MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: leaf on September 29, 2008, 02:34
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2 days to go - hopefully people have seen an increase since august.
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I had my second payout this month (from DT) so I can finally contribute to these polls.
As a newbie, I have about 200 images online across various agencies, I made >100$ this month in total. My RPI is slightly more than 0.5. About six months into this.
SS 55.3% (RPI 0.35)
DT 26.1% (RPI 0.15)
IS 6.3% (RPI 0.07)
Hope this data can help people starting out like me to get a better idea of what they can expect.
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A have explosion of DL.s on IS, but SS very very low. Today till now not a single Download!!!
Something strange!
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Only about half a day to go, and the results are pretty positive. BME overall by about 15% over last month.
Here's the breakdown:
SS: 43% BME with significant on demand sales
IS: 36% BME
DT: 12% BME with biggest % growth
FT: 6% BME
BS: 2% - just refuses to grow.
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(http://i36.tinypic.com/4sbn10.png)
(http://i36.tinypic.com/35mgqab.png)
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I see increase in SS and in StockXpert, and in DT.
September was BME at Crestock with 13 sales (in the past 1.5 years I only saw 2-6 sales per month). It is still very low but at least I see progress and motivation to upload the rest of my portfolio.
iStockphoto 12%
ShutterStock 28%
StockXpert 23%
Fotolia 9%
Dreamstime 13%
BigStockPhoto 4%
123royaltyfree 5%
Other 7%
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100% IS and BME for earnings.
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100% IS and BME for earnings.
Aye.
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Sorry to see I didn't get to start this post this month. :'(
SS 43.7% BME #
DT 16.6% BME
FT 12.1% BM08
IS 7.6% BM08
BS 6.3%
123 6.3%
StockXpert 5.6%
FP 1.8%
overall BME for microstock
SS breakdown
# 82% 25-A-DAY
9% on-demand
6% footage
2% referrals
Good referral income at DT as one of my referrals was the featured photograper (http://www.dreamstime.com/Outdoorsman_portfolio_pg1) last week
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I assume that by referring to 'microstock' you are discounting earnings from Alamy and similar.
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Nice raise everywhere especially at FTL and StockXpert and bad drop on IS. Earnings percentage of IS is falling back drastically months by months. I am glad I droped the idea of exclusivity earlier this year - I was very very close to make that decision but now I am light years away from doing it.
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StockXpert i have a 300 percent increase very good month over all im on a steady incline
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FT 28%( a reasonably good month due to a few EL's despite the change in best match)
IS 28% (significant drop must have been due to change in best match)
SS 16% (less downloads about the same income due to reaching upper tier and on demand sales)
StockXpert 12% (loads of subs but about the same income)
DT 08%
123 04%(average)
BS 04%(average)
overall:not as good as I expected and not any better than august,I'd better shoot and upload more:)
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SS 31,11%
IS 23,74% BME
StockXpert 14,45%
123rf 10,49% BME
DT 9,70%
FT 8,63%
BigStock 1,88%
- I'm not adding enough new images to keep SS steady, down about 50% on BME which was June. Hopefully I'll have more time in the following months to make the sales grow again. Also didn't have any EL sales (2 in August) so thats also a factor.
- IS really started going, at current pace it should overcome SS the next month
- 123rf really performed well this month, it got infront of DT and FT for the first time for me
- I like the steady DT sales (even though they are not the top earners)
Overall I'm down about 3% on August (might be even lower since the day is not over yet) due to SS (BME if I remove SS from the comparisons).
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Here are the stats for my small but growing portfolio...
SS = 45% (up 116% over August)
IS = 31.8% (up 64% over August)
DT = 9.7% (down 46% from August)
FT = 6.7% (0 sales in August)
StockXpert = 5.9% (down 33% from August)
123 = .08% (down 50% from August)
Overall sales were up 45.7% with RPI increasing from $.46 to $.52
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First time ever that DT takes the lead!
DT 25% BME
SS 24.6%
IS 15.9%
FT 13.8% 2nd BME
BS 7.9%
StockXpert 5.1%
Zym 4.9%
123rf 2.6%
Featurpics, BME I made 30 cents!
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1. SS
2. DT BME
3. IS
4. FT
5. 125rf
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100% IS and BME for earnings.
Aye.
Aye aye.
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100% IS and BME for earnings.
Aye.
Aye aye.
Aye aye aye.
Go White Sox!
