MicrostockGroup

Agency Based Discussion => Adobe Stock => Topic started by: Peter on May 12, 2008, 08:23

Title: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 12, 2008, 08:23
How are your sales at FT since some 10 days ago, since relevance odred is messed up? Mine are disaster. Today (monday) 1 sale! And it is end of EU work day. By now I should have at least 25-30 sales on normal days. And this is in 10 last days also... total disaster. How about you?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: fauxware on May 12, 2008, 08:45
My current sales this month are 20% of the last months average sales.
And current acceptance level is the worst I ever had.
Seven days rank is sinking, it means many people is doing much better.
Where is the old time fotolia???

Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 12, 2008, 08:53
I sank from rank 33 to 145 now (in last 10 days, and I was steady between 30-50 rank in last 4 months, never happend anything like this). but dont know anybody who is selling good. Whoever I ask, everybody complains. I think that those first 150+ ranks are selling also poorly, maybe the variations between them are small. Thats what I think.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: ironarrow on May 12, 2008, 09:08
I sank from rank 33 to 145 now (in last 10 days, and I was steady between 30-50 rank in last 4 months, never happend anything like this). but dont know anybody who is selling good. Whoever I ask, everybody complains. I think that those first 150+ ranks are selling also poorly, maybe the variations between them are small. Thats what I think.

I knew there was something weird going on with fotolia!!! ::) I have joined there in January this year.. Until last few weeks It was my number 4 earner.. NOW, It is my number 7.. Below Bigstockphoto, That is weird.. There is no logic to it..
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: epixx on May 12, 2008, 09:09
Sinking like a stone as well. Fotolia was one of the agencies that grew fastest for me the last six months, but now it's just a disaster.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: sharpshot on May 12, 2008, 09:14
My sales are well down too.  Someone must have higher sales.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: domencolja on May 12, 2008, 09:28
Falling dramatically.

p.s.: On top of that I experienced the weird problem of disappearing credits (and balance going into the negative). And their forums where this issue has been brought to attention don't work (I get a strange error while posting - definitely a sign of gorgeous Fotolia jerking moderation).
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: nicemonkey on May 12, 2008, 09:30
My sales are creeping up slowly but surely, I haven't noticed any down turn recently.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: ebola on May 12, 2008, 09:32
wow...not just me.  My sales have been horrible their for a little over a week.  Used to be nice and consistent.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Contakt on May 12, 2008, 09:44
Don't forget folks there's a credit squeeze in all major economies at the moment. Spending is down, advertising is down and it's generally just sluggish across the board.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: fotografer on May 12, 2008, 09:45
My sales are higher than they have ever been so it is affecting me positively.  I guess it's a case of where one person loses out another person gains.  
I can sympathise with how you feel as I have had the same thing happen to me at IS in the past but unless Fotolia's overall sales go down then I don't suppose it is important to them which of the contributers get the sales.  Only they know how sales are since the change and if in fact it has helped overall sales then they are not likely to do anything about  it.  
There is a lot of talk on the forum about bad search results but from my experience there have always been bad search results and always will be.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: sam100 on May 12, 2008, 09:49
Almost 70 % down... complete disaster, on top of that also disappearing credits... !!!!

Patrick H.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Alatriste on May 12, 2008, 09:51
I used to sell quite well on fotolia but now I have days without sales...
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: fotografer on May 12, 2008, 09:54
Wow, sorry to hear that.  That is a huge % to lose.  :(

 
Almost 70 % down... complete disaster, on top of that also disappearing credits... !!!!

Patrick H.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: ironarrow on May 12, 2008, 10:04
Wow, sorry to hear that.  That is a huge % to lose.  :(

 
Almost 70 % down... complete disaster, on top of that also disappearing credits... !!!!

Patrick H.

Hear this!! It was never my bestsite, I accept, BUT I used to make about $20 per week there, Now it's only about $3.. At least that $20 was only about 5% of my weekly earnings so I am not crying but hell why is it down from $20 to $3??!!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Pixart on May 12, 2008, 10:13
I've never understood how people rave about FT because I just never ever got sales there, especially after V2...   But things were improving - at least a couple sales a day... then all of a sudden about a week and half ago dry spell.   

