I don't want to whine but I am truly very curious if most of you notice too that new uploads have no views and that sales are bad? Of my 26 latest uploads (since may 27th) I have had one view on one image. My sales have dropped seriously with 75%! If I am the only one then there is something suddenly wrong with my portfolio because it has been days since I've sold anything. I work with them now since late 2006 and have a bit more than 1000 images and this is totally new for me. Anyone care to elaborate? Thanks, Patricia

Your link to Dt doesn�t work to start with...

Change your profile settings here at MG for DT. The information for DT should be your user name. It looks like you put in a number.

Starting in January, I've gotten about 80 images onto Dreamstime and was making some sales. About a month ago they made some changes that caused the sales to fall way off, and new images no longer get any views.  Once in a while an old image still sells. 

I've noticed some changes for the worse.  My sales in April were really good, May was going okay until the 23d.  After the 23d, NADA, no sales and no views.  NOTHING.
There was a long thread on DT about changing the Views algorithm but total denial that it affected the sales.  Something did.  And, I don't think it can be blamed completely on the season.

With a small port (181) my last download on May 26, with only one view since then . . . .  this is really a deterioration from past experience.

DT has a thread on their forums (http://www.dreamstime.com/forumm_17374_pg1) where Achilles states:

"It is not a search engine update. We removed the counter for non-authenticated guests, at least for a while. The traffic is huge and the number not really useful. Views are still counted for members.

If we find out this is a vital resource, we will add it back. However, we need to optimize and to direct most resources to the important areas. You know them, the ones that lead to more sales. "


He also states later in the thread:

"... views are not a factor within the ranking."

Same for me.

for me DT works better and better. BME after BME.

There has been an announcement about a algorithm change too. It's in the thread about prize change. They changed it in favour of "quality", which basically means old pics with a lot of sales. Before this change there was a short spell where exclusives where heavily favoured. I'm probably seeing the effects of that period now, since I already have my BME this month.  I think that most of my sales are from lightboxes, since the pictures that are bought usually are on page 13-14 on the saleday, but where on page 1-2 a week or two earlier.

May was horrible for me, but I think that is because much of my portfolio is oriented towards Scandinavia, and we have different holidays all through May.

I don't mind the cahnge in view counting, since many of the old viewers were non-buyers. But I would have liked to know how many of my pics have been added to lightboxes.

Yes, 'quality'.  In other words, they want to keep selling what's been selling in the past.  New images from new contributors go nowhere.   

It seems to me that's self-defeating in the long run, but I'm obviuosly biased.

Is that why my sales went from nearly everyday and sometimes 5 or 6 sales a day to nothing in the last week?
Perhaps I should focus my attention to a different site.

-Larry

Yes, 'quality'.  In other words, they want to keep selling what's been selling in the past.  New images from new contributors go nowhere.

New images from old contributors too 

Roughly the same thing happened at SS at roughly the same time.  For my first 3/4 months on SS, my new images did well, many sales in the first few days (for purposes of this discussion I'm calling a token payment of 25 cents a "sale").  That ended a few weeks ago. My "old" images going back to January continue to sell. My most recent group hasn't made a single sale in 2 weeks.  

Apparently all these sites have recently had the insight that they could make more money by pushing past sellers to the front.   The big question, of course, is whether new images now have any chance of becoming viable 'old' images, or just go in the dumpster.

I've quit submitting, waiting to see if my last group ever makes any sales.  If it doesn't there's no point in continuing.

sales and views are down at most of the other Big 6 , so why do you expect Dreamstime to be immuned?
buyers already have a garageful of excess images that they bought with subscription. they don't need to buy too much more.

People are not talking about the usual slow time. Did you see that the OP has over 1000 images and have been a long time DT contributor?

DT has been exceptionally slow for me too, and most sales are under $1.00. Very disappointing.

Quote from: puravida on June 17, 2009, 13:13

sales and views are down at most of the other Big 6 , so why do you expect Dreamstime to be immuned?
buyers already have a garageful of excess images that they bought with subscription. they don't need to buy too much more.

No I was not talkig about usual slow time either. I said because of subscription buyers already took what they need , more than they can use. So obviously now they don't buy nothing.