Author Topic: September = Three year LOW for sales! (Read 14664 times)

Lcjtripod · « **on:** September 15, 2009, 14:38 »

Downloads For the month (September) so far ....

DT 7 dl's will be 14 for the month at this rate. Last month was 44 dl's
BigStock 6 dl's and will be 12 dl's for the month at this rate. The worst in over three years!

Am I the only one having a crappy month?

How is your first half of this month?

-Larry

PowerDroid · « **Reply #1 on:** September 15, 2009, 14:51 »

I'm still a newbie... been around for less than a year... so take that into consideration.

My Sept 1 - 15 (current port size 600) total sales is 31% higher than my Aug 1 - 15 (month ago port size 550). Each site is doing better for me than one month ago.

epantha · « **Reply #2 on:** September 15, 2009, 15:08 »

I really wonder what's going on with DT? Lowest number of downloads in the first half of Sept. in many months. All the other top sites are doing well, especially IS and SS with ELs.

sharpshot · « **Reply #3 on:** September 15, 2009, 15:11 »

It looks like this month will be good but I usually do well in September, October and November. December and January are my slow months.

Perry · « **Reply #4 on:** September 15, 2009, 15:16 »

My sales are up (for the fifth year in a row), so you must be doing it wrong

In fact I'm about to have earned as much this year as I did whole last year. The three last months of this year will be pure growth...

DT is a bit weak tho.

madelaide · « **Reply #5 on:** September 15, 2009, 16:22 »

Sept is better than August for me in most sites, but horrible at DT. Very little sales, mostly subs.

takestock · « **Reply #6 on:** September 15, 2009, 16:51 »

The first half of Sept has been what I would call steady.
Nothing spectacular - just ticking along.

sam100 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 15, 2009, 17:27 »

Considering it's to early to draw conclusions... all sites are doing well to very well for two, except DT with a decline of already 24 %.....

Patrick H.

lisafx · « **Reply #8 on:** September 15, 2009, 17:53 »

Quote from: takestock on September 15, 2009, 16:51

The first half of Sept has been what I would call steady.
Nothing spectacular - just ticking along.

My sales are also consistent with the past few months.

I didn't have much of a summer slump, though, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. And to be fair I have been slacking off the uploading the past couple of months.

bad to the bone · « **Reply #9 on:** September 15, 2009, 21:54 »

I would tend to say: a portfolio what goes down in september looks like to be not on the needs of professional users. September is time to have more and bigger sales for printproduction and business needs.
As last year - 30% and more up in september in my earnings - as estimated.

Pixart · « **Reply #10 on:** September 16, 2009, 09:51 »

I can't say that I've ever had a worse month at BigStock, but the rest of my top 6 sites are doing much better than the summer months.

Lcjtripod · « **Reply #11 on:** September 16, 2009, 10:05 »

Quote from: palaver on September 15, 2009, 21:54

I would tend to say: a portfolio what goes down in september looks like to be not on the needs of professional users. September is time to have more and bigger sales for printproduction and business needs.
As last year - 30% and more up in september in my earnings - as estimated.

How about when it is one September out of the last four that is down?

Show us your "meets the needs of the professional user." portfolio.

-Larry

stokfoto · « **Reply #12 on:** September 16, 2009, 10:17 »

Quote from: epantha on September 15, 2009, 15:08

I really wonder what's going on with DT?
Lowest number of downloads in the first half of Sept. in many months.
All the other top sites are doing well.

last month was my BME on DT but this months likely to be WME ,I can't understand such dramatic decline ??

ShadySue · « **Reply #13 on:** September 16, 2009, 10:44 »

I'm only on iStock, but every month this year has had poorer downloads than the corresponding month last year, sometimes much lower. I was pinning a lot of hope in September because I uploaded a fairish whack this year and in '07 and '08, my downloads went up considerably in the last few days of August and shot up in September. But this year, my September so far is half of July and Aug this year, which were jointly my worst dl months for two years.
It's very depressing and demotivating. I've hardly lifted my camera for four weeks, and I really think it's been a wasted 'investment'.
I guess there will be people round soon telling us it's their BME.

Graffoto · « **Reply #14 on:** September 16, 2009, 11:49 »

So far Sept. Is lagging behind August (which was a BME for me).
But it certainly is not the worst month ever & there is still a half month left to go

lisafx · « **Reply #15 on:** September 16, 2009, 14:02 »

Here's a hypothesis for those of us who aren't seeing the usual big jump in Sept. sales....

Is it possible that due to the recession fewer designers went on holiday over the summer? My summer slowdown was hardly noticeable, which was nice. But it has the effect that Sept. sales are not significantly higher, as they were in past years.