I thought it must be a glitch - but I guess things must be really bad for everyone when I finally got a small sale a few days back and my rank went from something like 1720 to 1540.  With one sale!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 12, 2008, 10:17
FT was my #1 site, I made about 600$ per month for last consecutive 6 months (every month ~600$), but in last 10 days (since search engine change) 3-5$ per day with almost 6500 images online, thats disapointing. Totaly. I hope they will fix that soon.

And it all began 10 days ago when they changed something in search engine and relevance order, also they shut down Simillia feature. Hope they will recover, and soon, because I need my money to pay bills, lool!

I made another sale (2 for today, LOL!) an my rank is 137 (was 145). Thats showing they dont do well.

I think buers are finding inacurate images which they wont buy because of screwed up search engine.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: CCK on May 12, 2008, 10:39
When I check statistics I see that I still get the same number of views that I used to, but no downloads. I think that point to buyers not getting what they are looking for.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 12, 2008, 10:46
When I check statistics I see that I still get the same number of views that I used to, but no downloads. I think that point to buyers not getting what they are looking for.

exactly. me 2. another fact that goes in favour of inacurate search engine. I suggest you to write to support about this, I did, and if many of us do it, they will sooner fix it I guess.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Lizard on May 12, 2008, 11:12
Oh that explains it , my sale are up significantly  last few days and I'm getting sales from images that were never sold before. 

I never did  any reorders to my alphabetically sorted  keywords just for Fotolia ( and I never will) , so maybe that has something to do with that change , but maybe its just a coincidence
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: jsnover on May 12, 2008, 11:13
My sales are OK - not way down, but certainly not great either. What had puzzled me was my 7 days rank, which was higher than I expected given the rather lackluster performance. I guess that's because of the effects that some others have seen of sales dropping significantly.

They're in 4th place in the earnings this month - they've been #2 or #3 most months (in the last 6 months or so).

I know that image quality is a factor in sales performance, but every time we see one of these big shifts in search results make big dents/improvements in sales, it's a reminder of just how much the search engine behavior affects our earnings.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: MicrostockExp on May 12, 2008, 11:35
Huge loss for me also compared to last month  :-\
Views are the same but practically no sales.....
Good that other sites are picking up....

and yes and they reject pics accepted on SS and IS
so I pause for now....
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: j2k on May 12, 2008, 11:44
My sales stopped on May 1st.  Used to get multiple daily downloads, and so far in May I've got 3. And fotolia was just starting to look good :O

J.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: PaulieWalnuts on May 12, 2008, 11:51
Same as J2K. Sales literally stopped May 1st.

I used to get downloads daily and they were catching up with SS to compete for the #2 earner slot.

I've had one XS download so far this month. What a mess.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: cdwheatley on May 12, 2008, 12:00
Way down here as well. Hopefully this isn't a permanent thing and they are trying to fix the problem?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: lisafx 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: RT on May 12, 2008, 12:18
Whatever they broke I hope they get it fixed soon.  >:(
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: lisafx on May 12, 2008, 12:30
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.  :)
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: RT on May 12, 2008, 12:34
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  :D
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: sharpshot 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: lisafx on May 12, 2008, 12:52
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  :D

LOL!  Trying to look on the bright side. 

Believe me, I would rather be the one doing well!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter 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!  ??? ::)
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Pixart on May 12, 2008, 13:25
Aren't you glad you are not exclusive at this moment?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 12, 2008, 13:27
Aren't you glad you are not exclusive at this moment?

definitely I am glad!  ;D
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: jsnover on May 12, 2008, 13:43
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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: epantha 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: jeancliclac 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

Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: DanP68 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: mantonino on May 12, 2008, 16:35
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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 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%.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Graffoto on May 12, 2008, 17:37
Sales.... what sales?  :'(
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: lisafx on May 12, 2008, 17:39
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. 
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: anonymous 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: sharpshot on May 12, 2008, 17:53
I hope they sort this out quicker than they did with the launch of v2 :)
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: louoates 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.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 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
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: PaulieWalnuts 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?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Eco 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?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 13, 2008, 01:09
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!!!

