Author Topic: What is your STR ( Sell Through Rate ) at Istock (Read 6857 times)

Jonathan Ross · « **on:** November 29, 2011, 10:23 »

Hi Everyone,

I was curious if people are interested in sharing their sell through rate from Isotck. That is the percentage of your files that have sold at least once on the site in their lifetime. I have a 77% sell through rate if you want to share please add to the list.

Cheers,
Jonathan

RT · « **Reply #1 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:01 »

Approx 80%, I say approx because I've always found that it normally takes at least three months (with a few exceptions) before new content starts selling and I've included my new content in the figure.

gostwyck · « **Reply #2 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:08 »

Can't tell you at the moment because I can't see any of my sales on Istock since November 1st.

Woo Yay.

rubyroo · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:09 »

Yeah it's not the best time to figure this out!

aeonf · « **Reply #4 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:11 »

RacePhoto · « **Reply #5 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:29 »

Quote from: rubyroo on November 29, 2011, 12:09

Yeah it's not the best time to figure this out!

Someone tell me, how I figure this out, or do I have to do the math myself? Whatever it's going to be sad like 42% for me.

Yes, this appears to be a problem. (screen capture of IS just minutes ago)

redo · « **Reply #6 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:45 »

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #7 on:** November 29, 2011, 12:50 »

It's not clear how one should calculate that number - what about deactivated files that go on sale but didn't sell? If people regularly cleaned up their port and removed things that didn't sell they could make the number look good. I don't clean house and my number's about 81% (I removed my vectors earlier in the year, all of which had sold, but the numbers were relatively small)

There might have been one or two first-time sales since November 1st, but not enough to skew the results

PixelsAway · « **Reply #8 on:** November 29, 2011, 14:01 »

65-70% - a rough estimate from my Deep Meta records without counting any files just listing active files and measuring a cursor position on scroll bar

Anyka · « **Reply #9 on:** November 29, 2011, 15:33 »

64% - now I'm depressed.
Not because it's a low %, but while clicking through the unsold stuff, I saw many images that I like very much or that sell very well on other sites.

lisafx · « **Reply #10 on:** November 29, 2011, 16:19 »

I was jut over 80% last time I checked. That was a couple of months ago.

cobalt · « **Reply #11 on:** November 29, 2011, 18:25 »

74%. I´ve got a lot of old files that I should either deactivate or only leave on the PP Program.

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #12 on:** November 29, 2011, 22:44 »

Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback. Great numbers out there. I don't know if they are as applicable to Micro but in Macro agencies have used this tool to track their best photographers. In Micro when one image can sell 4,000 times I would imagine the Micro agencies just look at your overall sales but they might still use this tool as it does cost them money to add your images so they might be more likely to edit and support their photographers with the best STR. Also the size of your collection will alter this, if you have 20 files up for 7 years and 19 of them sell then you do have a 95% STR but that isn't much interest to the agency. But if you are like some of the people that posted high STR and you have a really large collections I would imagine your agency is happy and you are definitely doing it right.
I know a great stock photographer he has been shooting stock for thirty years. He has a list of his top 1,000 themes that have always been his best sellers. He recreates that list every year with some changes to make it fit the times and lighting style changes but he still shoots the same 1,000 concept list and he makes more money than just about anyone I know in the industry. Not the way I work but I think it makes a great deal of sense and he has an amazing STR.

Thanks,
Jonathan

cobalt · « **Reply #13 on:** November 29, 2011, 23:05 »

But I assume your friend is uploading to macro where download numbers are invisible?

If he was doing this on the micros his ideas would be stolen by the copycats and he would be in a yearly battle against a whole crowd of "followers" snapping at his heels.

rubyroo · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2011, 05:07 »

I've done my best on the figures I can actually get, and it seems to be around 60%. I haven't cleared my port of all the old dross from the early days though, so maybe I should take the time to do that and improve this percentage.

(OTOH, if iS is going down the tubes... perhaps I won't bother).

