*Update*

Istock  gone to "coma" state.... 0 Sales. Was expecting a bump from PP... but 0 sales too...

 

Quote from: CoisaX on November 15, 2011, 07:03

*Update*
Istock  gone to "coma" state.... 0 Sales. Was expecting a bump from PP... but 0 sales too...

I don't see anywhere in the PP forum that October's PP sales are 'in' yet.

And if they were - what they aren't - they aren't "november" sales.

Istock  gone to "coma" state.... 0 Sales. Was expecting a bump from PP... but 0 sales too...
I don't see anywhere in the PP forum that October's PP sales are 'in' yet.

You right.. I forget that is around 30th of each month.

Istock's issues are already virtually terminal. If Rebbecca is really clever she might be able to slow the decline ... but I doubt it. She should have recognised the issues and taken some significant action by now. All we've had so far is a half-soaked 'survey' and a ridiculous new 'referral scheme'. If that's the best she can come up with then Istock are truly dead in the water. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

There's also the brilliant new price increase.  That will surely turn things around.   

Quote from: SNP on November 14, 2011, 20:46

Quote from: TheDman on November 14, 2011, 11:10

This November on IS might be my worst month of the year, and the first time since I started selling here in 2005 that I went down in November instead of up. I have several Christmas/New Year's images that usually do well this time of year that are barely selling at all. Shots that usually sell multiple times per day are now lucky to get one sale a month. Looks like Nov 2011 will be at 33% of Nov 2010.

Istock's fall has been incredible. At the beginning of the year I thought it was going to be no problem to hit my royalty target to stay at my current level, but now it appears I'll miss it. I had been contemplating ditching my crown, and this may well be the last straw. It amazes me that a company can so shoot themselves in the foot, have thousands of people screaming at them that they are doing just that, yet ignore them all and continue their path of self-destruction.

you have just 550 files after seven years of being on iStock. I think contributors being hit particularly hard are those that have gotten used to making sales off best sellers, who began early when growth was truly exponential from year to year. the landscape has changed, the collection has grown and it's far too competitive today to be riding on the success of so few files. no matter how good they may be, there are a lot of very good files these days.

True, however the particular files I'm thinking of are only a year or two or three old. I'm not concerned with files from 2005. There just shouldn't be such a precipitous drop after one year. Plus, new files don't sell at all. I get the feeling that if I uploaded 1000 files in the next month, the old 500 would still outsell them by a wide margin.

sure, that may be true. there are probably a myriad of reasons why contributors experience poor sales, as well as good sales. but since we don't have concrete numbers in front of us to compare strategies...it stands to reason that many contributors who have not uploaded regularly will be hit, especially those who enjoyed early, fast success because there was far less competition. obviously there are exceptions to many rules, I do think that some contributors may also be cannibalizing their own sales. creating the same concepts over and over, with slightly different elements can't be great for sustained growth within a portfolio.

ETA: obviously talent is a major factor, I assume that goes without saying

"She into her new job 3 months now and not a single communication!"

That is the part that scares many exclusives I know. Rebecca hasn�t even given an interview to introduce herself to the marketplace and the several hundred thousand business partners that istock has. I have never seen the CEO of a huge multi million dollar business act so strangely.

Surveys are useful, but they cannot replace active leadership.

It just reinforces the fear that all the other stock sites have dedicated full time managers and want to push their brand aggressively forward and istock gets a part time project manager who still has time for her "real job" at Getty. Maybe she is putting in a 48h work day into 24 hours behind the scenes, but if you sign up for a leadership position you should be able to step into the spotlight and feel comfortable in that role.

The successful artists in microstock are good because they have the mind of digital entrepreneurs and many come from a real life business background. They all understand the importance of communication and know what it means when a management avoids discussions or becomes invisible.

I know that everyone on the team works extremely hard, to read how the reputation of istock is falling on sites like these must be painful to watch.

I sincerly hope istock rises to the challenge and finds a way to turn things around in 2012.

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To me it says that Getty decided that a friendly relationship with contributors is not important.  Personally I think that they decided that a while ago and this is a continuation of that decision.