have always been up.... this year, for the first time... not so much.... and I'm uploading at a higher rate than ever.....

Mick Jagger! great mover.

loop · « **Reply #201 on:** October 11, 2011, 10:12 »

Forget about best match and customers fleeing because they feel contributors are not well treated. best match results are not bad at all, unless you think that the only good best match is the one that puts all your images in the first places. Search engine is great, and vastly better than any other site if you use any language that is not English. Customers give a dam m about contributors or suppliers, like in any other business. If IS is losing speed is because of the prices.
Istock made a mistake when they created the concept of microstock. Too much micro. Too much cheap. It wasn't necessary, because any intermediate prices would had been seen as an steal as well, compared with Getty, Corbis etc. SS made another mistake when creating subscriptions; even cheaper, hiper-devaluated value of our work. That, of course, spoiled the customers. With time, IS corrected the mistake, now prices are reasonable. SS never did it (except for a reduction from 30 to 25 downloads/day, I think), other agencies followed this path; so IS nowadays prices seem not-reasonable to many customers. Should IS lower its prices now all the other agencies would lower theirs the next minute.

ShadySue · « **Reply #202 on:** October 11, 2011, 10:27 »

Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 08:48

They simply dont have the traffic, its as simple as that. That fact alone makes the site worthless.

Sadly you may have a point.
I know Alexa is nothing like the whole story, but:

gbalex · « **Reply #203 on:** October 11, 2011, 10:41 »

Quote from: gostwyck on October 08, 2011, 09:08

Quote from: sharpshot on October 07, 2011, 11:09
I hope they soon revise their business plan, cutting commissions and demoralising contributors looks like it has a fatal flaw.

It certainly does. I'm staggered at how quickly sales have fallen at both IS and FT since they got uber-greedy and tried to keep almost all of the pie for themselves.

If their only realistic solution is to start treating all contributors and customers as if they actually mattered then they'd better get on with it pretty quickly or they're not going to have much of a business to sell on.

The two communities are linked (buyers/producers). I buy more than I produce and I no longer buy from either. I can remember conveying my feelings about this and having it thrown back in my face as invalid. I also remember the producers who do not value or respect buyers.

The Mighty Jungle · « **Reply #204 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:07 »

If you go to the Alexa website, search on istockphoto.com and set the chart to MAX, you will see that there was a significant drop in visitors to the website around April of this year.... it's nearly a vertical drop ... and from that point on it continues downward.

What in the he** did they do in April?

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #205 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:13 »

That was when search was more broken than working and I can't remember when that got fixed. Getty was playing hardball with the new contract for their contributors; perhaps that spilled over into all Getty properties.

cobalt · « **Reply #206 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:26 »

Is the traffic rank or daily traffic related to what google returns in image searches?

I did test searches for my bestsellers on Google and usually some of my images come up first or on the first page. Now I can´t find any istock images, none at all! It is all Shutterstock, or 123 or depositphotos. Only once did I see my image and that was a link from Thinkstock.

There used to be a lot of istock images visible in the google image search.

If daily traffic and google results are related, then I understand even less why they wanted the traffic to go elsewhere.

As an exclusive, I hope they have a plan somewhere, because this is not funny. Google results are important for sales.

It is frustrating, because as a contributor I have absolutely no influence on this. Only the agency can work on the daily traffic and google ranking.

lagereek · « **Reply #207 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:49 »

Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 10:12

Forget about best match and customers fleeing because they feel contributors are not well treated. best match results are not bad at all, unless you think that the only good best match is the one that puts all your images in the first places. Search engine is great, and vastly better than any other site if you use any language that is not English. Customers give a dam m about contributors or suppliers, like in any other business. If IS is losing speed is because of the prices.
Istock made a mistake when they created the concept of microstock. Too much micro. Too much cheap. It wasn't necessary, because any intermediate prices would had been seen as an steal as well, compared with Getty, Corbis etc. SS made another mistake when creating subscriptions; even cheaper, hiper-devaluated value of our work. That, of course, spoiled the customers. With time, IS corrected the mistake, now prices are reasonable. SS never did it (except for a reduction from 30 to 25 downloads/day, I think), other agencies followed this path; so IS nowadays prices seem not-reasonable to many customers. Should IS lower its prices now all the other agencies would lower theirs the next minute.

Well Loop, we have heard this argument now for two years, etc and frankly its getting worn out, all this about good best match only if it suits oneself, etc. How can a search-engine be good if its based on favorism? crap I would say, how can a search be good when the whole damned site looks like a neewbie TS search ?

Tribute to the devil. Stones.

gostwyck · « **Reply #208 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:56 »

Quote from: cobalt on October 11, 2011, 11:26

As an exclusive, I hope they have a plan somewhere, because this is not funny. Google results are important for sales.

