Author Topic: iStock and Shutterstock web traffic (Read 13256 times)

charged · « **on:** December 04, 2014, 19:57 »

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/istockphoto.com

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/shutterstock.com

Looks like in October both sites took a huge dive in web traffic ranking. Does any one have any theory on why this is? Also is there some way to see some educated guess on how many visitors each site gets? It looks like Shutterstock is visited a lot more than iStock by a long shot.

On an unrelated note. Does anyone know if customers who buy the cheaper subscription package on iStock, are they denied the ability to get any exclusive images, other than buying it with credits? I'm exclusive and I'm just wondering if I'm locked out from those customers.

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** December 04, 2014, 20:04 »

Quote from: charged on December 04, 2014, 19:57

On an unrelated note. Does anyone know if customers who buy the cheaper subscription package on iStock, are they denied the ability to get any exclusive images, other than buying it with credits? I'm exclusive and I'm just wondering if I'm locked out from those customers.

If you have any files which are in the essentials collection (usually because they were demoted by you or by iS for lack of sales), those with the essentials package can buy these, but not any signature files (other than with credits).

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #2 on:** December 04, 2014, 20:35 »

I've been keeping track of the agency numbers about once a month since March. I looked at the numbers today and here are those, plus the ones from Nov 14th. First number is global/second US (or other highest country and I've noted which)

Nov 14 2014

IS 524 / 528
SS 224 / 272
Thinkstock 5,395 / 1,731
Getty 2,533 / 1,039
Fotolia 671 / (DE) 144 (FR) 327 (US) 2,760
dreamstime 768 / 1,052
123rf 729 / 1,216
DepositPhotos 1,211 / 1,999
PhotoDune 3,208 / 4,506
Canstock 4,306 / 4,299
Alamy 12,643 / (GB) 2,910 (US) 16,936
DollarPhotoClub 2,429 / 1,966
Canva 2,151 / 933

Dec 4 2014

IS 600 /602
SS 238 /320
Thinkstock 5,736 / 2,155
Getty 2,712 / 1,128
Fotolia 794 / (DE) 160 (FR) 344 (US) 2,7923
dreamstime 811 / 1,119
123rf 810 / 1,368
DepositPhotos 1,346 / 2,044
PhotoDune 3,814 / 4,506
Canstock 4,306 / 4,758
Alamy 14,047 / (GB) 3,165 (US) 19,953
DollarPhotoClub 2,697 / 2,071
Canva 2,082 / 909

As a percentage, iStock's drop is about twice that of SS. The only site whose ranking has improved is Canva - everyone else has lost ground with some (like Alamy) seeing big drops. Even the toxic Dollar Photo Club, which had seen improving stats for a few months has been dropping off too.

I don't know what any of this really means, but I think whatever errors there are probably affect all the sites roughly similarly.

Hobostocker · « **Reply #3 on:** December 04, 2014, 23:22 »

Alexa is a joke and totally unreliable, they only measure data from the clowns installing the Alexa toolbar which is nothing less than spyware.

if all numbers are down it might be because less people is using Alexa and/or browsing with mobile phones without any cr-appy addons attached.

as much as pretty much anything we do online is logged and analyzed in real time there's still no authority site providing reliable data on web sites popularity, everyone mention Alexa just because there's nothing else and the search engines are not providing anything similar for free.

Jeffrey · « **Reply #4 on:** January 31, 2015, 10:46 »

Call Alexa unreliable, but for me it coincides with my earnings in both iS and SS.

This month, as iS decrased its rank and so does my earnings. While my SS earning shootup because its Alexa rank also is in the 300 range.

Justanotherphotographer · « **Reply #5 on:** January 31, 2015, 11:32 »

Got to agree that even though they collect stats in a really dubious way the overall trends do tend to coincide with how I do on the sites. I mean the sites showing the most Alexa traffic are the ones bringing in the most income and roughly proportional.

Jeffrey · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2015, 01:29 »

Last month iStock was in the 850 Alexa rank, now it's in 868. The earnings are decreasing as well.

Jeffrey · « **Reply #7 on:** February 22, 2015, 08:10 »

iStock just got past 900 Alexa rank, while Shutter is in 277.

Henry_Ing · « **Reply #8 on:** February 24, 2015, 12:26 »

As the analytics guy at a stock library (Ingimage) I may be able to shed some light.

Generally I find it is not at all precise (esp. per country) - but as a simple indication it's okay. For example it says 18.2% of Ingimage visitors are from Finland... whereas Google Analytics tells me the number is actually 0.81% (someone with the Alexa toolbar in Finland must love us!). Whereas more gerenally - over the last two years our traffic has increased around 80%, and our Alexa rank has climbed steady with it (from c.80k at c.35k).

All the stock libraries do seem to have been sliding down in unison since October 2014, but that looks to be leveling off now. I can't speak for others - but for us this directly reflected real traffic trends - October is always a peak for us (c.150k sessions), December a low (c.130k), then expect to be back up to full speed in March.

jakobdam · « **Reply #9 on:** April 09, 2015, 08:23 »

As fewer chooses to install Java, and more and more are aware of removing the Alexa toolbar, I guess traffic on all websites decreases (according to Alexa stats). The distorted image becomes worse, as the people who do have the Alexa toolbar installed, also are the least IT capable. Most of them are in no way in our direct target group, as most of the people who decides to buy (or not to buy) our images, are graphic designers.

pixel8 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 09, 2015, 12:44 »

