Author Topic: sales on FT since search engine change? (Read 32505 times)

lisafx · « **Reply #25 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:00 »

Thanks for starting this thread. I didn't realize there had been a shake-up in the search engine.

My sales have plummeted by 60-70% too since the first of the month. It's especially bad the last week or so.

I can't believe there are a whole lot of people doing really well because even though sales are tanked, my weekly ranking hasn't slipped that much. With a portfolio of roughly 3500 images I normally don't see these types of extreme sales fluctuations.

This is very disappointing because Fotolia was my #2 earner last month and poised to give IS a run for their money, but this month IS and SS are clobbering them.

RT · « **Reply #26 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:18 »

Whatever they broke I hope they get it fixed soon.

mantonino · « **Reply #27 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:20 »

Whatever they broke seems to affect older images - my old stuff is selling, newer stuff isn't. I've had a BME *already* by the 11th of the month so ... it's doing something to you guys with 3000+ pics done right that it isn't doing to me.

lisafx · « **Reply #28 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:30 »

Quote from: mantonino on May 12, 2008, 12:20

Whatever they broke seems to affect older images - my old stuff is selling, newer stuff isn't. I've had a BME *already* by the 11th of the month so ... it's doing something to you guys with 3000+ pics done right that it isn't doing to me.

Wish that was true, but I upload new batches of images every couple of days, so my portfolio is not all older images. This appears to be affecting portfolios across the spectrum from new to old.

Glad your sales are going well though. At least someone's benefiting.

RT · « **Reply #29 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:34 »

Quote from: lisafx on May 12, 2008, 12:30

Glad your sales are going well though. At least someone's benefiting.

You really should stop being so nice to people, it's giving this forum a bad name

sharpshot · « **Reply #30 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:38 »

Isn't mantonino saying his old images are selling, not the new ones? This could be similar to when StockXpert changed their search a while ago and most of our sales plummeted. They tweaked it again when we all complained that only old images were selling.

lisafx · « **Reply #31 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:52 »

Quote from: RT on May 12, 2008, 12:34

Quote from: lisafx on May 12, 2008, 12:30
Glad your sales are going well though. At least someone's benefiting.

You really should stop being so nice to people, it's giving this forum a bad name

LOL! Trying to look on the bright side.

Believe me, I would rather be the one doing well!

Peter · « **Reply #32 on:** May 12, 2008, 13:23 »

The worst part of this is that FT management says that they didnt messed up anything, everything is working normaly, and if you complain about sudden plunge of sales due to search change, they make a fool out of you, like you are crazy, and make up some ridiculous "reasons" for this... gee. Problem is they are not aware of problem!

Pixart · « **Reply #33 on:** May 12, 2008, 13:25 »

Aren't you glad you are not exclusive at this moment?

Peter · « **Reply #34 on:** May 12, 2008, 13:27 »

Quote from: Pixart on May 12, 2008, 13:25

Aren't you glad you are not exclusive at this moment?

definitely I am glad!

jsnover · « **Reply #35 on:** May 12, 2008, 13:43 »

Quote from: Chode on May 12, 2008, 13:23

The worst part of this is that FT management says that they didnt messed up anything, everything is working normaly...

Well they've definitely been doing something just this morning (US west coast time). I was looking at a search and how Andres' new infinite collection images showed up among the others. An hour later, I couldn't find Andres' images at all in the first couple of pages - they'd been moving things around somehow.

epantha · « **Reply #36 on:** May 12, 2008, 13:45 »

Only been on FT for a couple of months. Very few regular photo sales but there were some downloads for Mother's Day graphics. Not very impressed so far.

jeancliclac · « **Reply #37 on:** May 12, 2008, 14:45 »

I have a quite normal sale rate at FT. Globally FT is doing better than IS or SS. Keep in mind that many buyers are European and we have a lot of extra free days. This means that for the time, buyers are rather enjoying their free time instead of buying our pictures.
Despite the fact I'm rather happy with FT, I'm going down in the ranking, being presently nr 83 but still going down since 1 year or so...so some of us must be very happy with FT......
jean

DanP68 · « **Reply #38 on:** May 12, 2008, 15:58 »

I've noticed a downturn everywhere this month, but Fotolia has fallen off the cliff. And I agree, it seemed to happen right after the last search engine alteration.