It is frustrating, because as a contributor I have absolutely no influence on this. Only the agency can work on the daily traffic and google ranking.

I feel your pain but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Istock to pull something out of the bag. You might want to make your own plans instead. Judging by my data it is pretty much game, set and match to Shutterstock.

It's going to be interesting to see what 'adjustments' Istock might make to the RC targets at the end of the year to reflect the disappointing sales. Hmm.

loop · « **Reply #209 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:58 »

Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 11:49

Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 10:12
Forget about best match and customers fleeing because they feel contributors are not well treated. best match results are not bad at all, unless you think that the only good best match is the one that puts all your images in the first places. Search engine is great, and vastly better than any other site if you use any language that is not English. Customers give a dam m about contributors or suppliers, like in any other business. If IS is losing speed is because of the prices.
Istock made a mistake when they created the concept of microstock. Too much micro. Too much cheap. It wasn't necessary, because any intermediate prices would had been seen as an steal as well, compared with Getty, Corbis etc. SS made another mistake when creating subscriptions; even cheaper, hiper-devaluated value of our work. That, of course, spoiled the customers. With time, IS corrected the mistake, now prices are reasonable. SS never did it (except for a reduction from 30 to 25 downloads/day, I think), other agencies followed this path; so IS nowadays prices seem not-reasonable to many customers. Should IS lower its prices now all the other agencies would lower theirs the next minute.

Well Loop, we have heard this argument now for two years, etc and frankly its getting worn out, all this about good best match only if it suits oneself, etc. How can a search-engine be good if its based on favorism? crap I would say, how can a search be good when the whole damned site looks like a neewbie TS search ?

IS, simply doesnt have the traffic, its gone. period and I wonder why?

Yes, and we have heard that the Earth is round for hundreds of years. And it is.

lagereek · « **Reply #210 on:** October 11, 2011, 11:58 »

Quite right! they dont have the traffic anymore, not even the traffic on a bad day, simple as that. They are really reaching. The Admin really dont give a hoot since the entire site is moving into TS and once thats done and Getty has total controle, heads will fall like bowling pins.

Loops theory, buyers dont care about contributors, is true! however buyers dont want to wade through tons and tons of absoloute garbage, snapshots, poor content, low-quality creations, etc. No wonder Vetta is flourishing, the only thing left really.

At the same time, paralell, SS, is doing better then ever, so is DT, even FT on the move, even some much smaller in the middle tier are trying.

lagereek · « **Reply #211 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:01 »

Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 11:58

Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 11:49
Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 10:12
Forget about best match and customers fleeing because they feel contributors are not well treated. best match results are not bad at all, unless you think that the only good best match is the one that puts all your images in the first places. Search engine is great, and vastly better than any other site if you use any language that is not English. Customers give a dam m about contributors or suppliers, like in any other business. If IS is losing speed is because of the prices.
Istock made a mistake when they created the concept of microstock. Too much micro. Too much cheap. It wasn't necessary, because any intermediate prices would had been seen as an steal as well, compared with Getty, Corbis etc. SS made another mistake when creating subscriptions; even cheaper, hiper-devaluated value of our work. That, of course, spoiled the customers. With time, IS corrected the mistake, now prices are reasonable. SS never did it (except for a reduction from 30 to 25 downloads/day, I think), other agencies followed this path; so IS nowadays prices seem not-reasonable to many customers. Should IS lower its prices now all the other agencies would lower theirs the next minute.

Well Loop, we have heard this argument now for two years, etc and frankly its getting worn out, all this about good best match only if it suits oneself, etc. How can a search-engine be good if its based on favorism? crap I would say, how can a search be good when the whole damned site looks like a neewbie TS search ?

IS, simply doesnt have the traffic, its gone. period and I wonder why?

Yes, and we have heard that the Earth is round for hundreds of years. And it is.

Are you sure? the last I heard it was hexagonal.

loop · « **Reply #212 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:08 »

Are you sure? the last I heard it was hexagonal.

Not surprised you believed it...

cybernesco · « **Reply #213 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:13 »

Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 10:12

Forget about best match and customers fleeing because they feel contributors are not well treated. best match results are not bad at all, unless you think that the only good best match is the one that puts all your images in the first places. Search engine is great, and vastly better than any other site if you use any language that is not English. Customers give a dam m about contributors or suppliers, like in any other business. If IS is losing speed is because of the prices.
Istock made a mistake when they created the concept of microstock. Too much micro. Too much cheap. It wasn't necessary, because any intermediate prices would had been seen as an steal as well, compared with Getty, Corbis etc. SS made another mistake when creating subscriptions; even cheaper, hiper-devaluated value of our work. That, of course, spoiled the customers. With time, IS corrected the mistake, now prices are reasonable. SS never did it (except for a reduction from 30 to 25 downloads/day, I think), other agencies followed this path; so IS nowadays prices seem not-reasonable to many customers. Should IS lower its prices now all the other agencies would lower theirs the next minute.

