Agency Based Discussion > General - Top Sites

Istockphoto vs. Shutterstock

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manwolste:
There is a strange DL development for my images at the 2 sites. OK, my portfolio is small (IS=184, SS=197), but anyway......

Since June, at Shutterstock there is a constant dl-decrease of more than 10% per month.

At iStockphoto, July was 40% better than June and August again will be approx. 20% better than July.

And it seems like today this is just reaching a climax: staring at both sites in disbelief (sad and happy):

at 5:00 pm (German time) not a single dl at SS (never experienced that on a regular weekday) and my first EL at istock (yeeehaaa....first EL of all my sites).

I could blame my images for the decrease at SS - but then, why are they selling so well on iStock?

So far, I never intended going exclusive, but if this trend is going on for the next months, I might give that a second thought...

Is anybody else experiencing this (or might have an explanation)?

regards,
Manfred

leaf:
I am guessing the reason could be this.

June is a slow month and so Istock didn't sell many of your images then.  It is now progressing to the high season.  Sales should more or less increase until christmas from now on.

Shutterstock sales are slowing down because when you upload at shutterstock the images are given a 'boost' because lots of people search by 'newest uploads'  When the newest uploaded images are no longer yours, then your downloads decrease.

I would suggest you also try out dreamstime, stockxpert, fotolia and possibly luckyoliver (although not too many downloads on lucky oliver yet)

w7lwi:
Without knowing how many uploads you had on each of those months, this is only conjecture.  As Leaf said, SS downloads are quite dependant on your uploading.  They sell by subscription, so new uploads cause activity in your account.  Designers have paid a monthly fee, so they simply download anything they feel they may need in the future (within the download limits their fee establisheds) as well as specific immediate needs.  Once you stop uploading, the number of sales begins to decline because there's nothing available that they haven't already seen and downloaded.

IS, on the other hand, is a per-photo site.  So designers are looking for specific images rather than picking up some they think they may need in the future.  One explanation is that it is often the case where the designer may see the image he needs, but before buying it, he makes a rough mark-up, or story board, and presents it to his client.  Once the client approves his concept, then he goes ahead and purchases the images he requires.  That is part of the reason IS images may not sell right away, as compared to SS, but their sales tend to increase over time.  This is, of course, all based on the assumption that the images are keyworded adequately and designers can find them amongst all the tens of thousands of similar images.

Bottom line ... keep uploading images.  Then you've got both the subscription services and per-photo sites covered.

hatman12:
Good analysis and good advice.

ozbandit:
You have a pretty small folio with SS as compared to iStock, I have 680 with SS and 120 with iStock which seems to be the normal ratio around here.

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