Quote from: Jo Ann Snover on December 04, 2014, 20:35

I've been keeping track of the agency numbers about once a month since March. I looked at the numbers today and here are those, plus the ones from Nov 14th. First number is global/second US (or other highest country and I've noted which)

Nov 14 2014

IS 524 / 528
SS 224 / 272
Thinkstock 5,395 / 1,731
Getty 2,533 / 1,039
Fotolia 671 / (DE) 144 (FR) 327 (US) 2,760
dreamstime 768 / 1,052
123rf 729 / 1,216
DepositPhotos 1,211 / 1,999
PhotoDune 3,208 / 4,506
Canstock 4,306 / 4,299
Alamy 12,643 / (GB) 2,910 (US) 16,936
DollarPhotoClub 2,429 / 1,966
Canva 2,151 / 933

Dec 4 2014

IS 600 /602
SS 238 /320
Thinkstock 5,736 / 2,155
Getty 2,712 / 1,128
Fotolia 794 / (DE) 160 (FR) 344 (US) 2,7923
dreamstime 811 / 1,119
123rf 810 / 1,368
DepositPhotos 1,346 / 2,044
PhotoDune 3,814 / 4,506
Canstock 4,306 / 4,758
Alamy 14,047 / (GB) 3,165 (US) 19,953
DollarPhotoClub 2,697 / 2,071
Canva 2,082 / 909

As a percentage, iStock's drop is about twice that of SS. The only site whose ranking has improved is Canva - everyone else has lost ground with some (like Alamy) seeing big drops. Even the toxic Dollar Photo Club, which had seen improving stats for a few months has been dropping off too.

I don't know what any of this really means, but I think whatever errors there are probably affect all the sites roughly similarly.

Just wondering about ThinkStock as it seems to have high Traffic according to your numbers but does not seem to pay well as its not even listed in the Low Earners, why do you think that is?

ShadySue · « **Reply #11 on:** April 09, 2015, 13:19 »

Quote from: pixel8 on April 09, 2015, 12:44

Just wondering about ThinkStock as it seems to have high Traffic according to your numbers but does not seem to pay well as its not even listed in the Low Earners, why do you think that is?

Because it's part of the income reported by those iStockers whose work is mirrored there, under iStock.
Is it possible to submit to TS directly (i.e. not by iS mirroring)?

wordplanet · « **Reply #12 on:** April 09, 2015, 13:31 »

I thought it was interesting that dreamstime is ranked higher than iStock overall - though not in the US. Stocksy is really high for a new site.

DT seems to get a lot more organic searches than the others.

I find it interesting to get a general sense of how things are going using Alexa but how the sites perform for each of us is really the bottom line. Ranking here is just from the subset of people on this site who bother to do the poll each month, so it's not absolutely accurate either, but it gives us an idea of how things are going.

Jeffrey · « **Reply #13 on:** June 09, 2015, 19:07 »

iStock now is 1016 in Alexa.

madman · « **Reply #14 on:** July 21, 2015, 12:50 »

Quote from: Jeffrey on June 09, 2015, 19:07

iStock now is 1016 in Alexa.

This is the result of wrong policies executed recently... PUHAHAHAAAA .... istock destructing itself very tragically.....

Rose Tinted Glasses · « **Reply #15 on:** July 21, 2015, 17:21 »

Quote from: madman on July 21, 2015, 12:50

Quote from: Jeffrey on June 09, 2015, 19:07
iStock now is 1016 in Alexa.

This is the result of wrong policies executed recently... PUHAHAHAAAA .... istock destructing itself very tragically.....

Or maybe it is the simple idea that fewer people incorporate the Alexa extension into their browsers...

ShadySue · « **Reply #16 on:** July 21, 2015, 17:24 »

Quote from: madman on July 21, 2015, 12:50

Quote from: Jeffrey on June 09, 2015, 19:07
iStock now is 1016 in Alexa.

This is the result of wrong policies executed recently...

Only 'recently'?

PixelBytes · « **Reply #17 on:** July 21, 2015, 23:48 »

Quote from: ShadySue on July 21, 2015, 17:24

Quote from: madman on July 21, 2015, 12:50
Quote from: Jeffrey on June 09, 2015, 19:07
iStock now is 1016 in Alexa.

This is the result of wrong policies executed recently...
Only 'recently'?

True that. Maybe by 'recently' he means this decade.

Hongover · « **Reply #18 on:** July 22, 2015, 22:00 »

iStock has fallen a lot recently. Falling over 500 places in the the last 8 months doesn't bode well. Parent company Getty Images fell 1000 places in the last few months. No wonder they're panicking and suing Google.

Fotolia has also fallen quite a bit lately as well. This was way before Adobe Stock launched. I wonder if they're also facing some issues.

It's quite surprising that Dreamstime and 123RF has better traffic, but hasn't translated to better earnings for contributors. Maybe we'll see that change in the upcoming months.

hatman12 · « **Reply #19 on:** July 22, 2015, 23:08 »

Personally I feel that Google Trends gives a better overall picture. Have a look and see the dramatic difference in trends comparing (say) istock, getty, (declining trends) and audiojungle, envato, canva (sharply increasing trends).

Interesting also to see the sharp increase in searches for 'Adobe stock photos'.

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Author Topic: iStock and Shutterstock web traffic (Read 13256 times)

charged

ShadySue

Jo Ann Snover

Hobostocker

Jeffrey

Justanotherphotographer

Jeffrey

Jeffrey

Henry_Ing

jakobdam

pixel8

ShadySue

wordplanet

Jeffrey

madman

Rose Tinted Glasses

ShadySue

PixelBytes

Hongover

hatman12

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