Also, again with the economy, perhaps there just isn't the huge advertising budget to put into holiday advertising, unlike past years. Holiday sales are predicted to be low, so why spend a fortune advertising?

I don't know if any of the above is true, but it would explain the weird sales pattern.

Graffoto · « **Reply #16 on:** September 16, 2009, 14:31 »

Good thinking Lisa, it's very likely correct.
My July & August were better than normal as well.

The recession is certainly not yet over and companies do generally cut ad budgets first when times are tough. But I would have thought that to be an advantage in micro, since our images are significantly less expensive than traditional stock prices.

I'm not yet ready to yell that the sky is falling.

gostwyck · « **Reply #17 on:** September 16, 2009, 15:10 »

To be honest I find that my sales vary too much from one year to the next to make accurate monthly forecasting possible.

The only pattern I can detect goes like this;

a) Dec will be the worst month by a huge margin

b) In the new year sales rise to a peak sometime between Jan - Mar

c) There will be a mini-slump in April followed by steady sales but little or no growth between May - Aug

d) Strong rise in sales between Sept - Nov and any one of those months will be the best of the year

e) ... back to December and the annual reality check.

Sept is looking pretty good for me so far. A bit of a slow start but better sales now and on target to pip my BME if we get a strong finish.

Sales have been surprisingly good at BigStock (for a change) at 3% of my total compared with 1.8% for the previous 3 months.

ShadySue · « **Reply #18 on:** September 16, 2009, 15:52 »

Quote from: lisafx on September 16, 2009, 14:02

Here's a hypothesis for those of us who aren't seeing the usual big jump in Sept. sales....

Is it possible that due to the recession fewer designers went on holiday over the summer? My summer slowdown was hardly noticeable, which was nice. But it has the effect that Sept. sales are not significantly higher, as they were in past years.

Also, again with the economy, perhaps there just isn't the huge advertising budget to put into holiday advertising, unlike past years. Holiday sales are predicted to be low, so why spend a fortune advertising?

The first isn't the case for me; my July/Aug were lowest dls for two years.
The second, yes, I guess so. It intrigued me that my safari pixs were being sold in Sept-Oct when I already had the following year's brochures in mid-August (UK). (Mind you, most UK wildlife travel companies use their staff or client's photos. Win-win - they get cheaper pics (usually just have a prize for the best) and potential clients see what they, not some professional, could get. Not so good for stock photogs, tho'.)

Graffoto · « **Reply #19 on:** September 16, 2009, 17:37 »

Just to clear something up...
I believe that Holiday ( UK) = Vacation (US)
Holiday (US) = Celebration/Festival (Christmas, New Years, Hanukah etc).

lisafx · « **Reply #20 on:** September 17, 2009, 16:48 »

Quote from: nosaya on September 16, 2009, 17:37

Just to clear something up...
I believe that Holiday ( UK) = Vacation (US)
Holiday (US) = Celebration/Festival (Christmas, New Years, Hanukah etc).

Good and useful translation

FWIW we do sometimes refer to "summer holidays" here in the US, mostly talking about the three months the kids are off from school.

ShadySue · « **Reply #21 on:** September 17, 2009, 18:02 »

Quote from: lisafx on September 17, 2009, 16:48

FWIW we do sometimes refer to "summer holidays" here in the US, mostly talking about the three months the kids are off from school.

Three months!!!
No wonder they call it the Land of the Free!!!
(I'll get my application for a Green Card in the post.

)

Pixart · « **Reply #22 on:** September 17, 2009, 18:37 »

Quote from: lisafx on September 17, 2009, 16:48

FWIW we do sometimes refer to "summer holidays" here in the US, mostly talking about the three months the kids are off from school.

3 months?!!! Poor you!!! My kids were around for 2 months and 8 days and I was never so happy to see the first day of school!

borg · « **Reply #23 on:** September 18, 2009, 07:00 »

September started good, but last two days like the worst summer days...

PowerDroid · « **Reply #24 on:** September 21, 2009, 12:03 »

Borg, I'm seeing the same thing... The first three weeks were fantastic across all the sites... then last week my sales fell by about a third across all sites.

I've noticed this in April and July as well, and it makes me wonder if the first half of the month is traditionally stronger than the second half of the month? Maybe it can be explained by subscriptions if the subscriber is limited to a certain number of downloads per month, and once they're used up for the month, they don't buy anything till the next month starts? Sound plausible?

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Author Topic: September = Three year LOW for sales! (Read 14664 times)

Lcjtripod

PowerDroid

epantha

sharpshot

Perry

madelaide

takestock

sam100

lisafx

bad to the bone

Pixart

Lcjtripod

stokfoto

ShadySue

Graffoto

lisafx

Graffoto

gostwyck

ShadySue

Graffoto

lisafx

ShadySue

Pixart

borg

PowerDroid

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