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


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.....
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Dreamframer on May 13, 2008, 01:17
Fotolia has always been one of my worst sellers.  Worst are only crestock with 1 dl, featurepics with zero dl :)  I have only 5 dl's there since february.

But WOOHOOO!! I can find some of my images I couldn't find before! That's great! Finally! :)

And my rank is 21868. Who's worse than me? :D
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 13, 2008, 02:56
Quote
Hello Fotolian's,

I can not reveal the exact logic behind the search engine however please know that it is working. To our knowledge and my constant pushing for answers there is no bug in the search system. It is important to understand that more than 1 parameter is factored into the search results. Keywords are only 1 parameter.

The engineers are very aware of your concerns (almost to the point that they hate me). Fotolia must shake things up a bit to improve and move forward.

I have give the engineers a number of examples and suggestions based on your feedback and I hope to see some changes in the next few days. I do not believe it will please all of you but at lease some of you.

Down sales are not a direct relationship to search results. I already mentioned that sales are down a lot because of European holidays in May.

I am also sure many of you are having amazing days and just keeping your mouths shut. People still buy Fotolia credits every day. The US just had an awesome sales day on Monday for credits so I know people are still buying images. Maybe some of these sales are starting to spread out to other photographers.

Just give it some more time.

Chad Bridwell
Director of US Operations
Fotolia.com


 ??? ::)
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 4seasons on May 13, 2008, 05:12
My sales dropped 70-80% on FT in a last two weeks and a lot people are reporting the same on FT forum.

Chad: "...sales are down a lot because of European holidays in May."
Holidays always has an impact on sales but not in such scale like we have now and holiday don't last several weeks. The main reason is not May holidays.

Maybe some really serious damages were made with search system or somewhere else, I don't know and I have no time to learn all various website algorithms. It's not my business. All I know is that I have no sales.
Or maybe really buyers moved from FT?

Chad: "I am also sure many of you are having amazing days and just keeping your mouths shut. People still buy Fotolia credits every day. The US just had an awesome sales day on Monday for credits so I know people are still buying images. Maybe some of these sales are starting to spread out to other photographers."

It would be nice to hear some "amazing days" reports in case to hope that in general is alright on Fotolia without reference to my "dry days".

If some are reporting 70% drops and if there are "amazing days" and "awesome sales", so someone could report "WOW! I have 700% increasing!.."
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 13, 2008, 05:38
Today same story - 1 sale so far (normaly should be at least 15 by afternoon). Plunged even further - 169 rank. lol!

Here is an idea - what do you think we make a petition at petitiononline.com and if many users sign it (including some emerald members) we will email it to Fotolia Mangement and perhaps they reverse search relevance order as it was before 1st may? What do you think about that?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: ragsac on May 13, 2008, 05:54
Cappi Thompson just leave Fotolia  :(

Usually my rank was 700 now dropped to 2000 since search engine change May 1st.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 4seasons on May 13, 2008, 06:06
Chode, you have "amazing day" and I have "awesome sale" of 1 download today as well! LOL... Normaly ~10.

Interesting idea about petition. Never heard about that. Just checked website. We could sign it (I red Yuri is complaining too) but I don't know if FT will listen and will react on it. Anyway, if some who knows how to do this and will begin, I would sign.

I remember when some time ago Dreamstime changed search algorithm my sales stopped also and contributors were complaining on forums about that. But after a while all things were normalized and now I have good, normal sales. Maybe the same will be on FT?

I hate that worthless therapy from administration about "amazing days" and "awesome sales". I don't need that. Is good when it's true but when a lot of people are reporting conversely they must admit that something is wrong: with search engine or with buyers.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Aurelio on May 13, 2008, 06:09
Usually i had about 20 dls a day, but last weeks about 2 to 3 which is a huge drop. My ranking  is about 100 or less on weekly base, now is 245, overall  ranking from 101 drop to 104. Istock exclusivity is even more close now
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: grp_photo on May 13, 2008, 06:09
Cappi Thompson just leave Fotolia  :(


who or what is cappi thompson?? ???
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 13, 2008, 06:14
If Yuri sign it, believe me, they will listen. And I hope many silver and gold members will too.

