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Agency Based Discussion => Dreamstime.com => Topic started by: hatman12 on August 29, 2007, 19:48

Title: Saturation......??
Post by: hatman12 on August 29, 2007, 19:48

I am disappointed with my progress at DT.  Can't work it out - I am uploading high quality, creative and commercial images which are giving me new BME's almost everywhere else, but not at DT.  Confused and disappointed with that.

I have noticed that page views at DT have been sliding downhill rapidly, and are almost as bad as BigStock.  At the same time they have been building the library at a significant pace.  So I thought I'd crunch a few fairly obvious numbers:

Going back to Steve's 'how many images' thread, back in April DT were approaching 1.1 million.  Now, just six months later, they are approaching 1.7 million.  That's an increase of 600,000 or 54%.  That means that unless my portfolio has also increased by 54% my 'exposure' to buyers is gradually being diluted.

Over the same period, according to Alexa, page views have declined from a reading of 0.0058% to a present level of about 0.0038%.  That's a decline of 34%.  Or, to put it another way, page views need to now INCREASE by 53% to get back to ealier levels.

So the library has increased by 54% but at the same time page view activity has declined 34%.

Any mathematicians out there?

I reckon I would have needed to increase my portfolio (everything else being equal) by (100*1.54)*1.53 just to stand still.  That's 235 or 135%.

This assumes that the number of buyers has remained constant.  It may have increased or declined.

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: sharply_done on August 29, 2007, 20:41

My DT sales graph shows a 50% drop in peak 7-day average income from mid-June until the start of August. Since the start of August sales have nearly recovered to their high point. Income in the months of May thru August are within 15% of each other.

(http://www.strathdee.net/temp/dt_sales.jpg)

The bottom line: Sales at DT peaked in June, dipped a bit in July, and are now rebounding in August. During this period I increased my DT portfolio by 387 images (~36%).

Am I happy with DT? No way. Although DT is consistantly "the best of the rest" for me, it only contributes 10%+ to my total income.

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: ozbandit on August 29, 2007, 20:48

For me it started slowly but now is still going to end up with a BME of 20-25% without a huge increase in new images there for this month.

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: hatman12 on August 30, 2007, 06:19

All this announcement does.....

"st 30, 2007  (04:53) - posted by Achilles (http://www.dreamstime.com/achilles_info)
Maximum amount of submissions was temporarily raised to 500 (five hundred) images/day. This is possible thanks to our editors efforts in a month that should exceed the record in submissions once more. Pending line will be empty by the end of the day...."

...is add to my concern that DT's library is growing so fast that exposure and hence earnings potential for contributors will be gradually diluted.

Are they signing up buyers at the same fast rate?  Sales trends suggest not.  But the summer months are the wrong time to pass judgement on anything, so let's see what the Autumn brings.

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: HughStoneIan on August 30, 2007, 10:21

My sales took about a 70% dip in August.  However, they are starting to pick up the pace slowly these last couple of days, so perhaps the end of summer will bring some good things there.  One thing I have found somewhat discouraging is their subscription sales.  I'm getting 25-cent downloads of large files, but nowhere near the frequency of SS 25c sales.  Granted I get more per-picture sales than subscriptions, but it's still not a great feeling to see large files going for 25c when the same file can sometimes get me $1.50.

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: stokfoto on August 30, 2007, 18:18

yes DT has been very slow for me lately.and my acceptance rate have decreased for the past weeks,too I don't think it's because I submitted less quality stuff since almost all of them accepted elsewhere.(anyway I don't mean to argue that since  every  site has their  own preferences on what to  accept and what not to)I hope starting  from septembers things will better on DT .

one thing I noticed (nothing scientific but just an assumption) I think there are some buyers who doesn't necessarily  constantly buy from the same site, which especially effects traffic and sale of certain sites(I'd say DT BS and StockXpert among them,may be a few more)and depending on the performance of the sites(in terms of technical performances and publicity and may be other reasons)  as  these buyer  change their choice  from one to another   site     fluctuation occurs in sales and site traffic of  them.
I highlight this is just my observation I might be wrong

These days I'd say StockXpert is a rising star among them for me they are in my top 4(3rd) along with SS IS FT and dt would take the 5th place.

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: sharply_done on August 30, 2007, 20:09

Quote from: hatman12 on August 30, 2007, 06:19

All this announcement does.....

500 images per day???!!!

It's a pretty easy guess that they've successfully recruited someone with a monsterous portfolio and are doing this to avoid getting contributors upset the way they before (vis-a-vis iofoto).

Title: Re: Saturation......??
Post by: sharpshot on August 31, 2007, 02:09

I am pleased with my sales this month.  I have read before that DT can be slow in August, as a lot of Europe take summer holidays.  If this is a poor month for sales, I am looking forward to the Autumn.

I can't see any problems with saturation unless your images are of subjects that are already well covered.  Some of the macro sites have over 10 million photos and people still do well with them.