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Earnings are up 25% compared to August (which was worst month of the year).
istock 39.5 %
shutterstock 14.7 %
shotshop (German) 10.8 % (BME)
stockxpert 8.1 %
dreamstime 6.7 %
fotolia 6.4 %
snapvillage 6.3 % (BME)
digitalstock (German) 3.8 %
123rf 1.4 %
bigstock 1.3 %
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100% IS and BME for earnings.
Aye.
Aye aye.
Aye aye aye.
Go White Sox!
Those of us with low earnings at iStock this month need not ponder the cause any longer! ;)
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Earnings are up from August which was BME :)
iS 37% BME
SS 28% BME
FT 21% BME
DT 10% 2nd BME
StockXpert 10% 2nd BME
PM 5%
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Shutterstock: 45.80%
Dreamstime: 14.98% - BME
Fotolia: 14.57% - BME
Stockxpert: 10.81% - BME
Istockphoto: 7.17%
Crestock: 4.21% - (first month)
Bigstockphoto: 2.11%
Canstockphoto: 0.35%
123RF: 0%
Featurepics: 0%
Cutcaster: 0% - (first month)
This is only my fourth full month in microstock and my portfolios are still pretty small. I have sold a few files on 123RF and Featurepics, but no sales this month. I only started uploading to Cutcaster about a week ago, so I am not surprised that I have not had any sales there yet. I earned about $2.00 less on Shutterstock than last month, but I uploaded fewer files.
Overall, September was BME for me.
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(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=600x300&chd=t:169,178,112,251,191,255,220,253,191,187,296,219|235,186,185,185,180,205,170,171,168,180,167,202|177,103,70,112,96,106,145,130,118,78,98,165|33,21,23,45,42,42,62,40,55,126,106,86|28,35,18,28,30,32,55,46,48,57,97,128|22,10,12,19,29,21,16,23,9,10,14,28|15,10,7,7,16,7,7,9,6,10,15,22|7,3,4,3,3,5,4,3,2,15,34,16&chds=0,300&cht=lc&chco=000000,008000,99cc00,0000ff,800080,ffff00,ff0000,ff6600&chdl=iStockphoto|ShutterStock|Dreamstime|Fotolia|StockXpert|BigStockPhoto|123rf|Crestock&chxt=x,y&chxl=0:|Oct|Nov|Dec|Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Aug|Sep|&chxr=1,0,300&chm=r,c0c0c0,0,0.333,0.334|r,c0c0c0,0,0.666,0.667)
Record earnings at StockXpert and 123rf. StockXpert appear to be kickin' butt for many people this month. Two months ago I started "Faving" my images on 123rf and it's making a big difference!
Total earnings was BME again.
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sorry, vonkara reminded me that the polls link is not on the top anymore. To take part in the earnings polls and other polls (the one displayed on the right) here is the link
http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?action=pollsvote
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BME everywhere with 28.5% increase from August. RPI - 2.84
SS 37.69%
IS 25.13%
StockXpert 6.62%
DT 11.35%
FT 10.67%
RF123 6.96%
BigStock 1.29%
CRS 0.26%
SV 0.02%
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I put my Alamy RF earnings. I don't care if it calls macro, micro or mid stock. Money is money and royaltyfree sales can be compared.
IS 42% BME
Alamy 25 %
SS 11%
FT 9%
DT 7%
StockXpert 2% (opted all out)
123 1.8% (stoped upload here august, if nothing change in december I'll delete my portfolio)
BT 1.5% WME (I stop upload here right now and wait and see)
Snap 0% (only 5% of my portfolio is here)
FP 0% (I'm asking myself what I'm doing here, maybe it's Elena ;))
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IS 56% (BME)
SS 18%
DT 12%
FT 6%
123 4% (BME)
StockXpert 4%
BigStock 1 %
IS continues to be my star with the largest total percentage to date.
Uploading more again after an August vacation and too busy at my day job to get that extra work in for microstock. Hope to be able to focus better in October.
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Overall slightly up on last month.
IS 47.52%
DT 20.70% BME
SS 19.27%
FT 12.51%
BS & StockXpert not worth including.
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Same $ ranking than last month for me :SS>IS>FT>DT>123RF>StockXpert
BME at IS and DT
FT, StockXpert still low, IS + SS = 64 % of earnings
Still far from $ 500 a month...
More on my blog...
http://microstockexperiment.blogspot.com/
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I put my Alamy RF earnings. I don't care if it calls macro, micro or mid stock. Money is money and royaltyfree sales can be compared.