Cappy was a silver member, he deleted over 1000 great images from his portfolio and left. Few of them also announced they will leave FT if this continues... If nothing changes soon, I wont upload new images at FT, its not worth it for couple of dollars. I invest a lot of money in my images and I want it back, and earn some above what I spent.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 4seasons on May 13, 2008, 06:17
Just curious: when some leaves some agency where he is going? To be exclusive on IS? NEVER! At least for me.

From FT forum: "... I'm 92% exclusive, over 6500 images in portfolio and 2-5 sales per work day! ....huuuh  realy frustrating. "

That is one more reason not to put all eggs in one basket...
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Contakt on May 13, 2008, 08:49
Yes, my sales have fallen sharply too.

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

It's going to be very interesting watching Yuri's portfolio ride the wave of discontent over the coming months.

I think his stuff peaked about 12 months ago and since then we've seen a steady decline by all accounts.

Observers may put it down to a downturn in the economy but I theorise it's little more than an attack of the clones when he made the dreaded mistake of publicising his earnings.

That, or the Russians are coming, I can't work out which is worse?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Pixart on May 13, 2008, 10:22
Just curious: when some leaves some agency where he is going? To be exclusive on IS? NEVER! At least for me.

From FT forum: "... I'm 92% exclusive, over 6500 images in portfolio and 2-5 sales per work day! ....huuuh  realy frustrating. "

That is one more reason not to put all eggs in one basket...

Photographers don't need the exclusive excuse to leave whatever agency.   People can only put up with crap for so long in any relationship before they say good riddance.  What good is this partnership if an agency can't get their act together.  Its just like dating, once the high school boyfriend matures he might be worth giving a second chance after college.   ;D
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: epixx on May 13, 2008, 12:48
I wonder what's happening. Suddenly, I have my BDE at FT, with a solid margin, and there are many hours left.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: CofkoCof on May 13, 2008, 13:42
I wonder what's happening. Suddenly, I have my BDE at FT, with a solid margin, and there are many hours left.
Same here. We must be the lucky ones  ;D
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Lukasphoto on May 13, 2008, 16:26
My ranking was 1750 -- now it's 5621...  :-[
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 3pod on May 13, 2008, 17:12
My rank is #30 and FT remains my #1 seller. Especially now that i raised my pricing to 2credits.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: epixx on May 13, 2008, 19:13
I wonder what's happening. Suddenly, I have my BDE at FT, with a solid margin, and there are many hours left.
Same here. We must be the lucky ones  ;D

If it was consistent, yes, but it isn't. The two weeks preceding this day have been my worst there in months.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Karl Bolf on May 16, 2008, 14:32
As far as I am concerned, the 2 past weeks were awful but that's typical in Europe (and especially in France) at this time. Very clear and sudden drop. Sales started again only on Wed (3 sales per day on average -I'm starting). My 7-day rank went down from 900 to 2000+ as I guess I am worse off being exposed to the French market.  I don't think the search engine change has any impact on my sales.

I hope you guys see sales peaking up too by now!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: CofkoCof on May 16, 2008, 19:29
I wonder what's happening. Suddenly, I have my BDE at FT, with a solid margin, and there are many hours left.
Same here. We must be the lucky ones  ;D

If it was consistent, yes, but it isn't. The two weeks preceding this day have been my worst there in months.
Yeah same here. Didn't have any downloads in the first week of May, now I'm getting a few a day. My 7 days rank is goinig crazy, currently at 470 (my overall rank is 8000+).
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: thesentinel on May 17, 2008, 01:03


It's going to be very interesting watching Yuri's portfolio ride the wave of discontent over the coming months.

I think his stuff peaked about 12 months ago and since then we've seen a steady decline by all accounts.


FYI, On iStock he's trebled his sales over a year, and as top seller by month will shortly be outselling the former queen bee poster child lisegagne by a factor of 2.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 4seasons on May 17, 2008, 05:43
My sells are coming back little by little but I'm afraid a new search system is created to promote some photographs. It can be understood if in first pages appears images of well ranked photographers but if in first page appears non related to search keyword photos from a very small portfolio of ~70 images than there is only one thought: this photographer is promoted by FT administration.
It is rumored about that on FT forums. 