A few years ago, cheap high speed internet and cheap massively produced high quality digital images were on a collision course. "Microstock" is a byproduct of that collision, helped by our "free democratized capitalism" society. If Getty did not see it coming, it is their mistake not IS. If not IS, another entity would have quickly figured it out.

Because Getty did not figure out "microstock", they bough IS and because they don't understand "microstock" they have been trying to turn IS, a then already successful microstock based agency, into their own "getty dinosaur" agenda ever since, while disregarding contributors, buyers and what microstock is all about. Well good luck with that....

lagereek · « **Reply #214 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:37 »

Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 12:01

Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 11:58
Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 11:49
Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 10:12
Forget about best match and customers fleeing because they feel contributors are not well treated. best match results are not bad at all, unless you think that the only good best match is the one that puts all your images in the first places. Search engine is great, and vastly better than any other site if you use any language that is not English. Customers give a dam m about contributors or suppliers, like in any other business. If IS is losing speed is because of the prices.
Istock made a mistake when they created the concept of microstock. Too much micro. Too much cheap. It wasn't necessary, because any intermediate prices would had been seen as an steal as well, compared with Getty, Corbis etc. SS made another mistake when creating subscriptions; even cheaper, hiper-devaluated value of our work. That, of course, spoiled the customers. With time, IS corrected the mistake, now prices are reasonable. SS never did it (except for a reduction from 30 to 25 downloads/day, I think), other agencies followed this path; so IS nowadays prices seem not-reasonable to many customers. Should IS lower its prices now all the other agencies would lower theirs the next minute.

Well Loop, we have heard this argument now for two years, etc and frankly its getting worn out, all this about good best match only if it suits oneself, etc. How can a search-engine be good if its based on favorism? crap I would say, how can a search be good when the whole damned site looks like a neewbie TS search ?

IS, simply doesnt have the traffic, its gone. period and I wonder why?

Yes, and we have heard that the Earth is round for hundreds of years. And it is.

Are you sure? the last I heard it was hexagonal.

Well, you know, takes one to know one

lisafx · « **Reply #215 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:41 »

Quote from: gostwyck on October 11, 2011, 11:56

It's going to be interesting to see what 'adjustments' Istock might make to the RC targets at the end of the year to reflect the disappointing sales. Hmm.

I really hope they make adjustments, but since they failed to do so for the 2011 targets, despite dismal sales, I doubt they will lower targets for 2012 either. More likely they are jiggering their search engine so the top "royalty" of exclusives manage to hang on to their levels, and for the rest of us - too bad.

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #216 on:** October 11, 2011, 12:51 »

Quote from: ShadySue on October 11, 2011, 10:27

Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 08:48
They simply dont have the traffic, its as simple as that. That fact alone makes the site worthless.

Sadly you may have a point.
I know Alexa is nothing like the whole story, but:

That's got very little relationship to my sales rankings, which are, in order, SS, iS, DT, TS, Fotolia. TS is probably understated because it isn't visited by submitters the way others are.

travelstock · « **Reply #217 on:** October 11, 2011, 13:21 »

Quote from: lagereek on October 10, 2011, 07:41

Yep! youre right, thats what I mean though, new money! they dont know how to deal with it, or treat their staff or look after the people who earns their money, namely, the contributors. Like Frank Sinatra said when in Australia, nothing but bums anyway.

So who do you want to run the place? Carl XVI Gustaf? The Queen of England? That's old money right?

lthn · « **Reply #218 on:** October 11, 2011, 14:34 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on October 11, 2011, 12:51

Quote from: ShadySue on October 11, 2011, 10:27
Quote from: lagereek on October 11, 2011, 08:48
They simply dont have the traffic, its as simple as that. That fact alone makes the site worthless.

Sadly you may have a point.
I know Alexa is nothing like the whole story, but:

That's got very little relationship to my sales rankings, which are, in order, SS, iS, DT, TS, Fotolia. TS is probably understated because it isn't visited by submitters the way others are.

alexa is pretty good, you can trust their numbers

lagereek · « **Reply #219 on:** October 11, 2011, 15:16 »

Quote from: holgs on October 11, 2011, 13:21

Quote from: lagereek on October 10, 2011, 07:41

Yep! youre right, thats what I mean though, new money! they dont know how to deal with it, or treat their staff or look after the people who earns their money, namely, the contributors. Like Frank Sinatra said when in Australia, nothing but bums anyway.

So who do you want to run the place? Carl XVI Gustaf? The Queen of England? That's old money right?

