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Author Topic: Risky experiment  (Read 12023 times)

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« on: February 25, 2011, 13:14 »
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Ever since I started as a vector micostock artist, I've always heard that certain sites reward you in search results when you submit new content. I'm going to put that to the test.

I submit to 20 vector sites, from big ones to small ones, and have had steady growth in my sales over the past year. As for new content, I have been adding about 30-50 new vectors each month.

Here's my experiment: I am not going to submit any new content (vectors) for 6 weeks. I want to see if it negatively affects my sales. I haven't submitted any new content this past week, and I'm planning on not submitting any during March. I realize that it is risky... What if it DOES affect my sales? Well, than I'll start submitting again in April, and do another experiment to see if sales go up again.

I have been very lucky and very blessed with my microstock sales. I'm not trying to brag, but just give a little perspective for my experiment. I have between 1000 - 1500 vectors on each of the 20 sites I submit to, and in January, my monthly microstock income was my best yet. You can see my sales rankings on my site, at graphicgravy.com. The income is high enough that it won't sting too bad if my sales drop a bit from this experiment. I think it will be worth it, and hopefully the findings from my experiment will be a good source of traffic to my site.

Before I did this, I wanted to check and see if anyone has done this before? I don't want to risk my sales for no reason if a lot of people have already tried this, and shared their results.

Thanks!
~ Eli
www.graphicgravy.com


« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2011, 14:02 »
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March is usually a really strong month for sales for me, so I wonder if you will see the full effect of not uploading?  My sales do slow down when I don't upload or if I only upload a few a week but it's a lot worse for me in December than March.

« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2011, 14:24 »
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I've been focusing on other projects and dealing with the aftermath of an apartment fire for a year now, and have only uploaded a handful of images after five years of non-stop uploading. 

It's really difficult to determine how much of an effect a year off has had on my sales, because I witnessed so many other changes with negative impact, such as the StockXpert fiasco.  The only place I've really noticed a difference is at SS, where I'm down about 15% from this time last year.  FT/DT/BigStock/123RF have remained steady and IS is too unpredictable to judge anything (I also had pretty much quit uploading there prior to taking time off).  Overall, I'm down about 20%.  Losing StockXpert was a huge hit to my earnings.

« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2011, 14:46 »
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I think the issue with your experiment is that there are too many variables - many of which you can't even measure, let alone control.

March is typically an outstanding month. Default search results order (best match, relevance, etc.) gets periodically changed or tweaked. Seasonal trends affect what is purchased - if you have an existing body of strong work in some seasonal category, quitting uploading during the month that stuff sells best is going to affect your results. Some sites (SS) have sales that take off quickly after uploading; others (IS) may build more slowly and last longer.

And what would you do about your answer when you get it? Let's say that some sites do penalize time off more heavily than others - if you've created illustrations, how does it benefit you not to upload them? If you haven't, what difference does knowing the effect of not uploading make?

« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2011, 14:51 »
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Best time to do these experiments is when you take a month off to siesta in Mexico in the winter.  :) 

jbarber873

« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2011, 14:59 »
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I think the issue with your experiment is that there are too many variables - many of which you can't even measure, let alone control.

March is typically an outstanding month. Default search results order (best match, relevance, etc.) gets periodically changed or tweaked. Seasonal trends affect what is purchased - if you have an existing body of strong work in some seasonal category, quitting uploading during the month that stuff sells best is going to affect your results. Some sites (Shutterstock) have sales that take off quickly after uploading; others (IS) may build more slowly and last longer.

And what would you do about your answer when you get it? Let's say that some sites do penalize time off more heavily than others - if you've created illustrations, how does it benefit you not to upload them? If you haven't, what difference does knowing the effect of not uploading make?

  Jsnover hits the nail on the head again! All you'll be doing is putting yourself a month behind. Factors such as search volume, number of competing images and quality of the artwork have far more to do with it than anything. Sometimes it feels like pure chance that an image takes off and gets repeated sales on many sites, and on a lot of sites it takes a while for an image to get sales. But if you already have the images, no one can buy them if you don't put them up for sale. There's a difference between wishing that the search functions were different and being able to make them different. In microstock, you can only deal with what is, not with what it should be. Everyone else said it better than me, but I agree that you won't advance your sales by doing this experiment.

« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2011, 15:24 »
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I don't think it makes much of a difference. I haven't been uploading anything for the last few months, and I haven't really noticed a difference. The only company that is really going into the ditch is iStock, but that may be other problems. Like others said, it is difficult to get a definitive answer for sales slumps or rises. I think it is a good experiment though. It's nice to know that if you want to switch over to a more "passive" passive income, you're sales won't completely dry up.

« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2011, 15:41 »
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i've conducted this experiment several times over the past few years, inadvertently, while traveling for 3 weeks or more - i've tracked and have never seen any solid correlation.

for most of us, sales are just not reliable indicators from month to month - even with a 3 or 4 month smoothing of the sales curve, there's still too much noise.  a few ELs more or less can completely skew the results.

the best i can say is that sales slowly trend upwards whether i submit new images or not.  results may be different with no submission for 6 months or more, but that's a riskier experiment

steve

« Reply #8 on: February 25, 2011, 17:19 »
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I've done this experiment a few times while traveling. In general I'd say that there are so many other variables that mask the results. I think maybe SS does go down a bit, but otherwise I haven't seen much differences. Certainly the best match changes at IS make a much bigger difference.

« Reply #9 on: February 25, 2011, 17:24 »
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I didn't upload for several months in 2010 and my sales dropped by about 30%

« Reply #10 on: February 25, 2011, 20:03 »
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Last year I didn't create and upload anything for four months due to laziness (I think it was april - august), and it didn't affect my sales at all, in fact my earnings were a bit higher than usual on average. So I don't worry at all about not uploading.

« Reply #11 on: February 25, 2011, 20:34 »
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I've not contributed anything new for over a year now. I have also taken many of my best sellers off. Initially I saw a dip in sales but sales remains amazingly  flat for the past 6 months. Nothing huge but still flat.  I think the only thing you will learn is that you need images up if you want them to sell. I have no idea what mystic powers control the search engines but eventually they get retuned to your keywords and you get sales. Leave the images on your HD and you miss the boat.

« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2011, 20:43 »
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I quit submitting microstock several months ago and sales (on my very small portfolio) never really changed. In fact they've been going up recently.

Reading some of these replies makes me think it would be interesting to start a thread for all the contributors who still read this forum, but have gotten discouraged about microstock and quit doing it (like me).  It seems there are quite a few.  

The topic wouldn't be just doom and gloom, but also - what would we need to see happen, what would need to change, to get us motivated to start doing microstock again?
« Last Edit: February 25, 2011, 20:48 by stockastic »

redwater

  • retro stock illustrations
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2011, 00:33 »
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I've done this before due to a personal emergency. i was out of action for 6 weeks between March and April 2010, no uploading at all. I am an illustrator and have been doing microstock since 2007. I have a large portfolio at IS, at that time about 2000 vectors and between 3,000 to 4,000 in the other sites. There was no drop in downloads and revenues. in fact,  i was still able to grow by about 20% over previous year.  i think if you are already established and have a large portfolio, you most probably have a regular clientele and stopping to upload in the interim would not dent your sales.

Microbius

« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2011, 04:09 »
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"For example, last month I made $3,400, and spent a grand total of 3 hours the entire month. My portfolio of vector illustrations work for me, instead of the other way around."

And yet I can't seem to find any copyright attributions to the name Eli Morris through Google or find any copyright notices on any of the stock sites to that name or track down your portfolio or in fact any of your illustrations. This is a bit odd for any designer or illustrator no?

Any links seem to just lead to graphic gravy, a marketing site that seems to exist only to garner income from referrals  hmmmmm

microstockphoto.co.uk

« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2011, 06:42 »
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I've been doing this experiment for months - albeit unwillingly - at Dreamstime since when they're rejecting everything for "similar".