Otherwise a new search system is an absolute nonsense...
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: lisafx on May 17, 2008, 09:21
Just read the bit on the Fotolia forums.  Very worrying examples of small portfolios with mediocre pictures being bumped the the front of every search that contains one of the used keywords. 

Most likely this is an accidental byproduct of some programming change because the pictures and portfolios listed are not the quality level that I think Fotolia would be trying to promote on purpose. 

Sales are gradually improving there so hopefully this means an effort is being made to fix the issue. 
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: khwi on May 17, 2008, 10:54
if everyone is dropping on the rank, who is going up?
i'm down a lot too...
had few sales the first week of May, then zero for a week!
and a XS today... terrible!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: mantonino on May 17, 2008, 14:15
if everyone is dropping on the rank, who is going up?

I have gone from rank #5515 or something in that range to 2107 currently in the last 3 weeks. 

I honestly wish I had an answer for you guys. :(  I'm not sad that I'm selling but I wish everyone was having a better month overall. 

Most of my sales are *still* older images.  Stuff that I had on FT before most of you heard of FT if you know what I mean.  Those do *not* have the "7 keywords" thing going for them. 

Of my last 7 sales, only 1 has been from an image I added in the last 2 months.  5 were added in early 2006 and one was added in late 2007.

(I have NO clue what any of this means or how it's happening but I want to give you guys the raw data to play with)
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Elenathewise on May 17, 2008, 18:13
My sales on FT are about 50% down too:-(
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Lizard on May 17, 2008, 22:30
Oh that explains it , my sale are up significantly  last few days and I'm getting sales from images that were never sold before. 

I never did  any reorders to my alphabetically sorted  keywords just for Fotolia ( and I never will) , so maybe that has something to do with that change , but maybe its just a coincidence

Just wanted to pull my statement , after few days my  downloads stooped , I mean i don't remember when was last time I had a day without download there , even a working day with less than 10 downloads ,  but this week I had few days without any and the rest were one or two , all only 1 credit . 
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 18, 2008, 04:57
Still low sales.New relevance order is totaly inacurate.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Seren on May 18, 2008, 05:10
Today same story - 1 sale so far (normaly should be at least 15 by afternoon). Plunged even further - 169 rank. lol!

Here is an idea - what do you think we make a petition at petitiononline.com and if many users sign it (including some emerald members) we will email it to Fotolia Mangement and perhaps they reverse search relevance order as it was before 1st may? What do you think about that?


Noooooo!  My sales have picked up since May 1st!  Keep it how it is!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: epantha on May 18, 2008, 05:31
Do these new relevance results and ranks have anything to do with exclusive images? Not that I would know personally since I've only been on Fotolia for a couple of months. Just wondering. ???
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: fotografer on May 18, 2008, 05:45
I'll second that :)


Noooooo!  My sales have picked up since May 1st!  Keep it how it is!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: louoates on May 18, 2008, 16:43
Still low sales.New relevance order is totaly inacurate.

I just had a stroke of genius. What if the search engine was totally screwed up? Even worse than it is now. I bet this string would still be divided between those who loved the results and those who hated the results. Wouldn't the randomness of the search lead buyers to fresh ways of looking at things? Sort of like a brainstorming session where there is no right or wrong. Just to get different approaches started. Come to think of it it would also reward images with really bad/odd keywords.

Sorry, just rambling on a lazy 100+ degree Arizona Sunday.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: JC-SL on May 18, 2008, 18:15
Lou... trade you, it's 13 degrees (C) on a rainy Monday morning! 

oh yes..  sales have been consistant.. no great changes with current ranking continually falling.  Now on 208..  LOL, I've never believed these numbers so 208 means absolutely nothing...  really.   This should be more of a concern to photogs : www.stockphototalk.com read the leading article on FT.   
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: bbettina on May 19, 2008, 06:07
My sales aren't slow - I wish they were.  They are dead!  Not a sale in days. I don't even want to check anymore it is so disheartening.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Alatriste on May 19, 2008, 06:54
My sales aren't slow - I wish they were.  They are dead!  Not a sale in days. I don't even want to check anymore it is so disheartening.

