anyone experiencing this ? a few months back ,new photos will have downloads at least up to 1 week. it seems to get worse and worse and worse. these days, newly uploaded photo will probaly have only 1 day sales. then it'll just dies off. some new photo don't even have downloads at all. i have to keep pumping a lot of photos weekly to maintain my sales.  man, i miss those days where anything uploaded to SS will have downloads. 

I have a dramatic slump at SS these days. First week of August, and SS is in second place behind DT. That's the first time any other agency has even been close to SS earnings for a whole week (except ELs), but if the trend continues, I will consider stop uploading to SS.

The pricing at DT and IS shows that it's possible to sell microstock images for more, and although SS has just implemented their On Demand system, the maximum earnings per DL there is well below that of the other two.

I had a record July there, almost double that of June's numbers. August seems to have slowed a little. But like Lisa, recently have noticed increased sales on older images.

their On Demand system, the maximum earnings per DL there is well below that of the other two.

i hope there will be miracle   

My sales numbers there are about as usual, but selling more older photos than before. 

I don't know for sure but I read that their search engine had changed to not favor newer photos quite as much.

good for you. some of my new photos that appear in top 30 searches is only getting 5 downloads per day, 3 per day,
2 per day, and then just dies off. my old photos are just selling normal. if i don't upload new photos , my old photos does not sell

life goes on

Quote from: riffmax on August 07, 2008, 08:12

Can you elaborate?  I too have noticed new images being ignored - I assumed that since I've been trying more actively to add volume that the quality was deteriorating!  LOL!

Can't find where I read about the search engine changes.  One of the threads here, but brief search did not turn it up. 

It wasn't official word, but observations from contributors who keep on top of things more than I do.  (I stopped doing sample searches years ago - too depressing to see where my stuff winds up).  Since their observations match my own recent experience, I will assume there's some truth to them. 

I think you can safely assume your quality isn't deteriorating

LOL - thanks!

I think part of the problem is where new images end up in the search on the first day. If you start off on page 3 there is a good chance the image will get buried in week. If you get 10-20 downloads on the first day, there is a much greater chance of longevity.

Then again, if its a really good image its possible to come back from the abyss. If the image is just average, its almost always doomed  if it gets bad positioning on the first day. So, with more and more content being added daily it gets tougher to get positioning. This is just what I've observed watching my own port.

Lisa,

I think where you saw this was over in thread " Have you all seen this - SS On Demand" as posted by Leaf.

Quote from: riffmax on August 07, 2008, 08:12

Can you elaborate?  I too have noticed new images being ignored - I assumed that since I've been trying more actively to add volume that the quality was deteriorating!  LOL!

Can't find where I read about the search engine changes.  One of the threads here, but brief search did not turn it up. 

It wasn't official word, but observations from contributors who keep on top of things more than I do.  (I stopped doing sample searches years ago - too depressing to see where my stuff winds up).  Since their observations match my own recent experience, I will assume there's some truth to them. 

I think you can safely assume your quality isn't deteriorating

I've had weekends that are better than anyday for the last week (week before wasn't good either). IS made more yesterday than SS has made this week. So SS is now sitting a miserable 4th!!! for the month.

Last 5 days my portfolio and new sales have dropped to single figures. Quite frightening.

If your portfolio dropped to single digits no wonder the sales dropped to those frighting single digits. What made a hole in your portfolio?

that happened to me when I did not upload for almost 2 months.  I am trying to figure out a minimum frequency of uploads that would keep the sales at the same level. So far I see that I need to upload at least twice a week for that. I do that in last 3 weeks and the sales are ok.

Definitely, sales are much lower than before for new images, but little higher than before for my old images. Generally, subscription sales are dropped. But, I had first on demand sale today, for 1,88$.   It's like I sold 7,5 images by subscription.

Lots of dl.s in Friday, weekend weak ,today till now ZERO!

I had worst weekend ever. Saturday 2 sales! (almost 4000 images online).

Quote from: epixx on August 07, 2008, 23:04

Either their sales are falling

possibly. there are much more photo contributors than before. same size of cake, less share 

Problem is, the other agencies are increasing, and SS' share is sinking dramatically.

we should avoid subs as much as possible. In that sense it may be not a bad thing that SS is not performing as well as before. Image price are going up. Subs can destroy that. It is up to us. Images are ours. Do not expect gifts or fair play from
resellers of our images.

I noticed that I get very few sales in the morning and early afternoon (looks like whole Europe is on vacations). It gets better later in the day.

Yes, Europe is on holidays. This week, for example, almost all industries close in Italy and they all go to the beach. 'They', cause I don't live in Italy anymore, I moved to sunny UK (ahahah sunny... global warming my a..).

I'm also beginning to wonder if the new smaller subscriptions are going to have a negative impact on overall sales as buyers wait to purchase images.

Of course they are. It will attract smaller buyers who used to buy individual photos to buy subs, leaving us with less pay per photo, but the agencies, on this case SS, with more.