Author Topic: Uploading Strategies (Read 13990 times)

RacePhoto · « **Reply #25 on:** March 01, 2008, 21:53 »

OK so I'm reading the thread and one person says, it's hard to time SS reviews, another says they can figure it down to the hours. One says upload so they are approved on Monday, but another says don't upload on Friday?

Quote

For SS I upload as soon as my current batch is approved on Friday through Wednesday so that images are entered into the database on Monday through Friday.

Review times vary and if some people think this is better and we know weekends at more popular for uploads, which will skew the cue... I don't see how anyone can predict things so they will always start showing on Mondays.

What's the secret minute, and day, to upload, so they don't get approved on the weekend, but start appearing on Monday?

Karimala · « **Reply #26 on:** March 04, 2008, 10:41 »

I'm had an interesting experience at SS this week. A batch of 14 were approved Sunday afternoon, so I thought "Cool...they should be live for buyers Monday afternoon and I should start seeing sales." Wrong! They didn't go live until late Monday night.

In the meantime while I was waiting, I checked to see if they had gone live outside my own portfolio. What I discovered was photos numbering above 9964000 had gone live, while mine which started at #9892378 had not. So...what that means is my photos in popular categories were buried right from the start and had no chance to catch a sales wave. Today it's the same story. I have a batch of 40 waiting for review starting at #9976837, and there are already photos live and ready for sale in 10001000's.

If SS's reviewers are jumping ahead in the queue and reviewing batches out of order, then that right there makes any uploading strategy null and void, in my opinion.

CofkoCof · « **Reply #27 on:** March 13, 2008, 18:09 »

There is another thing that can make your picture sell or sink in oblivion (at least at SS). It's indexing of you images. I think they do it a couple of times per day or when there is a certain ammount of new images unindexed. Why would indexing be important? Imagine that thea do it twice a day. One of you batches gets accepted just after the new images were indexed and has to wait half a day for the next round. Till it happens a lot of new images get accepted and those will get indexed at the same time as yours and will show on top of yours (if you use newest first). So best thing that can happen is that your images get accepted just before the indexing

Well that's my theory, not sure if it's true and even if it is it won't help me much since I can't predict all those thing so I could benefit from it.

EDIT: Typos.

dbvirago · « **Reply #28 on:** March 13, 2008, 19:35 »

Quote from: Karimala on March 04, 2008, 10:41

I'm had an interesting experience at SS this week. A batch of 14 were approved Sunday afternoon, so I thought "Cool...they should be live for buyers Monday afternoon and I should start seeing sales." Wrong! They didn't go live until late Monday night.

In the meantime while I was waiting, I checked to see if they had gone live outside my own portfolio. What I discovered was photos numbering above 9964000 had gone live, while mine which started at #9892378 had not. So...what that means is my photos in popular categories were buried right from the start and had no chance to catch a sales wave. Today it's the same story. I have a batch of 40 waiting for review starting at #9976837, and there are already photos live and ready for sale in 10001000's.

If SS's reviewers are jumping ahead in the queue and reviewing batches out of order, then that right there makes any uploading strategy null and void, in my opinion.

I have a feeling they just lost some reviewers or just hired some new ones. Review process has been a little odd lately.

Pixart · « **Reply #29 on:** March 14, 2008, 09:41 »

Yes, I have found the indexing totally crazy lately. One batch will be live the same morning I see the approval, and the next won't be for a couple days.

Lee Torrens · « **Reply #30 on:** March 14, 2008, 11:50 »

It depends on who you are. More specifically, your subject and your quantity of images. One of the top selling contributors on Shutterstock says his statistical analysis shows a massive difference in download quantity for images that go live on Monday. He has his finger on the pulse of the amount of time it takes for images to go live after they're submitted, so he knows when to submit. Naturally, that delay varies over time and has the occasional hiccup, but he uploads a lot so he's intimately aware of any variation.

However, this doesn't work for me. I'm lucky if one of my new images that goes live on a Monday sells 5 times in the day. Whereas the above mentioned guru is likely measuring that metric with three figures (an assumption). But that's because he's uploading amazing images of popular subjects - very different from what I contribute.

So while we each do our own testing and form our own theories, they're only useful for ourselves. What works for you won't necessarily work for others. In other words, your mileage may vary. Find what works for you, and keep testing it as your photography and processes evolve.

sharply_done · « **Reply #31 on:** March 14, 2008, 17:49 »

Quote from: Lee Torrens on March 14, 2008, 11:50

... He has his finger on the pulse of the amount of time it takes for images to go live after they're submitted, so he knows when to submit. Naturally, that delay varies over time and has the occasional hiccup, but he uploads a lot so he's intimately aware of any variation.
...

Gee, who'd have thunk it?