Same here
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 19, 2008, 07:14
monday, almost work day over in europe, only 3 sales! lol. it should be at least 15-20 by now. poor.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: anonymous on May 19, 2008, 07:17
I'm still averaging 1 - 2 sales per day (pretty much what I've always had), but they have shot down EVERY SINGLE ONE of my last 24 submissions for "Type of Photograph"?????? A bit frustrating, so I've simply quit uploading until they get their s&@t sorted out. In irony, every image I sell there IS that "Type of Photograph"...buncha weenies!   ;)
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Enjoylife on May 20, 2008, 03:00
Sales down 70% ranking from 17 to 80 now  >:(
keywords in order doesn't seem to matter any more  >:(

Hope they will fix this soon..
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: bbettina on May 20, 2008, 12:45
my sales aren't simply down, they have disappeared completely.  My port is about 450 so I am not expecting a lot: the usual 2-3 downloads a day, maybe a day without sales but not a single darn sale in a week or more.  I am too disheartened to even check my numbers.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: lobby on May 20, 2008, 14:34
count one more...

70% down

also
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 20, 2008, 14:55


Hope they will fix this soon..

there is nothing to fix. I wrote to support few days ago, they responded:

Quote
There are no plans to reverse it back exactly to the old way. We are making changes to it to improve sales overall for Fotolia and our contributors. We appreciate your feedback and wish you a lot of success.

this is the way it will be.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: jsnover on May 20, 2008, 15:19

this is the way it will be.

Until next time ... all the sites tinker with their search results and this isn't the first site to send some major contributors into a tailspin (IS comes to mind with the big changes around the time the CV was introduced).

The major problem I see with search results is that they cluster way too many of the same series together upfront - as a buyer I'd like to see a selection of what's available for that topic rather than one favored portfolio. It isn't just new uploads or even new-ish ones that have sold (I used the search of beach woman for an example as it's one where I have no personal stake). Do the same search on 123rf (which has generally been good at avoiding a cluster of similar images together) and you get much  more useful - IMO - results.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: 4seasons on May 20, 2008, 15:24
My sales go very interesting in a last few days:

1 download
2 downloads next day...
14 dwnlds...
16 dwnlds...
1 dwnld...
1 dwnld...
14 dwnlds...
12 dwnlds...

It seams like search engine is two days working, then two days off, then again 2 days working...  :-)

Maybe some changes are in process... I'm hoping that some bright brains on FT team will not allow to damage search engine finally and there will not be some kind of favoritism or interested promotion. 
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: takestock on May 21, 2008, 05:36
My sales have been steady recently.

Picking up you could say , following the turbulence of the  V2 upgrade.
I'm finding reviewers there  more fussy these days though!
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: anonymous on May 21, 2008, 13:54
My sales have been steady recently.

Picking up you could say , following the turbulence of the  V2 upgrade.
I'm finding reviewers there  more fussy these days though!
That's a "nice" way of putting it ;)
I actually went on today and searched my own images and the engine is pretty whacked-out right now.
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Peter on May 25, 2008, 16:08
I know it is sunday, but this is the first time for me in last 6 months that I have 0 downloads in one day at FT. Record! LOL! I usualy predict next week by sunday, and if next week is going to be in corelation with this sunday, that wont be good.  :(
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: fotografer on May 25, 2008, 16:14
All sites are unusually low for me today.  :(
 
I know it is sunday, but this is the first time for me in last 6 months that I have 0 downloads in one day at FT. Record! LOL! I usualy predict next week by sunday, and if next week is going to be in corelation with this sunday, that wont be good.  :(
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: MicrostockExp on May 25, 2008, 16:19
only 4 sales at SS for me today ....  :(
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: Imagecom on May 25, 2008, 18:15
Hi
 I do not have as many sale as before ?
My ranking ?
Title: Re: sales on FT since search engine change?
Post by: cascoly on May 25, 2008, 21:20
my 7 day is 1746/ overall 2813 - aboyt same as has been but sales are lowest in 4 mon

i heartily agree that the foto review is seriouslt flawed --  i'm down to 1-5% from previous 50-70%, all with images SS & dT  sell readily.  i've just  about given up bothering t submit new stuff to FT - mostly i do it while waiting for computer to do some other image processing wrk

steve