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Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: chromaco on April 07, 2012, 23:51

Title: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: chromaco on April 07, 2012, 23:51
Today I did a little comparison of best sellers on my top 5 sites. Guess what... almost all of the sites have different best sellers. (I'm talking top 20-50 images) Sure, there are some images that rise to the top on all of the sites but for the most part each site is different. This leads me to think that different sites have different types of buyers and maybe they aren't cannibalizing each other as much as we believe. What are your thoughts?
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: Carl on April 08, 2012, 00:59
Interesting observation.  My top seller on SS isn't the best seller on any other site, and it appears that each site has a different top seller for me.  Recently, there's one particular model I work width whose photos are selling on all of the sites in the last few days.  I think we might make ourselves crazy trying to figure out what the sites and the buyers are doing and trying to identify trends.  By the time we identify trends, they've already run their course and another has begun.  Your mileage, of course, may vary.   8)
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: wut on April 08, 2012, 04:17
I have one at SS that really stands out. It's nearing 1000 DLs, but never sold more than a few times on any other site. But usually the same images sell at the top four, there isn't much of a difference % wise. But some images are of course better for some type of agencies, for instance PP sells files that don't sell at IS, because they're outdated or just not good and original (a business shot that never really sold anywhere, got me a nice sum of money there). It sometimes seems like the better the agency (by that I mean the quality of their collection), the better image you need in order to sell it. TS sure looks like a junkyard and as I said, sells junk (more often).
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: MikLav on April 08, 2012, 04:24
mine aren't the same across different sites though there is some overlap in top-10
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: ruxpriencdiam on April 08, 2012, 09:20
No.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: rinderart on April 08, 2012, 10:07
Nowhere near the same.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: kuriouskat on April 08, 2012, 11:39
My best sellers at Shutterstock have sold nearly 1000 times each and are selling pretty well at all other sites I submitted them to. GLStock rejected them all for various reasons - go figure!
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: tab62 on April 08, 2012, 12:58
What does well on some of the U.S sites have none on the European sites and vise versa. Different favors for sure...
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: Wim on April 08, 2012, 13:34
No since IS rejects all my composites ;)

But besides IS, yes they are.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: gemmy12 on April 08, 2012, 13:54
Few are same but most of them are different in different sites.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: heywoody on April 08, 2012, 16:16
No since IS rejects all my composites ;)

But besides IS, yes they are.
Best sellers are the same except IS (either rejected or probably would have been if submitted).  Otherwise different sites seem to sell different stuff.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: fritz on April 08, 2012, 19:26
No
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: rubyroo on April 09, 2012, 01:40
Certainly on the top two sites.  Identical.  The same images are either best or close to best on all sites except FT.  My best seller there confuses the heck out of me  :D
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: lagereek on April 09, 2012, 04:54
This just confirms my theory, like in the old film-days within the stockagencies. People will visit different sites for differant needs.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: fotografer on April 09, 2012, 12:04
My best selling 5 images in the big  4 have 13 different images out of a potential 20.    Only one of the images was in the top 5 at more than 2 sites.  I was surprised that they were all so different.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: Metsafile on April 10, 2012, 00:19
It seems that buyer demographics must vary quite a bit for the best sellers to differ so much.

 
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: louoates on April 10, 2012, 20:37
My top seller is my best seller on IS, SS, DT.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: pancaketom on April 11, 2012, 17:05
I think the big differences between the sites show both how serendipity can lead to a best seller and how different the searches and buyers on the different sites can be.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: wut on April 12, 2012, 17:38
I just noticed, while messing around my dashboard, that my bestsellers at FT mostly are different. 3/10 are the same, others not and mostly there are images that are not successful elsewhere much less bestseller. Must be partly because it's the only European agency out of the top 4. Different buyers, for instance there's only 1 smile in all of them. None of them are fake or posed (well a couple are, but don't appear to be). So I guess their buyers go for candid, real stuff. I'd prefer to shoot images like that, perhaps I should become exclusive... :)
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: mtilghma on April 13, 2012, 17:58
My top 5 is almost identical at every site
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: Mantis on April 13, 2012, 19:31
My top 5 is almost identical at every site

Same here.  And what's really fun is that when an image is sold on one site, "all of a sudden" it sells on 2-3 other sites the same day or the day after.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: fotorob on April 16, 2012, 11:13
My images are different, but mainly form similar shots, so the difference for each site might be small differences in search algorithms that pushes other images to the front thus more buyers see them first.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: CD123 on April 16, 2012, 14:11
Not the same. That is why I stopped getting upset about sites rejecting best sellers from other sites, as it is no guarantee it would have sold on these sites as well.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: RacePhoto on April 16, 2012, 15:50
My top 5 is almost identical at every site

Same here. I can add that what doesn't sell and has never sold is also the same! Bad is bad, everywhere.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: CD123 on April 16, 2012, 16:00
My top 5 is almost identical at every site

Same here. I can add that what doesn't sell and has never sold is also the same! Bad is bad, everywhere.

We should perhaps differentiate here again between photos, vectors and other "art" images. Where most of my stuff falls in the latter 2, the type of client base might perhaps have a larger impact on what sells on certain sites? With "art" images it might be more personal taste than a straight forward good or bad decision.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: bad to the bone on April 16, 2012, 18:55
Nearby, the group of 10-20 bestsellers are the same at the big 5, but some of them havent made it to my potfolio at them :-)
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: nicku on April 17, 2012, 09:37
my best selling photos are mostly the same on all top 4 agencies.
Title: Re: Are your best sellers the same on most sites?
Post by: dirkr on April 18, 2012, 02:25
Quite different. Looking at the top five sellers in the top 4 sites (including Istock until end of 2010) only three pictures appear more than once.