IS 42% BME
Alamy 25 %
SS 11%
FT 9%
DT 7%
StockXpert 2% (opted all out)
123 1.8% (stoped upload here august, if nothing change in december I'll delete my portfolio)
BT 1.5% WME (I stop upload here right now and wait and see)
Snap 0% (only 5% of my portfolio is here)
FP 0% (I'm asking myself what I'm doing here, maybe it's Elena ;))
I appreciate it Rene as (if I ever have time to shoot personal stuff again) I plan to build a port at Alamay. Can you tell us if Alamay shows up on your balance sheet every month at a somewhat consistent rate, or is Alamay less predictable?
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IS: 43.7% (BME)
SS: 26.2%
DT: 10.4% (BME)
FT: 10.4%
StockXpert: 4.8%
123: 2.6%
BS: 2.0%
Istock is on a raise for me, gaining steadily for the last 4 months. Shutterstock lagging behind, probably due to low upload volume.
StockXpert is quite disappointing - lot's of subscription downloads. Fotolia's sub sales increased a lot as well
Overall steady - income at pretty much the same level as in the summer.
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ShutterStock 24%
Fotolia 17%
Dreamstime 16%
123royaltyfree 11%
StockXpert 11%
iStockphoto 11%
Other 6%
BigStockPhoto 5%
Overall down 14.4% over last month. Down 19.4% over September 2007.
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I appreciate it Rene as (if I ever have time to shoot personal stuff again) I plan to build a port at Alamay. Can you tell us if Alamay shows up on your balance sheet every month at a somewhat consistent rate, or is Alamay less predictable?
@ Pixart
Sorry to disappoint you but my Alamy sales are not regular at all. Sometimes 2-4 months without download, sometimes 2-3 files a month. But I have only about hundred images so far (50% RF, 50 % RM). I think I'll close my accounts at 123, BigStock and StockXpert and invest
saved time at upsizing images for Alamy. A feeling when you touch $240 for RF sale is real great, nothing to do with the same amount comming from subscription sales.
Sorry to be out of topic ;)
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
You have made your choice by going exclusive and it could have been the best decision you never have taken in stock photos... The only problem is because the Best match have changed dramatically and it must never happen that way. I'm in the same boat as you... I have weekdays with 50% more sales than usual and others with 0 sale, what was never happening. What I find upsetting is the "we don't care" of some Istock contributors. These people are very self-centred
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
Only 20% down ? It sounds great for me. If I was sure that my earning went down about 20% I'll do that without hesitate. Not to deal with cheap subscriptions should be great. When I deleted my portfolios from CanStockPhoto and Crestock I feld much better. ;D
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
So sorry to hear that JS as I watched your transition with interest, as I was considering doing the same thing.
Maybe I'll hold off. However best not to judge so soon, Im sure things will turn around.
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I posted the September microstock earnings report in my blog:
http://www.pixelsaway.com/C911796005/E20081001062254/index.html
my two major earners:
IS - the same as in August
SS - went up
IS+SS contributed 69% to my earnings while during previous months it was about 76%. It means that smaller players were doing better: BME in DT, StockXpert and 123RF.
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Not the best month at Istock, I got the wrong end of the best match change. Others have had big increases. I'm not going to lose one minute complaining, I'm already doubling my shooting time, to got 300-400 quality uploads a month, broading my natural spectrum and covering as many themes (specially new ones for me) as possible. I'm thinking too in accpeting the offer of a free-lance photoshopper to discharge some of the reotuching work. Hard work, true, but that's my work and, after all, I love it.
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SS 61.49%
123RF 13.67% (BME)
StockXpert 10.48%
DT 8.51% (BME)
IS 2.51% (BME)
BS 1.89%
FT 1.44%
SV 0.57%
Overall 18% less than in August due to poor SS performance. Finally reached payout at StockXpert and 123RF. 123RF and DT performed quite well in comparison to previous months so maybe it would start a trend.
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I put my Alamy RF earnings. I don't care if it calls macro, micro or mid stock. Money is money and royaltyfree sales can be compared.
That's why I asked my question (which no-one answered). I have a feeling that some people put Alamy earnings in, and others don't, which means the results may be a bit variable.
Putting in Alamy (or any other macrostock) is comparing apples with pears.
And, anyway, what do you call your Alamy earnings? The amount they show at the end of the month? But that's before they take off all the bits and pieces they have a habit of deducting. Or do you put in the amount they actually pay into your bank account?
Best leave Alamy off this survey.
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My percentages (without Alamy or any macros):
SS 41%
IS 39%
DT 13%
SX 5%
BS 2%
YAY 0%
Crestock 0%
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I saw a 14% increase in downloads and royalties from August to Sept.