Fotolia has the worst tech, and least fore-thought of any of the major microstock companies. This is why they will never catch Shutterstock, which has virtually no downtime.

mantonino · « **Reply #39 on:** May 12, 2008, 16:35 »

Quote from: sharpshot on May 12, 2008, 12:38

Isn't mantonino saying his old images are selling, not the new ones?

Yes, exactly. I've had a lot of sales of OLD images lately. Stuff that wasn't selling because the "7 keywords" weren't done. Everything I've submitted recently is just as bad as everyone's here but I have a ton of old images too and those are selling like crazy.

hatman12 · « **Reply #40 on:** May 12, 2008, 17:34 »

Yes, my sales have fallen sharply too.

I notice that Yuri has complained on the FT forum that his sales have dropped by 50%.

Graffoto · « **Reply #41 on:** May 12, 2008, 17:37 »

Sales.... what sales?

lisafx · « **Reply #42 on:** May 12, 2008, 17:39 »

Quote from: hatman12 on May 12, 2008, 17:34

Yes, my sales have fallen sharply too.

I notice that Yuri has complained on the FT forum that his sales have dropped by 50%.

I thought there was no dissent allowed on their forums. Guess Yuri is big enough to get away with it

It's definitely a search engine issue. My sales today are literally 25% of what I normally get on a weekday and are stalled there, despite having many old and new files.

The monkeying behind the scenes that JoAnn noticed is surely to blame.

anonymous · « **Reply #43 on:** May 12, 2008, 17:40 »

My sales don't appear to have changed but out of my last 24 submissions (spread out over 10 days), all were rejected for "type of photo"...what does THAT mean (even tho most of my sales this month are images from the same shoots that were rejected)

I'll keep uploading as I do with the rest and maybe the review troll will crawl back under the bridge.

sharpshot · « **Reply #44 on:** May 12, 2008, 17:53 »

I hope they sort this out quicker than they did with the launch of v2

louoates · « **Reply #45 on:** May 12, 2008, 18:10 »

Search has been broken since V2. It shows no changes in my searches since I discovered most of my best key words yield 0 of my images on the search. They only show up on a single keyword search.

ironarrow · « **Reply #46 on:** May 12, 2008, 18:23 »

Guys check this out!! the fotolia moderators behave like there is no problem at all.. I am still reading, I will see if they get more serious in coming pages of this thread!!!

http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11232&p=1

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #47 on:** May 12, 2008, 20:45 »

Actually, I'm not so sure it's a search problem now. I just did a few searches for my images and they're in about the same placement as they've been for a while.

Does anyone keep track of their search placement so you can also check to see if anything changed?

So, if search may not have changed, and a lot of people noticed a large drop in downloads around the same time, what are some other possibilities? Buyers leaving? Buyers drastically cutting back on spending?

Eco · « **Reply #48 on:** May 13, 2008, 01:06 »

Quote

So, if search may not have changed, and a lot of people noticed a large drop in downloads around the same time, what are some other possibilities? Buyers leaving? Buyers drastically cutting back on spending?

I also don't believe it is due to a search engine problem only. I noticed a slowdown of sales right across the board, with some sites more affected than others. In my case my FT sales are also down, but not as much as some of the other MS sites. Could it be a seasonal thing (hope so) or is MS approaching the bubble burst (hope not) that some is predicting now for some time?

Peter · « **Reply #49 on:** May 13, 2008, 01:09 »

Quote from: ironarrow on May 12, 2008, 18:23

Guys check this out!! the fotolia moderators behave like there is no problem at all.. I am still reading, I will see if they get more serious in coming pages of this thread!!!

http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11232&p=1

I told you. When you say it is wrong, they make a fool out of you. More people should complain, and perhaps they will see it is really wrong, not just my (or few of us) imagination.....

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Author Topic: sales on FT since search engine change? (Read 32505 times)

lisafx

RT

mantonino

lisafx

RT

sharpshot

lisafx

Peter

Pixart

Peter

jsnover

epantha

jeancliclac

DanP68

mantonino

hatman12

Graffoto

lisafx

anonymous

sharpshot

louoates

ironarrow

PaulieWalnuts

Eco

Peter

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