Author Topic: Adobe/Fotolia sales volatility (Read 16091 times)

hatman12 · « **on:** November 30, 2017, 00:47 »

I've noticed a declining trend in sales and views over the past few months. Others have commented about an apparent change in geographical exposure. What I'm experiencing is a dramatic change in sales volume from one day to the next. Fotolia used to be very reliable but nowadays I get very good days followed by very bad days, then another good day etc. A good day might be in the 25-35 sales, a bad day will drop to perhaps just a dozen. Today I got only a handful of sales, whereas yesterday was in the 'normal' range.

This change in sales pattern seems to be accelerating, with the variance between good and bad becoming more pronounced.

I did some searches to see if that might give some answers. I was surprised to see a big emphasis on illustrations in my search results. Then, a couple days later, I did the same searches and the results were dominated by photos.

I'll guess that Adobe/Fotolia has got some 'clever' tech people who have come up with all these ideas about how to provide variation for customers, how to give better search results based on geographical location etc etc. I remember that istock tried all these things years ago - none of them 'worked' and all that happened was that contributors got lower sales and became more and frustrated and confused. In the end the entire istock search got broken (and the keyword priority system still appears to be broken today all these years later.

I'm certainly frustrated and confused. Adobe/Fotolia has been a very good agency for me from when I went non-exclusive a couple years ago, but now all these 'clever techy' things are going on it just reminds me of all those frustrating years at istock. Shame.

derek · « **Reply #1 on:** November 30, 2017, 02:27 »

Hatman!! hi there!

I agree and remember the IS search well and truly. There are lots of new people in the game and they were not around when this happened and whan mentioning this they think its yet another conspiracy theory so you know??
with Adobe here something have gone very, very wrong. The old FT could produce some great days takings. Of course they had their ups and downs but all in all FT was Ok. Ever since this merger with Adobe things ahve slowly just gone downhill and I dont know why?? with a name like adobe business should be flourishing we shouls all get a good feedback.
Its obvious they slow down or cut off servers at times but the delays in sales are just incredible. Some people in their own forums and with huge successfull portfolios mention it can pass 24 hours without the slightest movement. Not natural!

btw/ do you remember the IS search? they could never fix it and many of us had to go in and almost start all over with keywordings etc. not funny.

Video-StockOrg · « **Reply #2 on:** November 30, 2017, 03:17 »

wait till the "ghost-busters" arrive at your topic. They will destroy your first-hand experience of how an algorithm is capping your sales. "It is all in your head" they will say. Naive people, that don't know what you can do with technology.
We know about the same algorithm sales capping crap from SS, which is less noticeable than this from Adobe. At SS you have less noticeable but constant sales, which are slowly increasing yearly. We never had over 100 sales in a month (with almost 13000 video files), but we are near this number. Maybe in 2018 we will finally reach it.

Even Pond5 has some kinda capping algorithm. We even experienced 14days no sales (we have 13000 files?!) and then full-throttle another 14days of sales. The worst is when a whole month has almost no sales and then another month is very good.

dpimborough · « **Reply #3 on:** November 30, 2017, 03:31 »

Of course the other thing that might affect sales is seasonality of images and
more importantly Adobe would have done some heavy marketing when they first
integrated the Fotolia library in to Adobe products.

Now the honeymoon is over the marketing has been scaled back and sales will also drop as a result

Pauws99 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 30, 2017, 03:35 »

Quote from: Sammy the Cat on November 30, 2017, 03:31

Of course the other thing that might affect sales is seasonality of images and
more importantly Adobe would have done some heavy marketing when they first
integrated the Fotolia library in to Adobe products.

Now the honeymoon is over the marketing has been scaled back and sales will also drop as a result

Not to mention "Statistical Variation" aka "luck".

derek · « **Reply #5 on:** November 30, 2017, 04:05 »

Quote from: Video-StockOrg on November 30, 2017, 03:17

wait till the "ghost-busters" arrive at your topic. They will destroy your first-hand experience of how an algorithm is capping your sales. "It is all in your head" they will say. Naive people, that don't know what you can do with technology.
We know about the same algorithm sales capping crap from SS, which is less noticeable than this from Adobe. At SS you have less noticeable but constant sales, which are slowly increasing yearly. We never had over 100 sales in a month (with almost 13000 video files), but we are near this number. Maybe in 2018 we will finally reach it.

Even Pond5 has some kinda capping algorithm. We even experienced 14days no sales (we have 13000 files?!) and then full-throttle another 14days of sales. The worst is when a whole month has almost no sales and then another month is very good.

Hahaha! good analysis!

true!

derek · « **Reply #6 on:** November 30, 2017, 04:11 »

Paws! I've given up on luck because even if youre dead lucky somehow they will find a way of ruining it and if they cant find a way they will orchestrate a way!