Not a big jump considering the end of the summer slump, but hopefully it will start to gather steam as the holidays approach. Here's my breakdown:
IS 36% (-4%)
SS 18% (+2%)
FOT 17% (+1%)
DT 12% (-1%)
StockXpert 9% (+1%)
BigStock 4%
123 3% (+1%)
Crest 1%
CanStockPhoto 0% (-1%)
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
Thanks for sharing your experience JoAnn. Exclusivity is something I periodically give thought to also, especially when some sites misbehave. But it is the volatility of their best match search results and the frequent instability of the site infrastructure that holds me back.
So sorry you got the worst end of this best match change. I haven't been thrilled with it either. My sales were very slightly up at IS (5%) but they showed a marked increase at some other sites. Overall IS lost 4% points for me from August to Sept.
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I finally was able to calculate my results (been out of town for two wonderful weeks).
Now I just did the stats and discovered, September had been a BME - and this even though I did not do much work. Barely uploaded. Earnings are 16% up and if October keeps growing at similar rate i might still crack the 300$ a month mark (I am sure ldambies and DanP are laughing their heads off while reading this. ;))
Anyways here is the breakdown:
FT 50.8% (my monthly income there has more than doubled compared to what it was in April, so BME by wide margin)
IS 26.0%
SS 14.1% (one download more than August - slow slow slow, but my fault entirely - no uploads...)
DT 9.2% (finally picking up again)
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Wow, over 7% having around $3000 - $4000. Are these only pro´s?
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Wow, over 7% having around $3000 - $4000. Are these only pro´s?
Well if you add up the other 9 contributors that are earning more, it makes around 15% of those posting their results here earning over $3k per month. You can't extrapolate those numbers to the broader MS community though, because a very large majority of the 100,000 plus photographers listed on the sites have never made a payout.
I think its fair to say that this forum is over-representative of the top end of contributors.
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Wow, over 7% having around $3000 - $4000. Are these only pro´s?
I think its fair to say that this forum is over-representative of the top end of contributors.
I agree.
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Yeah, i really know a some of them ;D
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
Hi jsnover, sorry to hear it's not working out quite how you'd hoped, but thanks for sharing.
I still intend to go exclusive when my DT tie-in period is over, and at first I won't be at all surprised if I take a slight loss in earnings. However, I'm looking at it as a long-term decision.
Over the past 6 months my current earnings on five different sites really haven't increased a huge amount month on month, so it seems like I've hit a plateau. By going exclusive I hope to grow my earnings over the next 12 months (most of which will come by reaching the next canister level).
Finally, when you add in less chance of theft and only one site to manage, I'm fairly confident it will be the right discussion for me.
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Here are my figures, a bit late. Ups and downs compared to September 2007:
SS 30%, down 17%
IS 18%, down 18%
DT 17%, up 14%
FT 9%, up 32%
BS 8%, up 142% BME
StockXpert 5%, down 9%
SV 4%, no sales last year
123 3%, down 7%
FP 2%, no sales last year
Crestock 2%, up 173%
Scanstock 2%, same as last year
Total was up 5% compared to September 2007 and up 11% compared to August this year. Not a good month for me this, but apart from IS, the sales mostly follow the trends from earlier this year. SS is going down, and I wonder where it will stop.
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BME ;D
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
I think it likely there will be a transition period before better placement translates into more sales
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
Don't freak out yet. ;) I can tell you that this particular best match "tweak" (if that is what it could be called, since they seem to have used a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel) was by far the most strange and severe thing I have ever seen in all the years I've been there. Once they made adjustments to it, things started picking up again and now I can see the upward holiday trend has begun. But for a week or so there, I was * wind.
I'd give it a little longer to settle before concluding that you've made a terrible mistake. I hope things turn around for you soon!!
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100% IS and it sucked :)
I could say it was the best month ever, which it was for IS earnings because I went exclusive, however overall earnings were down about 20%.
I was one of those who got zapped by the evaporation of vector sales and best match changes. So far, exclusivity is financially an unattractive option.
For those of you who'd love to say "I told you so", just do me a favor and don't - I feel bad enough as it is without anyone rubbing salt into the wound :)
Only one site to manage, one site to upload to (with higher limits than "non") and maybe more than 20% less work? :) I wouldn't do it, because my material just doesn't fit IS well, but some people do fine with over 20 sites and some people are happy with one. The best match model may have changed, but remember that during Sept. the economy was going in the dumper and that could make a very big difference.
I'm an independent kind of person, so no exclusive anything, but if your increased upload limit gives you more sales, it may be making up for less photos being available on IS had you not chosen to go exclusive. Something else to consider? Some photos you are currently selling, may have been waiting for upload and approval, or sitting on your hard drive, earning nothing.
What the heck happened to Vector sales?