I am not uploading there anymore - except for a few pictures now and then. Sales are constant, while at most other sites are (slowly) growing, but difference is so small to draw a conclusion and link this to not uploading.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2011, 06:44 by microstockphoto.co.uk »

« Reply #16 on: February 26, 2011, 14:36 »
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I quit submitting microstock several months ago and sales (on my very small portfolio) never really changed. In fact they've been going up recently.

Reading some of these replies makes me think it would be interesting to start a thread for all the contributors who still read this forum, but have gotten discouraged about microstock and quit doing it (like me).  It seems there are quite a few.  

The topic wouldn't be just doom and gloom, but also - what would we need to see happen, what would need to change, to get us motivated to start doing microstock again?
My opinion is simple. Micro has chosen to elevate itself, in many ways, past that of the macro market. At the same time reducing the ability to gain ground on most of the major sites. Minor sites and upstarts have proven to be useless in most cases. It's a tough business to survive in never mind move ahead. Yes it can be done but I still think macro has a better rate of return.

« Reply #17 on: February 26, 2011, 16:15 »
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Minor sites and upstarts have proven to be useless in most cases.

For me at least, this has been the case so far.  "Fair Trade"="No Sales".   Still hoping for the future...  it could happen.

« Reply #18 on: February 26, 2011, 16:26 »
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Microbius,

Thanks for your comment. I have chosen to keep my portfolios anonymous for various reasons.  I knew some people would have a problem with that when I started Graphic Gravy, but I don't really mind. I run my site for fun, and if some people don't want to read what I have to say, that doesn't bother me at all. Their loss. As for referrals on my "marketing site", I made a whooping $3.50 in January from the referral links on my site.

Wow! I didn't realize there were so many contributors who had tried the "experiment" of not submitting new content for extended periods of time. It seems like the overwhelming experience is that not submitting new content didn't have a big effect on sales, given you have a decent size portfolio. A few comments here made me realize that there really isn't any reason for such a forced experiment.

From what everyone has said, you don't HAVE TO constantly submit new content to stay relevant in search results. I think the theory that some sites penalize you (Shutterstock) for not submitting new content may be slightly overblown.

That being said, it would be stupid to not submit new content. You can't grow without new content.
~ Eli
www.graphicgravy.com
« Last Edit: February 26, 2011, 16:37 by GraphicGravy »

« Reply #19 on: February 26, 2011, 16:31 »
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Thanks for consolidating the threads.

~ Eli
www.GraphicGravy.com
« Last Edit: February 26, 2011, 16:37 by GraphicGravy »

« Reply #20 on: February 26, 2011, 16:33 »
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I just merged the two threads that were almost identical.  All discussion gets put up on the front page so it makes more sense to all participate in one thread.

Microbius

« Reply #21 on: February 27, 2011, 04:02 »
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Microbius,
.....
Thanks for your comment. I have chosen to keep my portfolios anonymous for various reasons.
www.graphicgravy.com


I have no problem with your anonymity, it just seems a bit suspect that you are presenting Eli Morris as your real name, yet that doesn't seem to be the case (or alternatively that it is your real name and your not a designer/ illustrator, or are a graphic designer with zero web presence other than your anonymous graphic gravy site?) and that you have gone to the trouble of registering the domain anonymously with GoDaddy.
Actually, very suspect.

« Reply #22 on: February 27, 2011, 12:54 »
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I have no problem with your anonymity, it just seems a bit suspect that you are presenting Eli Morris as your real name, yet that doesn't seem to be the case (or alternatively that it is your real name and your not a designer/ illustrator, or are a graphic designer with zero web presence other than your anonymous graphic gravy site?) and that you have gone to the trouble of registering the domain anonymously with GoDaddy.
Actually, very suspect.

...Who cares.

Microbius

« Reply #23 on: February 28, 2011, 02:51 »
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I guess not you, but when evaluating the value of something I read it's good to know who/ what sort of person wrote it.
I just instinctively try and asses given the information available.
I think there's a world of difference between saying "I'm not going to tell you who I am because I want to remain anonymous" (honest)
and saying "I am person X" when really you are person Y (dishonest)

« Reply #24 on: February 28, 2011, 03:17 »
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I wouldn't really call this a "risky experiment"


 

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