HalfFull · « **Reply #7 on:** November 30, 2017, 05:26 »

Quote from: Video-StockOrg on November 30, 2017, 03:17

wait till the "ghost-busters" arrive at your topic. They will destroy your first-hand experience of how an algorithm is capping your sales. "It is all in your head" they will say. Naive people, that don't know what you can do with technology.
We know about the same algorithm sales capping crap from SS, which is less noticeable than this from Adobe. At SS you have less noticeable but constant sales, which are slowly increasing yearly. We never had over 100 sales in a month (with almost 13000 video files), but we are near this number. Maybe in 2018 we will finally reach it.

Even Pond5 has some kinda capping algorithm. We even experienced 14days no sales (we have 13000 files?!) and then full-throttle another 14days of sales. The worst is when a whole month has almost no sales and then another month is very good.

I believe it is now.... it seemed to shift from SS to FT/AS at the same time a certain member of staff switched sides! Since they left, the weekly Algo dance at SS seemed to come to an end and the changes that are made now are not so dramatic or often.

At FT, it feels like it's almost a weekly event that somethings changed with the search (as it was at SS) and it can have a dramatic impact on income. Last month was a good month but Nov, it seems like they are trying to rebalance that good month with a crap one. Violent swings. Not just a few $ but hundreds.

It seems like the Analysts have been allowed to run riot with the Search Algorithm, trying different things to see what works and what doesn't. As an ex-analyst I know how much fun it can be to tweak this and that and see what happens to the numbers on the spreadsheets etc. However, it can also be easy to lose sight that the changes also impact the lives of real people as well. People rarely like to much change and when it happens often, it becomes destabilising (contributors and clients a like). The more changes that are made over a short period of time, the easier it is for a mistake to go unnoticed, and, is itself tweaked until the search falls over and it becomes very difficult to unravel the mess (IS Search). Hopefully they don't leave it too long to realise this otherwise we'll have another IS in the making.

Don't get me wrong, search tweaks are always required but elsewhere (RM), you normally see them being applied every 100 - 180 days and even then, they're rarely night and day changes. More evolution than revolutionary.

At least SS is more stable that it used to be.

Graiki · « **Reply #8 on:** November 30, 2017, 06:30 »

Hello.
Today I wake up thinking about it and I see this forum.
Exactly the same with me.
Before with Fotolia I had double and sometimes triple views.
Since Adobe bought it, sales have dropped 40 percent since then.
There was a month that I did not upload. I figured the fact that I did not work weekly on my account was the reason for the downfall. But even by uploading every month the views and sales fell.
Now I am on average, but averaging 40% less than the end of the year 2016.
Already as mentioned by some of you, the SS always has the same movement, it seems more solid.

derek · « **Reply #9 on:** November 30, 2017, 06:32 »

Stable! Yes you can say that again! at SS my daily take differs by just cents! too stable, suspiciously stable! $:-\$

namussi · « **Reply #10 on:** November 30, 2017, 09:12 »

Poisson clumping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_clumping

JimP · « **Reply #11 on:** November 30, 2017, 09:31 »

Now that one side has been heard, I want to add, my RPD, my downloads, my income and everything positive has been up since Adobe bought FT. The attitude of the employees and the treatment of individual contributors has also improved. Like the whole industry competition is up and we're being buried by new content that directly competes with ours. This has been my best income year every on Adobe, even with that new competition.

I don't think I'm the only one, AdobeStock has passed iStock in the poll.

Pixart · « **Reply #12 on:** November 30, 2017, 11:18 »

I watch the rankings from time to time which seems to say a lot. My ranking has swung by as much as 4000 from week to week. It's the highest it's ever been at the moment though.

angelawaye · « **Reply #13 on:** November 30, 2017, 12:14 »

Quote from: Video-StockOrg on November 30, 2017, 03:17

wait till the "ghost-busters" arrive at your topic. They will destroy your first-hand experience of how an algorithm is capping your sales. "It is all in your head" they will say. Naive people, that don't know what you can do with technology.
We know about the same algorithm sales capping crap from SS, which is less noticeable than this from Adobe. At SS you have less noticeable but constant sales, which are slowly increasing yearly. We never had over 100 sales in a month (with almost 13000 video files), but we are near this number. Maybe in 2018 we will finally reach it.

Even Pond5 has some kinda capping algorithm. We even experienced 14days no sales (we have 13000 files?!) and then full-throttle another 14days of sales. The worst is when a whole month has almost no sales and then another month is very good.

I totally agree with you.

derek · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2017, 12:44 »

Quote from: JimP on November 30, 2017, 09:31

Now that one side has been heard, I want to add, my RPD, my downloads, my income and everything positive has been up since Adobe bought FT. The attitude of the employees and the treatment of individual contributors has also improved. Like the whole industry competition is up and we're being buried by new content that directly competes with ours. This has been my best income year every on Adobe, even with that new competition.