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2011, 11:42 »

Hi rubyroo,

I have never cleaned house once in 14 years. I just let the agency move my old stuff down a tier, I figure if they are out there and I spent time to get them there I just leave them, you never know when someone might buy that image but that is just me some people are very good at cleaning house. Thanks for the response.

Best,
Jonathan

ShadySue · « **Reply #16 on:** November 30, 2011, 12:00 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on November 30, 2011, 11:42

I have never cleaned house once in 14 years.

Oh, I just glance at this in the passing and you were about to become my new Hero after Quentin Crisp (after three years, the dust doesn't seem to get any thicker)
Then you blew it!
(OK, after I typed that, it seemed to be a double or even triple entendre, but I'll leave it.)

click_click · « **Reply #17 on:** November 30, 2011, 12:10 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on November 29, 2011, 10:23

Hi Everyone,

I was curious if people are interested in sharing their sell through rate from Isotck. That is the percentage of your files that have sold at least once on the site in their lifetime. I have a 77% sell through rate if you want to share please add to the list.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Jonathan, I like playing with numbers but what does this number actually tell you?

If one has uploaded 10 files and each sold one time in 8 years then the STR would be 100% right?

If another photographer uploaded 5000 files and sold 4000 of them at least once then it would be 80%. Needless to say the second photographer is making more $$$.

So what else would this number conclude? How well one can select shots with a high commercial value?

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #18 on:** December 01, 2011, 18:30 »

Hi Click-Click,

It has been a number that agencies have used for years to track their best selling photographers. Over time you start to find your work moving up in position because the agency sees your STR is high and they have a better chance of your work making them money. As I mentioned I don't know if it is the same with Micro because of the number of sales an individual image can make while others sit dormant. For the photographer all it really helps is to identify what is selling and what hasn't and stay away from your stuff that didn't sell well. One good concept shot 10 different ways can make you a lot more money than 10 different shots that don't meet your buyers needs.

Best,
Jonathan

Graffoto · « **Reply #19 on:** December 01, 2011, 19:13 »

Mine is about 74%.
I don't think it works the same way in micro.
Good selling files get pushed to the front, but not necessarily photographers.

Suljo · « **Reply #20 on:** December 01, 2011, 21:13 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on November 29, 2011, 10:23

Hi Everyone,

I was curious if people are interested in sharing their sell through rate from Isotck. That is the percentage of your files that have sold at least once on the site in their lifetime. I have a 77% sell through rate if you want to share please add to the list.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I really want to answer, but what is formula to give any % results. In my murky mind I know about RPI and RPD, but I dont know answer without this % formula.
PLS light me up

click_click · « **Reply #21 on:** December 02, 2011, 00:21 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on December 01, 2011, 18:30

Hi Click-Click,

It has been a number that agencies have used for years to track their best selling photographers. Over time you start to find your work moving up in position because the agency sees your STR is high and they have a better chance of your work making them money. As I mentioned I don't know if it is the same with Micro because of the number of sales an individual image can make while others sit dormant. For the photographer all it really helps is to identify what is selling and what hasn't and stay away from your stuff that didn't sell well. One good concept shot 10 different ways can make you a lot more money than 10 different shots that don't meet your buyers needs.

Best,
Jonathan

Interesting to hear that agencies would consider this STR approach to tweak rankings. Sounds like a pretty simply formula to get that info.

Would be nice to see it being implemented at the micros. No idea if they put in that kind of feature in their code.

dhanford · « **Reply #22 on:** December 02, 2011, 01:08 »

88%

aeonf · « **Reply #23 on:** December 02, 2011, 03:49 »

This isn't a very good comparison statistical figure for the reason that the older your portfolio is, the higher STR it will have.
For fast growing portfolios it is even less relevant.

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Author Topic: What is your STR ( Sell Through Rate ) at Istock (Read 6857 times)

Jonathan Ross

RT

gostwyck

rubyroo

aeonf

RacePhoto

redo

Jo Ann Snover

PixelsAway

Anyka

lisafx

cobalt

Jonathan Ross

cobalt

rubyroo

Jonathan Ross

ShadySue

click_click

Jonathan Ross

Graffoto

Suljo

click_click

dhanford

aeonf

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