So, my sales this month are pretty much non-existant.
OK, I don't have a large portfolio on any one site, so I know that is a handicap. Still, I usually do a bit better than this.

Am I alone here or is the Holiday season putting a major crimp on sales.
Also, if this is the case, has anyone noticed this pattern year after year?

For sites that give very little sales... about the same..  for sites that sell well for me, I'm up a little across the board in December.   =tom

Shutterstock has been low this month, but iStockphoto is doing well so far. The others are about normal.

Shutterstock- very low 
Istock- a bit lower
Fotolia -completely down 
Stockxpert- very low 
dreamstime- completely down 
Bigstock- not too bad 

That is compared to October and half November earnings.

I had a great start at IS - something like 30% of November's earnings in the first week only, higher than normal sales per day - I was excited!  Now things have slowed down, and in all sites.  It's not a disaster, but even extrapolating current numbers (which are likely to slow down at the end of the month) this doesn't look like a good month.

Regards,
Adelaide

Quote from: Vonkara on December 11, 2007, 00:44
Shutterstock- very low 
...

But you have such a small portfolio - 37 images at SS, for example - that you really can't draw conclusions about sales in general. I'm not a statistics expert, but regular sales at any time of the year typically come with a larger portfolio and greater range of subject matter.

Generally December is not as good as November, but now is a good time to get some Valentines, or Spring or other seasonal images going...

Quote from: jsnover on December 11, 2007, 02:09
But you have such a small portfolio - 37 images at SS, for example - that you really can't draw conclusions about sales in general. ...

That about says it ... you shouldn't expect any sort of sales regularity until you have at least a few hundred images online. There'll be a lot of too and fro until then.

This month's going okay for me - about the same as last month, maybe a few percent better. I'm just waiting for the bottom to drop in a week or so. After that I don't think I'll be selling much until the first full week of January.

A good December so far.  I have had a few EL's that have boosted earnings.  Looking at last year, I didn't see much of a slow down until Christmas/New Year week.

So far is ok. IS is picking up from a poor November for me, but still no EL sales since October. 

Quote from: jsnover on December 11, 2007, 02:09

Quote from: Vonkara on December 11, 2007, 00:44
Shutterstock- very low 
...

But you have such a small portfolio - 37 images at SS, for example - that you really can't draw conclusions about sales in general. I'm not a statistics expert, but regular sales at any time of the year typically come with a larger portfolio and greater range of subject matter.

It just was a simple comparison between October and half November, I was not pretending in any way to have a decent portfolio there. Everybody can make their own conclusion and see what append whit different portfolio size. Yes I forgot to say the size of it, but the link is not there for nothing. I don't think I have to remember everyone the size of this portfolio each time I write something.

Finally, in this period of time, yes my sales there was consistant and now drop, even whit this portfolio. I wasn't going to write about if they were not consistant

Sales seems to be fine so far but I expect a decrease at the end of the month as we can say this month is just 24 days (due to holidays) I hope things will pick up in january

Doing good so far. No slow down noticed yet.

Everything has gone a bit haywire this month so far for me, the sites where I normally struggle have been doing well, I have already had BME at Fotolia (aided by my first ever EL), 123RF & Crestock, but not so well at Shutterstock and IS which have consistently been my best performers each month for the year that I have been dabbling with stock photography

As my portfolio only runs to a couple of hundred at most on any site, I am most probably more prone to fluctuations than most on here.

Funny thing happened to me: on Saturday I applied to Shutterstock, got approved with 7 images out of 10, 3 days later I have 130 downloads.
True: half of downloads, of 2 photos, are Christmas ornaments.  I guess some of you who see a slowdown know why now:-)

I start uploading some Valentine hearts and they seem to pick up pretty good on Shutterstock as well.

I have a small portolio of about 30 images and growing on the other micros that do not sell much while iStockPhoto gives me a hard time with approval . Just puzzled.

SS way up 
FT way down
IS up
DT same
CT down
123RF down
probably a BME because of SS....

L

SS is slowing down, but that has been the trend for a while. IS, DT and StockXpert are doing well, FT too, and the others are following nicely. I even had a 0.30 sale at LO, the first one in two months   

everything flat except 4 Els at FT..not a good month so far. On the other hand, have landed several very nice web design projects so I'll likely be downloading everybody elses images...merry xmas 

everything flat here too...

It is my 3rd December in Microstock. It has been a flat month every year, dropping to hardly anything for the last week of the year. 
Lets look forward to January.

yep same as clivia.  third christmas in microstock, every year there is a a bit of a peak in late Nov, or early dec, then it slowly works it's way to basically nothing starting sometime around now

I will have a record month at Shutterstock and will be about average at Fotolia maybe a little bit up.  Depends how things go through the holidays.  I've been uploading  photos regularly though.

Quote from: madelaide on December 11, 2007, 00:49
I had a great start at IS - something like 30% of November's earnings in the first week only, higher than normal sales per day - I was excited!  Now things have slowed down, and in all sites.  It's not a disaster, but even extrapolating current numbers (which are likely to slow down at the end of the month) this doesn't look like a good month.

Regards,
Adelaide

Exact same for me. First week in December was best week ever by far, then dropped off.

Slow for me on most sites even SS. I wonder the reason is since most users of SS [this from that thread on website visits/country posted a while ago] are from the US and we are heading for a double long weekend. Maybe alot of people are going on vacations?

Boy, slow days this week.  I don't know what is going on at DT though, I have been selling all kinds of photos there, and have already matched last month.  They may be my highest earner in Dec.  Too bad the rest of the year will be a total writeoff. 

I seem to remember someone saying that it may be slow now until March?  I wasn't too active last year at this time to know.

per day sales is down 23% compared to November (was BME).