I don't think I'm the only one, AdobeStock has passed iStock in the poll.

youre not on their payroll are you?

count yourself very lucky. I personally know at least 20 guys there all been with Ft from around 2005-2006 and we all agree its gone right down since the merger. Although as in your case it works fine!

steheap · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2017, 13:21 »

Here is my Fotolia evolving into Adobe story - I talked about it last month in my blog post about October earnings:

November so far is even better - $450, although I think I have had 4 videos on Adobe which has made a difference. Most of my earnings are stills and I have been adding files regularly to Adobe over the years.

Steve

derek · « **Reply #16 on:** November 30, 2017, 14:19 »

Well feel a bit guilty now I'm actually getting around 8-900 a month but with only Ft it used to be almost double that.

HalfFull · « **Reply #17 on:** November 30, 2017, 15:14 »

Quote from: derek on November 30, 2017, 14:19

Well feel a bit guilty now I'm actually getting around 8-900 a month but with only Ft it used to be almost double that.

Same here.... £850- £1100. Did used to be $1500. Took a hit after DPC closed and reaching emerald.

derek · « **Reply #18 on:** December 01, 2017, 02:20 »

Quote from: HalfFull on November 30, 2017, 15:14

Quote from: derek on November 30, 2017, 14:19
Well feel a bit guilty now I'm actually getting around 8-900 a month but with only Ft it used to be almost double that.

Same here.... £850- £1100. Did used to be $1500. Took a hit after DPC closed and reaching emerald.

Everyone kept shouting at the DPC , fair enough but it certainly brought in money!

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #19 on:** December 01, 2017, 15:37 »

Never noticed any decline in income when I became emerald and not now I am the blue rank either (not sure what it's called). Also seeing continued growth with adobe in charge. I believe last month was my BME. Make of that what you will.

Minsc · « **Reply #20 on:** December 01, 2017, 16:18 »

Adobe Stock is gaining market share against SS and IS. I had my BME last month and my download numbers are higher than ever, but my weekly rank has fallen a bit in the last week. That means that other contributors are doing well. Adobe is doing something right.

Semmick Photo · « **Reply #21 on:** December 01, 2017, 23:49 »

Obviously derek is Chris Lagereek, how does he keep getting on this site?

derek · « **Reply #22 on:** December 02, 2017, 02:37 »

Quote from: Semmick Photo on December 01, 2017, 23:49

Obviously derek is Chris Lagereek, how does he keep getting on this site?

Hi there long time no speak. Hows things at your end. Heard you got married. Congrats to that! Was in Dublin a few weeks back actually I thought to look you up but time was short.
btw! one of your facial images with the Swedish flag was used over in Sweden for some Europe unite or something, cant remember really. but good shot!

Semmick Photo · « **Reply #23 on:** December 08, 2017, 06:43 »

Lagereek, why would I ever want to meet you after you threatened me online under several different names, and even got me banned from the Shutterstock forum. Please stay away from me as far as possible.

jonbull · « **Reply #24 on:** December 08, 2017, 08:28 »

Quote from: Video-StockOrg on November 30, 2017, 03:17

wait till the "ghost-busters" arrive at your topic. They will destroy your first-hand experience of how an algorithm is capping your sales. "It is all in your head" they will say. Naive people, that don't know what you can do with technology.
We know about the same algorithm sales capping crap from SS, which is less noticeable than this from Adobe. At SS you have less noticeable but constant sales, which are slowly increasing yearly. We never had over 100 sales in a month (with almost 13000 video files), but we are near this number. Maybe in 2018 we will finally reach it.

Even Pond5 has some kinda capping algorithm. We even experienced 14days no sales (we have 13000 files?!) and then full-throttle another 14days of sales. The worst is when a whole month has almost no sales and then another month is very good.

i completely agree. with. u...that's why i keep growing just seeing old files while my new files which are by far more stock and much better done are buried...that's why if i reach some earning for 15th of month, i see stop of sale every month and full throttle at the end to reach just a steady 15% growth every month.
focolai is a mistery. they simply favour some kind of stock photography. look their bestseller r of day. all the same stuff.
so boring composition from christmas for example. cheap balls with some glow . i hope to get accepted in stocksy so i an dump all this idiot industry.

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Author Topic: Adobe/Fotolia sales volatility (Read 16091 times)

hatman12

derek

Video-StockOrg

dpimborough

Pauws99

derek

derek

HalfFull

Graiki

derek

namussi

JimP

Pixart

angelawaye

derek

steheap

derek

HalfFull

derek

Justanotherphotographer

Minsc

Semmick Photo

derek

Semmick Photo

jonbull

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