Holgs! old-money, is just a saying, an old class saying, it doesnt mean old rich people should run the show. Its a saying thats all. The differance between class, style, panache and trash, rubbish.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #220 on:** October 11, 2011, 17:18 »

Quote from: loop on October 11, 2011, 11:58

Yes, and we have heard that the Earth is round for hundreds of years. And it is.

Maybe not exactly round, somewhat spherical or ovate, slightly pear shaped, but since I've never been to the edge, I guess I'll have to believe it's roundish?

I enjoy the best match conspiracy, in that IS is somehow forcing buyers to buy lesser images from lower ranked contributors, so they make a higher percentage.

What don't buyers have a brain enough to see what they want? I don't know how anyone finds anything of mine. I can't even find them when I use the keywords I know are in there. Oh wait, sales have tanked, maybe my pictures aren't there after all. But I don't blame the best match I blame the buyers for having good taste and buying something else!

(the truth is, I think the sales have been siphoned off to ThinkStock finally, after a year of IS trying to move buyers to the cheap subscription site.) That and what some others have concluded, buyers are tired of the complicated and convoluted pricing and changes. They moved somewhere else, like SS!

And might I point out the obvious which it seems I keep repeating and people keep managing to ignore... virtually all the same images are available on about ten other sites, and have been for years and years. Buyers are tired of IS price confusion, and have discovered that other places have all the same shots without the BS. Exception is the exclusives, which IS has been driving away for months now. Great game plan IS, take the only important part that makes you different and necessary, the quality and selection from exclusives and force those people to sell with the rest of the masses.

As for the suits running the show, yes, when the bean counters take over for the creative people, that's when things start to fail. I'd call that a good reason for many of the current problems. That and usually workers at the home office, living in fear and becoming "yes men" because they are afraid to express their true understandings of the business. It's possible that some buyers do care about artists, just tack that on as one more leak in the sinking IS sales.

I'd say the loss of buyers to other agencies is the major cause of the downturn.

(that, the Full Moon, the end of the world next year, crop circles with cattle mutes and their hidden messages, invisible shy alien visitors and a yet to be named ancient secret society, tied to an underground ancient religious order, that is manipulating all of this!)

Or maybe, just loss of buyers?

Graffoto · « **Reply #221 on:** October 11, 2011, 20:20 »

Bean counters almost destroyed the American auto industry; forcing it to source cheaper and cheaper parts until the cars all but fell apart an hour after leaving the showroom. It took decades to claw back and its still not where it should be.

One would think that the lesson had been learned, but no.
History repeats itself over and over.

Shakespeare said "The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers"
I would amend that to Kill All the Bean Counters.

RacePhoto · « **Reply #222 on:** October 12, 2011, 01:21 »

Quote from: Graffoto on October 11, 2011, 20:20

Bean counters almost destroyed the American auto industry; forcing it to source cheaper and cheaper parts until the cars all but fell apart an hour after leaving the showroom. It took decades to claw back and its still not where it should be.

One would think that the lesson had been learned, but no.
History repeats itself over and over.

Shakespeare said "The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers"
I would amend that to Kill All the Bean Counters.

Honest? You mean it wasn't the Teamsters and UAW striking until they got lifetime benefits, high pay and retirement promises that were impossible to fund? But OK if the Union leaders are lawyers, I'll go along with you. Most of the politicians are, so we can easily add them too!

Mine is, how can you tell if a lawyer is lying?
His lips are moving...

ProArtwork · « **Reply #223 on:** October 12, 2011, 11:30 »

I think Obama's image on the front page of iStockphoto is scaring buyers away!

mlwinphoto · « **Reply #224 on:** October 12, 2011, 13:15 »

Quote from: vlad_the_imp on October 07, 2011, 16:05

Quote
signs do point to buyer migration as the cause.

I agree this may be some of the cause but I also see many lower category contributor reporting good sales, and it has been suggested they are favoured in the current best match. It would make sense, if sales are down, for istock and Getty to maximise profits by favoring people who are paid a lower commission, thus more money for IS.

Well, I'm one of those "lower category contributors" and my sales, after a decent Sept for me, have absolutely tanked so far in October. I'm also seeing many of my "better" sellers getting pushed further and further back in the best match in recent days.....

However, sales at SS have increased significantly. Buyer migration???

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Sales have tanked big time (Read 181877 times)

lagereek

loop

ShadySue

gbalex

The Mighty Jungle

Jo Ann Snover

cobalt

lagereek

gostwyck

loop

lagereek

lagereek

loop

cybernesco

lagereek

lisafx

BaldricksTrousers

travelstock

lthn

lagereek

RacePhoto

Graffoto

RacePhoto

ProArtwork

mlwinphoto

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors