I got used to ups and downs of DT's sales, but what's been going on for last 3 days is pretty catastrophic. Having the portfolio of over 3000 images, being there 6 years, earning on avarage 250$ monthly (middle tier for me), now, since November 12 I earned 2 dollars!

DT behaves like a capricious child, probably they have made another change in their search algorithm and it sank my portfolio.

I only have 800 pics and have experience the same issues- they must tinker with their searches and bang! No sales for even weeks! Extremes for sure...

it really sucks knowing that even a top contributor like you have these huge drops, anyway wanted to say that you have a great portfolio, nothing more enjoyable than pictures from around the world, not that I don't admire your 3d work too

Hmm, wonder if the downturn has anything to do with the fact that they started posting YOUR images (thumbnails) on pinterest so that everyone in the world can use them...for FREE.

Can you provide the link to that info on their forum ?

My top earner in 2011.   My bottom earner in 2012. 

DT seems to be taking longer and longer for images to go "live" and get views now. Combined w/ the level 0 after 6 months from the date of upload and it really is more like 5 months of visibility before level 0 kicks in.

They seem to shuffle artists in their version of best match - so you can have excellent days and days of lots of subs and days of little to no sales. I think if they shuffle you "on" during a weekend and then back off for the week you can have a rather long period of dismal sales. It also seems that they might shuffle the searches for subs buyers differently.  Just when you are about to completely write them off there is a nice flurry of sales (usually).

They do seem to have dropped since last June though - when they made some changes that they said were to benefit us but I fear just benefited DT if anyone.

They do seem to have dropped since last June though - when they made some changes that they said were to benefit us but I fear just benefited DT if anyone.

+1
For me they were doing great through July then dropped dramatically.  Solid so far this month although mostly subs.  The changes to subs commissions was supposed to have given them money for better marketing I thought, but haven't seen the evidence yet - hopefully soon.

No complaints here this month on DT...  I wasn't particularly happy with the changes since April, but Oct and Nov have really turned around and seem to be benefiting me.  Too bad we can't just ALL be up !

Dt was going great until about October 20.  It was on pace to be over $100 by month's end.  That didn't happen until last week.  After requesting payment and having my balance brought back to zero, there has been one sale for $2.50.  My new balance, however, shows $1.25.  Bad accounting?  I've always liked DT, but I am very disappointed in the last four weeks.  I'm hoping it's a fluke.

 

Like hell its dead!  take this weekend for example which are notrmally flat. DT, was the only one producing large and juicy sales. Not dead but very much alive!.
DT, is the only agency which reminds me of a trad-agency, good pricing and well run. You just have to supply them with what sell and of good commercial value and thats it.

Must be why DT has fallen 10 points on the Microstock Pole Results in the past six months. Not all contributors are suffering from DTs downturn but I bet the vast majority are.

Quote from: modviz on November 19, 2012, 08:34

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on November 19, 2012, 02:19

Like hell its dead!  take this weekend for example which are notrmally flat. DT, was the only one producing large and juicy sales. Not dead but very much alive!.
DT, is the only agency which reminds me of a trad-agency, good pricing and well run. You just have to supply them with what sell and of good commercial value and thats it.

Must be why DT has fallen 10 points on the Microstock Pole Results in the past six months. Not all contributors are suffering from DTs downturn but I bet the vast majority are.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the site is doing badly.
You could have 50 people report in the charts that the site is down because they have gone from 10dls a month to 5dls a month and have a handful of top contributors double their sales.  In the charts it would look like the site was doing badly when in fact it could be doing much better.

For some it is doing fine; for some it is not.  I'm a NOT!   

This is looking to be my worst month at DT in well over a year. despite adding lots of new content.

It's amazing how much they can fluctuate, when pretty much every other agency is fairly predictable for me in terms of sales and income.

Thankfully a couple of other agencies are having particularly good months which will more than cover DT's losses.

Average month there for me. No weekday without sales.

Looking at the DT site, I just found out I got tagged for bad keywords back on the 12th of November - by a guy who signed up recently with a very fake-y looking portfolio of 20 images and who nevertheless already has 947 message board posts.  Some hyperactive scammer or weirdo.

My photo was a glass of whiskey, and the disallowed keywords included "bar" and "pour".

I'm wondering if this is what killed my sales.   I guess if DT has sunk this low,  I might as well forget about it as an agency.

That keyword crap is what got me banned from the forum.
And, later, I got reported for the Keyword "Owls" on an editorial image of the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine.
No Owls in my picture.
I ignored the report and lost my editing privileges.
I protested and my edit privilege was returned ... along with an apology from a DT representative who also failed to see an Owl in my image.

LOL

PS:  That had nothing to do with me being banned.  That happened long before the "Owl" incident.
 

Warren,

I just TinEyed one of this guy's photos and found it on what appears to be someone else's travel blog (unfortunately in Arabic).  He was also, on the DT forum, promoting a scheme for contributors to buy each other's images.

I'd like to contest this like you did.  Who did you complain to?

I responded to a DT email telling me that my edit privileges were revoked.
I had ignored it until receiving that email.
Not sure how to rebut the spam report?

No, that's not how it works. If you have an image flagged and you don't respond it goes into a queue that is extremely long and a keymaster takes a look and decides if any words should be removed. Even if you do respond it still goes into that same queue. Many times these reports are legit and the note to the person is helpful because they might have pasted in words from another photo that are indeed wrong. This gives them a chance to remove the bad words. The image still goes into that queue and if you removed the bad words the keymaster sees this and just ignores the report. If someone is trying to make money they will have to wait many months to get their 2 cents per report. Believe me, the queue is very, very long (up to a year) because this is at the bottom of their priorities. Keymasters are tasked to keyword images from contributors who are paying to have them keyworded first and only a few of them are even allowed to work on spam reports.

I'm not naming the guy who flagged me, but I looked at some of his DT forum posts and to me he appears to be some combination of flake, hustler and scammer.  Who knows what he's actually doing, or thinks he's doing.

I bet that they are now checking current spam reports first. I know that they let this slide for a long time and that is where the long queue lives. DT is very literal when it comes to keywords and is always reminding people that fewer words are better. I guess a glass of whiskey doesn't depict a bar unless it is sitting in a saloon, or the word pour unless whiskey is being poured into it. At least that is what the keymaster thought. You can always contact them and state your case. DT doesn't like things like plurals when only one thing is in the image and doesn't like adjectives as keywords. They don't like synonyms, they strip out hyphens, the words in the titles and descriptions are more important than the keywords field - I guess if we could figure out the search algorithms at any of the sites we could keyword better.

Holy cr*p!

I'm all for freedom of speech and thought, and for people with strong views to air their comments in appropriate arenas... but flagging your images to make a point?  Unbelievable.

Yes indeed.  I agree completely .

Great point!

I know they've said you don't have to respond to keyword flags, but I always do. 

I recently had an entire series of a gay wedding couple flagged for "wedding" and "couple".  The flagger is some pastor at an ultra conservative church (I know because there was a link in his profile).  He didn't flag the images because the keywords were wrong, but because of his personal bias against the subject matter.   

I hope you contacted support about this. I think that DT should add a feature whereby those who abuse the flagging privilege have that removed - just as keyword spammers have their editing privileges revoked.

We can't have the culture wars or personal vendettas messing up a stock web site's keywords - and that pastor should go find a congregant to minister to...

Pretty good month so far; RPD-wise.
Carefully measuring my comments.  Don't want to jinx my search position. 
 

this happened to me last month, someone (new, zero images) flagged 'boutique' on my image of a sale tags on rack of women's clothes (in a boutique). I replied politely but firmly.

this happened to me last month, someone (new, zero images) flagged 'boutique' on my image of a sale tags on rack of women's clothes (in a boutique). I replied politely but firmly.

Zero image flaggers are almost always buyers that have pressed the wrong button.   I think probably 9 out of 10 of my flaggers are buyers.

^^^
I'm a long way from BME but the best month since April.

I have 630+ images with DT and find that sales continue at a diminished pace but do continue.  This business ain't so great, we all know that, so pick your poison where it tastes best.  DT sales are at least on a higher level per sale than some others, specifically SS.  I've found myself uploading to them less and less, particularly after the stock offering on Wall St made the lopsidedness of it all so clear.  We all have to hope the business models of some places begins to incorporate our interests too.  DT's okay as is another one, based in England...even though they reduces commissions recently.  Maybe a Mars landing will un-earth (!) a new a better agency!