Like the images that really start selling well at SS will eventually get a lot of downloads elsewhere.

I would think it would have somewhat of an opposite effect.

The new files are downloaded more b/c people are trying to get their money's worth by downloading their maximum limit as many days as possible. Their first step is to pillage through the newest uploads.

(Disclaimer: This is solely my opinion based on many instances of anecdotal evidence posted throughout these forum.)

In my expirience there's no way to know if an image will sell well on one site or another because each site has its different costumers... you have to find out which one sells your images better.

My absolute fastest selling image is #1 for me at iStock, Shutterstock, and a few smaller sites.  The trouble is, a lot of sites don't have the volume of iStock and Shutterstock so it takes longer for the cream to rise to the top.

In general I notice that my fastest selling images at Shutterstock tend to eventually become very good sellers at iStock and Dreamstime.  Fotolia seems very "different."  It has surprised me so far what has sold, and what hasn't sold, at Fotolia.  The other sites probably aren't worth considering due to the much lower volume.

And you are absolutely right about how Shutterstock works.  The new stuff gets downloaded immediately, even if it is fairly mediocre.  But if an image is really strong, it tends to sell faster and for a longer period.  Then it slows a bit and settles into a steady seller for the longer term.  These successes are challenging at SS, but I believe they are the obvious key to long term, growing earnings there.

In general I notice that my fastest selling images at Shutterstock tend to eventually become very good sellers at iStock and Dreamstime.  Fotolia seems very "different."  It has surprised me so far what has sold, and what hasn't sold, at Fotolia.  The other sites probably aren't worth considering due to the much lower volume.

I've found that SS can be a good sales barometer: stuff that sells well on SS will usually have good sales everywhere else, and images that only get a few DLs on SS are usually flops.

That's good to hear, I have some vectors that sell great at SS pending at IS.

And you are absolutely right about how Shutterstock works.  The new stuff gets downloaded immediately, even if it is fairly mediocre.  But if an image is really strong, it tends to sell faster and for a longer period.  Then it slows a bit and settles into a steady seller for the longer term.  These successes are challenging at SS, but I believe they are the obvious key to long term, growing earnings there.

When an image gets to like 10th page in the "newest first" order it stops getting downloads for being new. After that it's mostly downloads from "most popular" order and if it did't reach the first few pages of the "most popular" while it was new it will be very hard for a buyer to find it. Atm I managed to get a few vectors pretty high (one is 5th if you do "web icon set" search) and they sell every day.

Quote from: latex on April 18, 2008, 12:44

In my expirience there's no way to know if an image will sell well on one site or another because each site has its different costumers...

I agree. I have had images get 20-30 DLs a day for a few days straight at SS, and never really take off at istock or other sites. And the opposite has happened, too. Top sellers at other sites don't always translate to top sellers at SS.

Agree also, SS isn't the most accurate barometer. I don't how many times I've had image go crazy on SS and get just a trickle of downloads elsewhere and vise/versa. Still left scratching my head when it happens though. 

IMO you can never use subscription sales (no matter what site they're on) to gauge any type of popularity long term because of what others have already pointed out, unless the image has been on the site for a while.
I've got an image on SS that sells 2-3 times every single day and I uploaded it about 6 months ago, yet I've got an image thats way higher in overall sales that I uploaded less than a month ago, and neither of these images do what I'd describe as outstanding on other sites.
iStock is without doubt the best site for contributor statistics, but then they keep changing their best match criteria which buggers everything up 
The best advice is create what you think will sell using obvious research methods and make the image the best you can, keyword it well and leave the rest to fate.

I have a few  images that do well on SS but not any where else. They are some of the nicest images that I have in my portfolio but not as stock worthy as most of my images. One in particular that I just looked at the figures for  has had 158 dls on SS and has sold only 4 times each on IS and DT.   
To me this suggests that quite a lot of impulse buying goes on at SS where they buy an image with their extra credits just because it's a nice image even though it's not particularly useful.